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How Print Will Fall

How long until print is dead?

That question has come up in conversation about a hundred times in the past few weeks, so I thought it'd be worth taking another hack at technological fortune-telling (hey, gotta have a hobby).  From the business stand-point, it's worth talking about this to stay on the pulse; personally, it's just a geeky thing I like to do.  Hey, about 15 or 16 years ago my Dad and I called it when we said "I bet in the future you'll just keep all your music on some kind of 'computer box' that you can carry around, so let's see if the crystal ball works this time.

We've all seen press about e-books, pdf readers, the new Amazon.com "Kindle" being the latest invention, but will any of them take off?  I think that it's undeniable that eventually, people will read the majority of their content digitally.  But it will be a while before those of us who've grown up used to print are phased out.  The catalyst, I believe, is going to start with schools.

While one might still hold a fondness for the experience of turning pages and feeling a book in his or her hands, what if your $1000 + college book expenses were just cut in half by purchasing a high-quality e-book reader?  Even better, the following year, you can just download all of your new required reading.  That's sure as hell a lot more appealing than carrying around a hundred pounds of textbooks. 

Now skip a couple of years forward, when everyone in the college system has these, and millions of others who jump on the bandwagon due to the falling prices and rising quality of the readers.  By now you will have mastered illegally downloading all the textbooks you need, and since you have these, you MIGHT AS WELL download something more fun to read. 

Similarly, reading material like newspapers will be so much easier to read on the e-book readers (although I think they'll last in paper form a lot longer than many of us think).  With aiming to clean up the environment, how can anyone really argue with this, though? 

Being a comic book publisher, I have to bring up funny-books.  I think they'll go digital too, but this will happen after the e-books become mainstream, and of course, offer really nice color displays.  The entire concept of comics being collectible is something that separates them from magazines, newspapers and books.  However, I think magazines, newspapers and books will suddenly BECOME collectibles. 

A traditional "book" will become something you buy for the same reason many people buy comics right now - you want to keep it on your bookshelf, you like knowing that it is produced in a finite quantity, and you can admire how many you have.  The more digital books grow, the more the passion for collecting print products will as well.  I guess it's comparable to collecting music on vinyl.

Eventually it will become harder to buy things in print than it is to download them.  What does this mean for publishers?  I think it's going to be a very good thing.  There's a danger, though, of being held hostage by those who control the mass distribution such as iTunes, Amazon.com, and whoever else comes on the scene.  In contrast, you'll always be able to get your information out to people via your own online presence. 

Those large brick and mortar outlets, though - the huge bookstore monsters - are already feeling competition, and I don't see any way that they could possibly last another ten years without radically changing their merchandise catalog and morphing into another form of big-box retailer.

So who knows?  The effects of this are going to take a while, but when it happens, I think it's going to happen faster than anyone expects.  And all of this is just over the next ten years... who know WHAT the hell will happen after that?  Eventually we're going to be able to coat our walls (and anything else for that matter) with paint that acts as an LCD screen, and probably transfer files from one platform to another by simply touching it.  How awesome will it be to be able to save the movie you downloaded the night before on your T-SHIRT and then play it on your bulletin board at work?  I'll tell you how awesome.  TERRIFYINGLY awesome. 

Or... we'll all be using sticks to make fire come 2012. 

Silly Little Dreams

A long time ago, I think somewhere around 1996, I had just started self-publishing black and white comics and making the rounds at conventions from Chicago to Pittsburgh. I was still living in Cincinnati, going to the Cincinnati Acedemy of Design for commercial art. We had recently gone to Chicago on a trip to visit random agencies in town, where a lot of alumni were working.

I had no intentions of doing the agency thing, and just considered school a means to a temporary day job while I pursued comics. There were only a couple of schools in the entire country that even taught comics at the time, and I couldn't afford those, so self-pubbin' was my "education." So meanwhile, I really liked Chi-Town... all my life, everywhere I'd lived, was either been bored or felt that something was slightly off, and the Windy City was the first place to ever feel like home.

Some friends were having a home-from-college gathering on the good ol' West Side of Cincinnati (an "interesting" place all its own), and I ended up bullshitting with two guys about what our plans were. I'd never really clicked with these guys, but they were always kinda there as mutual acquaintances and we got along okay. They were aspiring computer programmers or some such. I was about to say that after I got out of school I may go to Chicago to work at an agency, or be an art director, until I can get the comics going full time. Also, that a bigger city would no doubt help get better connections no matter which way I went.

