From: [t--mp--n] at [clipper.robadome.com] (Mark Thompson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: CON: Diamond Retailer's Thang Report
Date: 2 Jul 1994 01:34:45 GMT
OK, if Francis is being delayed, I'll pop in here with my
summary of the Con:
The Diamond Retailers Seminar
June 12-14 1994
Baltimore, MD
Highlights and Comments
---------------------------
(Note that I am a cynic and an Indie-lover. My opinions necessarily
cloud my reviews and your mileage definitely varies).
I was fortunate enough to attend the 11th Annual Diamond Retailers
Seminar this year, wearing the hat of my own (fledgling) comic-book
mail order business. Since I specialize in independents and manga,
I was especially keeping my eyes open for the small-press stuff. I
was somewhat disappointed, but only somewhat. Ah, well, I'll be at
San Diego, where there's much more.
Yow - even keeping it brief, this thing is now 350 lines.
Sorry about that.
- Tekno Comix
Never heard of them? Neither had anyone else. But they were the
(background) talk of the Seminar - they had the smoke and mirrors
polished up big time for the Exhibit Room - unbelievable
set up, including a huge, 25-TV Video Wall, and some sort
of smoke machine. The attraction in their booth was that
they had set up a virtual reality arcade game, where you
competed with another player. You put on the goggles and
went around smashing the pterodactyls and stuff. People
thought it was pretty cool.
It didn't escape our notice that they had no *product* to
show, though... their video screen had people *talking*
about these great comic books they were doing in November,
including Neil Gaiman writing "Mr. Hero", about a steam-
powered Victorian-era robot, and Leonard Nimoy writing
about Earth's first contact from outer space. But no samples,
no art, nothing but people *talking* about the books
they were doing. Hmmm...
Well, November *is* a while off yet. I'm reserving judgment
until August, and frankly, I'm kind of hopeful. Some of
the writing talent they have lined up for this imprint is
amazing: Isaac Asimov (he created his comic for them before he
died), Gene Roddenberry (ditto), Anne McCaffrey,
Mickey Spillane, John Jakes, and some others I can't recall.
The organizers of this comic-book company are apparently the
original organizers of the Sci-Fi Channel, which is how
they got to meet and work with Roddenberry and Asimov.
And Nimoy, for that matter.
- Dark Horse
New Nexus series, with Baron and Rude, coming up.
Mask movie looks fantastic (of course). Likewise, they
showed about 15 minutes of "The Shadow" - that looks
*real* good! Much better than I would have thought,
frankly. Comics: Tarzan/Predator at the Earth's Core.
(And they aren't kidding.) Also, Harlan Ellison's
Dream Corridor, adaptations of Harlan stories by
various people. Sounds good.
All in all, they're really pushing diversity. I hope other
dealers/folks were listening. Diamond seemed to give
them a big nod and push...
- DC
Overall, a competent and informative presentation,
mainly focusing on Zero Hour, of course, and
complete with a Q&A session afterwards. The only
Q&A I recall is "When *is* Sandman ending?" DC's
response: "We have no idea. Every time Neil
says he's going to be done at issue such-and-such,
some artist he likes comes up and says 'geez, I'd
*love* to do a Sandman story', and Neil says 'Gee,
I've been thinking about this story that would be
*perfect* for you', and he goes to Karen and asks
'Would it be all right if we extended Sandman
just a *few* issues more?'. And Karen ponders for
all of a few seconds and says 'All right.'"
I think this was Bob Wayne talking. I remember
that he summarized the whole thing with this:
"So if you want Sandman to keep running, keep
introducing Neil Gaiman to artists."
- Marvel
The stupidest comic-book session there (there were stupider
card-company sessions). The "anchor" of their presentation
was a 20-minute video tape where some baseball announcer
is talking about their new books and some established
titles as though they were baseball teams. Very little
hard information. Stupid metaphors which made you just
want to fume: "Generation X - a team of rookies! But
as they step up to bat, will their manager, straight
out of the major leagues, manage to control their firebrand
pitcher?" What the *heck* is that supposed to *mean*?
They didn't bother, for instance, to tell us who
was *doing* the series...
They apologized yet again for the Marvel Mart disaster,
and tossed around some numbers that basically made us realize
they care less and less about comic book fans and
comic book dealers. They're looking to become
Disney (and they said this *proudly*) where they are
marketing their *characters*, not their comic books.
Comics are now only about 35% of the Mighty Marvel Empire
(and that's shrinking). Cards are another 25-30%, and
licensing I guess is the rest (the details are getting
fuzzy now). Opening "Marvel Stores" is just a logical
step. They don't care about the comic book reader anymore -
they care about the *general public*. So if something
they does pisses off readers (oh, say, telling us that
the character we've followed for 15 years hasn't *really*
been Spider-Man), they don't care much - they're aiming at
grabbing Joe Public's attention (like DC did with
Superman 75).
