I left the house to go on a walk this morning and a few doors down the postman said to me, “I’ve two packages for ye, is anyone there to collect them?”, so I turned around and came back home to collect them.

One was full of enough Pop Tarts and macaroni and cheese to last us the rest of the year. Lisa is the best human *ever*, and I owe her something spectacular (like postage, at the very least).

The other was full of issues 1-4 of Take A Chance.

Holy crap, guys. This is the first time I’ve seen most of these (I saw #1 at Forbidden Planet, bought it, and ended up signing it for Neil Gaiman at his own signing at Chapters in Dublin), and I’m completely stunned. The production quality is gorgeous, and…

…when I saw #1, I’d been looking at it for so many years online and in printouts that the impact was kind of lessened. But seeing four issues all together? That’s impacty. I’m honestly stunned. It looks like a comic book. I mean yes, of course, that was the idea, but I’m just…wow.

I have to admit that I mostly see two things when I look at these. One: I see the *incredible* talent of my team. Ardian Syaf‘s art is consistently gorgeous, Jason Embury‘s colors are just fricking phenomenal, and Melissa S. Kaercher‘s letters bring the book together for me in a way that–you all know by now I’m not a visual person. I go over the pages and the colors, but they come alive for me when the words go in, so when I get the lettered pages it’s like seeing everything for the first time. I very, very literally couldn’t do this without these guys, and I am just blown away to see all their work gathered into comic form at once. Wow. *Wow*.

…the second thing I see, of course, is how I could have done better as the writer. Where I’ve screwed up. But honestly, I’m not really coming down on myself with that. The important thing is I /can/ see where I need to improve, so I won’t make these same mistakes again. (I will possibly make all-new exciting mistakes, but that’s inevitable. :))

Wow. Just, wow. This is pretty cool, guys. God, I’m going to be *beside* myself when the graphic novel comes out! Speaking of which, sort of, with any kind of luck the fifth issue will be in the stores by mid-July. It’s in Melissa’s hands now for lettering, and hopefully it’ll be to the Dabels by Monday to head into production. Sorry about the delay there. I blame the economic crisis. :)

Also, did I mention Ardian is now NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING ARTIST Ardian Syaf? As he said, “That’ll look good on my CV.” *laughs out loud* YAY ARDIAN!!!!

God. *Wow*. I feel like some things that have been idling have just kicked back into high gear. That’s a very exciting feeling. It feels *good*.