Got an email the other day looking for a review for a self-published graphic novel, which I won’t name because that isn’t the point, but it came from outside the traditional comic industry. The email didn’t bother to answer the questions I request from review submissions, instead sending me to their website. That’s ok, I don’t want to be dogmatic about following my guidelines, so I clicked over only to find all glossy taglines and video teaser, no actual information.

The email mentioned that their hardcover would be out in two weeks and hoped I could “take a look” with a “free viewing license”. I responded with my mailing address. They didn’t take the hint, sending back instructions on downloading some proprietary DRM viewer with an attached license. The note said that if I liked it, then they would send me the print version.

At that point, I bowed out. I am not going to install some random software I’ve never heard of in order to look at your comic to give you free promotion. Who knows what kind of hooks it would put in my OS or how hard it would be to get rid of it afterwards? I was getting a skeevy feeling from the beginning, anyway, since the graphic novel supposedly dealt with a situation that the submitter sold snake-oil-style products to handle. I suspect the whole thing was some kind of “creative” guerrilla advertising method.

Here’s the lesson: If you want coverage for your project, you need to make it easy for the press, not more difficult. I don’t want special software or little-known formats. I prefer print, although I’ll take online, but if you don’t trust me not to distribute or copy your PDF, don’t send it to me. I can’t do an accurate review anyway if my experience differs that much from that of the average reader’s.

If I don’t already know you or your work, you have an uphill battle. Like someone advertising a job opening these days, I get more submissions than I can manage, and if your project doesn’t strike me, I am looking for ways to rule you out quickly, to avoid wasting the time of both of us.

If you put out a comic, you have a ton of competition. You are battling against brand name superheroes and addictive manga and critically praised graphic novels and free webcomics for your customer’s and my time and attention. The state of the world is that I have more great comic work to cover than I can handle. Current count: 50 books on review stack, 20 more coming in. These are outstanding, diverse works by known, reputable, quality artists and writers. This is a wonderful problem to have, because I look forward to reading all of them, and I’m thrilled by what awaits me.

Over the last three years, Friends of Lulu, the non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and increasing the visibility of women in comics, has been mentioned at this site in three contexts:

1. Their Awards program, which is geared to “bring attention to the best, most women-friendly and reader- friendly work in comics and to recognize the work of women comics creators of the past” (which, given how many awards still ignore women, is needed). In 2007, they opened voting to the public, allowing everyone to have their say. The last Awards were given out in 2008.

2. The Empowerment Fund fiasco in early 2007 in which a loose cannon board member announced a money-raising effort that ended in refunds, didn’t accomplish its goals, and made everyone look bad. The situation led to me questioning the need for the group in February 2007 and starting a discussion on how to solve volunteer group problems.

3. The tax-exemption question, which blew up when current Friends of Lulu president Valerie D’Orazio (who took the role in October 2007 and has held it ever since) attacked me for asking a question about the organization. (To be fair, I’ve been tough on her before, so she felt we had history.)

Aside from the awards, the only time I heard anyone talking about the group was in connection to some problem. That brings us to today, where I read at Valerie’s personal blog that she wants to move on and is seeking someone to take the organization over.

If by September 2010 nobody steps forward and shows interest in helping run this organization, I will start taking steps to officially dissolve it as a non-profit. Then I will donate the leftover money (if any) between the other major comics charities, return the donated artwork, and ship the historical records and sketchbooks to a University or MoCCA.

There’s a lot more to this decision, of course, and to the post, which touches on a lot of the problems one is challenged by as the public face of a well-meaning organization.

I find Valerie’s comment, “In this and other initiatives to update Friends of Lulu, I often felt as if I was fighting a constant uphill battle against portions of the organization/membership who did not want change” enlightening. That’s likely true, and I think it encapsulates the two big problems that prevent Friends of Lulu, in its original format, from being truly successful:

1. The women who created the organization in the early 90s were older, and several of them were from an era where activism was possible and had the potential to achieve results. In contrast, today’s younger female creators don’t see the problems FoL was created in response to (in part due to FoL’s actions) and thus don’t see much of a need for the group. These creators have more avenues available to them — webcomics, book publisher graphic novel contracts, online organization and support — and a formal group may seem old-fashioned.

