Friends With Boys

Faith Erin Hicks continues her glimpses into the life of a freelancer by telling you how to pitch a graphic novel to a publisher. Or how she did it, anyway. As she says,

They’re tough to do, because you’re trying to convey a lot through the shortest and most succinct language possible, and you’re also trying to do it in a way that is 1) enthusiastic (“you really want to buy this comic, publisher!”) and 2) clear eyed and cool (“I believe in this project, but I am not acting like it is the second coming of Star Wars because that’s obnoxious and people can see through that hucksterism”).

She also shares her pitch and outline for Friends With Boys, due out later this month, pointing out “it shows I have a good idea of what kind of story I want to tell, and the publisher I’m pitching to can judge whether or not it’s the kind of story they want to publish.” In the comments, there’s also discussion about how to find an agent.

I so hope that all this supplementary material is released somehow. Just having it on the web isn’t enough (especially since I suspect that, once the book is out, the full reprint online will go away). I want a volume, even if it’s a self-published minicomic, with all these notes and commentary, to sit next to the book on my shelf.

In other example of valuable professional advice, Jesse Post reviews his work lettering and ballooning the excellent Johnny Hiro. He takes several examples from the book, following the reader’s eye flow through the work, both good and those where compromises had to be made.

If you take in the entire page and follow along naturally, one balloon to the next, you start to see how the balloons act as guides. They ask your eye to linger over artwork you might otherwise skip, back and forth across images, leaping over dead space and further enlivening the live space, words and pictures harmonious at last.

This is an important craft that not enough people pay attention to. It’s one of those “silent skills” that is most noticeable when it fails, while great work goes unremarked because of its achievement.

Bill Walko (The Hero Business) drew this one-panel cartoon of Wonder Woman as a Disney Princess as part of a contest exploring comic book characters in different genres. Love it! Captures her personality as well as her appearance. I want to buy a print! (Actually, I want to buy that comic series.) His post has his background sketches, too.

Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) writes and draws about her reading style for The Globe and Mail. (Via Tom Spurgeon.) This illustration shows both her facility for capturing movement beautifully and her own twitchy poses. I can relate, especially that last one with the little stars. Ah, iconic cartoon language!

there’s a bunch of stuff out there right now on creative teams fighting and/or dissolving. It’s not something I care to link to, but you can find it pretty easily if you look around. The thing that I wanted to note is that this kind of public griping always seems to happen when comics is in a real emotionally stressful period; I think the mini-era we’re in qualifies, for sure. I think we’re past the point where people are just starting to realize that all the exciting things happening around them may not happen to them, and into a phase where people are beginning to worry that comics may have a detrimental effect on their lives.

This struck a chord with me. As someone who chose to leave the comic field and pursue primary-job employment elsewhere, I look around at acquaintances my age who stayed in and see the things they don’t have: Health care coverage. A home (instead of a rental). A retirement account. Any kind of job security. (Not that anyone has that these days.)

I value their work and am glad they could pursue an artistic career, but I worry what might happen to them as they reach the tail end of middle age and beyond. The U.S. is not a friendly country for those who don’t have enough. Maybe my definition of “enough” is bigger than theirs, and they’re happy with it, I don’t know.

That doesn’t even consider the various mental challenges of working in an industry that often attracts … well, there’s no polite word that comes to mind. I’m fond of saying that most people in comics are broken in some way. We’re all drawn to this wacky field because it gives us something we couldn’t get elsewhere, whether escapism or validation or a feeling of community or a business where the usual rules don’t apply or room for extreme individualism or sheep to be fleeced. The flip side of that is how much comics can bring bad feelings or fallings-out or mental scars.

I’m rambling. I wish comics, like most other entertainment fields, had more collective agreements for protection, because the Hero Initiative can’t cover everyone. Like Tom, I worry what’s going to happen as profits continue to shrink.