But I didn't get past "Move to Chicago to work for an ad agency..." God DAMN you woulda thought I'd just said I was going to try out for NASA, or wanted to run for President (two things that I STILL think someone should shoot for if that's what they wanna do). Man, they went on lecturing me for a good five minutes about how crazy that was, and how unrealistic it was. I've never been influenced by anyone like that, and wasn't by these guys either, but it was like a scripted After School Special. I mean, the dialogue REALLY seemed like it was that scripted; they were just missing a drunk, grumpy old Dad in the background shouting "You'll never amount to anything!" Were they fucking with me? That's actually the only reason I even stayed around to listen to them for as long as I did - they HAD to be fucking with me and I wanted to call them out. But no, they were dead serious. They were acting as wise benefactors attempting to bestow knowledge on me and bring my head down from the clouds.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall. What they said was really powerful. Not because they actually dissuaded me or made me doubt anything - no, because I had never before seen anyone so blatantly, consciously set such a low ceiling for themselves. They wanted to stay local, get their degrees, and get a job at P&G (which they called Proctor and God). They wanted so badly to sit in a cubicle working for a big company close to home and if you thought about doing ANYTHING else you were a fucking nutjob. If you did NOT want to set the bar so low for yourself, you were just crazy, because they felt the level they'd set the bar at was already astronomically high.

NOW, if that IS your job, if you DO work in your home town, that's FINE. If it's what you ENJOY doing then knock yourself out! That's not what I'm saying here.

I had to break it to them that I didn't even consider the agency job (a route I never took anyway) the challenge, only part 1. Part 2 was breaking into comics full time, maybe starting my own publishing company or comic studio, and start to build something similar to what those crazy Image Comics guys were doing. Fast forward to 2007, and while I still haven't hit many of the goals on my list, I've had Devil's Due for seven years now, and even my own ad agency - companies for which I have relocated OTHER people to the Chicago area.

I should also note that at least one of these guys was always first in line to buy any goofy little shirts or stuff I printed up in High School.

They were telling me that simply moving and getting my FALL BACK ON job was unattainable. That always stuck with me, and I vowed never to forget it. When thinking of various blog topics lately that one just kinda popped into my head. So, it may seem petty, but eleven years later, I think it's finally time to say, in my best Nelson impression, "Haaa haaaaa." I'll think about you guys the next time I'm doing a round of meetings in L.A. at my SECOND office.

KetchUp

It's been a while! Thought I'd stop in and update this place a bit. For other updates, and more frequent ones at that, feel free to check out the MySpace page to the right.

New to MySpace is Mercy Sparx very own profile. Learn all about her - but no, please don't email her about wanting to hook up ;P ... it hasn't happened yet, but Tim Seeley tells me that Cassie Hack on the Hack/Slash page has been approached more than once!

Speaking of Timmy, we went to the Phoenix Cactus Comicon which was a great little show, and it looks to be growing to a solid size too. Now that I have the Con bug again, I've decided to do a solo signing at the Minneapolis Fall Con. Check out the details HERE.

Over at Devil's Due, we'll be announcing the winners of the Mercy Sparx and Drafted talent search too.

Last month Devil's Due celebrated it's 5th anniversary, and we will make sure we take time to celebrate!

There are a lot of great shows coming up this fall, which will be great to hit, and another reason to remember why Chicago rules so damn much. One act I'm particularly looking forward to hitting is Lily Allen at the Double Door. She's mentioned over in my "Pluggit" section if you're interested. Apparently she's already top of the charts in the UK now, but no one over here knows who the hell she is. I'm hoping for a really small crowd.

What else, what else... oh yeah, a big one! Devil's Due set up another film deal with Universal Studio's Rogue Pictures with the comic book LOST SQUAD. You can read about the book over at www.DevilsDue.net . Best of all, it'll be my first co-producer credit if the film gets greenlit. As far as our other Rogue film, Hack/Slash, things still seem to be moving along at a brisk pace.

Well, I'm actually going to go lay around and work on doing NOTHING for a while. It's Saturday, after all. Yeah, that sounds pretty awesome.

Only a few days until San Diego Comic-Con! Come See Devil's Due!

I'll be back, I promise!

