Updates on Cons and Deadworld

Time to play some catch-up on the updates.

First off, on the convention appearances, I will be attending the Cherry Capital Con in Traverse City on August 29-30. For those of you who don’t know, Michigan is known for their cherries and Traverse City is the spot for them. Traverse City is a small city in Northern Michigan and is pretty much the big city once you get above Lansing and Grand Rapids. It’s not only a resort town but one of the fastest growing cities in America. Beautiful place. I’ve been to dozens of coastal cities on the East Coast and Traverse City is comparable if not better than most. Some of the publishers there will be Oni Books, Top Shelf, Desperado, and Slave Labor so the slant is definitely for the independent publishers. I will be doing a presentation which will be announced shortly and if you’re there, you can get a free Deadworld comic…autographed if you want…or not.

It will be my first appearance at the Pittsburg Comic Con in September 11-13. I will be in Artists Alley. I have a panel discussion on Saturday at 1:00 where I’ll talk about all the things going on with Deadworld. Jeff Erb, one of the producers on the Deadworld movie, will join me and we may have more news to announce at that time. Everyone attending the panel will get a free Deadworld comic plus be entered into a drawing to win some Deadworld stuff (t-shirt, action figure, CD collection, etc.)

At both the Pittsburgh and Traverse City show, I am also making copies of my young adult novel, Spirit of the Samurai, available free for some kids but not sure how the organizers are going to handle it yet.


Speaking of Deadworld, here’s the update on things: The action figure, King Zombie, is schedule to debut at San Diego Con. The t-shirts are still available from Rotten Cotton as is the CD collection from Eagle One Media..

The Frozen Over trade paperback from Desperado is still not finished but there’s only a few pages left. The artist is so busy with DC work that another artist may be put on the book to finish it. That’s a last resort kind of thing but it’s been delayed quite a bit.

The Slaughterhouse graphic novel has been done for awhile and is being rescheduled by Desperado for October and will join the new format of doing hardcover editions.

The mask is still scheduled to arrive in time for Halloween.

The novel will probably come out early next year.

There is an all new graphic novel in production right now which is tentatively entitled The Last Siesta as King Zombie waltzes down to Mexico but it’s not for the beaches. Written by Gary Francis and myself (though Francis did the initial part), it will be drawn by Mark Bloodworth.

As for the movie, well, you now how Hollywood goes. But suffice to say, things are moving along. There’s some stuff I can’t talk about yet but all in all, I feel pretty good about things. Other projects that I’m working on are still going but no sense bringing them up again until they get closer.

I have a new blog coming out soon from Comics Related. Called Talking Transfuzion, it will focus on the publishing end of Transfuzion and be confined to that area. So, it’s an extension of this blog in a sense.

Check out my interview from The Furnace. There’s also plans to do a podcast which I’ll post here when it happens.

That’s it…just want to get the updates out there. Usually I try to keep things updated on the Transfuzion or Desperado message boards, both of which are on Comic Related. If you haven’t been to that site, it’s a great site and I find I can keep up with a lot of things from there.

Comics Market...worse than I thought.

I don’t pay much attention to the monthly releases of sales figures in the comics direct market. But this last month, I was interested because there was a new publisher launching and I was curious if their sales matched the expectations they had. I remember thinking at the time that their numbers were hopelessly optimistic and unrealistic…in fact, bordering on self delusion.

Of course, I was right. Not that I have any great insights but it’s just a case of how bad the market really is. And it’s worse than I thought.

I’m not going to go through all of the numbers as it’s easy for anyone to do simply by going to ICV2.com for the listings (http://icv2.com/articles/news/15338.html). But I made a few notes about some of the sales. First off, I find it shocking that the highly covered Captain America #600 only did as well as it did. Is this where Steve Rogers returns???---I don’t keep up with it and the only reason I know of Cap’s death is because of all the coverage. Apparently this issue is only a teaser but it got incredible coverage. Marvel even broke the standard Wednesday release day and made provisions for a Monday release….apparently, it was that BIG of an issue. It sold about 112,000 copies.

Unbelievable. With all the coverage it had and it barely eked out over 100,000 in sales.

What I found in the lower tier of books was even more stunning. Now, being a publisher, I know what it costs to print books and the cost is considerably higher than it used to be when I was running Caliber and even back then on some of these numbers (and we printed in black and white), it would have been a struggle.

