From Lora with the Comic Creator’s Alliance:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator’s Alliance–a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, Marsh Rocket, The Uniques and three IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th – 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime. To learn more about the Comic Creator’s Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

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BushiTales.com has donated art to this wallpaper, too. 

Lin

Tags: Bushi Tales, comic books, Comic Creator's Alliance, Comic Whore, Dave Beaty, Lin Workman, Memphis, MSCA

Here are a few conventions and events members of the MSCA will be attending next year. I’ll be at all but the CGS SS- can’t fly to two cons this year so I had to pick PHX.

The CGS Super Show is a fun con and is growing by leaps and bounds, but Nicki’s never been to Phoenix and it’s a chance to hang out with Dave and Micah- my Bushi Tales partners as well as Noel, The Dude, and the PHX staff.

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Shadowcon XIV

January 8th & 9th, 2010

Holiday Inn Select

2240 Democrat Road

Memphis, TN 38132

http://www.shadowcon.org/

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Midsouthcon

March 12-14, 2010

Whispering Woods Hotel and Convention Center

11200 Goodman Road

Olive Branch, MS 38654

http://www.midsouthcon.org/

*Special guest- Gail Simone!

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CGS Super Show

March 27 & 28, 2010

Greater Reading Expo Center

Reading, PA

http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/supershow/

*Special guest- former Memphian  artist Mike Norton!

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Cape Comic Con (Cape-Con)

May 1st & 2nd

Cape Girardeau, MO

http://www.capecomiccon.com/

$5.00 Two-Day Pass
(Same rate applies for single day)

Children 7 and under FREE

$10.00 Two-Day
Gamer’s Pass
(Same rate applies for single day)

Guests:

DC artist Ethan Van Sciver

John Wesley Shipp- TV’s The Flash

Gary Friedrich- creator of Ghost Rider

Jay Chuppe- Creator of Red Mullet & Cow Boy

Lin Workman- Co-creator of Bushi Tales

and MORE!

Cape Comic Con is partnering with FCBD (Free Comic Book Day) and will be giving away free comics Saturday, May 1 while supplies last.

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Free Comic Book Day

May 1st, 2010

Comic Cellar

3620 Austin Peay HWY Ste 2

Memphis, TN 38128

http://www.comiccellaronline.com/

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

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Phoenix Comicon (Cactuscon)

May 27-30, 2010

Phoenix Convention Center & Hyatt Regency

Downtown Phoenix, AZ

http://www.phoenixcomicon.com/

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Metropolis Superman Celebration

June 10-13, 2010

Metropolis, IL (off I-24 north of Paducah, KY)

http://www.supermancelebration.net/

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I’ll add more as I get the info.

Lin

Tags: Bushi Tales, CGS, comic books, Comic Whore, comics, Dave Beaty, Gail Simone, Lin Workman, Memphis, Metropolis, Midsouthcon, Nicki, Phoenix Cactuscon, Superman Celebration

Episode 4: Indie Creators, a Black Man and a Peacock.

The second part of the interview Wonton and I did with Shawn Pryor and Jon Carroll for The Black Box podcast is now available. We talk more about digital comics, distribution, web comics, Jetta, Bushi Tales, my B/W art show and Comic Whore site.

Click here to go to the Black Box Podcast site.

I’ve got some news about mine and Nicki’s recent adoptions, last Friday’s art walk and George Hunt art show, Adam Shaw’s upcoming art show this Friday and more on my LinWorkman.com site. Check it out if you get a chance. Pics from last night’s Hernando Christmas parade will be up there later this week.

Type at ya later,

Lin

Tags: Adam Shaw, arts and crafts, Broad Avenue Art Walk, Bushi Tales, CGS, Comic Whore, Dave Beaty, Denny O'Neil, Diamond Distribution, digital printing, free, haunted house, HauntedWeb.com, Indy Planet, Jetta, Jon Carroll, Ka-Blam!, Lin Workman, Memphis, Morgan Printing, MSCA, Nicki, Phoenix Cactuscon, PKD Media, print on demand, self-publishing, Shawn Pryor, The PKD Media Black Box podcast, writing comics

Today I’m going to climb up on my soapbox for a bit and talk about something I think is vital to the comics industry and keeping it going.

