Northwest cartoonist Elijah Brubaker kicks off this modest collection of diary strips with a funny, written introduction where he basically buries the work. "Over the next ten or so pages you'll see some diary comics I did while I lived in Seattle... maybe a few from Portland. I don't really know because I have this thing about putting dates on my diary strips. Really, it's unimportant when any of this stuff happened. It's all just the same worries and complaints over and over again. These things are way too self-indulgent. My apologies."
I love the attitude shift in the middle of that paragraph, as humorous in its own way as some of those within the comics presented. Brubaker is being too hard on himself, of course. A lot of the work here justifies itself by being attractively drawn and amusing. Where he might have a point is in the massive difference in visual approach and general tone, which do make it hard to get into the rhythms of the cartoonist's life from strip to strip. It's hard to imagine anyone getting mad at a mini-comic even if the work were 1/10th as skillful as the best work here. As the foundation for a major work? Probably wouldn't do the job? As a giveaway mini? Ten minutes of entertainment and occasional insight.
* I think that this kind of an article is going to be most common from now on: pieces about the general issues of censorship and protest with the Danish Cartoons being one of many items of concern. I'm happy that more and more writers seem to be criticizing the newspapers that refused to provide their readers with some way to access the Danish cartoons.
* if you remember the story about the Belgian pulpit from early 2006, you are my ideal reader and I'll do anything you'd like to ask of me. Basically, one of the items brought up in the press as an example of Muhammed iconography was not greeted with a "Oh, well, then we withdraw our complaint" response but a "we demand that thing be destroyed as well" response. Here's an update.
Go, Read: Dirk Deppey on Digital Comics
Dirk Deppey does me the honor of responding at length to a few remarks I made yesterday regarding on-line comics vis-a-vis certain recalibrations I'd recommend for the serial comics market. As is usual with this kind of thing, most of my objections to what he argues are to rhetorical constructions that I don't think fairly or completely represent what I've said. I was never recommending that comics pursue affordable downloads as a way to combat piracy, for instance, nor was I arguing that comics downloads couldn't become a sampler market as much as I was stating that it's not a desirable, exact replacement for the kind of sampler market comics used to have in singles. There's a big difference there. Also, I don't see my general recommendation that comics vigorously pursue multiple tracks to market as a platitude because I feel comics history is in part defined by the abandonment of practices that we know work for something that might potentially work better -- not because economic forces dictated that should happen but because the response to those market opportunities was short-sighted and limited. Still, I don't want to get into a characterization argument point by point by point, because I think you'll miss the meat of Deppey's interesting perspective. Just keep in mind that I don't always agree with the picture being painted on my behalf, will you?
However, I hope that Wizard and all of you will agree with me that little doubt exists as to the #1 greatest comics character in the history of the medium: J. Wellington Wimpy, from EC Segar's Thimble Theatre. All you really have to know about Wimpy is that he'd gladly throw over all of his friends and loved ones for a plate of hamburgers. I found this hysterically funny as a kid; I find it even more so now.
Wimpy is the first modern character in comics, by which I mean he's a contradictory mess leaning towards the awful. He's smart, lazy, annoying, dishonest and completely amoral. He has the best catch phrase of anybody ever -- "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" -- which achieves greatness because of the "gladly" and the specificity of "Tuesday." He ignores everybody else on the page and exists in his own bizarre world. He adds nothing in the way of moral instruction. He's every friend you ever had that you couldn't explain to anyone else, and every person you heard a story about that made you mad at the person telling it. He's perfect and I love him. All hail J. Wellington Wimpy.
Eric Reynolds Responds To Chris Butcher On The Area of Order Fulfillment From this article:
"Speaking from our point of view though, we like the opportunity to deal directly with Fantagraphics, because if Fanta has a book in print, then they will have it in stock. That is not the case with Diamond. We hope that Fanta knows what they're in for on that front."
