Con-Spiracy Theories

CON-spiracy theories

The KC Planet Comicon is about a month away, and I am totally stoked. Last year was my first time at Kanas City’s premier comic convention and it was an absolute blast. I had the opportunity to meet some of my favorite creators such as Jason Aaron, Dave Finch, Javier Saltares, and Mark Texeira. I also had the opportunity to hang out at dinner with Tyler Walpole and Ron Wagner. The folks that run the con are as nice as can be, and do a great job organizing the floor and even the panel events. Plus they fed us lunch to!
So I am definitely looking forward to the Con this year. I won’t have a lot of money to spend as I am focusing on paying off my credit card debt by June, but there isn’t anything I am really hurting for right now anyway. I am looking forward to meeting Jason Aaron again, have him sign a bunch of Ghost Rider comics, and hopefully pick his brain a little. With the baby due in June, this may be my only convention this year other than the local I-Con, which unfortunately has always been lacking.
One of the things I look forward to most about each convention and something that was in abundance at last years Planet Comicon was the opportunity to meet and chat with the local con goers. The people I met in KC last year were incredibly nice and very supportive of our endeavor. I really look forward to seeing some familiar faces as well as meet tons of cool new folks. There are a couple of guidelines I would like to suggest for those that plan on stopping by our table, or any other table for that matter.

UNLESS YOU’RE A MUTE, PLEASE TALK TO ME: There are so many times at every con where I say hello to someone passing by only to be completely ignored. There are times when someone will approach the table and peruse the books; when I try to strike a conversation with them they look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language. It’s just rude people! You are amongst your kin, your friends. No one is going to ridicule you for your love of Aquaman, or if you think Dr. Fate could be Dr. Strange in a battle of magical prowess, or if you still beat off to the old Marvel swimsuit specials (maybe that’s just me!).
Tell me what you like, what you don’t like. Tell me what books you read, and what inspires you. Don’t be afraid to talk. I promise not to judge you even if you are dressed as an Imperial Storm Trooper; I always preferred the scout troopers personally!

LEARN WHEN TO SHUT-UP: At the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the people above are the people that do not know when to stop talking and move on. These people are rare, but they exist. Case-in-point: At last years Planet Comicon, Curt Peterson met a young man on Saturday and the two discovered they shared a love for the same type of music. On Sunday that same young man stopped over with his I-pod where he stood in front of the table listening to and discussing his favorite songs with Curt for about an hour. A fucking hour! I am trying to discuss the books and generate some sales, which is proven difficult with someone standing in front of the table drumming on it with a pencil. I may not have been nearly as miffed if they were discussing something relative to the company or comics in general…or if he would have purchased something, which brings me to my next point.

SUPPORT THY NEIGHBOR: I know that what we publish is not everyone’s cup of tea. There are a surprising number of people the frequent the artist alley looking for self-published books because of their disdain for the super-hero genre, and they are shocked and dismayed when the find a self-publisher actually publishing super-hero books. I also know that when we were selling out limited number of Black Jack issues for 5.00 a pop that may have been outside some peoples price range. What I absolutely cannot stand are the people that stop by the table telling us how good the book looks, how they so badly want to start publishing their own books, and then they just walk away. A rule of thumb I always followed is that if you want to self-publish books you should support other self-publishers. In this industry there are not too many people looking out for the little guys, so we have to look out for and support one another.

DON’T PITCH THIS STORY TO ANYONE: A lot of people stop by the table to tell me about their own story idea, which to them is the best thing since Babylon 5. The truth is that most of the story ideas I hear about are more like Alien Vs. Hunter (check your local listings for time and channel if you dare). I’ve heard this particular idea more than once:

“So it’s a story about a woman who’s this half-human and half-vampire, and she goes around killing other vampires. She can like walk around in the Daylight, and can only be killed the way you would kill a regular vampire. And She’s like really hot. She looks like Angelina Jolie from Tomb Raider, but carries a sword made out of a special metal that kills vampires, and wooden stakes. She ends up falling in love with the king of the vampires who declares war on humankind forcing her to choose a side, and we don’t know which side that’ll be, cause it’s like an internal struggle she goes through. And later on she also teams up with a group of humans who hunt vampires, and they don’t know that she is half vampire, so it’ll totally change the status quo when they find out.
This story is like Tomb Raider meets Watchmen”

Tomb Raider meets Watchmen? Is that even possible? Like those of you who just read that, I was also dumber after listening to this drivel. If I had a dollar for every story involving half-human half-vampire that hunts vampires and closely resembles Angelina Jolie I could quit my day job.
And don’t ever compare your story to Watchmen, because no one will take you seriously beyond that point though they may have you strapped and sedated for being severely delusional.

I’LL TAKE YOUR ART, BUT NOT YOUR IDEAS: I am a writer, not an editor. Though Antidote Comics LLC is technically a publishing company, we are currently not in a position to bring on new creative talent and publish their work. That may change in the future, but for right now if you are someone looking to break into the biz by submitting your story proposal to me you are wasting your time and energy. I guess I should specify that I am an aspiring writer and am still trying to “break into the biz” just as you are. I am all for networking and may be able to direct you to someone else, or another company to take your submission, but as of right now we are not that company.
Now since about three people read this column I will undoubtedly receive some story proposals, and God’s honest truth is that I won’t even read them, and I will tell them that.
Now if you are an artist looking for work, you can certainly submit to me your art samples. Those I do look at, and keep for my records. With the number of stories I want to tell, I am always going to keep my eyes on potential artists. Hopefully I will someday be in a position to hire on a freelance artist, and I will delve into those samples first.
So the bottom line is aspiring artists can submit your samples to me though I can’t hire you at this moment it will be held for future reference, and writers save those story proposals for Dark Horse, or Top Cow editors.


Other Bits and Pieces:

Heath Ledger won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Based on that stunning portrayal I feel this was very well deserved, and congratulate the Academy for recognizing his masterful performance. It’s about time they get something right for once.
The rest of the awards seemed like a big yawn fest as usual.

We are going to be printing about 500 more copies of Black Jack to sell during the con season as well as get some copies into local shops. These will be ready to go in time for Planet Comicon. I am also going to be sending out samples along with a letter introducing our company to some other retailers around the region and hopefully expand our distribution. A KC based publishing company has expressed interest in a cross-distribution plan to hopefully get our book into some stores there in the Kansas City area, and vice versa. I will be looking into this more closely and will hopefully have some more details in the near future.

Also in regards to Black Jack: The rest of the Antidote crew and myself are looking at some ways of bringing in new artists to assist with getting books out. One idea is to have the company retain a certain percentage of ownership, while the creator retains a percentage of ownership. That creator can then allocate portions of their ownership to other individuals for work on the book.
As an example: the company owns 50% of Black Jack, I own 50% of Black Jack. I can give 25% of the ownership I own to an artist to pencil the book. There is no money out of pocket, but that also means the artist is not paid until the book would begin to actually churn a profit. The goal would be to get more books out in a more timely fashion. If the book becomes successful and actually makes money, they the artist is paid based on their percentage of ownership.
It is a good concept in helping new, aspiring artists get work published and get them some exposure, but at the same time I do not know too many (good) artists willing to work for free, but if you do send them my way!
I will be back with more details to follow as we iron them out.

For anyone interested in learning more about the KC Planet Comicon, or if you are in the area and want to attend check out this HYPERLINK "http://www.planetcomicon.com/" site for details.