Update: Faith Erin Hicks blogs about this issue, revealing some actual figures (and how beneficial for health care and art grants it is to live in Canada) and the trade-offs she’s made. Her lengthy piece is well worth reading, but here are just a couple of excerpts:

First of all, let me say that I feel I am poor, but not deprived. I’m not going to yammer on about how I have it rough and scrape out a living, because I made a choice to work in comics, and I feel I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to make it work financially for this long. I’m very grateful. There are things I wish I had (like a house), but I don’t feel like I’m staring into the financial abyss. I live in a decent apartment in a decent part of a small city (Halifax). I like buying things like comics and sushi. I have a car. But there are choices I make that allow me to live cheaply. I do not buy new clothes. I rarely go to the movies. As much as I like buying comics, I voraciously use the library to read everything I might want to only read once. I do not have a cellphone (shock, horror!)…. I cook at home a lot, which is much cheaper than dining out. We do not have cable. My car is 10 years old, and I bought it outright used, so I didn’t pay interest on car payments. Spending over $20 is a big deal….

I feel this art lifestyle is maybe not for everyone. It works for me because I don’t think I want some of the things other people might (I never saw myself as having a family, and while I’d like a house someday, I am content to rent), or at least I don’t want them right now. I’m still young, and I feel like this is my chance to draw comics for a living, so why not take it? If I had things like a family or a house, this lifestyle would maybe not be an option. But I’ve seen other people make that work, so it is probably possible.

The comments are interesting, too, as other artists talk about how they make it work.

I love the different styles and types of comics shown, even if I would have included manga instead of war as a more modern, less gender-specific choice. The punchline, where she is reading a comic he doesn’t know, is very realistic, in my experience, and I’m glad it’s handled in a light, amusing way.

Or this bizarre space-faring saga?

Check the link for lots more.

Now, my jaded side thinks that this was just a way to build comment traffic by setting up a post for people to share store horror stories while tying into a buzzword hot topic of the week, but maybe he has a point. In-person shopping is more fun than clicking a few buttons online. You can’t beat all the comics you want to read for free, but most people I know have no problem paying a fair price for good work. And since so many comic stores are small businesses, it’s easy to develop a relationship with a good retailer and want that business to continue.

There aren’t enough comic shops to cover all the potential readers in the U.S., so maybe piracy would decrease — or sales increase, at least, since no one’s sure exactly how the two are related — if there were more good outlets with knowledgeable, friendly staff to buy from. What do you think?

it will allow readers to produce the majority of its articles. The 128-year-old magazine, with an average paid circulation of 3.2 million, would be the first major mass-market magazine to draw on user-generated content for most of its pages.

It’s a brave new world, where self-selected and audience-generated content can drive a major publication, in an attempt to make readers feel more a part of the community (and thus presumably more likely to continue subscribing). It’s not all unrestrained, though:

While most of the content will be user-generated, editors will continue to check facts in articles. Contributors will be paid the usual standard professional rates. And professional experts will also continue to provide advice, often alongside first-person accounts.

I’m really glad to see that they’re not switching to this as a form of cost-cutting. Too many places think of community content as free; it’s good to see contributors being paid for their writing.

I found myself wondering how this kind of process might work when it comes to comics, specifically the dominant genre of superhero comics. There has always been a tension between what fans say they want and what they actually buy. Comic fans are terrible at sending a message with their wallets, continuing to buy what they gripe about, but so very many of the readers also want to write the stories themselves.

What would a crowd-sourced superhero story look like? I’m envisioning the return of text pages, where user-submitted story ideas and short scenes could be run. I’d also incorporate something from the manga anthologies — reader surveys on which concepts they liked and which they hated, so fan writers could get feedback from their peers. That would, I imagine, draw an increased reader base as they bought the comics to see whether their ideas were included and what others thought of them.

Alex de Campi set up a Kickstarter campaign to publish a graphic novel, Ashes, written by her and illustrated by Jimmy Broxton. Based on that creative team, and a lot of publicity, they raised over $32,000 (on a goal of $27,000). As The Beat pointed out, that makes it the #7 most funded comic project on the site.