Mainly the books I looked at were generally licensed titles. Everyone knows that the Marvel and DC universe titles have their built in audiences (although I didn’t realize how small that was) but it’s the licensed titles with established properties that have the hope of bringing in new people to the stores or at least getting comic fans to venture into something different, depending on what their tastes run on these licensed characters. Not all of the titles I bring up below are licensed as there were some surprised in the traditional superhero titles as well.

Books selling in the 9,000 to 10,000 range include Star Trek and Transformers. If these can’t sell now after the incredible successes of the movies, when will they? I was also surprised to see Madame Xanadu and Authority in this range.

Under 9,000 but over 8,000 included popular characters such as Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, Spirit, Incredibles, another Star Trek title, Simpsons, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Also in this range was the Amazing Spiderman Family title.

From 7,000 to 8,000 had Conan, StarCraft, FarScape, Riftwar, and Zorro. Those are some pretty big properties floundering at pretty low numbers.

6,000-7,000 sales included Fringe, Army of Darkness, Bart Simpson, Toy Story, and Battlestar Galactica. In the more traditional comics, I was surprised to see Gen 13, Savage Dragon, and Hack Slash.

The 6,000 to the 5,000 range included Terminator and Flash Gordon. It was stunning to see Mike Allred’s Madman Atomic Love.

Skipping to the under 4,000 but above 3,000 (which is the cut off for Diamond’s Top 300) there were some titles that I’m familiar with because of the coverage they get. Dynamo 5, Elephantmen, PVP, and Rex Mundi. Moonstone’s Phantom was here although that’s not a surprise as worldwide, Phantom is still a very popular character but in the U.S., he just never made the jump to an icon.

I realize that many of these titles will be reordered and sales will go up. Some have other forms of distribution but the fact is that these are what were the initial orders from comic book retailers.

Funny, if you were to browse all the websites, forums, blogs, and social sites, it would seem that things are doing well. But the comics market is pretty insulated and sometimes I forget that a lot of people don’t step back to see what kind of situation the market is in.

Is it any wonder that publishers are scurrying to find out what will work for them in the digital format. I know there are many retailers who are worried about the impact but I think that most of the switch to digital will be from smaller publishers and apparently, most of the retailers are not buying (whether justified or not) their titles anyway.

I bring up these numbers simply because I was surprised at just how low the numbers were. I think I go through this checking phase every year or so and it just gets worse.

Oh, that publisher that I wanted to see how he did. I saw his numbers. I have no idea of what he pays the talent and it’s a color book so that’s more expensive to print, of course. Based on the numbers, I don’t think his sales even cover the printing costs. I’m looking forward to the press release that announces what a success it was.

Next time I’ll give an update on the goings on with Deadworld and some news on upcoming conventions I’ll be attending.

Digital and Deadworld

I think this summer is when the digital explosion that everyone is anticipating is going to start to creep in. Not that I think we're going to see the mass eruption yet, but I think things are going to be setting in place. One of the problems with anticipated new technology is that we're able to see the possibilities before the tech is actually ready. For example, digital comics.

Obviously,there are lots of problems in getting it moving. What kind of format? Will "readers" be necessary? What kind of protection is there? How much can be charged for content? There are some preliminary excursions already but none are completely satisfactory yet. It seems there are so many possibilities, as a publisher and creator, it's hard to choose who to align with and from most people in the same boat I am...right now, it's a waiting game.

But I think we're getting close to finding workable outlets for the digital format. Now, there are a lot of naysayers who feel that most comic fans aren't going to utilize the digital format as they prefer the physical copies.

They're missing the point. Most publishers and creators are not looking to siphon the current readers but try and obtain new readers. When I look at the products I sell on sites like Amazon or other websites, judging from the feedback I get, it isn't from comic fans who choose to buy from Amazon as opposed to a comic store, it's from people who don't go to comic shops and were intrigued by the concept.

The way the current market is, we tap into comic readers and then try to get them to buy "our" stuff which usually isn't what those very fans associate with comics. Now the strategy is to get interested fans to buy the material that just happens to be in comic format. The success of titles like Watchmen, 300 and Persepolis (just to name a few) doesn't drive potential fans into comic shops but rather makes graphic novels as an acceptable medium. I mean, after all, if someone picked up something like the upcoming Whiteout and then walks into a comic store inundated with the superheroes, do you think they're going to sludge through all that material to find the few gems the store might carry? I have a background in comics and even had stores for a decade or so...but when I walk into a comic shop, all I see are costumed heroes which hold absolutely no interest to me. I'm not knocking anyone that the superheroes appeal to as I used to be into it as well...and I certainly don't knock the comic shops as they have to provide what sells (I've been there), but the fact is, most people are not going to start reading superhero comics no matter how much they liked Spider-Man or X-Men.

