Tuesday, April 27, 2010

In the cool of the evening

Hanker for a hunk of cheese.

I have no idea why I wrote that. It probably encompasses something Freudian. I have had an itch to write something lately. The problem usually arises as to when to write. I tend to involve myself in many other projects that take away from the whole focus on writing thing. It's probably this overload of information and activity that sparks the urge to chronicle.

At the moment, I am mainly just sifting through information. I need to settle on something to at least expand on. I little while ago a friend gave me some notes he made on a comic project. He wants to do the art, he needed someone else to write it. Granted he probably could have done it all himself, but a collaborative effort is sometime beneficial. I know there were a couple others that attempted to help, but things change. I guess it is now my turn to make heads or tales of it. Yes, I wrote that on purpose.

I went to one of those small comic conventions on Sunday. I wanted to make a day of it. It wasn't that far from my house, and I set my alarm to wake me at 10. Unfortunately, I set it to PM instead of AM. I finally awoke at 1:30, and the convention ended at 4. I made it down there close to 3, and thought I would be staying for the remainder. I didn't. I was actually home by about 4.

Still, while I was there, I talked with the one comic publish that showed his face there. Ever one else was a vendor selling their wares of beat-up comics and bootleg DVDs. I actually wound up buying about 8 books from the guy. He was from Ultimate Comics Group. Apparently, they are based in Atlantic City. The guy I talked with was, John, the COO and Editor-in-Chief. He also happened to write all the comics.

I usually like to give some credit to independent publishers. They are at least trying. So far, I have read about 4 of the comics I bought. They aren't really that good, but they aren't exactly terrible. The last independent book I read was Dinoman. It was self-published by a couple guys who thought they created the best thing on Earth. They were wrong. The premise was fine, but the execution was wrong. The art was pretty bad, something I could have done in 8th grade and the line tool in MS Paint. That could have been forgiven if the story was actually interesting. Instead it was all gay jokes that were just derogatory and didn't really seem appropriate in a book called Dinoman. Needless to say, my store didn't carry it. I even had some people read it just to show them how a comic shouldn't be.

Now the couple I read of the Ultimate Comics Group stuff could use a little work, but so can much of the professional stuff out there. It was standard superhero fare. It didn't hide what it was. Most of it was typical good guy vs. bad guy. People have super powers, some are good and others use power for their own gain. There were some glaring mistakes with the layout and structure of the comics, but nothing that couldn't really be fixed. Useless panels, poorly placed word balloons, and bad pacing were just some of the faults.

See, what I admired about the Ultimate Comics Group, is not only did they have a full color comic that was self-published, they had several. I'm talking over 20 books. They make it seem that they have been around a while, but the publishing dates on the few I have are from late 2009. It's hard enough to get one book out a month, but they want to seemingly do at least 3. They even have a distribution deal with the secondary distributor of comics in the country, Haven. John even told me why they didn't go with Diamond, the main distributor of comics (almost a monopoly). Diamond requires a minimum that's too high. Basically, you pretty much have to guarantee a certain amount in sales for it to be in their catalog. Haven is a little more forgiving. I even checked Haven's site, and the books were there to be ordered.

Now, will I order them? Probably not. I do want to keep reading them. I will try to grab the ones I missed whenever I see their booth again. The 4 that are order-able are the ones I already bought. I think I want to support them because they are trying and I feel there may be some potential there.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

News bit.

It's really too late for me to write anything of length. I'll just say that Easter was good an bad. Good in that it was a nice day and seeing family was good. People generally got along, and even my mother and father were in the same room for extended lengths of time. The bad news is that this comes in the wake of my Aunt Trudy succumbing to cancer at 2am on Sunday.

I will write more on this in a bit. To be honest the reality of it hasn't really hit me yet. She was only 54, and usually in good spirits. Her funeral is Friday, so I have off from work. I will write soon, I hope.