The numbskullery continues...
or
"encumbered by idiots, we pressed on"
What I'd like to be talking about right now is my theory on Neanderthals, which I feel should net me a Nobel prize, but current events shall delay that one week.
There's all sorts of dumbass-ness going on in the comic book industry that a percentage of my readers expect my take on, and a percentage don't know nor GAF about it. They signed up for A.L. comics, sneak previews and to know when TF the new issue is coming out. The answer to that question is -I'm working on it, it's a long ongoing story ...80 or more pages long.
It's really good, I'm excited about it...on the other hand, writing/illustrating anything longer that 10 pages is pretty foreign to me. I.E. soul sucking. The positive re-enforcement is not coming at the pace I'm used to. When I draw a 1,2, or 6 page story, it's done in a reasonable amount of time and I can go "there...I've accomplished something. Looks good, pretty funny...moving on to the next thing."
This thing...it feels like it's never gonna end. AND everything after page 2 is a spoiler, which is why I haven't shown much as far as sneak previews, except for stuff like this...
Though I am just about up to a chapter where I can show off some pages without ruining other things that happen.
Here's a bad habit I've developed doing short stories that's making it taking longer.- First off, when I'm writing and drawing a story, I don't have a "script" or even a timeline. It's an extra step I don't need. The "creative process" (just know whenever I or anyone else says that phrase, I roll my eye's) is pretty much no different from when I was 5yrs old playing with GI Joe toys "take that Cobra Commander bang bang!". ...some people want to pretend they're Ernest Hemmingway or some sh*t, but that's really all we're doing, ain't it? I know the characters, and their personalities, I plug them into situations and imagine what happens. Instead of using action figures, now I scribble out drawings. (that's not the bad habit). Once you have the story in your head, the only reason to have a script is for someone else working on it to know it. If I'm the only one working on it...wtf do I need a script for?
Here's an example of what is for me a "script" (below) ...some basic visual info I think's important and maybe a line of dialogue if it's a "that's exactly how it needs to be said" situation. I'll either just scribble out those high points randomly or draw out the shape of a page and scribble them into that, depending on where my heads at, at the time. Then...I'll refine panels or do different takes of them (maybe change a camera angle or put more emphasis one some bit of visual information or another), and after much refining and such...you have yourself a page
Optimally...I scribble the scenes/info right into the shape of a page, as panels, right from the start. When I DON'T do that, is the bad habit I spoke of. In which I am putting the horse before the cart and refining panels and doing several different takes on a panel before figuring out the basic layout of the page, or even how much is going to happen on that page. (like this, below)
I end up screwing around doing several versions of a panel or aspect...then trying to jam them together into a visually coherent page. It's...inefficient. Lots of these drawings are the same panel done a different way, before even figuring out everything that's going to happen on that particular page. stoopid.
Look at the choices for C, for example...Do I want the short long panel focusing on the soldiers or the tall narrow one with a downward camera angle that gives a scarier mood, or the semi narrow one with only one soldier shown? I'm trying to make a cool looking panel before I've even figured anything out about the page. This is like making puzzle pieces individually and hoping the fit together. I can't know how to draw a panel until I decide what all needs to be on this page. I might not have room for a long panel or I might have too much room for a narrow one. I'm drawing stuff out with no plan. Which is why I have two versions of A that are the same...because I'm drawing on autopilot, because I have no flight path.
You can get by with that sort of BS-ing around with one or two page stories because it's real easy to keep in mind what has to be on that page and that page doesn't have to have a rhythm with ten other pages. What I used to do, and should be going back to doing, is plotting out pages like this series of pages-
Not as well rendered, but I know that the pages as a whole work and what's on them and how much space is taken up by what and how they flow together. THEN is when you refine sh*t or do different variation of something to make the story more effective. And as we can see above...the top row of that 1st page is the same as the top row of the 2nd page. Which is an issue...OR maybe if this is a two page spread I can have them sort of work together/contrast by the dialogue and mood being dramatically different...I dunno.
That's actually the exception that proves the rules, in a way. Those three top panel weren't scribbled out with the intention of them being in sequence. They were three different tries at the same panel. But after seeing them side by side by side...it is kind of a cool effect of the monster closing in.
