Wednesday:
Note: October 9th was a Professional only day hosted by ICv2 and sponsored by Heidi MacDonald's The Beat, Publisher's Weekly and Valiant Entertainment.
I went Wednesday to the professional day for Industry related programming. I discovered when I came into the Javitz Centre that there was nobody set up for the press. When I first asked around about the White Paper/ICV2 programming the crew volunteers and security did not know. I tried going to the press lounge to see if anybody there knew but the security guard wouldn't let me in and when he asked on his radio he didn't know. He thought the programming was for tomorrow. I went back and talked to those running the professional badge pick up and they knew and directed me to where I could find it.
When I got to the room the panels were being held in it was 2pm and a panel had started 15 minutes ago.
The panel was From Creator to Consumer. It was hosted by Heidi MacDonald. On the panel was Calista Brill (Senior Editor, First Second Books), Simon Fraser (artist, ACT-I-VATE co-ordinator), Jamal Igle (creator/cartoonist Molly Danger), Dan Manser (Director of Marketing, Diamond Comics) and John Roberts (co-founder, comiXology). Jamal talked about using social media, originally he was using it for 6 hours a day while promoting Molly Danger but he has now cut that down to 3. Simon said he has been communicating with his readers more about the ongoing production of the comics to keep the readers involved and says he is honest about why delays happen. Both artists talked about how much easier it is to self publish today. They had also talked about how some small publishers do little to no work marketing the books and it's all on the creator to do that. They said if that's the case they might as well self publish and own the work.
Calista talked about what work they do for creators and said sometimes even a successful self publisher can be overwhelmed with the work involved and the boxes of books filling up their place.
John Roberts said Kickstarter has been a good thing for comiXology as they are available just as these books are being successfully funded. They are available to publish the comics digitally and if creators don't want to have to deal with boxes of print comics they don't have to.
Dan said that Diamond has been reaching out to creators and digital publishers to make their books available to the direct market. Heidi asked the pros to talk about the pros and cons of Tumbler, they also talked about torrents of their comics. They had mentioned that the web is a cheap way to allow your comics to be out in the market place for a long time. Another issue was discoverability. It's getting harder to get fans to notice you with all the content coming out.
Going back to traditional comics, Dan said he's been watching sales numbers for a long time and right now the bottom of the top 300 is selling as high as ever. The group had talked about comic book stores, saying retailers are using social media and their customer's data as best they can to create a shopping experience and help their customers. Jamal talked about how a comic shop he knows underwent a massive renovation and improvement and echoed that there are now lot of really good comic shops that are catering to the more casual fan. John said that some comic shops are using comiXology to sell digital comics and mentioned 1 shop has a regular podcast where they review comics and put links to their site. They said they are getting sales from people out of their state and in other countries.
Simon talked about when making a deal with a publisher, always to get a reversion clause after 5 years. That way if things don't work out you will get your creations back. Jamal added they should also get the 1st right of refusal too so they can have some control over how their property is used. Calista said First Second has boiler plate contracts that they will negotiate parts on depending on the wants of the creator. She said they do offer different deals to people without an agent in terms of shopping their movie/media rights if they aren't going to try and shop them. In regards to Agents, Calista said in book publishing you need them to get your book published, but only half their graphic novelists have them. They said an agent does work a bit like a curator and they take a look at what an agent is pitching them if they've successfully worked (or are working) with them before.
Everybody agreed that even if you don't have an agent you should get your lawyer to check your contract. There were questions from the audience and one was about audience feedback when doing a kickstarter and how it's lost as the project is often already created. Jamal said he hired a specific editor to work with him on Molly Danger cause he says most creators need a 2nd set of eyes to examine mistakes they might have missed.
I then recorded the next two panels.
Graphic Novels - Growing in a Digital World. (1:01:51, 56.6mb)
This was moderated by Calvin Reid (Publisher's Weekly). On the panel was
Trudy Knudsen (Manger eContent Acquisitions, Follett), Dallas Middaugh
(Director, Publisher Services) Barry Nalebuff (author, Mission in a
Bottle), Rich Johnson (Founder, Brick Road Media), Greg Goldstein
(President & COO, IDW) and Leyla Aker (Vice President Publishing, Viz).
