I’m about to get my ten year chip. Ten years ago I gave up something because I frankly couldn’t go on living the way I was living. There was life to be lived and dreams to be acheived, and all of that was out of reach with the way I was living my life.
That’s right, ten years ago I started writing comics. I gave up stability and safe career to chase after 17 pieces of paper folded, stapled, and put on a rack. Oh sure, I’ve been tempted, occasionally dabbling with more lucrative businesses like screenwriting or producing, but, for ten years my heart has belonged to comics.
And what a ten years. I’ve personally seen highs (my recent Eisner nom!) and lows (my recent book sales!) just as the industry itself has boarded the rollercoaster ride that is our economic system.
And I’m ten years the wiser now. Ten years smarter, ten years more cynical-
Wait. That’s the issue, right? The cynicism that pervades our industry. It gets the fans and the creators and the editors and the publishers and the… well… everybody. And anyone who spends ten minutes with me in person will know I’m just as cynical as anybody (or, y’know, a few thousand times more so.)
So, let’s fight that. Let’s take some space from the fine folks of iFanboy and talk about not what’s wrong with our industry, but what is right. And what’s right is the creators. The books being made by people with hearts filled with passion and the naiveté of any truly magical, progressive work of art.
So, and maybe I’ll regret this, send me your comics. I want PDF’s only, and I want independent books only. What does this mean? Your book must not feature a character that is more than 50% corporately owned. That means Vertigo and Dark Horse books are cool by me.
I do not guarantee I will review your comic, I do not guarantee I will like your comic, and I do not guarantee I will respond. But, I will do my best, and I will only talk about books that I genuinely love. No hate, just love.
E-mail LINKS ONLY to your PDF’s at indiecomics@thefialkov.com.
A couple notes on the rules:
- I am looking only for published work that is available for sale or as a digital comic. I do not want nor can I look at unfinished projects or proposals.
- If I receive your work and it's not my cup of tea, you most likely will not hear back from me.
- If I do like your work. I'll contact you to talk more about what you're doing and where you're going.
- Again, please send ONLY LINKS. No attachments will be read, and all will be deleted.
Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Eisner, Harvey, and Emmy Award nominated writer and co-creator of the comic ELK’S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, and PUNKS THE COMIC. He highly recommends that you pre-order your comics, unless you are just happy being the problem and not part of the solution. You can find more about him at www.thefialkov.com.
Get a free preview of Fialkov's Eisner nominated Tumor:
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This is an excellent idea. I can’t wait to see how it goes.
AWESOME! What great thing to do.
One question? Does this have to be finished and published work, or is it open to works in progress?
@wallythegreenmonster I’m almost certain the work should be finished. Always show your best work.
Does this mean art and story or are scripts of works-in-progress also up for consideration?
@josh —yeah, yeah i figured. =) There is always that balance of great opportunity meets “oooh i’m excited but its not done yet.”
Can I scan napkins, with great ideas written on them, for comics I swore I was going to write 5 years ago? Oh…just wait till you see this idea I wrote down on a Fuddrucker’s napkin!
@dgazzuolo — sharpies on napkins…thats SOOOOOOOOOO Advertising. =)
“No hate, just love”
I like it.
Excellent idea! Looking forward to seeing these posted.
By the way, Elk’s Run is a great book. I’m going to have to check out more of Fialkov’s work.
As someone else with a 10 year chip: Hell yes.
Just wanted to chip in that I’m about to start reading Tumor and really stoked for it.
This is a great idea, we need an indie renaissance back to the glory days of the early nineties with Cerebus, Strangers in Paradise, Bone, A Distant Soil, Hate, etc, etc. And I’m not just saying that because I’m biased, although he first issue of my comic Metroland is finished, being printed in a few weeks and shall be winging it’s way to you!
This is a cool idea and really great of Josh to offer. I’m not overly familiar with his work, but anytime a professional (and an Eisner nominated one at that) offers free advise and help, I’m totally down! Just don’t have any finished work to send in :/ …yet!
Really great idea. I’m a bit scared to send mine along, but we’ll see. Looking forward to seeing what gems are unearthed though!
Hey guys,
Just to address questions. I am looking only for published work that is available for sale or as a digital comic. I do not want nor can I look at unfinished projects or proposals.
If I receive your work and it’s not my cup of tea, you most likely will not hear back from me. If I do like your work. I’ll contact you to talk more about what you’re doing and where you’re going. And please, send ONLY LINKS. No attachments will be read, and all will be deleted.
Thanks guys!
j.
“He highly recommends that you pre-order your comics, unless you are just happy being the problem and not part of the solution.”
Listen to this!! If your lcs doesn’t have a book you want, don’t put it down to “a failure in the system”, it’s a failure on your part for not pre-ordering. The comics industry is small, and it is hard for indie publishers and books especially. Fans need to be a little pro-active.
This is awesome what you’re doing Joshua.
There’s an intersection of ideas that might cause some problems.
* You’re asking for only books that are for sale
* Seems that you want them for free, which means you won’t be going through normal distribution channels
* You want links, and not attachments
* You may not reply once you’ve rejected the book
That means that someone who submits to you has to bring their book out from behind their paywalls where you can download it for free. Since you won’t necessarily tell the submitter that you’ve rejected their book, they won’t ever know when they can take the file down.
That means there’s a URL floating around where anyone can get the for-pay book for-free indefinitely.
Think you could budge on at least one of these points? A simple “Thanks, but no thanks” or a “I’ve downloaded it, I’ll get back to you if I’m interested” email would be enough.
If that’s really a big problem for someone, then I’m afraid their book won’t be reviewed.
j.
@Ecnassianer Yeah, a savvy creator should be able to get around that stuff. We are sent plenty of PDF’s each week, and as such none of them have been made public for unlimited consumption. There are ways to password protect something, or use a service like yousendit.com, where the download is only available for a limited time.
But then at the same time, most unknown indie comics would kill to have the kind of exposure where tons of people were downloading the work for free. It’s really just not an issue.