Postcards' Production

It's time to update those bookmarks...

2007-01-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

The official site is live:

http://www.postcardsanthology.com

POSTCARDS + Other great project at Eximious Press, too.

Introducing Gia-Bao Tran and Seamus Heffernan

2006-09-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

Cross-posted with the MySpace page...

I want to introduce you folks to Gia-Bao Tran (GB) and Seamus (pronounced Shaw-mus) Heffernan.

I met GB at San Diego Comic-Con this year - he had a table at the small press pavilion. His Xeric-award winning comic, CONTENT, caught my eye and I began to gush quite profusely (even broke-as-no-joke Josh Fialkov bought a copy). You see, I've been looking for the perfect artist to team with Chris Stevens on the lead story for the book. We've talked to a couple of folks already but they were both too busy - I was getting a little worried, honestly. This is the lead story - when Chris pitched me this story I knew it was the way I needed to start the book - it complimented Harvey Pekar's story perfectly and the two could work as book ends for the anthology. They'll allow me to run a narrative through the book. I saw the whole thing unfold instantly.

But the lead story also has to have the right artwork.

I pitched GB POSTCARDS and he seemed interested. A week after I got home from SDCC I offered him the gig and he took it. Just yesterday I got the layouts for their 9-page story, including this spread:

And it's the kind of spread that makes you smile and realize you made the right choice.

Speaking of "making the right choice" there's Seamus Heffernan. I first talked to Seamus over a year ago, I was trying to get him on WESTERN TALES OF TERROR, I believe. For whatever reason it didn't work out; we fell out of touch with each other. He went traveling across Europe and we cancelled WToT and put all of our time and effort into ELK'S RUN.

I was talking to three different artists for my story and I couldn't decide which one to go with. They were all good, but none of them were perfect. Here comes Seamus, writing me to catch up and see what I've been up to. I take a look at some of his new pages and the improvements he made over the past year was astonishing (and he was great before).

I pitched him POSTCARDS and he jumped on it. We went back and forth over the story and yesterday I received his first concepts sketches:

And it's the type of sketches that make you smile and realize you made the right choice.

I love finding new people and taking a chance on them. This book will be filled with folks whose work you likely won't be familiar with. Joseph Bergin III did a four page story in WToT #4 - he's going to floor you. Jason Copland has some books coming out but WToT #4 probably had the highest distribution out of all the stuff he's done in the past - you'll want to see more from him after POSTCARDS. Tony Fleecs' IN MY LIFETIME is one of the greatest books of the year and his work for POSTCARDS is going to be jaw-dropping. Micah Farritor's pages are absolutely breathtaking - his rendition of Paris is awe-inspiring. Drew Gilbert is going to capture childhood innocence and neatly frame it within a 9x6 page.

And they'll be alongside Phil Hester and Michael Gaydos and Matt Kindt and Rob G and Tom Beland. Noel Tuazon from ELK'S RUN. Danielle Corsetto from GIRLS WITH SLINGSHOTS. Jake Allen from BROWNSVILLE. The Fraim Brothers from WOLFBOY.

Brand new talents alongside up-and-comers alongside established pros. It's going to be one hell of a gorgeous book.

POSTCARDS on All The Rage

2006-09-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

It gets a "Most Original Project Of The Year!" Factor of ten out of ten. Check it out.

Little quiet 'round these parts

2006-09-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Soon this little production blog will be replaced by a full website. We're going over designs now and I hope to have something going by the end of September. The MySpace page will eventually become the blog for Postcards. So, if you're looking for new stuff on the book (and artwork) make sure you start heading over there.

POSTCARDS is Bringing the Postcard Back

2006-08-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Between July 1st, 1907 and June 30th, 1908 there were close to 700-million postcards mailed within the United States alone – approximately 8 postcards for each individual living here. This was the Golden Age of Postcards. The low postage and improvements in printing technology made postcards a very simple, attractive, and cost-effective form of communication.