There is potential for new fans out there and that's where I think the "small publishers" are going to succeed. It will be outside of the traditional comics market. We're certainly not there yet and most creators/publishers have a foot in both arenas and that one foot in the comics market feels like cement as the resistance to pull out is mighty tough. But, it's getting easier because of the lack of opportunity in the comics direct market. This isn't a rant against Diamond's policies because I understand what they're doing (although I don't agree with it...)but it does come down to the fact that the decision is being made for most creators or publishers.

There does seem to be a trend developing, and I could be wrong and maybe it's a case of optimistic reporting by some folks, that there is a new audience starting to attend conventions to find some of the folks which provided the downloaded or ordered material. These new fans come in with no idea of who is the big name at Marvel or what reincarnation of Moon Knight is currently being worked on...they want to meet the creators of the book that the comics market has probably never heard of.

Sometimes, I think, it's hard to see the dramatic changes occurring when you're in the middle of the storm but I think that looking back a few years from now, it'll be 2009-2010 that drastically changed things.

Some irksome things. I often want to vent when certain situations come up but then I usually come down but there are some things that really get on my nerves when I have my morning coffee and check out some blogs and boards as well as my email. I actually wrote a couple of pages on those but figured, why bother?

Some Deadworld news. Deadworld was announced with Framelight Productions and now the latest news is that Watchmen and X-Men scripter, David Hayter has signed on to do the script. After going through the beginning part of what the plan is for the story…I’m glad that David’s aboard as he “gets it” regarding Deadworld. Here’s some links.

Variety MTV Producer Discussion

What's it All About?

Finally, summer is rearing its sweltering head. It actually feels good as this was a long…very long winter. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older but the winters sure seem to linger longer than they used to. Please don’t insert the usual “global warming” joke here because one of the probable effects of global warming is freezing of the earth. It’s a bit odd how the global warming crisis has faded due to the economic downturn, but that’s how things work…it’s always about the money.

Went to the Motor City Con. I wasn’t planning on going but Joe Pruett, publisher of Desperado, decided he was going to attend at the last minute and so he stayed at my house (along with two of his six kids) and I ended up attending but just at his table. How was the con? Typical Motor City. They had good attendance but most people come for the media guests rather than the comic people. It just doesn’t seem like that much of a comic con but from what I gather, that’s pretty much the norm for many of the cons. I fully understand that they got to go where the money is.

There were quite a few comic people there and I got a chance to talk with some of my professional friends…Guy Davis, Tim Bradstreet, Dave Dorman, and a few others. I met with a lot of people who I knew from my retailing days and I was surprised how many of my old customers…well, got old(er). I’m sure they felt the same with me.

I don’t have any plans for any upcoming cons at this time. I just have way too much to do and cons can really suck up your time. I had hoped to go to my first Heroes Con but it just didn’t fit in. Maybe next year. I am actually thinking of attending a few different conventions next year.

I just read this blurb on Amazon about a book and here is the brief description. “The City of Detroit is gripped by violence, drugs, racial tensions and a local media bent on fueling the fire. One of its worst neighborhoods, Brightmoor, is on the brink of a riot. A fictional account of a Police Officer's struggle to save his family from a neighborhood turned upside down by blight, poverty and drug dealers. A very compelling story of a community so down trodden President George W. Bush asked "Can anything good come out of Brightmoor?"

Have to say that I was a bit offended by that as I came out of Brightmoor. Yeah, it was a shoddy neighborhood with cheaply built houses and full of crime before it became fashionable in Detroit, but it was my neighborhood. I spent much of my earlier years in the Smith Projects which was on the border of Brightmoor and for us to move out of the projects into our own house, even in Brightmoor, seemed a step up. Of course, six of us had to share a bedroom but at least we had a backyard.

