From: "Rizzo Frank" Subject: (cbiz) comic book store?? Date: 01 Mar 1998 19:28:17 +1000 On that note I would like to introduce myself I am a 25 yr old male who lives in sydney australia i am interested in setting up a comic shop now this would be be very different from setting one up in the states i imagine because there are a lot of them and a bigger market now here is my dilema iam not sure whether the best strategy would be to save enough capital and try and buy one of the few already established stores or start my own any input from anyone on the list would be greatly appreciated in fact any insight into comic book retailing would be great!! thanx. Well, the main purpose of this list is to provide a place to discuss the > >retailing and distribution end of the industry. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Toni Milovan" Subject: (cbiz) advices wanted Date: 02 Mar 1998 10:50:15 +0100 Well, it seems to me that something started to happens here. Here is my problem: I live in a small country which once have at least 20000 customer large comic market. Things changed and now due to high taxes and monopolistic distributor that charges enourmosly high rates market almost don't exist at all. Now, I wish to open comic shop and start publishing translated comics, I have my own plans, but I want to see few more advices, so if any one with expirience is interested... regards, TM # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Alice Bentley Subject: (cbiz) Diamond "clearance" lists Date: 03 Mar 1998 07:03:24 -0600 When Diamond started emailing these long liquidation lists, I was delighted. I knew that there was a ton of stuff in their warehouse that I would still like to carry, especially if it was significantly cheaper than normal. But these new weekly "clearance" lists seem to be a mix of a few highly discounted items and a lot of just regular priced stuff. The most recent one, for example, has: OCT971872j ELFQUEST #19 $4.95 $2.08 which is only nine cents off of the 57% discount they offered it as to being with. The other minor irritation is seeing things listed on later lists that were ordered previously but haven't arrived. Makes me wonder when they might come in. Do others on this list find these "liquidations" useful? The Stars Our Destination 1021 W. Belmont Chicago Il 60657 773-871-2722 # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: nebula-one@juno.com (Ramsin Tamraz) Subject: (cbiz) the new Superman Date: 03 Mar 1998 21:55:22 -0800 Hi, I'm not sure if this is off topic or not, but if its is then my apologies, but I just wanted to ask a question about the new Superman. First of all, I never liked Superman, the thing that i really dislike about Superman is his costume, I think its dumb and out of date. Yes I've heard it all about how his costume symbolizes this and that. But when i first saw the New Superman a while back I couldnt believe it, he actually looked cool, a superhero that I could like. So Im wondering why do most people hate this Superman, is it so wrong to except something different every now and then? Its the same with the new Godzilla movie. Since they totally redesigned the monster for the new film, many Godzilla fans have hated the idea of a new Godzilla and want the classic one instead. And now I hear that theyre bringing the old Superman back this summer. Why? I was just begining to like Superman. PEACE RAMSIN TAMRAZ, The Nebulla One Universe *Computer Graphics Artist/Animator/Web Page Designer* E-mail: nebula-one@juno.com GODZILLA'S DOMAIN http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/4312/godzillasdomain.html _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim Drew / Ciao! Publications Subject: Re: (cbiz) the new Superman Date: 04 Mar 1998 22:32:12 +0100 nebula-one@juno.com (Ramsin Tamraz) writes: >I'm not sure if this is off topic or not, but if its is then my >apologies, but I just wanted to ask a question about the new Superman. [...] >when i first saw the New Superman a while back I couldnt believe it, he >actually looked cool, a superhero that I could like. [...] >And now I hear that theyre bringing the old Superman back this summer. >Why? I was just begining to like Superman. If we try, we can discuss around this and keep it on-topic for this list, I think. The first thing you have to do is separate Superman-the-character from Superman-the-icon. As a character modification, yes, the new costume and power set can be "cool" (although it raises the question if it is still really "Superman" if the look and abilites are different). From a business sense (see: on topic!), however, DC (and parent company Time-Warner) have a lot of income from and thus investment in Superman remaining a recognizable icon. Via movies and TV and cartoons and comics and so forth, people *know* Superman. (He's one of the most recognizable icons in the world, apparently.) If Superman Peanut Butter (which I loved and wish they would bring back) were to switch the image on their jars