The group talked about digital comics in libraries. Trudy said they are
very popular and they need more of them. It was said that comics are
great for reluctant readers and manga is the most popular form of comics
in libraries. The publishers on the panel discussed getting comics into
libraries. Leyla mentioned when going digital Viz decided to build their
own App instead of selling through the usual channels, because none of
them could do right to left reading method digitally and also so they
would get the data on their customers reading habits. IDW said they've
been making books like the Artists Edition line to give people a reason
to buy print as you can't replicate full sized art digitally.
Leyla said Viz had worked to get day and date translations released at the same time as the Japanese publishers as a way of combating free scanlations that were coming out on the web before their version was released. Barry said Scott McCloud's book (Understanding Comics) was very useful when they hired and illustrator for his book. He also talked about the difficulties with getting media coverage because it's a business book told via comics format. Both the business and graphic novel media see it as belonging to the other and not covering it. The group had discussed the diversity of comics out there. They said comics for kids has seen a great deal of growth recently, particularly My Little Pony. Scholastic had ordered more My Little Pony books than anything they've ordered previously. The group had answered questions on how they sell a new type of product they haven't sold before and how they come up with a price point. They talked about getting journalists to cover their work. At the end they spoke about Manga by non-Japanese creators too.
The next panel was:
The Rise of Geek Culture. (1:06:31, 60.9mb)
On the panel was Ed Catto (co-founder Bonfire Agency), Shawn Kirkham
(Director, Business Development Skybound), Gerry Gladstone (Co-Owner
Midtown Comics), Steve Rotterdam
(co-founder Bonfire Agency), Rob Salkowitz (Author, Comic Con and the
Business of Pop Culture) and the moderator was Milton Greipp (ICV2). The
panel started off with Ed Catto giving a presentation of some
numbers of how many people are involved in Geek Culture and how much
money is spent. He explained the effect of Geeks opinion and how geeks
become taste makers for others to follow, then how that
influences the media. New Apple and Samsung commercials that
incorporates geek culture within their ads were shown to demonstrate how
geek culture has entered into the mainstream. They spoke about
marketing to the different type of fans and went through some good and
bad examples of companies trying to market to geeks (the touched on this
topic a couple more times throughout the panel). Another topic
that came up is if we have reached "peak geek" or not. Gary was
concerned about too many bad superhero movies could hurt the comics
industry and said we were not too big to fail. Shawn had talked about
the success and new/odd cross promotions of the Walking Dead (including
a new debt card). The group discussed efforts in getting movie/tv
watchers to buy the comics. Towards the end the group had spoke about
the growth in geek girls and cosplay in particular.
For all of these panels there was about a 100 industry professionals in the audience. There was cookies, pop and coffee available that used during the breaks between the panels. I really enjoyed the professional day as the panels were educational and gave some hard numbers on the current comic book industry. I only wish I could have gotten there sooner to see the whole days worth of programming.
Thursday:
Protect It and Publish It! Creating and Protecting Your Comic Book Property. (1:56:04, 106mb)
This is a 2 part panel that I've merged into a single file. Moderated by
Thomas Crowell Esq. (Entertainment Attorney) with him were 2 other
entertainment attorneys, Matthew Tynan and Sheafe Walker Esq. Also with
them was 3 creators, Allan Norico, David Gallaher and Alan Robert. The
legal team gave a disclaimer that what they say during the panel is not
legal advice.
They first talked about copyright, what those rights are, when you get those rights, what the benefits are to registering the copyright and how you can do that. They presented information about contracts, the Chain of Title, why you would want a contract between collaborators, the legal distinction of who the author of the work is and how that is determined legally, the potential pitfalls of joint authorship, exclusive and non exclusive rights, how ideas in themselves can't be copyrighted and what work for hire is. They also talked about the benefits of setting up an LLC, hiring an artist and work for hire agreements. Major comic book cases were touched on briefly and they gave an intellectual properties rules of thumb.
