WaP!: The Self-Publishing Issue

The Forgotten Activist Prozine Continued: Part 15

WaP! #6 was a fat 28-page issue, postdated October 24, 1988 on my copy.

The lead feature was a concise, to-the-point overview of the logistics of self-publishing in principal and practice by none other than Dave Sim. It’s still an essential read, and a call to creative autonomy.

I’ve already shared with you my entire serialized “The Politics of Cowardice” essay, which continued in WaP! #6, and Alan Moore‘s “A Letter from England”—here’s the links:

• here’s Alan‘s 1988 “A Letter from England”
• and the concluding installment of my serialized “The Politics of Cowardice.”

What else was in WaP! #6 (September-October, 1988)? Here’s a sampler, along with a complete contents list:

______________

Contents of WaP! #6: 28 pages, 8 1/2″ x 11,” photocopied on white paper.

Cover-pg. 5: “Self-Publishing & You” by Dave Sim.
Pg. 3: Dave Sim editorial cartoon (above).
Pp. 6-8: “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Success Story; or, The Art of Being in the Right Place at the Right Time” by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird (Kevin Eastman editorial cartoon, pg. 7, above). 
Pg. 9-10: “A Letter from England” by Alan Moore.
Pg. 11-14: “Co-Publishing” by Larry Hancock and Michael Cherkas (on co-publishing The Silent Invasion and Suburban Nightmares with Renegade Press);  editorial cartoon by Michael Zulli (pg. 13, below); “Back Issues” (ordering info for WaP! back issues, pg. 14).
Pg. 15-18: “Mail” (letters from Stephen J. Rock, Joel Thingvall, Dick Ayers, Kay Reynolds (including contents of a letter from Congressman Owen B. Pickett on the Tax Reform Act of 1986), Evan Dorkin, Steve Skeates, Mark Nevelow (very interesting reaction to WaP! and rumors on DC‘s Piranha Press, which Mark was the founding editor of), and Leslie Sternbergher; “WaP! Still Wants You, No Matter What!” (appeal for letters, articles, art, etc..
Pg. 19: “A Brief Story About Respect” by Brent Eric Anderson
Pg. 20-22: “The Politics of Cowardice, Pt. 3: The Ratings Game” by Stephen Bissette (already presented in an earlier Myrant post, linked above).
Pg. 23: “Workers Unite!!” WaP! subscription ad (art by Howard Chaykin & Walt Simonson)
Pg. 24-26: “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column; “No WaP! In October” (pg. 25); “The Comics Freelancer’s Lexicon” (pg. 26, above; cartoon masthead by Frank Miller).
Pg. 27: “Some Random Thoughts on Self-Publishing” (above); indicia (bottom of pg. 27).

___________

This interesting tidbit appeared in the “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column, pg. 26, suggesting an alternative universe to the Disney/Marvel media giant we now have in power:

Then again, Michael Zulli‘s editorial cartoon (above) just about says it all… but remember, this was 1988, and we had yet to see the work of a new generation of self-publishers—Jeff Smith, Paul Pope, David Lapham, etc.—surface and change the playing field yet again.

___

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP! #5 & A Letter from Ditko

The Forgotten Activist Prozine Continued: Part 14

Picking up the chronology of this retrospective:

WaP! #5 was a shorter 20-page issue, postdated September 1, 1988 on my copy.

The lead feature was Mike W. Barr‘s remarkable account of the 1966-67 attempt by a group of National Periodicals/DC freelancer writers to negotiate better page rates and terms for themselves, and their vain attempt to convince fellow DC artists to join their cause after the initial vehement pushback from DC management. It wasn’t a pretty story.

I’ve already shared with you my entire serialized “The Politics of Cowardice” essay, which continued in WaP! #5; here’s a peek at what else was in WaP! #5 (August 1988), and a complete contents list.

I’ll open with just a few excerpts from Mike Barr‘s still-essential article on the DC writers’ strike of 1966-67—these are excerpts only, but I think the full contexts are apparent even in this extremely condensed form:

___

So much for “the old DC Comics“—WaP! was still trying to make sense of “The New DC,” following up on the earlier issues’ ongoing coverage of dramatic new contractual changes at DC Comics circa 1988:

As we have seen over the decades since, from Watchmen to the Vertigo et. al. contracts (and their odious variation on rights reversion, in which freelancers must buy back their rights, whether the completed/accepted work was published or not, a complete subversion and essentially an eternal “option” purchase by DC/Vertigo et. al.), the rights reversion issues were co-opted and corrupted by DC, and an entire generation of creators fell for it. Now that other publishers are adopting similar contract language, the malignant influence of “the New DC” taints much of the wider publishing industries.