However...for every instance like that, were you accidentally swerve into a decent idea, there are a dozen instances like this (below) where you draw a shot that looks cool, that you fall in love with...that doesn't actually work in the context of the story or page and you waste time trying to make it work...only because you think it looks cool.
Anyways...Onto to the comic book industry dumbassery.
( I shall randomly insert Arsenic Lullaby comics throughout this part, so if you don't gaf about Rob Liefeld, shooting himself in the foot, you can just scroll and read the comics)
Recall my previous blog about Diamond Comics Distribution declaring bankruptcy, and think back to my blog a few months ago when I told you that there is a paradigm shift in the culture and the comics industry did not prepare for it and we were going to start seeing pros, and publishers
doing/saying cringy, stupid, and even self destructive nonsense in a panic to try to stay relevant.
With that remembered, I present to you...one Rob Liefeld. Co-creator of the character Deadpool ( He and Fabian Nicieza made him up in 1990 ) and co founder of Image comics.
I have great respect for Rob, he did a massive amount of work in comics, he helped found Image comics which was a giant boost to the industry and indy comics in particular at a time it needed such a boost. He is an important and pivotal figure in the history of comic books. I've defended him on several occasions, as many people don't like him much. HAVING SAID THAT...I don't think I ever met him, so I don't know how smart or stupid he is...but let's all take this in and try to decide...
Rob said this...
"Retailers have proven unreliable with distribution of my work. I can’t allow their inconsistent practices to dictate terms of my engagement with customers. My customers are left scrambling again and again for copies of my work."
"For months, I go to stores and their shelves are stuffed with unsold product. 15-30 copies of comics that did not move off the shelves and won’t unless they are part of a discount sale opportunity," Liefeld writes. "My comics are all gone, my variants like Timeslide are hunted at top prices online. My Deadpool Team-Up’s are all gone and now my Batman cover is sold out everywhere. The retail situation is upside down. I’d much rather be the guy with the empty slot due to demand exceeding supply, but all these unsold comics represent a huge misfire on behalf of retailers."
https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-rob-liefeld-youngblood-retailers-unreliable-whatnot
...basically he's selling his new issue direct to customers (meaning through him via the whatnot platform), because according to him, stores aren't ordering enough copies and his fans are not able to get any. Uhm...point of fact, you can go to any comic book store and ask them to order a copy of a book that's coming out. And they'll order a copy for you and hold it for you until you pick it up. That's a service every comic shop has done since...as long as I can remember. If his fans are missing out, he should pass that info along to them. The guy's been in the business for like 35 years...does he not know that?
He then says... "Direct to consumer will continue to grow."
as in fans buying direct from the creators instead of going through stores. And basically says the same thing again, more dickishly
All this amounts to is he's going to sell his next comic book with special edition fancy bullsh*t covers direct online and maybe some months later sell regular ones to store...maybe.
...I'm starting to understand why people don't like the guy. He's trying to pass off being self serving as taking a stand. He could have just sold his books this way and not gave the stores the finger publically.
Let's ALL understand one thing...right off...with one look at his direct sales page it is clear that Rob is not selling comic books, not really. I'll explain what I mean. Special editions and such going for 60.00 to 160.00 dollars, (that is what is on his site...that is what he is selling. Not 5.00 comics, or 20 Trade Paperbacks. High dollar collectable variants) are not things being sold on their entertainment value. They are being sold as collectables. No one is paying 60.00 an issue because they want to read the story that bad. He's not in the business of selling comics, anymore than a pornstar selling signed panties is in the underwear business.
He's selling limited edition high dollar items, and in that situation, OF COURSE he is going to want to cut out the middle men(stores/distributors). Middle men need to make money, so they take a cut. Most times, their services are worth giving them a percentage or they wouldn't exist in the first place. Boxing, labeling, shipping several hundreds of thousands of comics to different readers is so much less productive than shipping them in mass to a distributor, who will ship them to different stores, to be picked up by different readers, that It makes good business sense to use middle men. Rob and his high dollar merch...is not likely to be selling in the hundreds of thousands. He's not taking on as much work just doing the whole mess in house AND he keeps that amount of profit.
