Hip-hop comics: hitting new audiences?

In my e-mail yesterday, I found a press release from Brandon Schultz, one of the guys behind Blokhedz, an indie comic with a distinct hip-hop vibe. As I haven't seen it anywhere else yet, I'll post it in its entirety (if it does go elsewhere, I'll cut this down to a link):

SCRATCH MAGAZINE REMIXES BLOKHEDZ

Nov 28, 2005

Hip-Hop’s hottest comic book has a new home. Excerpts from the street-adventure comic series “Blokhedz” will be featured in the January/Feb issue of Scratch Magazine. Nas and DJ Premier grace the cover of the issue that will jump off a recurring Blokhedz feature.

Created and illustrated by Mark and Mike Davis, “Blokhedz” first began flying off of shelves in early 2004 before selling out completely in comic book shops throughout the country. Now the best way for new fans to get their Blokhedz fix is through the bi-monthly editions of Scratch.

According to “Blokhedz” writer and producer Brandon Schultz “Our audience is small, but devoted. From Japan to Australia to South Central LA, Street Legends Ink has carved a niche in the comic industry for the hip-hop generation. Linking up with Scratch gives us a chance to grow that audience in a way that stays true to the Blokhedz aesthetic “.

“Honestly, it’s been our desire to work with Jerry Barrow since his editorial days at the Source. He is a visionary and his move to Scratch ensured that the spirit of our collaboration would be authentic. Scratch is the literary ‘Beat Street’ to our animated ‘8mile’” added Blokhedz comic producer Nicole Duncan-Smith.

Published by industry upstart Street Legends Ink, the series has garnered coverage from Reuters, CNN live, The Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times among others. Scratch editor-in-chief Jerry Barrow observes, ”I’ve been a huge fan of Blokhedz since the first issue and I haven’t found a hip-hop comic book that combines great art with a compelling storyline like this, so it was an honor for me to get them down with Scratch”.

Street Legends Ink, a wholly owned subsidiary of ImajiMation Studios Inc, produces the Blokhedz comic series and toys. Street Legends is a licensing company that specializes in products relevant to the global youth culture. To learn more visit www.streetlegendsink.com.

I've picked up an issue or two of Scratch. It's not a bad read, particularly if you're into the DJing aspect of hip-hop. And Blokhedz is good hip-hop themed comics.

Part of me wants to give the press release some of the same treatment as the Liberality For All piece below, but there's not as much to dissect. "Blokhedz first began flying off of shelves in early 2004 before selling out completely in comic book shops throughout the country" sounds a bit suspect, but it's also worth pointing out that most comics shops across the country didn't stock Blokhedz at all, so that sell-through comment isn't as great as it sounds.

At the same time, though, I can believe it--not just because I'm a hip-hop head myself, but because hip-hop loves comics. The press release reminded me of this, and reminded me that I wanted to look at comics and hip-hop at some point.

The Parallels of Comics and Hip-Hop

You know how those silly Lincoln vs. Kennedy things get tossed around, like how Lincoln supposedly had a secretary named Kennedy, and Kennedy had one called Lincoln? They're not entirely based in truth, but they spread because they're fun--if specious--little things to play with. Here's one way how it plays with comics and hip-hop and their respective cultures--Stan Lee, Bob Kane and Bill Finger attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. The same school is one of the places where hip hop graffiti was born; in Nelson George's Hip Hop America, he writes:

After World War II, when the country was putting a squeaky clean face on its history and architecture, contemporary graffiti began its career as a formal civic nuisance, yet it remained a modest urban irritant until a Bronx-inspired explosion in the '70s allowed graffitists to refine themselves as artists. Early in the decade, a community of graffiti artists began gathering in and around DeWitt Clinton High in the Bronx."

There are others, too--both industries sprung from the creativity of disenfranchised minorities but the profits were reaped by corporate interests, that hip hop trends and comics publishing trends follow similar patterns, both have taken blows from people trying to use the product to make shock-tactic attacks for personal reasons, guys working their way up from independent labels/publishers to the bigger companies... Make your own, if you feel like--it's fun. But it should be noted that comics have influenced hip-hop, and vice versa.

Comics In Hip-Hop

When talking comics and hip-hop, the conversation is naturally going to swing to the superhero side of comics publishing--it's been the driving force in American comic book sales up until very recently. Also, it's what most non-comics readers think the medium is all about, and that's ok--it's not like that level of ignorance doesn't go both ways. I've seen hip-hop threads come up on comics message boards, and they almost always seem to draw out at least one "I can't stand that 'gangsta' shit," or the "clever" dismissal of the music as "(c)rap."

