Publish sone new material Rebellion!

[paulvonscott]

Well, the cOMICS iNTERNATIONAL pANEL bEATERS PAGE HAS DONE A GOOD JOB OF SHOWING PEOPLE WHAT SMALL PRESS STUFF IS LIKE. (left caps lock on, sod it)

What it hasn't done is give the readers of Comics International much insight into Independant versions of what they want to read given to them by existing comic companies.

By and large it's been the attempted funnies and quirky autobiographical stuff which will, by and large always be the province of the small press.

All it's done is re-enforce people's view of what Small Press is, while giving them nothing of what they are already interested in, unless that is small press!

What I'm suggesting is something that actually has asperations of appealing to people outside of small press, deals with mainstream comic book themes (NOT quirky small press stuff) and is as a by-product developing people to become professionals and produce professional work.  What most people pobably need is some guidance, some editing and some exposure.

If a company does this, they can get people to a level where they could appear in the comic.  Sure, they could get poached, but all that's true of having new talent in the comic anyway.  Plus you could tie in some sort of loyalty cause or first option on buying up popular material.  

By not paying, it perhaps becomes feasible to do it, they spend money only on an editor and production.  

Imagine something the size of 2000AD, once a month, that might be a stretch for a comic company, but not the biggest burden in the world.  Whether you'd sell it in comic book stores, as a cheap add on to subscription or give it away (ouch) is another issue.  But as you wouldn't be paying a grand a page for the contents (which would be relatively free) then it could be sold for a lot less I imagine.  

There has to be some half-way house.  Getting training and exposure is something that if you can't do yourself you'd have to pay for, so I don't see it as being exploitative in a negative way, but in a positive and productive way.

I can't see many companies thinking that would be something that would be for them, so it is an extremely unlikely prospect.

That's very different from what Panel Beaters is trying to do, which is show people what's out there.  This, it is doing.  But it isn't going to do much more than that I'm afraid.  And now we've seen it, how many of us care?

I did submit something myself by the way, for Solar Wind, but I didn't even get a 'no thank you' and I followed that up with e-mails. We've had the bunny cartoon three times now, so I bet that guy is pleased with the way it works but it's not been much use for me!

[Art]

I don?t think it?s really that feasible. Publishers tend to want to make money, and for that matter so do the people who's work is being used to make money... Also I'm not really sure that paying artist and writers is the biggest cost a publisher would face.

Now maybe if it were the days of Deadline... Nah...

[chimp]

A comic with a decent strong editorial hand giving new creators a go is certainly a good idea, but I don't see it being something publishers would consider viable. There's just too much of a gamble on the work being of high quality enough to generate a big audience, how do you market such a comic?
A quarterly small press comic with a similar philosophy would be better, but then you come back to money, I doubt anyone who puts out small press comics at the moment could afford to do a big enough print run and get distribution to UK comic shops. Still it's more likely than a publisher taking the chance.
Back to 2000ad, one of the reasons I don't enjoy it much lately (although obviously I've enjoyed some of it!) is because it relies heavily on a small group of writers and I think new blood would be most welcome, off course that leads back to the problem of where to get the new blood.

[paulvonscott]

Well, as I said, there would be ways to make it work, and pay potentially, but ultimately it would have to be subsidised.

This is all turning into a bit of a blind alley I suppose, but it's always interesting to me how things COULD be done.  Whether they should be done or anyone wants them to be done is by the by.

As it is, I don't think it's possible to rely on any publishers, or eccentric millionaires.  Both have their own concerns and ability to spend their own money.

The most likely option for me is that someone can produce a comic that has general appeal and becomes a minor hit, for me that has to be an anthology.  Then it would have to be exploited properly and avoid a lot of potential fuck ups along the way.  

To me that just seems so difficult, from what I know about the direction Starscapes going, I can see it getting somewhere.  It just takes a lot of effort, perseverence and lost money.

If we really wanted a dynamic comics industry in this country, it's still my belief we could have one, but nobody (and that includes myself) is probably prepared to do the work or spend the money involved.  If you don't sew any seeds, you reap bugger all.

[Art]

Heh. I assure you, were I an eccentric millionaire I'd totally be up for something like this. Excepts I?d pay people for theior work and go broke slightly quicker.

[Dudley]

But maybe someone should at least try an eccentric millionaire?  There must be a fair few out there who were into 2000AD as kids and ould like to be seen supporting the arts, so might be up for a proposal along the lines of bankrolling a starter comic that loses only small amounts of money each issue?

Anthony Hopkins pays for at least 20 people a year to go through drama school (I know cos he paid for a mate of mine), maybe Sylvester Stallone would like to do the same?

