Please come by to Samurai Comics in Mesa, AZ for their Free Comic Book Day event this coming weekend. Cassandra and I will be there with merchandise to sell. But more importantly, check out the prestigious guest list of creators - it’s going to be a ton of fun.
Stupid.
Hey whats up if you go to the Emerald City Comicon you can find me if you look around long enough. You will find me next to Cory J Walker, right at the last place you look. I will have all kind of stuff to sell at you if you want it just come and don’t forget to wander around aimlessly looking for me, I have a table so aim your gaze slightly below eye level for the average height of a standing person.
(via benito-cereno)
Since NWM #4 is running a little late, so were these Valentines. <3
Today is new comics day and that means that, along with a lot of other great books, Nowhere Men #3 is on the shelves.
Its kind of weird not being able to talk about anything that happens in the book. We don’t want to spoil anything, but at the same time its hard to just leave people hanging for a month, but I hope its for the best in the long run. After all, isn’t that how comics are supposed to work? Anyway, I feel like NWM #3 is an issue that peels back a big layer of the mystique the book has fostered so far and will really let readers get a look at what is in store for them.
Its for that reason, mainly, that I am more excited for this issue to come out than I was for the first issue. With the debut I knew it was going to be all people checking the book out and a lot of them were going to decide it wasn’t for them and bail on it. Thats expected. You also expect the static that comes up from those people and is picked up on by people looking at the second issue trying to decide whether to buy it and having heard it was good and also that it wasn’t good. And it goes double for a book like this where we aren’t going to spell things out for everyone. But this issue… #3, I feel like this is the one that might really grab people. Maybe. But who knows! Not me, thats who.
Since today is now Colorist Appreciation Day here is something to show you JUST HOW MUCH work a colorist does and how far they go to improving the work of pencillers and inkers with a page from Nowhere Men #3 (in stores Jan 30th). On the left you have my finished page as sent to Jordie Bellaire and on the right you can see the finished result of our collaboration.
So take the time today and show some love for one of the unsung and overlooked heroes (along with letterers and editors!) of the comic book industry.
NOWHERE MEN PERFORMS IMPRESSIVE ENCORE
Second issue sells out, gets second printingLauded for its mash-up of “science fiction, a little bit of Beatles-esque mystique, a touch of retro, a bit of business” (iFanboy) at the release of its first issue, NOWHERE MEN continues going strong. The second issue of the pop-art sci-fi series by Eric Stephenson and Nate Bellegarde has sold out at the distributor level the same week as its release. The issue will receive a second printing (NOV128153), to be in stores on January 30, the same day as NOWHERE MEN #3.
Image Comics also recently revealed a T-shirt bearing the series’ tagline “Science is the new rock ‘n’ roll,” to be released in March.
Sheesh!
(via benito-cereno)
— Eric Stephenson, the publisher of Image Comics
No. There’s no such “trend”— there’ve been any number of hit comics that didn’t “explain every single thing” with sales and critical success ensuing. Even if there were such a trend, audiences are allowed to expect things— those are called audience expectations, and understanding and manipulating those is a normal and understood part of the job of a creative artist; that’s on the job description.
But even if we assumed arguendo that audiences have complained in a clumsy way about unrealistic expectations not being satisfied, audiences are allowed to say things in a clumsy way. They’re the audience not James Walcott; their job isn’t to be the editor while a professional editor is in absentia, carefully articulating the deficiencies of their experiences. One needs only to look past the clumsiness, and the sentiment he’s complaining about is invariably the oldest one there is: ”The first issue has to give me a reason to buy the second issue, and it didn’t.” Yeah: that’s not a “trend” or a “meme” or a “fad”— that’s the job. That’s always been the job. That “trend” started at the dawn of the enterprise.
It’d be nice if someday, some of that the energy comic creators uses to lecture their audience, if some of that could be used to power our light bulbs or to make toast or maybe get used to make better comics. Not tomorrow, or day after— let’s not get crazy. (There’s other ways to get toast, in the meantime— buy a toaster… ordering toast from restaurant… maybe you could use a skillet somehow? I don’t really cook). But maybe someday. Some people say I’m a dreamer; other people call me Maurice— don’t get the reference; find it very off-putting; not my name.
1) There’s no such trend? There are plenty of recent #1’s that are so exposition-heavy that the story never arrives, and if it does, it’s by the numbers. I agree that there are also many comics that don’t explain everything in #1 and still do well critically and commercially, but let’s not overlook the wave of crap comics designed by a committee interested only in selling, please. They’re out there, both in creator-owned and corporate comics, and they’re a fucking legion.
2) Audiences are allowed to expect things, agreed. Understanding and manipulating them comes with the territory. It’s also the artist’s job to not care about the audience expectations too much. In other news, the Earth sky is usually indeed blue.
3) ”The first issue has to give me a reason to buy the second issue, and it didn’t.” Completely agreed that the first issue has to give a reason (reasons, ideally) to buy #2. But Stephenson isn’t talking about that, is he? It seems like you’re putting your own words (i.e. ideas on how his brain operates, also know as assumptions, which are often derived from expectations) into his mouth. Stephenson is the publisher of Image Comics, the company that gave 2012 more interesting first issues than any other this year as far as I’m concerned - and I’m saying that as a reader and the guy who is making comics that Image publishes. So what? I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t see it that way. Are there duds? Fuck yes there are. But there’s also way more interesting, exciting stuff than anywhere else at the moment except for Koyama Press and Fantagraphics, two companies that are not really in the #1 business anyway. My own assumption, based on knowing that but also on talking to Stephenson plenty of times and working with him, so maybe it’s more…um, based on how he is and thinks? He’s well-aware of that rule and it’s not what he’s complaining about.
4) “It’d be nice if someday, some of that the energy comic creators uses to lecture their audience, if some of that could be used to power our light bulbs or to make toast or maybe get used to make better comics.”
Oh, totally agreed on that. I don’t think it applies to Stephenson here, but I’m all for less lecturing and more good comics. So I’m going to shut up and finish Change #4 now.
(via fetorpse)
