Superheroes are not Comics

My Twitter pal R. M. Rhodes wrote a lengthy post for Gutter Brawl on what he calls “The Scarlet Genre.” He’s talking about superhero comics and asked if I wouldn’t mind commenting on his thoughts.

Though he doesn’t directly explain it in the article, it’s obvious that Rhodes picked the title of his piece in reference to the scarlet letter that kept prejudiced people from interacting with Hester Prynne. His assertion is that the comics medium has become confused by mass audiences with the superhero genre and - like Prynne's embroidered mark - it keeps people who don’t like superheroes from interacting with all comics, regardless of genre.

Rhodes talks about how comics creators, publishers, and vendors need to market comics differently to correct that misperception and let the mass audience know that they have other choices. That’s all good and I agree with him to a certain point. Comics marketing is traditionally poor when it comes to reaching people who don’t already read and love comics. We can do better.

I disagree with him on a couple of things though. First, with the idea that mass audiences are turned off by comics because they think that all comics are about superheroes. The crazy successes of movies like The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises show that mass audiences do, in fact, love superheroes. That adoring audience almost never translates into new readers of superhero comics, but that doesn't mean that there's a problem with the genre. As Tom Spurgeon points out, comics people love to analyze this stuff and figure out What's Wrong With Us, but it's really as simple as "a lot of people like superhero movies and not as many like superhero comics." I talk to superhero fans all the time who love these characters every bit as much as I do (often more than I do), but simply prefer to watch them in movies or on TV. They're just not into comics.

The reverse is also true. There are a lot of eager comics readers who don't care at all about superheroes. I don't have numbers, but non-superhero publishers like IDW, Image, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, First Second, Archaia, and BOOM! seem to be doing very well with comics across a wide range of genres.

In fact, what I said about movie fans not becoming comics fans seems to be a problem limited exclusively to the superhero genre. The success of The Walking Dead alone proves that there's a huge audience willing to check out the comics that inspired their favorite TV shows and movies. Comics retailer Mike Sterling has written about how comics movies do in fact drive interest in the comics they're based on (especially if they're written by Alan Moore, but there was also huge demand for Sin City and Hellboy comics when those movies came out).

Where non-superhero comics have the advantage (specifically, non-corporate-owned superhero comics) is that it's much easier to find the story that directly inspired the film or TV show. Every time a new Marvel movie comes out, we see a gazillion lists posted (all different from each other) about which comics to buy if you want to read more about the character. Corporate superhero comics are fun for people willing to invest some time in them, but they're impenetrable to casual readers. That's a much more significant cause for disinterest than simply not liking superheroes.

My point is that superheroes don't equal comics. I agree with Rhodes that it's often the first genre that comes to mind in most people's minds, but it's a perception that's a) easily changed with some quick pop culture references and b) is changing more and more every day. In fact, I suspect that the perception problem isn't one that mass audiences have as much as a certain segment of comics fans does. I keep reading articles in which superhero comics are referred to as "mainstream," but I wonder if that's true anymore. I'd love for someone who isn't me to run the numbers and compare sales of all corporate-owned superhero comics (and graphic novels) to sales of everything else across all distribution outlets. I bet we'd be surprised at the results.

Writing is Hard: Constructing a logline.

Image hijacked from Ancestry.com.

In the 17th century, a log-line was the way ships measured their speed. It's also where the nautical term "knots" comes from, but that's not what I'm talking about right now. I just thought that was cool.

The logline I'm talking about is the writing term: a brief synopsis of the story that summarizes the main character and the story's hook. According to Wikipedia, it started as a labeling system for Hollywood studios to easily identify and remember what scripts were about, but developed into a pitching tool. Not only for people pitching projects to producers, but also for pitching completed products to audiences - like the blurbs in TV Guide or DVR descriptions.

I don't know how much the term is used in the publishing industry, but the concept is certainly there. Writing a great pitch or query letter is a vital skill for writers, though one that a lot of new writers admit to having a problem with. How do you condense a novel or comic series into a one-sentence summary?

There's a really useful article on Scriptshadow that explains how to do just that. The boiled down version is this: "A good logline...gives us the main character, the main character’s goal, and the central conflict in the story (what’s preventing them from getting that goal)." There's a lot more to it than that and writer Carson Reeves makes it simple, including examples from famous movies. If you're a writer and unsure about how to hook an editor or agent with a pitch, it's important reading.

