Independent Propaganda also has an interview with the ever candid Brian Hibbs. We don’t always agree with Brian, but we always respect where he’s coming from. Some interesting pull quotes.

Q: How can self-publishers and mini-comic creators best help you out in selling their books?

A: Best thing you can do is show me a copy of what it is you want me to be buying – a cheap photocopy is perfectly fine. However, I don’t look at .PDFs or links, and take those as a sign of unprofessionalism, or undercapitalization.


Now that’s interesting. To be honest, we’d love to live in a paperless world because then we’d have more room for shoes and furniture, but we don’t really like looking at comics on screen, either. However much of a blanket condemnation Brian’s attitude here might seem, it does exist and people need to take that into account.

Hibbs also has an interesting take on the impact of traditional publishers moving into the comics world:

The only real question is will the traditional book publishers deign to work with the specialty market to any significant degree, or will they turn their noses up at the opportunities we provide?

Here’s an example: recently, one of the big publishers had Chris Ware out touring for one of his books, and the publisher’s local rep placed him at a Mystery Book store in the Bay Area. I mean… wha–!?!? At no point were I or Comic Relief, or any of the other fine comic shops in the area approached. I can pretty much guarantee we’d have double the attendance, and sell twice as many books for that kind of an appearance, but I’m sure we weren’t even thought of in the first place. There’s as large and as misguided blinders in place at the traditional book publishers, as there is at a Marvel or a DC.


Read the whole interview and find your own thought provoking pull quote!

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