Comments on: A little bit about Mainstream Publishing.

By: Macbeth Uk

Macbeth Uk — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:22:15 +0000

Ah, Duncan’s Kingdom, I loved that you know and never twigged it was by ABC creator, but it was a long time ago – DUH!

By: Strip News 1-19-9 — ArtPatient.com

Strip News 1-19-9 — ArtPatient.com — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:01:46 +0000

[...] hands out awards while Comics 212 has an article about a couple of creators, book cover design and the publishing industry. MPD57 brings us a snapshot of each Zuda comic in the January contest. The original Turtles can be [...]

By: Myk

Myk — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:58:08 +0000

And while on the topic of Derek Kim Kirk and while we´re talking obscure and ill-fated comics periodicals, how about reprinting Cell, that book he did for Antarctic Press?

By: Myk

Myk — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:55:02 +0000

When American Born Chinese came out I wrote, and I´m gonna quote myself here: “Now could someone please collect Duncan´s Kingdom?“.

Yeah, I was the one that bought it. So, yay! YAY!

By: Mark Siegel

Mark Siegel — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:17:11 +0000

The awesome magnificent exquisite Chris B strikes again. Thanks for another thoughtful reflection, and some very kind encouragement for First Second.
Just to be clear, if I pick up anything previously published, it’s always as a new proposition to be babied and designed and launched *for today* and for a North American sensibility (in the case of foreign projects like Little Vampire or our upcoming Manhwa trilogy The Color of Earth.) And in the case of THE ETERNAL SMILE, I too loved the original Duncan story. The two other stories UNCLE GREENBAX and URGENT REQUEST are original Gene Yang works which I believe will stand up to the very best in Gene’s body of work. And Derek of course, the mad virtuoso, drew all three in TOTALLY different styles… I’ll say no more!

By: Kat Kan

Kat Kan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:48:38 +0000

I’ve known the people involve with First Second Books for years, when they were publishing and marketing Roaring Brook Press (they still do that, too). These people care deeply about the books, the creators, and they even care about their library customers. They are deeply committed to making First Second Books a major publishing success, from the publisher to the editorial director to the editorial staff and to the marketing people. Their booth is one of the first places I go whenever I attend a library conference, because they’re genuinely welcoming and wonderful people.

That being said, I’ve also been a fan of Yang’s ever since the SLG books first came out; Gordon Yamamoto is a personal favorite, because Yang completely busted the whole Asian American stereotype in a positive way. I’m half-Japanese, so this really matters to me, and what he did made Yang my hero. I was primed for American Born Chinese long before it was published.

While design and packaging does matter, I’d just be happy if SLG can just keep Gordon Yamamoto and Loyola Chin in print so I can keep putting them on my lists of recommended titles for school and public libraries.

And yes, I am very much looking forward to reading The Eternal Smile.

By: Secret Identities

Secret Identities — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:55:38 +0000

Off topic, but if you’re a fan of Gene’s, he has a fantastic piece called “The Blue Scorpion and Chung” (with art by Sonny Liew) in the forthcoming “Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology” from the New Press: http://www.secretidentities.org/Site/Secret_Identities_Homepage.html

http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1738

http://previews.diamondcomics.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=23&s=128&ai=77899&ssd=

By: Scott Saavedra

Scott Saavedra — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:07:39 +0000

SLG is constantly giving a first home to new creators like Gene but for a company of SLG’s modest resources giving any new, untried creator the deluxe book treatment is just too financially risky. As for the cover design of Gene’s first two books (design being my area of expertise as SLG’s “Art Director”) my recollection is that the covers — designed and I believe produced by Gene — pretty much reflected what he wanted. I would love to design more of what SLG produces myself but that’s just not SLG’s operating style. The creator, in every way possible (yes, there are limits), usually gets to do what he/she wants.

