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Author Archive | Jesse Russell

Image Expo reaches effective frequency

By on November 12, 2013 in Conventions

imageexpoConsidering how successful the 2012 and 2013 Image Expos were for the 21-year-old company it comes as a no surprise the company’s hosting a third in 2014. The surprise in the announcement is that Image Expo will be making a return to San Francisco’s  Yerba Buena Center for the Arts only six months after the previous expo.

Image seems to have learned that by hosting a solo event they can command headlines in a way that’s impossible during a large convention due to the “quantity over quality” convention reporting of many comic news websites. By hosting the Image Expo on January 9 the company is carving out a little island in the middle of what amounts to the convention doldrums. In recent years the headline producing convention season has been book-ended by Emerald City in March and either Comikaze Expo or New York Comic Con in October or November. There are very good reasons for not hosting a convention between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, but it’s important to remember that the Image Expo is first and foremost for retailers and media. Image has essentially adopted and twisted the convention model used by large companies who want to get all of their clients in one place to announce new product developments or highlight best uses.

In 2012, Image Expo was criticized for the lack of female creators on the stage. While not completely excusable (there were a number of titles being promoted that featured women) it is worth noting that  Image Expo, unlike traditional conventions, had a much smaller pool of creators to tap when navigating availability and schedules. The company has made efforts to not repeat that error with 33 percent of their 2014 announced creators being women. Taking the stage will be Pretty Deadly‘s co-creator Kelly Sue DeConnick and Beast‘s Marian Churchland. Churchland has kept busy doing beautiful illustrations for titles such as Elephantmen  and Madame Xanadu, but hasn’t released a solo book since Beast, so it’s likely she’ll be announcing a new project.

Other creators in attendance will include Super Dinosaur‘s Robert Kirkman, Satellite Sam‘s Matt Fraction, Fear Agent‘s Rick Remender, and Prophet‘s Brandon Graham. Kirkman, Fraction, and Remender were also in attendance at Image Expo 2013 to announce new projects or give updates on existing endeavors.
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DIY Comics: Conversion rates of crowdfunding

By on November 1, 2013 in Commentary

Independent comic creators turning to crowdfunding to get projects off the ground has become common. Results tend to be mixed with some striking their goal and flat-lining, some barely getting out the gate and failing, and the rare few that go viral and raise mountains of cash above and beyond the goal.  As a regular contributor to crowdfunded projects I’ve developed a fairly good sense for what will fail and what will be successful. Knowing the trends is important, because even if a project does receive all of the requested funding that doesn’t mean it’ll be successful.

In addition to supporting projects I’ve been on the other side by successfully launching a project using a lesser known crowdfunding platform called StartSomeGood. Making the decision to choose SSG wasn’t easy. At the time it was very new to the crowdfunding game, so it didn’t have the reach of Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. We knew that if we chose SSG the success would be completely contingent on our ability to get the word out. Our final decision to choose SGG was due to two reasons. First of all, their mission was specifically targeted at nonprofits and we were raising these funds as a nonprofit. It was a good fit in that sense. The clincher was the “tipping point” model. In order to build the foundation for what we wanted to do we knew we needed to raise at the least $3500. If we raised a dime less than that the funding would have been pointless. We also knew that in order to completely fund the project and go above and beyond we’d need $10,000 and we wanted people to know that. SSG makes the tipping point and ideal funding goal posts very visible.

We were able to raise $1501 beyond our tipping point goal which was more than we needed to get started. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with SSG. The team behind the site constantly provided input on how to make the campaign most successful and we’re quick to respond to queries. One of the founders even contributed to our campaign, which meant a great deal to me.

Knowing I’ll likely be doing a new crowdfunded project in the future I keep an eye on the trends, especially when it comes to determining which site will be the best to use. If I’m raising money for freelance journalists again I’d likely return to SSG. However, if I’m doing something more personal, like trying to fund a comic, I’d probably go with either Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.

This morning Compete released a study comparing the conversion rates of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. The study shows that Kickstarter, being the current market leader with the highest traffic rate, is also the best when it comes to visitors completing the pledge process. IndieGoGo, with half the traffic of Kickstarter, has been closing in on the more popular sites conversion rate. IndieGoGo could be doing much better and the studies author deduces “if I were Indiegogo, this would be the most concerning. Although a 58% abandonment rate is on track with ecommerce averages, it is nowhere near the 35% abandonment rate their direct competitor is seeing.”

