November 26, 2006<\/p>\n
I had just put out three comics on a monthly schedule. <\/span>It was too much work for me to get the work produced AND try and promote every issue, so I promoted the first, Dr. DeBunko, and then waited until both Doris Danger 16-pagers were out, and then I sent both issues to all my usual reviewers. <\/span>Now that it\u2019s been over two years of doing this technique, I\u2019ve been collecting a larger and larger list of people who are willing to say something about my works online. <\/span>I honestly don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve cracked the printed review world, but I doubt it, because I haven\u2019t seen anything written about my comics anywhere. <\/span>But I do continue to send out copies to these magazines as well.<\/p>\n About a week after sending review copies, I begin doing periodic ego-searches of the books\u2019 titles on search engines, or ego-searches of my own name, to see if anyone is saying anything about the books. <\/span>Dr. DeBunko did pretty well with reviews. <\/span>People online were wanting to do interviews, sneak peeks, and reviews. <\/span>New reviewers who hadn\u2019t given me reviews before spoke out about Dr. DeBunko. <\/span>That was nice, and I assumed it meant I would get all these same reviewers looking at the Doris Danger books. <\/span>But for some reason, the Doris reviews didn\u2019t seem to pop up so heartily as Dr. DeBunko\u2019s. <\/span>And they were slower to appear, as well.<\/p>\n One common theme people mentioned in Dr. DeBunko AND Doris Danger reviews was how the stories are just \u201cone-gag\u201d jokes, building to a punchline. <\/span>That had been one of my insecurities with the Dr. DeBunko stories, enough so that I even joked about it in the introduction to the issue. <\/span>But now, are people saying it in reviews because they feel the same way I do, or are they just unclever, and read that I had said it, and believe everything they read? <\/span>Or they believe anything the writer says about what he writes? <\/span>The reviewers tended to agree with me, though, that it\u2019s still a good joke, and you just have to read it in small doses. <\/span><\/p>\n But then I got a first review suggesting that the reviewer felt that the Doris Danger stories were \u201cone-gaggers\u201d as well. <\/span>And that\u2019s beginning to get me a little defensive, even if that IS all they are. <\/span>Because Jesus Christ, aren\u2019t we talking about comic books here? <\/span>And aren\u2019t ALL comics just a crappy goddamn one-gag joke? <\/span>And I\u2019m not just talking about flaccid vapid newspaper funnies (which are HORRIBLE DAILY one-gag jokes, year after year). <\/span>I\u2019m talking about mainstream comics. <\/span>Superhero comics. <\/span>Don\u2019t they all just have the same goddamn character fighting a couple thugs on the street as an intro, then finding out a plot from some asinine villain that\u2019s the same as all the others, then fighting them, then beating them, and then moving on by repeating the whole simplistic formula again? <\/span>Isn\u2019t the entire MEDIUM just one goddamn \u201cone-gag\u201d joke??! <\/span>Doesn\u2019t it HAVE to be, if you want to keep using the same goddamn character over and over, EVERY MONTH, for forty or sixty years for Christ\u2019s sake?? <\/span>So why should my characters be singled out?<\/p>\n Except that, of course, I\u2019m being pessimistic because I love superhero comics, all the more if they\u2019re no good. <\/span>And also, of course, MY stories are pretty formulaic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 26, 2006 I had just put out three comics on a monthly schedule. It was too much work for me to get the work produced AND try and promote every issue, so I promoted the first, Dr. DeBunko, and then waited until both Doris Danger 16-pagers were out, and then I sent both issues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary-of-a-struggling-comics-artist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t