The 2nd part of the panel was more about the creative end. They went into issues of promoting what you created in terms of pitching it to publishers and gave a run down of do's and don'ts during a pitch. They mentioned networking with publishers (and their editors) at conventions and tips about establishing a relationship with them at the con. They spoke about negotiating a publishing deal, online submissions, tips on working with the publisher after the deal has been made. They went into royalties and talked about how the current royalty pool works in terms of what creative role (writer, artist, inker, etc..) gets what percentage of the royalties. They quickly addressed DIY (Do It Yourself) publishing in terms of printing, distributing and digital publishing. Then they gave a contracts rule of thumb. After both sessions they took questions from the audience. Much of the audience were creative people. Those involved at the panel worked together on a book titled The Pocket Lawyer for Comic Book Creators, which will be out March of 2014. There was 50+ people in the audience.
I then spent the remainder of the day walking the exhibitors room, doing some shopping and taking pictures of creators and cosplayers.
Friday.
I spent Friday morning at the new Jim Hanley's Universe which had moved to a new location. I bought a couple of books and read them outside for a bit before going to the convention.
When I got there my first panel I covered was:
Comics,
Hollywood and What Creators Need to Know. (1:24:47, 77.6mb)
This panel was moderated by Buddy Scalera. On the panel was Mike
Richardson (Dark Horse), freelance writer/inker Jimmy Palmiotti and Ross
Richie (Boom!)
Jimmy talked about his experience licensing Ash and Painkiller Jane.
Mike talked about Dark Horse licensing comics and how his licensed work
became Movies (Predator 2 is an example) and his own work being
licensed into movies. He told many stories from licensing the Mask, Time
Cop and other movies. Ross explained his history of working for Malibu
Comics and going away to work for Hollywood. He ran away screaming from
Hollywood and started up his own comic book publishing. Because
Hollywood reads comics, they recognized his name and came after him for
Boom! books. Jimmy explained what breaking down a series means
for a TV show. Ross helped manage a talk about what certain terms mean
in Hollywood and the various roles that Agents, Producers, Managers and
Entertainment Lawyers play and where/why you would need one.
Somebody asked about people stealing their ideas and Jimmy and Mike says it actually happens all the time. They wouldn't name names but Jimmy talked about ideas that he had pitched to particular directors suddenly done without his involvement. He said he had a really hard lesson in a company admitting they stole the idea but to successfully litigate it would cost him 2 million dollars. Since he couldn't afford that he had to walk away. Mike talked about getting sued for movies like the Mask and Time Cop. The talked about shopping the property around. Mike and Ross talked about first look deals what they are and the pro's and con's of the deal. Ross Ritchie had to leave part way through. Jimmy spoke about why he's doing a lot more written work as of late and wanting to raise his profile. Mike talked about giving Carla Speed McNeil more spotlight. Mike said thanks to the internet if you have talent it is much easier to get noticed as people are looking for talented artists.
Jimmy and Mike said you can't do a comic that is a movie pitch as you recognize right away and it's makes a bad comic. Mike said publishers that try the comic to movie business model usually fail because it takes a long time for the movie to get made, if it gets made at all. Mike said comic creators want to keep the certain comic book related rights and you want an entertainment lawyer and they should get involved in with rest of the movie as much as possible. Mike said Dark Horse got the rights to do Prometheus comics and he's very happy about it. Mike gave advise on how to pitch to him and recommended the Mystery Box Ted Talk. At the end Buddy spoke against downloading pirate comics.
Immediately following that was the next panel:
Editors
on Editing. (1:11:43, 65.6mb)
This panel was more about how to break into comics via pitching to
editors. On the panel was Warren Simons (Valiant), Scott Allie (Dark
Horse) and Chris Ryall (IDW). Moderating the panel was Buddy Scalera.
They first talked about their recent books. They then went through the
do's and don'ts of pitching as a writer or artist. They talked about
pitching at a con, establishing relationships, using the online
submission process. The audience asked some questions and they answered
questions on how to become an editor and how to become an intern. They
spoke briefly about licensing issues and what happens when a
deadline gets missed. At the end they plugged other upcoming books and
Buddy asked fans not to download/torrent comic books. About 150 was in
the audience.
