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The SNAP comics festival was WONDERFUL. Paul and I had a great time, and I had better sales in one day of SNAP than I did at both days at SPX. Around 200 people showed up, and the hall was sold out. Not bad for a brand new show in an economically depressed city. Dan and Katie deserve all the credit, and all the praise, and we took them out for copious amounts of baba ghannouj at La Shish. I only wish I’d brought my camera.
I bought scads of minis, and got to talk to lots of creators and fans. It was a really wonderful convention; you didn’t have to bellow to be heard, the hall was small enough to feel welcoming, and there was good food served up fresh from the grill. As far as I could tell, not a single thing went wrong, and it seemed like everyone had a great time.
Hooray! Here’s hoping Dan and Katie forget how much work it took, and agree to do it all again next year!

Hey, Michigan Locals!
Bored this Saturday? There’s going to be a really great small-press comics show this weekend over in Dearborn, called SNAP! and it’s run by two of the coolest folks in comics, Dan and Katie Merritt, owners of Green Brain Comics.
The show’s going to be small and low-key — a chance to talk to your favorite Midwestern comics creators one on one. We’re hoping that this will turn into an annual event, so if you can spare an hour or so and three bucks to get in, we’d love to see you there! Parking’s free!
You can read more about it here:http://www.greenbrain.biz/SNAP!.htm and check out the great press from the Detroit News and The Metro Times!
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=8403
http://www.detnews.com/2005/events/0510/24/E01-358490.htm
See you there!

Hey, everybody. Paul and I just heard word tonight that a cornerstone member of Kalamazoo’s Moped Army was struck by an SUV last weekend and seriously injured. He was struck from behind; the driver was going an estimated 60mph and never touched his brakes. The rider, Dave Brzezicki, was thrown sixty feet.
Dave broke his pelvis in three places, but miraculously sustained no head or organ injuries. He had surgery on Monday, and is expected to make a slow recovery.
As is the case with many of us, Dave had no health insurance, and will probably be out of work for many months. The members of the Moped Army are taking contributions to help him out; if you have the inclination, please help out a very hardworking member of a very cool grassroots organization: http://www.mopedarmy.com/
Please pass this link around to anyone you know who might be able to help out.
Thanks in advance.

Over at Warren Ellis’ new messageboard, The Engine, there’s been a blistering thread about Tokyopop and their contracts.
As anyone knows who’s been around me for ten minutes, I’m all about the self-publishing. If you want to know why, the TokyoPop thread should illustrate why. Read the whole thing; it’s worth it.
Now, I totally agree that TokyoPop isn’t evil or anything. They need to make money just like everyone else. However, I think that if people are going to pooh-pooh self-publishing as too much work for too little return, they should go take a look at just exactly what rights you have to give up in order to be carried by a big publishing house in this industry. Things that TokyoPop usually include in thier contracts (though I should reassert that not all of their contracts are identical):

• A percentage of your ownership in the property — they become co-owners of your idea.
• A cap on your royalties — usually at $50,000 — which means that if your manga gets made into an animated series, $50,000 is all you get, forever, over your entire lifetime.
• They own right of first refusal over your next work — which means that you must offer them your next project first. Even if you dislike the way your contract with them shook out, you can’t take your next idea to a different publisher without offering it to them first.

These are just some of the more extreme items; there are many other concessions that you must make. TokyoPop’s not even the most draconian publisher out there. You can find better deals — but sometimes you have to trade off other rights, or accept less money. If you’re going to sign a contract from TokyoPop, or anyone else, for heaven’s sake read all the fine print and go in with your eyes open. Do your homework. Decide what is, and what is not, an acceptable risk.
Me, I decided that unless I got some sweetheart deal I couldn’t refuse, I’d never sell Vögelein to anyone, ever. I’m pretty sure that the only deals that could turn my head are if 1) Pixar pulled up in front of the house with a dumptruck full of money for the movie rights (only Pixar, never Disney) or 2) I managed to get some cool reprint deal with a big house like Scholastic, like what Jeff Smith did, one that allowed me to retain 100% ownership and all rights to other media, like teeshirts and movies and such.
For other perspectives on the issues, check out these blogs:
Elin
Irresponsible Pictures
Matt High
Robert DeJesus
Oh, and just for the comparison of industries:
Record Producer Steve Albini shares the math of a typical first-time record contract. S’good.
Me? I gotta agree with Lea Hernandez at this point. I’d rather own what I create, even if it means not being rich and/or famous. If it’s a choice between signing a contract and keeping my dayjob, I’ll pick the dayjob every time. Not that anyone’s offered me a contract; far from it — so I suppose some could shout sour grapes. It’s not; if I wanted a contract I’d go out looking for it. Instead, I spend 8-10 hours at my dayjob, take an hour or three (depending on the amount of housework and/or incidentals that need doing) off for dinner, then strap myself to the desk until 1 or 2am. Darn near every night, and darn near every weekend. If I were looking for an easier ticket to full-time comics, I’d have found one by now.
Nope. May be a rusty little dinghy, but by God it’s MY rusty little dinghy.

After running it by some friends, and the guy who lives in my house, I’ve made a few redactions to the cover. I’m quite pleased.

Here’s the cover to the new Graphic Novel. It was a very long and frustrating process getting the sketch for this together — it took about five full days of banging my head against the wall and sketching about a hundred different poses and thumbnails. As soon as I got the idea nailed down, though, it took off like a shot and I finished it in about five intense sessions. I’m pretty happy with it.

Paul’s Moped Army signing tour continues tomorrow night at 1977 Mopeds on the Kalamazoo Mall. Details here. Join us for the Art Hop — and Moped Army Cookies!

Here’s the color version of the Mucha.

Ever so purty. Dave, watch yr mailbox.

