Write Club!

Day 1:This is a short one folks! Kurt, Tim and later Phil, take a walk through the con and are struck with a volley of emotions. The British are killed, and Tim & Kurt ask "What's it all about?"Luckily they're saved by a girl named Gabby. Intro: "Four Colored Universe" MetasciencesOutro: "Write Club Theme" Scott St. Pierre

A new feature I'll be having up here on the blog is to present the best of free comic books available online.

First up is Vision Machine by Greg Pak. You can read the comic on Comixology or download the PDF.

Greg Pak has an exclusive interview up on Comics Alliance where he mentions that not only are you able to download/read the comic for free online, but eventually there will be a free print version available as well.

Which is really interesting, having a book put together by money from the Ford Foundation and put out under Creative Commons license which means anyone can expand on the universe created within the pages or is able to remix or mashup the story however they see fit as long as the original source is credited. Truly free creative information. The article also has a lot of interesting points about digital comics and creator royalties.

Which leads me over to another article discussing ICv2's number crunching of digital sales which is ultimately summed up as:

"While the news for print was less than positive, with manga sales facing an estimated 20% drop in 2010, the news for digital comics was very good indeed, with Griepp projecting that digital comics sales would see a more than ten-fold increase this year over last."

And:

"But while manga and graphic novels decline, the real energy and growth has been in digital, which has expanded from a $500,000 market in 2009 to an estimated $6 to 8 million dollars in 2010, a more than ten-fold increase. Quite simply, digital comics are "the fastest-growing part of the comics business," said Griepp."

It's interesting seeing this comic going out into the public, with its theme of free creative information with a donation based payment setup and the Orwellian Big Brother aspect of controlled information. I'm eager to find out which direction both the story within the comic and the story of the growing digital distribution and the role that this free comic plays in that.

K

Day 2: Tim is joined by Pete Lenz, who is having fun. Then Tim tries to find the screaming women, and when that doesn't pan out Pete, Tim and Phil head down to the basement to check out Anime Fest. Apples are eaten, smiles are shared, and perhaps the oddest interview I've ever done takes place.Seeing as how this is a major comic event, I thought I'd check out Marvel's Cup O' Joe panel. That kicks in at about 7 minutes, and therein you'll hear about some of Marvel Comics upcoming plans. This, of course, was a slide show, so you will not be able to see what they're talking about. Here are some bullet points:

• Marvel to publish at least two CrossGen titles. From the images it looks like they'll be SIGIL and RUSE (penned by Mark Waid).

• Brian Bendis and Michael Oeming will be putting out a creator owned, all-ages book named TAKIO.

• Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev team up to reinvent MOON KNIGHT.
• Marvel + ESPN? I don't know either.
• A teaser of a web-series about Marvel editor Steve Wacker auditioning for the Broadway play based on SPIDER-MAN. I think it's called SPIDER-MAN: WTF am I doing on Broadway? (JOKES!)

Intro: "Kingdom Come" Jay-Z
Outro: "Write Club Theme" Scott St. Pierre

This is what happens when the theme of the next issue of Slice Magazine is Villains: You get a crazy idea in your head that just won't leave. At the last Slice Magazine editorial meeting I was asked if I wanted to contribute an interview for their upcoming Villains issue, issue 7. I'm pretty sure they asked me because A) I'm into comics B) I'm into comics C) Most, if not all of my friends are either into comics also, or work in the comic industry.As soon as they announced the theme I immediately knew who I wanted to interview. I wanted to talk with Alan Moore. I tried to get such a crazy idea out of my head, I mean...Alan Moore? Me? How could that happen?? Suffice it to say, I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I had a great spin on the interview, I'm a tremendous fan of Moore's work, and here was the perfect reason to try and contact him. So I set to work. Moore doesn't have an agent, he doesn't have any official representation, so I just sent out an email to pretty much every publisher he'd ever worked with. Blanketed the field, and heard nothing back.Until. Until some nice folks at Avatar emailed me and told me that they'd forwarded my request to Top Shelf comics, which is his main publisher here in the US. Not long after, Chris Staros over at Top Shelf emailed me back to let me know that he'd contacted Alan with my request, and that I should be hearing something soon. Let me pause for a moment here to say how awesome Chris Staros is, because he is. In all of my communications with him he's been nothing but friendly, and professional. A true gentleman. Eventually I was contacted by Mr. Moore's assistant editor at his magazine Dodgem Logic, Joe Brown, and Mr. Brown said that Alan would love to speak with me. He gave me a time and a date. I threw up. Well, almost, because I had about a week to prep.Background: One of the first comics I can remember reading (and understanding) was Swamp Thing #40, which was about this woman who was a werewolf. The central idea was that werewolves and women both cycle with the moon, and it was horrifying, and sad, and human, and amazing. And written by Alan Moore. Alan Moore is pretty much responsible for my comic book obsession.So, I had a week to prep to talk to one of the most influential figures in my life.Here is the result. Write Club and Slice Magazine presents Alan Moore: