Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 01:33:49 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 496 ==== FIT TO PRINT by cathrine yronwode August 12, 1994. THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 496: Miscellanea and moonbeams. LOU MOUGIN of Graham, Texas, is a disc jockey, but he also keeps his hand in as a comic book scripter (on Sparkplug) and fanzine writer (check out his chat with Dan Adkins in the current Comics Interview). Like many free lancers, Lou knows that a good way to get pick up work is to submit script proposals for spin offs dealing with minor characters from popular books. He does this so often that most editors in the biz know his name. Recently, however, he had a weird go round with an entity i can only call "The Editor from Another Planet." Here, let Lou tell it in his own words: "Last week a certain comic book company, which shall remain nameless, threw a script proposal back in my face through the mail. This script was accompanied by a massproduced letter, bearing neither signature nor salutation, which informed me that the company only accepted stories about its own trademarked characters. "The editors, this letter explained, were not interested in seeing stories about a creator's original characters. They were, therefore, returning my story unread, and they informed me that in the future I should not bother sending them anything except a story proposal written about one of their own trademarked characters. "So I bundled the whole thing up and sent it back in another envelope with a cover letter that said, in essence, 'I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but if you'd read what you publish, you'd see that Lady X (a pseudonym) IS one of your trademarked characters!' "The best part of this experience was that once I stopped being depressed, I could laugh myself sick about it. "And people wonder why free lancers give up on this business sometimes." Wow. This is the wildest "rejection letter story" i have heard in a decade! I only wish Lou would let me print the name of the company that doesn't know the names of its own characters! Guess business is growing too fast, huh? What a hoot! MAUS ON CD-ROM: Most of you fans who are also into computer technology are aware that Art Spiegleman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic album Maus has been released on CD-ROM from The Voyager Company (578 Broadway, Suite 406, New York, NY 10012. Phone (212) 431-5199.) Titled _The Complete Maus_, and listing for $59.95, the disk version contains the complete work as published, plus a wealth of supplemental material which will appeal to Art's fans. Included are two hours of audio recordings Art made with his father Vladek, QuickTime movies on the creation of the work, and as you read each page a layout at the lower left of the screen indicating which panels branch out into additional material. Art's experience as a teacher at the School of Visual Arts seems to have played a part in the selection of topics covered in the supplements. He has a strong desire to educate as well as to entertain, and self-examination often forms an unspoken sub-text to his work. Readers who recall the meta-comics Art used to produce for the pages of Arcade and Raw will recognize the same mind at work in such CD-ROM chapters as "Why a CD-ROM?" and "Defining the Page." The Complete Maus is not "someone making Maus into a CD-ROM." It's Artie making Maus into a CD-ROM, and that's what makes it great. COMIC EFFECT: I just received a cool little zine i'd like to tell you about, a bunchy 48-page digest-size quarterly compendium of reviews called Comic Effect. The layout is clean, the printing (on white paper) is fabulous, and the only quirky thing about it is that most of the reviews are not for new stuff. That's right: between opinions on Tarzan: the Beckoning and The Collected Bone you can read editor Jim Kingman's thoughtful analysis of (are you ready for this?) Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #132-133 and Santa Claus Funnies #175! Only in fandom, folks! I love it. A 4-issue (one year) sub is $13.00 from Paloma St. Productions, P. O. Box 2188, Pasadena, California 91102-2188. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Responses are welcome and should be directed to the address above. Fit to Print is Copyright 1994 Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.