First... you know I love you, right? I love small press publishers. I love the independents. I'm that guy shouting from the rooftops about creator rights; I'm
that guy who only buys Marvel & DC titles if I can find them
used so my money isn't lining the pockets of exploitative mega-corpbopolies. But even putting that aside, it's the
content of independents which tends to appeal to me over mainstream comics, too. When a creator's vision is unencumbered by censorship or board-room editorial influence-- when we're talking raw, real, undiluted street-level art-- those are the comics for me.
So, it should go without saying that I think very highly of anyone who decides to enter into the ring of independent/mom-and-pop/creator-friendly publishing. You folks are fighting the good fight, and you're more important to this art form than I'm capable of articulating.
BUT... there is room for improvement. And one thing the small press world does NOT do well:
sending out comp copies to the creators.
Seriously.
The very first people who should see a printed book are those who worked on it. NOT the retailers -- NOT the customers-- but the creators themselves.
Look, I know it's difficult being an independent publisher. It's a lot of work, and much of the time your budget is in the red. You lose money putting out comics. I've self-published, too, so it's not that I don't understand or appreciate your situation. I sympathize. I know you can't afford to print endless copies of any particular issue, and I know that you don't have millions of copies to spare from the short runs you
do print. But the authors of the titles you publish (and by that I mean the entire creative team) should be guaranteed to be getting at least
some free copies of their work. And they should be getting those copies no later than a week before it's available for sale at retailers.
Let's do a random sampling of 30 projects I've lettered in the past couple years which have seen print. There are many, but 30 is a good sample amount. I'm just browsing through a list of past projects here and picking various titles arbitrarily. Okay? Okay... done. Ready? Out of these 30, there are
21 which I have never seen. Of the remaining nine for which I
did receive comps -- three of
those were sent to me incredibly late. That's 80% of my comps I'm seeing late or never.
Now, I realize that letterers are low on the totem pole, but many of my fellow funnybook peers -- artists, writers, creators of every stripe -- are experiencing this exact same thing. They just
don't receive comps when they work on smaller press books.
And... that's pretty lame.
How many of us in the indie world have, at some point, produced comics for no paycheck? I'm betting the answer is "everyone". And you know what? The ones laboring for free should be the
first ones getting free copies of their work.
And there's more to it than simply
wanting to see the final work in print. On one particular series for which I did layout design, I saw no comps for two years. If I had received copies of the first issue straight from the printers, that would have given me information I could have used to improve page production on subsequent issues. My files were fine, and the comics came out well enough, but there are things I would have done differently if I'd had access to an example of the finished product.
This applies to artists and colorists as well (actually, far more so). Being able to study the differences between the art onscreen and the final printed product helps us make more informed decisions about how we should best prepare our pages in the future. So, it's not an exaggeration to say that if you're not sending copies to your creators, you may be stunting the quality of the book.
Even worse: if there's a real, actual
problem with the book, we can't address the issue or take steps to fix it if we're not
seeing it. If there is, say, a massive printing error -- one which compromises the integrity of the product -- then we need to know
before the book hits shelves! That's why it's so important to not only send comps, but to send them
early. Have them delivered straight from the printer if possible. Sometimes, if a problem is particularly egregious, a book needs to be pulled before going on sale (
DC's embarrassing All-Star Batman incident springs to mind) -- and sending out your comps early is a preventive measure against that very sort of situation.
So, again, my plea to all publishers -- but especially to the independents:
Send us our comps! Send them early! The very first people who should see a printed book are those who worked on it. This isn't making a mountain out of a molehill; this is something that actually matters to us, the people who produce for you. And you know, this is an issue that's really easy to fix.
Thanks for your time. Hope we're still buds.
-Adam
