A Thanksgiving Message from the E-I-C
Another year has come and gone, and like every Thanksgiving, we find ourselves looking back over what has gone before, and are thankful for friends made, lessons learned, and experiences had.
This is the second year of ComixTribe, and really, Tyler and I couldn’t be more proud of ourselves. With your help, we have been able to build something that creators find value in, and we’ve continued to strive to move forward, not only as a destination for learning, but also moving into publishing.
What have we done this year? I’m not going to bore you with numbers, but as a site, we’ve seen the number of hits grow, as well as the time spent with us. For that, we thank you. A growth trajectory is always a good thing, and we seek your feedback in order to make us even better in the coming year.
As for the site itself, we have a couple of milestones this year. I’ve been writing my two columns, Bolts & Nuts and The Proving Grounds, for two consecutive years without being late or a week missed. That’s an accomplishment, and without you coming by each and every week as well as those creators submitting scripts, it couldn’t have been done. Thank you for that.
For The Proving Grounds, we changed the format a bit and added two editors: instead of it being all red, we added blue remarks as well. The blue remarks were initially done by Yannick Morin, who’s moved on to edit Image Comics’ Epic Kill, and they are now done by Senior Editor Steve Colle. Their outstanding help has also allowed me to grow as an editor, and for that, I thank you.
We also have John Lees doing exceedingly detailed reviews in the Creator Owned Zone. Just about every week, John is breaking down comics, saying what does and doesn’t work. If you’ve ever had to write a review, then you know how difficult this can be. Thank you, John, for your hard work.
We also added Yannick Morin‘s great column Points of Impact this year, where he breaks down a comic that can teach creators things, good or bad. This is a lot of work as well, and we thank Yannick for it.
We also have sporadic columns, such as Draw Over with Tommy Patterson, Breaking the Page with Steve Colle, and the Soapbox headed by myself. Lots of work goes into each and every one of these columns, and we thank you for that.
Tyler has been busy as well. ComixTribe has also more fully moved into being a publishing imprint, as well, with Tyler as the publisher. He’s been hard at work doing his own column, Comix Counsel, as well as the editorial duties. Some of those lessons learned can be found in his column, so if you haven’t read them, I suggest you go over and start perusing now.
What have we published so far? Well, first, we have Scam, a tale of superpowered conmen. This wonderfully fun story is being told by artist/writer Joe Mulvey. Issue 2 is now in stores, with issue 3 right around the corner. Get in on the Scam!
We also have Tyler and Cesar Feliciano‘s The Red Ten. Ten issues, and we’re seeing traction with the story with retailers and readers. Tyler’s story combined with Cesar’s art combine to tell a compelling story.
We’re also publishing John Lees‘ The Standard. This story is testament that The Proving Grounds works. It originally came in as a Proving Grounds submission, and we worked it into a state where it would be publishable. Jonathan Rector‘s art grows in leaps and bounds from one page to the next, totally living up to the story that John Lees has crafted. It’s worldwide debut is next year. It will be up to you to live up to The Standard.
Very little of the publishing side could have been done without our retail partners, especially the NECRA. Without their backing and their trust, we never could have had such good numbers with Scam, which also was able to garner the attention of Diamond Comics, which has given us the ability to have national and worldwide distribution.
What was the lesson learned? If you want to have a comic in every store across the country, calling them to see if they’ll carry it won’t work unless you’re in Diamond. That’s the overwhelming majority of comic shops. Because of NECRA, we were able to get into Diamond, and able to get more shops to look at carrying us. Thank you, NECRA in general and Larry of Larry’s Comics in particular.
Since we’ve started publishing, we’ve also gained the attention of other creators who would like to publish their books through us. We’ve seen our share of submissions, leading us to create an open rejection letter. As the publisher, Tyler has a very specific vision of the books he would like to see under the CT banner, and creators have to work very hard to meet those criteria. Those criteria can be found in the open rejection letter.
We’ve also had a very successful Kickstarter of the Oxymoron anthology, which was created and edited by Tyler. That was done through the hard work of the creators, and made real through the backing of people who believed in us. Thank you, creators, for your hard work, and thank you, backers, for your belief in what we’re doing. The books are on their way from China, and Tyler is looking to have all orders fulfilled as soon as possible.
As an overview, here’s what we’ve done: we’ve grown the views on the site; we have two columns reach a milestone of 100 installments each; we’ve published comics; we’ve gotten into Diamond; we’ve gained the attention of other creators; we’ve had a very successful Kickstarter. In all, I’d call that some year.
What do we have, looking forward?
Well, Tyler’s getting married! On New Year’s Eve, Tyler will be a married man, and we wish him all the best!
We’re also looking to expand our publishing output a bit. In addition to the books we’re publishing now, we’re also looking to build upon Joe Mulvey’s SCAM universe, and will have some exciting news to announce there. I’m pulling together my own Bolts & Nuts book, which will release next year. I just have a couple of chapters to finish and some artwork to add as well as a few other things before the book will be ready.
We’re also looking at the return of Runners, as well as another couple of secret projects from me. Tyler may also have another book project up his sleeve. I’m trying to talk him into making time for it. And the Tribe will be growing to include a few new series in 2013. Exciting times!
On the site, we will continue to have the mainstays of Comix Counsel, Bolts & Nuts, The Proving Grounds, Points of Impact and the Creator Owned Zone. I’d love to add a column that focuses on lettering, but that is very time intensive and heavy on visuals.
So that’s us. Where we’ve been and where we’re looking to go. None of it would be possible without all of you.
Thank you, and from all of us here at ComixTribe to all of you and your families, we wish you a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
-Steven Forbes
ComixTribe Editor-In-Chief
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