By: hcduvall

hcduvall — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:04:17 +0000

Oh, completely figure First Second to not just put out some previously published work without taking care of it, and First Second probably has a better relationship to their sales and marketing folk (especially considering the success of American Born Chinese). I’m not denying that there’s a segment of either “it didn’t sell” (or more honestly, “we don’t know how to sell this”) that a book can encounter, I still think though that book publishing as an industry though probably doesn’t register something from Image as a case of something that failed.

Jennifer’s right that austerity in publishing in a New York book publisher say is different than SLG. There’s enough going on in the economy that some folks will figure repackaging work is actually a good bet re:cost, particularly with graphic novels, still largely unknown territory to them. But it’s no surprise that imprints with some association to children’s publishers have a better handle on how to treat these things.

By: Jennifer de Guzman

Jennifer de Guzman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:59:09 +0000

I’m really sorry — I came off more flippant than I meant to. What I meant is that I’d really love to see Gene’s early work published in a format with the kind of production values that Chris describes, but we have a lot fewer resources than a publisher like First:Second, and I was *trying* to make a joke about how we’d give producer credits for funding. (Not that we really would — it was not very funny as jokes go, obviously.)

In all seriousness, the subject of how small publishers can compete in a market that is including more and more publishers with much larger budgets for production and marketing (despite all the talk about “austerity” in the publishing industry) and more bookstore know-how is one that has been concerning me lately.

By: Chris Butcher

Chris Butcher — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:28:15 +0000

Amy: I’ve got at least a two posts in me on packaging and trade paperback design, and I just got a camera for Christmas which was integral to doing them. Maybe that’ll be the next post…

Chris Rice: I don’t know if the reprint will have any additional material, but the second/final issue of ‘Duncan’s Kingdom’ did come to an unexpected, gut-wrenching conclusion, yeah.

hcduvall: Heh, that’s a nice thought, but I sincerely doubt it. Those guys tend to go over stuff with a fine-toothed comb.

Eric: Hey, me too. I think Derek’s been working on stuff for years and years, including this new stuff with Gene Yang. Here’s hoping he sees fit to release some of it at some point in the future…

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:08:01 +0000

Also: I’d like to see more new stuff from Derek Kirk Kim…

By: hcduvall

hcduvall — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:15:03 +0000

First Second seems like an outfit that has a game plan and knows what it’s doing, but it could also be that “failed in the comic book market” doesn’t count too much for a big publisher. I imagine there’s a segment of publishing that actually reacts opposite to the way you describe: “Oh good, repackage. That means we don’t have to copy edit.”

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Jan. 14, 2009: Juan Valdez secretly lusts after goats

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:25:28 +0000

[...] [Publishing] Gene Yang and mainstream publishing Link: Christopher Butcher [...]

By: Chris Rice

Chris Rice — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:24:24 +0000

Good to see Duncan’s Kingdom reprinted, I was a huge fan at the time, and it led me to pick up Gene’s 2 SLG books when they came out (although weirdly I didn’t connect it to Same Difference till a couple of years after I’d read SD).
I can’t remember whether DK was complete in those two issues, do you know if the reprint will be updated/completed?

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:19:36 +0000

Kazu and I are always talking about the importance of packaging, so I really appreciated this post. After going to Italy and Japan, I’ve come to realize that North America’s gotta step it up when it comes to book packaging. :P

p.s. I can’t WAIT for Eternal Smile!!!

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:02:02 +0000

Oh and, me too. :) :) :)

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:01:31 +0000

You know, it’s just not an article about SLG anywhere on the internet unless Jen DeGuzman shows up in the comments section to snark about it. I was worried you’d just snark at it from the round-up on the SLG blog, but I’m glad I was worth your time to come and post here. Thanks Jen, you’ve added a lot.

By: Jennifer de Guzman

Jennifer de Guzman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:56:08 +0000

I forgot: ;)

By: Jennifer de Guzman

Jennifer de Guzman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:50:34 +0000

If the omnibus of Gene’s work does come out (and it’s certainly something we’ve been talking about — you could have asked), maybe you can say that it was your idea, especially if you’d like to pay for coloring, color printing and French flaps.