Mike: Regarding movies and movie reviews; very interesting. It made me think of Jimmy Gownley’s question to you about enjoying comics after making them for all these years, and your short answer was “yes” you still enjoy comics. For movies and animation, I’m the opposite; I have very little interest in movies and animation these days (unless they’re truly exceptional). I think movies ruined me for a lot of the reasons you wrote. That and production shell-shock… and working on stories that aren’t my own. But I’m still as obsessed with the comic medium as I was when I picked up that first Andy Capp collection printed by Fawcett Publications off the shelf at my grandparents cottage.

And I know your aversion to thinking in the superhero vein. But I don’t see why you couldn’t do a short Rip Kirby, X-9, Heart of Juliette Jones, James Bond, Charlies Angels photo-real style short. My experience at Comic Con tells me they’re looking for that stuff. Actually that could even work in glamourpuss… anyway – just random ideas. Being of the Dave Sim School of comics myself, I totally understand NOT wanting to bother with that at all.

Regarding Diamond, I don’t mind discussing it at all. These were the boxes that were checked off on the form letter I received from them:

  • The writing is not up to the comic industry standards. The following aspect(s) of your writing could use improvement.
    • Story Concept (our market is slow for this type of product at this time)
  • The publication specs you have chosen for your title have proven difficult sales-wise for out consumers and retailers. Please reconsider the print size and/or production quality of your publication.

The story concept comment, is strange to me because there ARE crime-drama stories (Criminal), and there ARE comics with cartoony characters (Bone, etc.) so I’m not sure what they’re getting at here. It sounds to me like they’re asking for superhero comics, which I’m not interested in doing.

For publication specs, I get the sense that what they’re really looking for is a graphic novel trade paperback OR a colour comic. I have no interest in making SPY GUY a colour comic (well, that’s not entirely accurate; I have TWO ideas for one-shot SPY GUY colour comics, but that’s it – absolutely no interest in a colour unlimited series.), so my thoughts for this suggestion were to collect the First Strike story into a collection. I even wondered if it would be worth while to see if another publisher would want to reprint it as it seems any comic with an Image “i” or an IDW or an SLG etc. on the cover gets more respect (insert Rodney Dangerfield routine here). Maybe that would help break through the direct market blockade…

Recently I’ve been thinking that my best course of action would be to post images of pages as they are completed online as a webcomic. I had been resisting this because I like the idea of a story coming out all at once on paper, but doing so would kill a few birds with one stone; it would help with exposure to expand the fan-base, it would force a certain amount of momentum with frequent updates, it would force me to complete a page before moving on to the next one and it would ease the gap it between getting the next comic done, since it does take a while making these comics during moonlighting hours. The BEST solution of course would be to get a comic done every month, or every two months, but when it doesn’t provide living expenses, it’s kind of like keeping your head underwater… you can only do it for so long.

Of course meanwhile over at HAVEN DISTRIBUTORS (where stores everywhere can order ALL of the SPY GUY issues to date) they gave a glowing review of SPY GUY #1 and made it the STAFF PICK! So when it comes to building bridges half-way, I’m thankful they reached out to me, and right now I’d like to do whatever I can to help build up their distribution. I think that would be healthy for comics as a whole.

When I talked to the folks at Midtown Comics at MoCCA Festival last year, they told me that the SPY GUY comics they picked up directly from me for Indy Comics Week sold REALLY well. And I should mention that it was Gahl Buslov at Midtown Comics who made the single largest purchase of SPY GUY and THE POSSUM to date. I’m eternally grateful that they took a chance on our books, and I’m thankful that it worked out well for them.

And this just came in via wireless internet from Blair somewhere between here and Texas…

Blair: The “Dave Sim the pariah” thing has always amazed me. It seems the people who claim to be the most “liberal” are the first people to get violently offended when someone does not agree with their liberal views. I guess I’m just not liberal enough to expect everyone else to think like me.

