Lunch Money Read Online Free Page A

burns its circuits into the nerves on his wrist. Leon learns that the watch can be set for the future or the past. The six or seven time-travel adventures of volume 3 would follow Leon to the past, where he would team up with Creon, and then to the future, where he would offer his services to the amazing Eeon. And eventually, all three characters would have some finalepisodes together: Creon, Leon, and Eeon—past, present, and future.
    Once the master plan was set, writing the first Creon story, Return of the Hunter, had been pretty easy for Greg. But the drawing was more difficult than he’d thought it would be. It had taken a long time to get each small page looking just the way he wanted. It wasn’t like doodling or sketching. These pictures had to be good—good enough to sell.
    When both covers and the fourteen inside pages had been drawn and inked and pasted in place to make the two master copies, Greg tackled his first printing.
    The copier he used was his dad’s, and it was actually part of the printer that was hooked up to the computer in the family room. It was an ink-jet printer, plus a scanner, plus a copier—one of those “all-in-one” machines. It made copies in either black and white or color.
    Greg had stuffed about forty ruined sheets of paper into the recycling bin before he had figured out how to get all sixteen page images copied correctly onto the front and back of one sheet of paper.
    But finally, he had folded his first perfectlyprinted sheet, stapled it twice, and trimmed the top, front, and bottom edges. And then, one hot night in the middle of July, Greg stood there in his family room and thumbed through the very first copy of the very first issue of the very first volume of Chunky Comics. It had been a proud moment.
    Greg had done some record keeping along the way. He added up all the time, and learned some bad news: It had taken him more than sixty hours to make that very first comic book. But there was good news too, because it took him only two more hours to print, fold, staple, and trim the next one hundred copies of volume 1, number 1.
    As he’d worked on his drawing skills over the summer, Greg had gotten better—and faster, too. Plus he’d had fun. He had dug out all his old drawing books, looking for shortcuts and new tips from the pros. Drawing was something he could do at night, so he still got to enjoy his days outdoors, and also do the regular summertime jobs that kept money coming in.
    Drawing and inking the pictures for the next two comic books had only taken him about twenty hours—nine to eleven hours each. And by the time school began in September, Greghad the master copy pages for the next two Creon issues all put together and ready to print. Plus he had three hundred copies of Return of the Hunter printed, folded, stapled, trimmed, and ready to sell.
    Making the comics had been fun, but Greg felt sure that selling them was going to be even better. If he kept the price at just a quarter per issue, the profits were still going to be fantastic. He had figured it all out. Ink for the copier was pretty expensive, but Greg had a kit for refilling the cartridges. All together, ink for one comic, plus one piece of paper, plus two staples cost him less than two cents. So, not counting his own time, selling one Chunky Comic book was like turning two pennies into a quarter. The money was going to come rolling in.
    ***
    Digging around in the fruit cocktail on his lunch tray, Greg stabbed one of the cherry pieces with a fork. As he chewed the sweet fruit, Greg reviewed the sales figures again, and then shrugged. Fifteen dollars and fifty cents—that’s still not terrible. I mean, this is a brand-new business.
    All things considered, Greg decided thatChunky Comics was off to a pretty good start. And before lunch was over, Greg had hired Ted to become the first sales agent for Chunky Comics, offering him a nickel for every two copies he sold.