Sent:  Mon 3/6/00 10:14 PM

Quick Reference:
1.    What’s New?
2.    This update on the web (nicely formatted).

Hey Everybody,

Missed it by that much…  I was so close in getting this update out last weekend, but I wanted to put more time into the website.  As you can see from the “What’s New?” section above, I’ve swapped out the first-draft colors and put in the second draft.  I purposely blurred out the text so you’d have to actually buy the comic when it comes out.  Even though the text wasn’t very readable when I shrunk the scans down, I didn’t want people getting mad because they were trying to read the comic and couldn’t.  I’d hate for people to strain their eyes and get migraines and then not be able to read the real thing when it comes out.

If you’re dying to see some text, then go to the lettering section mentioned on the Release Notes (in the What’s New section).  Yes, it’s actual story text with maybe some bold missing.

A Special Thanks to Robert B. Scott

I want to give a special thanks out to Robert B. Scott for pointing me to a great website (http://tml.virtualave.net/).  This site lists all the comic book retail stores (with zipcodes!) in the U.S. and Canada.  That’s HUGE (tiny E.).  So if you’re a retailer you should be expecting a post card soon enough.  No more hand lettering the addresses though.  I modified some of my eBay code that parses addresses to help with the daunting task of creating mailing labels.  I should be able to “screen scrape” each of the state listings and download it into a Microsoft Access database.

Thanks again Rob!  If you live in the San Diego area stop by his shop Comickaze (5525 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92117-2342).  Tell him Parker sent you.  I’m sure he’ll be pleasantly surprised.

More on the Denver Winter Con – December 5^th, 1999

Well I was a little sparse with the DWC, only because I had misplaced my packet of cool stuff.  I mostly talked about my conversation with Sharon Scott of Liar Comics and now it looks like she and her husband are packing it in (at least that’s what the rumor mill says).

I talked with a guy who wanted to take a shot at coloring.  I sent him a scan of one of the inked pages and then never really heard back from him.  He’s a local guy, with his own graphics studio so I thought it would work out.  I guess he got too busy or doesn’t really want to get into comics.

I also met the crew from Panther Comics, who came up all the way from Colorado Springs (70 miles).  I’m pretty sure the whole gang was there: Rodney, Anthony, Brandon, and Russ.  They gave me their September 1999 issue, which looked pretty cool.  If you get the chance you should check out www.PantherComics.com.  I’ve browsed it a little and it’s worth checking out (after you check out the new stuff on the Spilled Milk site).

I thought I mentioned a fellow Bryce user in my last update, but I think I missed him.  I kind of gave up last time, because I couldn’t remember whom I met without my cheat sheet.  Anyway, you should check out www.verticity.com for some cool eye-popping graphics.  A guy who is helping Alana & Wes Williams with their project created some pretty cool spaceships with Bryce.

Eirich Olson, who did Negative One, was sitting right behind me.  I actually bought one of his comics, because I liked the small ad he did in Diamond Previews.  I think he said he’d be packing it in after issue three.  I guess the costs just ate him alive.  His artwork was pretty cool, but he had to splurge for the expensive paper in order to show off his hand painted gray tones.  It’s too bad too, his “tech” was pretty damn good.

MajestiCon – February 13^th, 2000

The Con ran like a well-oiled carrier headed for the Gulf War.  Monte Moore was barking out “10 minutes everybody” and Steve Oatney was snapping pictures left and right.  I should be getting some shots from Steve and then I’ll post a small home page for the MajestiCon until they can get theirs up and running.

The place was packed.  I’m not sure why, but it was.  Monte and Steve did a great job at getting the word out and they brought in powerhouse Bernie Wrightson who was promoting his new horror book.  I don’t follow Bernie very closely, but I’m sure everybody has at least something of his.  I saw some people take a couple of Aliens books up to get them signed. I knew I had read those, but I forgot what they were about.

