San Diego, 2006

PITCHING TO COMICS COMPANIES

I’ve been feeling it lately.  That I can’t seem to make any money, any issue I put out.  That it sure would be nice if I could get paid for doing comics.  Even if I get paid a dollar a page, I’d be, I’m guessing, $50 per page better off than my current efforts.  I decided I’m getting to know a number of editors, so I wanted to make a concerted effort to talk with editors this year, and see if anyone had any interest in what I was doing.

I really like Larry at AIT/Planet LAR.  Whenever I see him, he’s so fun, personable, and friendly, it feels like we’re ol’ friends. 

Matt Silady (helping to watch my booth this year, in case Elizbabeth went into labor) had told me that Larry had announced he would listen to pitches from the first sixteen people who signed up.   I told Larry how disappointed I was to hear I’d missed my chance to pitch to him.  And he gave me an “Aw, come on, already” gesture, and said I could pitch to him any time.  He walked me back to his booth, and said he would fit me on his schedule.  I hadn’t expected anything so formal.  I told him he knows the work I’m doing, and I wanted to see if he liked any of my characters enough to publish a more elaborate story.  He said, as much as he loved my stuff, he just didn’t think it fit with his company, with his readership.  I asked who he saw his readership as, and he said his readership is the couple who comes to the con with the fan, but who isn’t into comics themselves.  He sees his books as the comic books people read if they’re not into comics.

So at this point, I’m realizing he sees my stuff only as the Kirby-style monster stuff, and I walked him back to my table and pointed out all my other characters.  The Dr. DeBunko minis caught his eye, but he was saying it would need to be bulked up, page-wise.  I told him I had a couple Dr. DeBunko stories in mind that, in the format, would be hundreds of pages long.  That seemed to surprise him.  Before he left, I told him about my religious “Limbo Café” book, and he said it sounded good, and he’d like to see it.  Wa….HOO!  I pitched a book, and the publisher was interested enough that he wanted to see more!   Wish me luck, fans!

After that, I spoke with Fantagraphics (who had told me beforehand that they didn’t think my Doris Danger adventures were a good fit for Fantagraphics, but I just wanted to check in), Randy Stradley at Darkhorse and Dan Vado at Slave Labor (neither of whom I gave the impression they had any interest in what I was doing).  I dropped by the Drawn & Quarterly booth, and they recommended I send a package in.  That left Image, who I will go into further detail with in a moment.

EXCITING MOVIE OFFERS

Over the past years, at previous conventions, people have occasionally come up to me and said they’re from this or that movie studio (none of which I’ve ever heard of), and would I like to give them some free copies of my work for them to consider for a film.  And in the past, whenever people have done that, I’ve basically thought, “Beat it, you pricks.  You’re just out for a freebie, and we both know you have no interest in producing something by me.  I’m a starving self-publisher!  If you are who you say you are, why don’t you pay three goddamn dollars and write it off your expense account, you cheap hack.”

This may not be the appropriate way to ingratiate myself toward Hollywood and land a movie option, especially since Hollywood is looking so intently at comics these days.  I know half a dozen self-publishers who have optioned their stories.  Hollywood is looking!  But I’ve just felt, you know, if you really are interested, why don’t you at least flip through my goddamn book and say it looks interesting, you know?  Or better yet, tell me you’re familiar with my work and it looks promising.  Why don’t you ask me what my story’s about, and tell me if that’s the kind of movies your studio produces?  Then we can talk, and I’d see a sincerity, and an actual interest.  But no one ever really did that with me…until this year.

This year, I pitched “The Lump” to three people, and one wasn’t interested, and two were.  These were smaller, independent film companies.  And making my pitch made me think, Actually, the Lump would make a hell of a movie, in my opinion.  And if it weren’t Hollywood, that may be even better for it.  Because the story is too pseudo-intellectual, and the ending isn’t Hollywood.  And it got me all excited, thinking about it.  Thinking about unknown actors instead of big names.  Thinking about what a small budget it could be done with. 

I hadn’t thought about The Lump as a film since I first wrote it, years and years ago.  It made me remember the optimism and excitement of when I first began producing comics.  I assumed I would just create and work hard, and that would be enough to make me a success, and that’s all there would be to it.  But the exciting dreams of becoming a star and success and toast of Hollywood faded as I continued working hard and publishing and spending every spare cent I had to give, and still haven’t been able to see any such successes.  The dreams of a Wisnia Hollywood film had died and gone cold, long forgotten, replaced by debt and disappointment and emotional drain, giving so much and working so hard and getting so little in return.  Woe is me, woe…

But now here was real, genuine interest.  I was getting invigorated by the thought again.  I imagined all the scenes, all the dialogue playing out as a film.  Wouldn’t that be something.  I don’t want to get my hopes up too high, but it made me hopeful, and excited, again.