Mark Millar's CLINT

[Emperor]

The only upside is that perhaps amongst the Boyles and Rosses there will be work for a few british artists / writers / colourists etc.

Balls.

A new British title launched into the mass market with all the noise that will accrue can only be a good thing for British comics, which are otherwise pretty much dead in the water.

Unless it crashes and burns so badly no one will dare launch a new comic for a decade.

I can't see any reason it won't be a success though. I have to assume Millar is really only the ringmaster (with general pimping and bringing in celebrity chums) and Titan will be taking on all the tricky stuff like making sure the magazine gets put together and published on time, as well as getting onto the shelves.

I feel the big question will be: Could it be such a success that it helps other ventures get off the ground?

[Jim_Campbell]

Unless it crashes and burns so badly no one will dare launch a new comic for a decade.

Leaving us pretty much no worse off than we are now, to be honest. Exciting new comic launches have been pretty thin on the ground in the last decade.

Cheers

Jim

[maryanddavid]

 

Could it be such a success that it helps other ventures get off the ground?

Depends on the content, I dont think anything like this has been launched before to try to get as wide a readership as its looking to get. If it ends up been self indulgent (anyone remember heartbreak hotel, Mr Ross please stand up) it will go the way of Crisis and Deadline, too adult and you going down either the Viz or Heavy Metal road, Sci Fi or Horror and its heading in 2000ads direction. All these roads lead to niche market.

If this comic is to be like Millar wants it to be, he needs to get people who dont normally buy comics to get it. There will be some who will get it for the film content and Ross's name, but it need to be damn good for them to stick around and remember to pick it up again in a months time. A tough job ahead.

On the plus side with Titan mags Publishing, they are a great outfit, contrary to what people say British comics are not dead, just vastly different to what we read as kids from the newsagents.
Titan are the leader in  publishing these TV and Film related comics, The Simpsons  having sales of around 100000, plus others like Transformers averaging around 50000, these guys know what they are doing, and do not often back a loser.

David

[Van Dom]

Well I'll certainly pick it up when it comes out. It has been a looooooooooooooong time since there was anything new like this around. Yeah, I'm excited about it. Not a huge Mark Millar fan but thats irrelevant and I'll support this for the possible benefits to the UK comic industry in general, if not because it turns out to be very good.

[Emperor]

On the plus side with Titan mags Publishing, they are a great outfit, contrary to what people say British comics are not dead, just vastly different to what we read as kids from the newsagents.

Not that different:

Titan are the leader in  publishing these TV and Film related comics, The Simpsons  having sales of around 100000, plus others like Transformers averaging around 50000, these guys know what they are doing, and do not often back a loser.

As a kid I read Marvel UK comics like Star Wars, Doctor Who and even have a couple of Blake's Seven ones (and Marvel UK were publishing Transformers back in the day too). They are good "gateway" comics, those based on licensed properties. Problem is they can be a bit of a dead end if the fans of the property look no further, but it worked for me

Sounds like Millar's comic might be one that could open things up nicely. I'm sure we'll all be following this one closely.

[BPP]

Balls.

A new British title launched into the mass market with all the noise that will accrue can only be a good thing for British comics, which are otherwise pretty much dead in the water.

Cheers

Jim
[/quote]

that 'balls. / cheers' dichotomy always leaves me perplexed.

Are you saying 'cheers' sardonically in keeping with the rudeness of your introduction or 'balls' joshingly depsite the format of it imperiously standing alone at the start of your reply?

Either way Millar work has never interested me and largely in genres and conventions  I've no liking for and little interest in. 2 stories written by him and one by Ross and one by Boyle aren't going to interest me in the slightest. Nevertheless Good luck to em and all involved and all those sending in submissions to them. Me? I'll keep on giving my change to the prog and meg and appreciate just how great those two long-standing forums for developing British talent really are.

[Jim_Campbell]

that 'balls. / cheers' dichotomy always leaves me perplexed.

Are you saying 'cheers' sardonically in keeping with the rudeness of your introduction or 'balls' joshingly depsite the format of it imperiously standing alone at the start of your reply?

Either way Millar work has never interested me and largely in genres and conventions  I've no liking for and little interest in. 2 stories written by him and one by Ross and one by Boyle aren't going to interest me in the slightest. Nevertheless Good luck to em and all involved and all those sending in submissions to them. Me? I'll keep on giving my change to the prog and meg and appreciate just how great those two long-standing forums for developing British talent really are.

I was saying "Balls" because I disagreed with you, on grounds set out quite clearly in the remainder of the post which followed, and in several posts on this subject prior to that.

Your post suggests an either/or attitude towards Millar's venture and 2000AD, which seems an oddly hostile stance to take to a proposed publication that, to the extent that we currently understand it, will either fail horribly or expand the potential reader-base of British comics more radically than anything has done for a generation. Liking Millar's material is not a prerequisite for recognising this.

I say "Cheers" because this is an internet forum dedicated to sundry discussions by adult fans of a comic created thirty years ago for the entertainment of children and, thus, anything posted here is hardly worth getting as upset about as someone, say, poking you in the eye. If it, or, indeed, I bother you that much then I would invite you to deploy the "Ignore" function this forum so generously offers.

Cheers

Jim

[JOE SOAP]

Ok Jim, enough...how much is Millar paying you?

[Jim_Campbell]

Ok Jim, enough...how much is Millar paying you?

Humour?