This is a simple business strategy/decision, the wisdom of which has jack sh*t to do one way or the other, with what he was pretending to be tilting against. Now that we understand that...let's look again at what he said. Actually, I'll rephrase that. Let's look at what he communicated. See...many of you are not underhanded lowlifes, but I AM and so I see here that he has in fact communicated to the world that -his books are in high demand and they sell out and people are scrambling to find them. Which, if everyone believes him, helps his business strategy. Y'see? Wrapped in the hostility towards stores is him telling us all what a big deal he is. Which is probably at least half the point of his saying all of this. Are his books in high demand? I don't know, maybe. I only have his word on that.
NOW THEN, lest some of you idiot pros out there think Rob is pioneering the way of the future. This is a SHORT TERM business strategy. One that makes a lot of money right off, then keeps taking fruit off the tree until it dies. I don't know how much thought Rob put into this as far as the future, or growth, I'm guessing none, or maybe he care. There is no avenue of growth there. He's directly selling issues of a new run of a comic title from 30 plus years ago, that was very much a product of it's time. One look at it and you know it's from the 90s.
That's a niche based in nostalgia and thus not likely to grow...and He's selling high dollar versions, meaning his target audience is a niche of a niche. People who already really love his work, and/or see collectable value in it to the point of being willing to drop 60.00 or more for one copy. There's no growth that's going to come from that. It's only going to shrink, as that percentage of people each decide they have enough high dollar stuff from Rob.
It's still likely to still make him a hell lot of money, because his is who he is. Assuming he hasn't shot himself in the foot...but this is not a growth strategy. Nor is it one that casts a wide net...
18,000 "products", seems like a lot, and it is for collectables. But NOT for a medium of entertainment via mass communication. And it is not for a living legend, hot off a series of movies being made with one of his characters. Hundreds of thousands...that's the mark he should be targeting.
AND by the way....that the total number of "products" sold, is over the course of about 2 1/2 years, so that's like 700 "products" a month. And we don't know how many of them are the same customer buying multiple things and we don't know how many of those "products" are actually comic books in any form AND by the way he has over 200 products.
AND...
Are you ready to have your mind blown? I was honestly worried this was going to be a boring blog until looked at his online store closer...get ready for this. I typed in "Last Blood" no.1, I don't know what that book is, I just saw he mentioned it, so that's what I searched on his site...and here we are, EIGHT different "variant" "collectable" covers! Oh yeah...they're different. Look really hard...
Hahahahahahaha....hahahahahaaaaaaaa. HoeLeeSh-T. It's like a game, trying to figure out what is different about any of them. The most absurd part of this to me is, that bottom left one that actually is a different image. Like why the f*ck did he even bother?! hahahahaha
Hmmm, okay now, help me pick one... do I want the one with the blocky logo or the bloody letter logo.
Or maybe bloody letters and a splatter? Or Blocky letters and a bloody splatter? I can choose between a signature with a black or white pen too Hahahahah. It's a fucking "build A Bear" site at this point. and the whole online catalogue is this bullsh-t. Variants of variants of variants. In case you are wondering, no...just changing the logo is generally NOT considered a variant cover. hahaha YEEASH. You can't make this sh*t up. You know what, Rob, I can't decide! I'll just take them all, gotta have the complete set, right?! Matter of fact, if you print up another but with the word "last" in blue, I'll take that too!
For the love of...Oh, you know what I was gonna do but it would have been super expensive, I was going to make 50 variant covers with Abosmah (that's the monster in the new book) just moved a little one way and then the other, like bending and flexing. so that if you had all 50 you could flip them like old school animation. I was going to do that and just not tell anyone. Just know myself that they're out there. Maybe I still will, I gotta think about it.
I don't have the time to sort through all 200 items on Rob's page to see how many are actually different comics and not variants of the same one. But it looks like most of it isn't even his intellectual property. It's books he did covers of for other publishers, that he either got copies of as part of the payment or he bought in bulk. So, he's a retailer...basically.
Good lord...
So taking all that into consideration, as far as how many actual readers he has of any particular issue through his direct sales...this flat out bad considering who he is. I mean...Averaging 700 "products" bought per month how many readers per his actual current self published issue would you guess here? Less than 500 readers per, right? Maybe? ... I'm gonna be generous and guess 500. AND...we don't know how many of those customers were STORES HE HAS NOW PISSED OFF, who won't be buying any of his merch anymore.