Unsubstantiated observation--it sometimes seems like a lot of comic book fans on message boards are also fans of heavy metal music. It's not for me, and I'm not quite sure what the correlation is. However, flipping through my satellite radio, I came across two songs by a band called Vampire Mooose (no, I have no idea why there's an extra "o" in "Mooose") that had comics-centric titles--"Adamantium Elbow" and "Spider-Man vs. Venom." I'm not sure if that's something seen across heavy metal music, but it's something one finds when listening to hip-hop.

Superhero references have been a part of hip-hop since the first hit rap single, "Rapper's Delight" (which, contrary to what sometimes gets written in mainstream press articles about hip-hop, isn't the first rap single--that'd be the Fatback Band's "King Tim III (Personality Jock)"). The Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Eminem, LL Cool J, the Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, the Alkaholics, DMX and others have all worked in comic book references in their music.

The big one, though, is The Last Emperor. His "Secret Wars" is as much of a fanboy wank as a "who would win--Hulk or Thor" conversation. The songs kick off with "What if I had the power to gather, all of my favorite emcees / With the illest comic book characters, and they became arch enemies?" The outcome is unsurprising--the home team advantage gives the rappers the edge in all the battles, but it's done quite lovingly. You can read the lyrics to both versions of "Secret Wars" at OHHLA.com (Part One and Part Two).

It might be tempting for comic book fans that aren't feeling hip-hop to say, "yeah, but superheroes permeate western pop culture--the references may just reflect that." In some cases, sure--hell, ask anyone on the street about comics, and they're likely to drop some superhero knowledge whether or not their invested in superhero fandom. However, some artists have explicitly expressed the way comics influence their work. In an interview at Eye.net last year, Mindbender, an underground MC, mentioned how superhero comics informed his work:

While Mindbender messes with minds, the producers he chose to collaborate with aren't afraid to play with beats and sounds that are foreign to the average hip-hop head's ears. "Weapon X," with its deep bass and evocative Middle Eastern vibe, epitomizes this approach.

Mindbender calls the track a hip-hop comic-book story where "I'm half MC and half the character Wolverine from X-Men. I'm such big comic-book fan and I have this wild imagination so I said, 'What if one of the X-Men was into hip-hop?' So, I pretended I was bringing justice and doing rap at the same time."

Bringing justice to a scene filled with -- to quote a line from the track "Raindrops" -- "too many bad rappers and not enough clever songwriters"?

"Yes, exactly! Thank you very much for catching that line. I'm happy the lyrics are somewhat relevant since the album was written in 2002. You know, people are always saying, 'Screw this mainstream crap. It's so boring and stereotypical and damaging.' I'm just saying, 'Here's something totally original.'"

It's not just in the songs themselves. Much as Superman is Clark Kent's larger-than-life alter ego, hip-hop artists have been known to put forth personas as well. Sometimes, they names they choose come straight from superhero comics. Big Punisher took his nom de guerre from Punisher comics. Jean Grae is not only one worth mentioning, but one worth checking out if you've never heard her work. As Neilalien pointed out a few months ago, there's an independent rapper out of California called Akword Strange, inspired by Dr. Strange. The Wu-Tang Clan have enough aliases to fill they're own Avengers charter, some of them comics-related--Ghostface Killa's been Tony Starks and Ironman, Method Man's gone by Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze, and the RZA had his own superhero persona, Bobby Digital, who had a Stan Lee Media online venture (or was in talks to be). Tom Spurgeon's excellent Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book highlights a meeting between Lee and the RZA that shows how comics influenced the RZA:

The RZA was a big fan. "I got my shit from you," he told Lee, citing his practice of tagging every Wu-Tang release with the line "RZA Presents."

The RZA rapped some of his Marvel-inspired lyrics: "Microphone gets cast to the floor. Shape-shifting. Heavy as the hammer of Thor."

Lee clapped his hands. "Oh, that's great! I like that! Hey, you're going to help me with the stories."

And, of course, there's MF Doom. Comic book fans seem to love MF Doom (well, at least the ones that love hip-hop too), perhaps because of how much comics play into the Doom persona, as well as the other geek nods (like the new Dangerdoom album).

DJs, too, rep comics in their personas. Ian Brill mentioned DJ Green Lantern a while back, but he's not the only one. Legendary turntablists the X-Ecutioners started out as the X-Men, but had to change their name for legal reasons. Oddly enough, they originally came together to tackle Clark Kent's Superman DJ Crew, who were a major force in DJ competitions in the late '80s. Through my satellite radio, I came across DJ Bijal (a.k.a. Wally West). The second pseudonym isn't a happy coincidence--I talked to DJ Bijal briefly through the Sirius forum, and he confirmed that he's down with comics.

