Save Your Bullets, Rob Liefeld Can't Be Hurt
"Whoever Makes a Living In Comics Must Have That Iron In Him!"
LET’S GO
Went from San Diego Comic Con into some shows on the East Coast. It was a productive 10 days. Sorta. More on that in a minute.
I’d like to thank everyone who ordered REGICIDE #1. Ludovic is new to the American market and I gave him an expectation spectrum for the book’s sales. “Could be x, could be y. Anything over z is a win.”
We fell above my highest estimate.
I think that’s down to great art of course, but also a simple pitch and some goodwill from TIGRESS ISLAND. They say your previous book sells your next book. If that’s the case, and you took a shot on REGICIDE because it worked out last time- I appreciate you. Ludovic, Matt, and I working hard to exceed your expectations.
Pick up issue #1 on the 12th, and put in your order for issue #2 now!
PAGES IN MY INBOX
Once again, Leonardo drawing his ass off.
THEMES
At the risk of kicking a hornets’ nest, I’ll share that I had an ugly thing confirmed for me at San Diego. I had a conversation with someone who manufactured a Eisner Award win.
He knew one of the voters, made a phone call, and the rest is history. He was able to convince the voter that it was “important” that creator x won the award. The other voters fell like dominos. It was “important,” after all. And the guy I spoke to is not convinced any of them actually read the comic book.
This was a number of years ago, and I remember the chatter at the time. Everyone who saw that book win sorta assumed this was the case. It was on the lower end of mediocre, and no one -even fans of the series- believed it deserved an award. I was both relieved and annoyed to learn suspicions were true.
This is all to undergird the following point: praise and critique are both a brittle sort of meaningless.
If the institution that’s supposed to be the unimpeachable measure of greatness in our field is gameable, where does the gravitas go?
This isn’t to bully any award, critic, or site. It’s just to say, you really cannot take on anything said about yourself.
That’s the other eye-opening conversation I had in San Diego. A nice dude told me a a nice story. We had talked in 2019 when he had a book he was tryna get off the ground. His book came out at a respectable publisher last year. That’s how it’s supposed to go: He worked hard and had a unique point-of-view and got a thing in print.
But a less heartwarming aspect of the story is that he took a positive issue #1 review to heart. He rewrote the end of his series to amplify the things the critic loved most about the first issue.
I asked him how it went. “Sucked. Didn’t impact sales at all and the book was worse for it.”
The inevitable.
On a related note, I recently told a colleague I’d rather be Rob Liefeld than any of the critical darlings. Comics journalists identify as progressive, almost to the man, and would never use the word “retarded” in a review. But you can tell they want to when discussing Liefeld. They suck their teeth and act bothered to mention him.
But he sells like a son of a bitch.
And it’s better to sell things than not sell things. I think this is a truth even the most dedicated communists and pure artists in this newsletter’s readership can acknowledge.
Liefeld has a 30 year career, wherein he’s been able to explore his ideas. Your opinion of those ideas is immaterial for the purposes of this audit. He does not have to suck off the Hulk to make rent. And, despite not knowing him, I can say with confidence that if he inputs any opinions, it’s exclusively praise. He knows to filter out the negative. I opt to disregard both, but if you can only choose one…
So, again, I’m grateful for coverage. Thank you to any outlet that writes word one about a book with my name on it. You’ve been really kind. But in terms of utility, it’s more about saturation than kind words. Jarrod Jones of Doomrocket did us a mitzvah of a review.
But the real clout points don’t come from if he liked it or not. It’s from the referring to me as if I’m someone readers should know. That’s the asset for the creator.
Creators need to prioritize projects by personal desire, then the market. End of priorities. And you can swap those or ignore either one if that’s where your head is at. But at no point can you organize your career around criticism or awards.
PEOPLE I SPOKE TO
A few dudes I spoke to at SDCC missed the mark (sales-wise) on recent series. I’ve been there and I am certain I will be again. The feeling of betrayal (by readers and retailers) and the self-recriminations… it’s all very real for creators.
But I think the fact that it is real is the biggest benefit.
It’s difficult to parse social media chatter, and as stated above you can’t really consider capital-C Criticism without losing yourself. So the market is the only truth.
Not “is this good?” The market rarely has a handle on that. Rather, “is this something people want?” Which is good information to have. It’s exceedingly difficult to pull anything from comics data, because every situation feels different. But a true miss is good in the respect that there’s no mental negotiation to do. The book was just not wanted.
I get that none of this matters when you feel shit on. But it’s fun to rebuild. Maybe not if you’re 60. But when you’re still in your prime years, it’s a hell of a project.
A/V SEGMENT
I treat what kids might call “infoslop” videos as my daily crossword puzzle. The challenge is to hear the factoids and generate a comics-suitable story out of them.
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Charming revenge movie. Great lead actor. Supporting cast was fun as hell. Make comics like this. BIG RECOMMEND.
The interiors looked like off-Broadway theatre. And scenes were allowed to go LONG to wring every penny from the cameos. And every aspect of the story relied on coincidence and a specific illogic. So, it is far from a brilliant film. But as a cultural snapshot, a pretty damn interesting movie. RECOMMENDED.
I realized while watching Last Embrace that I’m a cinema philosemite. I like movies about Jews, doing Jewish things, draped in all types of Jewish lore. So 3/5 of the way through this movie when the Jewishness hit, I was locked in. The fact that it took that long does not speak to a well-built movie, however. LITE RECOMMEND.
FROM THE DESIGN FOLDER
I’m getting a ton of really impressive cover art in my inbox and I’d love to share it with you, but I need to hold off until the next series is announced. So instead I’ll do a little promo for my band’s new single, as I really enjoyed the simplicity:
Illustration curtesy of Rio Oka and design by Alan Huck. Single is available for listen now. Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows in Philadelphia and New York. Chicago is on the 20th.
THANKS
Appreciate your eyeballs for another week. I’ll have all sorta news over the next few months and I hope you’ll stick around. Do for self.
No amount of external validation is sweeter than the self-satisfaction of getting to do work you love every day.
That said, money is #2, and then praise, awards, and on and on are distant-to-nonexistent #3.
"Liefeld has a 30 year career" pushes glasses up: UM ACKSHULLY it's 40 years, newb.