tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post7145159250907848382..comments2024-03-18T20:18:53.674-05:00Comments on A MOMENT OF CEREBUS: The Fantagraphics Offer: Update #13A Moment Of Cerebushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02718525538144698138noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-70880700776799663002012-10-08T00:57:48.550-05:002012-10-08T00:57:48.550-05:00Well, how about that? http://www.comicsreporter.c...Well, how about that? http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/letters/40454/<br /><br />Ask and you shall receive. The very next day. I wish life always worked like this. Thanks!Andrei Molotiuhttp://blotcomics.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-69318245773269760692012-10-05T14:50:42.964-05:002012-10-05T14:50:42.964-05:00This is very informative and encouraging news. I p...This is very informative and encouraging news. I plan to buy at least the first few digital HS packages, not because I have any interest at all in reading comics on a computer screen (beyond stick figures telling geeky in-jokes in four panels or less), but because I want to support both Dave Sim the cartoonist and Dave Sim, Inc. (or Ltd. I guess it would be in Canada). It sounds like if he gets some positive marketplace response here it'll lead to other goodies, so I'm in. I can live with my 278 "floppies" for a few more years.Tony Dunlopnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-3479358101878447112012-10-05T14:23:26.804-05:002012-10-05T14:23:26.804-05:00I really think we need to get past the possible hu...I really think we need to get past the possible hurdle of the three non-negotiables above before I spend any more time on this (Dave appears to have loosened his grip on the FORM AND VOID thing, but the two others are very much up in the air), and getting into minutiae of format seems like a waste of time at this juncture.<br /><br />One thing that confuses me slightly about the HIGH SOCIETY scans/negatives crisis: wouldn't the foreign publishers who've released their editions of the book have repro-quality scans of all save the lettering?Kim Thompsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-68482725566460279702012-10-05T12:32:31.352-05:002012-10-05T12:32:31.352-05:00"The "negotiation" has spun into a ..."The "negotiation" has spun into a number of directions that were the equivalent of deciding what color to paint the walls and we hadn't even agreed on whether to build the house."<br /><br />I thought that was a Marx Brothers movie.<br /><br />Kim, unless I missed it somewhere on that thread - which is entirely possible - you never threw out any possible suggestions for the packaging beyond including some context and breaking up the phone books format.<br /><br />That's all well and good, but what do you do with the pages once you've taken the out of that format? This isn't snark, I understand if you don't want to give any top-of-your-head ideas, but I'm genuinely curious how you think the property should be approached for packaging.<br /><br />Christopher WoernerChrisWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18322950015727553689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-88771357992631510252012-10-05T11:36:22.767-05:002012-10-05T11:36:22.767-05:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Robert Kehlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-42407086595103598552012-10-05T11:31:32.870-05:002012-10-05T11:31:32.870-05:00@ mateor -
It would certainly be a huge improvemen...@ mateor -<br />It would certainly be a huge improvement over the currently closing posts, which are just utterly insulting for the sake of being insulting. Keeping my fingers crossed that the dialog can happen in neutral cyber territory (not on tcj.com), or, if on tcj.com, that a list of names be chosen up front by both parties, and only those people have posting privileges. Slumbering Agarthahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11926670297818515972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-27307468562544619872012-10-05T11:04:28.789-05:002012-10-05T11:04:28.789-05:00Detailed and reasonable response on all levels. I ...Detailed and reasonable response on all levels. I am going to request that TCJ append this to their thread, even if closed.mateorhttp://www.github.com/mateornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-80880004764520603472012-10-05T10:47:11.938-05:002012-10-05T10:47:11.938-05:00Hi Dave,
I have to say, I'm a bit exhausted b...Hi Dave,<br /><br />I have to say, I'm a bit exhausted by all this. The "negotiation" has spun into a number of directions that were the equivalent of deciding what color to paint the walls and we hadn't even agreed on whether to build the house. Your 1200 words mulling over the wisdom of having Chester Brown write the intro were kind of a breaking point for me.<br /><br />For simplicity's sake, and I hate to sound intransigent or curt but it seems to be the only way to focus this, there are three non-negotiable criteria on our end. (1) We will not start anywhere other than at or near the beginning of CEREBUS (i.e. no later than HIGH SOCIETY); the FORM AND VOID idea is DOA. (2) There is no "deep" examination of Fantagraphics' financials, your opening demand, in the cards. (3) The misogynist/gender-issues/shunning-of-Dave aspect CANNOT be part of this discussion and WOULD not be part of the promotional context for the series if it were to come to fruition; bringing it up is a lose/lose proposition. So if any of those conditions present an insurmountable bar for you, the negotiations are stone cold dead and that's it.