______________

Contents of WaP! #5: 20 pages, 8 1/2″ x 11,” photocopied on white paper.

Cover, pp. 4-10: “The Madames and the Girls: How DC Got Rid of the Troublemakers” by Mike W. Barr (Frank Miller editorial cartoons throughout, shared above)
Pg. 2: “Okay, So This Isn’t Our Special Self-Publishing Issue…”; “The New DC Deal Revealed” (above)

Pg. 3: “The New DC Revealed,” cont., “Blackthorne in IRS Thicket” (IRS investigation and prosecution of Blackthorne Publishing under the premise all freelancers are employed under work-for-hire basis).

Pg. 11-14: “The Politics of Cowardice, Pt. 2″  by Stephen Bissette (already presented in an earlier Myrant post; Frank Miller editorial cartoon on pg. 12, below). 
Pg. 14-15: “The Freelancer is Always Wrong” (uncredited); Dave Sim editorial cartoon (pg. 15, shown above).
Pg. 16-17: “Mail” (letters from S.A. Bennett, Steve Leialoha, Donald Simpson, Thomas D. Luth, and Steve Ditko).
Pg. 18-19: “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column; editorial cartoons by Frank Miller; indicia (bottom of pg. 19).

___________

Oh, and about that letter from Steve Ditko:

___

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP!: “So-Called Adult Comic Books”

The Forgotten Activist Prozine vs Canada Campaign for Censoring Comics: Part 13

Before we leave the month of April behind, there’s one more anniversary I have to commemmorate that involves comics and WaP!—though it’s not as well-known as Superman‘s anniversary, nor should it be.

Stepping back just one issue further, WaP! #3 featured the most detailed overview of Ontario‘s abbreviated campaign against adult comics in 1988, an excellent article authored by vet comics retailer/creator/television industry pro Mark Askwith. Mark was writing about, and reacting to, an April 1988 CBC news program that attacked comicbooks.

Mark and I go way back, having met in the early 1980s when Mark was still managing Toronto‘s Silver Snail comics shop.

Mark also went on to write for comics and work in television for TVOntario, where he produced and conducted countless interviews for Prisoners of Gravity (which I occasionally appeared on, and still use in my Center for Cartoon Studies classroom today!), and was one of the founding producers of Canada‘s sf channel SPACE.

Mark arguably remains best known in comics circles for having co-scripted The Prisoner: Shattered Visage comics series (with Dean Motter, DC Comics, 4 issues now in collected trade paperback, 1988-89), among others.

Personally, I’m forever in Mark‘s debt—because he’s the man who suggested the title for what became Taboo—which Mark also co-created memorable comics work for (“Sharks” in Taboo 2 and “Davey’s Dream” in Taboo 4, both created with his ink-slinging Wordsmith and Silencers partner-in-crime R.G. Rick Taylor); he kindly granted permission for the reprint of his revealing WaP! #3 article today.

• I covered the contents of WaP! #3 a couple of weeks ago in this retrospective,

but held off on doing anything more than mention Mark‘s article until we had a chance to chat, and my deepest thanks to Mark for granting permission to include his complete essay here today.

• You can watch the complete April 11, 1988 CBC Monitor program discussed in Mark‘s article here, at the CBC Digital Archives (preceded and interrupted by couple of web-ads). As Rob Imes (Ditkomania editor/publisher) noted, “this video is like a time machine back to 1988…”

Give the Monitor installment a viewing, and read on…

_____
Yummy Fur #5 cover, “in the bullseye” via the Monitor program and other events, cover art ©1988, 2013 Chester Brown. Yummy Fur began as a self-published minicomic that Chester mailed to John Totleben and I in 1983; the series was subsequently published by Vortex (1986-1991) and Drawn and Quarterly (1991-1994).
_______

As previously noted (and shared, but here we go again, for the sake of completion in the proper context), WaP! accompanied Mark‘s article with a guide to interacting with news media in an environment that was ripe with increasingly sensationalistic reporting on a procession of comics shop busts. This was something no other publication was discussing, much less offering “how to/how not to” tips for dealing with increasing unexpected media scrutiny:

Next: WaP! #5, at last…

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. “The Real Violence on Television” ©1988, 2013 Mark Askwith, reprinted with permission; all original-to-this-blog text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP!: 50 Years of Superman & Such

The Forgotten Activist Prozine Continued: Part 12

Backtracking a bit, to pick up the chronology of this retrospective:

WaP! #4 was another 24-page issue, postdated July 28, 1988 on my copy.

