Comic Foundry proceeds for next week benefit Gene Colan

Hey guys. I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but legendary comics artist Gene Colan's liver is failing, and things are not looking good. As his wife says, "My darling, sweet, handsome and brilliantly gifted husband's liver is failing. The complications are very nasty. This week it's fluid retention and encephalitis. He's on powerful meds now to diminish the symptoms. He sleeps a lot and has very little energy." On top of that, the family is struggling to pay his massive medical bills, a terrible burden to bear at such a difficult time.

So next week, from May 18th to 24th, 100% of the proceeds from any issues sold at the Comic Foundry site will go to benefit Gene. Here at CF, we recently had a brush with Gene that made us realize that not only is Gene a great artist, he's also an incredibly generous and kind person. Tim and I are currently rushing around to close the third issue of CF--which is why updates have been limited lately--and Tim contacted him for some quotes on penciling advice for a feature, not realizing he was ill. As Tim says:

I’d been reaching out to a lot of incredibly talented people to contribute and Gene was on my short list. So I e-mailed him, asking if he’d be interested. I got an e-mail the next day from him explaining that he was not only interested, but he’d already written something up for us.

Later, when we found out that he was suffering from liver failure, we were blown away. I find it absolutely stunning that in the midst of his crisis, he made time--and made time immediately--to answer us, enthusiastically and thoughtfully.

If you don't feel like buying CF (or already have) you can still donate to Gene in several ways. As Dirk Deppey suggests, you can "make a direct donation via Paypal, where the Colans are registered as genecolan@optonline.net — just log into your account, hit the “send money” button, and insert said email address and the amount you wish to donate into the appropriate boxes." There are also several eBay auctions benefiting Gene that you can take part in.

If you'd like to send cards of well wishes or appreciation for Gene's lifetime of work, you can mail them to Gene at 2 Sea Cliff Avenue, Sea Cliff, NY 11579. This is what it means to be part of a community, guys. Do what you can.

Top Shelf 2.0 -- new webcomics site

Top Shelf is launching a new webcomics site tomorrow, titled Top Shelf 2.0. I've got an article up over at PWCW with all the deets. It'll be edited by Brett Warnock and Leigh Walton, with a ton of contributors--more than I could even fit in the article.

For Top Shelf, one of the advantages of publishing webcomics is that the online venue allows them to “take much larger risks [on] publishing comics that we may really dig formally, or that have more challenging content, that there may not be a market for in print," says Warnock. "I see webcomics as almost a separate market. Or at least, an ancillary one, in that we don't plan on stopping our release of gold old fashioned books printer with wood pulp, and released to brick and mortar stores."

Check it tomorrow.


(The Bravest Niño by Chris "Elio" Eliopoulos)

Bibleman VS. Wacky Protester

There's a pretty great post on this site about Bibleman, the superhero of a Christian show for children who wears "Biblically correct armor," toured with Billy Graham, and has his own videogame coming out.

I think you might need to stop what you're doing and read this, because it is by far the most absurd thing I've seen all week, and that includes Dave Sim.

He fights atheist villains by shouting Bible verses at them. He is, truth be told, a pretty boring superhero. But there's still some fun to be had with Bibleman, and that fun lies in his incredibly offensive villains. Last week, author Daniel Radosh (whose book, Rapture Ready!, I'm very excited about) burned an "exclusive" Bibleman clip for the media gossip site Gawker. The clip shows Bibleman facing off against one of the show's many villains, most of whom evoke a startling degree of gayishness and/or Jewishness.

The plot of the video game revolves around him battling his liberal nemesis, Wacky Protester. I'm serious.



Holeeey crap.

Dave Sim requires oath of belief in his non-misogyny for correspondence

Oh man. This is the best.

Since I'm generally of the opinion that talking to Dave Sim about gender issues is (not like, but is) feeding a sickness, in addition to being generally boring at this point, I can't say this bothers me too much.

In fact, in a world of people and circumstances that almost invariably let you down, I have to hand it to Dave for not only failing to disappoint, but continually topping himself in terms of his own absurdity. I really thought he'd maxed out when he challenged Jeff Smith to a boxing match to settle their differences. I was wrong.