The next panel was:
CBLDF:
Secret History of Comic Book Censorship. (1:00:11, 55.1mb)
On the panel was Charles Kochman (Abrams Art), Carol Tilly
(Teacher/Researcher/Librarian) and Charles Brownstein (CBLDF). Carol
started off the panel with reading a letter written to Wertham from a
kid who disagreed with his articles. She revealed which comic creators
reached out and talked to Wertham, giving him industry related
information. She delved into the first version of the ACMP code and a
couple of the people on DC's advisory committee. She said that Wertham
had a particular dislike for those on the advisory committee and
revealed how an unrelated negative book review caused an angry author to
link Wertham with Senator Kefauver. Carol spoke of how Gaines asked his
readers to write to the Senate to defend the comic books they enjoyed
and Carol found and read some of those letters. She also revealed that
200 letters were sent to the Senate and they are within the National
Archives. She talked a bit about the code and the reaction to it and
surprised the audience by revealing Carl Barks was seemingly in favor of
CCA censorship. She showed how Wertham altered and just made up answers
to questions that his patients gave in regards to comic books to further
his agenda. She ended off talking about how censorship of comics is
still alive and ongoing in her home town with books being challenged and
taken out of libraries.
Charles Brownstein explained how censorship was still ongoing in schools and libraries and comic shops were still being persecuted for selling comics for adults. He talked about Manga being attacked and Ryan Matheson being held up at the Canadian border for it due to ignorance of the artform. He also said there is now a book that helps people understand Manga. Charles Kochman revealed that Cathy Gaines is in the audience and Brownstein said they were selling a Gaines was right t-shirt with her permission. Charles Kochman said they have a book about some of the non-EC horror comics that Wertham was not in favour of called The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You To Read.
I had also spent a good chuck of Friday on the exhibitors room, browsing around.
Saturday:
In the morning on the press/pro side they would not let people into the con until 11am, which was strange. People couldn't even go in to line up for panels that were starting at 11am. There was no air conditioning and it got very hot and sweaty very quickly while waiting for them to let us in. When I got in I was very lucky to get into the panel as they had cut off the line just shortly after I was in.
IDW:
The Ultimate Panel (1:01:01, 55.8mb)
On the panel was Dirk Wood (moderator), Chris Ryall, Greg Goldstein,
Darwyn Cooke and Scott Dunbier. Part way through the panel was the
surprise guest Jim Steranko. They started off the panel announcing the
new Parker book is called Slayground. Darwyn said it's a short book that
is one of his favourites in the Parker series and recommended it as a
place to start. Because it's a shorter story, he is also
including a The Seventh, a short Eisner winning story that has not been
collected yet. They also announced IDW is republishing the print version
of Parker books in hardcover format with Darwyn doing 10 full
colour chapter illustrations and covers. Among the other announcements
were: Artists Edition Peanuts, Kirby New Gods (issues 2, 5-8) and Dave
Gibbons made a pre-recorded video to announce Watchmen - in colour
but not the full story.
After Jim Steranko showed up, they announced 2 books, a bigger sized Steranko done Agents of Shield stories from Strange Tales, then a Nick Fury / Captain America book at a slightly smaller size because the size of the paper the artists drew on shrank. Also within the Nick Fury / Captain America book will be a Steranko romance story. Jim mentioned that he did 29 comics and they've all have been kept in print. He says he seems to have made a big impact in comics for a small amount of work. Jim told a few stories about wanting to do new work for Marvel and DC over the last 5 years but was always turned down either because he wanted to do comics in a new format, something in his story violated the their universe or because they decided they didn't need him working on that particular character. Darwyn mentioned said one nice thing about IDW is how quick they are in getting an answer to you. He said when Scott Dunbier started with IDW he told him about wanting to do the Parker books adaptation and 2 weeks later Scott called back, saying they got the rights and they were working on it. With DC it took them 4 years to approve the New Frontier story. There were questions from the audience about IDW licensing properties, doing more work with John Byrne, how Darwyn adapts a book to Graphic Novel format.
