Back in May, Matt Silady told Sequential Tart that a retailer advised him the best way to promote his graphic novel The Homeless Channel was to get a review in the New York Times. Actually, for context, here’s what Matt said:
ST: How do you think indy comics can become more noticed?
MS: Talking to retailers, I get the impression that the best way to get noticed anymore isn’t through the comics press. That doesn’t mean that the interview I did with Newsarama was a waste of time at all. It certainly helped get the word out on the book within the comics community. But retailers are telling me that for my book, I need to pull new readers off the streets as opposed to trying to steal readers away from the Big Two. The audience just beyond the web is where indy comics have a chance to thrive. One retailer just told me bluntly, “get a review in the New York Times.”
And maybe it’s not an actual review, but in a story about reality TV in, yes, the New York Times this weekend, The Homeless Channel is front and center:
But now the form has become such a fixture of cultural life that a smarter, post-reality-television generation of novels and movies is beginning to emerge. The clever little film “Great World of Sound” (which opened on Friday) and the graphic novel “The Homeless Channel” (published in May) tackle the issues behind reality television with subtlety and a true understanding of the genre’s appeal. And even movies like last year’s satire “American Dreamz” and the current fantasy “The Nines,” which don’t go far in analyzing the genre, appreciate its allure.
The article goes on to say that “the book goes beyond the basic issue of who’s exploiting whom and acknowledges the hardest fact about reality television: The genre is an ethical mess, and we like to watch anyway. No one gets out quite clean, on either side of the camera.”
September 17th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Just read it 2 weeks ago, it was exceptional, really real and natural flow to the story, I cant say enough good things about it !
Will send Mr Silady an e-mail very soon to tell him how much I enjoyed it, pick it up; the art is gorgeous but the story is equally great.