The lead feature was a momentous overview of the legal and ethical legacy of Superman and its creators and publisher, circa the character’s 50th Anniversary—written by none other than Steve Gerber.

On this, (mere days after) the 75th anniversary of Superman, it’s sobering to reread Steve‘s exhaustive essay and note that for all that has gone down in the ensuing quarter-century, it’s still a birthday with little to celebrate for the heirs of Siegel and Shuster.

I’ve already shared with you my entire serialized “The Politics of Cowardice” essay, which continued in WaP! #4, and a sample letter (from Tom Vincent) that saw print in the same issue.

Here’s a peek at what else was in WaP! #4 (July 1988), and a complete contents list:

______________

Contents of WaP! #4: 24 pages, 8 1/2″ x 11,” photocopied on white paper.

Cover: “Fifty Years” (Frank Miller editorial image)
Pg. 2: “The New DC Deal, Take 2;” “Hold That Trademark!” (both below).
Pg. 3: “Fishin’ in the Freelancer Pool” (Stephen Bissette editorial cartoon, above). 
Pg. 4-11: “Truth, Justice, & The Corporate Conscience” by Steve Gerber; Frank Miller editorial cartoons (pp. 4, 6—shown above).
Pg. 12-14: “Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me…?” (on ageism and the industry’s shoddy and ill treatment of older comics professionals and freelancers);  editorial cartoon by Stephen Bissette (pg. 13).
Pg. 15-16: “The Politics of Cowardice, Pt. 1 (cont.)” by Stephen Bissette (already presented in an earlier Myrant post, last week; see below).
Pg. 17-21: “Mail” (letters from James Van Hise, Susan Dorne, Tom Vincent—presented here in the last post, complete—and Joyce Brabner, the latter detailing the Real War Stories #1 legal battle with the U.S. Department of Defense), editorial cartoon by Dave Sim (pg. 20, below).
Pg. 22-23: “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column; editorial cartoons by Frank Miller (shown above); indicia (bottom of pg. 23).

___________

At the time, the first (of many) Watchmen debacle(s) was very much on many freelancers’ minds, and Dave Sim‘s pointed editorial cartoon featuring caricatures of DC brass Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz spoke volumes—and oh, how it resonates today.

Among the text features was an updated, speculative full-page article about the announced, but as-yet uncodified, DC Comics “plan under which creators would not have to sell their creations to DC in order to have DC publish them.” This “plan” was what eventually became a multi-headed hydra, of sorts: Piranha Press, Vertigo, Paradox, Helix, etc. I want to share this one-pager complete, given what eventually emerged from DC Comics, and the actual legacy we now look back upon:

Hold that trademark, indeed—if only Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had thought to fight for trademark ownership of Watchmen two or three years earlier, we’d all be living a very different 21st century, in many ways.

___

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP!: Letter from A Freelancer

The Forgotten Activist Prozine: Part 11

So, as I have shown thus far, a lot of major talents—Frank Miller, Dave Sim, Steve Gerber, Bill Sienkiewicz, Michael Zulli, Alan Moore, Steven Grant, Stephen Murphy, Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman, etc.—weighed in on its pages before WaP! folded up tents.

It must be noted that their open activism had an impact on the freelance community, and a number of creators rolled up their sleeves and pitched in, willing to name names and take no prisoners, outside of the original and immediate circle of WaP! core contributors.

I reached out to a number of my friends who were part of those issues, and asked permission to reprint here their contributions. One of them got right back to me, without hesitation, and handily his letter to the editors was published in the very issue of WaP! we’re now backtracking to for the sake of our chronology.

Here is the complete letter from long-time (now retired from the industry) pro creator/artist/colorist Tom Vincent, as it originally ran in WaP! #4 (July 1988; pp. 18-20):

_____

To be continued!

From WaP! #4, pg. 22

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

“Letter to the Editor” ©1988, 2013 Tom Vincent, reprinted with permission, all rights reserved. All WaP! images, content ©1988, 1989 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. All original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.