2. In comics, there have never been many successful group actions. Raising the question of a creative union in the 60s got those involved thrown out of work. The only exceptions I can think of were single-creator-oriented and played into the traditional comic fan right/wrong, us/them dichotomies that fuels their thinking: Kirby vs. Marvel and Superman’s creators (lead by Neal Adams) vs. DC in 1978.

That leads to the single biggest problem Friends of Lulu has faced throughout its existence: What can and will they accomplish? They can’t protest or make negative statements, because that will get them attacked by those missing the point and potentially adversely affect their members. On the positive side, they’ve published several anthologies, but that’s an expensive way to achieve what a good website does. (One of Valerie’s main priorities, she mentions, was getting the FoL website updated and running, which was a major, necessary achievement.)

I hope someone with energy and optimism does step forward and take on this heavy mantle. I would like to see Friends of Lulu continue to exist, if only as a recognition-granting body (similar to something like the Inkwell Awards). Reducing the organization’s scope would require fewer people, less effort, and minimal budget.

Alternately, Valerie lists ideas from 2008 that sound wonderful: a magazine, getting back to establishing chapters for local mentoring, and so on. Unfortunately, all of this was put on hold due to the loss of the organization’s financial records, which required halting donations and memberships. And once something’s put on hold, it’s hard to get it running again.

She’s right that this should be a full-time job, not a volunteer situation, dependent on what time and energy someone can give it. But the mess she describes has to be cleaned up first. Are you the person to do it, as a potential new Board member? Or should Lulu as it is end, to be replaced by something else, such as a professional trade organization?

Update: Ok, after seeing how Heidi MacDonald and Laura Hudson both chose to title their articles on this subject, announcing that FoL would “end” or “shut down” in September, I no longer want to hear anything about my headline writing or my supposed agenda against the group. I took the positive tack, y’all. I’m glad to see Heidi and I both agree on the need to maintain the awards, though. And I still believe that there’s someone (or multiple someones) out there who will find this just the right opportunity.

Reviewers Are Collectors, Too

Bill Sherman has a cute story about what can happen to review copies as they’re passed along (via Journalista).

Wow, This Guy Should Write Documentaries

I don’t always read Tucker Stone’s work, because he’s a little profane for my tastes (although I admire his energy and vibrancy), but I absolutely adore this appreciation of Cliff Chiang, one of my favorite artists. He frames it as an “Unaired A&E Special”, which is a genius idea, covering how Cliff built his career in very smart ways. There’s also a part two.

What Makes a Satisfying Ending?

Bob Greenberger considers good and bad closure when it comes to final episodes and twisty movies like Inception. Fans deserve to feel satisfied, not cheated.

I Wish I Was Going to Be in San Francisco

Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women, an art show, will be at the Cartoon Art Museum in SF starting October 1. Featured cartoonists include Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Sarah Glidden, Miriam Libicki, Diane Noomin, Trina Robbins, Ariel Schrag, Lauren Weinstein, and many more. It will also appear in Toronto in April 2011.

The Next Comic Movie Adaptation I’m Looking Forward To

Yay, the Tamara Drewe movie has a U.S. release date, October 8! Boo, it’s New York and L.A. only. I’m guessing that this adaptation of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel, one of my Best Books of 2008, may play the art house circuit, which means it’s a gamble whether it will come anywhere near me. Oh, well, that’s what home video is for.

DC’s Digital Successes

Valerie D’Orazio looks at the top comics on DC’s digital application and draws some conclusions about why WildStorm is still around. She points out that licensed material is huge online. So are movie tie-ins and properties that already have brand awareness. (Which implies that Warren Ellis can be considered a brand at this point.)

Did We Really Need Another Half-Naked Jungle Girl Comic?

