"Hi. Would you like to join in on a round robin discussion today?"
Never heard of the fella inviting me so I asked what the discussion was about and WHO was involved. Makes sense, right?
As it turns out it was a group of US Indie comic publishers (NO, Image, Dark Horse and IDW are NOT Independent comic publishers. Grow up) and they wanted some UK input but "Seems everyone over there is arguing with each other so you not..."
Twice I sent links to posts from 10 years ago when I predicted exactly what was being discussed. There was a lot of ego going on but I get the feeling that was due to the situation they are in. There were five people involved and all seem to publish good material in black and white and colour. It seems they all agreed that DC and Marvel had set comics back because of the constant reboots, multiple variant covers and so on.
Quote: "Two guys looked over the comics at the table and both asked the same question:how many variant covers do my books have. I told them there were no variant covers just cover and self contained stories. Both said the same thing: 'If you don't have variant covers the books can't be that good!' and I tried explaining the comic and art and story were the important part..."
He failed.
So I was asked what they could do to try and fight back against all the fake comic fans -buying as many variant covers as you can is not being a fan just showing OCD. I put some ideas out there and even suggested they all combine into one company -each selling their books as an imprint (doing what Image did when it started). No. That would mean they'd....well, basically each feared that they would lose control of their own creations which is not how it works.
Each one of those involved stated that 2019 was their final year -unless sales picked up they were quitting.
Hour plus wasted.
I do wonder how many small Indie publishers there will be by the end of 2019. In the UK, of course, we have a very strong comics industry and sales are constant and high -I've heard people on the fringe of comics say so.
Until people realise "The Big Five" are just using them as cash cows and realise there are great Indie comics out there....
we are fecked
Black Tower comics & Books is a good place to start!
Never heard of the fella inviting me so I asked what the discussion was about and WHO was involved. Makes sense, right?
As it turns out it was a group of US Indie comic publishers (NO, Image, Dark Horse and IDW are NOT Independent comic publishers. Grow up) and they wanted some UK input but "Seems everyone over there is arguing with each other so you not..."
Twice I sent links to posts from 10 years ago when I predicted exactly what was being discussed. There was a lot of ego going on but I get the feeling that was due to the situation they are in. There were five people involved and all seem to publish good material in black and white and colour. It seems they all agreed that DC and Marvel had set comics back because of the constant reboots, multiple variant covers and so on.
Quote: "Two guys looked over the comics at the table and both asked the same question:how many variant covers do my books have. I told them there were no variant covers just cover and self contained stories. Both said the same thing: 'If you don't have variant covers the books can't be that good!' and I tried explaining the comic and art and story were the important part..."
He failed.
So I was asked what they could do to try and fight back against all the fake comic fans -buying as many variant covers as you can is not being a fan just showing OCD. I put some ideas out there and even suggested they all combine into one company -each selling their books as an imprint (doing what Image did when it started). No. That would mean they'd....well, basically each feared that they would lose control of their own creations which is not how it works.
Each one of those involved stated that 2019 was their final year -unless sales picked up they were quitting.
Hour plus wasted.
I do wonder how many small Indie publishers there will be by the end of 2019. In the UK, of course, we have a very strong comics industry and sales are constant and high -I've heard people on the fringe of comics say so.
Until people realise "The Big Five" are just using them as cash cows and realise there are great Indie comics out there....
we are fecked
Black Tower comics & Books is a good place to start!
No comments:
Post a Comment