AMBIDEXTROUS 259 - PLAN B

[MattBrady]

by Brandon Thomas

Going to be a short one this week while we get a handle on things…

On Friday, the ASP creators learned what was revealed in this press release from the company. While Archaia is confident they will ultimately emerge from this, it’s obviously a huge setback for us, and I imagine, for several other creative teams with books running and/or launching this year. Definitely made for an interesting weekend of frantic e-mails, phone calls, etc., all focused on pretty much the same question---what the hell is our next move? The entire creative team essentially made ‘08 about getting Miranda Mercury out there, and this latest news essentially takes the book off the board until the end of the year. And with other books out there with similar names, characters, and hooks, we wanted her out and doing her thing without anybody questioning where it all came from. Though I took it to a drastic level in this here column, there’s only so much you can talk about a book that doesn’t exist yet. And unfortunately, without a published comic, Miranda Mercury doesn’t exist. Clearly, that is unacceptable.

As we’ve all been given the opportunity to seek out other publishing options, that’s something we’re definitely looking into now that the news is out. We want to stay loyal to Mark Smylie and the crew, but it would be irresponsible not to move in this direction, at least for the next couple weeks. We’re hopeful that asking around now will be a bit easier than before, when all we had to show for ourselves was those first five pages. Everyone is still onboard and continuing to work on issue #297. #296 is completely wrapped, and strangely, this whole situation has triggered a sudden burst of production from me. All weekend I’ve been taking the assorted scenes and moments in my head from the next several issues and putting them down in a more structured form. Might just be a psychological way of “responding” to the news, but the more work we have completed, the more attractive we’ll likely be to another publisher, if we ultimately go that route. Much of this week will be devoted to putting together a preliminary list and making some initial contacts.

More on all this next week, when we hope to have more information on all fronts. Managed to get The Five done before the news broke…

5. Wonder Woman #20 (Gail Simone/Aaron Lopresti/Matt Ryan)
Simone has been promising a massive WW story, and you can see it beginning to come together here…there’s really no way that something described as “the black horizon” could sound anything but cool, and the idea that Diana will face an enemy where her compassion becomes a weakness is pretty clever, as is the notion that someone would purposely undermine or destroy it …great jumping-on point, and probably my favorite art ever from Lopresti…

4. Wolverine #65 (Jason Aaron/Ron Garney/Jason Keith)
This is how you orchestrate a “fill-in” arc right here…Aaron turned a somewhat simplistic revenge story into a character study and ends it with a brutal showdown in the Syrian Desert…there’s a really cool moment (a few actually) which is one of those things you can just tell was on the mind of the writer long before he got it into a Wolverine comic…but seeing what he’s done here really gets me excited about his Black Panther arc…

3. Amazing Spider-Man #559 (Dan Slott/Marcos Martin/Javier Rodriguez)
Great to have Slott back on Spidey, along with two brand new villains and the amazing artistic stylings of Marcos Martin…I saw someone refer to his art as some beautiful mash-up of Steve Ditko and Tim Sale, and I hope this isn’t his only stint on art chores because he’s absolutely perfect for the character…the body language, the posing, the storytelling just screams this is Spider-Man and Slott’s story answers the very obvious question of why Pete isn’t using his abilities to make some real money selling pics of celebs…it’s all too perfect now, which means it’ll go horribly wrong soon…

2. Casanova #14 (Matt Fraction/Fabio Moon)
Heh…didn’t see that one coming…one of the most insane and unpredictable comics brings its second arc to a close by doing its most insane and unpredictable thing yet…the revelation connects the first and second arcs in some really surprising ways and I immediately want to go back through everything and find exactly how I missed it, which is always a great feeling…the notes in the back are again a major highlight, as is the back cover illustration from Gabriel Ba…don’t know how many times I gotta say it, but this Matt Fraction dude is pretty good…

1. Batman #676 (Grant Morrison/Tony Daniel/Sandu Florea)
And it all starts to come together…this issue is a schizophrenic skip across every storyline that Morrison has offered thus far, with the vaguest (yet coolest) allusions to what is to come…from the first page to the terrifying Joker sequence at its close, R.I.P. makes it known that everything has all been building to this and when in doubt, you must in fact trust that one of the greatest writers in comics is again looking out for you…

[Matthan]

Well, that sucks. I really enjoyed the first issue and was looking forward to the second. Not to mention, I just realized that Sean Wang's Runners will be affected as well. Here's hoping that you find a solution.