My next panel was:
Beyond
the Webcomics. (1:00:12, 55.1mb)
The moderator was agent Seth Fishman. On the panel was Ryan North (Dinosaur
Comics), Chris Hastings
(Dr. McNinja) and
Kate Beaton ( Hark A
Vagrant). The room was full and was standing room only. The
group talked about why they are starting to do work outside of
webcomics. Ryan mentioned webcomics becomes a wacky resume. Chris said
he once used his comic to try and get dates on Myspace. They took a show
of hands and saw plenty of people in the audience do webcomics. They all
spoke about prioritizing their webcomics with other work and projects
they had to turn down. Ryan discovered that with Kickstarter what you
write on there is legally binding, so he's now doing more choose your
adventure books.
Kate is doing a picture book for Scholastic. Kate also spoke about why she got an Agent. Chris talked about his Longshot mini-series for Marvel and he's doing a Dr. McNinja card game. He revealed he does a live comedy show at a nearby theatre, but he never speaks about it online because he wants to get good at it first. They all revealed a dream project they'd like to do. They also talked about Networking in Person vs. Online and working on multiple properties, including ones you don't own. They advised webcomic creators that it's best to wait until you have enough material to hook people (like a month's worth) before you start advertising it. This was an incredibly popular panel that was standing room only. I had to sit on the floor along side the wall for this panel.
I came in towards the end of the IFC Back to back Comedy Event, Comedy Bang! Bang! & The Birthday Boys. Although their panel was to end at 4pm, they hadn't left the room til just after 4:15, when the next panel was to start. This was really unprofessional and unfair to the next panelist.
Yoe!
Books Presents: Fiends, Ghouls & Haunted Horror!. (50:23, 46.1mb)
Craig Yoe gave a rousing speech about the 1950's pre-code comics. Along
the way he showed a number of horror comics and specific panels that was
used to criticize comics. He also gave an overview of comic
book history from the 1950s in regards to Wertham and the Comics Code.
He also talked about Bob Wood, Jack Cole and Wally Wood, all of whom are
comic creators that had their life cut short by either suicide
or murder. He talked about the content of his books are often in the
public domain, but he does respect the artists and pays them or their
estate. He revealed he will be working on book of Stanley P. Morse
published comics, which were among the most gruesome of the 1950's
comics. There was an advertised special guest for this panel but one did
not show up.
I had spent some of Saturday in the Artists Alley browsing and talking with some creators. Sadly, some creators that I wanted to see were not there when I was and I never got the chance to go around and try and find them again. This was one of the more disappointing parts of the convention experience for me.
Sunday:
They told exhibitors and press to use different doors (but in the same area) first thing in the morning. I have no idea why. It sounded like they were telling the press to go to a different part of the building to get in, but I slipped in the exhibitor doors, because I really did not want to take a detour.
I completed my quest to walk the exhibit floor on Sunday morning. Every day it was quite busy on the floor, to the point where it got squishy and inhibited browsing. I found out later there were some stuff I missed but with shows this large you often can't see everything, especially if you are covering a lot of panels.
Speaking of which I covered two panels.
New
Transmedia Story Worlds. (56:10, 51.4mb)
I had joined the panel just after it had started. The panel was made up
primarily of Starlight Runner Entertainment employees. The moderator was
Jeff Gomez (CEO), on the panel was Mark Pensavalle (COO),
Chip Brown (Harper Collins Sr. VP & Publisher), Fabian Nicieza (CIO),
Chrysoula Artemis (COO) and Darren Sanchez (Production Manager). Chip
talked about the bible being a transmedia property and how it's
been used in a variety of media. Fabian said their proof of concept was
their Hot Wheels contract. He explained Mattel came to them about how
they could sell more toys. Fabian wrote 8 page mini comics for each car,
giving them a driver and self-contained but interconnected story. The
story was the basis of the Hot Wheels video game and cartoon show and
the show was then sold on DVD. He said they generated an additional
200 million dollars for Mattel.