Why is IndieGoGo’s abandonment rate so high?
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Make*A*Wish: San Francisco to become Gotham City for a day

By on October 30, 2013 in Ephemera
Miles as Batman

Miles as Batman from Make*A*Wish

The Make*A*Wish Foundation will turn part of San Francisco into Gotham City on November 15 to fulfill the dream of 5-year-old Miles to become Batman. Miles, who has leukemia, is currently in training for his big day when he’ll save Gotham City from the Riddler and the Penguin while riding around in an actual Batmobile. Of course, Miles can’t do it alone, the Foundation is seeking volunteers to help call on Miles to save a “famous Gotham City mascot.” Below details from the Make*A*Wish Foundation website where they’ll be providing more information about the big day soon.

Miles may only be 5 years old, but he is fighting a very adult battle – one that we hope will save his life. Miles has leukemia.  He is a sunny, positive little boy and finds his inspiration in super heroes. When we interviewed Miles for a wish, he surprised even his parents:  he wishes to BE Batman!

The day starts with a breaking news story. Gotham City’s Police Chief asks if anyone knows the whereabouts of Batman because he needs his help solving crime and bringing the bad guys to justice. Our little Batman, Miles, in training with adult Batman, is ready to answer the call! Of course Batman will be riding in the “real” batmobile around the City, saving the day and performing feats of derring-do!

After rescuing a damsel in distress from the cable car tracks in Nob Hill, and capturing the Riddler in the act of robbing a downtown vault, Batman will eat his lunch at the Burger Bar in San Francisco – directly above Union Square.  While at Burger Bar, he will get a call on his batphone to go to the window – where he will look down and see a huge group of volunteers jumping up and down asking for Batman’s help.  Why?

Because the Penguin will be kidnapping a famous Gotham City mascot!  The getaway car will be visible on Union Square (a convertible so that everyone can see what is happening), and the chase will be on!

After catching the Penguin, Batman will make his final stop at City Hall, where the Mayor and the Police Chief of Gotham City will thank him and give him the key to the city. We plan on having hundreds of volunteers and donors collected to cheer and thank our Batman! This is a great opportunity to see the magic of a wish in action – and a perfect outing for kids, grandkids and Bat-fans everywhere!

Dead Universes (Part IV): Defiant Comics reading order

By on October 28, 2013 in Dead Universes

defiant comics logoOf the four Dead Universes I’m currently collecting, the death of Defiant Comics was the most disappointing. Valiant had a long enough run that it didn’t feel premature when it died. Marvel did a great job sucking all of the satisfaction out the Ultraverse after they purchased it from Mailbu, so it didn’t feel like a great loss when it finally folded in on itself. Comics’ Greatest World never quite grabbed me. Defiant, however, was something special that never had the opportunity to reach its full potential. The Defiant universe, much like Valiant, stood apart from the other universes, because it didn’t build itself on the foundation of tired comic book tropes. The Defiant universe didn’t have analogs for Superman, Batman, or the X-Men. Many of the characters that kicked off the universe felt fresh and inspired.

Defiant Comics: Dark Dominion and Warriors of Plasm

The launch title for Defiant Comics was Warriors of Plasm and it started the reader off not on Earth, but instead a hungry, living, alien planet. The planet gives the inhabitants everything they need from itself and therefore it needs to constantly feed. This is done by conquering planets. A rift in the Universe opens and Earth is discovered and it’s this discovery that leads to a quintet of Earthlings receiving powers.

Defiant Comics Dark Dominion

Of those titles starting the universe, and the one that brought me back to this dead universe, was Dark Dominion. Steve Ditko, who only penciled part of the first issue before walking away, deserves a great deal of credit for inspiring what Jim Shooter would eventually create. According to Shooter:

He wanted a character who wasn’t bitten by a radioactive anything, or from another planet, or injected with chemicals. Whatever the character could do that was special, if anything, he wanted to be the result of his own efforts, his own thinking. If empowered, empowered in some novel, creative way by his own mind. And why does it always have to be a young guy? Why not an older man? Steve also didn’t want another muscular bodybuilder type. No mansions, no Batmobiles, no costumes. And no “official” super hero name. A real, regular person name—though he allowed that others who didn’t know his name might call the guy by some more dramatic appellation.

What Shooter produced was a 54-year-old superhero named Michael Alexander who spent his life working to overcome human fears. Pushing his fears aside granted Michael access to the “Quantum Substratum” where he could see the “Dark Dominion.” Stepping into this world allows one the ability to see the true form of fears and how they unknowingly latch onto humans.
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Dead Universes (part III): Reading order

By on October 18, 2013 in Dead Universes

ghostDeciding how to read a Dead Universe informs the best way to collect a Dead Universe. Do you read it series-by-series, as it came out when originally published, or in some sort of chronological order? Knowing this will help determine how to invest in Dead Universes.

