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Posts tagged Rich Johnston
Unemployed Man Getting a Little PR
May 7th
I’ve sent out press releases for the upcoming Adventures of Unemployed Man to a handful of comics news sites, but doing these one by one is a bit of a chore. Which brings me to wonder if we don’t have a comics industry news wire agency, where a press release can be sent out to all the comics news sites at once, like in the real world. There are so many good news sites out there that it’s perhaps about time someone also establishes such a service. If it does exist and I’m not aware of it, then please do let me know.
In the meantime here are a few places that picked up the release:
- 20th Century Danny Boy: Daniel Best, one of our site complex’s oldest and most dedicated friends, and exemplary activist on behalf of the comics creator community, offers an enthusiastic response to news of the project.
- Bleeding Cool: Rich Johnston’s cool comics news site, a subsidiary of Avatar Press, carries the press release and gives it a creator oriented title. On the forum thread for that item, Josh Adams, son of Neal Adams, makes an appearance to voice his enthusiasm for the creators working on the project, surreptitiously leaving out Joe Rubinstein and myself. Josh seems to have an ax to grind since leaving his less than flattering comments on the Supergod item Rich Johnston ran some time ago. I tried then to explain to him that there’s more to his frustration than he even understands himself right now, but it apparently didn’t sink it well enough to help him overcome the urge to continue poking. So, maybe Josh just needs a little hug or something, He is just a growing boy, after all.
- First Comics News: Rik Offenberger and company’s excellent new site, setting up to also conduct an interview on the project, perhaps coming soon.
- Comics Bulletin: Jason Brice and Jason Sacks leading comics news, reviews and commentary site, formerly Silver Bullet.
- Comics Should be Good: The Comic Book Resources blog runs a nice profile of the project by Brian Cronin.
- Millarworld Forums: Posted the press release there and received a couple of nice comments.
That about covers it for now. The press release needs to make the rounds but I’m presently too busy doing the actual artwork for the project. That’s one good reason for needing a comics community news wire agency.
Supergod at Bleeding Cool
Dec 6th
Rich Johnston, reporter extraordinaire and Bleeding Cool proprietary, sent out a memo to his contacts before Thanksgiving, asking for news bits about upcoming projects that haven’t yet received much comics press. He ran the items throughout the holiday, one every hour, transcending East to West U.S. time zones (34 items and not getting any sleep in the process).
Though I don’t have a new comics projects to promote right now, I did send Rich a few images and words that relate to Warren Ellis’ new series SUPERGOD, published by Avatar Press, which Rich advertises and reports on at Bleeding Cool. Suffice it to say that because the item wasn’t quite about an upcoming project, it didn’t make it into the Thanksgiving marathon. And so, that was that.
To my surprise, Rich ran the piece today as an independent Bleeding Cool item.
Supergod: The Other Version by Mike Netzer.
There’s nothing really in common, other than the name, between Warren’s series and my strip from 1978. Warren’s SUPERGOD is an apocalyptic journey into the dark side of fabricated-to-order saviors, while my strip was a more innocent look at superhero godhood trying to cheer up some people in a psychiatric ward who seemed to need a little positive encouragement in their homemade newsletter. But they carry the same name, which perhaps reveals that dark and light motifs, polarized as they appear to be, can share a commonality.
Warren Ellis is producer/writer of some of the more prolific ideas and titles in comics. He reaches deep into readers’ hopes and fears to stimulate and entertain, while clearly having something to say along the way. His cultural sensibilities, telling volumes about the man behind the writer, are elegantly laid out in his perpetually morphing web expanse. From his groundbreaking Transmetropolitan series for DC Helix to his recent surge of titles at Avatar Press that include Black Summer, Doktor Sleepless, FreakAngels and Ignition City, Warren Ellis’ contribution to comics is perhaps of the most expressive of divergent states that readers of the graphic story form thirst for.
The same name for two diverging ideas nearly 30 years apart. Bloody bleeding cool.