very time Superman undergoes a physical transformation in the comics, they would be redesigning jars constantly, and would have to pull everything from the shelves with each new design. Very costly for the licensee. Thus, there is *immense* pressure to retain the same general look for the character for licensing purposes; the income from licensing outstrips that from the comics by an immense degree. As a result, any such physical transformation is temporary. (Note that Batman isn't quite as iconic, and thus we've seen a *lot* more variations on the look in various media, and thus can get a lot more variation in the comics themselves. But even there, the key points: pointy eared cowl, cape, amd bat symbol in a yellow circle will not change for real in the comics.) Jim Drew ciaopubs@earthlink.net B3(v)h+ t e cd s k g+(p) rv q p Secretary, IAGLCWDC She looked up and arched an eyebrow. "Hasty Pudding?" "All the *good* super-speed names were already taken." -- Marc Lynx, "Belles" # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dead Man Glenning Subject: Re: (cbiz) Re: comix-biz-digest V2 #17 Date: 04 Mar 1998 02:09:47 -0600 >>any one else on this list or what?? > >Yeah - we're here... > >Jake's search for a comics authoring software program sound intriguing - >but if everybody had the same program, all stories would be fairly much >alike. Well... I don't know about that. I mean it's just a different sort of word processor, the words still have to come from the writer. ;-) There are several programs out there for writing screen plays that adapt well for comix scripts. The company I've heard the most positive things about is Screenplay Systems, and their two products, Dramatica and Screenwriter (http://www.screenplay.com/). Their testimonials include W. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge), Jack Sowards (Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, ST:TNG), and Ron Bass (Rain Man, My Best Friend's Wedding) -- if in fact these guys really do use this software they're fairly divergent. ;-) Anway, it's big screen oriented software, I think for both Mac and Windows. But you can achieve screenplay formatting with any word processing program that can do stylesheets and glossaries. Years ago I used to use a shareware DOS program called Screenwriter, I don't know if it's still out there, but I've personally found stylesheets to be a lot more powerful and I just use MS Word. If you submit scripts to places that want different formats, you can just apply a different the style sheet, and if you're writing for yourself or creative partners, you can adjust them however you'd like. But they're tools, if they don't save you time, chuck 'em, I say. I don't think I'll ever get away from starting things on paper, or proofing things on paper. Speaking for myself, the formatting is most useful simply because it's easier to draw from. Any text editor will give you the ease of drafting and editing. >Maybe we could start a discussion about comics-writing by hand on this >list? How to get ideas, establish a plot a.s.o. sounds like a fine plan to me. I personally come from the bar napkin school of ideas, i.e. ideas come when they want to and get written on whatever scraps are at hand. >B^) I do routinely carry a small sketchpad and one of those small yellow ruled tablets, and fill them with beginnings and striking visual images or dailogue snippets or whatever whenever they hit me. I don't use a 100th of them -- I'm sure everyone else is that way. I don't ever lack for ideas, not even interesting ideas, just the time, momentum and motivation to implement them. ;-) I almost always start with haphazard notes on paper which I then try to organize into a loose outline later in a word processor, a lot of times there will already be bits of dialogue plugged in and a few images I want to use. I personally like to write the initial stuff in coffee shops and bars when I can, or outside, in the right weather. Hopefully with lots of interesting looking people passing by to enscript for imagining up characters. ;-) Then I build it up for a while with plot details until I'm ready to structure it more formally. Before that, I do some really loose page layout thumbnails (otherwise I write too way much dialogue for the allotted number of pages) just to get an initial feel for how the pages are going to go, and I tend to write in a screenplay sort of format that I stole originally I think from a John Ostrander Grimjack script. ;-) Page by page, panel by panel, descriptions +/- captions or sound effects, and the dialogue. Then I hit the bristol and totally rewrite it. ;-) For my own personal discipline, I need a clear idea of where a story is ending early on, and I spend a lot of my rewriting time worrying about consistent pacing and working over dialogue. I also tend to fret a lot over whether I'm going to be able to successfully lead the eye through the panels on a given page, and sometimes move things around on that basis, and I