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A couple of years back, frequent Myrant readers grew sick-unto-death of the cover posted here — my zombie cover portrait for the AccentUK anthology Zombies (2007), which I’m cheerfully thrusting into your  face again this morning.

Zombies was a treat to be part of; it also boasted an interior illo or two and “An Alphabet of Zombies,” a playful ‘A-B-C’ collaboration between me and my son Daniel.

While my retirement from the US comics industry is now a full decade on, I have occasionally contributed to Center for Cartoon Studies community projects (Sundays, Secrets & Lies, Dead Man’s Hand, etc.) and a few choice young cartoonists collectives (Trees & Hills Group, AccentUK). Per usual, there’s nothing in this for me except the pleasure of lending my support to the new generation’s efforts, which is, to me, of vital importance.

My latest contribution to this end is now off to the printer.

AccentUK’s latest anthology Western is soon to be released in the UK (March/April 2009), and it promises to be another step up in AccentUK’s annual anthology line, building on the momentum Zombies and Robots initiated. Per usual, editors/publishers Colin Mathieson and Dave West (hmmmm, named this one after yourself, did you, Dave?) have gathered the cream of the crop available to them — and glory be, I’m among that cream. Here’s Kirk Manley’s cover art and Andy Bloor’s final cover design for the anthology:

My story “Tenderfoot” was originally written and drawn for and published in the CCS community’s collective anthology Dead Man’s Hand (2007), which I plugged mightily here at the time, and I hope at least a couple of you snagged a copy of when and while it was available.

That gem has slipped out of print, so when Colin and Dave emailed me to inquire whether “Tenderfoot” might be available for an appearance in Western, I was happy to accommodate them (note that Rick Veitch suggested I submit the story over a year ago to some Image western anthology that was stewing, but I never heard back from whoever was behind that concoction after I sent the story their way — hell, retirement from the US comics industry is easy to maintenance on a regular basis under these conditions).

My thanks again to Leah Moore and John Reppion for introducing me to Colin, Dave and AccentUK at the Copenhagen comics fest Komiks.DK back in April 2006, and to the Komiks.DK organizers for inviting Marge and I out to Denmark in the first place, especially Kim and Regina (who put us up during our stay) and Arni, who suggested my appearance in the first place.

I owe a big thanks, too, to CCS alumni (Class of 2008) Chris ‘Radical’ Warren, who was among the original Dead Man’s Hand editorial team and who made sure a clean digital version of my story reached AccentUK art director Andy Bloor for Western in time for publication — and who worked with me to rescue one woeful, badly-drawn panel in the story. Dumb peckerwood that I am, I drew (wait for it) two right hands on one varmint! This slipped by me when the story originally appeared in Dead Man’s Hand, but we took care of that faux pas for this public appearance. Thanks, Chris!

Kudos, too, to Andy Bloor, who worked with Chris and I to the final pen stroke — you’re a credit to your profession, Andy, and I can’t wait to see the completed book.
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Whether the rest of you will ever see the book is up in the air just now — with Diamond Distribution’s new policies putting the squeeze on the entire independent comics industry, it’s looking highly unlikely this AccentUK anthology will follow Zombies into the Diamond network.

Once Western is available for sale from AccentUK’s own site, I’ll post the links and  info here. Don’t sit on your hands, though; Zombies is already long out of print. 

Since then, the situation has only grown more dire for many independent creators, publishers and self-publishers — and it’s already impacting my own work, despite my retirement from the US comics industry.

That’s how these things go; the shock waves ripple in all directions.

Icarus wrote, “In response to the weakened economy, Diamond is ending the print edition of the Previews Adult supplement, effective with the March issue. The catalog will survive in PDF form for retailers. Additionally, Diamond is raising the purchase order minimum from $1500 retail to $2500…,” noting that $2500 minimum is indeed “the wholesale benchmark,” not retail.

How, pray tell, is this impacting me, ten years on into retirement from the US comics industry? Well,

Now, the disastrous economic realities are responsible for this, of course, and these are hardly significant problems given the scope of the recession we’re collectively facing. But Diamond’s policies have made a bad market downturn worse.

This isn’t meant to villify or demonize Diamond — I have friends working there, too, and they note that situation is indeed desperate internally, the new policies reflecting their own dire straits.

That said, it’s still worth noting how this is impacting those of us who long ago stepped away from Diamond — or so we thought. Given Rick’s decision to postpone Industrial Strength Brat Pack indefinitely, he’s given me permission to proceed with the publication of my complete book-length Teen Angels: The Art, Commerce and Karma of Killing Sidekicks — written for the Industrial Strength Brat Pack — later this year via Black Coat Press. That won’t be available via Diamond, though that was never really an option in any case: Diamond and Black Coat Press had parted ways well over a year and a half ago.

Monopolies — particularly distribution monopolies — infiltrate all paths, and their contractions and upsets are felt across the landscape, even in the outposts established far from their reach.

For instance, among my secret projects for 2009 was a cover and material for UK fanzine editor and publisher Peter Normanton, whose excellent zine From the Tomb is dedicated to all comics horrific — it’s the ultimate horror comics fanzine, thus right up my alley, yes? Peter and I have been in steady contact for the past year or so, and we’ve seen to it that not only is my own From the Tomb collection fairly complete (still missing a few of the out-of-print issues), but that near-complete sets of From the Tomb are now archived in the Center for Cartoon Studies Schulz Library and the Bissette Collection at HUIE Library at Henderson State University for future access to stateside comics fans, scholars and researchers. It’s indeed an invaluable resource, and every issue is jam-packed with info, reviews, interviews, art and eye-popping cover reproductions.