Seeing as though I’m somewhere between Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky as I’m typing this (on my way to Texas with the family), I don’t have access to my “Diamond rejection slip”, so I can’t quote it word for word, but essentially what they said was:

  • They didn’t like my paper quality
  • They didn’t like the cover to issue #1, and
  • They said they’d like to see it as a trade paperback

To be honest, I didn’t send them issue #4 when I completed that one, but I’m planning to contact them after issue #5 is completed early this summer. You’d think that my solutions would be quite simple if I changed the paper quality, redid the cover to issue #1 and combined the first 5 comics with a square binding, wouldn’t you? I’m not entirely sure what they’re looking for though, as far as paper quality goes, because their critique is kind of vague. Are they looking for glossy white paper, or just a thicker newsprint? Can Jeff Smith get away with using newsprint on Rasl, because he’s Jeff Smith, or is he using the specific type of newsprint that Diamond likes? As for the cover to issue #1 I do see their point and I would have no problems redoing it and making it a little more dynamic. I like the current cover to issue #1 personally, but next to all the flashy covers in the Previews, I can see how it might get overlooked. As a collector’s standpoint, I don’t like the idea of having multiple issue #1’s out there, but maybe if I do get into Diamond one day the first printings or “non Diamond” versions can be the collector’s items (And I’ll be rich because I’ve got boxes of them in my basement!). On a side note, I bought Usagi Yojimbo #1 (first printing) off of Stan Sakai at last year’s San Diego Comicon for $5.00, and he must have had them since 1986, so I don’t feel too bad having a basement full of comics, as it’ll give me something to sell at conventions for years to come, at least! – Mike: Cutting in with an insert comment here; I remember us discussing this on the drive back to Kitchener, and the idea of creating scarcity in a collectors market with an issue number one. I knowingly printed an excess number of SPY GUY #1 with the intent of getting it into as many hands of new readers as possible, though my solution for creating a collectors item was to create the limited foil-stamped platinum edition à la glamourpuss #1. Okay, back to you Blair… I’m also not a fan of trade paperbacks that only collect 3 or 4 comics at a time and I’ve always pictured the first Possum trade as 10 or 15 comics at least, so the dilemma is finding a way to keep your artistic vision and make Diamond happy at the same time.

My plan as of now is to print issue #5 on my own using a similar format as the first 4 Possum comics (with a slight change of paper), and then figure out a format that Diamond likes. Your baseball analogy works really well. There’s a part of me that is waiting for the timing to be right, because if I ever DID get The Possum into Diamond, I’d have to be ready to go out all guns a’blazing and put everything I have into marketing and sticking to a bi monthly schedule at least. I think it’s a matter of being scared that I would only have one shot at making it work once it makes it into Diamond, and if I don’t have my sh*t together when that happens, I could miss the boat completely. Mike: Cutting in with another insert comment – I can’t say there is any fear for me. It’s strictly a tactical analysis. This is where my military analogies kick in. If I’m going to take a shot, I know I’d better make it a kill shot. If circumstances are not providing the shot I need, then I’d better reposition myself and keep my finger on the trigger. Until then I’ll just keep going ahead with the carpet bombs. Once the defences are weakened, then it’s time to send in the ground troops. Back to you Blair… Plus, there’s the matter of 3 little Kitchen’s and a missus to feed, and I haven’t wrapped my head around how I would do that if I was to start making comics full time, starting tomorrow. With all that said, I’m feeling that with 5 comics under my belt, the time is coming where if I’m going to do anything, it has to be soon, and I’m realizing that there’s a big difference between being someone who makes comics, and being a pro. It’s always a battle, deciding if the 3 or 4 hours a week I have to dedicate towards comics is going to be researching who to contact at Diamond and how to organize those damn barcodes, or if those 3 or 4 hours are going to be dedicated to inking page 8, but sooner or later the answer has to be “both”.

With all that said, I realize that there is no guarantees that if I make the changes I’ll even get into Diamond, and even if I do get into Diamond that my orders would meet the minimums, and even if they did meet the minimums, there’s no guarantee those orders would pay even a fraction of my bills. But as Mark Twain said (I think it was Mark Twain anyways) “Looking back, you’ll be more disappointed at the things you didn’t do than with the things you did do”…… and then there was something about sailing in there after that. If I wasn’t typing this from a car on Highway 71 (don’t worry, Rochelle took over driving duties while I type this), I’d look the quote up on the internet and quote it exactly so I sounded smarter than I am.

Now, after watching the last two episodes of Cerebus TV, I really would like to know where you learned to dance the twist!!, but keeping with a similar theme, I’ll ask you this one: What were your first impressions when you saw our books, and after hearing what Diamond thought and our reactions to it, I’d really like to hear any further thoughts or suggestions that you may have.

Mike: “Brace for impact!”

 

(and don’t forget to check out the links below!!)

 

Glamourpus by Dave Sim – read an issue, buy a comic, follow on Facebook

Spy Guy by Mike Kitchen- read an issue, buy a comic, follow on Facebook

The Possum by Blair Kitchen- read an issue, buy a comic, follow on Facebook