Chronological Reading Order

Reading a Universe in chronological order is tempting, especially if the publisher had taken time to plot out a rough skeleton of the timeline. This is easiest with Defiant due to less than 60 issues being published thanks to Marvel’s company killing lawsuit. The website ShooterWorks.com has posted notes from the never published universe-wide crossover event, Schism, which helps establish a solid reading order. Using those notes and my own reading of the titles I’ve built a preferred Defiant Comics chronology.

The original Valiant Universe (VH1), on the other hand, had a long and healthy life before greed drove the universe into the ground. Due to that long publishing life putting the whole thing into a chronological reading order would be a bit of a bear. Thankfully, Joshua Eves at ValiantFans.com enjoys wrestling bears and did the heavy lifting to establish a timeline. While it would definitely be interesting to read the universe in this order it would require waiting until all of the relevant issues have been collected. Putting that collection together will take time and money because it isn’t very often someone puts up for sale an entire lot of all published Valiant issues.

Series-by-Series Reading Order

Steve Englehart, one of the founding fathers of the Ultraverse, has said the intention was “from the outset to share the playground and join in each other’s games,” so there’s a great deal more crossover in the Ultraverse than some of the other Dead Universes. That makes a chronological reading enticing. However, if you include everything published, including after the accursed Marvel buyout, there are nearly 800 single issues in the Ultraverse. Subtracting the issues after the Marvel takeover you’re still looking at more than 500 single issues. It isn’t as many as the Valiant Universe, but it would still take a great deal of work to figure out the rough chronology. Of course, there’s far less time jumping in the Ultraverse than in Valiant, so arguably someone could read the issues as they initially hit the market and probably come close to a chronology.

I’ve decided to read Malibu’s Ultraverse series-by-series based on when that series started. As an example, Prime, Hardcase, and The Strangers were first to market in June 1993, so I’ll read those all the way through starting with The Strangers which is considered the launch title of the universe. Next would be Freex and Mantra which both came out in July 1993. Those would be followed by Exiles and Prototype (August 1993), The Solution (September 1993), Sludge and Night Man (October 1993), so on and so forth. It’ll be interesting to first see the Ultraverse evolve entirely through the eyes of Prime and then see how it all connects through the perspective of Night Man.
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Last Gasp’s Ron Turner to be roasted at LitQuake

By on October 15, 2013 in Performance

lastgaspWhen I wrote about comic related events at San Francisco’s LitQuake this year I made one glaring omission: LitQuake’s 2013 Barbary Coast Award Roast of Last Gasp’s Ron Turner.

Last Gasp is perhaps one of the most well known “comix” publishers from the 1970s. Many other underground publishers were hit hard by a 1973 Supreme Court ruling that local communities could determine what was too indecent to be protected by the First Amendment, but Last Gasp benefited from the liberalism of the Bay Area (unfortunately, this ruling had ripple effects in more conservative regions of the country greatly reducing off-the-rack sales for underground comix overall). Last Gasp has provided publishing opportunities for a long list of alternative creators including R. Crumb in the 70s, Bill Griffith in the 80s, Frank Kozik in the 90s, Mark Ryden in the aughts.

Wednesday night the storied company will be honored as it receives LitQuakes 2013 Barbary Coast Award in conjunction with a roast of Last Gasp founder Ron Turner. The event starts at 8 p.m. in Z Space, 450 Florida St in San Francisco. Tickets and more details are available here.

Dead Universes (part II): Best Practices

By on October 14, 2013 in Dead Universes
Marvel's ad after they bought out Ultraverse.

Marvel’s ad after they bought out Ultraverse.

Thursday I kicked off what’s intended to be a long running series dedicated to the exploration of Dead Universes. Today’s post is dedicated to looking at some of the ‘best practices’ for individuals who think they may want to get into reading or collecting Dead Universes.

1. Have a game plan. Know what you want to collect in advance and how you’ll go about doing it. I haven’t jumped into the original Valiant Universe yet for two reasons. The first is I have a substantial number of Valiant titles in my long boxes, which are 2000 miles away. It’ll be cheaper to mail them across the country over Christmas than to buy duplicates of the first 20 issues of Magnus, Solar, Harbinger, and Archer & Armstrong. The second is I haven’t quite figured out how much of the Valiant universe I want to read. I know I’ll stick through Jim Shooter’s run, but will I seek out everything up until Acclaim tried to turn the company into a video game promotional unit?

