February 17, 2012 4:00 pm Hickman is now doing more creator-owned that corporate work, and Cullen Bunn's flagship title remains THE SIXTH GUN, which Brian Hurtt (who is as good as anyone in comics) continues to draw full time.
And I don't think you'll ever see Kindt abandon creator-owned work. It's not like DC is going to be hiring him to draw HAWK AND DOVE.
Creator-owned is on everyone's minds lately.
-BCM
This discussion surprises me. Every now and then I'm a little shocked at the perceptions some fans have of how comics "work," at least in terms of storytelling.
I grant you that, as a writer, I give the artists I'm collaborating with fairly minimal stage directions, operating under the assumption that they'll find dynamic and engaging shots to be mined from what I do give them. But even scripts with more heavy-handed direction allow for an artist to bring his or her personality to the fore, and impact the pacing, look and feel of the book to varying degrees depending upon their own approach.
My collaborator is the single most important element of any project I take on, and there's certainly nothing "interchangeable" about it.
Oh, and Phil's directorial analogy is a good one in my case. I'd rather tell an artist how a character feels, and let the artist ("director") determine how best to communicate that for the "camera." The impact of the end result then shifts to the artist's shoulders, and no two artists are going to approach things from exactly the same perspective, leaving that end result very much open to their interpretation.
The thing that a lot of people in larger urban areas don't seem to grasp about the comic book market is that, geographically speaking, most of the country doesn't have access to any comic shops, much less good comic shops.
Hastings stores tend to be located in college towns and slightly smaller markets, and I have to think the biggest boon of their expansion will be bringing decent comic book options to these markets for the very first time.
As for MidTown, they probably sell more comics than 3/4 of Diamond's accounts combined (and that's a conservative guess), so the expansion is good news.
And thanks again to Josh and iFanboy for the podcast we did. I had countless people come up to me during con season looking to try the book (and other books) for the first time, citing our conversation as the movitation to seek me out. It's gratifying to see so many of your listeners understood where we both were coming from.
Nice summation of why you do what you do, and how you feel about things. Just wanted to let you know I appreciated you taking the time to respond, and that what you say makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't really argue with anything you say, although I still have issues with anyone placing a broad-based value judgement on the quality of a particular comic book.
Nogs - I think you missed the point, but I appreciate you giving it a try. As for thick skin...It takes pretty thick skin to stand up and be honest in places where people have free reign to take endless anonymous shots at you, and I've been doing that for a long time. As I've said, I wasn't responding to reviews of my work, since most of my reviews are pretty positive. I was just doing what I often do...stating my opinion based on experience, and attempting to give people some perspective as to where I was coming from.
As for whether or not you have the freedom to "say" whether or not my book was "good" or not...of course you do. You have the freedom to say whatever you want. But telling me my book isn't "good" will pretty much get you ignored, since I'm not sure what supernatural powers you have to make such an absolute determination of value. Telling me why you personally didn't connect with the book? That's perfectly fine with me, and I'll gladly listen to your reasons.
In Chicago this weekend, I had a ton of people come up and tell me they heard the podcast and that it spurred them to say hi, thank me for doing the show, and even pick up my work for the first time. I think that goes to prove a point I made during our chat, which was that podcasts are a fine place to probe opinion.
Squeaky (and anyone else picking my books up for the first time) - thanks for giving them a shot, and feel free to email me directly with any opinions you've got!
Much as Powers was a big seller prior to Bendis doing much Marvel work, the Walking Dead was a phenomenon prior to Kirkman making waves at Marvel, and long before Invincible was a "hit." Hell, the Walking Dead was outselling Invincible almost two-to-one before Invincible started to take off. The first Walking Dead trade came out on the same day as Walking Dead #7, and it was a HUGE smash. I was handling PR for Image at the time, and it was pretty awesome to see.
But I think you're basically right about more attention being paid to the book once more people knew Kirkman's name.