Ashes page drawn by Jimmy Broxton

Now that funding has successfully completed, de Campi has fired Broxton (real name James Hodgkins). That link has Broxton’s posts on the subject, which include these statements:

… this is not a joke, Jimmy (you all know who he really is) has been fired, and will be replaced on the book, naturally I’m not at all happy about this, but I have no control. I have posted this here on FB to start the process of presenting my (Jimmy’s) side of the story. I sincerely hope it doesn’t get too ugly, but I have to try and protect his reputation….

Jimmy worked for 6 months off and on (unpaid) preparing the project, and he has not, and will now not receive a penny of the $32,000 raised as part of the Kickstarter campaign. I hope to be able to offer more information soon, I’m waiting to hear from Kickstarter themselves, I only found out about this a few hours ago.

In response, de Campi posted (to backers only):

Jimmy and I have had an irreconcileable split over creative differences, with the result that yesterday evening I asked him to leave Ashes. I have no desire to hang out dirty laundry in public so I hope you don’t mind if I leave the explanation at that….

If you only pledged for the book because of Jimmy, or if this announcement otherwise colours your desire for the book, please contact me to say so … and I will refund your pledge immediately and in full. Likewise, once I find a new artist, if his or her work is not a style you like, you may also contact me and be immediately refunded for your pledge.

The artist implies considering legal action at being denied his part of this project, and I’m guessing there was no formal contract. I would think the best approach would be to cancel the Kickstarter completely and relaunch when/if a new artist is found, but given how many people wouldn’t participate again, that would likely kill the project entirely. de Campi has promised to do that, though, if no artist is signed by Valentine’s Day.

This is a major flaw with Kickstarter — there’s nothing that guarantees you’ll get what you were promised. Once the creator gets the money, they can do whatever they want with it, or the project can fall apart for a variety of reasons. It’s up to you to determine whether you trust the people you’re funding.

Update: (1/18/12) Heidi MacDonald has an interview with Broxton/Hodgkins giving his side of the story in more depth. He talks about the contract between him and de Campi (one does exist) and suggests what he thinks should happen now: the cancellation of the whole project.

Update 2: (1/19/12) And now de Campi’s response is posted. On the one hand, it sounds like a miserable working experience that she needed to end; on the other, it provides more evidence if someone is reading it from the perspective of “girls are emotional to work with.” As outside observers, we’ll never know who was “right”, and the question doesn’t make much sense anyway. I hope it all just fades away, because right now, all we have is tawdry internet drama, and that’s not doing anyone any good.

Retailer Brian Hibbs’ latest Tilting at Windmills column makes two excellent points. The first is about how messed up Marvel’s book program is, with key titles unavailable and the resulting poor sales. That’s a known problem, has been for years, so while Brian sums it up well, that’s not what I want to talk about.

No, what I want to praise is the second part of the column, which points out how valuable a good comic store can be. As he says, “the best retailers are, essentially, curators who are there to guide you through the forest of choices you face.” One can quibble with how often this is able to be found — I still sometimes have problems, even at good stores, with recommendations being based more on what the recommender likes than on my tastes, sort of an old-fashioned “good comics will be loved by everyone” attitude instead of tailoring specific mentions to the reader — but I whole-heartedly agree with this goal. When it works, when a comic store employee points out something new that I try and enjoy, that’s wonderful, and it’s something that no other retail outlet (online, bookstore, etc.) does as well.

Brian goes on to point out how many huge properties got their start in the direct comic market (Walking Dead being only the newest example) and remind us how many of these successes are creator-owned or driven by particular creators. He concludes by encouraging creators to work directly with stores to build the next success. Overall, his column is a nicely optimistic view of what the comic market does well and can continue to do in coming years.

(If you’d like to comment, I recommend you do so at Brian’s site instead of the CBR forums — they’re right now all people bashing Brian for not liking Marvel enough, in an excellent example of trying to blame the messenger for inconvenient facts.)

