When I was a wee lad the old Casper, and Hot Stuff comics from Harvey were some of the comics I started out reading. I don't know anything about the editorial staff of those books but they were damn good. The books were consistent in quality of illustrations, story and charm. And most important they were as solid as you can get as far as comic book visual storytelling. Just flat out solid techniques. Leading the eye, giving the important information without being obvious or pedestrian. Just a solid professional level of work all the way around.
(if you have been following my blogs about this recently this you can just skip down until you see the first screen capture)
I liked them as a kid, as an adult I appreciate them on a professional level.
The only vexing thing back then was the ads...
You'd see that add for all sorts of Harvey books ( books that to this day I think did not actually exist) but no matter what news stand you went to all you could find was Casper, Hot Stuff or Richie Rich. Spooky had his own book? Where??? He was my favorite and I never once saw a copy of a whole book of just him. That one with the ghost horse "Nightmare" ...never saw a single copy ever...even to this day. As a child, even then I was a bit cynical, I searched just to see if they actually put out an entire comic book about a ghost horse. Oh...Wendy the good Witch, you could find that one pretty easy, but what five year old boy wants to read about some dumb girl?
So there you have it. This is no joke, this is absolutely something I want to do.
The normal...dark/edgy work I do shouldn't really factor in. If Eddie Murphy and Bob Golthwait can do voice over work for Disney..I can certainly work on Casper.
The publisher of these comics is American Mythology. I don't know a whole hell of a lot about them...almost nothing actually. Even as long as I've been in this business I don't really know anyone else who knows much about them.
I tried contacting them on their website, they don't have a list of editors or such...they just have one of those "contact" pop up boxes where you type in what you want to say and hit "send". So I did. Got no response. That happens often when you are just dealing with a pop up box because it goes into the general pool of email and could end up in the hands of an intern or something.
I used a little outside the box thinking...no professionals I know have worked with them BUT they publish comic books and I publish comic books. I know people who aren't specifically creative pros- people who are distributors, printers, convention owners, the actual IP rights belong to NBC Universal I know a person or two there. I did a little due diligence, found out a little more about them. "A little more" as in no one had much of an opinion on them beyond a shrug, a mild complaint, or a vauge memory. I found someone who had an email address for me but they weren't sure how old it was. I tried that. No response.
Okay...onto social media. They really only have any kind of presence on one- Facebook. They have a publisher page and I contacted that.
I made it as clear as I could that it wasn't a joke.
They got back to me there and were nice enough, and very friendly sending a reply implying they know of my work but said their schedule was full and staffed until 2020. (this was said in a positive way...not a sh*tty "we know your stuff, no thanks a-hole") To which I replied "IDGAF add more to your schedule".I didn't say like that...I was more charming. Seriously...it was friendly and whimsical.
They didn't get back to me...not even a "haha, we appreciate it, but we're good here"
Let's step back a second and survey the field, yes?
We're not being snarky here...we're trying to figure out what's what...before continuing on.
My resume is nothing to sneeze at in reguards to any project
http://www.arseniclullabies.com/proport.html
and when you are talking a project that need be done in an old school style...I am at the top of a very short list. I have been doing specifically that my entire career. I have a style that is unlike anything else EXCEPT old 50's cartoons.
I've been at all this awhile and I've worked on books that sold in the 4000 copies range, 8,000 copies range 10,000 range, the 70,000 range and had work animated on Comedy Central.
THEY...sell about 5000 copies of Casper an issue. Whether that is good or bad you can decide on your own, but that is not so many, by any strech of the imagination, that they should be balking at an offer from me. 5000 copies...I can absolutely boost that by a considerable degree.
It IS all about how many comics you can move out the door, after all.
Their facebook page has 1600 or so followers. When they post/plug something...they usually get around 10-20 "likes". They have a small presence on twitter and not much at all on Instagram. We are still in an era where some publishers have not figured out the value of social media or in some case have not figured out how to use it, or in some cases simply don't have time. That's no sin...but it is a problem.