Sorry I've been so behind in posting lately.  If you read this, though, there's a good chance you can just come say hi in person with as much traveling as I've been doing lately.  Here's a pic from the Fangoria Hack/Slash movie panel in Burbank last weekend.  That's me on the left, with Howard Sun and Daniel Alter (producers dudes), Martin Shenk (writer), Todd Lincoln (writer/director) and Tim Seeley (hack-maker)

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What's up, "Hollywood?"

Man, I'm still rockin' that Lily Allen CD I plugged last week.  Can't get enough of it.  There's barely ANYTHING about this girl online, so she must have come out of nowhere.  She's gonna be huge by next year.

Has anyone seen where the sun went?  I'm done with the April Showers... but at least it's warm.  That means summer is almost upon us, and that's when Chicago truly comes alive!  The restaurants all put their tables out on the sidewalks, the bars open their windows, and the lakefront is bustling.  As of yesterday, we finally know someone with a BOAT, and the harbor has Wi-Fi.  I love technology.  Hmmm... maybe I'll finally write that Shipwreck vs. modern day pirates story for G.I.Joe that I've wanted to do for the last few years.  Or better yet, just drink beer on the boat and act it out.

For now I'll settle for Starbucks (although Burger King has FREE wi-fi now, and free refills - hard to top).

Man, it's been an "all over the place" kinda week, and it just increases in May.  Family Guy has become the most challenging licensed property we've ever worked on, but we're finally nearing completion on issue #1.  As I type this people at DDP are working overtime to get this out as soon as humanly possible. 

Last week was a constant juggling act between the typical DDP duties, writing How to Self Publish #4, prepping presentations for E3 Expo which Kunoichi will be attending, scheduling meetings with William Morris (who it looks like is going to be repping me) to make the most of my time at E3,  planning my birthday (I'm only a year away from 30 now), and closing on a real estate investment from two years ago).  The part of running a company that I abhor is the INCESSANT, never ending accounting.  Eesh... if i could just get rid of all this "math."  Thank God for bookkeepers, though. 

Why am I not rich yet?  I AM almost 30 :)  Hmm... maybe next month.

This morning started off with a business meeting with my Kunoichi partner, and going over all of our different "mini-ventures", making sure we have our heads on straight, followed by a stop at starbucks to get in a couple thousand words on the self-pub book.  So now I'm blogging as a much needed distraction.  Hmm... I'm writing as a way to procrastinate... I mean take a break... from writing.  Does that make sense?  It's all good, though, because the Horror Pops are in town playing a very small venue, which means tonight will be rockin'.

So this week will just be a continuation of last, with a visit from our printer's head sales rep visiting from Toronto on Wednesday, endcapped by Devil's Duer Sam Wells' birthday on Friday, and my own bash at a local bar on Saturday.  Then, on the following Tuesday, it's off to LA for the E3 video game convention.  If you've never been there, find a way to go, at least once (but don't forget your ear plugs). 

If anyone works for a video game developer in need of high end creative services, hit me up, because that's what I'll be pimping to various companies for Kunoichi.  I'll also be meeting with companies in an effort to assist in a deal for our Hack/Slash video game tie-in to the feature film.  In between this, my agent (yeah, I guess i can say that now), is supposed to set me up with meetings with various video game or film people either to discuss DDP properties, or people in need of what Kunoichi or DDP have to offer.

It seems like a lot of doors are opening very quickly.  Doors that I have been knocking on for a very long time, going from "house to house" in the entertainment neighborhood.  Now I just have to make sure the fancy vacuum cleaners I'm trying to sell stand out from the competition.

Corrupting the Youth a Day Before Mom Visits

Not a TON to report on. Oh, there's a lot I'd LIKE to report on... ggRRrRrrr.... but part of the problem with being the spokeperson for your company is that you have to keep daily frustrations to yourself. You have to keep the good news to yourself a lot of times too.

Well, tomorrow I'm speaking to about 400 kids in an auditorium in the burbs. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully motivating all those little chit'lins to get off their butts and do something with life. I can't help but remember being in 8th grade, though, when the school called this guy out to "motivate" the kids. He was playin' the "rock n roll", and had "crazy" blonde spikey hair. I really don't wanna be THAT guy, so hopefully I come across a little more genuine. :)

Then, the NEXT day, when my Mom and her sister come into town, you know what that means, right? It's time to frickin' RAGE!!! (alright, that might actually mean going to Navy Pier and touring museums, but I can pretend). It'll be nice to spend some time with the moms, though.

So that's about it - in closing, check out some new pix of some old familiar faces:

Check his bros out HERE

More By 3AM Than Most Do...

