Dara Naraghi in Columbus Alive

Talking mostly about Terminator: Salvation and a little bit on Ferret Press. This picture was taken in the same spot in the Laughing Ogre as me when I had my photo taken for my Dispatch article, but he got more dramatic lighting!

Ohayocon 9 1/31-2/1 (anime/manga)

Ohayocon will once again be taking place at the luxurious Hyatt Regency Hotel and the Greater Columbus Convention Center, located in the Downtown area of Columbus, Ohio. For special hotel rates, be sure to call and book early!

Hyatt Regency Columbus
350 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio, 43215
Tel: 614-463-1234
Fax: 614-280-3034

Local Online Review Mag to change format

The new issue is of GutterGeek up, with the following reviews:

Captain America	Fables	House of Mystery	Jamilti
Logicomix	My Brain is Hanging Upside Down	Superman

However, change is afoot, according to their blog, 

After three years as a semi-regular review journal, we are going to be morphing over the course of 2009. The biggest change will be a move from publishing complete “issues” to embracing some of the more natural rhythms of electronic publishing by publishing reviews, articles and other features as they arrive.

So, subscribe to their gutterblog feed (http://guttergeek.com/news/files/blog.xml) and stay up-to-date!

Essential Dykes To Watch Out For Reviewed by American Prospect On-Line

In a post back in '07, I expressed surprise that the liberal political journal The American Prospect would actually devote its cover story to an article on super-hero comics. Alison Bechdel's "Dykes To Watch Out For", on the other hand, seems a more natural fit. Sure enough, a review of the new hardcover collection, The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For, was posted on the mag's web-site yesterday.

new Jeff Smith children's GN

Little Mouse Gets Ready, out September 7.

Akron-Canton Comic Con 1/25

AKRON-CANTON COMIC CONVENTION

Sunday, January 25, 2009
10AM - 4PM
Chapparells Community Center
2418 South Arlington Rd
Akron OH 44319
1 mile north of I-77 and Exit 120 (Arlington Rd)

Admission only $3.oo
Age 6 and under free
Free parking
Guest artists
Hourly door prizes
Free Comic to first 50 people

330.499.6056
jeff@harpercomics.com
www.harpercomics.com

COMIX NEWS: Diamond raises order threshold for pubs [UPDATED]

Diamond Comics Distributors announced this week that they will raise their order minimum from $1500 to $2500, a move that will have an immediate effect on small press publishers. In other words, a given comic (outside of the ones from the corporate publishers) needs to sell $2500 minimum in order for Diamond to carry it and place it in their catalog Previews. Because Diamond is the dominant comics distributor for North America by an overwhelming margin, this will make it much harder for the next Bone or American Splendor to get a fighting chance at success.

Among the many reactions around the Net includes this from Ohio retailer Steve Bennett, in his column at ICv2:

...I never deluded myself into thinking I could make everyone a comic book reader but firmly believed there were comics for everyone, if they’d only give them a chance.

And that’s pretty much over; of course it’s been over for a while now, seeing as how we live in a world where a start up publisher is more interested in publishing (and retailers more interested in ordering) Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes instead of the next American Splendor. And when it comes to self publishing, well, I’ve seen the numbers and heard the horror stories and know just how tough that route can be for someone with a dream but not enough financing to hang in there until there’s enough material to be collected into a trade paperback.

Newsarama has a roundup of other reactions so far.

Bennett offers the internet as a solution for independent publishers, and in this I have to agree. The majority of us here at Sunday Comix publish our work online, either in addition to or in place of print. The rules of the game have changed completely from when I began self-publishing in the mid-90s, and to survive today, one has to learn to adapt.

Speaking for myself here, I think regional distribution is worth pursuing for print publishers. To the right you'll see a list of retailers in the Central Ohio area. If you're a creator, hit them up and talk to them about carrying your book, and think further down the road about going state-wide and even Midwest region-wide. It's a longer road to travel, but if it keeps your book afloat, it's an option worth pursuing.

UPDATE: Diamond's Bill Schanes talks to Newsarama. Highlights:

There will be a lot of vendors, again, “lot” being relative, on the comic book side that we’ll have conversations with about some title reductions – or repackaging or reformatting based on long history of sales where the sales are continuing to decline, so there’s less consumer interest with every issue and they’re already under the old benchmark, so they’ll be under the new benchmark by quite a bit. So maybe have to go to quarterly or bimonthly, or raise the price. Those who are creative can figure out how to continue to exist out there, at least through Diamond...

We’ve always taken a position that there is free access to the marketplace, and we want to help the small guys get bigger and we’ve helped grow many small guys to medium guys and medium guys to beiger guys, and are thrilled when that happens, but it’s not an imminent right to be in the catalog. Not everybody can be on the grocery store shelves with their products. The grocery store has to make some tough choices based on what it thinks the consumer base will want...

...if we see a new comic cross our door that looks promising, with a good concept or a good creative team, we’re going to give it a try. But when we have a brand new creator or a brand new talent team, that’s a judgment call. Hopefully we make the right call based on our years of experience here, but we may occasionally miss one. There are times that some creators have called me and said that they think we missed a good one, and sometimes we agree, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s a healthy dialogue, and we’re very open-minded with that.

So from a small presser's perspective, distribution by Diamond should no longer be looked upon as the automatic next step after completing the book. It's easy to think that way; I know I used to. Pursue alternatives, even if it's only on the local level. Another option is digital distribution. Check out this CBR piece about iVerse Media's plan for putting comics on iPhones and iPods.

Bob Corby's OH Comics

"I started sending mini-comics out in the late 80's to anybody willing to trade with me. Mostly to small pressers with reviews in Tim Corrigan's Small Press Comics Explosion. It was a pretty isolated experience back then. I did finally start to see some local guys with listings after awhile. Local people like Michael N. Neno, Mike Toth and also regional people like Jim Pack, Larry Blake, Larry Nibert, Ian Shires and Allen Freeman. That's one of the reasons I started Oh,Comics (or Ohio Comics) was because there seemed to be so many people doing the same thing I was attempting alone."

Bob Corby

Pekar talks 'Leave Me Alone' opera

“I don’t know if a lot of people would call it an opera... But the Real Time Opera Company offered me money to write the libretto for an opera, so I figured ‘why not?’ These days, I hate to turn money down.”

Harvey Pekar

SPACE Prize Winner Announced

I have just posted on the Official SPACE Blog, Cosmo's Corner, the announcement of the winner of the first annual SPACE Prize, as well as an interview with the winner.
The SPACE Prize, consisting of a plaque and a check for $300, honors excellence in self published small press comics. It was created as a successor to the Day Prize, which was awarded annually at SPACE by Cerebus creator Dave Sim from 2002 to 2008. Shortly after this year's show, Sim decided to stop doing conventions, thus discontinuing the Day Prize. So SPACE organizer Bob Corby stepped in to create the SPACE Prize.
The SPACE Prize will be presented at the 2009 SPACE show, which will take place on April 18th and 19th in beautiful Columbus, Ohio.

Naraghi writes Terminator: Salvation prequel

5-page preview here.

belated Xmas gift courtesy of James Thurber

This is an audio file of a reading of Thurber's "A Visit from Saint Nicholas in the Ernest Hemingway Manner."