Election Fallout and Antidote Update

So the election is finally over, the American people have spoken, and Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. I wonder if Microsoft Word will finally recognize his name and not insist it’s a typo…Fuck you Paperclip man, I know how to spell!
But I digress. I am both astonished and proud at the record turn out for voting this year. I don’t care whom you voted for; all I care is that you actually voted. And I can’t speak for anyone else when I exclaim how glad I am that the entire process is behind us for at least another two years. I have become so sick and tired of being inundated with political ad campaigns besieging all facets of the media from radio and television, to magazines and even comic books for Christ sakes…Needless to say I am ready for a break from it.

Enough about that shit, on to more important matters ;-)

Here are some fall updates for you:

Last Sunday the Iowa Comic Book Collectors Club was having their mini-con out the Stoney Creek Point in Johnston. Anthony had a table, where he was hocking some new prints he has been working on. The prints are of scantily clad hotties posing with famous Hollywood monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and even King Kong. Anthony sold all of our copies of Black Jack issue one, which means we are officially sold-out! He also had a chance to establish some networking relationships with other artists/creators, which is more important to me at this point than sales.
Chris and I visited the Mini-con for a few hours chatting with other local creators, and rummaging through the bargain bins. I did score a few cheap Transformers Comics from the ill-dated Dreamwave era, as well as set of Marvel Masterpiece Trading Cards that my collection was missing.

As I mentioned above, (unless Chris or Anthony have a couple stuffed under their mattresses) we are currently sold out of copies of Black Jack issue one this past weekend! Our initial print run was only about 200 copies, and that was primarily for selling on the convention circuit. A couple of local retailers had a few copies for sale; one of which may still have copies available. I know the other shop sold out rather quickly, which was exciting. So far the reaction from both fans and fellow creators alike has been very positive. During some of the conventions I had attended, I received several questions on the $5.00 price point on Black Jack compared to only $3.00 for Bloods Own issue one. The truth is that we only 200 copies of Black Jack were printed as opposed to 4000 copies of Bloods Own. Printing significantly less came at a higher cost per issue, which if I recall correctly was about $5.25. So even by selling copies at $5.00 apiece the cost of printing was not recovered; there was no profit made. Compared to $5.25, I felt that $5.00 a copy was not an unreasonable threshold, which has been corroborated by the book selling out.
So what’s the next step? We are currently pricing various printers around the world for the most competitive rate. As of now we have found a good rate based on a 32-page book, and currently Black Jack is only 28-pages. Talks are underway in deciding how to quickly fill those four additional pages with ideas ranging from new ad-space (which could help cover some cost of printing as well) to original concept art/sketches. Anthony and I also discussed penciling the cover to Black Jack issue 2 to be added as well.
Along with beefing the book up to 32 pages, we are once again discussing plans on submitting Black Jack to Diamond for national distribution. We have gone back and forth the past several months on when and if we were going to submit to Diamond. I initially wanted to submit to a company such as Image (www.imagecomics.com), but decided it’d be best to wait since I do not know when the second issue will ever see print. At our current speed it could be at least a year before the second issue sees print, and it did not seem beneficial to either Image or ourselves to have issue one solicited for sale without a second, third, and fourth issue read to go. At least if we submit to Diamond ourselves we are not tying up resources or funds from an interested third party that will obviously have their own expectations. It is kind of a double-edged sword, however, in that by submitting the book ourselves we will be lacking the promotional/marketing services of a company like Image who possess a very visible presence in the market. Not just some, but all the promoting of the book would rest solely in our inexperienced hands. The response Black Jack receives via Diamond orders will more than likely not just dictate when, but if we see an issue 2. I am currently in the process of putting together a comprehensive marketing plan to enact once Black Jack is submitted and approved by Diamond for solicitation. I am going to do everything in my power to ensure that the book becomes both a critical and financial success.

What else is in the works? Chris is hard at work on his own title called Children of Circus, referred to in print by me as COC, or also called “Cock” for short. COC is a creepy little tale about a group of circus freaks endowed with freakish abilities that they use to hunt down evil. What I have seen of the art is creepily moody. I believe I will be assisting with the script, but have not yet received an outline. Look for COC next spring.
A number of people are anticipating the second installment of Bloods Own, and I do wish that it were available right now, but unfortunately it is not. Anthony is working on it and we are also shooting for a spring release date. You can blame me for its tardiness; I persuaded Anthony to pencil and design Black Jack issue 1, following the completion of Bloods Own issue 1. But I digress; rest assured that I am on the case to ensure that Bloods Own issue two will be ready for a spring release.
As for myself, I am working on a bevy of projects as usual. Most are in their very early stages, and I am going to refrain from going into details about them. One project I would like to tout is a comic titled, Torque. Torque is a throwback to the exploitation films of the 60’s and 70’s, and is chock full of gratuitous obscenities, nudity, and senseless violence. Based on the subject matter I understand that this comic will not be for everyone, and am not expecting to win any Eisner Awards for it, but as a fan of those craptacular exploitation films it is something I’ve always wanted to do. I expect people to find Torque violent, distasteful, and maybe even offensive…but that’s kind of the point. Consider yourself warned.

I have been really digging DC’s epic Final Crisis written by Grant Morrison. It is touted as a “big event” and actually reads like one. Morrison is a very polarizing figure in the comic book community, but his skill and talent are without question. It was back in 1996 when I first heard his name as the one revamping the Justice League of America, which was a team book featuring all of DC’s A-list, heavy-hitters. I never actually read his JLA run till very recently, when I picked up the first couple of volumes at a recent convention. I really enjoyed the solid, consistent characterizations, and epic scope of the story arcs, which should be a given in a book featuring the likes of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The only aspect of the run I have not been sold on was the Red and Blue electric Supermen.
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s I had gotten out of comics all together to focus on my constant drinking and womanizing, so I missed his controversial run on Marvel’s X-men, which was renamed New X-men. As with his Justice League series I picked up his entire New X-men run via trade paperback a couple of years ago. The New X-men was my introduction into the mind and imagination of Grant Morrison, and I was immediately hooked. I sought out more of his work picking up DC’s Seven Soldiers of Victory “megaseries” and the entire run of DC’s first weekly series, 52 (Grant was one of four writers on that book). Both of those series failed to disappoint. Most recently my neighbor, who coincidentally owns a comic book shop loaned me Grant’s Animal Man run. I have not yet completed the read, but am really enjoying it so far. I am also looking forward to checking out his other works including Doom Patrol and the Invisibles.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on Grant’s currently running Batman R.I.P. arc, and have yet to read any of the single issues. As with most of his work, I will probably end up picking it up in Trades. Let me know if there are any other Grant Morrison Titles that you would recommend, I would be more than happy to check them out.