Although this means that I will likely never be able to interview Dave Sim, I am quite happy to watch from afar, as I also am with fireworks, fires, and celebrity meltdowns. Flame on, Dave Sim. Flame on.

Letter from Narimar: Viral Marketing for Vertigo's Air series

Not long before New York Comic Con I received a mysterious letter in the mail from the embassy of a country called Narimar, on seemingly official stationary:

(click to enlarge)

My initial reaction was that some sort of Nigerian businessman had a deal he wanted to offer me in exchange for my bank account information, but after reading it the letter it seemed too far too enigmatic for that.

I set it aside as the insanity of NYCC descended, and then left immediately for my brother's wedding in Hawaii once the con ended. But now that I'm finally back home in New York, I decided to look into it further. Lo and behold, it's actually a form of viral marketing for the upcoming Vertigo book, Air, an ongoing series by Cairo author G. Willow Wilson about an airline stewardess with a fear of heights (vertigo?) who gets drawn into a hijacking plot. A little googling reveals that Narimar is a fictional country that plays an important role in the book.

PWCW: What's the story behind Narimar, the not-quite-real country where some of Air takes place? The key line seems to be "the map is the territory."

GWW: I wish that was an idea I'd created myself, but it's been floating around in literature since Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges. I'd been thinking a lot about maps while planning the first year of Air. In the world today, so much of politics is really about symbolism—whose name gets put on a map, who gets to speak for a certain group of people. So I thought it'd be interesting to think about, in a fantasy world, what happens to a country once it's taken off a map? Narimar was a fine metaphysical place to write about.

The final confirmation was the return address on the back of the envelope--1700 Broadway, where DC Comics is located. It's nice to see DC hopping on board the viral marketing bandwagon that Marvel has harnessed for its Secret Invasion promotions. It's also effective; after reading up on it, Air sounds interesting enough that I'll be looking for it now when it comes out on August 20th.

Still in Hawaii

I've been bouncing around between islands since my brother's wedding, and I'm in Maui now till Wednesday, when I embark on the 14+ hour flight experience home.

I watched the most recent episode of LOST from the land where it is filmed, and it's easy to imagine you're looking at The Island here, when you gaze across the water at the lush, green mountains that seem omnipresent.

I had dinner at this place a couple nights ago, complete with infinity water running up to the edge of the terrace. Several people have already expressed their throbbing jealousy about my trip, but I assure you that no matter how beautiful the place you visit, you still drag your life and all associated problems along with you. It's all just a bit easier when you're surrounded by perfect weather and tremendous beauty.

Dealing with the Comics Press: Remember to Do It

Tom Spurgeon had a tough time at New York Comic Con. And while our approaches to the con may have been rather different, some of his comments pinpointed issues that I think are pervasive within comics, particularly the poor interactions of some publishers with the press:

I found a surprising number of booth workers and company employees to be outright unhelpful when it came to doing rudimentary things that is so easy to get people from other industries to do for you at their trade shows. You know, little things like talk to you, recognize you're standing there ... I can recall three publisher representatives to whom I spoke that whiffed on basic questions like what might be coming out the next season. One benign request for help with a photo led to shrugged shoulders and a request to ask someone "in charge," but no indication as to who that might be. I visited dozens of booths; I was welcomed and asked if I could be helped at exactly three of them. Two exhibitors picked at the legitimacy of this publication before deciding to answer rudimentary queries about future books, or, really, listen to me at all. It was a long day.

The real problem with this is it's not just an anecdotal story about Tom's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day; it's sadly representative of the way a lot of publishers deal with the press.

Let me say to begin: As someone who used to work in book publishing, and someone in the press who deals with both comic book companies and book publishers on a regular basis, dealing with the latter is almost always easier in very measurable ways. Why? Because they know how to deal with the press. As the reviews editor for Comic Foundry, I often find myself leaning towards coverage of graphic novels put out by book publishers (as well as PR-savvy comic book publishers) for exactly this reason. Their generally welcoming behavior, willingness to share information about their products, and no-agony comp policy makes coverage of them... possible, and I like that.

