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Josh Crawley
by Josh Crawley
Let me be completely honest: I can be negative.
I get upset at pretty much every level of the comic book industry. Whether it’s marketing, scheduling, printing, retailing, or even the consumption of comics; I can probably find issues. I won’t get into all of them now, but let’s just accept the aforementioned as fact.
Here’s the thing: I don’t get upset with comics because I want to be negative. I want to be positive. I like sharing books that entertain me, especially if I think they aren’t being given a fair shot (insert self-promotion for the Westfield Comics-sponsored Doughnuts & top Cow podcast here ). I want people to enjoy what they’re reading and what they’re making. To those ends, the industry has to not just survive, but to thrive for that to happen.
If I’m being honest – if we’re all being honest – I don’t think we’re being negative if we acknowledge that we aren’t thriving, nor have we done the best job of surviving. I think we can also agree that choice and variety are big pieces of that figurative puzzle. and some people in the industry – much more well-spoken, respected, and intelligent than I – have taken the initiative to help promote the variety of choices we have.
In all fairness, much of this has been in the form of supporting creator-owned works. Honestly, though, that’s where most of the diversity is. Some people come back with something along the lines of “You want to help promote the work I own but not the work a publisher owns.” I’m of the mindset that the entity that ends up owning the work should bear the vast majority of the responsibility of promoting the work. (And anyone who calls promotion of that work a burden should re-evaluate the work. If it’s a burden, why are you doing it?)
That isn’t to say there isn’t diversity in non-creator-owned work; just not as much. It also happens that the creator-owned work doesn’t get as much promotion because it’s a huge responsibility, and many people don’t have the individual resources. So instead of whining about it, having a positive attitude and pooling resources is what we’re doing. (And yes, I am including myself in that we.)
For starters, I recommend checking out what Steve Niles and Chris Smits have been saying. They’re the two that I noticed really gearing up into positivity-mode.
I want to be positive, and if I’m not, I going to do my best to offer sensible solutions that can help.
How about you?
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Josh Crawley may or may not be the keyboardist for Everclear. He strongly suggests you not bet that he is.