The hip-hop community is more than just MCs and DJs, though--there's dancers, graffiti artists, and fashion designers. Mark Ecko, the head of Ecko Unlimited, recounts his early obsession with comics on his blog:

Growing up I always wanted to be a superhero. Forget baseball player or fireman, or for that one weird kid in my kindergarten class who ate glue and picked his nose, garbage man. No, I wanted to be larger than life. So when nobody was around I'd haul out my secret uniform from under my bed - a pair of my father's tighty-whities, an Underdog t-shirt and a towel for a cape. Then I'd sneak down into the basement to fight crime where, for some reason, the washing machine set to spin cycle seemed to facilitate the flying process.

While Ecko says he later turned in his comics-tracing when graffiti artists became his real-life superheroes, comics influenced his company's style--I've seen Ecko apparel featuring Spider-Man, the Punisher, Captain America and others.

Hip-Hop In Comics

Battles have been around in hip-hop since its early days. As Cristina Veran points out in her "Breaking It All Down: The Rise and Fall and Rise of the B-Boy Kingdom" article in the Vibe History of Hip Hop, [c]ompetition, of course, is the very essence of every aspect of hip hop culture." In freestyle competition or dis records, one of the ways to get over is to make the other guy look like an idiot, and there are some disses in some comics that try to do that.

Two came into my mind right away. The first was the Bob Harras dis hidden in Earth X. As Brian Cronin points out in one of his Comic Book Urban Legends posts, Al Milgrom snuck "Harras, ha ha, he's gone! Good riddance to bad rubbish, he was a nasty S.O.B." into one of the issues. The second was the character of Funky Flashman, a character Jack Kirby created to mock Stan Lee's hucksterism and mannerisms.

I asked some fellow nerds about disses that make their way into comics, and they had more examples than I did. There was some comments in Amazing Spider-Man about Time-Warner's stock dropping because of a "lack of originality in their graphic publishing division" (thanks, Mike!). I was also reminded of Kyle Baker's commentary on DC's superhero line in the pages of Plastic Man (which I had read, but forgotten--thanks, Kristen!).

What about the music itself? It's kind of hard to translate something auditory to a visual medium like comics, but you've got to imagine that there is music in the worlds populated by superheroes. I wasn't a big fan of Waid's Fantastic Four, but he got one thing letter-perfect in his nine-cent FF story--if the world were filled with superheroes, they'd absolutely get name-dropped in rap songs like celebrities and athletes do. While Ben Grimm sounds dismissive of the phenomenon in the excerpted panel (his "it still ain't nothin' but yakkin' to a beat" is an often-expressed condemnation of rap), clicking on the panel will show the full-page, where he's obviously into the adulation. Waid might not have gotten the flow right, but he had the right idea.

Some comics artists display hip-hop influences in their work, too. Skottie Young comes to mind; I've never read one of his books (I don't think, at least, but he did a New Warriors thing that I might pick up based on how much I loved the original when I was younger), but the influence is obvious in preview images. The big one is obviously Jim Mahfood. I can't get enough Mahfood, and if you dig hip-hop and comics, you should grab a copy of Felt: True Tales of Underground Hip Hop, his collaboration with Slug and Murs for their Felt 2 album (admittedly, it makes more sense if you listen to the album and then read the comic, but you don't have to do it that way).

Can comics (of all types) catch that hip-hop dollar?

Yeah, probably. Part of me hopes it can, at least. Not for purely selfish reasons, either--hip hop elements won't be enough to get me to buy something. I'd just like to see more diversity in comics publishing. Or, rather, I'd like to see more diversity in how comics get to people. In an interview, The Last Emperor noted some of the problems facing hip-hop today, which sound a lot like some of the criticisms cast by some comic book fans about the industry:

Hip-hop itself or authentic hip-hop, if I can even make such a claim, is very much in tact. It's diverse. The only thing that I think authentic good hip-hop is not getting is its share of radio airplay and video play for those artists who do traditional hip-hop. I think industrialized rap music, what we see on video shows and hear on radio, lacks versatility and diversity. Most songs on mainstream radio and video shows deal with one of three things. Either they are talking about going to the club, how much material possessions they have, or degrading women. Every song literally deals with those things.

There's probably a market out there for hip-hop comics, but reaching it will be the tough part. The Blokhedz/Scratch deal is a hopeful sign.

