We got many votes…

In the Comic Bloggers' Poll 2005 So, thanks for voting! We grealy appreciate it.

Livejournal Directing Comics Discussion

Over on my LJ there's a little piece I wrote about my background in directing, and how much I miss it. It's growing into a little conversation about film directing being a great bridge into comic writing. Chime in comic writers!

Marc Mason Reminisces about Western Tales…

Right here are some mighty kind words from Marc Mason about WToT. To answer his question of "When is there going to be a trade?" We're actually talking to some people right now. Chris Arundel (publisher and business partner extraordinaire) will read this and then IM me saying "What people?" cause I haven't told him yet.

Happy Holidays from H&B

J-Rod Attempts to Change the World

Editor Extraordinaire Jason Rodriguez is out to change the world. The guy's got stones. I'm too busy trying to stop hemmoraghing money and get my book done to worry about fixing the world. Of course, J-Rod thinks this IS the way to save the book, so...Read it Here.

Buzzscope on Speakeasy

Buzzscope's massive article about the Speakeasy situation is now up. It's a doozy. Here's what I have to say.

Honestly? The numbers didn't move much at all. Had we continued self-publishing, our numbers would probably be at about the same plateau. The constant delays and miscommunications between Speakeasy and the printers have in fact probably hurt us in the long run, because when we self-published, we had every issue out not just on time, but usually early, and now issue 4 is two months late, issue 5 will be two months late, and hopefully, we'll be caught up by issue 6.

As to how it's going to affect us... Well, despite any animosity that comes out of my big stupid mouth, Adam's been doing his best to be a stand up guy. He assured me that Elk's Run will see print and that together we're finding a way to make it happen. I announced over on my blog a few of those steps. First, we're raising the price on issue 7 and 8 up to $3.99. This sucks. This kills me, because I've spent years criticising the pricing of comics, but, at the end of the day, I have a responsibility to my co-creators and to my business partner to lose as little money as possible, and that extra dollar means that we can actually afford to pay our letterist and colorist without having to take it out of my already quite depleted grocery money.

As to Diamond, we're well above their cutoff, and they've been huge supporters of the book from day one, so, for the time being, that's not a concern. Where all this stuff really affects us is in marketing and promotion. We can't afford Previews ads anymore; we�re drastically cutting back on our convention appearances this year; and, we're switching all of our comp list over to digital copies of the books. Right now, all we care about is getting the book out, and come hell or high water we're going to do it.�

I’ve Done Opened My Big Mouth

Speakeasy had Rich Johnston let the cat out of the bag about their new 'policy shift' regarding their lagging creator owned comic series. A day passed uneventfully. Then all hell seems to have broken loose. Here's a few of the conversations going crazy about it:

Focused Totality The Beat The Engine The Bendis Board The Speakeasy Forums

So, in any event, here's the skinny for Elk's Run, and I'm doing an interview with Buzzscope later this week to give some more in depth insight into what it means for us.

Essentially, it means nothing for us. As of right now, despite our shit-tacular sales, Speakeasy is just as committed as they were day one, and the book will continue to come out for the forseeable future. There will however be a couple of minor changes. We are literally fighting tooth and nail to fight and make sure the book sees print as issues.

1) (I'll start with the smallest and stupidest) The Inside Covers of the book are now Black and White... it saves some money, in theory.

2) Issue 5 is due out next month, Issue 6 in February/March, Issue 7 in March/April, and Issue 8 in June/July.

3) We're IDW-ing up the place. Issues 7&8 will cost $3.99. It's pretty much what we have to do in order to survive. Issue 7 will have a 5 page backup from Event Horizon, and issue 8 will most likely be oversized, so, hopefully the price increase will feel worth it.

4) Same Great Story, Same Great Art.

Alright, so that's all the important stuff. You'll get to here more from me later this week from Buzzscope, so keep an eye out.

Housecleaning

Woof. Today was "Take care of lingering shit" day. Got the H&B site nice and updated, just about squared away Elk's Run #5 to go to the printer, got a long awaited check, so that I could actually pay some bills, and got most of my invoicing for the week done. I even managed to finally get my writers portfolio squared away (for a last minute possible job.) I've got about four projects percolating, artists already in place on two, and then the other two are still being formulated. I spent a helluva long time prepping Ritual Homicide, and thanks to the whole "story of the book coming true" it was nixed. I'm dying to work with the artist, (the sensational Chris Burnham). My good buddy Gary and I have dueling Post-Apocalypse projects we're developing seperately, so I get to have fun "Well, when I get to blow up the world," conversations at least once a week.

Also, got my first look at the finished Dillinger, by James Patrick, which is in Previews next month, and which I edited. It turned out really nicely and I recommend you all give it an order. I'll post its order number when I get a chance.

Been giving a lot of thought to the realities of publishing lately. The fact is the comic industry is in shambles, despite some record sales for the big boys, things haven't looked much grimmer for us on the bottom in a long time. I'm in this strange place where the critical acclaim keeps on coming (although Randy Lander manages to actually match my sentiments on the first 3 issues of the book pretty well right here), but the book remains pretty much unchanged in terms of sales. The Bumper Edition seems to have been purchased almost exclusively by our fans who were already on board, and god damn to I love you guys for buying it.

Here's the thing, I can't think of any other medium that relies so heavily on its fans getting the word out. Comics... I mean, seriously, how many times have you been in a shop and some guy says, "You should check this out, its awesome," and bam. You're done. You try it, you love it. It all comes down to this Lion King-esque circle of life. If you love it, and want it to stick around, all you can do is shout from the treetops that you love it, and hope for the best.

Anyways, back to work.