The group talked about working directly with James Cameron on Avatar and how James helped Fox see them as not just a marketing expense. They said their work on Avatar won't be seen until the 2nd and 3rd movie comes out. They mentioned that large companies like Disney are not transmedia friendly as they have multiple departments and the work gets bounced around and back to them. They talked about difficulties they have working with publishers as they are not getting the transmedia thing. They revealed they went to San Diego one year and pretended they had a product to sell just to generate some interest in what they are doing. Currently they are doing bible related transmedia work. An audience member had brought up Marvel and they said they do get transmedia and are doing it well, but said the stories/characters are not consistent across the mediums. They said the movie version, the comic and cartoon versions of the characters are all different. They took questions from the audience and Fabian said creators should focus on selling a story first to a publisher, and if successful then work in the transmedia. He said all transmedia has a core media that it starts from. About 40 people had attended the panel.
My last panel was:
Creative
Graphic Novels for Kids. (58:25, 53.4mb)
The panel was moderated by Chris Duffy. On the panel was Jimmy Gownley,
Sheila Keenan, Nathon Fox, Paul Pope, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Andrew
Arnold and Jon Chad. They talked about what goes on before they
do the first draft of the Graphic Novel. The creators said the idea
being something they are so in love/obsessed with they can spend 1 or 2
years working on it full time. Sheila's book involved a lot of
research as it involves 3 wars. Also mentioned was needing to like their
collaborations because they'll be working together daily the entire
time. Other topics they talked about was keeping the art the same
throughout the book, creators moving from traditional comic book
publishers to traditional bookstore aimed publishers who are used to
marketing kids comics, if they tested their ideas on kids prior to
writing or finishing the book.
Jimmy mentioned when he started Amelia Rules the traditional comic industry was actively hostile to kids comics. He said he really needed to reach out to kids to market his books. Paul talked about how he is now interacting with all ages when in libraries and schools promoting his book. They also talked about if the hero of the book needs to be the same age as the intended readership. Paul said he hates it when an editor imposes rules because of the way things have worked in the past. He said you are just asking for them to be broken. They spoke about influences on their current book and what book they love that they think everybody should read. Another topic was how much dialogue they can use in kids books and if there are things they can do in kids book that they can't in adult books. There was about 60 people were in the audience.
I had to leave early in order to catch the last train going back home. Which sucked because a panel I was really interested in covering started after my train left, so I had to miss it. I never got to talk to dealers and creators about how the show went for them but from conversations I had on Saturday with some in artists alley it was a good busy show and the artists were happy.
This is the 2nd year I went to this convention and I've decided I'm not going next year or possibly anytime soon. Some of this is due to the convention and some due to the convention centre. What I dislike about the convention centre is the hard floors everywhere except for the exhibitors room where the organizers carpet. Most of the exhibitors are also standing on concrete floors and I've actively avoided going through any boxes/bookshelves unless there was carpeting for me to stand on. The hard floors were hard on my feet and back making this a painful convention to experience.
Other issues were the bathrooms. Around the panel rooms there were small bathrooms with only 1 or 2 urinals and stalls. Every time I had to go there was 2 lines formed for them. Occasionally 1 of them would be out of order too. The Press area bathroom only had 1 stall. Another thing that would regularly break was the escalators. I noticed this last year as well. The convention provided press area wifi also went up and down too. Another Javitz Centre related issue is the thin walls around the panel rooms. Virtually every panel I attended you can hear cheering from outside, which I assume is from celebrities related panels and it was distracting. It would sometimes get so loud it was hard to hear what people were saying at the panel I was at. The Javitz Centre was not designed for high traffic consumer shows like a comic con and it really shows.
Another thing that is disappointing about the convention is the timing for the train to New York. From Syracuse the earliest train gets there around 1:pm, which means I end up missing the start of professional hours and miss panels. I also miss panels because the last train leaves around 3:50 this year, which means I missed the panel I most wanted to go to, as it started at 4pm. The only way around this is to spend an extra night (or 2 if you care about both days) in New York. The Hotels in New York do not have the price controls that San Diego convention employs on the hotels, so the prices for a decent nearby hotel is as high or higher.
The primary reason I go to conventions is for the panels and I'd like to learn something new about comics, rather than new products. I found myself really searching for panels on the main convention days that were not just publishers (or people) promoting their new book(s). I ended up covering a couple of panels like that just for something to cover.
In short, for a while now I've wanted to cover different conventions (or take a non-convention related vacation) and I've decided I'm going to do something else next year instead of this convention.