It's good that hip-hop comics are trying alternate methods of distribution--when left to the mainstream US publishers, attempts at catching hip-hop fans in the direct market web have been met with little success. Case in point: Kyle Baker and KRS-One's Break The Chain comic from Marvel (if you want to read another blogger's thoughts about Break The Chain, check out this review by Marc Mason). Kyle Baker summed up the problems with Break The Chain in this interview at Ultrazine:

BREAK THE CHAIN was very experimental, a comic book packaged with a read-along hip-hop audiocassette. I don't think anything like it was done before or since. Whenever I do something new and different, there is no way to predict what will happen. That's why people keep doing the same old thing. It's easy to predict how a new Spider-Man book will sell. Marvel had no experience marketing to hip-hop fans. The creators of the project, Marshall Chess, Kris Parker, and I went with Marvel because nobody else wanted to publish us. The only way we got Marvel to go for it was we did it without being paid, and the production costs were out of our pockets. We just wanted to get it made and distributed. They were made, but only 25% of the print run was actually distributed. The rest of the books sat in a warehouse while Marvel tried to find a distributor with record store connections. It never happened. I don't know what happened to the books and tapes, they were probably destroyed. But a few people got to see it, which is better than nothing.

If you hit Ebay or other dealers, you can find those warehoused copies of Break The Chain--that's how I got a new copy (and had enough from the auction to send some off to a few friends, like Mason).

Comics publishers haven't given up on hip-hop because of problems like Break The Chain, though. In an attempt to make comic book fans out of hip-hop fans (or, more likely, to find more ways to cash in on a name), there are comics coming out that star some of the biggest names in hip-hop. It's not just one publisher trying to hit a new market, either--each comic series or graphic novel is coming from its own publisher:

• American Mule Entertainment has seen some press in comics and hip-hop publications after announcing their Public Enemy comic book that features the group as

members of a secret underground organization called the Underground Railroad, while they are touring the world they act as agents of peace and justice and help people whenever they are in need. They don't have super powers but they still kick major ass. There will be lots of adventure and action as well as social commentary reflecting many of today's issues.

• As Matt Maxwell pointed out, MTV and Pocket Books are slated to publish graphic novels starring 50 Cent and G-Unit.

• Back in May, ICv2 reported that Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment was teaming up with Vibe Magazine to produce urban superhero tales to be published in Vibe. While not focusing on an established hip-hop artist, publication in Vibe means those comics will reach more readers than an issue of Infinite Crisis--the circulation figures for Vibe average around 850,000 readers.

I haven't seen these comics myself. The previews for the Public Enemy comic aren't much more than a few promotional poster things which are vaguely reminiscent of old, poorly-colored independent superhero comics. My fear is that these comics capitalizing on hip hop brands won't be very good (and that, if the POW!/Vibe one draws more from the POW! and less from the Vibe, it'll turn out corny). I'm also left wondering about the quality of Marvel Comics The Heist, a promotional comic included with Fat Joe's All or Nothing album and other Joint Chief albums in some locations, and how it was received by those who read it.

I think the perfect blend of hip-hop and comics doesn't come from licensing (though licensing is a big part of the business of hip-hop), but comics that actively embrace the culture--something somewhat more evident in manga and OEL manga than in American comics (I have to wonder how a Amazing Joy Buzzards-esque hip-hop comic would do in the direct market). A while back, Kevin Melrose linked to this article from the Boston Globe when he was still doing Thought Balloons. The article mentions how hip-hop has influenced manga. I have to admit, I haven't read much hip hop-influenced manga--I read Ahmed Hoke's @Large (I liked the look of it, but found it lacking overall) and Hiroshi Takahashi's Worst (which was just OK). I've been meaning to try Tokyo Tribes, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Even though I don't think @Large works as a comic, it gets the hip-hop vibe right. It's not as... manufactured?... as other hip-hop elements in comics--it's got more authenticity than the surface presentation of hip-hop slang that gets tossed into other comics. Diehard superhero enthusiasts get upset when film adaptations of comics get things "wrong," and hip-hop junkies will bristle when things they feel possessive about get the same treatment.

The Liberal Comics Media strikes again?

At least, finally, they're paying attention to Mike Mackey, the creator behind ACC Comics' Liberality For All. Today, Newsarama ran a top story on the comic and its creator, which you can read here. It's an interesting read, and one worth commenting on. I'm not sure to whom it should be attributed, as there was no byline for the article, but parts of it read to me like a press release. And, like any comics-related press release, there's plenty to discuss. I'm only taking snippets--please, go read the whole thing, but avoid the subsequent discussion, as it devolves pretty quickly into a "my side is better than your side" political discussion--here at The Low Road, the topic rests primarily on the comic itself, and not the views it expresses.

It’s controversial, and its mass media coverage is rivaling that seen by the most acclaimed graphic novels from the most prestigious publishers, but Liberality For All creator and writer Mike Mackey has only one message for the comic book market:

“I want to tell comic book retailers across the nation – reorder this book, please. Your customers want it. I’ve sold as many as these books directly as I did through my initial orders from Diamond, and I cannot keep up at this pace. I mean, I can, but I’m sitting at my kitchen table until 3:00 am filling orders. 2,000-plus packages have gone out on this. Please – order this book – it will sell.”