I appreciate Chris's concerns and these were concerns that were paramount to us before striking the deal. But part of our new relationship includes access to sales and inventory data that we will be checking on a daily basis to ensure that supply more than meets demand. Diamond will stock every single title we have in print and we will monitor this inventory constantly; this was not the case in the past and was fundamentally part of the problem with reordering Fanta titles thru Diamond. Fulfillment will be much more efficient, fast and cheap than it was both for retailers who previously reordered directly from Fantagraphics and those who stuck to Diamond for reorders. I appreciate what Chris is saying and fully expected it, but would respectfully ask that he wait-and-see.
Chris goes on to add that "many [comics publishers] aren't happy with their exclusivity deals with Diamond," and while he may be right, I would also add that our arrangement is not necessarily identical to our competitors. With all due respect to Christopher, I wrote most of the news about the distributor wars in the early to mid-1990s. I broke the news of Diamond's exclusive deal with DC Comics. We are not ignorant as to the realities of today's or yesterday's marketplace, and our considered stance on the subject of exclusivity over the last decade-plus has very much informed the establishment of the particulars of this new relationship. We obviously wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we -- and by extension, our retail partners -- should improve our sales considerably as a result.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* this seems like happy news: Mort Walker's International Museum of Cartoon Art holdings will find a home and a dedicated gallery at the OSU Cartoon Research Library. This has a chance of ending those works' long-time odyssey from place to place to storage to place to storage to place.
* the boutique publisher AdHouse Books has announced that its Pulphope has won a Silver Award for Publication Design at the 2007 Richmond Show.
* not comics: I think we all know it either happened already or was about to happen, but it's hard not to barf in your mouth a bit while reading this story.
* the cartoonist Alec Longstreth finds a European publisher. I can't remember anyone other than John Porcellino finding a publisher in Europe solely on the strength of self-published mini-comics, although I'm sure that's a fraternity bigger than two members.
* finally, is it my imagination, or is this a terrible title? Not for a comic book: for anything. Why does it need the proper nouns in there? "We need to make sure that no one buys this comic by accident... is there something we can do with the title that will add musty fanboy qualities to the entire affair?" Can you imagine if Lord of the Rings were called Mordor/Rivendell: Lord of the Rings?
Dororo is Vertical Inc.'s latest translation project from the massive life's output of Osamu Tezuka. It's a straight-forward adventure story. An ambitious father lets 48 demons have a piece of his child in return for political gain. Although the child is sent down the river to die, it survives, and eventually builds a battery of compensating, deadly skills. This first volume tells the back story of that character, Hyakkimaru, that of the boy-thief he meets, Dororo, and details their first few adventures together as budding demon hunters.
Although the narratives prove rather old-fashioned in the sense they depend on formula and the outcomes are never truly in doubt, the tremendously atmospheric cartooning makes this an entertaining effort no matter how you feel about this kind of work. The designs nearly quiver under the burden of their own awesomeness; they're the kind you see on the page holding ideas in how they're drawn that you can't believe anyone was loopy enough to execute. That so much here seems lurid -- there are moments of wet, nasty horror, and instances of psychological trauma and some scary violence -- says a lot about how well grounded Dororo is in positive elements. The story is frequently funny, the relationship between the two characters never feels forced any more than the dictates of convention demand, and there's a theme that I think we can now say was a definite 20th Century cultural point that incompleteness in character and body can be healed through devotion to duty, a kind of vocational transformation that's touching and sweet.
This isn't necessary work, and it lacks the "where the hell did that come from?" charm of past previous Tezuka comics from Vertical, but it's easy to see how this might have been an audience favorite and a fruitful source for cross-media exploitation.
Fantagraphics Signs Exclusive With Diamond For Direct Market, DBD For Canadian Book Distribution By Tom Spurgeon
Fantagraphics has signed a deal with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. for that company to be its exclusive distributor to the comics direct market (DM). According to Diamond's announcement today, the distributor "has cemented an exclusive distribution deal... to exclusively distribute their products to comic book, game, and specialty store market outlets worldwide."
