The close and re-open

Evil Supply Co. officially launched on October 31, 2012 and closed in the summer of 2019 after a traffic accident and an industry-wide subscription box collapse (about half of ESC's profits were from the Mister Ghost's Monthly Parcel of Simple Yet Amazing Wonderments subscription box).

I began piecing everything (and myself) back together over the next several months. And then Covid-19 broke the world for awhile.

Years of tinkering...

Evil Supply Co. was an incredibly ambitious project that was constantly in research and development mode. I produced everything from paintings to poetry, color-changing cereal spoons to, of course, quite a bit of stationery.

The original plan for Netherworld Post was to relaunch the company, changing the name so I would stop being confused with true crime or horror (without a judgement of either genres), and starting fresh. When you are given the opportunity to rebuild everything, it's foolish to repeat the same mistakes.

The ambitions mounted, artwork was revisited, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of new plans drawn up...

...including many false starts

...and the shop continued to sit behind a "Coming as soon as possible!" screen.

I suspect, with only my guts and moonlight as evidence, that had I re-booted Evil Supply Co. as-is, this entire project would have fallen apart within a few years due to cost overruns.

I began to realize I needed to do something new but it took quite a long time to figure out what that should be. One of the main, though quiet, provisions in the relaunching has been to refine the studio set up.

Whereas Evil Supply Co. regularly experimented with things I knew to be impractical (I'm forever bummed we couldn't figure out manufacturing umbrellas), Netherworld Post is focused on greeting cards, zines, and downloadables.

Remaining independent forever

This falls into the box of "I'm not sure how much it matters to anyone else:" I am fiercely proud that I did not accept outside investor cash in any form.

I pooled my pennies, built a back office for private client mythology research, worked a bit of freelance here and there -- anything to keep the studio afloat, the crew paid, vendor invoices handled on time.

The world needs weird art studios that cannot be shut down or forced to change course because someone rich deems it necessary to marginally increase profit.

Ramble, ramble, ramble, time for more drawing.

Thank you for your attention.

I hope to bring you things magnificent and unexpectedly joyful.