Rivaling the most acclaimed graphic novels? Google may take issue with that. A Google search for "Liberality For All" Mackey yields approximately 221 pages. Googling Persepolis Satrapi results in approximately 163,000 pages. A search for "In The Shadow of No Towers" Spiegelman doesn't return as many--only about 53,800 pages. Kicking it capes and tights, "Infinite Crisis" Johns comes up with about 189,000 results.

But that's just straight searches. Let's try it with Google News. In that search, "Infinite Crisis" Johns only results in eight stories. "In The Shadow of No Towers" Spiegelman has less--only seven stories. Persepolis Satrapi gets only ten. Mackey's comic only gets five. The numbers are much closer, but three of the five are press releases--the only other Google News search that turned up a press release was the Satrapi search, and that search yielded one press release and nine stories.

Admittedly, I don't think that Google News would turn up any mention that would happen on the air on either radio or television, so it doesn't take into account anything said on Fox News. By that standard, though, it doesn't recognize mentions of the other comics searched on NPR programming or other mentions (and, true, Fox News probably has more of an audience than NPR).

If the demand for the book in the direct market is as high as Mackey suggests, though, then the retailers will up their reorders--they probably don't need any prompting.

The first issue of the eight issue miniseries, Liberality (illustrated by Donny Lin) came out at the end of October, and perhaps the most anticipated comic of the season in some quarters – yes, even more so than House of M or Infinite Crisis #1.

I can't argue with this--"some quarters" includes people who normally don't read comics and have no investment in most superhero comics being published today. In that respect, I have to wonder why Mackey is courting the direct market so aggressively in the opening paragraphs--the direct market system has kept comics afloat, but they're floating way off shore. They're the cruise ship people might want to get on if they knew it was out there, but if it doesn't dock, they can't hop on board.

Fuck, I totally tortured that metaphor.

No – you haven’t entered fantasyland. Since the announcement that Mackey was producing a comic set in a dystopian future, with the dystopia due to a Liberal administration taking the White House in 2000, he and his comic have appeared in more mainstream television spots, newspaper articles, and radio shows than…well, safe to say, all of the comic creators working for Marvel and DC put together.

If anything, that's the fault of Marvel and DC not being aggressive enough at marketing outside the core fanbase, but something has to be said for playing directly to a perceived untapped market.

As mentioned earlier, issue #1 just came out in October, but news of the comic’s publication has been bubbling nearly the whole year, with the comic being mentioned on Hannity and Colmes, G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show, and seeing features written in dozens of newspapers.

If I'm remembering correctly, Howard Stern also talked about the issue of Ultimate Spider-Man he was mentioned in--I imagine anyone appearing in a comic would want to say, "Hey, neat, I'm going to be in a comic book."

“It all started when the news got out there that I was doing it. We went online at the end of July, and saw over 100,000 unique visitors in seven days. Immediately after that, we had requests for information and press releases literally coming at us form all over the globe. You know you’ve done something right when you’re just making a comic book, and you’ve got a producer from World News Tonight calling you.”

Seriously, people making comics should take note at the attention the book is garnering. If you've got something that can get the interest of people that aren't already addicted to funnybooks, you can't expect an "if you build it, they will come" fantasy. Get your books into the hands of people in the media that like comics or, at the very least, have a history of discussing them (often people at NPR, for some reason).

Mackey admitted, while the press coverage from the mainstream was far more than he ever would’ve hoped for, aside from an odd mention her and there, as well as orders from retailers, Liberality was met with silence from the comics market.

“We thought that at some point, we’d be getting calls from the comic press since the book has been seen or been heard about by upwards of 20 million people, but until Newsarama, there really hasn’t been any attention, which, quite honestly, we found as odd.”

Of course, as Newsarama readers know, everyone would have an opinion that they’d be willing to share about that. Mackey found that out as well. “I’d received e-mails upon e-mails from people telling me that the comic book market and press has a huge liberal bias, and that’s why Liberality was getting no coverage. I got comments like that from readers, and from pros about this. I never said that, as I said, I was curious, more than anything as to why we were being ignored by the comic book press, but it was getting ridiculous the number of e-mails that we received, asking about why the comics market was, for the most part, unaware of this book.”

As I understand it, very few people that write for the comics internet (sites, blogs, whatever) actually do the phone-work. I read some interviews and see the phantom outline of e-mail headers in between questions and replies (including my own--I've only done one in-person interview, so I'm pointing that finger at myself, too). Part of the reason is that the comics internet is still, for the most part, a fan press. Aside from the print magazines and a few sites like Newsarama, people are writing about comics out of love and tend to treat it as an avocation rather than a vocation. Basically, we chop wood for the fun of it.