This discussion surprises me. Every now and then I'm a little shocked at the perceptions some fans have of how comics "work," at least in terms of storytelling.
I grant you that, as a writer, I give the artists I'm collaborating with fairly minimal stage directions, operating under the assumption that they'll find dynamic and engaging shots to be mined from what I do give them. But even scripts with more heavy-handed direction allow for an artist to bring his or her personality to the fore, and impact the pacing, look and feel of the book to varying degrees depending upon their own approach.
My collaborator is the single most important element of any project I take on, and there's certainly nothing "interchangeable" about it.
Oh, and Phil's directorial analogy is a good one in my case. I'd rather tell an artist how a character feels, and let the artist ("director") determine how best to communicate that for the "camera." The impact of the end result then shifts to the artist's shoulders, and no two artists are going to approach things from exactly the same perspective, leaving that end result very much open to their interpretation.
The thing that a lot of people in larger urban areas don't seem to grasp about the comic book market is that, geographically speaking, most of the country doesn't have access to any comic shops, much less good comic shops.
Hastings stores tend to be located in college towns and slightly smaller markets, and I have to think the biggest boon of their expansion will be bringing decent comic book options to these markets for the very first time.
As for MidTown, they probably sell more comics than 3/4 of Diamond's accounts combined (and that's a conservative guess), so the expansion is good news.
Eddie's technically a criminal, but he's one of the great comic characters to appear in recent years.
THE DAMNED is essential reading.
Byrd would rather drink than worry about his omission from online lists created by nerds.
In fact, Byrd hasn't even heard of "online," since he lives in 1954.
SO THERE!
Thanks for the love, Chris. More on the possible future of Hawaiian Dick here:
http://bclaymoore.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-hawaiian-dick-model.html
And thanks again to Josh and iFanboy for the podcast we did. I had countless people come up to me during con season looking to try the book (and other books) for the first time, citing our conversation as the movitation to seek me out. It's gratifying to see so many of your listeners understood where we both were coming from.
-BCM
Humphrey-
Nice summation of why you do what you do, and how you feel about things. Just wanted to let you know I appreciated you taking the time to respond, and that what you say makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't really argue with anything you say, although I still have issues with anyone placing a broad-based value judgement on the quality of a particular comic book.
Nogs - I think you missed the point, but I appreciate you giving it a try. As for thick skin...It takes pretty thick skin to stand up and be honest in places where people have free reign to take endless anonymous shots at you, and I've been doing that for a long time. As I've said, I wasn't responding to reviews of my work, since most of my reviews are pretty positive. I was just doing what I often do...stating my opinion based on experience, and attempting to give people some perspective as to where I was coming from.
As for whether or not you have the freedom to "say" whether or not my book was "good" or not...of course you do. You have the freedom to say whatever you want. But telling me my book isn't "good" will pretty much get you ignored, since I'm not sure what supernatural powers you have to make such an absolute determination of value. Telling me why you personally didn't connect with the book? That's perfectly fine with me, and I'll gladly listen to your reasons.
In Chicago this weekend, I had a ton of people come up and tell me they heard the podcast and that it spurred them to say hi, thank me for doing the show, and even pick up my work for the first time. I think that goes to prove a point I made during our chat, which was that podcasts are a fine place to probe opinion.
Squeaky (and anyone else picking my books up for the first time) - thanks for giving them a shot, and feel free to email me directly with any opinions you've got!
-BCM
Much as Powers was a big seller prior to Bendis doing much Marvel work, the Walking Dead was a phenomenon prior to Kirkman making waves at Marvel, and long before Invincible was a "hit." Hell, the Walking Dead was outselling Invincible almost two-to-one before Invincible started to take off. The first Walking Dead trade came out on the same day as Walking Dead #7, and it was a HUGE smash. I was handling PR for Image at the time, and it was pretty awesome to see.
But I think you're basically right about more attention being paid to the book once more people knew Kirkman's name.