Comments for Panel to Panel

Comment on Get Your Panel On!! by Margaret

Margaret — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:35:03 +0000

Great photos, they really serve to illustrate your points well. It just goes to show that fashion is in the eye of the beholder. Whilst I liked certain aspects on the design, some I would not wear.

Comment on Sample Pages by Mark Masztal

Mark Masztal — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:04:27 +0000

I’m very proud of these layouts. Some designers would have blasted me for not having a consistent look for each interview throughout the book, but in my mind, each interview had it’s own voice and needed it’s own special layout and design.

Comment on Printing Issues by Mark Masztal

Mark Masztal — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:33:01 +0000

I just approved the new PDF proof so once John and I see the actual printed books, then we’re good to go to place our first big order of this very beautiful book.

Comment on Order Today!! by Antti

Antti — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:56:25 +0000

Welcome to immortality.

Comment on To Be, Or Not To Be…? by Eugene

Eugene — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:14:36 +0000

another kickstarter contributor here, though i’m interested in the future of the project this post was a bit tl;dr. from skimming the question seems to be if people would be willing to pay $40. yes, i think they would. if you’re curious of what people want/would be willing to pay then maybe create a poll.

Comment on To Be, Or Not To Be…? by Karen P. Smith

Karen P. Smith — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:03:32 +0000

Hello, John I like Murph’s idea as from what I’m reading here it is, and should be, a never ending project from a personal and professional perspective. I know that you understand why I was unable to contribute at Kickstarter, though I’d love to see this work in print and hope to be in a position to buy it in whatever format it is published. Just don’t give up, please!
Karen xo

Comment on To Be, Or Not To Be…? by Gary Reed

Gary Reed — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:32:11 +0000

Mark (Masztal) send me a pdf of the book and if you don’t mind me butting in…

There are first two choices to make. Is this meant to be a single volume-a testament to independent comics and critical thinking…or is it to be an on-going project? If on-going, I think it could be broken up but if not continuing, then one volume.

The book may not have to be priced at $40 if you go POD. Check out the various printers and find the best production+cost…I’m guessing you could get it printed for far less than the $40…but I did not check for exact pricing.

Website, facebook (they have a market setup), and other avenues (such as Amazon) should make people aware of it. With POD, it should move into profitability with the first few sales. I’ve done over 30 POD books and each one has made money, some quite a bit. And of course, the whole digital aspect.

Of course, you could NOT go through Diamond because of the discount structure–that’s pretty much a fact for a lot of independent publishers. Not a knock against Diamond, it’s just the reality of the structure.

Kickstarter may have failed but this, in my mind, is just a small bump, probably fueled by frustration. I liked the book a lot and hopefully, you can get it out as it deserves to be out in the market (not that is necessarily any criteria for what sells)…

Comment on To Be, Or Not To Be…? by Cap

Cap — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 04:28:35 +0000

Hey guys, one of the Kickstarter contributors here. The big expensive book could work. $40 isn’t an unheard of cost. But that’s it. That’s the cut-off. It can’t cost more. High quality comics collections like Best American Comics cost just over $20, and this is a text-based work.

It’s important to consider that this book doesn’t have retail potential at the vast majority of comic stores . There would have to be a guarantee of making it to actual book stores. Sure, there’s the “cool” comic shops that do good riding the high brow pop art angle – places like Tate’s in FL and Quimby’s in Chicago. But most shops, even ones leagues beyond the Android’s Dungeon stereotype, are focused on comics exclusively. Anything largely text is a novelty that they might order a couple of, because it’s cool or they’re personally into it, but no matter the names attached it’s risky. The average comic store clientele isn’t going to bite. I feel that ensuring distribution to the bookstore market (particularly Amazon) is essential.

Could it do well exclusively from the P2P website with online word of mouth, printing to order, etc? Sure. It could. Folks do well with that model all the time. But it’s risky. And it’s the risk versus the production cost that you’ll have to weigh. Make sure the right people get review copies, guarantee some press.

Doing the book in issues isn’t a bad idea, but I’m uncertain of that market too. With most relevant comics journalism being online these days, I feel like the audience may have been weened off of the concept of reading comics as magazines. But it’s something worth looking into. If you know any retailers, poll them. Find out what they think would sell.

One thing I’m certain of it that it HAS to have a digital presence. That’s where the market is heading. It think this book has serious potential to be a hit in digital. It’s perfect for the iPad crowd.

Best of luck, John.

Comment on France’s Greatest American Hero?!?!? by Buzz

Buzz — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:21:01 +0000

Looking forward to getting this book in English. Art and story sound cool!

Comment on France’s Greatest American Hero?!?!? by Jim Simon

Jim Simon — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 02:27:54 +0000

Hi John,
Thanks for appreciating ShieldMaster, master of shields . . . protector of heroes, which I created. Making comics is an interesting endeavor to say the least. When the French studio, Organic Comix, decided to publish ShieldMaster based on an early story I wrote, I told them I wanted to change the costume and get away from the red, white and blue of Joe Simon’s prototype main character art. Organic Comix’s head honcho, talked me into keeping the red, white and blue colors–he loved those colors–and said the colors were the same as the colors of the French flag. I said ok, let’s see how it flies. The thing to remember is that ShieldMaster and the Shield Heroes are not patriotic, flag-waving characters. They are local home-grown townies who see there small town being taken over my Hollywood hot shots and nouveau rich folks who have discovered the beauty of the townies’s once backward, rather bucoli town which also was the site of a mysteriously abandoned military base where it was generally known by the locals that strange things had and continued to occur on the base before and after it was abandoned in the middle of the night. When some of the young townies find themselves drawn to the abandoned military base they stumble upon seemingly other-worldly powers and some of them end up making the choice to except the powers while others have no choice but to embrace the strange powers into their lives … leading to a small town mystery that will eventually impact the world as they–and we- have known it.