I can see where Bush was coming from as I went back to my old neighborhood a couple years ago. The house I grew up has been torn down after serving years as a vacant drug house. When my parents moved out, they couldn’t even sell the house, they ended up giving it to the neighbor. The block had about 4-5 houses that were being lived in. There were about 8-10 houses that were abandoned and the rest were either burned down or destroyed officially by the city. The houses can be purchased in that area for as low as $500. You know what, it still isn’t worth it. I still find it amazing that 40% of all the land in Detroit is now vacant…and growing. But at least we got the Red Wings in Detroit…and though I no longer live in Detroit, I still consider myself a Detroiter as I lived there for 24 years so I figure I’m entitled (if that’s the right choice of words in this case…)

I don’t read too much news and/or blogs about comics anymore. I haven’t followed Marvel or DC titles in so many years that I can’t even recognize the characters. And that’s about all the news focuses on except whatever obscure licensed character that can be signed up. I’m not knocking the licensed titles as I actually think most of them are a good idea and with today’s sensibilities, I think many of those ideas work out better now. But what I’ve found curious is that in all my discussions with creators, virtually none of them read comics…at all. They have various reasons but mostly it’s because they don’t have the time and there really isn’t any interest in what’s going on. I’m sure Marvel creators read the various Marvel books and same with DC, but it seems to be out of necessity to know what’s going on rather than for simple enjoyment. If the people in the business aren’t reading comics, then who are? Is it the same group of fans over the years albeit with a few converts who may stroll in because of the attraction from the films?

Another thing I’ve found curious is the trend for a lot of comic stores to bag their comics that are on display. I understand that it’s to protect them and with comics hovering around the $4 price range, it’s much more of an investment than it used to be…but how is a fan…or potential fan…supposed to discover new books? I know of a couple in the Detroit and Ann Arbor area and when I went out to San Diego a week or so ago, I went to a couple of shops and one of the shops had all the new releases bagged. I had no way of seeing what the books were about even if I could possibly find something in the Marvel-DC-nothing else selection.

It’s kind of funny but most of the noise being made in comics is sort of the same old-same old…which hero will die and which will be resurrected a year or so later. But there is a lot of activity going on that most of the “press” (is there any actual comic press?) seems to have no inkling of what’s happening on the periphery of comics. I think that will change in the next few years as it will be “discovered” that some people are doing quite well in non-traditional avenues. Comics is increasingly becoming segmented into various fragments (the DC-Marvel folks); the manga; the more esoteric titles; the small press; the very small press; and whatever other groups are designated by someone. It’s amazing though when you talk to people who are creating their own books and ignore everything going on with Marvel and DC, it still comes down to their ultimate dream is to eventually work on one of the big characters. I don’t know if it’s just a sign of “making” it or if it actual desire.

I know when I was running Caliber, we had a number of creators who protested against anything Marvel and DC did and slammed them and the creators who worked for them every change they had. Yet when the Big Two came calling, they went running and now are firmly entrenched in the world they found so disgusting previously. And that leads to the end of this missive as it ties perfectly into the first part…it’s always about the money.

Motor City Con

Just in case anyone is attending Motor City Convention on May 15-17, it looks like I will be attending after all. Joe Pruett of Desperado Publishing will be setting up and asked me to join him at his booth. Joe will be promoting his entire line but will be spotlighting his gorgeous art books (Brian Bolland, P. Craig Russell, Joe Jusko, and Tim Bradstreet) plus the newly arrived Clive Barker's Age of Desire.

Motor City Convention has an attendance around 12-15,000 (just a guess) and is a big media as well as comic convention. Some of the media guests include Carrie Fisher, Gil Gerard, Julie Newmar, Tom Savini, and over two dozen more favorites from science fiction, wrestling, and classic TV.

Some of the comic guests include Tim Bradstreet, Frank Brunner, Guy Davis, Vince Locke, Tom DeFalco, Dave Dorman, Russ Heath, Ron Frenz, Mark Texeira, Billy Tucci, Dwayne McDuffie, Denis Kitchen, and over 40 others.

Since I will be at Desperado's booth, I will primarily be promoting my Desperado titles (A Murder of Scarecrows, Deadworld, Renfield, Saint Germaine, Red Diaries, etc.) but plan to have other stuff "behind the counter".

Be sure to stop by and if make it there. Motor City Convention

Gary

Digital Options

There's a lot of stuff floating around about the new wave of going digital and most of it deals with having comics available as digital downloads. Of course, there are other vehicles being used and promoted and some of them seem to have great potential whereas others, well, not so much.

I see a lot of comments from columnists who state that there are too many publishers reluctant to go digital and I'm not sure that is really the case. I think most publishers (whether a self publisher or a larger corporate type) have accepted the reality and future of digital comics but they're investigating the methodology of it rather than the feasibility of going digital at all.