Come to think of it, it's good to have a logline even if you've self-published and are trying to sell your stuff online or at conventions. In the business world, it's called the Elevator Pitch: how you would describe your product to someone in the few seconds of time you have traveling with them in the elevator. I've been to a lot of conventions, traveled a lot of Artist Alleys, and heard a lot of sales pitches from independent comics creators. Most of them would have benefited by a strong logline.

It's also useful long before you get to the sales stage of your product. It's great for making sure you've constructed a good story in the first place. If you don't have a main character with goals and something that's preventing her from achieving those goals, you really don't have a story at all.

Elsewhere... Best Comics of 2010

Hm. I should've done this yesterday to follow up the movies posts, but bucking years of tradition (and contrary to my earlier prediction), I came up with a list of my ten favorite comics from 2010. I share that link with the other Robot 6eteers, so there are lots of great comics to be discovered there. And for even more comics recommendations, check out Comic Book Resources' Top 100 list. I got to do a few of the write-ups for those too.

It's kind of interesting, I guess, that not all the books I picked for Tom Spurgeon's year-end Five for Friday made it into my final list, but there are a couple of reasons for that. First is that Five for Friday's rules require fast thinking and I never do my best thinking quickly. But I also took to heart Spurgeon's criterion that we simply list five books that we liked without having to take into account their quality relative to everything else we read during the year.

Anyway, you can easily guess my Number One pick and I did a full review of it for Robot 6. I also managed to squeeze in another critical favorite before the end of the year, Charles Burns' X'ed Out. And to start 2011 off, I questioned how much of the Silver Age should really be a model for adventure comics today.

One final piece that I'm pretty happy with is the interview I did with Archaia's Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy and the creators of Mouse Guard (David Petersen) and Return of the Dapper Men (Jim McCann and Janet Lee) about the sell-outs of Dapper Men and the Mouse Guard spin-off, Legends of the Guard. As I say in the interview's intro, I usually ignore press releases about sell-outs, but Archaia's a great company and at their C2E2 panel I was impressed with how honest and forthcoming they are about their business strategies. Enough so that I felt like this was an opportunity to learn more about what selling out really means - at least for them as a small publisher - and what they did as a company and creators to make that happen. They were even more open and helpful than I hoped and I learned a lot. Hopefully readers will find something enlightening and interesting in the interview too.

Writing is Hard: Marketing 101

RM Rhodes is a comics creator who's married to a marketing manager. He talks about what he's learned from her in this very helpful post.

In addition to advice on bare-minimums like having a decent website (Facebook doesn't count), business cards, and an elevator pitch, he also talks about how to be memorable at conventions. And he touches on the topic of making sure you're memorable in an way that reflects your work. Rhodes wears a purple suit to conventions and that helps him stand out from other creators who are usually dressed in what he calls "hipster business casual," but he admits that "nobody knows much about the content that I produce – they just know the suit." I'll look forward to reading his thoughts as he continues to figure that out.

Writing is Hard: When to Do What

Pimp My Novel is a great blog about the publishing business from a Sales perspective. Recently, blogger Eric re-ran a post about what you can do to sell your book, and more importantly, when you should do what. It's not only informative, but as you read through his timeline it's also fun to imagine all those book deals and promotional tours you're going to get once you sit your butt down and finish the dang novel.

Writing is Hard: Especially the Rights and Marketing Parts

Piracy



JA Konrath has written another helpful article telling authors to calm down and let people steal their books. Not that I'm at all experienced with the ins and outs of digital rights protection, but purely as someone who's been watching the publishing industry with interest for a couple of years now, I agree with him. He makes too much sense not to.

He lists four good reasons not to worry - mostly born from knowing how much of his work is being pirated and then looking at his rising sales figures - and then elaborates on them in great detail. He's not the first author from whom I've heard this advice either.

My only caveat to adopting Konrath's point of view is that I also endorse Tom Spurgeon's that - while popular - file sharing is wrong and that just because people are going to do it doesn't mean that I have the right to tell another creator how she should feel about it. I should also point out that Konrath's article seems to be much more about helpful advice that will make writers more productive and possibly prevent some heart attacks than it is a damning judgment of anyone's particular attitude.

