RASL #1 going back to press; Las Vegas & ComicsPRO
Last weekend I was in North Las Vegas at a casino called the Texas Station. It was the second annual meeting of ComicsPro, the only trade organization for direct-market comic book retailers. Vijaya and I thought a couple of days in Sin City with the top comics retailers in the country would be worth the trip. And it was. We immediately learned that most retailers were sold out of RASL #1, and had been for weeks!
During the Cartoon Books presentation I announced that RASL #1 would be going back to press. The new printing, which will sport a new color logo (and a price on the cover of the book!) will be offered through Diamond soon. Our intitial orders for #1 were 20,000 and we printed an extra 4,000 which we blew through the first weekend.
I also learned that many comic shops were ordering the new color BONE books either directly from Scholastic, or from a book distributor like Baker & Taylor, which completely changes the picture I had about where BONE sales are coming from. I had thought the color books were mostly going through schools, bookfairs, and big box stores like Barnes & Noble, but now it looks like the direct market is a bigger part than I knew!
That was especially sweet news as I reported the newest sales figures of the color BONE books to date: 2,481,500. Now that only includes the first seven BONE color books, and does not include any of the black & white comics or tradebooks like the One Volume Edition, which alone has sold over a hundred thousand copies. Thank you, comic book stores!
After my Cartoon Books presentation we had a raffle for the 2-foot prototype of our new Bone plush which was won by Comix Experience's Brian Hibbs. The life size Bone plush is available in Previews this month. You can read Brian's report on the conference in this week's Tilting at Windmills.
Earlier, before the presentations began, Larry Marder and I compared notes. If you've been following the guest blogs about the early days of the self-publishing movement, you'll understand it when I say it felt like old times. Larry was officially there helping out Graffitti Designs, but he is better known for his Beanworld comics. You can check out his account of the weekend at his Beanworld Blog.
Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund gave a pretty rousing speech that included this declaration:
"This is the Golden Age that we’ve all been working for. The Golden Age of graphic novels. The Golden Age of comics media.
Were it not for Direct Market comics retailers, comics may well have joined vaudeville and radio drama as once great but wholly abandoned art forms. Because of your smarts, your risks and your passion we have achieved this Golden Age."
You can read the entire speech over on The Beat.
Also, we announced that I would auction off my only store signing this year to the ComicsPro member who best supported the CBLDF, more details to come.
All in all, it felt like a very good couple of days, and time well spent.
Well that explains it! I was wondering why I couldn’t find Rasl.
That’s really cool that the direct market has become so huge and that graphic novels have become increasingly popular. I think probably due to the fact that they are covenant and less delicate than individual comic issues. Which many comic collectors’ guard with their lives, lol (my sister has a rare collection of old x-men comics). So it’s nice to see many of these older books in graphic from and even newer books such has Bone. These make comics so much more available to the everyday person who doesn’t shop the comic shop.
Congratulation on all your efforts, it was well worth it I’m sure and the long wait to come to this golden age era of graphic novels is something to be very proud of, best of luck in the future.
Comment by Jeanette — March 29, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
Great new cover, Ser Jeff! I enjoyed RASL quite a bit, especially the parting “shots” so to speak (don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t taken to the book yet). ANd I am very happy to hear about the amazing success that Bone has enjoyed, both at your own CB and with Scholastic. My young nephew recently visited and I introduced to my Bone collection.
He ended flying back with the Scholastic editions as well as the One Volume. Of course I’ll a bit poorer in the coming weeks as I replenish my collection, but what the heck. I love him and he sure did love those books!
I’ll concur with the opinion that we have arrived at a Golden Age of graphic novels. There’s so much great stuff out there. I’ve been working on one of my own for about six years now (off and on of course ;)) and it gives me some hope. I’m ready to give it a go, to find representation, so one day I can hopefully sit along side the likes of Pope and Tan and, of course, Smith…
Wishes for continued success, Jeff!
Best,
Scott
PS-If you or anyone else reading these words have any advice on getting into the business, feel free to fire away. Much thanks in advance.
Comment by Scott — March 29, 2008 @ 10:55 pm
Did the pics of you me and the 2 foot Bone not come out? I was looking forward to seeing those!
Thanks so much for attending the meeting, Jeff — the only way we’re going to move the Direct Market moving forward is by all participants working together.
-B
Comment by Brian Hibbs — March 30, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
Jeff, I’d love to “profile” you in the next issue of STAY TOONED! Magazine. E-mail me your mailing address and I’ll send you a copy of the premiere issue, so you can see for yourself what I’m up to with my “paean to professional cartoonists.” Tom Richmond has a very nice review of the magazine on his blog if you want a “preview.”
Comment by John Read — March 30, 2008 @ 11:59 pm
Jeff-
You modestly left out Cartoon Books’ generous sponsorship of a free shuttle to and from the airport for attendees. Thanks very much for that, it was a great way for a smaller publisher to help us out without the big expense of sponsoring a full meal. Hopefully, the good reviews from the early vanguard of folks like you will encourage other independent publishers to join us in the desert next year.
Thanks for coming, and for the ride(s)!
-Jim Crocker, retailer
Modern Myths, LLC
Northampton, MA
Comment by Jim Crocker — March 31, 2008 @ 12:30 am
The picture of us and the 2 foot Bone urned out great. Brian. For some reason, the photos from the blog weren’t showing up in the link - - hopefully that’s fixed now!
Comment by Jeff — April 2, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
Hi Jeff,
Just read RASL, love it. Can’t wait for book 2.
Comment by joe — April 2, 2008 @ 10:15 pm
kool
Comment by fone bone — April 16, 2008 @ 5:38 pm