In my case, I have some titles of mine (and Caliber's) available as downloads from Drive Thru Comics and they're available as PDFs. I like a lot of what Drive Thru does but it's pretty apparent that their bread and butter is on the role playing games and so the comics get little attention. When I first signed up with them, they were one of the first and the few people who utilized downloadable comics were aware of them. However, it seems that so many others have appeared on the scene that Drive Thru has sorta got lost in the shuffle (their comics section, not the games...that seems to still do quite well.)

It's not that the sales have crashed from Drive Thru but rather they haven't moved much and with the increase in acceptance by fans, it should go up and go up dramatically.

I have received numerous offers from other sites who can put the material up and make it available (in various formats but generally, we're talking PDFs). The problem comes from deciding which direction to go. On some, there is no exclusivity so branching out to multiple vendors is not a problem but others want some kind of exclusive arrangement and in a way, I don't blame them. If they're going to promote specific titles, they want to make sure that they reap the benefits, not some similar site that could undercut them.

It seems that I'm in the same situation as many other publishers...determining which is the most viable. You don't want to link up with a company and have it disappear. And when I look back on the companies I was talking to just two years ago, before deciding on Drive Thru, most of them are non-existent now.

Being in control of much of the Caliber library plus the 25 books I've done can help provide a growing site with quite a bit of material. Series such as Deadworld, Realm (and Legendlore), H.P. Lovecraft, OZ, and Raven Chronicles each add 10-50 issues per title. It's a situation that I have to spend more time evaluating (once school gets out) and I'll figure the best way to approach it. The main problem is that most of the material is older so it is not in digital format and I'm certainly not looking forward to scanning in all the pages to put it in a digital format.

Other avenues have popped up, mainly for handheld devices. Again, most of us realize that this is a fast growing market but most comic pages are not going to fit into the smaller viewing screen. From talking with quite a few of the potential sources, it would require "cutting" up the pages into panels and scenes which makes a lot of sense. However, that also requires an enormous amount of work.

It comes down to configuring if the amount of work scanning and then reformatting the pages is cost effective at this stage yet. It may be...but how cost effective. Taking my time from more profitable areas on a potential doesn't seem the best way to go and hiring someone to do it without knowing what the realistic sales are going to be is also problematic.

So, when you see a reluctance on some publishers going digital, it's likely that they've accepted the idea, but the trick is making sure it works.

Update on some products. A MURDER OF SCARECROWS is now available in stores. Coming next is the DEADWORLD: SLAUGHTERHOUSE graphic novel. The first issue was released as a comic but Joe Pruett, the publisher of Desperado, decided to forego the comic periodical format altogether for Desperado, so issues 2-4 have been collected (along with issue one, of course) into a graphic novel which is essential 75% all new material. That should be out in May, I believe.

EXPLAINING THE DEADWORLD GN NUMBERING
If you go to Amazon, you'll see Deadworld: Slaughterhouse listed as Deadworld Volume 3. That's because Desperado, as they're collecting the Deadworld material that came out under their imprint, have decided to start numbering the volumes. So, DEADWORLD: REQUIEM FOR THE WORLD (published when Desperado was with Image Comics) is volume 1. The DEADWORLD: FROZEN OVER collection is volume 2, and DEADWORLD: SLAUGHTERHOUSE is volume 3. There was the DEADWORLD: DEAD KILLER (also from Desperado and Image) and that will make up volume 4 when Desperado reprints it. Of course, there is also the DEADWORLD CHRONICLES but that is a stand alone graphic novel made of shorter stories (all new). The DEADWORLD: BITS AND PIECES collection (from Transfuzion) reprints many older short stories. Hope you got all that....

Fleeting Randomness

In an attempt to at least put something on the blog on a semi-regular basis, I didn't have any specific thing to discuss or get off my chest, so figured I'd put up some random thoughts. It's a lot easier for artists to maintain a blog as I see that most of them put up whatever piece of art they're working on and it's interesting to see the works in progress. I don't think anyone wants to see page 11 of my next script...

A Murder of Scarecrows (from Desperado Publishing) should be in stores shortly. It's printed at the smaller size that seems to be in vogue nowadays but I'm not sure if I like it. I don't dislike it, but it just feels...small.

Work on future projects is suspended for a month or two so I can catch up on some other things and most of my summer is planned to cuddle up with the Deadworld novel and finish that off although I should have a few comic type projects interspersed. After that, which means towards the end of 2009, I don't really have anything planned in the comics world and will be shifting towards the science world more, I think. One never knows where things will go.