While I've had a very different experience than Tom with Dark Horse--they've been excellent and responsive to me without fail--I do agree that in many corners, there is what Tom called "an ingrained comics industry outlook that the highest function of the press is to serve as a marketing arm of their companies. Sometimes they have reason to assume this, but it doesn't mean all of us want to be treated as if we agree this is a great idea. Several times I was made to feel as if I somehow wasn't doing my job properly by asking questions and looking for stories rather than anticipating answers, shmoozing and getting right to the promotional groundwork."

Before I really get into this, though, it's important to keep in mind here that approaching a publisher as a member of the press who wants to give them coverage or reviews is very different from poking around for stories and quotes that don't necessarily point towards a positive angle on their product. Unsurprisingly, the latter is going to get fewer welcoming responses.

To a certain degree, that's just how it works, and I don't see anything particularly insidious in it. I would add, though, that because the comics press is less established (or respected) than press is in certain other fields, I think a lot of people in the industry are not as accustomed to the poking and prodding Tom describes, and consequently can get touchier in the course of journalistic inquiries. But really, I don't see this as the primary problem. While it may not be optimal, I'm not surprised by this kind of unresponsiveness to certain lines of inquiry.

What I don't understand--what really blows my mind is that some companies can be just as unresponsive and unhelpful to people who want to give their books positive coverage, review them, or generally make them more visible. That's what really resonated with me about Tom's post, because I've seen it happen fairly often and it never ceases to amaze me with its pointlessness.

I'm currently on vacation with my father, and earlier today I watched him spend an hour on the phone trying to pay some of his medical bills, to great frustration and no avail. As we sat wondering why those companies were making it so hard for him to give them what they said they wanted, it reminded me a bit of the experience that Tom described. "Why?" we wondered. Why would they do that?

When you run into this problem in comics, the answer varies from publisher to publisher, depending on the size, level of organization, and corporate structure. Sometimes companies don't have the resources for a full-time PR person; sometimes they put an inexperienced person in a PR position; sometimes people are bad at their jobs; sometimes PR gets hamstrung by editorial or higher-ups, and it's not their fault at all.

There are a lot of reasons, but the good news is that almost all of them can be fixed by giving a shit. There are conscientious, professional, and accessible comic book publishers out there, and if you want to be one of them, you can be. A few humble suggestions:

--Don't randomly move/hire people with no PR experience into PR positions. I say this as someone who was once drafted into a Public Relations position at a comic book company despite having absolutely no experience in PR. Although I like to think I rose to the occasion, it was easily the most stressful experience of my life, and certainly fraught with trial and error that made things more difficult for me, my company, and anyone who wanted to deal with us. This is very easy to fix. HIRE A PROFESSIONAL. Better yet, hire one out of book publishing. And listen to what they tell you about how to deal with the press. They know what they're doing, seriously.

--Find out who the press are. This sounds obvious, but I point to the fact that people are hassling Tom Spurgeon at convention booths as Exhibit A that it's not. The reasons for that stem out of my previous point (PR inexperience) as well as the digital nature of a lot of comics reporting. Are bloggers press? With the hits some people get, you better believe it. Are all of them? Not a chance. Know who matters, and make sure they're on your comp list. Speaking of which...

--Have a comp list. Seriously, have a comp list. If you really can't deal with sending out galleys or hard copies (really?), then at least be willing to send PDFs or YSI copies on request. People aren't going to cover what they can't see, and it isn't to your advantage in any way, shape or form to make them jump through hoops to see it.

--Make your publishing schedule (and review copies) available to press ASAP. I know this is hard, particularly with monthly comics, but the sooner you do it the better your coverage. Also, if you're submitting something for review, the sooner you can send it, the better. If it's a graphic novel, months ahead are better than weeks. Do not send something the week before its release date (or worse, the week of) and expect a review. Again, this sounds obvious, but sadly, it is not.

As I said before, there are people and companies in comics that are a pleasure to deal with, and nothing makes me want to cover them more. Comics as a medium is still growing, both in size and scope, and comics journalism needs to grow along with it, both in terms of the professionalism it practices and the professionalism it deserves from the comic book companies in return. Working with the press on this level isn't just best practices for a business of almost any kind, it's a win-win situation. And if you don't want to win, you deserve to lose.