I missed out on the party the night before at Monte’s house, but I thought it would be a little weird.  It just seems like I don’t fit in, because I’m not published and there’s not a huge following.  Plus I spent the previous Saturday at the Magic: The Gathering Nemesis Pre-Release tournament.  I went 3-2-2, which wasn’t half bad for not playing since the Mercadian Masques Pre-Release.

Brett Carr stopped by my booth with samples and I checked them out.  I hope he sends me a pinup; his would be the first (unless I get mine up there).  C’mon Brett, send one in.

Newsgroups (rac.*)

Some of you may have noticed my posts on the Usenet Newsgroup rec.arts.comics.misc or some other variation thereof.  People in the know call them “rac.*”, so now you know.  I posted my press releases there and have been trying to keep up with the buzz on the ‘net.  I wish I could post to the Batman group, but I tend to be pretty far behind and then get all caught up with about a foot high stack of all the Gotham titles.  It doesn’t make any sense to post (or the read for that matter) to that newsgroup, because the spoilers would just ruin it for me and I wouldn’t have much to contribute anyway.

Press Release Results “Old news is NOT news.”

I was a little disappointed in the results of the press release.  I thought that the e-zines would be ready to eat this stuff up or at least post my release.  Well only one e-zine thought that it was newsworthy and that was the Blue Phoenix.  They did a cool article that paraphrased my press release.  Cecil and I traded quite a bit of e-mail and when I saw the article I was more than overjoyed.  It made up for all the other sites not posting anything.

I talked with the editors at Psycomic, and the editors there felt that it was not news.  The guy told me that coming out with a press release four years after forming the company isn’t news.  I felt it was, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.  What if I had just got access to the Internet four years later, then I’d be doing one now.  Turns out, that’s not the case.  But still, it could have happened that way.  I keep searching the sites mentioned on my press release page hoping that they were just too busy in February to post my release.

As you can see, the promotion business isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.  That’s why I will need your help when it comes time to promote.  You will definitely have to bug your retailer to purchase the book.

Cool Sites

This spot intentionally left blank.  All the cool sites were already mentioned in their appropriate sections.

In the spirit of rac.* I thought I’d bring up the subject of typos and spelling errors in comics.  I won’t name any names, but I feel the worst mistake is when writers are confused with homonyms.  Clearly this represents an unclear grasp of the English language.

Micheal vs Michael – I’m looking at the text I just typed in and MS Word puts a big fat red squiggle underneath “Micheal”.  I should go back and change it, but I’m not in order to prove a point.  On page one of a certain comic, you’re greeted with this funky spelling of Michael.  I just assumed the writer was trying to be cute.  Surely you wouldn’t have a typo on page one!  Sure enough on page two and all the other pages, there is the normal spelling of Michael.  Well except on page six where we switch from Michael to Micheal and back all on the same page.  Reading this comic turned me off from page one.  It’s sad too, because there was some pretty decent artwork in it.

Excertions vs Excursions – Now sure, I’ll admit that I use Word as a crutch.  But I feel that if you don’t use the tools that are out there (just like any other artist) then you’re just hurting yourself.  Not to mention the thousands of people that will cringe and wince when they read the next sentence.  “Michael was on one of his monthly excertions to a far off land…”  If you don’t know how to spell, then at least look the word up!  Am I right!  Am I shouting!

Expiditions vs Expeditions –  I could buy this being a typo too, but not after the previous sentence which was in the narrative just before this error on the same page.  And then the writer follows it up with “convitions”, when I think he meant “convictions”.  Yes, we’re still on the same page.

Well I couldn’t read the whole thing and had to flip through the book and check out the art.  Needless to say I’m cutting my subscription back to zero on this one.  Now maybe you can figure out what comic I’m talking about, because you read the same one and were shocked by all the mistakes.  Or maybe you’re the writer and you…  Nah, wait.  You wouldn’t know, because you wouldn’t see a problem with taking an “excertion” now and then.  It’s just like people who say “supposeBly”; some know they say it, others are oblivious.

“Split the seem” – Now I guess this could be considered a typo, but I believe that the “seam” that writer is looking for is the one found on fabrics.

Thanks for all your support,
Parker.