From Brian Michael Bendis’ enjoyable, meandering talk with Greg Rucka, the latter spills about future comic projects:
There’s two comic projects we’re still trying to get going. I’ve got an idea that I’ve been carrying around for almost two years now. The first two scripts are written on this thing, it’s just the question of getting the publishing side worked out and what those deals are going to be and finding the right publisher for it… the other one—I know I talked about this before—Rick [Burchett, artist of Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether – www.ineffableaether.com] and I still want to do American Soldier. We still want to do this historical record of the history of the country as told through this one family’s military service from generation to generation. We’ve got the preliminary stuff done for the first one. But again, we have to find the right publisher. I think the way Rick and I have been looking at American Soldier, that’s not something you can take to Marvel nor DC or Dark Horse and make it work because this is a huge freaking graphic novel. There’s going to be a lot of time and lot of money put into it, and there’s got to be an advance on it. There’s got to be some upfront money on it if only to cover Rick’s side of the work, and finding a book publisher that understands how graphic novels are done, and this is a large project and is going to require some outlay at the start. That’s its own problem, and then you go to first publisher and they say how much do you need, and you say we need $30K to start. Most will say have a nice day.
Dear Comic Industry: I would love it if someone would find a way to make American Soldier work financially, please. The project may not have an immediate draw within the direct market beyond “It’s Greg Rucka,” but, people: You can’t tell me this wouldn’t have a market in the mainstream book world.
May 24th, 2012 at 8:04 am
This sounds like a job for Kickstarter, doesn’t it?
May 24th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Uh yeah, Kickstarter model is the first thing that popped to mind. If Bendis hasn’t considered that option he clearly hasn’t been thinking about it very hard, or he’s way too locked in to traditional publishing mindset. Money doesn’t just drop out of the sky for uncommercial projects in times like these–or ever, really.
May 24th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Surely Bendis must have the ability to get $30 grand together the amount of stuff he writes?
If he has so little faith in his own work that he doesnt want to stump up the cash why does he expect others to invest?
May 24th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
I’m really kind of shocked about this. Rucka (who is actually talking in the above quote, not Bendis) is a proven writer of graphic fiction. He as a more than decent track record. If he can’t get 30K as an advance on work, the there’s something wrong in the industry. Can you imagine this happening in the prose book publishing world? I mean, seriously… let’s say that Nora Roberts walks into Putnam’s or Little Brown’s offices and says she wants to do a history of America told from the viewpoint of the women in a family of soldiers, but she needs 30K to get started on the research. Do they say, have a nice day? Heck no, they likely say it sounds like a best seller and wouldn’t 80K be better to get started and we’ll look forward to publishing it in two years.
Is it just that the comics business is so broke it can’t do these kinds of things or just so short sited?
May 24th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
I meant short-sighted, of course. That last sentence just got away from me.
May 25th, 2012 at 2:36 am
Why don’t they self-publish it?
December 11th, 2012 at 3:50 am
Hey that Cat and Girl strip is really quite cevelr. I think I’m hooked onto something new now. I’ll have to go see what I can find on it thanks for introducing me to it