I don't think there's a distinct liberal bias to the comics media--if anything, there's a bias towards the two major publishers. Most writing about comics is done about superheroes (even when the subject isn't superheros, as Mark Fossen points out. Even if it's a false dichotomy in terms of discussion, superhero comics get the lion's share of comics coverage (and, as much as it pains me to say, rightfully so--the dedicated group of internerds skews toward that type of comics, so it's natural that they'll get the most service).

I should also say, though, that Newsarama covers more independent, alternative and small press comics than I had given them credit for in earlier posts here, so a much belated mea culpa on that. I'm reading it more now than I did, say, a year or two ago, thanks in part to more contributions from guys like Chris Arrant and Daniel Robert Epstein.

Did Liberality For All get passed over? Ignoring the message board threads on it and the press releases some sites have posted, it's been covered on the comics internet before:

• Sequart.com interview
• Sequart.com column
• Buzzscope review
• At least two mentions on Silver Bullet Comic Books "All The Rage"

That's not counting blogposts discussing it, either--and as the book just came out, I imagine some more reviews might trickle in. I may have missed some, too--I just went through and looked for things that seemed familiar.

To date, whether you agree with the content or not, the comic is a grassroots success story. Mackey reported that his initial Diamond orders were in the neighborhood of 2800 copies, and, as he said earlier, he’s sold at least that many over again directly. Add the totals, and Liberality For All #1 would’ve laded somewhere around 203 on Diamond’s Top 300 chart for October. Mackey said he’s still receiving reorders from Diamond, and that his initial print run on issue #1 was an optimistic 12,000 copies. “Once we saw our Diamond orders, and had a feel for the press that was coming. I’m confident that we’ll sell them all.

The cynic in me doubts those numbers--really, any self-congratulation from a new publisher tends to do that. That may be because the ones that have done that have either gone under or are suffering today--CrossGen and Alias are two easy examples of that.

“I can’t stress it enough - we want people to order it through their comic shops, so we don’t have to handle as much of the mailing, and it doesn’t keep eating into production time,” Mackey said. “Every time we have a story in a paper somewhere, and they’re not going away – we’ve had media inquiries still lined up in major papers and the networks – we see a huge bump up in orders. When we hit somewhere big, like on Hannity and Colmes, we start seeing orders within the first few minutes of the segment. It’s nice selling them direct – don’t get me wrong, but please – order it through a comic shop. I’m not set up to do to handle this kind of order volume. It’s a comic that people are hearing about and are looking for, it’s something that is different from the other stuff on the shelves, and will sell for retailers.”

Here's more of why I don't believe the hype: it sounds nice and retailer-supporting, but it also comes across as disingenuous--there's no real proof of these orders, which opens up the possibility that the comic isn't doing as well as suggested, and needs the support of the direct market. Aside from that, though--people won't be able to find it if they can't find a comic book shop. The big stores that sell graphic novels tend not to sell independent, serialized comics. Some areas aren't served by comics shops at all, and some stores really do only stock Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image. If Liberality For All is going to succeed and reach that outside audience Mackey is targetting, I don't see it coming from the direct market--not for political reasons, but because of the economics of nerd culture.

***

As for the subject matter...

Personally, I don't care whether or not Liberality For All is a sincere expression or a satire of conservative ideologues--whatever Mackey's intentions, it appears to be a poorly done comic done by a creator who can't handle dissenting opinions of his craft.

The first mention of the comic, I believe, was in this thread at the Image Comics message board, which started with:

I feel I have found an untapped niche. My mini-series is an Orwellian future called “Liberality For All”, in which Liberal Extremists have let the United Nations govern the USA. While the story revolves around the growth of the central protagonist, and Bin Laden’s plot to Nuke NYC; it is also a politically charge satire dealing with serious “What If’s”.

I have no doubt that most liberals will loath the subtle message. But my target audience is specifically untapped conservative readers.

The past 8 years have seen Fox News (which is far more conservative than its contemporaries) shoot to #1 in the news networks. There is a conservative majority in Congress, governorships, and the presidency. Conservative talk radio shows dominate liberal shows 95% to 5%. With all this in mind should not the politics of comic sell better if they were geared more to a conservative readership base?

As far as the marketing goes, it's not really a bad idea. Fox News Channel isn't just the #1 cable news network--its primetime line-up gets more viewers than the other cable news outlets combined. Whatever his intentions, marketing the series to that audience was a shrewd move on Mackey's part.

What's more troubling, though, is his theory most liberals will "loath [sic] the subtle message," particularly in light of his discussions regarding the book on the comics internet. In the threads I've seen Mackey pop up in to defend his book (like this one at Gail Simone's forum on CBR), Mackey only responds to the political message, and not to the quality of the work itself (and even conservative fans on comics message boards have pointed out, "hey, this looks crappy"). It's a tactic I've seen other self-publishers use, most recently by the creator of a book called Night. A blogger made some dismissive comments regarding a review copy of Night #2, which prompted it's creator to take to forums left and right, making accusations of bias and theories as to why the blogger maligned his comic.