[Oddboy]

[dry wit humour on]

Maybe Sly should pay to put *himself* though drama school.

[off]

[chimp]

"Heh. I assure you, were I an eccentric millionaire I'd totally be up for something like this. Excepts I'd pay people for theior work and go broke slightly quicker."
were you Kevin Eastman? :)

[paulvonscott]

Ah well, you've all succeeded in draining my enthusiasm, and I'm depressed again.

[thrillpowerseeker]

Mr Dwyer do you work for Egmont?..

[stront692]

hte kind of comic u are talking about pvs is the weeklies of old, when up to 18 titles were under 1 editor and new hands were just thrown

do this story this week or else, early on their work wasnt even credited or it was credited to the senior artist writer

all this was started by the creators rights movement in the late 80s, i have now revised my opinion somewhat and while i would agree that DC MARVEL etc are raking it in i have also seen a load of decent and wonderful stables go bust in the late 80s/early 90s

a lot of creators are unwilling to sign away decent creations to major companies anymore (lest they acquire something like alan moore status), this has led to a dearth of decent new stories/characters created and is also the reason why a writer is more likely to raid an older character but put a cynical twist in than do something original

that is only a 'hunch' but id like to see the creators opinions on this, is the intellectual property issue strangling the market, especially the image success of the early 90s where they basically traipsed endless copies of the same characters - why create a new character??

why not leave it until u are on megabucks and publish it yourself

[mrjamesmdwyer]

paulvonscott - i wholly agree with your first point - you are eactly right. I can see this debate has gone along way, but here goes anyway...

I never contested that both 2K and the Meg continue to print highly original and  
entertaining work, and perhaps I overstated my case at their expense.

Strips such as Leviathon, Lobster Random, XTNCT, From Grace, Asylum, Bendatti  
Vendetta are a testament to what 2K and the Meg have always been about, but there  
are far too many derivative and predictable strips that dilute these efforts.  2K  
and the Meg deserve more consistently gigh quality strips.

A lot of new material often seems to borrow form the past - Bec and Kawl..Bix  
Barter?  

Whatever happened to the likes of Fervant and Lobe, Indigo Prime, Revere, The  
Clown,Brigand Doom and Hewligans Haircut?  All masterpieces - the recent work isn't  
up to that standard. (I even thought the original Friday was hugely underrated.)


Rebellion are sitting on a powder keg of creative genius - if you want to revisit  
some old characters why waste time with the VC?s and Sam(antha) Slade? Just start  
at A for Armoured Gideon or ABC Warriors and go all the way to Z for Zenith.


There has always been bad (Big Dave, Zippy Couriers and Kronos whatsit) and there  
will inevitably be more in the future, but there seems to be a lack of consistently  
good work which always carried us through.

As for those who didn?t have chance to experience this material the first time  
round, go and hunt down the original prints (isn?t that half the fun?) or as  
Rebellion to provide the opportunity to buy it in a new format and NOT under a new  
cover.

Broadly speaking, I would like to see less reprints and less padding, and more new  
work - I will take the good and that?s worth paying for the inevitable bad.

[paulvonscott]

"I did submit something myself by the way, for Solar Wind, but I didn't even get a 'no thank you' and I followed that up with e-mails. We've had the bunny cartoon three times now, so I bet that guy is pleased with the way it works but it's not been much use for me!"

Well, there you go, Fate has a way of making you look like an idiot every time (or was that me who made myself look like an idiot - very possibly).

A week later and the strip has been printed, with a credit error that's all my fault too!  Doh...

Ian Stacey (the real artist, not me) was just saying how he got the script seemingly ages ago.  It takes a long time to get in.  All I can assume is that there is quite a backlog for this free space.  But, it's worth doing for anyone with a small press comic.

Cheers

Paul (the twat)

[IndigoPrime]

:: Whatever happened to the likes of Fervant and Lobe, Indigo
:: Prime, Revere, The Clown,Brigand Doom and Hewligans
:: Haircut? All masterpieces

Really? I thought The Clown was total shite, and Brigand Doom wasn't far behind.

Having rummaged through a Web site today that depicts what's in every issue of 2000 AD, I've come to the conclusion that a "good" Prog is when 3/5 stories are decent. It's when 2000 AD dips to the 2 or 1 good story level that things screw up. To be fair to Matt, this has happened very rarely since he's been around, so I'm going to stop complaining about shite like Valkyries, because there's at least enough readable stuff elsewhere in the Prog. (Even Sin/Dex is quite good at the moment - something I never thought I'd say!)