In addition to the company's high-profile both within the industry as its largest art comics publisher, Fantagraphics was the most visible non-exclusive publisher to be directly involved in the mid-1990s maneuvering that led to the current, Diamond-dominant marketplace. As such, their decision to go with Diamond should raise eyebrows and invite scrutiny as to the state of the market that led them to this decision.
Some of the more pertinent points of the deal as best as CR has been able to ascertain from the two agents include:
* exclusivity to the North American direct market marketplace.
* as such, the deal will have no effect on the company's book distribution partnership with WW Norton, a company-saving arrangement when it was made with which Fantagraphics continues to be happy.
* it's through Norton that Fantagraphics is able to supply retailers with books through Ingram or Baker and Taylor, so those options remain available to comics retailers, as will starting an account with WW Norton.
* the company will no longer sell direct to comics shops but will ask those accounts to go through Diamond on what has long been a healthy re-order business. This will correspond with an upgrade on the material the company has Diamond keep on hand, going from about 1/6 of their available titles to, apparently, all of them.
* they have grandfathered in their relationships with Last Gasp and Bud Plant, both of whom do business with DM retailers. Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics told CR that these were the last two DM distributors with whom Fantagraphics had a relationship that wasn't Diamond.
* the individual sales agent Tony Shenton will no longer be able to sell Fantagraphics products to stores.
* Fantagraphics will get a better percentage from Diamond. Retailers ordering Fantagraphics material through Diamond will receive a better discount (moving from the F discount, described as "lower of 45 percent or Standard Discount, to the E discount, described as "lower of 50 percent or Standard Discount"), and, Reynolds says, better shipping rates. The deal is designed to allow for quicker verification on availability.
* Fantagraphics will now be able to design its own Previews section.
* in what some may see as a surprising move and a development that was not part of the initial rumor, Diamond Book Distributors will take over Fantagraphics' Canadian market book distribution from Raincoast. Reynolds estimates that the company's current business north of the US border accounts for less than five percent of their total sales. DBD has been the Eros imprint's distributor for a while now.
As for why Fantagraphics made this move, the fundamental reason is likely to be found in what they describe as the declining fortunes of the DM side of their overall business and what they as a small company with limited resources is able to invest in that side of their business in order to give it the best chance running smoothly and perhaps enabling it to grow. While that department at the comics publisher saw a slight boost in cost-efficiency moving from Greg Zura to Jason Miles -- at least one would assume this, given Zura's long-time tenure at the company -- the new deal frees Miles from physically taking retailer orders and accounting for them in favor of the salesmanship and support aspects of his position. Designing their own catalog section has to have some appeal given the nature of their books compared to most of what's available in the DM and the relative skill of their design staff as currently constituted Both should aid Miles in his attempts to drive retailers to the company's books.
Assuming a number of aspects about the deal that have since been announced, Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience feels the deal will be an overall positive. "... the impact on retailers should be minimal, and probably positive; the impact on FBI, depending on what they're giving up to Diamond, should be neutral to slightly positive," he wrote to CR.
Negative reaction to the deal seems likely to arise from both a general antipathy towards Diamond and a belief that Diamond's inability to restock Fantagraphics' titles over the last decade or so will continue despite the new arrangement. Past history dictates that there are real fears regarding the ability to restock books from a company like Fantagraphics, a vital part of the equation in these days of conservative initial orders, particularly from companies not the two big mainstream publishers. While it's hard to track the veracity of such claims on a case by case basis, Diamond has less than a stellar reputation in many circles in terms of always and reliably stocking its suppliers, including some of the exclusive ones.