I don’t want to make comics, ever, and I don’t ever want to have a professional job in comics past the one I have right now. They have nothing to threaten me with, nothing they can take away from me. I don’t need review copies or advance previews or insider access. I don’t need to be liked by people with no talent. I don’t need to hear the gossip about who is sleeping with Paul Levitz’ ex-girlfriend or the latest Scott Snyder office meltdown. Those are the things they try to ply you with: “Here’s a story, the real story, about why Mark Waid doesn’t work here anymore.” Go away.

— From the astounding interview Tom Spurgeon did with Tucker Stone. There’s a whole bunch of stuff in that piece about the industry as it stands right now, and while it’s blunt and negative, I don’t know that there’s much in there that can be disagreed with.

Except, well, they aren’t. The only ones I’d heard of were the first three, Lynda Barry’s What It Is, Andres Nilsen’s Big Questions, and the graphic biography Feynman. The rest tend towards illustrated poetry (several volumes), a travelogue, art inspired by a novel, and illustrated Craigslist personal ads. There’s a distinct lack of story in these selections, as though a comic, a fully integrated combination of words and images, is still scary. I know that the audience for this list is very different from the usual comic reader, but I get the feeling someone thought it was better to stick with familiar subjects with illustrations than include too many “real” comic works.

I suppose it sounds snobbish for me to be worried about the definition of a comic, but I hate to think of people deluding themselves that they’re into this “graphic novel” trend just because they read a poetry book with some pretty pictures included. Perhaps it’s really an avoidance of story fiction, for what reasons I can’t speculate.

Flashmob Fridays, a collection of reviews of one particular comic issue from a variety of writers, has returned with coverage of Daredevil #6.

I’m pleased to be part of the gang, although I didn’t join quite in time to be part of this first go-round. I was disappointed my schedule didn’t allow it, since Daredevil is my favorite current superhero title. Mark Waid is the most experienced writer working in superheroes today, and he knows how to entertain readers. Marcos Martin’s art is gorgeous, reserved and moody while always focusing on telling the story. (Unfortunately, the letter page — and that’s a nice throwback made new too — reveals that this was Martin’s last issue.)

This book is setting the bar higher every month, especially in the fascinating ways it makes a long-running character like Daredevil feel fresh and creatively new.

Anyway, watch for my contribution to the site, along with those of many other fine writers, this coming Friday — I’ll post a link here too.

DC solicited REBELS: Starstruck in August for December release; the book came available in most stores for pre-order in September, and then was announced as cancelled at the end of October. That’s not much time for readers to get their acts together — and literally no quarter given to what I’d imagine are the large majority of readers who don’t want to pay ahead of time for a book they won’t receive until four months later, and instead want to walk into a comics shop or bookstore like a normal person, see what’s out that week, and then make their purchasing decisions….

I’m not sure I like a system where I have to put down my money early in order to certify a book even gets printed (like the Groupon approach to comics buying), especially when book contents have had a tendency to shift and change sometimes from solicitation to arrival.

Speaking of sales figures, as reported by Heidi, another comic professional is complaining that estimating numbers at which titles sell is a horrible thing responsible for people losing jobs. I’m not sure why he wants to kill the messenger. The facts exist whether they’re reported on or not, and as Heidi points out, every industry loves their rankings and business coverage. If you’re worried about your book being cancelled, do a great job, make sure the writing and art are the best they can be, and do what marketing you can (and the company will allow). Trying to tell potential customers that they can’t speak on certain topics seems counter-productive. This is also not a new debate; one of the sales figure analysts responded to a similar argument three years ago. Meanwhile, Tom Spurgeon makes the case for why sales figures are important,

because what sells and to what extent is basic information about a marketplace, and the shape and potency of a marketplace seems to me a primary item of interest for anyone covering that marketplace. It’s foundational to our understanding of how things work and why. Certainly this information is already manipulated to brazen effect by companies with something to put over on customers; I have to imagine this would become worse under a system of no information at all being released.

Congratulations to Jennifer Hayden (Underwire) for winning the Literary Death Match at the Miami Book Fair International. The victor was determined based on pleasing the crowd with a reading, following by a spelling bee of authors’ names. The idea of a public reading of a graphic novel (usually via slide show) is a great one to show people how approachable comics can be.