Marketing with comp copies

BookEnds Literary Agency has a useful post on what writers can do with galleys (advance review copies, etc) that they receive from the publisher. While I'm not quite there yet in my career, there have been a couple of times when rather than being paid in cash, I've been paid in copies of my book. Usually, I just put those out at conventions to sell, but now I'm realizing that there may be a better use for them.

Web sites for writers

BookEnds also has a post on creating an online presence. This isn't the first article on that topic that I've seen, but I always stop for them when they hit my Reader. This one, for instance, has some helpful advice about using Facebook.

Writing is Hard: Resolutions, Marketing Tips, and Other Inspiration

Resolutions for Writers

JA Konrath has been recording his recommended New Years' resolutions for writers since 2006 and you can read them all here.

He also has another useful and inspirational post outlining what he's learned after five years blogging about the publishing business.

Books on Writing

I've decided to give up reading books on writing for a while so that I can do some actual writing instead. But I love studying the craft and learning more about the business, so I expect that I'll eventually want to try some of Pimp My Novel's recommendations. I like how they've got the list divided into books that help you before you've written your novel and those that help you sell it afterwards.

Pre-Release Marketing

On a related note, thriller author Tess Gerritsen has a helpful post about how she starts selling her books before they even come out.

Writing is Hard: 22 Ways to Market Your Comic

My pal Charles sent me this link on comics marketing. Some of the items on the list are pretty traditional (websites, press releases, cruising message boards, etc.), but there are also some suggestions I've never heard anyone else mention (like setting up booths at flea markets and film festivals). It's a pretty good, concise To Do list even if there's not much How To in it.

Writing is Hard: Marketing Should Be Fun

Jessica Faust from BookEnds literary agency talks about marketing for authors. Her most practical advice is around building your website and what you should make sure to include. I've been thinking about doing something with my old michaelmay.us site, which I pretty much abandoned once I started using this blog regularly. I'll be taking Faust's suggestions into heavy consideration as I do that. (Feel free to check it out now if you're curious, but I've just gotten started on it and there's not much to see. I don't even like the format as it is now.)

Other than that, Faust's perspective is that trinkets and whatnot are useless clutter unless you really enjoy using them and passing them out. For her, they're a delivery system for getting out and meeting potential customers. It's the meeting that really sells you and the book. That makes a lot of sense to me, so as I'm considering future marketing ideas, I'll try to avoid doing something just because everyone else is and concentrate on stuff that I personally think is cool.

Writing is Hard: Marketing to Indie Bookstores

I'm not anywhere near a place in my career where I need this information, which is exactly why I'm linking to it now so I can refer to it later. I mentioned the IndieBound site before, but not their associates program where you can promote your book to independent booksellers.

Very snazzy.

Writing is Hard: Use Newsletters

Another short one, basically bookmarking another JA Konrath post. This one's about the effective use of newsletters as a marketing tool.

Writing is Hard: Comics Marketing

I know. Another marketing post. But I'm going to keep linking to this stuff until I learn it.

Over at Robot 6 (yay!), Ken (Superhuman Resources) Marcus has a lot to say about marketing your independent comic. All of it useful. All of it funny. The funny makes even the advice I've heard before worth reading again. Like, "You’re getting great press when your comic comes out. AKA, you’re ‘effed."

But there's also a lot that I've never considered. Things like:

Get new faces into their stores.
Press releases are a waste of time.
Banners don’t work. I recommend them highly.

I'd say it's well worth reading, but really, it's well worth memorizing.

Writing is Hard: Using Facebook and MySpace

I recently discovered writer JA Konrath's blog A Newbie's Guide to Publishing and it's a fantastic source of information and advice for writers.

Take this post on how to make the most of your social networking accounts. The gist is:

First, it enlarges your Internet footprint. The more places you are, the more people are likely to find you.

Second, it makes it easier for people to stay connected to you. The more you remain in the forefront of people's minds, the better off your brand is.

But he has a lot more wisdom to dispense than just that. Not only in that post, but in the entire blog. I'll be linking to him some more in the next couple of days so that I can find certain posts again later.

Cownt Marketing Idea # 67: Woof 'Bleh!

Jess Hickman sent me this picture. That dog is obviously a Cownt fan.