This five year nonstop ride on the DDP roller coaster has been such a fast one that sometimes it's hard to enjoy the moments amidst all of the chaos.  Scratch that, it's ALWAYS hard to enjoy the moments.  I have to say, though, that the past week's jaunt around the nation was too much to let pass by without thinking about just how cool this job can be sometimes.   

I spent a lot of time as a kid thinking about the day I'd have my own studio, or drawing and writing my own comics and characters.  What I DIDN'T even consider was all of the TRAVELING that the career entailed.  My family never traveled much.  Mostly it was because of money, but I also just don't think it was something within their comfort zone.  Traveling was always a BIG deal.  Hell, just getting my parents to drive 5 hours to Chicago from Cincinnati is a challenge. 

Because of this job, though, I have traveled more in the last five years than many people ever will in their entire lives, and I can't see myself ever stopping.  Somehow I haven't managed to venture beyond our borders save for trips to Toronto, but that'll come soon enough. 

In the past week I went all over the damn place, and had a blast doing it.  Here's a breakdown:

Saturday: Took off for Cincinnati with Crank and Susan, headed to crash at an old friend's house, and see some more old friends playing alongside the Horror Pops and the Tossers at a small venue called Top Cat's.  They're called the Vladimirs, and if you're into horror punk, metal, or anything in between, you should check 'em out!

I was able to interview Patricia of the H-pops for an upcoming issue of LO-FI Magazine, and showed them some pix of a potential project that gives me an excuse to draw cool stuff  (more later).  It went great, met the band, and proceeded to watch the show, and probably drank a little too much.  Well, okay, not probably.

Then it was up at 6AM to head out to Los Angeles.  I was takin' off from Cincy while Susan and Crank would drive back later.  Thanks to the miracle of timezones, it was only 10:20 when I got there.  First on the agenda was a stop-in with the wonderful Debbie Olshan at Fox to say hi, and go over some top secret Family Guy details.  Okay, maybe not so top secret, but that sounds more exciting, doesn't it? 

Then it was lunch with Daniel Alter and his assistant Howard in Beverly Hills.  Dan's our manager out in LA, and partially responsible for Hack/Slash making it to the big screen (hopefully) next year.  That lasted for a couple hours until it was time to head down the street to William Morris, one of those fancy pants Hollywood agencies.  I know I'm only one of thousands of people to be invited to one of these places, but at the same time, fuck it - sometimes you gotta sit back and just appreciate shit and say "This is pretty cool! Who ever thought I'd be doing THIS?"  I can't say much more than that, except that from there it was onto see another old friend, Lauren, from way back.

She conveniently lived right there in West Hollywood, and down the street from a kickass Sushi place where we met with upcoming Hack/Slash director/screenplay writer Todd Lincoln, and his girlfriend Mandy. We bullshitted about this and that, amidst our hopes for the film. Super nice people, who then took me out to a club which I don't remember the name of.  Who should be there, though, than a guy that's on my MySpace.  That silly MySpace.  Speaking of, check out Todd's, or if you're old fashioned, I GUESS you could always go to his website.  Here's to hoping we're filming later this year!

It was at the club that I realized I'd been up for 20 hours, and I'm not very much use without at least 4 hours of sleep in a day, so it was time to hit the sack.  Suddenly Tuesday was there, and it was time to drive up to San Jose, about five hours North, to meet the guys from Kunoichi (my side venture), to try and help drum up some new clients at the Video Game Developer's Conference.  We were lucky enough to hang out with Eric Holmes from Radical Games for a couple of beers.  Eric's the lead game designer from the Hulk video game, and is now working on something else that he won't tell anyone a damn thing about.  Hope it's cool!

Unfortunately, we goofed on the scheduling.  The actual show floor didn't open until Wednesday, when we were all supposed to leave.  Oops.  Until then all we had was a building full of industry pros going from workshop to workshop, discussing the details of various gaming technology, and trading info.  Fortunately we had a couple good meetings.  After that, though, the night was young and San Francisco was too damn close to pass up a visit.  Somehow I had ANOTHER friend from way back living in Cali.  So I drove in to run around town with my friend Liza, and we hit the coolest dive bar I've seen on the West Coast yet, called Delirium.  Nothing huge and fancy, just black walls, lots of writing on the walls, straight outta Sin City.  Those are my favorite haunts. 

