Remembering the Self-Publishing Movement: Rick Veitch, part 2
Part 2 of Rick's essay about self-publishing comics gets us through the collapse of the Direct Market and up to date with his current projects. The essay is followed by a sampling of Road Bits he picked out by various other friends and self-publishers. Road Bits were loose little sketches of recent dreams, usually done in a single panel. Pretty facsinating stuff. I'd never seen some of these before. Part 1 of his story is here. Rick Veitch's blog can be found here.
Rick Veitch Part 2:
Self Publishing: My Current Period
The collapse of distribution could have been the end for King Hell, but I still had a solid inventory of trade paperbacks and the rights to all those projects I'd done under creator ownership deals. Some nice folks at Diamond approached me at a show in 2002 and we were able to get King Hell back on track. The good news was that even though I'd been off the radar for a few years, the market was still there for my books. In a quick succession of solicitations through Diamond, I sold out of my inventory of THE ONE, BRAT PACK and MAXIMORTAL.
With the sudden cash infusion I finally invested in a real graphics computer set up. Took about a year to teach myself the software so I could put together a complete book in Photoshop and InDesign. But by 2004 I was able to release the third dream comics collection, CRYPTO ZOO doing all the scanning, design and file prep myself.
One of my main goals was to create nice collections of those fully painted stories and graphic novels I'd done in my early period. All this material was executed in a bright color palette that hadn't reproduced well in EPIC. Having control of the color right through to the digital file means I can get it to reproduce exactly as I painted it back in the day. That's a big deal for me.
As I get more familiar with the software, I really enjoy the whole process of re-mastering my old stuff and designing for new formats. Getting intimately reacquainted with a major project you created decades earlier is a cool thing to do. Design-wise, I try to give myself one new challenge with each book. ABRAXAS AND THE EARTHMAN had cover flaps. SHINY BEASTS boasted a gatefold.
With each King Hell release I'm getting a nice spike in the backlist reorders. Initial orders of successive new volumes have gone up. Needless to say, I'm hoping the trend will continue with orders due this week for the third volume in the Epic series, HEARTBURST AND OTHER PLEASURES. Foreign licensing is picking up too. There are already nice Brazilian and Spanish editions of my superhero comics and Comma 22 is in the process of bringing out the complete King Hell library in Italy.
This fall I'll be soliciting a high-end hardcover of BRAT PACK with unseen art, covers, photos, back stage history and more alongside a new regular softcover edition. I'm also preparing a collection of my underground comix titled BONG! for '09.
So, yeah. Still crazy after all these years.
End of Part 2
Rick's selected Road Bits…
Batton Lash
Heidi MacDonald
David Lapham
Dave Sim
Martin Wagner
Mark Oakely
Diana Schutz
Paul Pope
Jim Valentino
Bill Willingham
Don Simpson
Larry Marder
James Owen
yaaaaaaaaaaay first comment
Comment by Ryan bone — February 19, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
[...] Remembering the Self-Publishing Movement: Rick Veitch, part 2 from B o n e v i l l e [...]
Pingback by STWALLSKULL » Interesting Links: February 20th, 2008 — February 20, 2008 @ 3:44 am
So is there going to be a Dave Sim one of these?
Comment by Marcus (another one) — February 20, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
The Road Bits drawings are a treasure trove of informational atrifacts that Rick has had in his possession for all these years!
For the record,I DO know how to spell Heidi’s name. Either I didn’t know how to then (a distinct possibility) or I must have been really out of it (also a distinct possibility back then).
I’ve written elsewhere that there is a delightful “Rashomon Effect” gathering speed and strength with each publication of another chapter of memories.
We are all telling the truth as we remember it and watchful, analytical minds will be able to take all the pieces of our individual memories and fit them together into some sane semblance of “What Really Happened!”
Man, this is fun!
Comment by Larry Marder — February 20, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
[...] The second installment of my Self Publishing memories is up at Jeff Smith’s Boneville. There are lots and lots of ROAD BITS by myself, Dave Sim, James Owen, Larry Marder and other likely suspects over there too. [...]
Pingback by Rick Veitch » 1994 — February 21, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
[...] Ladda ner intervjun här, och ifall ni vill läsa mer om självpubliceringsrörelsen finns det en artikelserie på Jeffs Blogg att läsa: Del 1, Del 2, Del 3 [...]
Pingback by Intervju med Jeff Smith « Ã…ke i exil — February 26, 2008 @ 4:40 pm