Mugwhump watchers may be interested to read a piece about the ACT-I-VATE Primer over at Comic Book Resources.
And finally, here are some old sketches I found in a folder with some really unhelpful file names, so I had no idea what they were until I opened them. They must predate Fred the Clown #1, because one of them is a cover idea for that comic, so I'm guessing they're from around the year 2000. Time I put some artwork up here that wasn't a plug for something.
(*I mean, I can understand Robert Crumb putting out Zap Comix #0, because he thought the artwork was gone forever when he put out #1 and inserted it in sequence after the fact when photocopies eventually showed up, but I don't understand modern #0 issues at all. It's not like the comic is non-existent. A zero-numbered issue would make sense if it was only released on the internet or something, because then a physical comic wouldn't actually exist. Am I thinking about this stuff too hard?)
start the numbering at Issue #0 for some weird reason I'm unable to fathom*
ReplyDeleteIs the multiple cover thingy any more fathomable to you than it is to a reader? I picked up the first issue of Muppet Show (vol 1) from my standing order, took it home, and enjoyed it. Then later I saw online the Kermit's Story cover, and thought "hey, that looks much better than what I got!"
Next time in the shop, they had one copy of #1 left, and it was the Kermit's Story one - so I bought that, thinking "hey, I can lend out the other copy now," and "now that I know about the two versions, I'll just make sure to get the 'portraity' one for the remaining three."
However, Boom! or Diamond decided not to bother shipping #2 to the east coast of Australia at all, apparently. So we weren't able to get it until a second printing came out after #3, at which point it had neither of the two original covers. So anyone who had decided to collect a consistent series of covers - or a demented mentalist who wanted both! - is completely out of luck from this point on!
I managed to get a Piggy's Story cover on #4, but either my shop didn't get sent any Gonzo's Story covers for some arcane [ie presumably non-existent] [or because Boom deliberately make the distribution oddly weighted so people "chase" the various versions, in a market-threatening early-90s stylee] reason, or they sold out of them before filling the standing orders.
I think I didn't bother looking at the two versions on Peg-Leg Muppet #1, but this week I wandered around the shop to find the pile and compare the one they'd given me with the frog stand-off, and eventually decided to swap 'em.
Apart from the worrying fact of supporting the sort of tactics that contributed so strongly to completely gutting the comics direct market in the 90s, it's a great big annoyance in the way of someone who just wants to buy and enjoy a Roger Langridge comic. I've been buying your stuff since 1989, and all this stuff is just a tedious pain in the bum, I'm afraid!
I'd drop Peg-Leg and all future comics already and just get the collections, except that a) with the detail of background gags and compactness of the lettering, I'd rather not have to squint, and b) the production staff at Boom! neglected to leave any room in the margin for binding, so the page layouts start getting eaten by the spine.
^^ I realise that this is almost entirely whinge and not actual question, but is there any actual reason that Boom! (and you) are doing so many, non-consistent covers? And why you/they are making some themed groups that are then not actually possible to buy for all customers?
-- thanks, whining entitled fanboy