Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* it's difficult to imagine a context where this newspaper editor that dropped a comics section doesn't come across as a total douchebag. Leaving out a section of the paper was a firing offense when I was a teen working on them, a lot of people in that industry are out of work right now without ever having done something that dumb and why an editor would poke at a readership that really likes and depends on a section of their newspaper is beyond me. Besides, it was the papers themselves that embraced the "we'll provide an array of services" over the "we'll provide exquisite journalism" model, so it's not like they should whine about being held to a standard into which they tossed themselves willingly and seemingly overjoyed to count on high profit margins until very recently. I wish I subscribed so I could cancel. Seriously, this stuff matters: as much as those trend articles about going on the Internet or whatever hold true, I bet if you talked to former newspaper readers one by one that tens of thousands of them would cite a bad article that insulted a local sports team for no reason or a 4-H picture caption that mis-ID'ed a bunch of kids or a paper "boy" who roared by in a truck and never got the paper more than six inches past the curb.

* I missed this: John Porcellino's Thoreau at Walden won first place in the graphic novel category March 24 at something called the New York Book Show, organized by the Bookbinders' Guild of New York. Into The Volcano and The Good Neighbor Vol. 1 were the second and third place books, respectively.

* not comics: Roger Ebert writes a lovely reminiscence about working at the Chicago Sun-Times in the 1960s and 1970s, the last great age of the newspaper as redefined in the 20th Century. Some comics-obsessed idiot tries to goose him into telling a Bill Mauldin story in the comments, to no avail. My new theory is that newspapers were doomed when things quieted down -- the loss of the bell system (for importance of story coming across) and ticker tape/paper feeds in the wire room, the obsolescence of pneumatic tube systems, the silent computer keys... I miss them all.

* not comics: I'm not certain why this needs a boycott instead of a decision just not to buy the overpriced whatevers, but god bless anyone who has time to do that kind of thing these days. In general, I think pricing is important not because there's a point at which customers need to be satisfied because they have the option of free, but because pricing should not have to carry an infrastructure it doesn't require.

* one of the advantages of working with an established publisher is you receive the advocacy and attention of their publicity department, or at least that's what people assert. Some people say it's the only advantage. This makes it that much odder that so many publicists flat out suck.

* finally, I would assume this is pretty good general advice about how to break into mainstream or semi-mainstream comics, with the caveat that established professionals in other fields do seem able to leverage themselves into a comics-writing gig without having done any comics before. I would also suggest "be awesome," because if you're only just as good as the worst person doing comics they already have that person and don't need you. As much as a certain subset of fan complains about the closed shop of American comic books, I've never known of a completely undiscovered major talent doomed to the sidelines the way I've met sublimely skilled actors, authors and musicians.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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