The Bullpen

[BobBretall]

All-Nighter #1 (Image) - This was originally slated to be an OGN from DC's Minx imprint, but when that line went under, it was lost in the shuffle:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18253

Image has given it a new lease on life as a mini-series that will hit the stands with a #1 issue June 22nd.  But you don't have to wait!
I read a downloaded PDF of the #1 and enjoyed it, it's a nice character piece and I'd think fans of stuff like Brian Wood's "New York Five" would like this as well, but don't just take my word for it......download a PDF of the #1 issue for FREE and read it yourself:
http://davidhahnart.com/download-complete-issue-of-all-nighter-1-2/

And if you like this, you might want to look for some of Hahn's earlier work, in particular "Private Beach" that came out from Slave Labor Graphic, I quite enjoyed that series too!  Give the free PDF a try and let me know what you think!

[Jay Tomio]

Yeah we got this email about this earlier this week for some reason too.

Definitely a good move IMHO.

[slurmo]

Awesome Bob!

Thanks for looking out. I skipped this book initially, we'll see if this PDF will change my mind about it.

[BobBretall]

Yeah we got this email about this earlier this week for some reason too.
Definitely a good move IMHO.

The difference here is that I'll often get links to PDFs for "press review" and I'm asked not to share the full PDF.  In this case, the whole #1 is available freely to anyone from David Hahn's blog.....good idea & I want to steer as many people towards it as possible.

People locked into "super-hero mode" won't care, but it's good for people to check out if they'd like to try something a bit different for a change.

[Jay Tomio]

The difference here is that I'll often get links to PDFs for "press review" and I'm asked not to share the full PDF.  In this case, the whole #1 is available freely to anyone from David Hahn's blog.....good idea & I want to steer as many people towards it as possible.

People locked into "super-hero mode" won't care, but it's good for people to check out if they'd like to try something a bit different for a change.

The difference in what? Sorry I don't get it 

[BobBretall]

The difference in what? Sorry I don't get it 

I was responding to the "yeah, we got the e-mail for some reason"......  Wasn't sure if they blasted the e-mail out to the entire internet, thus you got it, or if you were on some podcaster list or something.  I get LOTS of e-mails with links to PDFs of comics, but most are "for your eyes only" kind of things.

Sorry for confusing you, Jay.

[Jay Tomio]

From Image, no, it doesn't looks like a publicity communication (thus the notice came off as very random and ultimately useless for our purposes, though I certainly do think it's a good idea in general). Being a comic book fan and appreciative of IMAGE's output/projects,  I did try at one point to but it became too much trouble for the value for us. The worst thing in the world is dealing with a marketing department who thinks they are dealing with an actual commodity. It works if you're a large film studio and working on a specific project, not so much if you're comic book publisher with IMAGE's sales.

We do get or have access to advance (often several months before) screeners, galleys, arcs, promo/previews from  smaller entities like Disney, ABC, Showtime, Sega, Summit, Warner Bros, Hasbro, NBC, FOX, MARVEL, The Turner Networks, Sony, Mattel, and just about every major (and several small press) book publishers in the U.S. and UK though (and several other networks and such) I WISH comic publishers were as easy to work with as other media, because then I would actually invest in coverage strictly out of personal interest, and eat the loss (to a certain threshold) anyway.

Still, on a personal note, whether I'm interested or not, it's a good move by the  creators, one I wish more did. I was just remarking on it because it was random, because I don't think I've ever communicated with him, and as  I said above I have no dialogue with IMAGE, which is why I dig it even more. Everybody with a stagnant or overlooked book should be doing this.

[Dean S.]

I WISH comic publishers were as easy to work with as other media, because then I would actually invest in coverage strictly out of personal interest, and eat the loss (to a certain threshold) anyway.

Me too.  I'm also amazed at the lack of uniformity from the major publishers.  Some just send pdfs, some have great password protected websites, some send you pdfs without the cover art and the cover at as a separate jpg, some want you to screw around with their cumbersome ftp site, some include insulting reminders with every email about how they will take you off their list if you disseminate the advance copy even though you have handled the materials responsibly for years, etc. 

Personally, I think Boom does the best job with this.  They don't hector you with emails or threaten you.  They just update their password protected site weekly.  Everything is nicely organized and easy to find.  Easy to find back issues.  pdfs that display nicely on an iPad too.  Other publishers should take note. 

[Jay Tomio]

Me too.  I'm also amazed at the lack of uniformity from the major publishers.  Some just send pdfs, some have great password protected websites, some send you pdfs without the cover art and the cover at as a separate jpg, some want you to screw around with their cumbersome ftp site, some include insulting reminders with every email about how they will take you off their list if you disseminate the advance copy even though you have handled the materials responsibly for years, etc. 

Personally, I think Boom does the best job with this.  They don't hector you with emails or threaten you.  They just update their password protected site weekly.  Everything is nicely organized and easy to find.  Easy to find back issues.  pdfs that display nicely on an iPad too.  Other publishers should take note. 

Boom's process is pretty optimal for sure, they just don't put out enough product that interests me or has enough traction to justify doing so otherwise. MARVEL is also pretty excellent at communication.  Outside of that it's really a fucking mess for me, and since I have to approach it as business and not as a fan, I don't have the patience to jump through hoops or play phone tag for a segment I'm not going to break even on (plus, since I don't read monthly comics, there is no personal perk to it at all even if I was willing to carry it on out of love). I've had several IMAGE creators tell me it's more of a project-to-project thing that the creators have to market themselves. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's definitely not in my best interest to waste that much time and effort doing that.

FTP doesn't bother me, I'm a no frills person and it's easy. The only issue I could see with FTP is that if you have a very small server and you don't check the weekly Marvel dumps and let them stack over time.

I don't mind the warning, that's a legal issue and you will get that with each and every email any company in any media sends you, and it's not BS either (having had my share of cease and desists come our way).

[Dean S.]

I don't mind the warning, that's a legal issue and you will get that with each and every email any company in any media sends you, and it's not BS either (having had my share of cease and desists come our way).

Oh...I don't mind the warning, per se and know it's a legal requirement.  But you've seen these things.  Some look like the attorney said, "Make sure you put a warning at the bottom of the email" and the publicist adds it in an innocuous place.  Then others make it sound like they're expecting malfeasance and that they can hardly believe they've added a scrubby website like yours/ours to their comp list.    Probably more of a problem of having a publicist who doesn't know how to sound polite via email.