The sad/scary thing is, we're actually trying to get some strap-on udders made. Maybe with little Cownt logos on them. Today we talked about making little pink pin-on buttons with dangling teats.

And as sick as those ideas are, they're not nearly as horrifying as what happens in Jess' Cownt story in the comic. To think I used to believe the Cownt would be an all-ages book.

Writing is Hard: The Core of Advertising

Something else I need to get way more serious about learning is marketing. Our first try at Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelly was an example of that. Unless you read this blog or happen to love scouring the fine print in the back of the Previews catalog, you didn't know about it. No wonder it was under-ordered. I didn't even do everything that I know I'm supposed to do to promote a book.

I really should take some classes in marketing, but until then, I'll keep on trying to learn from the wisdom of others. Like this post by Erica Friedman about the difficulties of advertising and promoting manga. I don't write manga, obviously, but the concepts apply to anything you're trying to sell.

The core of advertising is saturation. One of the tenets of advertising is that repetition is the key. The ad for XYZ car may annoy the heck out of you, when you see it on TV, hear it on radio, see it in a magazine and on billboards, but chances are, you'd recognize the car if I showed you a picture. Buying one ad won't make a difference. A company has to buy many, many ads to establish in our thick brains that a series is out.

Saturation as the core of advertising isn't her point at all, by the way. Her point is that even after you spend a ton of money saturating websites and print publications with your ads, no one's actually going to pay attention to them. Depressing, but true.

The alternative, however, isn't to not try to saturate. You still have to get the word out. How to do that effectively (both in terms of cost and results) is the hard part.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

So... 2009.

Again, these aren't resolutions; they're just plans. And vague ones at that.

Kill All Monsters and The Cownt are priorities on the comics front. Kill All Monsters just needs a publisher, so I need to be more diligent about that. We're just about ready to submit to a couple of more companies who needed a little more in their pitches than some of the others required. Not that we've heard back from everyone we initially sent it to, so there may be some following up to do if I can figure out how not to be a pest about it.

I want to get the Cownt one-shot finished and pitched by the end of the year. I'd love to see it in stores by then, and I think that's possible, but let's not get ahead ourselves just yet. Finishing the novel is another writing focus. Being smarter about business and marketing in general. Seeing if we can get Jesse vs. Machine Gun going again.

I think that's enough writing goals.

Except that I'm very excited about the new digs that the old Blogarama crew have staked out. It's going to be fun. And I'm changing the focus of my column over there slightly so that I can talk more about the kinds of comics I like most. There should be announcements by the end of the week. Maybe as soon as tomorrow.

As for this blog, I'm gonna keep on keeping on. I promised myself I wouldn't make any more Announcements about the direction, so I won't except to say that as my interests fluctuate, Adventureblog content probably will too.

On a personal level, I'm hoping to take Diane and David to Tallahassee this year. That's where I grew up, but I haven't been back in about 20 years. Yikes. Doesn't seem that long. It's way past time I introduced my family to those folks.

That should do it, eh? Like I said yesterday, 2008 had some disappointments and I'm still feeling that a bit. I don't want to load 2009 up with too many expectations right away. If we keep things reasonable and just strive to make a little more progress, it'll be a good year.

Writing is Hard: Beginnings, Show vs. Tell, Getting Graphic, Readers, Getting Published, Rewrites, Artists, the Next Project, and Marketing

I need to go ahead and post a lot of stuff I've been hoarding about the craft and business of writing.

Exciting beginnings

There's a really useful critique blog called Flogging the Quill that encourages writers to grab readers' attentions on the first page. Writers send in the first chapter of their works in progress and professional editor Ray Rhamey reviews them based on how well the first 16 lines make him want to turn the page. He usually goes into a lot more detail than just that though and points out other craft errors that he sees. It's a great opportunity for writers to learn from others' mistakes and - if you're brave enough - get some free advice on your own writing. I've even submitted something myself and learned a lot in the process.

Anyway, Ray's got a couple of nice articles on his blog about the importance of catching readers right away. In one he uses the analogy of storyteller as river guide:

Heezan (Author) shoves off, and they glide down the river on an easy-going current. Heezan says, "Note the lovely hues of red and gold in the rose garden on the far bank." He steers the bow a few degrees toward the near shore. "And here is where our hero was born, poor tyke, the sad victim of -- "

Ima (Reader) peers ahead. "Oh, the hero. I'm so eager to see him."