When I talk numbers, and I focus on number of readers, it's because IF we were to view him as being in the creative industry or being a comic book professional, that's the benchmark. How many people read his books. and if we're only talking several hundred from now on, or even if this publicity brings it up to a thousand (which...I doubt it, but maybe?) and it used to be hundreds of thousands of people reading his work. That is bad.
Let's put this into perspective. The issue of The Tick I drew sold 10,000 copies through stores and the only one on the team promoting it was ME...mostly via this email/blog. His new book would have blown far past that number of readers per issue by going through stores, using a regular price point, (which could have grown his base of fans, with some becoming willing to spend bigger money), which would have brought more traffic into the stores, which would have helped the entire industry, but he'd have to split that revenue with the stores and distributor. He's choosing not to.
It's possible too, that when people start realizing the drop off in his actual "readership", if you can call it that, it might put a stink on him that hurts his collectable value. Maybe not, I dunno, he's Rob Liefeld.
Anyhoo...He has a business model and it is cynical and has nothing to do with what is in between the covers of his books. None of it hinges on his skill or the creative content of the books. The books could be blank, for as much as it'd matter. Hell, that might be one of the variants "exclusive BLANK INTERIOR edition" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
sigh...good times...
He has bowed out. Pure and simple.
Nothing he is doing has anything to do with comics as a form of entertainment. Creatives generally fall into one of two camps. They either want as many people too see their work as possible, or have a "f*ck off normie, this aint for you/i don't care if anyone likes it" mentality. Rob isn't in either camp here, it is purely a large price individual sales over small price large distribution, money making decision. His business plan has no dependence on the entertainment value of the content. In regards to being on the battleground of ideas, in a creative industry...he has left the playing field.
Possibly because creatively he's all used up. His high point was a book full of knock offs of Marvel super heroes, and that was in the 90s. In the past I've defended the guy. But he's vendor masquerading as a creative at this point. That's just the way it is. He's not David Bowie doing the best work he can til he drops dead, he's the guy from KISS slapping the logo on sh*t and charging as much as he can. Don't get me wrong, everyone's free to make money however they want as long as it's legal, but...he's not in the creative industry anymore.
What he's doing is going to work for great Rob, at least for awhile, because he's Rob Liefeld, but it all has no bearing on the rest of the industry.
Thus I find his whole spiel is quite ...hmmm...disingenuous. And based on that, the notion that he has any idea what the future holds for comics is tragically laughable.
What he says there about the comic shop's ordering/misfiring is a good example of not being able to see the forest because the trees are in the way. By his own telling, his books they were on the shelves, and did sell out, and they were no doubt bought by many people who had forgotten about him, or didn't know he was putting out anything new UNTIL l they saw it on the shelves. He's turning his back on the 30, 50 or however many books each of those stores do order, because they didn't order ten extra...he's an idiot.
Wait a minute...no...yeah...He's an idiot. Because he's been selling online through the whatnot platform for two years. He could have just kept doing that and taking whatever money from stores sales, as a bonus. and shut the f*ck up. This is a complete, unforced error. He's pissed because stores didn't order as many copies of his dollar store avengers as he thinks they should have, based on his own anecdotal evidence, so he's chosen to not make any of those sales?
He's just going to sit on a livestream comic book home shopping network, in his personal superfan echo chamber? I haven't watched one...is he interesting at all? I'm going to take a wild guess and say "no". Like...if he was some super entertaining guy with a book too edgy for stores to put on shelves, I could see a point to this, as a way to get stores to take notice...but...he's just crapping out generic pg super hero bullsh*t. The part I'm really struggling to understand is why not just keep doing that without breaking bad on the stores? Does he think this makes it look like he's somehow him pioneering anything?
Listen...all you pros who have lost your minds, and/or ambition.
I'm going to stress again, how important it is to have your book in stores- the odds of someone who didn't know about your book, buying that book... go up dramatically if they see it in front of them, in person, on a comic book rack.
