Bitter decisions and old outsiders
An edition about publishing chaos, uncertainty and how we deal with it
HELLO MY FRIENDS, AND WELCOME TO A NEW EDITION OF MY NEWSLETTER!
This first month has been strange and complicated for me, although not for the same reasons that have made this January a darker world globally... But let's just say that the confluence of all this does not help in your day to day life.
ABOUT KID MAROON AND THE DIRECT MARKET
Professional creators often write about how exciting the world of comics is, but the truth is that it is often bitter and harsh. I hadn't commented about the Kid Maroon series recently due to some problems with the release of issue 1. I'm not very aware of how the publisher's PR managed it in social media but the issue was scheduled for November-December but it was delayed due to the publisher's change of printer. Then a worse problem arose related to the distribution system itself, the direct market: Initial orders were not very good. In a market based on hype in which when the first issue comes out, the retailers are asking for the third one, there is no margin to improve your numbers. If you combine this with the recent news about the Diamond distributor bankruptcy announcement and that even Vault is going to distribute its comic-books itself…. As you see, there is a real problem about how we are trying to sell this book.
The result of this chain of events was that the bosses decided my comic with Christopher Cantwell wasn’t going to be released as a comic-book miniseries. The good thing about this situation is that the strategy has been refocused and the series will come out as a graphic novel. Not as a trade paperback, but as an original graphic novel with the particularities of distribution in general bookstores.
I won't lie to you, having your comic get bad orders is disheartening. You feel you've ruined the book because your art should be the main bait, even though it often is not. Maybe the problem was prize, and the investment on double-size issues (more expensive than the regular comic-book) was too much for a saturated market. Or maybe the concept was too “meta” for a market who pay more attention to the umpteenth relaunches of nearly century-old superheroes and 80s franchises. In my darkest moments I end up thinking that we, the readers, especially men, are nothing more than grown-up children who just want to play with the same toys over and over again ad nauseam.
But I feel optimistic because the graphic novel market has a bigger space for creator-owned series. And readers who want to read it will probably have to wait until autumn, but in exchange you will have a much better edition. As a reader I like the format better, although as an artist sometimes I have had no choice but to work in the serialized 22-page format because it is better paid.
Time will tell if the decisions were the right ones, although I know that at least we all wanted to make them for the good of the series. And I have deep appreciation for the retailers and readers who ordered copies of that first edition that will never come out. I'm sure they will be there when the graphic novel comes out.
PLUS, CASSANDRA
As I write this, the publisher that was going to publish the OGN Cassandra: The Left Hand of the Devil (ECC, Spanish publisher of licenses like DC and Skybound) has declared insolvency and it’s going to shut down, so the book will not be published with them. In spite of the shit storm, I am one of the privileged ones who received the full advance and like the book seems that it wasn’t sent to print, I have the possibility of moving the book to another Spanish publisher.
So I have suddenly found that two of my titles that were going to be published right now have been postponed for reasons that are totally beyond my control, and even if it has not affected me economically, as an artist you want to share your work with the rest of Humanity.
Although I have new editions of my work coming out (international editions of Fahrenheit 451, Elixir and some old material printed again too) it’s depressing to have so many pages done and not really know when you’ll see them printed and distributed.
LOVING THE OUTSIDERS
Lately I have been revisiting some of Jean-Pierre Melville's films, essentially his gangster movies. Apart from the fact that I love his films, I have always been fascinated by the figure of this director because he was in love with American culture when in some French circles (especially artists) this was an unforgivable sin. When I saw his films for the first time in college, seeing those lonely assassins dressed with old-fashioned hats and coats like Alain Delon in Le Samurai, seemed to me the most natural thing (I was watching prehistoric stuff, 60s right?). But looking at them now, in context, it was basically French cinema with gangster cosplay... Melville wanted to live in that American fictional universe and he didn't care that at that time the critics were demanding for committed social realism.
Akira Kurosawa was frequently accused of being “too western” for Japan audiences (unlike Ozu, the “good brother”) and it was true that he was in love with John Ford and Dashiell Hammet, but also with Russian literature and, of course, his own culture. He aspired to create a universal narrative that could be enjoyed by everyone and this is one of the reasons I love him so much (like I said in the biography I wrote and draw about him).
I think I’m an unusual author in my country. I work mostly for the USA but I don't draw DC/Marvel superheroes (only a scarce bunch of us do creator-owned) and when I work for my country I try to incorporate “genre” elements (like crime) when here the autochthonous model of author (not sure how to call it) is either comedy or stories more focused on social/autobiographical chronicles. It is not something that, as with Melville, attracts a lot of critical acclaim. My books don't usually appear among the best of the year o the recommended ones in critics’ choice sections (not even the more “respectable” works like biographies or literary adaptations or my Eisner/Harvey nominated works). I generally receive pretty good reviews, but I never had that “point of excellence” for lists.
I don't care about it very much (well, maybe a little) but I use that feeling to embrace the idea of my fondness for John Carpenter, who calls himself an author (and rightly so!) even though his love of comics, pulp and “humble” genres (horror, action, western) means that a sector of the critics don't consider him as such. He is the third outsider of this particular pantheon of mine and he’s very much on my mind when the year ends and social networks are flooded with those predictable lists where you will never find me.
This has turned out to be a very personal newsletter…
Curse the artists and their unbearable ego! I guess we reflect more on ourselves when faced with bad news than with good news, which will eventually arrive, I’m sure.
I hope the next edition will be a little lighter, with some superficial nonsense.
Meanwhile, take care!
Victor
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So sorry that your experience with Vault was as bad as mine, Victor. Their PR team is a disaster, in my experience, and unless you're one of their buddies, you don't get much promotion.
It's a shame that a sure-fire combo like you and Cantwell couldn't get better, but I can't say I'm surprised.
I, for one, am stoked about the graphic novel and will be placing an order ASAP! It's a shame what happened to the series... You have highlighted some of the big reasons I left publishing. It's an extremely cynical industry, but I share your confidence that we'll weather the storm. The mass majority of comic creators are passionate about their work and that's resilient as hell!