Then there is the other side of the spectrum -people like me...my Instagram alone has more followers than all of their social media combined, tack on FB, Twitter, and newer sites like Steemit...Youtube on the rare occasion I use it, and then of course...there is my blog and these here mass emails, and the comic book websites and podcasts that have me on from time to time and I can bring a hell of a lot more of interest to the project than they are capable of on their own. The areas in which they are wanting are the areas I excel in.
So ...that's the terrain, that's the facts of the two entities we are looking at ( me and American Mythology). If that seems a little tipped in my favor...that's just the way it is. I assure you if this was a blog about me trying to do something for Marvel there'd be a whole list of reasons they should tell me to go pound sand.
...I'm not sure how ambitious these people are. Complacency is a HUGE problem in the comic book industry. People just go with "good enough" instead of " crush your enemies". (I'm more of a "crush your enemies" type). So even if you are not a "crush your enemies" type...if you are publishing a comic book, than you are trying to make money, so having a "crush your enemies type" around would be a good thing.
I waited another week or so for a response, got nuthing so I started tagging them on posts on my facebook page mentioning how I wanted to work on their books. These posts, of course, got a solid amount of attention.
Why did you do that?
Well, because, like I said, FB is the only social media site I know they are active.
No...I meant why did you tag them on a post? Isn't there a more professional way of handling this? Like drawing up some samples?
Sure... but what's the fun in that?
...you seem to be a little confused about what I do here. Have I not written like three blogs recently about how the comic book industry can no longer just be one thing and still thrive? That people want and EXPECT to be brought along for the ride? ...like pros in every other facet of entertainment do? Yeah...I could just just email a sample, and go about my day. What does that do for any of us? hmm?
"I guess I see your point"
...as I was saying. I tagged them on some stuff (basically giving them a free plug as I get about 4 times the interactions than they do on any give post)...they still weren't getting back to me and then on their page I see THIS
Did they....did they just offer the job I wanted to some other guy? after telling me there was no room at all? Did they lie to me for no particualr reason? They had no reason to lie about being full up, they could have said "you draw zombie fetuses...so...no"
....perhaps a slot opened after they messaged me.
to be clear...this illustrator seems fine, it looks like he does good work.
But, let's not skip over the fact that they said they where all full up...and a week and a half later jumped at some other guys offer.
It's game on, now.
I screen captured that egregious incident, posted it on my FB page and told my readers "if you could go say something on my behalf, that'd be great"
"Oh lord...what you are doing?"
I already explained what I'm doing....
The result of my post was...the total hijacking of their post, by my readers. HAHAHAHAHAH
only nine of those responses we unrelated to me working on the book...ALL the rest were requests and demands to have me work on Casper. ..hahahahahahahahaa
...sigh...that's good stuff.
I also emailed the editor who was on the thread reiterating my interest in a sporting good natured way.
Nuthin...no response.
People continued to go to that post and request they hire me...pretty much all week ( laughs into sleeve)
and they ignored the entire thing.
That is bizarre...
here's the thing to remember, this is not a personal FB page, this is a FB page of a publisher who theoretically wants to sell comic books and uses the page to drum up interest in said comic books. We gave them 5 times the normal interactions on their post...all NEW people and several of them own comic books stores...and they did NOTHING about it.
To quote my friend and fellow indy publisher "This is comics in a nutshell."
If it were me and got a wave of fans on my page from someone. even if I didn't want to work with him or thought it was a prank, you can bet I'd make an effort to turn every last one of those people into a new reader of mine. This is a 40yard touchdown pass hitting them right in the chest and they just let it bounce off and hit the ground. ...I cannot fathom what they are thinking. I mean...that was a gift...that was a flat out gift of more excitement and interest than they've had on their page ...maybe ever.
They didn't respond to any comments, they didn't respond to my message to them or the editor who was on the thread at on point. Nuthin...
IF this was DC comics and Dan Dido , I'd assume they were just big timing me...but Casper sells 5000 copies. and they have a publisher page that gets about a 4th of the traffic that my personal page gets.
and then...after four days of people CONTINUING to go to their page and speak on my behalf...they deleted all the comments.