What really ticked me off (and also made me think that Marvel
is getting downright desperate; this is the first time
in recent memory that their market share is down around
30% (instead of ~50% as was the norm not too long ago)):
They actually *said* that dealers should buy more Marvel
comics and "resist the temptation" to buy those nasty
other comics, like Bone and such. They grudgingly
admitted DC might be OK, but that was *it* - they tried
to paint it as "your customers are getting confused -
there's too much product on the shelves. They'd much
rather be seeing their old friends like the Hulk up
there than that new stuff they've never seen before.
And it's much harder to *predict* your sales of those
nasty independents. Wouldn't you rather stay with a
steady, predictable diet of Spider-Man?" *glahhhh*
At first I wanted to scream, but as I thought about it
further, I decided that Marvel's getting desperate
and is resorting to "please buy our books" tactics
and browbeating and bullying. I note they barely
covered their storylines or upcoming books at all.
Apparently what little energy they have left has been
put into strongarm blustering instead of *good books*. :-(
- Image Spaceship
Image's presentation was kinda bland, Beau Smith and Larry
Marder insisting that all was going to be OK, that Image
was going to be fantastic. Riiight. They were willing
to poke fun at themselves (Beau mentioning that something
was "as confusing as listening to Todd count to 21"), but
in general they just kept saying "isn't this all great?!".
I dunno - Larry and Beau are OK guys, but as Beau put it,
he's there just to take the considerable heat Image seems
to generate every time they put their foot in their mouth.
Like, about every couple of weeks or so. :-(
Chris Claremont, though, will be writing an arc of
Shadowhawk (!) (this was announced by Silvestri himself).
Then, there were hints of a "Chris Claremont's Huntsman"
miniseries sometime in '95.
Out in the exhibit room, Image had a giant spaceship, shaped
something like a small shuttle, which you could walk into
(something like an exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry).
It's supposed to be the Youngblood airplane or something.
It's not bad - pretty decent, actually. I breathed a sigh of
relief - that thing was *supposed* to be right in front of me
at WonderCon, but Image couldn't figure out how to transport
it - it's all one piece and it didn't fit on the truck they
had. I guess they found a bigger truck for the Seminar.
I'll bet it'll be at the Chicago Comicon and San Diego Con.
And I'll bet the line to get in will be enormous and it'll
be swamped by 12-year-olds. *sigh*
They showed a film clip from the Youngblood animated show.
It was maybe about 3 minutes long, and just had a battle
of Youngblood versus some robots who just pop up in the
desert. Typically, the battle didn't make much sense.
Even in a 3-minute clip, continuity problems abounded.
I don't see how even *kids* are gonna be able to watch
this with a straight face ("hey! she was *knocked out!*").
- Chris Claremont
He is now:
- writing WildCATS & Shadowhawk for Image
- writing Aliens/Predator for Dark Horse
- writing Prudence & Caution for Defiant
- writing Sovereign Seven for DC
Is this the first time a writer has been working at four
comic companies *simultaneously*? And it's four of the top
five, too - the only one he's not working for is the
one who fired him.
- Topps
Annnounced that Mars Attacks and Zorro are both doing
quite well for them (!) Also announced they have
the rights to do a "Duckman" comic book (starting in
November) and an "X-Files" comic book (starting in
December). There is apparently a Rob Liefeld cover
on 1-of-every-5 copies of the first (just out) issue of
"Victory", the Kirbyverse book. Apparently, after
Jack passed away, Rob called up and said he wanted
to do a cover or something "for Jack". Since Topps
was already booked, artist-wise, they agreed to do a
"limited cover variation" for him.
Yes, this *is* going to be a repeat of the SPlatt
mess from Prophet. *sigh*
- Malibu
Didn't pay for much time at the Seminar itself but held little
mini-seminars in the Exhibit Room. They're having a big
Firearm crossover called the Rafferty Saga coming up later this
summer - it'll be in Firearm for 12 issues running, and
each month it'll cross into *one* other book. The intent
is to get Firearm readers to at least *sample* the other
Ultraverse titles, while giving other title-followers a
glimpse at Firearm. Ultraforce will be premiering in August,
the new team book with art by George Perez. Yay!
"Bound in" with it (and they haven't decided how to
do the "binding" yet) will be a card to go with the
Ultraverse Masterpiece series from Skybox.
Hellboy and Sin City will both continue ad infinitum, or
at least as long as sales hold up. Monkeyman & O'Brien,
their own series this fall.
- Skybox
New Ultraverse Masterpiece Series looks really good -
all Dave Dorman art.
- Defiant
Jim Shooter started his entire talk with a long rebuttal
of Frank Miller's keynote speech (see below) as it
pertained to Shooter's time at Marvel. And you know,
for the first time, I felt that what he was saying
was *true*. It didn't feel padded or fake. He left out
the grandiose "I invented the graphic novel" claims,
and talked about real innovations that I'll bet he *did*
institute or push for at Marvel. Royalties, for instance.