I should note that I haven't read Liberality For All past the preview pages. Those pages weren't enough to grab me. The art is reminiscent of the '90s boom, but somehow less attractive. The script has too much telling, and not enough showing. It doesn't come across as a fully-actualized, nuanced work, and that's what I generally tend to seek out. To support it just because it's an independent comic book is too "team comics" for me--I'd much rather judge something on its relative merits and success in execution than the factors that lead to its publication. Perhaps I'm putting words in the mouths of others, but I'd wager that liberals, conservatives, moderates, independents, libertarians and comic book fans of any unmentioned political stripe would look at this comic and say, "wow, that looks incredibly shitty." And that shows my real bias--what offends me most about this book isn't its politics.

What bothers me is that some of its supporters say, "yeah, it looks bad, and it isn't written that well, but that's OK, because it's an independent comic book." Independent, small press and alternative comics can be just as aesthetically sound or written as well as mainstream comics or manga--they can even be better. It's another sticking point I find myself coming back to--people too often use their personal tastes as the sole factor in deciding what is and isn't "good," when they really should be saying "hey, I enjoyed this." Like Steven Grant discussed last week in his "Permanent Damage" column:

Craft without art is pretty damn pointless, it's true (not to mention annoying as hell). But art without craft is as bad. The point of craft isn't to break the spirit but to facilitate communication, because, really, that's what we're trying to do: communicate. An idea, a desire, a feeling, a moral, even some epiphany of the unknowable. With any sort of story, any sort of art, we are trying to communicate us. The object of technique, of craft, isn't to straitjacket or to commercialize. It's to give the artist the tools for a more perfect or more complex communication. The thing about ideas is that after awhile yours should start becoming more complex. Most people, once they start thinking creatively, start continually reassessing goals and ambitions, coming up with newer things they want to try. Or they want to approach potential audiences they hadn't had before. Or they just want to do what they do better.

Craft by itself isn't art, but art doesn't really get to be art without craft.

As it stands, Mackey and Lin don't have the tools for a more perfect or more complex communication.

Part of me is hesitant to say this, too--like many creators, Mackey seems to pop up wherever he or his comic are discussed (as The Pickytarian found out). Hell, I fully support using Technorati to check the pulse of the internet--if I made comics, I'd do it too, and I've done it at times with this blog. However, every time Mackey pops up, it seems to be to defend the ideas expressed in the book, or conservative ideology in general. If you swing through, Mike, I'd ask you to limit the discussion to the book itself, and particularly:

• How do you think the work itself, in terms of quality, holds up to other comics on the racks?
• Have any critical responses to the quality of the work itself resonated with you, or given you ideas for improvement?
• Why do your reactions on message boards tend to be towards the political side of the discussion, without taking into account criticisms of the work itself (or, in the case of the earlier discussions, the preview you provided)?

So here's my question to anyone--what are some good conservative comic books? Does Mackey have a point with that? I know I don't see political biases in most comics I read, but most comics I read don't actively deal in politics anyway (or, at the very least, it's a secondary or tertiary focus, rather than the primary conceit of the work). Some of the contemporary names that get tossed around are Chuck Dixon, Jim Kreuger, Mike S. Miller, John Byrne, Doug TenNapel, and Bill Tucci--there are probably more that I'm not thinking of. Stil, aside from TenNapel, conservative themes aren't (I don't think--I haven't read everything by those listed) expressed explicitly in their work. My political comics tastes tend to run towards editorial cartoons and comic strips on both sides of the political aisle--the format works better for me, for some reason. It's probably because it deals with the ideas themselves, rather than what happens when some comics creators who make politics the key point of their work--they forget the storytelling, characterization and thematic aspects, and fall into ham-fisted didacticism or cloying "after-school special" emotional appeals.

If you know of some good, conservative-themed comics of any type, please share them in the comments field below. If a conservative friend asked me to recommend a comic book based on his/her political leanings, I'd like to suggest something attractive, engaging and well-crafted.

I'd hate to be left with just, "well, there's this comic, but..."

Store visit: Rocketship, followed by links

So, Rocketship...

First of all, I am slightly biased towards this store--I've known Rocketship co-owner Alex Cox for a few years through internet geekery. Admitting that, though, doesn't really preclude me from saying negative things about it--it's just that I can't really find anything to criticize. Like others, I'd like to see more manga represented on the shelves, but looking at the manga Rocketship does carry, it's obvious that Cox and Mary Gibbons, Rocketship's other co-owner, are stressing quality over quantity in that section--the store is probably the first one I've seen in recent travels to focus on the manga that's not geared towards the younger set. I spied every volume of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha, which I rarely see on mass market bookshelves--come to think of it, I should have checked to see if they had Erica Sakurazawa's Between The Sheets, because I haven't seen that at any of the bookstores around here either.