I'll take, on any given day, having 50 readers see my book on a comic book rack in front of them over 5000 "likes". If you can't understand why that is, listen... 5000 likes is not 5000 people who want your book. It is 5000 people who clicked "like".. Those are people who might not actually like comics, might not read them if they do, might not buy them anymore if they did, might not have any money, might not have much ambition in ordering yours if they do, might need to see me of it before buying, might get instantly distracted by the next post and forget they ever saw it...NOW contrast that to someone in a comic book store, to buy comic books, seeing it when it's in arms reach. Understand?
The STORES are they key to this whole industry and to your growth in particular. Stop thinking like insects. The amount of books you should want get into readers hands, should be beyond your ability to ship yourself. They are the optimal environment for growth. Does Reynolds Wrap only sell online? No. Because they want to sell as much Reynolds Wrap as they can, and stores are the way to do it.
This is a mass communication entertainment industry. You need remember that in order for it, and everyone in it, to thrive instead of wither. Several hundred guys selling several hundred books online is not an industry. Even Rob is only selling 500 something an issue. No one is growing to the level of sales by themselves, that they could with stores. AND, by the way good f*cking luck even selling that many if comics stop being a form of mass communication and become a novelty item.
Perhaps MORE IMPORTANTLY, "making a connection with an audience", is the mutherf*cking job, (sigh...no one's going to grasp this...I'm saying it anyway) there is a psychological aspect to that beyond your work itself. Movies, songs, shows, books...people make a connection with them as works, yes...but also as part of their life at the time. You want your work to be associated with their real tangible physical life, not their online screen gazing. Them getting your book while going about their real life is a valuable thing. (No one got that...I don't care, I tried.)
Back to Rob...
There was more demand than the stores realized for his book...there was less demand than they thought for some other books they ordered. That's the nature of the business, they don't have a f*cking crystal ball. Sometimes things flop and sometime they go over bigger than people thought. That's every business. Did he just get dropped off on this planet by an alien ship?
So, his assessment that he can't count on stores because they don't order enough copies, I find idiotic...BUT I also understand his ire.
I've gone over why it's idiotic, let's look at why I understand it. Indy publishers and indy creatives, we're people (even me). And people tend to be myopic (definitely me). And if we see other books on the shelves that are known commodities (Batman,Siper-Man...brand name stuff) in amounts that are cleary more than was needed and will sell...oh course we all automatically think "THEY SHOULDA ORDERED MORE OF MINE...idiots!" Hahahaha, it's what we do. We all do it, every time, because we are not just financially invested, but emotionally invested as well.
It's not all ego and emotion (not ALL of it)...
...from the perspective of the indy publisher- If you order 100 copies of name brand super hero guy, and have 20 left over every time, and keep ordering that way because you have no interest in scowering around to take a risk on 20 indy books instead...it's guaranteed loss. Where as the indy book has a puncher's chance of being a good seller. and even if they sold an equal amount, the indy book's sales are actually more valuable to a store. Using Arsenic Lullaby sales, as a sacrificial lamb to my point. A.L. sales are not going to pay your rent...what it IS going to do is help you retain customers as they outgrow other comics and/or bring in customers who were not interested in other comics. It about found money...about new foot traffic. A comic book store is not a radio station, it is the radio...having all sorts of genres that appeal to all sorts of people is best, no?
NOW, from the perspective of the STORES- they'll error on the side of extra with name brand books instead of taking a risk on more indy books because... they don't want anyone to be happy.
hahahahaha. What? It's my blog, I don't have to fairly present both sides if I don't want to. Stores all have there own strategies on ordering, and most of them are very savvy and very smart and have a lot of experience and observation behind them, and do a pretty good job knowing when to try something new, or I wouldn't have career. And for that matter there wouldn't have been an Image Comics for Rob to be riding the nostalgia of.
It's a bone of contention that has gone on between stores and indy publishers since time in memorial. In ancient days gone by...Socrates...would wring his hands and chastise merchants in the marketplace for having more copies of "The Odyssey" than they had of his scrolls on the meaning of existence.
"The Odyssey is chewing gum for the brain! what about the people who want more than sword fights?!" He'd say.
"But I know the sword fights sell" the merchants would reply.