I sh*t you not. They didn't respond to me...or to one single comment. They just deleted them all. And none of the comments were rude. (well...one person said they'd be willing to punch a baby to see me work on the book...but that's all in good fun) They were simple polite, enthusiastic requests to a publisher to have a specific pro work on their comic. They didn't mention any other book, no one I saw bashed any of thier current content or illustrators, no one posted any links for anyone to go anywhere else...it is a public page...of a publisher...and these people posted to the publisher a recommendation of who to hire for one of thier books.
Their behavior was 100% fair game and completely legit AND the sort of thing that's encouraged by most publishers.
Again...if it were ME...and I didn't want anything to do with the illustrator in question for whatever reason, and a busload of his fans showed up on my page I'd have said " gee whiz It's nice to see such a enthusiastic fan base for someone, but we have a guy all lined up to do Casper and golly take a look at the hard work he does!" Then I'd show off a bunch of those pages and give a link to order the book.
I'll say this right now...anyone who wants to send 50-60 of their fans to any of my pages, feel free to do so and I'll convert as many of them as I can and thank you afterword.
They... just...ignored them all and then deleted them.
I cannot figure the angle. This is how you act when you've been indited and a reporter is contacting you, not how you act when you publish comic books and a top level illustrator contacts you...and sends fans to you page...your page where you promote your books.
They normally get 10-20 interactions, so MAYBE...that wave of interest freaked them out a little and they panicked? But it wasn't exactly a full court press. Last summer I got so many veiws on the blog that the website crashed twice...THAT is when you panic. This was a bunch of polite people on a social media platform that can handle any amount of traffic.
I'm going to TRY to give them the benefit of the doubt here...that MAYBE they just are not that social media savey? I dunno...I really don't. Do they not understand the culture and customs of the internet? Because they basically told all those potential customers (NEW potential customers...from a fan base that would never have sniffed their way before) to go f*ck themselves.
...?
You can say just about anything to someone on social media and it is all just part of the giant internet bar fight...but if you delete their comment, that is taken a whole different way. Those people who posted on my behalf, were obviously enthusiastic, motivated...that could have easily turned into a lot of people sharing post promoting an upcoming issue of Casper done by yours truly...but instead they have all those motivated people on the internet pissed off at them...I'm not even sure what I can do about that.
Maybe....they got a little freaked out and just decided to delete them for that reason? I'm trying to find an angle here where both I and my fans were not purposely insulted.
I know this much....a few things...First, I'm not done yet and this is not over. I want to work on Casper and I'm not done riding these guys. Second, no outcome here hurts me. If a company that publishes a children's book refuses to reply to my emails...that doesn't hurt my reputation any. Also, there is , to the spectator, is a tipping point in such situations. No one in this industry would have a shadow of a doubt that my work on Casper would be fantastic. Even the people in this industry who hate my ass know and admit that I'm really good. The tipping point comes when people stop wondering what jackassery I am up to and start making note that this publisher is passing up the chance to add a lot of general excitement to a book they are publishing. Stores don't like when you pass up that sort of thing. Stores want to see you continuing to push and plug and raise hell so that your books aren't just collecting dust on the shelves.
This could all very well be a generational thing...a misunderstanding of what promotion is in this day and age. And perhaps they took good natured rabble rousing for me coming at them. It is calling to memory a blog someone did recently about how the comic book industry needs to understand that using the internet to create excitement requires more than posting and then sitting there. It could be that they are mistaking my gift as a hostile take over.
I'm really trying to not turn this whole thing into an object lesson in all the ways much of the comic book industry is 10 years behind in the way they do things
ALTHOUGH....when a whole bunch of your fans go to bat for you and are flat out given the finger...I don't know that you can just let that slide.
I'll keep you posted on what happens next...
Having said ALL that, as usual, I do have a plan B...in case American Mythology doesn't come around.
You didn't think I didn't had no plan B, did you?
anyways...as this is an ongoing story, I'll keep you posted.
