daccampo

June 24, 2013 4:56 pm You know... watching all of the Incredible Hulk TV specials (Thor, Daredevil) would kind of be an AWESOME Fuzzy Typewriter podcast... ;)

June 24, 2013 4:55 pm "Or maybe the journey is more important than the destination." That nails it for me, Jim. Ideally, if the story is well done, the status quo changing "To Be Continued in these 14 new books" part is just the epilogue. My biggest beef has always been with event series whose sole purpose is to set up the status quo for the next thing. Those stories are almost ALWAYS dull and uninteresting -- and it seems like the creators/publishers barely even bother to cover the visibly hanging wires; the creative energy is already focused is on the Next Thing. It's almost like they're tossing off a 4 or 6 or 10 issue explanation of things for the few fans who will gripe about it if they DON'T explain. I haven't read Age of Ultron, so I can't speak to it. I don't think I mind a status quo changing "epilogue," but I do believe the series itself needs to be a story that demands and deserves to be told. It seems like maybe AoU was that for you...?

June 10, 2013 3:37 pm Ales Kot is definitely a writer to watch. Sounds like an interesting premise and a good creative team. I'll be checking it out.

June 7, 2013 2:05 pm I'm honestly curious about this one. It's not the "diversity," but the nature of the team you get when you pull together a group like this: She-Hulk is a lawyer. Falcon was a social worker. Luke Cage has certain done his share of community outreach. So, could we be getting a slightly more organically formed "community" of heroes? Your friendly neighborhood Avengers? I do the like the idea of a slightly more street level approach, maybe dealing with some more down-to-earth social ills, as opposed to the big, world-altering, SHIELD-sanctioned level team. But I could just be projecting my own desires here. ;)

June 6, 2013 2:39 pm Thanks, Itho! I haven't heard of "Scam," but I'll definitely look into it now. One of the fun bits about the last couple of years has been meeting and chatting with different indie creators. I'd love to keep showcasing the stories of all the varied creators I've met -- each of which has a story as diverse and unique as mine. ;)

June 6, 2013 2:34 pm Thanks, so much! So, as it stands right now, issue #3 has been completed and lettered and is with the publisher, and Jared is working on issue #4. But I'm not sure of our exact strategy in terms of release. Because we're not bound by Diamond and print deadlines, we can basically publish a book about a month after completion through ComiXology. And we don't need to worry about pre-orders. So, the question is, in the digital market, do we follow a release schedule that's consistent, or do we just let this one ride and push 'em out as we finish? We're still determining that. Our goal is still to release the full GN once the whole series is complete. Hermes Press is still behind us on this.

June 6, 2013 2:29 pm I picked out that cover because it's entirely likely that the reason 11-year-old (-ish? I haven't looked up exact dates) Dave wanted to write about Hulk and Box (of all characters) was that it was during the time that Byrne and Mantlo/Mignola were swapping duties on Hulk and Alpha Flight, which seemed like such a unique and wondrous thing to me at the time...

June 6, 2013 2:27 pm That's an interesting point. It MIGHT help, though I have seen them spotlight various indie books in different ways. And while I think even shining a spotlight helps -- whether in a store or online -- I think that nothing compares to the retailer who actually recommends books to you, based on your tastes. And, yeah, we can do all sorts of algorithms and let a computer make suggestions for you, but that's not the same as that comic shop environment, that organic relationship between comics fans chatting about stuff they like and stuff they don't, and the retailer responding to that. What we do have in the "digital" world: iFanboy.com and similar sites, and then everyone we interact with on Twitter and Facebook, etc. If Conor makes, oh let's say, Astro City #1 his Pick of the Week, and he speaks passionately about it, then I'm fairly likely to give it a second glance. I think the perfect example is THE PRIVATE EYE -- that wasn't in a digital store OR a comic book store. Word was spread entirely by comics websites and via social media.

June 5, 2013 1:56 pm @Itho -- We work closely with Hermes in terms of production of the book, and they gave us a schedule of WHEN stuff has to be done, from the solicit copy for the Diamond catalog to the actual, print-ready files that Hermes then sends to the printer, who then sends the physical copies to Diamond for proper distribution to stores. I don't know if I can get into all of Hermes details, but our publishing deal is very similar to an Image deal. It's creator-owned, and we are not paid up front. We make money after the publisher recoups their costs, etc.

June 5, 2013 1:47 pm You know... frankly, that's a little bit of a gray area for me. I'm just not sure the numbers are my information to give, since that's really what the publisher has to use to make decisions. I think it's probably enough to know that you have to print comics in batches to get a decent enough discount on the printing costs. So, the numbers had to drop below a level where the publisher felt they had any hope of making their profit after printing the books.