Broken Frontier

Last week’s column turned out to be unusually topical for me after hearing the news of Diamond’s new minimum order standards from my Diamond rep, because apparently the job of my rep is to inform me of all the new policies that will keep me from putting my comics into their catalogue. And people doubt the need to streamline their business. Anyway, my approach was rather personal, discussing how these standards had affected my company and how I saw it changing small press in the future.

But of course as soon as I send in my column, I check the Internet and this whole topic has absolutely exploded on the blogosphere. Turns out this was quite a hot issue, as well it should be, I suppose. Many people are “predicting” that this will be the nail in the coffin of independent comics. That’s quite a loaded statement, and I guess I’ve taken a calmer reaction to this news, relatively speaking anyway, because I had already been kicked to the curb by Diamond once before. And having made the decision to continue creating and publishing anyway, I suppose I had already adapted to a life without Diamond, so the news didn’t come as quite so much of a shock to me.

Anyway, it might have been this outlook that caught the attention of a reporter from the New York Times because he called me up and wanted to get my perspective on the matter. I gave him a lot more than what he ended up printing, but I suppose that’s mainstream media for you. They can’t all work like blogs with countless posts and endless threads.
So if you’d like to read the article, either pick up a copy of the Tuesday January 27 New York Times and look in the Art’s section, or you can read to it on their website here.

I’m hoping that linking to this article will make up for a slightly shorter column this week. Another recommended source of reading I’m going to give you is Colleen Doran’s new website ADistantSoil.com.

On the site, Colleen gives a new home to a blog she’s been keeping for years. It’s filled with great advice for creators and self-publishers, including creator rights, finding an agent, health insurance, and even work habits.

In addition to the blog, Colleen’s also posting pages from her long running series, A Distant Soil. She’s started with the very first page and plans on getting through the entire series online for free. I bet we’ll be seeing a lot more publishers and creators putting their archived material online now that Diamond isn’t willing to distribute as much backstock. 

And I’ll be back next week with a more complete column. I’ve got some really interesting stuff to get into, so check back soon.

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Tyler Chin-Tanner started his own publishing company, A Wave Blue World, and writes and draws layouts for Adrenaline, its flagship series.
© 2008 Tyler Chin-Tanner.  All rights reserved.
Email: tyler@awaveblueworld.com
www.awaveblueworld.com