Friday 22 April 2016

Weekly Update #131: Eisners, Hemingway & Reads


Featured in this week's update:
 - The Puma Blues is nominated for an Eisner Award!
 - Hidden Hemingway to feature Form & Void at 2016 Biennial Conference.
 - The upcoming remastered Reads will make all 16 Cerebus volumes "back in print... finally!"
 - Dave reads and reviews Barry Deutsch's Hereville Vol 3: How Mirka Caught A Fish.

13 comments:

Dominick Grace said...

Dude! You left his cell number audible?????

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a clock is too close to the mic during the opening phone call, Dave. Also, you left Drew's phone number in the video.

Is there a formal plan in place to use the free comics to drive sales? It's really nice to be giving away the comics you have in inventory -- what's the next step? Are you giving recipients flyers or order forms, so they can buy the phonebooks? Bagging, boarding, and printing certificates of authenticity will become costly over time. How are the freebies being positioned as promotional materials to generate revenue? For example, the Hemingway event seems like an opportunity to sell copies of Form & Void -- either up-front, or after the conference concludes.

Don't know if all of this seems blandly practical to blog readers, I'm just hoping that the giveaway turns into a moneymaker to finance the ongoing well-being of A-V and pay for your daily bread.

--Claude Flowers


Karen Pratt Smith-Zulli said...

Mirka sounds and looks fantastic! Thank you for the review - I'll be looking it up. p.s...... why is it that human beings tend to perennially look for the negatives when online? (re: your update/phone numbers, give-aways, etc). Hey people, let's look up for once - it is springtime and there is much to be happy and grateful for. And that reminds me, You made me smile. Thank you, Dave, and I hope that you enjoy a great weekend -

Karen

Barry Deutsch said...

Is anyone else getting a "this video is private" message when they try to view the video?

(Or maybe that's on purpose, and the video has been taken down while Drew's phone number is edited out?)

In any case, thanks very much for the review, Dave - I'll look forward to being able to view it!

And thank you, Karen - I hope you enjoy Hereville. I've been a Puma Blues reader since the very first issue.

Glen said...

@Barry


Yes, I'm getting the "this video is private" message.


I think maybe someone has flipped the YouTube privacy settings by mistake.

al roney said...

Can't watch vid? Need to sign in? Wuzzup with that?

A Moment Of Cerebus said...

Apologies. All fixed now.
Tim

Eddie said...

Awesome! Maybe he'll want to use some of the photos I took with FORM & VOID at Hemingway's home and hang outs in Cuba?

http://momentofcerebus.blogspot.ca/2013/12/ernest-hemingway-in-cuba.html

Let me say for the record F&V was an absolute pleasure to work with on the shoot; a consummate professional, always showed up on time, never hung over or wasted (unlike some other Graphic Novels I could mention). Didn't even have to use any photoshop shenanigans to touch up the pictures and cover up any indications of hard core partying from the night before! I highly recommend FORM & VOID for your next Hemingway based photo op!

There's also a very minor reference to Hemingway's FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS in the beginning of PUMA BLUES when the Jack character is retelling his dream to his class and there's an image of death holding a telephone receiver and saying "It's for you." It's not strictly a depiction of Hemingway in comics, but the Jack character at the time does look Hemingway-esq with his beard (not sure if he was drawn intentionally to be reminiscent of him).

Unknown said...

We're being VERY philosophical about the FREE CEREBUS copies. With a MINIMUM estimate of 40,000 MAXIMUM estimate of 100,000 copies anything that looks like a "good fit" we're just going ahead with no second-guessing. An Ernest Hemingway event in Oak Park with a seminar on "Ernest Hemingway in comics" seems a "good fit".

Apart from that, Wes has 100 copies of each of the CEREBUS BI-WEEKLIES in store at THE COMIC-BOOK WAREHOUSE here in town: just drop by and ask and he or a member of his staff will be happy to give you one copy of each. We also have a very helpful volunteer who is taking copies to comic-book conventions and circulating them there. He's even contributed 7,000 bags and boards. We're not ready to talk about HIM yet, but he's also working on a translation of the first 5 issues of CEREBUS. Announcement soon!

Jeff Seiler said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Dave. As it turns out, it hasn't been incredibly great weather here in the Florida panhandle (until today). In fact, the other day, it was a chilly 75°F, due to a very stiff breeze while, back in Minneapolis (whence I came, and where they are mourning Prince) it was 79°F!

But, today, it is sunny without a cloud in the sky and 80°F,there is live music on the beach, very friendly Parrotheads with whom to chill, good food at the venue (shout-out to Sharky's), and a silent auction. Last night, I won a gift basket and didn't even have to pay for my raffle ticket.

As to "Reading Reads", I still have to get the photos to Tim because they also didn't "stick" the first time I sent them to him. And I should probably update the text of it to include the latest go-'round--having to correct the corrected corrections...

Jeff Seiler said...

Oh!

I forgot to add:

I'm about 40 pages from being done with proofing "Reads" for the...

?

Fourth?

Time...

If it doesn't stick this time, well...

then...

We're just gonna hafta reinvent the printing press!

iestyn said...

Surely there's at least a cost saving on not having to STORE the comics anymore, so that's kind of a long term profit/ return?

Unknown said...

Hi iestyn! That's very much a LONG-TERM thing.

Short term, we're using three storage spaces with the ambition of getting that down to two ASAP. The problem is a certain amount of space is required just to keep all of the boxes and their issue nos. visible and in a sensible order so that when a situation like the possible Hemingway Offload comes up, Sandeep and Fisher can not only find the books, but they can also tell how many boxes there are.

At the moment, having that visibility/access as a priority -- and it's definitely in the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED category -- means that DEPARTURES are mostly accounted for vertically instead of horizontally.

And floorspace is really what we're paying for.

And don't call me Shirley. :)