The Captain Action folks have announced Savage Beauty, about “the Goddess Anaya, who descends from the heavens as a golden-haired beauty to bless the innocent or rises from the earth as an ebon-skinned bringer of vengeance to punish the guilty,” which means two colors of lookalike helium hussies. Says writer Mike Bullock, “On the surface this may seem like just another jungle book with pretty girls going on adventures in the Dark Continent, but readers will find that’s far from the reality once they hold the book in their hands.” He then jumps to another subject, relying on us to trust him that a book promoted with good girl art really isn’t about that. Sorry, Mike. Bragging that “something about drawing scantily clad, beautiful women really appeals to comic artists” tells me you’re trying to have it both ways.

And Now Comes the Non-Comics Digital Stuff…

First, I wanted to say goodbye to the G1. T-Mobile’s first Android phone is no longer for sale from them. It was a great phone, opening up a whole new mobile operating system, and I’m hoping that we’ll get a suitable replacement from the carrier later this year that has as good a keyboard and is as forward-looking now as the G1 was then.

Next, in the issue of making copies (I suddenly have Rob Schneider’s voice in my head) … a judge ruled that circumventing Digital Rights Management (DRM) software for legal purposes was not by itself illegal. This is a good thing. Companies were trying to eliminate fair use, reverse engineering, and other legal rights by sticking some software on a system and saying it was illegal to break it. And previously, it was. So, for example, if I legally purchased a DVD, it might have been illegal for me to play it on some of my systems if I had to region-unlock or otherwise hack something.

Unfortunately, right now this ruling only applies to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the 5th Circuit. I hope that other judges recognize that it should not be illegal to exercise your legal rights, especially when it comes to purchased products.

In similar news, the Librarian of Congress has just announced new rules that make it legal to copy “short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment” in the cases of college educational uses, documentary filmmaking, and noncommercial videos, even if you have to circumvent the DRM. They also stated that jailbreaking smartphones was legal, as is breaking video game DRM for testing or investigating security flaws, and having ebooks read aloud (a rule requested by the blind). There were other things requested that didn’t get approved, though — maybe next time.

In KC’s latest installment of his column series on the history of comic storytelling, he tackles the magic year of 1986, which was so important it got a column of its own. Find out more about how Event comics started with Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinite Earths and revisit such classics as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Plus, KC talks about the revamps of the big three, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman and the creation of X-Factor and the New Universe. And he doesn’t forget the non-superheroes, with coverage of Maus and Matt Wagner.

Warner has announced two new cartoon gift sets due out in November.

First, Batman Beyond gets a Collectible Complete Series Gift Set.

The nine-disc set has all 52 episodes, new bonus features, and a booklet containing “artwork from the DC Archives”. It’s due out November 23 with creator commentaries (carried over from the previous sets), three new featurettes, and a copy of the “Secret Origins: The Story of DC Comics” documentary created to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary. Suggested retail price is $99.98 US. Note that they mean it when they say “available for a limited time” — they did a similar Batman: The Complete Animated Series set in 2008 that went out of print quickly.

Then there’s the best packaging I’ve seen this year: this Complete Scooby-Doo Collection comes in a plastic Mystery Machine!

Eight discs hold 41 episodes for $79.95 US on November 9, with a promised two hours of “new and archival special features” (no details available). It’s so cute!

We finally did something about the overflowing DVDs. Yesterday, KC made me a present. He put together this new four-sided spinning DVD rack.

It’s surprisingly solid for something that came in two flat boxes, and it’s very adjustable. It holds about 475 DVDs, according to its writeup, which covers a bit more than half our collection. It’s nearly as tall as I am! We had a blast reorganizing and sorting things, and realizing what we had that we’d forgotten about (or wanted to watch again — the point of owning movies).

On the left side shown here, KC now has one whole side for his music and concert DVDs. The right side is my classic film collection (which is anything from before I was born — isn’t that how everyone defines “old movie”?). I was surprised I had so much space, with half a side left for expansion. We’ve also grouped all the comic book-related stuff on one side, with superhero movies (plus Howard the Duck and Josie and the Pussycats) and cartoons. The fourth side will be other animation, I think.

