Indie Publishers Wooed In Odd Fashion

Calvin Reid's article at Publishers Weekly on the New York Comic-Con may have surprised some in the number of confessional moments in regards to show improvements it wrung from organizer Greg Topalian. Comics isn't exactly an industry that embraces self-criticism, something that's seemed apparent in aspects of previous coverage and commentary on the growing New York show.

The piece also struck about a half-dozen readers who e-mailed this site as odd for the way it broached the subject of wooing independent/alternative publishers to the show. This element caught the attention of Chris Mautner, who subsequently pointed out on Blog@Newsarama that it's one thing to pledge the devotion of resources to bringing on board publishers like the article's name-dropped Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly and another thing to show you're doing this by announcing you've signed someone. Turns out that Mautner was right in seeing something weird. Talking to sources at Fantagraphics and D&Q yesterday, neither one of them has plans at this time to exhibit at NYCC in 2008, and both expressed to me they were kind of surprised to see their names pop up in the article. I believe that if you compare Mautner's pulled quote to the PW article as it now exists, you'll find a bracketed aside in the PW piece noting Fantagraphics won't be there.

I think this is intriguing beyond the e-mails asking for follow-up in that it shows the role that such publishers can play in the overall perception of a show beyond what they likely add to the bottom line. Heck, if help is to be offered to get such publishers to attend, I guess they may have value when they take away from the bottom line. I also think it's worth noting that we're now at the point where the convention schedule is diverse enough that mid-major publishers can decide to attend one of only five of the top shows, or two of the five, perhaps concentrating more of the tightly-focused arts shows, and not feel a significant, negative impact.
 
posted 3:06 am PST | Permalink
 

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