I would like to please ask people to STOP sending me emails to vote for them in the Harvey Awards. Yes, I know the nomination process is going on now and people want to get nominated but it's getting a bit silly. I must have had 15 emails from creators, some of them I don't even know, to vote for them. I see pleas over all discussion boards shilling for votes. The Harvey Awards still have some respectability left to them and having been nominated a few times, I did really appreciate it...but I'd hate to see it turn into a frenzy of groveling in order to obtain votes. It was bad enough with all the people asking for votes in the Small Press Idol (and again, most of the people I didn't even know) that I just automatically delete those emails without opening...I'd hate to see the Harvey Awards go the same route.

I was thinking of the convention schedule for this year. I try to figure things out at the beginning of the year and I'm running a bit behind. I can't do New York or Wonder Con because of my teaching schedule. I just found out (yeah, I keep up with the news...) the Wizard World LA was canceled (excuse me...delayed)and although it was never in my plans, I do wonder what impact it will have on the Chicago convention. I know that the people putting on the NY show are moving into Chicago next year and everyone seems pretty geeked about it. The new Chicago show will be downtown as opposed to the airport and many are excited about that...but I don't know, I liked the location of the current show. I do wish there more places to hang out but when I go to a con, I don't want to spend my nights in bars with music so I can't hear someone I only see once a year. I have no idea if the new show will be better but I think most people are going to bail on Wizard at the first opportunity so I think we'll probably be reading about cancellations...er, delays about the Wizard Chicago show for next year.

I don't even know if I'm going to Chicago this year. I have to decide soon. Last year I only did Chicago and the Motor City convention. I don't think I'll be attending the Motor City Convention this year.

I've been getting quite a few emails lately because of the activity of Deadworld in the film world. MTV released this Splash Page News about the Coraline producer discussing Deadworld. Again, shows you how "up" I am on things, the activity and posts were going on for over a week before I knew about it. Although I'm happy to see some kind of movement, I remain totally jaded on the Hollywood front as I've been done this road many times. Until I get a big check that I can endorse, I refuse to get too excited about things.

Speaking of Hollywood, for some reason, it seems the entire comic industry is going to be attached to the success (or lack) of the Watchmen movie. I don't know, but it just has that vibe... if the movie tanks, especially critically (ala League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), it will be a severe blow to the comics industry. Just a feeling with little rationality behind it but somehow this film "feels" crucial to the comics industry.

Talking with a few comic publishers and it seems they're getting slammed with returns from the book market. It usually happens at the beginning of the year but even moreso this year, especially from Borders, I'd guess. I have a Borders and Barnes/Nobel near me and both of them have drastically cut down the number of graphic novels they carry. You see a lot more of the books face out instead of spines. My local Borders store looked like someone just scooped up half of all the graphic novels as the shelves were pretty bare.

With Diamond's announcement of cutting back on products offered based on dollar volume, a lot of people are talking about the avenues of distribution in the book stores. I mentioned this in the previous post that most of the time, the returns are going to kill you. Just because the books get in front of a large audience, doesn't mean they're going to sell. I tend to ignore the message boards where you have a lot of creators go on ad nauseum that the Diamond decision is actually good as it will release all the creative juices and product and rebuild the industry. Sorry, most of the books that won't make the Diamond minimum won't make it for a reason. There just isn't a mass audience who is waiting to discover these works. The current fanbase obviously has no interest and the "rest of them" don't seem too interested in comics at all.

I have to admit that I can't remember where I saw recently an old editorial by, and I hope I'm right (pretty sure), Kim Thompson of Fantagraphics. It was a few years old but essentially he said that for the comics market to be successful, we need more "crappy" books. He went on to explain that by crappy, he was referring to ones that appeal to the mass market...a comparison would be novels by Robert Ludlum, Dean Koontz, Patrica Cornwell...etc. So, not crappy in terms of production but not critically acclaimed. I couldn't agree more. If comics are to "grow", they have to find appeal with more than the current "fanboy". They have to go beyond superheroes and develop the genre fiction...crime, mystery, horror (besides just zombies), science fiction, fantasy, and even drama. People identify comics with superheroes and it should be clear as day that they have no interest in reading about the superheroes. They will have to be introduced to comics with other material. Watchmen? Maybe, but its still superheroes...just grown up ones. There has to be more of an effort to connect films like A History of Violence, Road to Perdition, From Hell, etc. to comics to break that illusion that comics = superheroes. Unfortunately, they still have that link in most comic shops.

And just wondering, if the economic crisis, which seems to get worse each day, hits Diamond (which has already been hit) really hard...what is going to happen to the comics market?