I know I can be a bit obsessive about organizing things sometimes, but boy, this was fun.

Let’s open with a plug: out this week is Hogan’s Alley issue 17 ($6.95). I’m their Comic Book Columnist, and for this issue, I wrote an overview of the DC and Marvel business changes that began last year. Given the print time, it’s not up-to-the-minute, but I think I hit all the high points, and I’d love to know if readers thought I succeeded.

Now, on to what I’d like to buy this week if I only had $15.

Top of my list is always Boom!’s Muppet Show comic. So issue #8 takes the first $3.

My next spend is going to be a Viz manga volume, but at $10 each, which one? There are new installments of several series I’ve enjoyed — Hikaru No Go Volume 20 and Otomen Volume 7 — plus two debuts I’m curious about: Bakuman Volume 1 and Seiho Boys High School Volume 1. But I think my choice will be the second (and final) volume of Flower in a Storm, which I thought was a funny action/romantic comedy.

Thankfully, I’ve already read the $11 Sayonara, Zetsubo-Sensei Volume 7, out from Del Rey.

So that leaves $2, and the new Previews catalog is $4.50. I’ll hope my retailer gives me a price break, since putting all those comics in front of me will hopefully increase sales for him.

At the store, I’d probably flip through Wonder Woman #601, just to see how the new/revamped history continues from issue #600. But in looking at DC and Marvel titles for this week, what’s with all the alternate covers and variant printings? It makes it very difficult to tell when a new comic is available and hard to avoid rebuying something I already have. Wait, I think I answered my own question.

What looks good to you this week?

Review by Ed Sizemore

My love of H.P. Lovecraft by now is well documented. I’m an avid collector of comics that either adapt Lovecraft stories or are inspired by his writings. So when I saw a Previews listing for a comic anthology named Cthulhu, it was a guaranteed sale.

Cthulhu is a 96-page, black-and-white collection of stories from the ongoing horror comics magazine of the same name published by Diablo Ediciones in Spain. Drawing inspiration from the Lovecraftian title, most of the stories are atmospheric, Victorian-style horror. A couple of the works are more modern and gore-based. The pieces are short with the longest story being only nine pages. So this volume contains 17 stories total.

Overall, the storytelling and artwork are very good. I was impressed with the consistent high quality of the stories in the book. In fact, I can’t fault any of the works in this volume for poor art. My only real complaint with the storytelling was that some pieces were too short. A couple of pieces felt like pitches for what promised to be an interesting single-volume story.

“The Well” by Toni Fejzula was a nice three-page story about the evil consequences of superstition. The only problem is the art looks muddy. Fejzula uses a very fine grayscale, and the print quality can’t handle all the subtle shades. It’s the only visual flaw in the book.

“The Bench” by Elchinodepelocrespo and Cesar Sebastain is an abstract piece that still doesn’t make sense to me after three readings. It appears to just be strange for its own sake.

“Picture in the House” by Carlos Lamani is an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story by the same name. Lamani does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere of Lovecraft’s writing.

“Convict” by Alex Ogalla and Beni Lobel feels like it was taken straight from the pages of an EC comic. It has the classic twist at the end and even the art is a pastiche of EC’s golden age.

“In Me” by Alex Ogalla and Salvador Lopez is a novel twist on the classic werewolf tale. In fact, they actually added something new to the genre. They need to explore this idea further. There is a lot of promise in this story.

At the end of the book is a list of blogs for all the artists in the book. It’s great to see a publisher really promote the artists themselves. Obviously, the websites are in Spanish. There are tons of artwork by each artist on their blogs.

It’s refreshing to buy an anthology book where I enjoyed all but one piece. You certainly get a great value for your money with Cthulhu. Fans of classic horror comics will enjoy the book. I hope that KettleDrummer will continue to publish more volumes of the anthology. I’d definitely pick up the next volume. It makes me wonder what other great comics from Spain we’re missing out on.

You can see sample pages at KettleDrummer’s website.