This past weekend I attended the Gem City Comic Con! A big thanks to the organizers for inviting me!
The general reception from attendees was positive,
with some casual indifference and a few people who were politely
hostile toward Cerebus.
Laura, occasional letterer for CIH?, mans the table at Gem City. Not pictured-Me. D'oh!
Seeing people react to
CIH? in person brought a new view to the CIH? experience. I
brought copies of SUPER CEREBUS, CEREBUS WOMAN, SIM CITY and SIM CITY THAT
ISSUE AFTER, as well as some of the other books
I worked on. SIM CITY was by far the most commented on of the books and the best seller. Super Cerebus sold the next
best, followed by CRISIS OF INFINITE CEREBI. JINGLES and
CODPIECE were commented on, but didn't sell many copies. One surprised CIH? reader came up and told me that CIH? is his
favorite comic coming out today and that JINGLES is his favorite
issue.
Unofficial winner of most "Eye Catching Cover"!
The four big things I took away from the show
were:
1) There is a portion of the Cerebus
audience that doesn't know the book exists and were excited to find there were several new Cerebus books to buy.
2) The layout of the book is REALLY
confusing. Two people asked me how to read the book. The first guy
thought it was read from the last page, and read forward. The
second guy bought a copy of SIM CITY and came back an hour later for
instructions on how to read it.
Perhaps if enough people comment on the format, we'll eventually convince Dave to change it to the format below.
Imagine that this image was rotated 90 degrees Clockwise, and you'll have an idea what the book could look like.
3) The ALL NUMBER ONES! gimmick
definitely confuses new readers. Several people asked if the books
were variant covers. This might only be a problem
when all the books are sitting out together.
Next Week: The delayed, but highly anticipated, reveal of the FINAL version of the cover for COLOUR YOUR OWN CEREBUS IN HELL? #1
7 comments:
Some of us talked about the format way back when we reviewed it originally....
http://atomicjunkshop.com/cerebus-hell-comics-fans-heaven/
And some of us will now resume referring to ourselves in the first person and not third....
Don’t change the format! Changing it halfway through will only cause more confusion. It may not be entirely logical, but it ain’t rocket science. Also, making all issues number #1 is one of the best Jokes in this Age of Reboots. It’s all there plain to see and explained on the back-page advert.
Michiel
I don't understand why CIH? wasn't printed Six Crises-style in the first place. Maybe it has something to do with initially not being narrative-driven, but now that the strips tell a "story" we want it to tell a story, if not a Story, or at least a "Story." Dave's format makes that much more difficult. Every issue it feels like I'm reading Bizarro manga.
Maybe it’s time to consider a ‘Cerebus in Hell - Reboot’... not exactly unheard of in the comics scene!
‘Cerebus in Hell - Reboot’...
Good idea; start over at issue #1.
Seriously? If you are too stupid to figure it out you don't deserve it. If you need to make excuses any changes are just going to create new excuses for you not to buy. I don't think anyone is getting rich off of 1500 copies but at least it is holding there. The upcoming titles should start a shitstorm, which of course will be by people who aren't reading the book anyway.
Right on! Looks like we made a great CIH? Cover Benjamin! It's always nice to see how the public responds to these sort of things. Its helps too though that it's a solid spoof of a pretty well known cover, at least amongst old school comic fans.
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