Last, Boom! Studios has announced the most exclusive variant cover ever (via email):

a Joe Jusko cover for OUTCAST #2 which will ship to retailers with a certified CGC 9.8 Near Mint grade. The Jusko variant will only be available graded by CGC, and only as a retailer incentive, ensuring that it will have one of the lowest print runs for a mainstream Direct Market publisher ever.

What a weird world this is, when bragging about the lowest print run ever is now a good thing. At least sealing the book in a plastic coffin acknowledges that variant covers are only selling one pretty picture, not a real comic to read. If it were me, just to be annoying, I’d put something in these issues — a coupon for a lifetime subscription to all of Boom!’s publications, for example — that you’d have to break the seal to get. And of course there’s no word on how many copies retailers have to order, or what they’ll be charged, for this exclusive rarity.

The Fantastic Fangirls discuss Anya’s Ghost, an excellent read that should get more attention than I think it has. They praise some aspects, question others, but overall, this is a nice, meaty piece that goes in-depth with the work.

Anya’s Ghost

Emily Nussbaum at the New Yorker considers Whitney Cummings, who has two sitcoms on the air. The really short summary of the piece goes something like this: Yay for women comedians, but boo for the messages her jokes send and the stereotypes they’re based on. (Chris D’Elia is the best part of Whitney, and I would like to see him on something else.) Still, it’s neat to see such well-considered writing on what some think of as throwaway television.

Speaking of sitcoms, Comicsgirl Eden praises the new character of Alice on The Big Bang Theory for being a cool girl in a comic shop and it seeming pretty normal for her to be there. I too would like to see Alice (played by Courtney Ford) back.

Switching to movies, here’s how Twilight confuses love with abuse. You’ve likely seen this before, because it’s not like it’s a subtle book or movie, but Dr. NerdLove lays it all out clearly. (And it’s gotten him the traffic he wanted and the comments we all fear from annoyed fans.)

Over the course of the series, Edward threatens Bella’s life, threatens to kill himself, scares her with his driving, damages property when angry, makes all the decisions for the both of them and tries to isolate her from others — especially Jacob Black, his romantic rival. …

But it’s ok… he loves her. He just wants to make sure she’s safe. Now, keeping all that in mind, look up the warning signs of domestic violence and abusive relationships. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Pop quiz: how many of those moments I list were classic warning signs of domestic abuse? SPOILER ALERT: ALL OF THEM.

In non-girl news, sorry to hear that The Panelists are calling it quits. That’s a big problem when you put together a group blog with contributors who have their own sites and projects — without clear direction and strong editing, it’s hard to know what should go to the group site when you want to keep much of what you do for your own venue. Someone has to concentrate on keeping the site fed.

I remember, back in college, getting a sound pack that made my Macintosh keyboard sound like a manual typewriter: the click on every key, the thunk of the space bar, the whoosh of the carriage return whenever I tapped Enter. My roommate hated it, complaining that I spent how many thousands of dollars (as they were back then) to make those sounds. I had to learn on a manual, though, in typing class, because it took a certain amount of finger strength that our teacher wanted us to develop. And having to unjam the keys if you went too fast!

But then, I’m one of those who remember the world before the internet. One day, that will seem as far away as the world where the TV stations signed off.

There’s an audio file version if you don’t want to watch the video (or have problems with it). The interviewer seems to equate comics with superheroes in phrasing his first question, but you’ll learn how these comic writers got started.

This is the best character redesign set ever! Hanie Mohd has drawn a bunch of DC favorite characters — Batgirl, Supergirl, Catwoman, and others — dressed more warmly for winter. Along the way, she captures some of the key characteristics that differentiate these women: Supergirl’s playfulness, Oracle’s knowledge, Batgirl’s youth, and so on.

That’s a Project Rooftop post, but the artist has since posted more at her tumblr: Zatanna, Vixen (love the coat!), Donna Troy. I wish I could buy some of these outfits — as well as this art as a minicomic.