Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.
Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:
THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.
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Hey folks,Tomorrow is that most beloved of nerd holidays known as Free Comic Book Day. That means I'll be out and about signing books. I'm just hitting one shop tomorrow, as opposed to last year's round robin. This year you'll find me at the much beloved Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, CA.
I'll be there with my Tumor/Alibi/Cyblade editor (and writer extraordinaire) Rob Levin, and Rahsan (Cleaners, Crazies, Creepy, Echoes) Ekedal. We should arrive around 11am and stick around till at least 3pm.
More info on their shop here: http://thecomicbug.com/
And, if you're not in the area, but still want the free comics, go to http://comicshoplocator.com/ to find your nearest shop.
Hopefully, I should have word on the release of Tumor in the next few days, so keep your eyes on your inbox, or follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/joshfialkov for more info.
See you on the flip side.
j. http://www.thefialkov.com
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Not a lot of people read anymore. Even fewer people read comics. Independent comics? Even less. Estimates had the complete comic market (meaning people who go to a local comic shop) somewhere around 350k a few years ago. Then, if you look at the percentages of market via Diamond, you realize that just about every publisher not named Marvel or DC combined barely equals one of those two companies sales. In other words, not a lot of people.
That puts you in a peculiar position as a comics fan, and as an independent comics fan specifically. You more or less have to shout from rooftops about every book you love. And that's fucking exhausting.
When I first started in comics, I came to it from this idea of being an advocate. I would scream and shout and harangue people to read the really cool drastically under ordered books that I was a fan of. Hell, I even did it as a weekly columnist for Broken Frontier.
Then, I transitioned to being a publisher and creator. Say what you will about my business, the one thing we did right was get the word out. But, it didn't translate into sales. Probably my favorite stat is that while Elk's Run was busy getting an A review from Entertainment Weekly it was barely selling 900 copies per issue.
I'm not what you'd call a positive person. I'm ultra-critical, to a fault, and, as anyone who's ever spent more than a few minutes with me knows you say the magic words and I turn into a pit bull of rage and anger. But, when it comes to comics advocacy in a public setting, I just can't do that. Instead of dwelling on whatever multi-part crossover is irritatingly selling thousands of times more than any of my books do, I instead scream the praises of Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth, Moon and Ba's Daytrippers, Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold, Darwyn Cooke's Parker novels, etc.
So, look, the point of this ramble is that it breaks my heart to see reviewers and readers harp on books they don't like, reviewing each individual part of a 200 issue crossover rather than saying, "Fuck it, let's read something new."
With TUMOR on it's way to stores in the next few weeks, this idea of comics advocacy is high in my mind. I've had dozens of people come back after reading the digital version or the advance copies from C2E2 tell me how much they love the book, and, I tell each of them the same thing. If you love it, go online. Twitter it, Facebook it. Go to Goodreads and write a review. Amazon reviews. Write it up on your blog.
You have to assume that if you like this book you're the only person in the world with the ability to get your friends and family to read it, because frankly, you are.
So, rather than griping about which Marvel characters are getting their minds wiped or which DC character is rising from the dead, tell people about your favorite independent comic.
Especially if it's Tumor.
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Their viewer is too wide to embed here, but, you can watch it here.
Hey folks,Just a quick word. I'll be signing on Saturday at the Archaia booth at the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. This is a free book festival that is an amazing way to spend an afternoon. If you live in L.A. and have never gone, you're missing out.
I'll have copies of Tumor on hand (including a few of the hand numbered ones, I believe), and, depending on the parking situation, I may even bring some of my other stuff.
I'll be signing from 11am (I would guess I'd be there for about two hours total) at the Archaia Booth (#756) which I believe is in the Hero Complex Pavilion.
And, as previously mentioned, today is the last day for the Harvey Nominations. You can find out what I'm eligible for and how to nominate Tumor at this link: http://www.thefialkov.com/?p=2127
See you this weekend!
j. www.thefialkov.com
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Hey folks,The nominating process for the Harvey Awards wraps up tomorrow, and I wanted to make my plea for you to consider nominating my work this year. The Harvey Award nominations are done entirely by the comics industry, rather than the fans, so, if you work in comics at all you are eligible to nominate.
You can download the form here: http://www.harveyawards.org/
Should you deem us worthy, we're eligible in the following categories:
BEST WRITER - Joshua Hale Fialkov, Tumor BEST ARTIST - Noel Tuazon, Tumor BEST LETTERING - Comicraft, Tumor BEST ONLINE COMICS WORK - Tumor (www.tumorthecomic.com) BEST NEW SERIES - Tumor BEST LIMITED OR CONTINUING SERIES - Tumor
The whole process only takes a few minutes, and it would be greatly appreciated by all of us here at TumorHQ.
Thanks for taking the time.
j.
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So, a week later and I'm sitting in bed at midnight, while Christina sleeps next to me, typing a review on the glass screen of the future. I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration as the future, so to speak, is now. The long and short of it is that i love the iPad. It's got some funkiness to it, but overall, it works as advertised, has a battery life that's borderline ridiculous, and has me happy to ship off my laptop to my parents so that they can talk to my forthcoming daughter via it's web cam.
The web cam, by the way, is in no way missed on this thing. I think that placing a camera on a device this large, while theoretically useful for video chatting, would be pretty much absurd for any other use. The iPad is just too big to use for snapshots. Hell, even the idea of holding it up while using it for video chat seems ridiculous.
As for 3G vs. Non. My logic is that realistically if I'm in a spot I'm not really going to pay 15 or 30 bucks for internet, the sort of files you actually want to download in a spot when away from home tend to be too large to download via 3G anyways, and, i'm literally never without my iPhone anyways, so why not go for extra memory on the device itself.
To the future of comics question... It's damn close. The screen is slightly too small to be used with a standard sized comic. I've dropped Tumor (which was designed to be the smaller digest size) on here and it's damn near perfect looking. Some of the text pieces are a bit small, but otherwise, it's all there. That being said, until Marvel and DC decide to start going day and date with their print and digital releases I think it's still up in the air. Not being able to have your comics transfer to other devices is sort of a no win for most of these apps, although Comixology's app does allow you to redownload things purchased on your iPhone.
Probably my highest praise i can give the device is that I've been using it for work. With the Bluetooth keyboard and the little stand i bought for the it, i have a truly tiny, truly mobile, and truly functional work station that doesn't need a power outlet and is far less distracting then my laptop with all of its IM's and web browsing that seems to only take you away for a second, when in fact it sucks you in for hours on end. That's right, i like that there's no multitasking. It means that i have to decide to stop working to check my email or read the internet or, whatever else I do to interrupt my workflow. For someone like me with a little bit of ocd and a whole lot of procrastinators disease, it may be the system I've been dreaming of.
At least until they release the 4.0 software.
NOTE: As Tony Fleecs pointed out the Wordpress App is greatly lacking in the spellcheck department. Should be all fixed up pretty now.
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