Well some more stuff rolled in, so we’re rolling it right out:
§ Eddie Campbell has started blogging again after a long hiatus, possibly related to a TV pilot. [Link via Neil Gaiman’s Twitter.]
§ Journo Rich Johnston was laid off from his copywriting job and is looking for a new opportunity in the UK:
For the past six and a half years I have been a very happy advertising copywriter at a radio advertising agency in Soho, London. Worked with wonderful people, created award-winning work, made a lot of money for a lot of people, and enough for myself to get a mortgage on a house and bring up a young family.
I, along with other copywriters here, have been handed notice. Business has fallen of late and the company has had to take drastic steps. And economically it’s a bit bleak right now.
So I am using this opportunity to ask anyone and everyone who reads and enjoys Lying In The Gutters, if you work in a London or London-ish ad agency, if you know people who do, or if there’s anything you think you might be able to do to help, please call or e-mail. Even if it’s just for a chat.
§ SLG’s Dan Vado had a lot to say about the way the world works now at WonderCon:
SLG had planned to start publishing more books at a lower price point, as Vado said it was getting “harder to sell a graphic novel by a new guy who no one’s ever heard of that costs between 12-15 bucks.”
Vado said if sales start to drop due to the economy and the preponderance of higher-priced books, even a $10-15 graphic novel may have a hard time meeting Diamond’s minimums. “I’ve done this for 23 years,” Vado said. “I can’t say we’ll make it to the end of 2009. And that’s shocking to say because I’ve lived through a lot of crap.”
The new policy also affects SLG’s backlist and what they can list multiple times in “Previews.” “Where we live and where we do our best is in selling stuff that’s come out and selling it over and over again,” he said. “In the book business, most of the business is backlist. Now we’re all being shoved over to being a frontlist publisher of more expensive material that’ll never get another shot in ‘Previews.’”
Vado said he thinks the change will eventually lead to competition for Diamond. “They need to do what they’re gonna do,” he said. “It sucks, and in the end, what they’re going to end up doing is creating the competition they’ve been trying to squelch for years.”
Doesn’t it pretty much say everthing about the state of the comic business that someone as well-known and influential and Rich Johnston does his comic stuff as a sidelight to his “real” job?
Mike
haven’t read the full article yet, but Vado’s news seems dire for SLG. :(
HAHAHA… Why doesn’t RJ apply for a job in the comics industry? Ohh wait– it requires actual talent to write something! He makes a living dishing the dirt on professionals and companies, so I guess it’s only irony for someone who puts other people’s careers in jeopardy to cry for help when he’s down and out? I wonder how many people will reach their hands out for this scumbag. Besides, what about that flourishing ebay business, or taking $$ bribes from pros just to get mentioned on his blog? Karma is a bitch.
See you at the soup lines, Rich!
“Journo?”
Surely you jest.
Drat! I would hate to lose SLG. It’s the most reliable publisher for finding Independent books that I like — Halo & Sprocket, Little Scrowlie, Charm School, Sparks…and those are just off the top of my head…
The slagging of Rich only took until the third post.
I think the over/under would have been 4.
Gossip columns are crap, but why would you seriously wish ill on another human being who hasn’t directly harmed you?
Johnston has written some fairly decent books himself, particularly The Flying Friar and he comes closer than any gossip columnist I can think of to actually having ethics (damning with faint praise. I know). Plus he’s done some good in helping get freelancers paid by less than scrupulous companies.
Bloke is entitled to his opinion but it sounds like the schadenfreude of someone who’s been opn the receiving end of one of Rich’s pieces.
Um, Pete Bangs, putting the words “Rich Johnston” and “ethics” in the same sentence is a complete joke! Do you know that he has been accepting BRIBES from people who want to be mentioned on his column? Does that sound “ethical” to you? Do you know he sells and promotes items on ebay, some of which are related to what he mentions in his column? Does that sound “ethical” to you? The only reason he can’t dig more dirt on hard working pros is because he lives on the other side of the pond. And that’s why his column is always filled with uninteresting British comics news. I’m just giving him a taste of his own medicine. Like my next door neighbor said, karma is a bitch.
No one in the industry likes the sleaze bag.
I don’t take bribes. Not an ethical stand, no one has ever offered them.
I do promote work from friends, acquaintances and indeed complete strangers, usually when they e-mail me. But none of them have accompanied that with a Paypal amount.
Why do you think otherwise, Bloke?
I’m not really sure how this Rich Johnston guy thinks he’d ever get any “actual” work in the comics field. In my experience, most of the comics professionals who know of Johnston despise him for the way his on-line column goes out of its way to stain people’s good names and cause problems for comics creators trying to make a living and feed their families.
The comics industry is a small world, and when somebody goes out of their way to hurt others, well…. Sorry, but I just don’t think there is a place for that kind of trash-talk crap in an industry built around art and creativity. I don’t wish Johnston any ill-will, but I’d rather people like him not be involved with comics or journalism or any combination of the two.
“I’m not really sure how this Rich Johnston guy thinks he’d ever get any “actual” work in the comics field. ”
I like how quickly we went from “it’s funny that rich’s comic stuff is a side interest to him” to “Why that Johnson Kid, thinking he can take over comics!”
Some of you people need to get a grip.
Rich – best of luck finding something else.
I have nothing against Rich, though I don’t know much more about him than his column at CBR.
I imagine though, the only ones who are so offended by him may be those whose shown to have swiped their art.