"We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said 'Good God No, Don't Do It,'" Chris Butcher of The Beguiling told CR. "We're very sympathetic to the general indifference of the Direct Market to good comics, including those that Fantagraphics publishes, and we understand the reasons they made their decision." Butcher points towards being able to order directly from the publisher as a key concern. "Speaking from our point of view though, we like the opportunity to deal directly with Fantagraphics, because if Fanta has a book in print, then they will have it in stock. That is not the case with Diamond. Even on the largest publishers that have moved their Direct Market business exclusive with Diamond, publishers like Viz and Tokyopop, our fill rates on in-print books are less than adequate. We hope that Fanta knows what they're in for on that front."
Fantagraphics staked out a significant position against Diamond back when most companies were signing exclusives with the distributor, a position in which some took heart because of what many felt was an outright unfortunate outcome to the mid-1990s distribution battles -- a virtual monopoly held by a company with unpopular policies and operating philosophies. Butcher went on to claim that companies holding exclusives has been bad for holding Diamond responsible for change.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but as The Beguiling we're fortunate enough talk to reps from a large number of publishers, great and small, and many of them really aren't happy with their exclusivity deals with Diamond. No one will go on the record about it of course, because regardless of exclusivity or not they're still going to be working with Diamond going forward and being openly critical of Diamond is not the best way to get good service from them. So, no one talks about how things are not going the way they had hoped, and everyone re-ups for another few years hoping things will change because hey, everyone else is doing it. Worse still, we're worried about the sort of 'chilling effect' that goes on whenever a publisher signs an exclusivity deal. Fantagraphics better than anyone (thanks to reportage in The Comics Journal) the havoc that exclusivity agreements caused direct market retailers, particularly with regards to Image and Dark Horse deciding on Diamond after DC had made their deal. Has the consolidation of the direct market to, effectively, Diamond Comics Distributors, shown a noted increase in stores, sales, or market strength over the past 10 years? Particularly for any company that isn't Marvel or DC? Not at all, and yet the consolidation continues, leading many publishers to believe that there's no other way to do business and succeed -- or at least stay afloat -- in the market."
Hibbs points out another potential outcome. "This makes it, in my estimation, less likely that another viable distribution choice can come into being to challenge Diamond in the DM."
Eric Reynolds summarized his company's position in an e-mail early today. "One of the areas we've struggled in the last few years despite overall growth has been in the Direct Market, and this new relationship will invariably strengthen our relationship with the Direct Market and allow us to serve it better. It will result for retailers in a better discount on average, better shipping rates, and better availability / information / fulfillment on all titles. We will have better information at our disposal all the way around. It also means lower overhead for us, and enables us to devote less time to accounting and order-taking and more time to actually focus on providing useful sales and marketing tools to retailers," he wrote.
* the cartoonist Alec Longstreth 
Although the narratives prove rather old-fashioned in the sense they depend on formula and the outcomes are never truly in doubt, the tremendously atmospheric cartooning makes this an entertaining effort no matter how you feel about this kind of work. The designs nearly quiver under the burden of their own awesomeness; they're the kind you see on the page holding ideas in how they're drawn that you can't believe anyone was loopy enough to execute. That so much here seems lurid -- there are moments of wet, nasty horror, and instances of psychological trauma and some scary violence -- says a lot about how well grounded Dororo is in positive elements. The story is frequently funny, the relationship between the two characters never feels forced any more than the dictates of convention demand, and there's a theme that I think we can now say was a definite 20th Century cultural point that incompleteness in character and body can be healed through devotion to duty, a kind of vocational transformation that's touching and sweet.
"We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said 'Good God No, Don't Do It,'" Chris Butcher of 
Eric Reynolds summarized his company's position in an e-mail early today. "One of the areas we've struggled in the last few years despite overall growth has been in the Direct Market, and this new relationship will invariably strengthen our relationship with the Direct Market and allow us to serve it better. It will result for retailers in a better discount on average, better shipping rates, and better availability / information / fulfillment on all titles. We will have better information at our disposal all the way around. It also means lower overhead for us, and enables us to devote less time to accounting and order-taking and more time to actually focus on providing useful sales and marketing tools to retailers," he wrote.
