Tag: Comics

Marvel has adopted a similar tactic lately when it comes to some of their event books. Yesterday, they asked us to set our orders for all four issues of their Thor and Loki Original Sin tie in. The first issue ships in July, while the last ships in September. They did something similar with the Hulk vs. Iron Man tie in, and will be doing the same for the Death of Wolverine series. Rapid shipping books without the luxury of order adjustment. This is a nightmare. Not only does it circumvent the final order cut-off system, which helps retailers reflect a book’s actual readership in their orders, but it takes the old system, and makes it worse. At least back then if there was a four issue mini-series solicited, you would be able to adjust your numbers according to a wider range of sales data. You didn’t have to set your numbers all at once, you could stagger the decision making, take a look at where your customer base is drifting, determine if they were even into the event, and maybe have enough time to save yourself for ordering way to much or too little on the final issues.

That precedent is well illustrated in Jennie Livingstone’s celebrated 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning. Shot in the mid-to-late ’80s, the film explores New York’s “ballroom” scene, a subculture that allows LGBT people in major American cities — especially disadvantaged gay or trans people of color — to forge together under new identities.

The kids on the ballroom scene form houses under house mothers, and often take on new identities that may include the house name as their new surnames. Within these houses they compete in dance and drag contests at specially organized balls. The scene still exists to this day, but it enjoyed its peak in the ’70s and ’80s.

Pepper LaBeija, a New York drag queen and the mother of House of LaBeija, observed in the documentary, “When someone has rejection from their mother and father, their family … they search for someone to fill that void. … I’ve had kids come to me and latch hold to me like I’m their mother or like I’m their father.”

This is how the ballroom scene emerged. Kids rejected by their families sought out new families and new communities with other outcasts, other exiles, other orphans. These houses became their families. Ballroom became their community. The ballroom scene is just one of the many ways in which LGBT people have created their own support networks, united by their common fears and dreams.

That is the fantasy that the X-Men represents.

Most notably I’d say anything by Jeff Smith. His old series Bone and his new series RASL. It’s a real side that Jeff is beginning to explore. He’s out-charmed everybody, now it’s time for him to try something else. Other comics I read are Hellboy by Mike Mignola, and lots of the new stuff, lots of the work of people like James kochalka. He’s one of the new herd that are approaching comics without the prejudices my generation came in with. So because they are making all sorts of things that my generation would call mistakes, that were trained not to do, these are young artists without prejudice and I would say (to be fair) they do about 80% of it wrong and about 20% of it brilliantly. I’m learning all kinds of things from ‘em.

Regarding single issue sales: they are incredibly important to a lot of Image creators. On Rocket Girl, it’s by far the biggest chunk (of course, we don’t have a tpb yet). And every reader counts. A few thousand copies can make or break a series. If Rocket Girl dips into the 8000s, we’ll start thinking about when to wrap it up. If it stays above 12,000 we can do it forever. At 12,000 copies I can make as much writing Rocket Girl as Hulk; Amy Reeder can make as much penciling/inking/coloring as she would on Batwoman. 8000 vs 12,000 is a significant difference in percentage, but it’s not a huge amount of readers. A lot of Image creators are in the same boat, albeit their individual line might be a bit higher or lower. Certainly collected editions and digital and ancillary media/merchandise contribute as well. But a lot of making creator-owned work is down to financing: and single issues have the biggest impact on cash flow–and the only impact on cash flow for almost a full year when you take into account early production to ‘get ahead’ as well as solicitation. Also: your comment forgets artists, who are forgotten way to much nowadays. A writer can maybe juggle 4 simultaneous projects, but an artist can do just one book at a time. It is much harder for an artist to make the plunge into creator-owned–so consider that when choosing what to support.