Ok first things first, RevolveR is OUT and about. You can find it in Toronto and Montreal at select stores or order yourself a copy online via revolvercomix.com. This first edition is a limited run of 700 books in all. The first 100 of which are already almost all gone now.

Now to the convention: This was a great con for me, 28 copies of RevolveR were picked up, and I sold another 15 to shops in around Toronto [see the merch page for where]. Also I sold the first 5 pages and the cover art from REALWORLDS: WONDER WOMAN vs. THE RED MENACE for a decent chunk of change, effectively paying for the whole trip and a few bucks towards the rent to boot.

Another highlight was briefly meeting Will Eisner for the second time. He was looking pretty good even after signing books all day. I approached him near the end of Saturday as he was finishing up.

The last time I met him I asked him to sign a book and got some advice on my work, his being a sage example I’ve looked to for a long time.

This time I decided to give him something in return, so i gave him a copy of my new book. He was about to pass it to one of the organizers to send to him later, sighting a lack of a bag or anything to put it in. But he stopped short after a flip through the book and paid me a great complement shortly after looking it over. Asking if it was self published he then said somethign along the lines of 'good work, guys like you will keep this [medium] going' - as close as i can recal at the moment. And then he asked me to sign it!
"my name is Will" he quiped. - Very cool.
:) ! I think I managed to keep my head from getting to fat, but I was defiantly floating for the better part of the day. Really I’m glad to say the repose to the book has been really positive all round so far.

I've made a photo story about the convention and posted it online here. It’s a long one, 3 pages in all. So give it some time to load.



Change of guard

One of the stories behind the scenes of this years con I think, from the trade POV, was the number of artists who were there looking around for work. I was myself, as were a respectable number of young artists hunting for their first or second couple of gigs. Joey Cavalieri From DC was being Bombarded with peoples portfolios with a line in front of him just about every time I looked over. And even later browsing through the retail area, where I tackled him to give him a copy of my book and ask about inking, and then he was whisked off by the con organiser’s to look at fried of theirs’ stuff late Sunday.

But at the party held on Saturday night by the organizers for the guests, I was talking to some of the 'old guys' as they were calling themselves half jokingly [were talking 40-50 at the most here I’d say for most of them]. Guys I was looking to for examples when I first got into the business in 88-91'.

A lot of them were saying for the most part that there didn't seem to be much work to be had, even know we've just been through one of the best years in the business in a few. some were looking very worried about the lack of gigs, in comics or elsewhere.

Some of them had gone to dinner with one of the guests, himself a prominent and respected inker from 80's-90's who's skills are seldom contested by other artists. A guy most folks would say should never have a problem getting work.

Despite this presumption this inker had recently been having a lot of trouble finding work and even been the recipient of some shabby treatment on the behalf of a certain DC editor, a lack of trendy ness in line equated with a lack of talent in a very insulting fashion, so much so that all those I’ve shared the details of the story with has resulted in a comical dropping of the jaw in amazement.

One 'old guy', the one who was relaying the story at first proclaimed that having heard about this he now felt a whole lot less secure.

Vary few talked at all about developing anything themselves, with a few notable exceptions - these from the few who seem to be surviving or succeeding through a reasonable degrees of exploration, growth and just plain business sense.

Lean and Mean

Amongst a lot of these 'old guys' the perception prevails that younger talent in seldom seen numbers is coming in and taking a lot of the work, so that even though the last years seemingly good sales numbers and general industry wide expansion, there was none-the-less a lack of paying work to be had. This is leaving a good number of older artist who are locked in to a less fashionable stylistic approach, or otherwise un able to adapt their business practices out of luck. A few were seeming visably unerved at the con to my mind.

I'm empathetic to the problem myself, being a freelancer as well. And insulted by some of the lack of professional respect shown by some publishers and editors. I'd name Corps [did for about an hour] but in the end, the more i consider, the more it feels like something all over the place in life - some people just suck it seems.

But it also struck me that the Inker in question in the story has adhered to a line and stylistic notes in general which are at odds with the current visual trends in mainstream comics. I'm not of fan of this aspect of commercial work but it is a well considered fact that the downside to lack of personal development and flexibility in our work is the increased risk of becoming quite simply passé in the readers or publishers minds.

Personally I explore style and the foster the skills needed to be as flexible as I can be in that area for entirely selfish reasons, those of creative amusement and playful experimentation. But I've adapted this philosophy in the end with little or no hesitation because I’m also convinced it's the best approach over all if I wish to continue to remain vital and viable commercially. You must be as a rock on the river bed but as a reed in the fast currents - the life of a freelancer is often spent in the currents.