"Soon enough, soon enough, dear reader. But first, see the ramshackle one-room schoolhouse where Hero first met Heroine, though their meeting was a tussle over who got the swing -- "

It's no surprise that the reader's next words are a request to be let off the boat. It's an inspirational article.

Ray's other piece is more practical. Using a story about a couple of kittens, he gives several suggestions for powerfully opening your novel.

Telling the story in visual terms

/Film has a great quote by Alfred Hitchcock on how the introduction of sound hurt cinema. At first I was struck by how easily it could also apply to comics, but I think there are also applications for novelists as well. It's really just a different way of expressing the Show; Dont Tell rule.

...we should resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. I always try first to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between… To me, one of the cardinal sins for a scriptwriter, when he runs into some difficulty, is to say ‘We can cover that by a line of dialogue.’ Dialogue should simply be a sound among sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.”

How spicy?

The BookEnds Literary Agency offers advice on how graphically violent or sexual a book should be. Their suggestion is to do what's right for the book you're writing. Don't second guess yourself by thinking about what publishers and/or readers want. If a publisher wants you to tone something down or spice it up, they'll tell you. As for readers...

Readers don't always know what they want.

Writers can drive themselves insane trying to predict or respond to what readers want. I think it's always helpful to remember that readers don't always know what they want. Case in point, a recent convention at which Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada was asked when Marvel was going to slow down with the big events its been known for the last few years.

Quesada interpreted that question as, "You mean, when are our books going to suck again?" But then he gave a more serious answer that was profound in its simplicity. "At the end of the day, what it means to me, is that our stuff is so compelling that you want to get it. My job ... and all our jobs here are to make you want to buy everything we put out."

Fans sometimes talk about being "forced" to buy comics they don't want, but of course that's ridiculous. No one forces you to buy anything, it's your own collector mentality. You can't really blame the comics creators for recognizing that though and exploiting it. That's like blaming McDonalds because you like their fries so much that you quit eating salads.

WALL-E's director agrees

Andrew Stanton on making animated films for adults:

“I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I don’t think of the audience at all, because I don’t go to see a movie hoping the filmmaker’s second-guessed what I want. I go to see what he wants, because I like his taste and style, and I want to see what he’s going to do next.

“The day we start thinking about what the audience wants, we’re going to make bad choices. We’ve always holed ourselves up in a building for 4 years and ignored the rest of the world, because nobody are bigger movie geeks than we are, so we know exactly what we are dying to see with our family and kids. We don’t need other people to tell us that. We trust the audience member in ourselves.”

Getting published

Science Fiction author Crawford Kilian agrees with and comments on Robert Heinlein's "Five Rules for Writers." The rules are more about getting published than the craft itself, but unless you're just writing for your own edification, they're vital. Here they are in list form, but you should also read Kilian's insightful commentary.

1. Writers write.
2. Writers finish what they write.
3. Writers never rewrite, except to editorial order (this one requires the most clarification by Kilian).
4. Writers put their work on the market (that's the publishing market; not the bookstore market).
5. Writers keep their work on the market until it sells.
   

More on rewrites

I used to have Neil Gaiman's "Advice to Authors" printed and hung on my wall next to my desk. I don't know why it's not anymore; I should probably do that again. It's incredibly helpful.

One of the things he says in there concerns rewriting: "The best advice I can give on this is, once it's done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before. If there are things you aren't satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that's revision."

But recently, an unpublished writer challenged him on that:

...the thing is, I don't do it like that at all.

For one thing, I don't write a first draft completely, then edit it several times. I work with scenes. I write a scene, I correct it, a re-correct it, I edit it and so on. I usually have a story planned out in my head entirely, so I end up writing the scenes in any order, really, although it's mostly chronological.

I'm guessing your advice would probably be "whatever works for you", but the thing is, I don't know if it works for me. I've never finished a novel yet.

To which Gaiman responded:

The biggest problem I can see with the way you're doing it is that it doesn't seem to give you anything finished. (If it was working for you I'd have no suggestions...)