The upcoming From the Tomb #26 focuses on the Warren horror magazine legacy — Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, etc. — and includes an authorized reprint of my 1992 article on Eerie #1, “The One and Only Genuine Original Warren Eerie Number One!,” originally published in Inside Comics #1 (June, 1992, pp. 58-61), and still the definitive analysis of what, precisely, went down with this rare collectible and the manufacture of counterfeit copies for the collector’s market in the 1970s.

According to Peter, From the Tomb #26 “is due to go to Diamond in the next few weeks,” and this may be the last issue of From the Tomb to be available through Diamond. Peter wrote that it’ll “probably [be] after 9 February when we know of #27’s future. I am more than certain I won’t be the only casualty but where there’s a will…”

You see, Peter and I had been working on a special Taboo issue of From the Tomb, planned “for #29, due Halloween 2009.” I’m painting an original Taboo-themed cover piece, and comics archivist/historian/scholar Richard Arndt (who originally put me in touch with Peter) had already completed a number of interviews for the issue, including a definitive Taboo interview with yours truly.

Will From the Tomb #29 ever see light of day? That’s up in the air just now, along with the fates of countless publications dependent upon the Diamond monopoly for access to the marketplace.

Back in January, Peter emailed me to say, “…I had some very bad news earlier this week, Diamond have had a change in policy and increased their sales targets making it impossible for me to stay with them. #26 is ready to go out but we do not know if they will honour the order with #27, we will hear around February 10th. If they don’t carry #27 we are going to have to put a flier in FTT #26 to try to drum up support via subscriptions. Diamond will definitely not be carrying issue #28. I am following other avenues to try and keep the Tomb going but without Diamond I would have to put in more money than I can afford. Are you aware of any alternative forms of distribution in the States? We are okay over here but need to keep the print run as close to a thousand as I possibly can to make it viable. I am certainly not down yet!”

“So the new economic realities have already killed books by Harkham and [Kevin] Huizenga…” hits mighty close to home for many of my students, especially since they’re soon to step into this ravaged economic landscape and devastated industry.

Kevin Huizenga has been part of the CCS circle since its outset; Kevin drew the second CCS brochure, and has spoken at the school (and will again). Kevin and Sammy’s return to DIY comics is a sobering note among those who look up to them, and a sign of the times.

Still, it’s times like these that test and temper us. As I’ve told my CCS students and alumni repeatedly, when Rick Veitch, Tom Yeates and my fellow Kubert School classmates entered the field upon our graduation in the spring of 1978, the industry and the national economy was in shambles.

Still, we made our way — working individually and collectively — and forged new paths, scraping out our meager livings by finding fertile soil among the wastelands. We did it — and I’ve faith this new generation of cartoonists will, too.

If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.

and some of those alternatives and fresh paths will emerge from the likes of the CCS students and alumni.

Kevin H was pragmatic about his situation when interviewed by Comics Reporter, noting that Diamond’s new minimums were only in part responsible for his decision to terminate Kevin’s own title Or Else: “Obviously the Diamond thing plays into it, but it wasn’t central… yet it kind of is. We could probably meet the minimum if we tried? But Love and Rockets becoming a book felt like, this is it, if there ever was any doubt. The comic book is a weird holdover, like a coelacanth. I guess if I do this right now I can always feel like it was my decision.”

That’s exactly how I felt back in 1997, when I pulled the plug on SpiderBaby Comix and Tyrant.

But that’s not what’s really relevent here.

These times are closer to what the marketplace and country were like back in 1978. Comics were just another crater in economic hard times, yet there we were, finally breaking out of our respective cocoons to make our way — as cartoonists! — in a decidedly ravaged economy and bankrupt marketplace.

When Rick, Tom, John Totleben and I entered the field, DC was still in the rubble of their 1977 implosion, and we could not make inroads there; the underground comix movement was dead (the tombstone, to my mind, being the final issue of the excellent anthology Arcade); the US economy was in the toilet; gas prices were sky-high and rationing was underway, with fist-fights and violence breaking out amid the daily miles-long lines of cars waiting to fill up at a time when you could only buy gas based on the final number on your license plate (there were alternating ‘even’ and ‘odd’ days).

In Dover, NJ, where we still lived after graduating from the Kubert School, grocery stores were closing at a rapid rate, forcing our every grocery shopping expedition (many accomplished on foot with backpacks to tote home food) to extend further away from our home. We were all living hand-to-mouth, forever foraging for what food we could afford and what jobs we could find.

Still, we made it. Heavy Metal had just started publishing, and we found some inroads there, sometimes a half-page at a time (HM had precious little content that wasn’t from European reprints); Clay Geerdes was evangelizing for mini-comics, launching a new generation of cartoonists dependent not at all on existing markets; this new-fangled ‘direct sales market’ wasn’t dead yet; Dave Sim and Wendy and Richard Pini were just a few issues into self-publishing their bizarre (to existing market standards) creations, and Gary Groth, Mike Catron and Kim Thompson were laying bedrock with a new upstart outfit called Fantagraphics, erecting something new on the remaining foundation of the fan publication The Nostalgia Journal.

The dinosaurs had to die for the mammals to rise — and that applies in our current economy, however much the powers-that-once-were and a large percentage of Americans want to deny the principle of evolution. 

Some of us even had a hand in changing things for the better for the generation we were part of, and for those following on our heels.

Some of us made it. Some of us made it better.

So will the new generation of cartoonists, come what may.
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One other followup: In the December 19th Myrant post linked above, I also mentioned
the plight of shoe-tossing Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, whose send-off to outgoing President George W. Bush during his final trip to Iraq made world headlines.

So, however bad it gets in the comics field in 2000, just remember — you didn’t throw your shoes at a visiting world leader while living and working in Iraq.

Just keeping some perspective on things, mind you.