Another lettered state edition drawing in colored pencil, this one for Sue McLoughlin.

Things went very well at NYCC. I did better than last year with A Distant Soil graphic novel sales up a bit, which was heartening. Up by a third, I think. But it was nerve wracking, as most buyers were waiting for last minute Sunday bargains, so for awhile I thought I was going to get stuck shipping home boxes of stuff (nope.)

Here’s a con overview from The Beat.

I didn’t bring much to sell at the show anyway, since I knew I would have a very bad location (great for enjoying the show with friends and doing deals, bad for sales.) I also shipped the wrong box of art, the one with the Captain Atom pages and like works which don’t have much of a market, so comic pages didn’t move.

Still I had completed a number of advance commissions and everyone who ordered their drawings picked them up at the show, so lots of art sold in the end. I have never been asked for so many commissions before. I have raised my prices, but that didn’t slow down requests. I was unable to do them, alas, unless people asked in advance of the show.

I skipped most parties, but for the first time in my life, someone tried to hit on me AND a male companion simultaneously at the CBLDF gathering, which was quite a shock.

Rantz Hosely (who is attractive, yet married, I must conclude we looked decorative together) and I were talking quietly with one another at the bar when two very aggressive men approached us and asked, “Do you swing?”

While I stood there and blinked at them trying to process what had just transpired, Rantz quipped, “Sure, I like ’50’s music.”

Good times, good times.

At the DC party, I arrived very late and two men came to my table to sit with me.

Party crashers.

In short order, their ignorance of the event and what we were doing there became apparent as I tried to explain to them that yes, people really do draw comics with their own hands. Freelancers couldn’t get into that party, but by golly, these two dopes claimed their cousin got them in. They didn’t even look like they were the same species, much less cousins.

They asked “What’s this party for?” so that was a clue they had crashed it, see. It’s pretty bad when you don’t have market penetration at your own party. I got up to go to the banquet to get some food and they quickly gathered their things and left, but not before they had scarfed down some free eats.

Yes, I got sick again. I left the show early, and would have left even earlier had I not had a commission to deliver. The customer didn’t show until late on Sunday, and then I was out of there. Nothing major and horrible like last year’s bout with whooping cough, just annoying. And I sound like a frog.

There was one retailer selling buy one get TWO FREE graphic novels, and I did just that. I also bought an Aquaman doll from Tonner and I await delivery as they had sold out at the show. It was on sale 2/3 off.

Oh my God, it’s gorgeous. I’ll post a pic as soon as I have it.

Looks like conventions are the way to get uber-bargains. I am very much looking forward to Charlotte Heroes Con, because if the sales are anything like last year, I am going to have to back up a truck to the door to haul goodies away.

Bad news: very few vendors selling art supplies. Blue Line, where were you??????

c

Another installment in the never-ending battle between religious nutters and Harry Potter, this time brought to you courtesy of the Iranian News Channel:

The Harry Potter film series reached the cinema following the success of the Zionist propaganda machine which made this little known author and her book famous……It can be viewed as a compilation of secrets and of theories used by the Zionist media…The Zionists support Harry Potter because he is the promised Messiah.

Good lord.

And over here, Al Nickerson inquires of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, whateverthehell happened to that autographed Danish flag. Alas, all his links to my old blog are all gone. Sorry about that.

Oh, one more to add: Iran demands group of actors in Tehran for a nice cultural visit apologize for films such as 300 and the Wrestler for being “insulting to Iranians”. Neither film was shown in Iran.

I sigh.

Personally, I loved all those firm naked abs.

c

Iran believes they have their first female serial killer (how naive that statement is). The murderess is said to have been inspired by Agatha Christie murder mysteries.

Christie’s novels, some of which depict unsolved murders, are highly popular among Iranians. The writer, who died in 1976, visited Iran several times and used it as the setting for one of her stories, The House at Shiraz.

Is quality non-fiction print book publishing a thing of the past?

The range of titles stocked by British libraries has been falling for decades. The net book agreement, which in effect subsidised the British book business, has been dead for a decade and a half. In that time, book retailers have concentrated increasingly on the genres that are easiest to sell. Book prices have collapsed. Within many publishers, sales and marketing considerations have come to trump editorial ones, and most authors of serious non-fiction have had to accept smaller advances and smaller print runs.

More on the print publishing meltdown at Rus Wornom’s blog, where he is tasked to come up with the necessary changes newspapers need to make to survive.

But why bother to read? Over here at Tall Tale Radio, you can listen to Rus Wornom’s interview on the “State of Newspapers”. Technology is swell!

Rus brings his valuable insight to the table, having written for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and several published novels. He’s been right in the middle of the editorial/business end of things, and what he has to say is truly illuminating. We try to see what the future holds, and it’s not all doom and gloom!

The brutal murder of a prostitute inspired Charles Dickens’ Nancy, the hooker with a heart of gold from Oliver Twist. Dickens would act out the murder scene in his book with such energy that he collapsed with a stroke during a performance. He died two days later.

Known for his concern for the plight of prostitutes, as shown by his sympathetic portrayal of Nancy, he would have been outraged that Eliza’s murderer had escaped justice. The involvement of Nancy’s pimp in her death was perhaps Dickens’ way of finding William Hubbard guilty in a way that the justice system could not.

Dickens certainly seems to have remained obsessed with the murder of Nancy/Eliza for the rest of his life. By the early 1860s, he needed to raise money for repairs to the large country home he had bought in Kent. Long a frustrated actor, Dickens began giving readings of his works in theatres across the country – and the highlight of these shows was always the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes.

You’ll get a kick out of this. In order to save money, the Disney studio rotoscoped scenes from old cartoons and dropped them into new cartoons. Enjoy.

JJ Abrams director of the new Star Trek flick at Wired:

True understanding (or skill or effort) has become bothersome—an unnecessary headache that impedes our ability to get on with our lives (and most likely skip to something else). Earning the endgame seems so yesterday, especially when we can know whatever we need to know whenever we need to know it.

A CSI screenwriter is being sued by a couple of real estate agents whose names she used in an episode of the show.

The lawsuit references an episode that featured a real estate agent named Melinda, who dies under mysterious circumstances, and her husband Scott, a mortgage broker who watches pornography, drinks and is suspected of killing his wife.

For the two people out there who have not heard, Christopher Handley, the manga collector whose imported comics were intercepted by customs agents, has plead guilty to owning obscene material. Many links and analysis available here.

After talking to a few people in the know about this case, it is important to stress in all of this is that Handley does not have a history of being any kind of sexual predator; he does not collect erotica, pornography or anything like it. He is a manga collector. As the poster above, whoever it is, points out, he is not a threat to anyone anywhere. He could be any one of us. Hopefully this plea bargain will get him less than 15 years in jail, because that would be a travesty of justice of sickening proportions.

c