Highway 62

I did manage to make it to two other panels that day, however. The first of which was “Comics Editors on Comics Editing”, comprised of Diana Schutz (Dark Horse, Comico), Bob Shreck (DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse, Comico), Lee Nordling (Platinum Studios), Jim Salicrup (Marvel, Papercutz) with moderation by Danny Fingeroth (TwoMorrows, etc). If there’s such a thing as legendary editors in this day and age, this bunch is more or less it (though folks like Len Wein and Karen Berger as well as anyone from Marvel now would have been welcome additions). I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect out of the panel, but went along to try and add to my admittedly meager knowledge of How Comics Work.



The single thing that I took away from the panel is that good editors know when to step aside or do nothing more than to ask a question or two. At least in terms of making demands of the talent producing a book (assuming they can stick to a schedule, etc—if not then that becomes a primary concern.) A good editor is going to steer the project, not by making demands, but by simply making sure that the work is saying what the creators intend to say (without coming out and saying “And this is the point of the work…”) That’s what a good editor does.



Bad editors write by proxy. And yes, this still happens, with great regularity if you’re to believe professional gossip. But to the last (wo)man, the editors on the panel all stated that gentle direction was going to be far more beneficial to the work than dictatorial demands. I can’t disagree with that outlook.



It was an interesting discussion, though one that’s probably not of value to most comics readers (though it did seem well-attended for a panel of this sort of esoteric nature.) But I won’t bore you with all the gritty details of things.



The other panel I made it to that day was the Random House Graphic Novel panel, featuring Kazu Kabuishi (ringleader of the FLIGHT anthologies) and Josh Fialkov (writer of ELK’S RUN), both of whom are publishing with Random House or a subsidiary publisher. Sure, I had a mercenary interest in attending this, as I’m always looking for other outlets for my work and I like to keep an eye on how things in the comics publishing world are going to change. Granted, Random House’s influence hasn’t yet been proven to be a long-term thing, at least within comics publishing, but you need to keep up with this sort of thing. FLIGHT was a major prestige project with Image (just as many of Pantheon’s graphic novel offerings are at the top of the indy/art comics heap) that made the jump to a large book publisher and away from the direct market operators.



The focus stayed on the two works mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as an adaptation of Terry Brooks’ DARK WRAITH OF SHANNARA (though that’s in the developmental stages and the other works are released now or will be in a matter of months—ELK’S RUN hits in February.) Fialkov recounted the tale of ELK’S RUN going from a self-published indie to a Speakeasy-published indie (subsequently folding) before it was picked up by Random House’s Graphic Novel acquisition editor. I’d love to give you his name, but I don’t have it right and am very bad about taking notes. At any rate, ELK’S RUN has found new life with Random House, where it will be offered as an OGN, finally completing the series.



FLIGHT, on the other hand, was a successful anthology before Random House picked it up. Though, interestingly and not surprisingly, pre-orders on volume three (the first to be offered by Random House) are up by about a factor of ten over the last volume’s orders in the Direct Market. Granted, there would be some kind of growth from those numbers had the book stayed at Image, but nothing like a tenfold increase. Also, FLIGHT isn’t exactly the kind of material that the vast majority of the direct market is interested in. Going with Random House seems like a natural move for them.



One interesting thing is that Random House is only interested in completed works at this point. Granted, that’s kind of a no-brainer. Most book publishers don’t buy based on a single chapter or two unless you’re Stephen King. This, of course, is the opposite of the Direct Market, which specializes in single issues/chapters and collections are an afterthought (though that transformation is still ongoing.) The only uncompleted work they’ve bought is a license from one of their bestselling fantasy authors (again, a no-brainer, though I’m interested to see how that whole process unfolds.)



Of course, Random House also pays advances against royalties, which kinda happens in the comics world, only it’s called a page rate and not everything gets into the royalty stage of the game (but that doesn’t always happen in the book world, either.) This is all intriguing stuff and could have far-reaching implications for comics, assuming that the bigger publishers can overcome issues of merchandising and stocking and public acceptance of the material (and the whole comics are for kids stigma). The editors involved seem enthusiastic and non-judgmental, but you’ve got a reading public to contend with.



I think that their policy of taking only completed works is going to work for them. For awhile. Then they’re going to run out of quality works that can actually be self-financed long enough to wait for acceptance and an advance. Then they’ll have to face the fact that producing a novel and producing a work of comics art (particularly one of any substantial length/quality) are not the same thing and that artists have to eat. But I suppose there will always be some kind of stream of new artists willing to work on spec for the possibility of hooking up with a publisher post-completion of the work (raises hand). However, as the accepted structure of advances before work is completed leading to royalties becomes more and more prevalent, even new comics artists may demand a change in things.



There wasn’t much discussion as to how these books would be marketed, and if there would be pressure on booksellers to change their typically-shabby treatment of non-manga-format graphic novels or even any effort to move comics works from the Graphic Novel Pit of Despair to the regular bookstore stacks.



All in all, an interesting way to spend an hour, even if I ended up with as many questions as I had started with. I’d love to believe that this is the start of something big in comics, but these sorts of things take time to judge.



I’m sure that there were bunches of interesting things on the floor, but nothing much jumped out at me. As always, lovely model work abounded and there were literally acres of skilled art prints, but nothing grabbed me as particularly memorable. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood.



Grabbed dinner with some friends and some folks I hadn’t met before, though I shoulda checked my wallet beforehand, as I was down to, uh, barely enough to cover a light dinner and a coke instead of the lavish steak and hooch that would have gone down a bit better. Hung out at the Hyatt and watched the crowds fill in over an hour or so. Called it early, before midnight even. Was figuring that tomorrow would be a big day. It was, just not the way I’d planned for.