And then he goes on to offer his brilliantly useful advice that you should go read yourself. It comes down to something that another writer called "making mud" though. Your first draft, especially when you're just starting out, isn't supposed to be a completed masterpiece. Using sculpture as an analogy, you're just creating the mud that you're going to sculpt from. That metaphor of the first draft as a pile of dirt and water was hugely liberating for me. Now, I'm all about writing every day until I eventually complete that draft. Then I'll be able to go back and make something cool out of it.

Finding and working with artists

This is comics-specific, but editor/writer Jason Rodriguez (who's worked with a lot of artists) spills the beans on his method for finding and building relationships with artists. Here's one of my favorite quotes:

I think the number one reason writers have a hard time finding an artist is because they find someone they like and they send them an email saying something along the line of, "Hey - I love your work. Blah, blah, blah. By the way, I have this project that I'd think you'd do SO well on. We should totally work together."

That's like asking for sex on the first date. Actually, that's not true. That's like asking for sex immediately after introducing yourself.

"Come here often? My name's Jason. Let's f***."

I also love how he totally dispels the Artist Flake-Out Myth.

What to write next

The BookEnds Literary Agency has more advice, this time on what to work on next while you're shopping around the first book in your series. Do you begin the next book in the series or start on something completely new?

I would never urge a writer to work on the next book in the series while I’m submitting the first. When a series idea is on submission I talk with the author and encourage her to start coming up with fresh new ideas. Why? Because if the first book in the series isn’t going to sell, it’s very likely the second book isn’t either.

Comics Marketing

Here's a podcast interview with a very smart comics retailer about what he's looking for in new comics to sell and what you can do to grab his attention. It essentially boils down to getting readers excited enough about your book that they'll pre-order it, and letting retailers see the work before they have to make a decision about whether or not to carry it. But there are also practical suggestions for how to do those two things, so it's worth a listen.

Other retailers echo that advice and offer additional opinions in this excellent interview at the Newsarama blog.

Tim Broderick also stresses the importance of getting out and meeting not only retailers, but libraries and bookstores as well. And having freebies. Bookmarks and postcards and mini-comics are awesome. I've got to start using those to create interest in my stuff at conventions.

Writing is Hard: Disney marketing rules

I'm always interested in marketing and I'm a big Walt Disney World fan, so this post on Disney Marketing Rules is fascinating to me. Steve Spalding doesn't have any inside information, he's just an observant fan of the park who's noticed some things. Three, to be exact.

I thought it might be a good exercise to see if I could apply them to promoting books.

"It’s not what you see, it’s what you don’t see."

I think that - when it comes to books - this might be more of a craft concern than marketing. I know when I'm reading, I don't want to be distracted by the mechanics the writer went through to create the story. That's difficult for me because I'm always thinking about that on some level, but it's such a joy when I read those rare books where the storytelling is so easy and seamless that I can forget about what the writer's doing and just enjoy the tale.

In other words, good writing isn't something where I want to stop and marvel over the choices the writer made. Those choices should be transparent. That's really hard to do, but it's an important rule.

"You don’t sell products, you sell an experience."

This one's easy enough to apply to writing, but difficult to execute. When promoting a book, you've got to convince potential readers that they'll feel something as a result of reading your stuff. And that means so much more than just telling them that your book is "funny" or that it'll "leave you in tears." Nobody believes that. Nobody buys a book because that's written in a blurb about it.

Figure out what the experience is that you want readers to have and then figure out how to give them a taste of it before they buy. The first one is free; they've got to pay for the rest.

"Learn to turn work into play."

The idea here is to take the most negative thing about your product and turn it into a positive. With books, the biggest negative for me is how much time it takes me to get through them, because I'm always wanting to get to the next book in my reading pile.

The easy solution (again, easy to determine; extremely difficult to do) is to make your book so engrossing that readers don't mind spending a lot of time in it. Every page should have something on it that not only makes that page worth reading, but makes the reader excited about moving on to the next one as well.

If I'm correctly applying this rule to writing, this one's also more about craft than it is about selling. I admit that hearing the words "page-turner" applied to a book gets my attention, but I'm also a bit skeptical about it. I'll be the judge of what gets me turning pages, thanks. So, yeah, you can tell people that you've got a fast read, but it's another thing entirely to actually write one.

Stay tuned, because later on I'll post a review of Stephen King's Duma Key and talk about how he nails two of these rules, but doesn't do so hot on the third.

Judging Comic Books by Their Covers: Image -- January '08

So, which covers from Image's January crop make me want to open the books?