New readers.

Now when I say new readers I mean just that- people who haven’t read comics before. They could be kids, adults, men, women, anyone who hasn’t read comics before. Each group or person can be introduced to comics in several ways. I’m going to talk about a few that I’ve witnessed and/or think will work. This week I’m going to start with younger readers.

How to get kids into reading comics? First, you have to show them that they exist. That’s what happened to me. Back in the mid-70’s when I lived out in Utah, a friend gave me a beat-up copy of Marvel Team-Up #4 that had Spidey and the X-Men fighting Morbius- The Living Vampire! It was pretty cool, even with the cover missing. We moved shortly there after back to Memphis, and I found a spinner rack at a nearby 7-11. That spinner rack had a copy of Amazing Spiderman #171 (which co-starred Nova). I bought that comic and have been buying comics ever since.

Now, this was back before just about every kid had a video game system, DVD’s, and personal computers. Heck, this was a year or two before I knew what Pong was. This was also a time before you had to tell kids to go outside and play for at least an hour a day.

For the most part, spinner racks are a thing of the past, and like kids reading comics they’re kinda rare these days. Still, I’ve seen kids in comic shops, shows, and conventions (mostly shopping with their parents)- and at cons usually while wearing a costume, kids and parents!

That I love to see. Parents and their kids enjoying comics together. And it doesn’t have to be parents. It could be grandparents like my buddy Dave’s who used to read him war comics. It could be an older sibling who passes down comics when they feel “too old” for them. It could be an aunt or uncle. I’d occasionally get to take my niece Lindsay with me to the local comic shop on a Saturday afternoon and let her pick out a comic. She’s now a big fan of manga. It could be a neighbor who gives out comics to trick-or-treaters at Halloween. Or it could be a friend who hands them that one comic that gets them hooked not only on comics, but reading.

There are a lot of great ways to introduce kids to comics these days. Free Comic Book Day in May, cartoon and movie or video game inspired comics, old classics like Archie, and more. Many comic shops have a designated shelf or area that’s usually a bit lower for shorter readers for kid friendly comics. Others may have an old fashioned spinner rack.

Some publishers are doing smaller digest sized comics- much like the Big-Little books my mom had as a kid. The Star Wars: Clone Wars, animated Batman, Archie, and Spiderman Adventures in this format seem to be very popular with kids, teens, and adults. It’s very much like many of the manga books being sold today. I’d snag up any of the digest sized books when I was a kid, the over sized treasury editions, and the comics that had a record you could listen to as you read along in the comic. Anything that was different was cool!

So, what are some of the problems with introducing kids to comics? First off, many parents are happy to let video games, the internet, and TV be babysitters for them. When the NFL has to run commercials reminding kids and their parents that children need to play for at least 60 minutes a day, something’s wrong.

Some that actually do feel like getting the kids off the couch feel comics are low-brow entertainment, too violent, or too adult. “Go read a real book!” Even decades after the comic witch trials some parents still feel comics are bad- and some might be. I remember picking Amazing Spiderman at the same time as The Electric Company’s Spidey Super Stories, Marvel Team Up, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spiderman, and Marvel Tales- which was a reprinting of classic Spiderman stories. There was violence, relationships, some drug use (which was shown to be bad), and Jonah chomping on a cigar, but nothing my 10 year old mind couldn’t handle. Not so sure all Spidey stories are kid-friendly these days. You still have to be a parent and watch what your kids read, even with comics.

Other parents just feel that comic books are way too expensive- which is what I tend to agree with.