always do a lot of reposing for the same reason. But that's a lot of personal quirks, I have to believe this process is as personal and varied as your favorite color. ;-) Pax ex machina, Glenn _________________________________________________________________ "I'm all religious figures rolled into one, Qaddafy Duck propelled from Jimmy Swaggart's tommy gun!" --- XTC wraith@imaginot.com, glenn@suntimes.com, www.wraithspace.com _________________________________________________________________ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kynn Bartlett Subject: Re: (cbiz) the new Superman Date: 05 Mar 1998 08:16:42 -0800 At 10:32 p.m. 03/04/98 +0100, Jim Drew / Ciao! Publications wrote: >If Superman Peanut Butter (which I loved >and wish they would bring back) were to switch the image on their jars >very time Superman undergoes a physical transformation in the comics, they >would be redesigning jars constantly, and would have to pull everything >from the shelves with each new design. Very costly for the licensee. But just imagine the collectible value of, say, Giant Ant Head Superman Peanut Butter! -- _____ ___________ /| \ Kynn Bartlett \ | | / /|| * \ Valor@LSH.Org \| |/ ( ||______) http://www.lsh.org/valor/ | | \|------/ | LSH | \_____/ "Long Live the Legion!" ___|_[_]_|___ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim Drew / Ciao! Publications Subject: Scriptwriting (was Re: (cbiz) Re: comix-biz-digest V2 #17) Date: 07 Mar 1998 19:56:14 +0100 Dead Man Glenning writes: >>Jake's search for a comics authoring software program sound intriguing - >>but if everybody had the same program, all stories would be fairly much >>alike. > >you can achieve screenplay formatting with any >word processing program that can do stylesheets and glossaries And if anyone is high-end enough, I have a FrameMaker+SGML element definition document for scriptwriting (which allows for "guided editing" by pre-selecting or prompting for the next component and does validation checking to verify adherence to the guides; kind of the next step beyond style sheets into more structured content). (But to reiterate, the "gutters" list is the proper location for this discussion on *creating* comics. Comix-biz is not.) Jim Jim Drew ciaopubs@earthlink.net B3(v)h+ t e cd s k g+(p) rv q p Secretary, IAGLCWDC She looked up and arched an eyebrow. "Hasty Pudding?" "All the *good* super-speed names were already taken." -- Marc Lynx, "Belles" # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: curtism@ls.barrhead.ab.ca (Curtis Mack) Subject: (cbiz) Superman/Wolverine also writers... Date: 08 Mar 1998 08:18:50 -0700 (MST) It seems one person asking where everyone was has gotten this list rolling... I don't like the new Superman. Sure he has a new look and new powers (i think he has new powers I don't read his books that much). But with his new look & powers can you really call him Superman anymore? Superman is one of the most known comic book characters, outside of the comic books. Knew readers might think that DC is destroying a myth, and not want to read it. I think changing a major character like Batman or Superman or Spiderman (eg. The whole clone saga) is a mistake. However saying a member of the X-men doesn't get noticed the same usually. And I thought Woverine's new look was great, it fits him. I haven't read a X-men comic in about a year but I think they plan (or already have) changed wolverine back to his old self. Onto the writing plots and that. I run a group called Panels. What it is is people can submit there work and get critique's on it. So far everyone has been with the group. Also there is also A discussion Forum I put up were you can ask about plot and that for non-members. It doesn't get used much (yet), but hopefully it will in the future. Address is http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/3287/index.html Curtis # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Rich Gott" Subject: (cbiz) New on the List Date: 31 Mar 1998 16:31:54 PST Hi everyone, My name is Rich Gott and I have been drawing cartoons since I was a little kid....I'm 35 now. I was an avid comic collector, but my artwork tends to look more like Hanna Barbara type stuff....probably watched TV cartoons more than read comics. I've joined this list to possibly learn more about the comic business or connect with those in it. I was expected to go to college to pursue this but never did. So I've been using the net as a means to connect and get exposure. I've done stuff for hire many times, won 3rd place in a very competitive local art show when I was very young....I've done much better than is on my page, but you will get the idea. I have a cartoon site at http://www.freeyellow.com/members2/richgott/page3.html I would love to hear from you all Thanks, Rich Gott ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Email majordomo@xmission.com with "info comix-biz" in the message. # Postings must go to comix-biz@xmission.com -- replies go to original sender.