Damn if San Francisco doesn't have some FUCKED up parking.  It took a mere 45 minutes to get there from San Jose, but a friggin' hour to find a spot.  After all this traveling, I have never seen anything like it.  It simultaneously gives the city so much character yet compels one to ask "Why the hell would anyone build a CITY here?"  I mean, Chicago's no cakewalk for parking, but San Fran, you kick our ass in inconvenience! Some kind drunkard took the time to write the words "muff munchin" in the sidewalk concrete, though, which was way funnier to us than it should have been.

So... somehow it was already Wednesday, which meant I was off to my last stop: Boston.  Yeah, that's right.  How do you cap off a week like this one?  By rockin' out the PLA, fools!  (that's the Public Library Association conference for the layman).  Hells yeah! 

The flight was delayed by an hour, but only AFTER we were all boarded, which is not the best scene before a five hour flight.  I, ironically, had a layover in Chicago, my home base.  It was a great time to catch up on some sleep, though, in between taking care of a lot of paperwork.  For some reason, when you travel for business, the businessy stuff back at the office doesn't stop piling up. 

Okay, so a library trade show is more of a winding down than anything, but I thought the nightlife in Boston would be another kickass experience.  I gotta say, though, I'm just not feeling it.  Susan and Sam had been here for two days scopin' out the scene, and collecting hella lots of librarian business cards (pure badasses), so at least they knew of some places in Cambridge to go.

So Boston really LOOKS cool; the architecture's amazing... but I don't know.  I can't place it.  I guess this just isn't my kinda town.  So far Newburry Comics has been the highlight.  Maybe I'm just partied out, and my brain left its charger back at my condo.  I find myself anxious to head home, which is fine by me.  Even after an awesome week from coast to coast, I still look forward to heading back to Chi-town, the best city in the Universe, reaffirming that despite my lack of origin there, for now it's home.

 

We Got a MOVIE Deal!

I promised I'd have some kickass news coming up soon, and here it is!  This is just one of a couple things I've been working on that were mum until I could talk. 

After two and 1/2 years shopping HACK/SLASH to every movie studio under the sun, Devil's Due has struck a deal with ROGUE PICTURES / UNIVERSAL STUDIOS to produce the live action movie. 

Two years isn't a huge amount of time, but definitely enough time to encounter enough studio execs to test your confidence in your product, and patience.  Hack/Slash (a DDP comic book created by in-house homeboy Tim Seeley and Stefano Caselli) is a great concept, and a movie waiting to happen.  Not only that, but it's a damn good comic too.  To the short-sighted hollywood types that infest the West Coast, though, it wasn't enough like SAW, The GRUDGE, or DARKWATER (heh heh).  "People don't want comedy with their horror," was heard OVER and OVER again.

There were a couple of times we made it to the VPs of major studios, only to be vetoed by the Presidents.

Fortunately, not everyone in LA is without vision, and our producer/ manager team, and the guys at Rogue know what's up, and things have worked out as best as they ever possibly could have.  While you never want to count your chickens in Hollywood before they're Botoxed, it's rare for a comic book company to have the relationship with the movie team that we have; we're close with two producers on the film, and have become buds with the director as well, who also happens to be co-writing the script.  Everyone on board GETS the concept.  They get what this comic is about.  That's all we can ask. 

It's officially time to get excited!  Here's to Hack/Slash in theatres in '07 if all goes well!

*****************From Variety:

ROGUE BACKS 'SLASH

Rogue Pictures, the genre arm of Universal-based Focus Features, has acquired feature rights to the comicbook series "Hack/Slash."

Video helmer Todd Lincoln is attached to direct, and Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter are producing.

Lincoln will write the script with Martin Schenk, his collaborator on a remake of "The Fly" at Fox SearchlightFox Searchlight. Howard Sun is co-producer.

Created by Tim Seeley and Stefano Caselli, comicbooks from Devil's Due Publishing center on Cassie Hack, a young woman who travels the country, taking on homicidal maniacs and serial killers along the way.

Producers also are developing a Fox feature based on the vidgame "Hitman" with Vin DieselVin Diesel attached.

Under Dimension co-prexy Andrew RonaAndrew Rona, Rogue has become an ambitious genre pic maker.

Rogue, which next releases "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" and "Waist Deep," has projects including the Spyglass Ping-Pong saga "Balls of Fury" and a redo of "The Hitcher" with Platinum DunesPlatinum Dunes.
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Links:
Hollywood Reporter
Variety
Newsarama
Ain't It Cool