I recently heard a shop owner in New Jersey say on a podcast that he felt kid targeted comics art printed on too nice of a paper stock and have too high of a cover price. Yeah, the brightly colored glossy shiny cover and interior art is going to get the kid’s attention, but that $3.99 cover price is going to have the parents say, “No way- you’ll tear that thing up in no time!” Why not print more “cheaper” comics? Comic books that are ok to roll up and put in your back pocket. Comics you can trade with your friends. Comics you don’t have to bag and board.

This brings us to another problem- some parents have a collector’s mentality. “Comics are for collecting. Don’t take it out of the bag. Don’t leave it out where sunlight can destroy it. And stay away from my collection!” If someone is that anal about their comics, they should start their kid his own collection and teach them how to collect and protect their comics. I would just hope they would teach them how to read the comics as well. It can be a fun hobby parents and their kids can enjoy together.

I still have that copy of Amazing Spiderman #171…

There was a time when comics were cheap entertainment. Many retailers want higher prices for comics and have said so to publishers. They make more profit off their shelf space (one of the reasons you don’t see comics on magazine racks much these days). The big two have pushed prices up and up to see just how far they could push them. I, like this NJ retailer, think that maybe if the comics were cheaper, you’d sell more- especially to kids. Heck, there are plenty of shops and shows with $1, $.50, $.25 comic bins to look through. Give the kid a couple bucks and point them towards a row of discounted long boxes. They are guaranteed to find some real treasures and not just the bag and board and never see again kind, but ones they’ll want to read over and over or trade with friends.

Kids love comics. I’ve seen fussy kids at cons become quiet intent readers when handed a comic. My friend and comics writer Josh Elder became a super-hero to a group of kids on a subway when he not only stopped their attacker, but gave comics to his fellow stabbing victims to calm them, and it worked! The kids stopped crying. Ask him about that story if you see him at a convention or signing- it’s amazing!

Speaking of Josh, he’s working to get more comics in schools and libraries with his Reading With Pictures non-profit initiative. Way to go Josh- you’re my hero, too!

I’ll be back next week to talk about other new readers- including girls! I know, it sounds crazy, but I have proof they exist and I’ll reveal it all to you next time.

Lin

Tags: comic books, Comic Whore, Dave Beaty, DC Comics, free, Halloween, Josh Elder, Lin Workman, Marvel Comics, Memphis, Spiderman, writing comics

Hey gang,

My friend Shawn Pryor (PKD Media/The Black Box Podcast) turned me on to a new comics site by the guys behind Discount Comic Book Service and In Stock Trades.

It’s called My Didigtal Comics.

It’s a print on demand service where you the creator set your own cover prices and get 70% of each sale. 70%- that’s huge!

The site and service are pretty new, but will be growing rapidly. DCBS and it’s sister store InStockTrades.com have got a huge customer base and are very indy friendly. They work great with independent publishers through special price discounts to thier on-line/retail customers, special promo offers (Dave did free sketches for Bushi Tales #3), and their First Light project which helps to shine light on new comics, publishers, and creators.

For more info on DCBS, In Stock Trades, My Digital Comics, or First Light contact Zack Kruse or Cameron Merkler (the head honcho of DCBS).

Digital Comics LLC
6011 Highview Dr Suite B
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46818

E-Mail: support@mydigitalcomics.com

And speaking of Shawn and My Digital Comics, you can order PKD Media comics there!

This week Shawn and his co-host Jon Carroll invited me and Jetta:Tales of the Toshigawa creator Martheus Antone Wade to be on their upcoming podcast The Black Box. We talked about self-publishing, pros and cons of Diamond and alternate comics distribution options, digital comics, the Memphis Mafia, M.C. Hammer and more. As soon as I have an air date for it I’ll post it here and on my site.

Stay “tooned” here for more info on self-publishing, print-on-demand, and Nicki’s new Web-Wednesday columns about using the internet to promote you and your comics.

See ya Monday-

Lin

Tags: Bushi Tales, CGS, comic books, Comic Whore, comics, Dave Beaty, Diamond Distribution, digital printing, Jon Carroll, Lin Workman, Memphis, Mercury and the Murd, MSCA, Nicki, print on demand, self-publishing, Shawn Pryor