For Ultraverse, my demarcation line is roughly Godwheel. That’s when Marvel heroes first started coming into the Ultraverse and when the quality of the titles started to decline significantly.

2. Buy complete runs when possible. This is a bit of advice I wish I’d known going into my quest to acquire Ultraverse titles. Sure you might be able to get Prime 1-10 for $5, but you’ll have a harder time completing the rest of the series. Readers tend to decline the longer a series goes on (which is why Marvel and DC keep canceling and restarting titles), so there are fewer of the later issues in the resale marketplace.

3. Shop around. There’s a vendor on ebay currently selling a complete run of Freex for $45, which is much too high. One month ago I purchased a complete run for $15 ($20 with shipping). I have a rule to never pay more than the number of issues in the run, so essentially $1 per issue. It’s worth repeating that I’m collecting for the stories and not potential future value, so if you want an all near mint line you’ll likely be pay more.

4. Don’t be afraid to wait. If you’re unhappy with the price results coming back don’t be afraid to wait. My generation, the one that grew up during the comic Universe boom of the 90s, is getting to an age where many of us are embarrassed to have junk in our parent’s basement or we need to sacrifice long boxes to make space in our homes for baby cribs.

Next week I’ll take a look at “reading orders” of Dead Universes.

Dead Universes (part I): Reading Dead Universes

By on October 10, 2013 in Dead Universes

defiantA few years ago I had an itch to reread the Dark Dominion series from Defiant Comics. Not having my original issues readily available I went to ebay to see if I could get them at a reasonable price. Plugging “Defiant Comics” into the search led me to a vendor selling not only every issue of Dark Dominion, but nearly every single issue published by Defiant between 1993 and 1994 for $30. My pulse quickened as I realized I could own a nearly complete universe. He was only missing the two issues of Prudence & Caution and the Warriors of Plasm and Dark Dominion zero issues.

It was easy enough to track down Prudence & Caution, but the zero issues come as a series of trading cards that puzzle together when placed in order in a binder. There were vendors on ebay selling the fully collected trading cards complete in binders, but while searching I came across someone selling six boxes of Warriors of Plasm cards and four boxes of Dark Dominion cards. The price for all 10 unopened boxes was $20 which at the time seemed like a smart purchase.

When adjusted for inflation everything I purchased (not including the multiple boxes of trading cards) would have cost me more than $220 in 1994.  I only had to spend a little more than $50 so I could read the storyline of an entire shared universe. Having this revelation I realized if I could do it with Defiant I could very likely do it with the other mothballed universes from the 90s.

Some quick googling showed me I wasn’t alone. There’s a vibrant forum dedicated to Dead Universes at Valiantfans.com and a number of blogs documenting efforts to collect entire universes. The magnitude of collecting universes varies. Some collectors are only seeking to have a complete storyline. Others are trying to acquire all of the variant covers and ashcans. On the more extreme end are collectors collecting everything related to the publisher’s universe from action figures to promotional swag to television pilots.

Personally, I’m mostly interested in collecting for the purpose of reading the stories of these universes. Tragically, most have never been collected into trades and in many cases legal kerfuffles make the likelihood they ever will slim at best. That means mining ebay and long boxes at comic shops for the lowest priced floppies.

Of course, Dead Universes stretch all the way back to the Golden Age. For my own personal sanity I’ve limited my current reading to universes that were launched and started to fade between 1991 and 1995. This includes, but is not limited to, Defiant, Malibu’s Ultraverse, Comics Greatest World, and Valiant.

Related Links:

Dead Universes Part 2: Best Practices

Dead Universes Part 3: Choosing a Reading Order

Dead Universes Part 4: Defiant Comics

Signing: William Harms at Escapist October 19

By on October 9, 2013 in Signings
39 Minutes

39 Minutes

Game and comic writer William Harms will be signing copies of his Top Cow book 39 Minutes at The Escapist on October 19. Harms, who’s written for everyone from Marvel to 2K, received IGN’s “Best Story of the 2009” award for the PS3 title InFamous.  In the world of comic writing he’s released a number of independent titles including Impaler and Bad Mojo and has lent his pen to established properties that include Captain America and Wolverine. In August, Top Cow released the hardcover trade paperback of Harms 2010 title 39 Minutes. The title was the company’s 2010 winner of their “Pilot Season” competition where fans determine which one-shot will be developed into a series. Harms will be signing at Escapist, 3090 Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, starting at 3 p.m. The description of 39 Minutes is below:

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