WE'RE NUMBER 1!!!
(At least in Norman, Oklahoma). Directly from Matt Price, owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman:
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"For Tyler and other interested parties:
Top 10 selling Graphic Novels at Speeding Bullet since Oct. 1
1. Stylish Vittles: I Met A Girl
2. Powers Vol 3: Little Deaths
3. Marvel Encyclopedia HC (probably not really a trade, but that's how it's coded here)
4. JLA: Terror Incognita
5. Queen and Country Vol. 2
6. Birds of Prey
7. Batman: Haunted Knight
8. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1
9. Channel Zero
10. The Absolute Authority
- Matt Price
Speeding Bullet Comics and Ricochet Cafe
Norman, OK"
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I can only say that Matt is doing an amazing job at pushing SV, and he must have some wonderful customers in his shop. I have thanked him profusely. Now let's see if some of the other shops can accomplish this as well.
Back from KC about an hour and a half ago. It was just alright. And by alright, I mean, when we arrived at the KCI Expo Center Saturday morning, our initial impression was that we would not sell one book. The crowd base did not seem to be there, and those that were, were not 'alternative' comics readers. Cori and I were thinking we'd be packing up early and heading home Sunday morning. Well, after the first couple of dry hours, we made some sales. We ended up selling 12 books, which, while still being the worst con so far in terms of numbers, managed to just cover costs on the trip. So it turned into a nice little 'getaway' for Cori and I. We went out for a nice dinner Saturday night, stayed at the hotel and watched movies. We left a bit early on Sunday and stopped somewhere in northern Missouri for Peanut Butter Oreo Blizzards. Mmmmm. So we broke even on the deal. The best part of this whole thing, though, was that because we were bored, I drew a lot, and because Cori forgot her sketchbook, she kind of helped me. We got a LOT of work done on the cover for the #2 going--pretty much finalizing the layout/composition and idea, and also writing up a lot of ideas for the text that will go on the back cover and also be used for solicitation text. So on the whole, on the surface of what appeared to be a bad con, we did pretty good. Now I'm going to bed. I have to get up, go back to work, and deal with the fact that one of my student workers decided he wanted to quit over the weekend. Let the fantastic 'Staff-O-Rama' begin!
We leave tomorrow evening for the Kansas City Con, a 7-8 hour drive. We're looking forward to sleeping in Dinkie The Saturn early Saturday AM at an Interstate wayside somewhere between Minneapolis and KC. Saturday night we will enjoy the posh surroundings and elegance of the Days Inn down the street from the convention.
I finally fixed the 'Reviews Archive,' meaning that all the text now displays at the same size. However, I still have not added Johanna's Previews recommendation from Comics Worth Reading last month. It's not a big blurb, but if the Archive is meant to be a true Archive, then it must be included.
Work on the Thesis is coming along steadily. The introduction and conclusion are the last pieces awaiting final edits by my advisor and myself. We also are beginning to plan just what my exhibition will look like. Incidentally, for any who live in the Mpls/St. Paul area, my MFA show (art and process work from Stylish Vittles) will be December 11-19th, with the graduation and reception on the evening of December 13th. Wait a sec--that's Friday the 13th! Eek. Oh well. And it will be at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Yeah.
I'm tentatively looking to ship Stylish Vittles: Book 2 in April of 2003, meaning it would solicit in the February 2003 Previews. However, that means that I have to have my solicitation material into Diamond in December. With my thesis, my show, drawing pages, and a couple of other things, well, we'll see if it works out. Worst case scenario is that I do what I did with 'I Met a Girl,' which was having it printed and available at cons and ColdCut before it appears in Previews. The only thing holding me back is that I work more or less in order, which means that I cannot create a cover until I finish the whole book--that helped tremendously in shaping my decisions with the cover/book design of IMAG. But I've already got a good sense of what book 2 (tentatively titled: 'Stylish Vittles: All the Way') will look like cover-wise: I've got two or three good choices. Coming up with solicitation/back cover text is going to be harder. Again, we'll see. Book 2 will definitely be done for the early spring cons, I believe the first I will attend next year is APE in San Fran... and then SPACE in Columbus.
Also, kind of back-tracking, my initial orders came in from Diamond last week and they were good. Obviously nowhere near something established, but definitely strong for a first time listing, and something that had already been available for many months. If Diamond begins getting lots of reorders they may make it a Star item. Woo-hoo! News from Cold Cut is good too--they've already had two shipments from me, and word is that most of the shops ordering from them are coming back for seconds: they've sold out their first order and are getting more. Read those Vittles!
I am typing this within the few dead minutes after having finished a page. They are few and far between lately--and if they come, they are mostly self-imposed so I don't flip my lid. I would of course, love to be dedicating more time to developing the content on the site and working up more promo mats, but the fact of the matter is, when choosing my time wisely with all of the other commitments I have right now, getting pages done is definitely the most important. I can not wait for this grad school nonsense to be over! Don't get me wrong, I got myself into it, but by the end of the previous semester, I was at a place where I had achieved the goals I had set out to with grad school, and certainly with the publication of IMAG, I took my work beyond grad school and the classroom. So basically, this last semester is just finishing up my thesis and putting the show together--things I'm interested in, but much less so because it feels so much more gratifying to be working on the actual work and promotion of it. I'll get through it though.
Also, for fellow Twin Citians, in addition to the show at MCAD in December, I will be giving a lecture, well, really more of a talk, down at St. Olaf College (the setting of IMAG) in Northfield, MN, on the 13th of November. I'll be talking about how and why I make comics about my life. Hey, even I'M curious! Anyway, it will be at 7:30pm in Flaten Auditorium in the brand new art building (it is amazing, by the way!). So that's another nice dish on my plate (hah, plate, vittles, dish, hah!)
Kansas City, here we come!
Just wasted approximately 3.5 hours of my afternoon making the 'Reviews Archive' page. I can do this stuff, but someone with actual experience doing webwork could have probably done what I just did in like an hour or less. Oh well. Instead of continuing to add individual links to each new review, there is now a page which they will be collected on for your reading pleasure. And of course only parts, yes, parts, of two reviews are displaying in tiny text and I can't figure out why. I'll have to ask someone who knows... But that will have to wait. I stayed after work and shut myself in my office. I need to ride home. Bye!
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