<br /><br />I hope the projects you outline above come to successful fruition, that CEREBUS continues to be available and you continue to reap enough fruits from your labor to create more new work. As someone with enormous respect for your work, I made a good faith effort to possibly contribute to this, and it's too bad it (I'm assuming) came to naught, but so it goes.Kim Thompsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-22722084089666728142012-10-05T10:30:53.489-05:002012-10-05T10:30:53.489-05:001) Currently, digital appears to be selling just a...1) Currently, digital appears to be selling just a fraction of *new* print goods -- we're told in the "15%" range -- though it is less clear what happens with old backlist items.<br /><br />2) I have any number of books on my shelf meant to be passed down to my children, so let's not just look at our individual lifetimes.<br /><br />3) Don't worry about "double dipping" -- the "super fan" "doesn't mind", but the real goal is for the NEW readership.<br /><br />4) Generally, readers judge work based on their reaction to the work, so I wouldn't look at Glamourpuss to prove or deny anything about the commerciality of "Upscale Cerebus" (as it were) -- x number of people want Sandman, but only y are interested in Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days (even though MD has his *name* in the *title*<br /><br />-BBrian Hibbshttp://www.comixexperience.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-11232220355839806982012-10-05T09:03:32.383-05:002012-10-05T09:03:32.383-05:00Very pertinent (in case anyone missed it): "I...Very pertinent (in case anyone missed it): "I didn't really think there was much point in promoting HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL to the comic-book field generally (which I assumed had the same fixed attitude about me that it had evinced 4 years ago on the glamourpuss launch tour -- I'm beginning to think I might have been wrong about that)."<br /><br />And I agree with Dom, negotiations may have gone quite differently (and swiftly) had Kim T. been made privvy to the above details. <br /><br />Has anyone sent a link to this post to Kim Thompson?<br /><br />Tim?<br />Eric Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04092745122835543138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-26304996689755354982012-10-05T08:19:26.801-05:002012-10-05T08:19:26.801-05:00I didn't mean to post anonymously. I forgot I...I didn't mean to post anonymously. I forgot I even had a "handle" with my Google account.<br /><br />---Andrew McIntoshOctafishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12463323572195528848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-57339290475188643472012-10-05T08:17:20.926-05:002012-10-05T08:17:20.926-05:00Hey, Dave, some of us don't just want pretty &...Hey, Dave, some of us don't just want pretty "hardcovers that will last a lifetime", and some of us are not looking at these things as an investment. Personally, I'm looking for a book design that makes the contents accessible. I'm not looking for gold foil, oversized, fully-annotated collectors' edition garbage.<br /><br />I sold off my whole <em>Cerebus</em> floppy collection with the intention of picking up the phonebooks in order to make the series more accessible to me (and my kids when they get old enough---I'm not precious about my books. Books are meant to be read). I stopped buying them after I got to <em>Flight</em> because the printing and binding was ruining the experience for me---the two-page spreads suffered in particular, and there was a <em>lot</em> of smeared & smudged ink. That means you've lost the sale on the remaining nine volumes from me because of your disregard for the quality of the physical books. It's not a matter of them being "worn around the edges", so I want a sturdier upgrade---I bought them two years ago, and I hated them two years ago. I'm not going to buy new volumes when they wear out---in fact, I'm not going to buy over half the volumes at all now. Even though I'm already sold on the content.<br /><br />Fantagraphics has managed to put out beatifully designed, well-bound, durable and affordable editions of the <em>Carl Barks Library</em>, for example. And <em>accessible</em>---easy to hold, easy to read. That would be my ideal package, but I'd settle for paperbacks or some other format if they weren't garbage. I'm gainfully employed and my money's waiting to be spent.<br /><br />You might want to think of the library audience, too. Sturdy, accessible volumes would be much more attractive to a library. That'd be more sales, plus another way to build an audience. I know I've bought countless books after having read them at the library, and I know plenty of others who do the same.Octafishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12463323572195528848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-18248703347387101762012-10-05T07:43:42.157-05:002012-10-05T07:43:42.157-05:00Wow. Very interesting and informative. Thanks for ...Wow. Very interesting and informative. Thanks for the detailed explanation. If this had been the first or second post at TCJ, I suspect that discussion might have ended up going very differently.Dominick Gracenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2837001751311078781.post-83570883550809034332012-10-05T05:00:21.352-05:002012-10-05T05:00:21.352-05:00Hi Dave--I suggested this already on the TCJ threa...Hi Dave--I suggested this already on the TCJ thread, but thought I would ask you directly. I already own all the phonebooks, so probably would not purchase the Fanta books if they got published. However, there is talk of including the covers to the individual issues in them. For readers who do already have the phonebooks, would you please consider publishing one more book with all the covers in it (hopefully both front and back, where applicable)? Thanks.Andrei Molotiuhttp://blotcomics.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com