I will not be attending Motor CIty Comicon this year. I haven’t even made table the last two shows, and I’ve decided that a weekend spent not-selling books is not where my energy needs to be. I’ll be at home, cranking out pages on the long-overdue Vogelein book.
The following weekend, however, I’ll be out at SNAP! It’s the new small-press show put on by our buddies Dan and Katie Merritt of Green Brain Comics. You should come check it out!

Beware! Loads O’ Pix below. Will take a while to load. Best go get a sammitch and come back.

Paul mugs with two of our favoritest comics-store owners in the world: Dan and Katie Merritt.

After an exhausting Friday of sales, sock hunting and looking snappy, Matt Feazell falls asleep.

Here’s a closeup. Paul says this is the first time he’s ever seen Matt without his glasses.

While Matt slept, we defaced his socks. Y’see, Matt ran out of socks, or something. He brought back three pairs of white socks from the CVS across the street, and the gauntlet was thrown.

White socks and sharpie markers — the temptation was too great. One pair even got auctioned off for the CBLDF.

One of Paul’s fans brought a complete run of the Little White Mouse issues for Paul to sign, even the obscure, hard-to-find Caliber issues. Yay, fans!

Jim O gets surly if you try to take his orange juice.

Paul wears his size with pride.

Here’s about half the crew at the Mongolian Barbecue, Saturday night.

Here’s the other half.

Sean Bieri’s so used to putting his pencils behind his ears that he stuck his chopsticks there for safekeeping.

Ah, Love. To celebrate our First Anniversary being married, Paul shows some restraint in his public displays of affection towards me.

Sunday was time for the big annual picnic and Softball game; Diamond Comics Distributors versus us Artists. Big guess as to who wins every year. I think this game’s score was something like six hundred and eighty-five to three. Still, very fun to watch!

Suzanne Baumann, lookin’ all cute. But watch out — she’s wily! Just when you think you’re safe…

BOOGA!

Softball? What softball? This here comic was made overnight, DURING THE CON!

A steep hillside makes for strange lapfellows.

“Timespell” and “Zoomies” creator, Rich Henn takes a turn at bat. My Diamond Rep, Robert Randle, is playing catcher.

Rafer “Plastic Farm” Roberts! Swing anna miss!

Dunno who this guy was, but he sure could hit. He nailed one of our two home runs. Too bad there was nobody on base.

Karon Flage, one of the ubercool organizers of SPX, snaps pictures of the game.

JimO tries not to slide down the hillside. Matt Feazell shows off his red Chuck Taylors.

Neil “Ninety Candles” Kleid, in his outdoor habitat. Please do not feed the Neil.

A, Dave! How come we didn’t get a shortstop? Poor Lewis here had to play both third base and shortstop for nine innings.

Rich “Three Fingers” Koslowski may hold his bat like a sissy, but he hit the other home run of the day. KPOW! This dude can hit!

Dean “Take my shirt off again?!” Haspiel at bat.

Now Dean’s takin’ pictures of his own.

Jackie Estrada, one of the nicest folks in comics, snaps some pix for posterity.

Awww, Denise and Lisa, yew so cuuuute.

Michelangelo Cicerone takes a look at Suzanne Baumann’s supacool sketchbook. Suzanne took a bunch of descriptions out of an old 1950’s entertaining cookbook and let people draw their own illustrations to go with them. Everyone’s favorite seemed to be “Twirlin’ Turkey for a Crowd”.

After the game, Sean Bieri, Paul and I took the Metro to the Mall in DC to do some sightseeing. The first sight was this cool “Giant Squid versus Sperm Whale” Mosaic, located about 100 yards from our hotel.

Number one in my series of Guys Posing with Big Phallic Monuments in Our Nation’s Capitol.

Number two.

Shaun crushes the horseman’s head. Crush! Crush! Didn’t get close enough to see who the subject of the statue was.

A cool dragon on the carousel near the Smithsonian. If I were ten, I’da totally jumped the fence to ride this thing, even though the carousel was closed.

Here’s the new WW2 monument, which is on the Washington Monument side of the reflecting pool.

“Man… all of a sudden I really have to go.”

As big and expensive as this memorial was, and as gorgeous as all the bronze bas-relief panels were, I really didn’t like it. It felt all cold-war and Stalinesque, with a dash of Orwellian nationalism thrown in for good measure. Not too terribly surprising, considering it was approved and completed under pResident George W Bush.

It really had that, I dunno, Triumph of the Will feel to it.

Still, it definitely had the majesty points going for it. It was pretty overwhelming.

My God… It’s full of Stars… each one of those little yellow dots is a fist-sized gold star.

Lincoln Memorial, seen over the waterfall.

See what I mean? Here’s the big bronze medallion. Almost feels like the standing woman should be holding a hammer and sickle. Captured the WW2 era feeling of ultra-nationalism very well.

View from the “Pacific” arch. Each of the smaller pillars is carved with the name of a state or territory, and carries a huge, cast-bronze wreath.

View of the Washington Monument, back across the reflecting pool. The pool itself was pretty gross, actually; green with algae and choked with molted feathers, it smelled of sewage. Wish I were kidding.

Now, this is my kinda memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial was very moving. Seriously. I actually got choked up while I was in there. It made me feel, for a brief moment, the way I used to feel about my nation. Faith and courage and hope that even after a great disaster we may be able to get our act back together — not because we’re this huge aggressive monolith of a country — but because we’re humble enough to learn from our great mistakes and become better for it. This wasn’t a memorial that celebrated the glories of war and victory; it was a memorial that talked about the long period of tragedy and humility that comes after the horrors of war.

Ah, would that we heard words the likes of these, more often.

Thanks for everything, Abe. You rule.