Once more i was struck that so few comics creators seem to be aware that their are other ways to go about getting published. No one seems to know that the Xeric grant is available to Canadians for one thing, and NO one knew that there is a Graphicnovel category under the Canada Councils grant system. Not to mention all sort of other ways raise funds. GUYS! Write a grant proposal or something, get going, self publish your own stuff already! or start developing something with one of the other small publishers, you'll have to develop it your self, come up with an idea or two. Something creator owned, something yours. So much more work i know, but well worth it.

Rather than seeing the waves of new quote "wana-be comic artists" snapping up your work as a dark future, or worse see yourself as a "wana-be superhero comic artists/writer". Take it as a hint that it's time to try a new strategy. Eye of the tiger, time to wake up and start learning new things, like other ways to tell stories, or raise money, or publish the things in the end. Otherwise, sorry to say you WILL have to step to one side and let the new comers take a crack at it. They are simply working harder at it and taking their first steps from the vantage point of higher shoulders.

this photo by Tyrone McCarthy

In the midst of writing this I read Neil Gaiman's post of his speech for the Harveys and it in places coincidently echo’s my thoughts here. It just stands to reason, to stay viable, you have to stay vital and have to much damn fun. A good speech by the way, your really should read it.

First two images are by my girl a.j.duric, the following me, Max Douglas.

NEW: scans of the actual silk screened cover art.
RevolveЯ is to be an ongoing personal anthology. A venue for Salgood Sam to experiment, learn, and "vent as I see fit". The goal is to put out two issues a year, each containing a number of short works and installments of longer novel length stories.
Contents of Vol. One
Pg 2-12: Pin City: An introductory short character sketch, part one of a longer work titled Bliss.
Pg 13: A night at the bar: An imagined sequential study of Casa del Popolo in Montreal.
Pg 14-29: The Rise And Fall Of It All; Act 1- A Cube with a view. The fist Instalment of a Graphic Novel adaptation of composer John O'Brien's experimental audio play. Visit www.rise-fall.com to listen to the audio.
Pg 30-37: Misplaced. A silent narrative based on a dream. The search for something lost.
Pg 38: A portrait of Sandra
Pg 39-44: HelpLess: A short story about escaping mortality based on a script by a.j.duric.
Pg 45-46: Poems and sketches.
Pg 47-50: Where the wild things went. A short sequential poem inspired by my late 20's and my favourite children's book, Maurice Sendak's Where the wild things are.
Pg 51: Nature vs. Nurture?
Pg 52: A note from Max.

52 pages, B&W interiors, two colour silk-screened covers on Black cover stock. A limited first edition of 700. The first 100 will be numbered. Available online from salgoodsam.com or revolvercomix.com for order July 1st by mail order - $4.95 us, $6.95 can + shiping

You can buy RevolveЯ Vol One from Salgood Sam in person at the Toronto Comicon [http://www.torontocomicon.com] [table AA9 in artist ally]. Copies will be available at the Beguiling [www.beguiling.com] in Toronto by June 21st. Fichtre [www.fichtre.qc.ca], F52 [www.f52.ca], Mojo, Monastiraki [spiltink.dreamhost.com/blogs/Monastiraki.html] and Millennium [www.libmillenium.com] in Montreal as of the 23rd. The official launch will be at The Monthly Montreal Comix Jam this June 30th [spiltink.dreamhost.com/MMCJ]. If you would like to order copies for your shop you can contact me at SalgoodATsympaticoDOTca

I just was reading this post from Sean at alltooflat. I gota say, to my mind, the second paragraph is Way off!

But sometimes what you want a given work of art to be is what it probably should have been. Sometimes authors make the wrong choices in terms of what to show or how to show it. The window they place over the events of the fictional life of a given character is too narrow, too broad, too opaque, too transparent, too open, too shut, or facing the wrong direction entirely. The author can say "No, no, it's exactly the way I wanted it--it's your problem if you don't like the view," but that doesn't make it so.

I’m all for people being allowed to review and give their opinion of the work, but lets just be absolutely clear. It’s only their option. And if the author does turn around and say “no, it's exactly the way I wanted it--it's your problem if you don't like the view," then you don’t have the right to say say "no, you’re wrong, that’s not they way you wanted it, it should have been told some other way". Not if you value a free creative environment.

You are not in their head, seeing the story they were trying to put on the page.

You read it and saw the one it PUT in your head, filtered through all your own subjective lenses.

And if you didn’t like it, it IS your problem.

It’s only the authors problem in so far that if they find no one is interested in their stories they won’t have any readers. The author may have, by the subjective standards of writing today, very bad or otherwise insufficient writing skills. But still, if that’s the way they wanted their story told then that’s the way it should be.

We can suggest ways to make their work more palatable for an audience but in the end, it’s their work, not ours. You can SUGGEST what you THINK might make it better, "in my opinion" being a phrase to used liberally. But if the author disagrees, you have nothing more that is not empty biased rhetoric to say on the mater. Anything more forceful or insistent is fascistic, in the end your only recourse being to stop reading.