[Glen Cadigan]

Geez, that sucks about ASP. I tried out the first issue of Miranda Mercury, and enjoyed it. I guess it just underscores how fragile this industry is for publishers on the bottom of the pile.

[artjunkie]

That definitely sucks, Brandon. Hopefully things will work out favorably for ASP and by extension all of the creators.

If not, well, I hear Image Comics has the best creator-owned deal in the biz. Might want to add Erik Larsen's phone# to your T-Mobile Favorite 5...

[PatrickWedge]

Great book. Great team. Hopeful and confident it will end up at another publisher. Most places would love this kind of story and team. I hope more publishers are looking at this more closely now and trying to get this book given the circumstance.

[A Dave Lewis]

Several of the creators for ASP's titles will be releasing a separate statement either later today or tomorrow, saying, in essence, that we are not alarmed by this news, we were informed in advance of this possibility, and we remain quite confident and on-track with our respective titles at ASP. In the words of Douglas Adams, "Don't Panic."

Official statement to come, gang.

[djshalope]

noooo!!!! not Miranda!!!!! i hope you guys find a publishing solution that works for you AND gets the book into my hands.

5. CASANOVA #14
4. THUNDERBOLTS #120
3. MARVEL ADVENTURES HULK #11
2. HUNTRESS YEAR ONE #1
1. X-MEN LEGACY #211

[GeorgeG]

Luckily I decided to go the tpb route w/ Miranda Mercury, so this doesn't affect me at all. When & if it comes, I'll get it.

[MisterE]

Originally Posted by GeorgeG

Luckily I decided to go the tpb route w/ Miranda Mercury, so this doesn't affect me at all. When & if it comes, I'll get it.

George, if you really enjoyed Miranda Mercury -- or any other independent book -- you would support it by buying the single issues. If a book doesn't sell enough copies of the singles, there is no guarantee there will ever be a trade... and a book from a lesser known publisher like Archaia or even Image Central is less likely (by several orders of magnitude) to sell an acceptable amount of copies to even pay for itself let alone warrant a trade.

[LeeFerguson]

Originally Posted by MisterE

George, if you really enjoyed Miranda Mercury -- or any other independent book -- you would support it by buying the single issues. If a book doesn't sell enough copies of the singles, there is no guarantee there will ever be a trade... and a book from a lesser known publisher like Archaia or even Image Central is less likely (by several orders of magnitude) to sell an acceptable amount of copies to even pay for itself let alone warrant a trade.

Big points for MisterE!

Yes, it's important to buy the single issues. Several of each of them, in fact. For friends. Relatives. That guy on the street.

Actually, seriously ... you know what I've started doing? I'll find a series I want to try out. If I end up enjoying it and getting, say, all six issues of a mini ... I find someone who I think may enjoy that series, give them my single issues and buy myself the tpb. Share the love

And honestly ... I'm a poverty-stricken artist, so if I can afford to do this once in awhile, I don't want to hear excuses from those of you with 'real' jobs!

[GeorgeG]

Originally Posted by MisterE

George, if you really enjoyed Miranda Mercury -- or any other independent book -- you would support it by buying the single issues. If a book doesn't sell enough copies of the singles, there is no guarantee there will ever be a trade... and a book from a lesser known publisher like Archaia or even Image Central is less likely (by several orders of magnitude) to sell an acceptable amount of copies to even pay for itself let alone warrant a trade.

I've been reading for a while. I have a good idea of what will be collected and what may not. So I go by my gut instinct for each.

I'll "support" whatever company whichever way I see fit, thank you very much. It's my dollar.

[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by MisterE

George, if you really enjoyed Miranda Mercury -- or any other independent book -- you would support it by buying the single issues. If a book doesn't sell enough copies of the singles, there is no guarantee there will ever be a trade... and a book from a lesser known publisher like Archaia or even Image Central is less likely (by several orders of magnitude) to sell an acceptable amount of copies to even pay for itself let alone warrant a trade.

Sorry bub, but its not George's responsibility to pick up the tab so that publishers can reprint them as collected editions. Trades and hardcovers are NOT supplemental sources of income for publishers, especially ASP. They know that collected editions are part the whole publishing plan. So don't try guilt tripping a reader into the buy the singles to support the book. Besides good books usually get collected and if Miranda is any good, surely George will see the trade on the shelf, it will just be a matter of when.

I think Brandon Thomas would be more than happy if George and I decided to buy Miranda Mercury when it is collected.