Cemetery Blues #1: The cartoony art is appealing, but what really grabs my interest are the misshapen little guy in front, the axe that the smoker's wielding, and the severe, ghostly gentleman in the back. I want to see what's going on with these characters.



Elephantmen #13: It's a text-heavy cover, but the noir, anthropomorphic hippo would make me check this out, even if I wasn't already a fan of the series.



The Infinite Horizon #2: These heavily designed covers don't usually grab me, but I love how the design here evokes tentacles coming up to grab the boat while the guy on deck calmly stands there, not sensing the danger. I want to see inside the book now to see if that's what it's about.



Jack Staff Special #1: Dark Horse had a couple of these last week, but here's another example of when a pin-up actually makes for an intriguing cover. Especially when it's of characters this diverse and interesting-looking. Jack Staff has a compelling look to him anyway, but the robot and the fantasy-ish guy with the sword have me really curious.



Mice Templar #3: Oeming's cover absolutely screams, "Pick me up! Open me!" First of all, the colors are stunningly beautiful, but what's that mysterious-looking mouse doing all hunched over on the rock by the pond? He looks like he's waiting for something, but what is it? And what's that flaming skull hanging from his tail?



Shark-Man #1: How has no one thought of making a superhero named Shark-Man before? This is one of those 30 Days of Night ideas where it's so obvious that you feel simultaneously overjoyed that someone came up with it and envious that it wasn't you. And that costume is perfect. I want to know more about this guy. Also, I want to explore the city in the background.



Captain Stoneheart and the Truth Fairy: Not just an anthropomorphic hippo, but a pirate anthropomorphic hero. Carrying a fairy.



Strange Girl, Volume 4: Golden Lights: Even if I didn't know what this series was about, I'd be intrigued by this cover. A demon and a young girl look on from above in the moments just before what looks to be a battle between an eclectic group of wanderers and some angels. There's the anticipation of action, but instead of just adventure, there's some emotional weight to it that I love. It's sad and solemn. Very nice.



The Astounding Wolf-Man, Volume 1: Yeah, pretty much just putting "Wolf-Man" on your cover is going to get me to check out your book. Interestingly, "Werewolf" wouldn't have had the same reaction.



Next week: DC's January covers, probably. Maybe their February ones too, since those'll probably also be out by then.

Judging Comic Books by Their Covers: Dark Horse -- January '08

Last month, I enjoyed looking at some comic book covers and deciding whether or not they made me want to buy them, so I'm doing it again. Today, I'm checking out Dark Horse's comics for next January.

Here are the ones that interested me and why. To clarify though: this isn't my actual pull list or anything. There are several titles that I love and will keep right on buying no matter what's on the cover. Publishers in general are well aware of that about fans and I think that's why we see a lot of pin-up covers that don't tell you anything about the story inside. This is just an exercise to get me thinking smarter about marketing.

My Name is Bruce: I'm not that interested in ancient Chinese demons, but slap Bruce Campbell as Bruce Campbell on the cover and you've got me at least looking inside to see how well you've captured his voice. And I like that this is a step above a simple pin-up of Bruce offering wise-cracks. Even though he's about to fight a monster I don't care about, the fact that he's fighting a monster is interesting.



Star Wars: Legacy #20: I'm enough of a fan of space opera that this space battle would have caught my attention with or without the Star Wars logo on it. The ship designs are cool, the laser blasts are exciting, and the whole thing is just gorgeous. I definitely want to see what's going on inside.



Usagi Yojimbo #109: Usagi Yojimbo covers always make me want to buy. It's the anthropomorphic animals in feudal Japan concept that sells it. Usagi could be just standing there and I'd be interested, but that's never the case. There's always something cool going on too.



Vampire Hunter D, Volume 10: Dark Nocturne: Speaking of just standing there, that's all D's doing on the cover of his book, but the Yoshitaka Amano art is so beautiful and detailed that I want to know more about the character it represents. Sometimes -- when the art is this good -- a pin-up is enough.



Zero Killer #4: I'm torn about this one. I'm turned off by the decapitated heads (gore on a cover is never a selling point for me), but attracted by the dinosaur skulls. I'd open this one up to see which element was predominant and let that make my decision for me.



Next week: Image's January covers. At least, that's the plan.