From: Greg Clow <ecurrent@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Assorted ramblings
X-To: ALL
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 18:00:00 GMT

During the recent Neil Gaiman signing tour, some friends of mine (who run 
the local alternative comix shop, The Beguiling) met him for dinner after 
his Toronto signing (which was at a local crappy mainstram comix shop, 
the Silver Snail).  Several interesting topics were discussed, and I 
thought I'd share them with youse folks (as well as another couple of 
tidbits that the Beguiling folk gleaned from a few other sources)...


THE "SEASON OF MISTS" COLLECTION:  Like many, I was pretty puzzled by the 
release of the SANDMAN "Seasons of Mists" trade paperback so soon (i.e. 2 
or 3 weeks) after the hardcover collection, considering that DC generally 
waits 6 months to a year after hardcover books for the cheaper softcover 
option.  (Of course, I *also* noticed that DC conveniently waited until 
Gaiman's tour was complete to release the cheaper book!)  Well, Gaiman 
isn't very happy about the circumstances surrounding this book at all.  
Back when they started discussing the "SoM" collection, Gaiman asked for a 
hardcover release.  However, he was turned down by the person who handles 
such requests, so he went over that person's head and got a "yes" 
response.  

This, however, pissed off the person that he stepped over, who then did 
everything in their power to sabotage the hardcover release.  For example, 
in the pamphlet that DC sends to retailers for soliciting upcoming titles, 
the hardcover book was buried amongst the list of upcoming releases - but 
books of this stature are usually given a spot on the cover and a 
"spotlight" of some sort inside.  And to further harm the hardcover, the 
release of the softcover was rushed as much as possible (but, like I said, 
not until Gaiman's tour was done so that initial sales of the hardcover 
would be strong).

Basically, this stinks of one person allowing their personal agenda to get 
in the way of the company's aganda (not that I'm a big fan of the "big 
two", but it still looks pretty foolish).  And the funny part is, the 
attempts to sabotage the hardcover seem to haave been in vain... DC 
generally gets 3000 or so orders for their hardcover books, but the 
hardcover "SoM" had initial orders of over 11,000.  Oh well.


TUNDRA:  Tundra seems to be losing a lot of the respect that various 
creators held for it initially.  It seems that the money (which continues 
to flow in, thanks to the Turtles) is going to Eastman's head in some 
ways.  For example, Tundra recently bought Simon Bisley, literally.  For 
the next year, Bisley is to work ONLY for Tundra, and all work that he 
does during that year will belong to Tundra.  The price?  $750,000.  
Seriously.  So much for creator-owned properties, I guess.

Also fed up with Tundra's money-hungry attitude are the folks behind 
TABOO, which will cease publication after issue 9 or 10 (basically when 
they finish publishing the rest of the stuff that they've already paid 
for).  Gaiman says he and Michael Zulli will most likely self publish 
their "Sweeney Todd" serial after TABOO disappears, and Alan Moore will 
presumably continue "From Hell" and "Lost Girls" under his Mad Love 
imprint (although whether Mad Love will continue its association with 
Tundra remains to be seen).


BIG NUMBERS: And speaking of Moore... yes, BIG NUMBERS 3 will be out 
before the end of the year, with art being taken over by Al Columbia, who 
was Sienkiewicz's "assistant" on issues 1 & 2.  I put "assistant" in 
quotes because it appears that Columbia did more than "assist" Sienkiewicz 
on the first two issues - various sources say that he did anywhere from 
50% to 95% of the work on the book (mainly due to some serious problems in 
Siekiewicz's personal life).  So, don't expect the subsequent issues of BN 
to look too much different from the first two! :-)


So there ya go, kids.  


Greg
ecurrent@zooid.guild.org
sizone!ecurrent@ee.ryerson.ca




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