"perhaps not...since you have a giant stack of these things!" Socrates would say.
"I ordered that stack to replace the first stack that sold out...how about you put a monster into your writing and I'll give more a try" would say the merchant.
"there is a monster! it's US! We are our own monsters, didn't you read it?!" Socrates would scoff.
... The point is, stores and publishers will never see eye to eye on ordering, because of their two different perspectives of the matter. Every single store and every single publisher has had and heard this discussion a dozen times or more. Which makes it a bit hmm...questionable...curious...perhaps disingenuous...for Rob, someone who's been in the business for 35 yrs, to just now be bringing this up as though it is a shocking revelation.
It boils down to everyone trying to be good at their job. The indy pros want their books in people's hands, the stores want to be good at ordering to profit. We're all on the same side here, really...well, except for Rob.
He's done you stores a favor here, you can take that money you were spending on Rob's books that weren't bringing anyone NEW into your store...since the idiot was apparently, based on his tale of woe, too lazy/stupid to make sure his fans went in and ordered copies...and spend it on something different. Spend it on manga, or indy comics, or hell, spend it on flyers to hand out at a colleges, or tattoo parlors, or some local event. "All businesses are local business" as the saying goes. Take the money you were going to spend on his lame book, and put it to better use.
Rob's venting, the more I think about it, I suspect is based on emotion/panic/assuming the worst with the distributor thing. Because I cannot come up with any other reason for him publically slamming the stores, whether his is smart OR stupid. There's just no upside to it. And looking at the timing of things often gives us obvious answers. He's been direct selling for over two years...and pops off with this declaration when? Shortly after Diamond declared bankruptcy. With that timing in mind, it's fairly obvious he thinks the stores are going to start going under, and that's the catalyst for his screed. So he can distance himself from the fall, he can say I told you so and look smart, and get just a few more people in the habit of going direct to him.
He's assuming the worst outcome, because hasn't really thought this through properly. He's thinking like an insect. It's going to make him lots of money, because a younger version of himself thought big and made a big enough name for himself that he can now do stupid sh*t and still make out. But he has become the tired old man that the younger version of himself had rolled right over to revitalize the industry.
Crisis, chaos, uncertainty, that all equals opportunity if you have your eyes open and get aggressive and start using your noodle. It only takes a handful of cunning ambitious people to capitalize and things turn around. We've seen it in other industries, we've seen it before in this one. This time...Rob won't be a part of it.
The distributor's troubles, they're a by product. In a thriving industry a distributor can have all sorts of problems and be just fine. This industry has neglected focusing on growth, and that is what must be fixed. And that is very uncomplicated. There's just three things to it-
1-This entire industry has been trying to get by on one genre. It is a borderline miracle it's lasted this long with the world thinking "super hero" when they hear the words "comic book". There are potential comic book readers, with money to spend, everywhere...they just don't gaf about super heroes.
2- Everyone has to remember...it is what is in between the covers that matter. The content. A person finding something that they connect with, are affected by, is profound and valuable. It is a big deal, and people will seek it out again. "Human joy is precious". Comics connect and entertain in a way different than other mediums. Therefor they have unique value. That is truth. and that is why they can grow right now...because "connection" is in rare supply. The books gotta make them feel something, gotta take them somewhere.
3-We all have to start being ambitious and aggressive again. Like we each of us were our first year. When we were young and dumb and wouldn't let anything stop us.
and everything'll be fine, every industry goes through paradigm shifts ...the people who come out on top are the people who remember to focus on the basics, keep their eyes open for opportunity and have positive attitudes. And the people who wring their hands and worry, and try to be too smart by half...well, over the course of the next 6 months or so we'll see the results of that with more pros and publishers making unforced errors. Like, insulting every single comic book store on earth at once. I will say this about Rob, he goes big.
Giant industry shakes up are blessing in disguise if you keep your head on a swivel. Frankly...this whole thing finally feels fun again. Don't ya feel that? The uncertain nervous energy? Don't it make some part of you inside smile?
Anyways...
next time I WILL be presenting my conspiracy theory on Neanderthals, and NOT be be talking about comic book industry BS. I don't care if Stan Lee comes back from the grave.
As always, homebase is here
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