The layout is gorgeous--the original fixtures and slatwall from the previous tenant, a shoe store, are used to good effect. When I got there around 5PMish (after talking a nice driving tour through Brooklyn and Queens, which is a nice way of saying Mapquest got me lost, or that I read directions badly, or some combination of the two), the store was doing brisk business, with a nice split across gender and age lines. While the spot itself is small, its design makes maximum use of available space. The featured books from The Comics Journal Top 100 English-Language Comics of the Centurywas popular with the folks browsing through, and I was happy to learn that books from Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly are doing really well with the store's customers. That said, it isn't like Rocketship has abandoned the superhero fans--the monthly editions are mixed in with everything else released periodically, and there is a sizeable superhero trade section (but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't happy to see the "general fiction" section being much larger). Also, the bargain section was nice to see--instead of just things one might think unsellable, they've got deals on some good comics (I'd imagine the first two Marvel Masterworks: Avengers that are offered together for $65 will go pretty quickly).

Unfortunately, I had to rush out of there around 9:30PM, as I had a five-hour drive home to look forward to (and the sound of Digible Planets "Rebirth of Slick" coming from my pants meant my wife was on the other end reminding me of that fact). So I missed one of the reasons I went out there--to pick up Beg The Question and chat with Bob Fingerman. As it was, though, that's a slight regret, because I spent my limited time chatting with friends (and it was great seeing James Smith, Rocketship owners Alex and Mary, Joe Rice and Neil Kleid again, and meeting F. Chong Rutherford in person for the first time), eating hot dogs, drinking beer, and talking comics.

As far as shopping goes... I made it a point to pick up a Rocketship shirt (which, for some reason, are coming up missing on the store blog). I was too fat for the one I wanted most (the long-sleeved one), so I went with the "classic." Really, though, all the shirts had a very cool, boutique vibe--more store owners should date fashion designers, just for the fringe benefits. Comicswise, I picked up Scrapbook by Adrian Tomine, the latest two Optic Nerve issues (so much for waiting for the trade, as I had been--I just couldn't help myself), the first Amazing Joy Buzzards trade, and the new Black Hole collected edition for the wife (well, I'll read it too, obviously, but I felt guilty not buying her anything). Plus, I was recommended books left and right, so I now have more things to seek out.

It'd be unfair to compare Rocketship to the other new store I've visited recently, Riot! Comics and Culture, because I hit Riot! when it was still in its early stages. While the stores are certainly similar in that they capture a new effort to make comics retailing outfits not only inviting to comics fans and people on the street but destinations, there's also differences in approach. While Riot! really embraces the lounge atmosphere, Rocketship possesses a more gallery/bookstore feel. At the Fingerman signing, there was a bar/lounge area in the garden area behind the store, but by being set off from the events inside the store, it helped give the night that "special event" feeling.

The current "21st Century Direct Market Shop" phenomenon is particularly interesting to me. Along with Rocketship and Riot, another store debuted in 2005--The Secret Headquarters in California. Someday, I might try to talk with the proprietors of these shops for a longer piece about the reimagining of the local comics shop and what place it has in the changing marketplace.

For more on Rocketship, check out this interview with Cox about Rocketship at Indie Spinner Rack, which does podcasts based (mostly) on indie comics. It sounded interesting enough to check out the other podcasts they've done, but the silly bit at the end didn't really appeal to me.

++++++++++++++++++

I never really play the Previews game, but Kevin Church did something I'd thought of doing--just going through the green section and commenting on most of the stuff there (he left the Drawn & Quarterly comments to Chris Butcher). I'm looking forward to some of the things Kevin and Chris mention, particularly the Fantagraphics books Kevin points out:

Not only do we get The Comics Journal Library Volume 6: The Writers (featuring interviews with tons of writers like Alan Moore, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, and Harlan Ellison,) we're also going to be the proud recipients of Kevin Huizenga's Ganges #1, Part of their new Ignatz line of regular sequentials, this is going to be a slightly oversized 32-pager that features the title character's life. Yeah, yeah, you've seen this sort of thing before, but Huizenga's clean lines and surprisingly casual depth made him one of my favorites instantly when I read Or Else #3.

This is exactly the sort of thing that certain writers for The New Yorker should be picking up on instead of the same six or seven titles that everyone else has covered.

Oh, and while they're at it. FB will need $4.50 for the next installement of Tales Designed To Thrizzle. Just hand it over and take your hilarious funnybook like a man, ok? Nobody makes trouble, nobody gets hurt.

Check out Johanna's look at January while you're at it--it's the snark edition!