The mistake I think is mostly in the delivery, not intent. If you want to share you’re perspective on what isn’t working for you in a given story, yes you should if you are able. An open writer will look at your thoughts and if they see anything that rings true then they will mine that for their future betterment. And other writers will learn how to better please a reader of your stripe, if that be their wish. The art of the critique is in the retelling. To start, stop thinking in terms of wrong choices. They may be right; you just might be the wrong reader.

A good critique, in my opinion - and I find this echoed in the thoughts of many of my fellow creators and readers alike - spares us didactic declarations of self important opinions laced with much theory dropping or displays of their own wit – the crutches of many taste makers - and just tells the readers of their review what they experienced. How the story made them feel, what it made them think, and if they can they expound on the aspects of story and structure that they feel worked and what seems off kilter or simply failed to work FOR THEM. Qualifications are everything when we make our impressions on others, or share our opinions.
Our OPINIONS.
I think
In my opinion
For me
Qualifications are everything

Along with this there is plenty of room for some writing flair of your own. But when the reviewer spends more time strutting than they doing thinking it usually shows.

Authors like all humans generally don’t respond well to aggressive egotists, blatant insults or even the most well meaning condescension from a reviewer. We are likely to ignore them or insult in return if un able to squelch the compulsion to do so - as petty as it is - in the end because we humans usually do not respect much those who show us no respect in turn.

I think the contrast drawn above is the difference between the negative critic who never builds, only tears down - and the positive critic who helps both readers and artist see the work through lenses other than our own.

I was at Bernie’s tonight, hanging out, talking about dark mater, shop talk, some exciting opportunities that have popped up for him recently, and a bunch of other shit.

We ended up looking at this gallery site, at some grendel drawings.

I was inspired to do a quickly grendel pin up, and was reminded of one I had done years ago, in 88 when I was 17.

Also tried to do some monster drawings for Billy’s upcoming edition of Monster Island, for which my submission is over due.

I’m going to do some more stuff but I liked this one I did below. It’s my first monster, the lobsters in Kensington market that I used to see walking to kindergarten.

Don’t look as young here as I should, doesn’t really even look like me - but you get the idea. Also did a bird in a stylized line - being reminded of things I drew when I was a kid -

I would do stuff like this a lot when I was 10 or so, having recently seen a book of native art around then that made a big impression on me.

I was contacted last week by a man who makes monuments, and asked if I could render an image for him to fulfil a special contract. A client of his wanted a rendition of his wife’s hand putting the finishing touches on a painting of a bouquet of flowers for her tombstone. In life she was a painter and this was the sort of thing she liked best. I was provided with a sample image of her work, which I had to match stylistically as best I could in stark B&W, so that it could be carved in stone. Interesting gig. It’s an odd thought that something I drew will be in stone in a cemetery for many many years to come. It’s not a singed work, but this may be the most lasting thing I ever do! And it’s quite an honour I find, to help immortalize the hand of a fellow artist, regardless of her stature.

A.J.’s mother is visiting us right now, and yesterday we got a call from her sister that their mother, a.j’s grandmother, had died. Very sad news. Thinking about all this I find that I could easily enjoy doing this sort of thing, helping to build monuments to human beings. I’d want to do it well, probably better than the industry often reaches for. A friend of mine worked as a mortician for a while and quit in disgust he told me, at the business practices he encountered. But there must be room for some classy craft of this kind. Anyway in the least it makes me think, I would like to do something for the stone on my father’s grave. I bet he’d love a Ducati.

Redesigned the cover, proofed the book, had two other people proof read the book, worked out the technical stuff with my screen printer Jesse at the atelier de serigraphie D'Alphonse Raymond, compared prices for the best copy shop for the guts [Urgence Copies], redesigned the cover again when I realised we could use black paper [cool!] and that's it! Allllll done. It's all off to the printers tomorrow afternoon. yay.

Getting things prepared to go to the Paradise Comics Con next week [18-20th] – The book is almost all done, just need to write a short text and layout the bio for the inside cover, and vet it all for glitches.

Here’s the contents page, just wrapped up last night.

The big question for now is how to print the cover. Budget wise a 2 colour process using basic photocopiers is appealing, this is the ashcan/zine version of something I hope to get printed offset in the near future [applying for a grant and sending it to a few publishers to see if I can get it done one way or anther].

But on the other hand it’s only marginally more expensive to have if screen-printed, so right now I’m working on that approach, which will be very nice. I just need to pick stock for the cover and work out if i can afford the extra $.

Also did a test print of the guts on a linotronic laser printer strait from disk with a high dot rate, something like 120, looks very nice, very clear and clean tones and lots of depth.

The first run will be of a 100 or so, but If I screen print the cover I’ll have at least 400 of them so I can put out at least that many before going back for more.

All goes well, I’ll be getting my hands on the first copies late this week early next.