He claims they didn't exist when he took on the Editor-
In-Chief post and he instituted them. Health benefits
for artists. Return of artwork to all sorts of old-time
creators *except* for Jack Kirby - because the
lawyers wouldn't let him (since Jack had that lawsuit
against them). He says he knows he didn't get everything
the way he would have wanted it, but that he made some
enormous strides, at a mainstream publisher. Heck,
at the number *one* publisher. And he virtually
demanded to be recognized for that.
And for the first time, I thought maybe he *does*
deserve some credit there. I've been following
the whole "Shooter-as-God" thing since last year's
Defiant launch, and didn't believe a word of it when
he spoke last year. He was too full of goofy claims,
and had no meat or backstory. Just line after
line: "I invented graphic novels. I made artists more
comfortable than ever before." blah blah. But this
time, he had specifics, and he didn't claim to have
done everything. But he *did* claim to have done
*something*. Hmmm...
He then went on to do a "dramatic reading" of the
general backstory of Schism, the upcoming crossover.
Next was a general introduction of the Defiant crew,
and then that was it.
- Starchild
Going to second prints on 2-7, 3rd print on 1.
First trade paperback, collecting 1-12, out towards end
of year. Definitely wants to a do a limited-edition
hardcover of the trade (James says it's been a "lifelong
dream" to have something solid he can put on his shelf
and say "I did that!").
- Chaos!
Will not reprint any issues of Lady Death, ever. Brian
Pulido says the production problems with the cover for
number 1 were enough to make his head spin and he will *not*
do that again. The trade paperback of Lady Death comes out
next month. Another Evil Ernie series is coming up, and
possibly another Lady Death mini in early '95. Right now
he's really pushing his new "Lynch Mob" book, due out any
second now.
- A-V (Cerebus)
Funky - no display booth, just a sofa, two chairs, and
a coffee table. Being short on sleep, I never had the time
to stop and talk, but it looked comfy...
- Frank Miller/McCloud/Kitchen : The Speeches
The highlight of the Seminar was Frank Miller's Keynote
Speech at the Gemmy Awards. After listening to it, Tim
and I looked at each other and walked out. We couldn't
sit and watch something as banal as the Gemmies after
listening to Frank. We spent another hour or so in our
hotel room talking about what Frank said. I didn't agree
with some of it, but it was forcefully delivered, and he
certainly brought up some topics which engender discussion.
It's gotten a little fuzzy in the intervening weeks, but
I have it on tape at home and will probably relisten to
it sometime soon. His basic theme was creator-ownership
and how it should be the *norm* in the industry. He
tore into work-for-hire companies, and shredded Marvel
in a number of ways (interestingly, he left DC alone,
except for one oblique reference). He said, for instance,
that he knew what he was getting into when he worked
for Marvel, but he was too caught up in his love for the work.
He says he knew that when Marvel promised that he would
be the only person to ever write Elektra, they would
keep that promise for as long as it felt convenient
to them. He ripped on Marvel over and over, castigating
them for not returning Jack Kirby's art. And he drew
parallels to Marvel wanting fans to be loyal to their
characters, but that it got Chris Claremont not one
*drop* of loyalty from the company, even when he had
written their bestselling book for a decade and built
it into the powerhouse it is today. He shredded Marvel
over and over, and his only reference to DC was to say
that he had made more money from Dark Knight than
Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Dick Sprang combined.
He commented on Image, praising them to high heaven,
and accusing retailers of hating Image "because they
had the guts to break away" from the slave ship.
He castigated early comic publishers for routinely
shredding artwork instead of returning it to the
creators. There was more, but it's getting hard
to remember. Quite a speech.
There was also a noteable speech by Scott McCloud,
talking about expanding the horizon of the art form and
expanding the market *at the same time*, and how both
really *depend* on each other. His was another
fascinating talk.
Denis Kitchen gave a short history of his time in comics -
from the colorful early days of Kitchen Sink, through
the founding of his own early distribution system,
up to the beginnings of Diamond itself. It was
fascinating - did you know Denis had been working for
Phil Seuling for years as a flyer artist when Phil
started the Direct Market? He offered Denis a chance
to get in on the beginnings of Seagate... and Denis
said no. He couldn't figure anyone would *want* to
buy comics in such a fashion.
Topics for the next note:
Some answers from Diamond people:
- why they barely carry adult books, and when they
do there are *no* descriptions.
- why they so often *refuse* to carry good books,
like True Swamp, and Blue Moon Book 2.
But this note is huge already, so those'll have to wait for
the next one.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Thompson | ROLM PhoneMail Prompts / UI
[t--mp--n] at [clipper.robadome.COM] | A Well-Rounded Individual. More cookies please!