As I've said: ten years ago, I wrote a business proposal for what amounts to this exact product. Get it right, and it'll make money hand over fist, and it'll expand the potential readership for UK comics enormously. Get it right, and there'll be other titles following in its wake to cash in, and there will be opportunities for people who currently can't break in to British comics because the field is so small to actually make money from doing comics.

You only have to look at the quality of the small press in the UK to see that half these guys would have professional gigs if they'd been trying to break in twenty-odd years ago. I want them to have that opportunity again: I want to see a resurgent British comic industry.

Am I wrong to pin my hopes on Millar's efforts? Perhaps. But I choose optimism over pessimism and, again, I've run the numbers on a publication like this, and mine broke even at a very low figure.

As I've said from the start: I'm struggling to see a downside. How about you?

Cheers

Jim

[BPP]

Your post suggests an either/or attitude towards Millar's venture and 2000AD, which seems an oddly hostile stance to take to a proposed publication that, to the extent that we currently understand it, will either fail horribly or expand the potential reader-base of British comics more radically than anything has done for a generation. Liking Millar's material is not a prerequisite for recognising this.

I say "Cheers" because this is an internet forum dedicated to sundry discussions by adult fans of a comic created thirty years ago for the entertainment of children and, thus, anything posted here is hardly worth getting as upset about as someone, say, poking you in the eye. If it, or, indeed, I bother you that much then I would invite you to deploy the "Ignore" function this forum so generously offers.

Cheers

Jim

i think you should stop attributing to peoples posts readings they clearly can't sustain.

It seems standard in this forum to have an either / or attitude to the Meg and you'll not find one post from me saying anything other than 'its great, keep the faith, you can't like all the fish all the time'. In light of that an either / or attitude to 'CLINT' seems more than sustainable - but even then I dont say that. Millar - I've no interest in. Comics written by two 'celebrities' rather than say giving Al Ewing or any of the guys that have done decent future shocks an alternative forum - I've no interest in. And yet.. AND YET I say 'hope it gives some art talent an alternative forum to make a living AND good luck to all involved.

Whatevers got your goat isn't my problem.

[Peter Wolf]

I am finding the CLINT/CUNt title slightly irritiating.It was funny for a couple of seconds and then not funny at all after that but all i keep reading here is "Mark Millars Cunt" over and over again.

As I've said: ten years ago, I wrote a business proposal for what amounts to this exact product. Get it right, and it'll make money hand over fist, and it'll expand the potential readership for UK comics enormously. Get it right, and there'll be other titles following in its wake to cash in, and there will be opportunities for people who currently can't break in to British comics because the field is so small to actually make money from doing comics.


Cheers

Jim

I agree with that

Millar - I've no interest in. Comics written by two 'celebrities' rather than say giving Al Ewing or any of the guys that have done decent future shocks an alternative forum - I've no interest in. And yet.. AND YET I say 'hope it gives some art talent an alternative forum to make a living AND good luck to all involved.

And i agree with that as well and it would be nice and very much appreciated if Mark Miller could stop being a Dick and at least acknowledge the existence of 2000ad [not a lot to ask] which helped in no small way towards his success but i guess this project will be all about Mark Millar and his irreverent comedian chums.

We will see........

On the other hand it has to feature those kind of names because it is very clearly being targetted at a certain demographic to maximise sales so its understandable from a business point of view as unfortunate as that is.

[Jim_Campbell]

i think you should stop attributing to peoples posts readings they clearly can't sustain.

And I note that you have abandoned, or retreated from, your previous assertion that:

The only upside is that perhaps amongst the Boyles and Rosses there will be work for a few british artists / writers / colourists etc.

It was this I was disagreeing with, which you should probably have picked up on by the fact that it was this statement I quoted directly before disagreeing with it. I set out my reasons why I felt that there was a great deal more of an upside, but you don't seem inclined to engage with those, or to explain why you think they might not be positive.

It was you who then decided to respond with an attack on my posting style, whilst modifying (or, perhaps, clarifying) your position to "Good luck to 'em all."

Nonetheless, you go on to say:

Me? I'll keep on giving my change to the prog and meg and appreciate just how great those two long-standing forums for developing British talent really are.

If I mis-read that as you 'picking a side' and that 'side' being 2000AD, then I apologize for the mis-reading, but your words seem to invite that interpretation.

You then go on to say:

It seems standard in this forum to have an either / or attitude to the Meg and you'll not find one post from me saying anything other than 'its great, keep the faith, you can't like all the fish all the time'.

Strawman, much? Did I suggest, for one moment that you'd taken a negative position towards the Meg? And what relevance does it have to the argument at hand? This is no more than shameless misdirection.

Whatevers got your goat isn't my problem.

Well, attacks on my posting style, and inventing whole arguments I never made are likely to annoy me, yes.

Cheers

Jim

[BPP]

Desperate stuff.

Much like calling a magazine 'clint'.

[Richmond Clements]

Speaking as a writer with his feet on the bottom rungs of the ladder, I welcome any other publication that gives me- and every other writer and artist in my position- another chance to get published.

[Tiplodocus]

I'll be buying it. 

I like Frankie Boyle as well. 

I understand there are quite a lot of comic and sf types hiding on the comedy circuit.

I know success in one medium doesn't guarentee success in another but I don't feel this will automatically be the equivalent of Jordan releasing an album; some of these boys know and love their sf and comics.

Feel free to disagree with any of the above.