What we’re left with now is thousands-upon-thousands of dusty shoeboxes filled with 25-cent postcards in antique shops across the country. Pieces of peoples’ lives – talks of quarantines, wars, sickly mothers, and secret admirers occasionally being shuffled through but often discarded by collectors because they’re in “bad shape”.

We’ve moved to email. Shaping pixels on a screen with no personality – spell-checks catch our mistakes – communication is instant and free, allowing for meaningful conversation along the lines of:

Jason –
‘sup?
- Josh

POSTCARDS wants to bring the postcard back. A 160-page anthology produced and edited by Jason Rodriguez (coedited by James W. Powell), POSTCARDS tells stories inspired by these glimpses into a person’s life. Why did the mysterious “E” brave a quarantine to see his friend Elmer? Did Earl Shafer ever return from World War II? Did Anna really marry a man with a 12-year-old son, as her cousin suspected? An all-star line-up, including Harvey Pekar, Matt Kindt, Phil Hester, Tom Beland, Stuart Moore, Michael Gaydos, Josh Fialkov, Ande Parks, Rick Spears & Rob G, Robert Tinnell, Neil Kleid, Antony Johnston, and Noel Tuazon, have set out to answer these questions and more.

POSTCARDS is set to be released July 2007, but we can’t wait that long to bring the postcard back. We want your postcards. We want a glimpse into your life. If you have something you want to tell us about yourself, please send a postcard to:

Jason Rodriguez
P.O. Box 17851
Arlington, VA 22201

Include an email address on the card – if something catches our eye we may be asking for permission to post it on the POSTCARDS MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/AllYouLeave) or Production Blog (http://www.allyouleave.com). If something really gets us excited we may even ask for permission to feature it within a future volume of POSTCARDS. Also, feel free to include your return address – you might get a reply postcard from someone in the book with a little bit about their life or even a sketch.

So pick out some fun postcards and get to writing - purchase proper postage (that’s 24-cents, in case you haven't mailed a postcard within the last couple of decades) - send us a postcard. Send a postcard to your mother or your boyfriend or your friend from college while you're at it.

Help us bring the postcard back.

Postcard Banners

2006-08-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

Show your support on message boards, personal sites, your blog - anywhere on the web, really, with the first 6 (of 16) Postcards Banners. Feel free to hotlink them direct from my website and make them link back to http://www.allyouleave.com.

Postcards Foreword?

2006-08-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

A little background – I had a couple of beers tonight. Ok – I had a couple of pitchers. And a couple of beers on top of those couple of pitchers. I was at Dr. Dremo’s – I go there on Sundays to get work done if I have no other plans. Tonight I was busy generating critiques of a couple of projects. My laptop battery died and I spent some time with my marble notebook, compiling a list of people that I would like to write the introduction to Postcards.

Inspiration hit me – I’m passionate about this project. I love this project. I spend the majority of my day thinking about this project – shouldn’t I write the introduction? When I got home I composed this piece, it could serve as the introduction to Postcards but, if it doesn’t, I hope it at least gives a little insight to the background of this project and what it means.

I’m coming down a bit, I read it over, I think it’s good for posting. Either way – this is a first draft, pure enthusiasm streamed onto virtual paper. So, here it goes…

_____________________

My fascination with postcards is fairly recent. It was January, 2006 – I was in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was Robin’s, my girlfriend’s, birthday. I took her to the spa at the Hotel Hershey for her gift, two nights of chocolate and pampering. This was our second trip to the spa – I took her there for Valentines Day a couple of years back and we’ve wanted a return engagement since.

On our second day out there Robin tells me she wants to go antique shopping. This was not my idea of a good time. I wanted a hot-stone message and a steak dinner – chocolate martinis and wasabi peas by the fireplace while a jazz quartet occasionally deviated from swinging music and pushed the well-to-do folks’ sensibilities with some improvisational jamming. It was her birthday, however, so I kept my mouth shut and we went to an antique mall a couple of miles from the hotel.

Despite my lack of verbal protests, I wasn’t the most supportive boyfriend in the world. I always walked two steps behind her, sighing heavily every time she paused to browse a cabinet filled with various knickknacks she had no intention of buying.

“If there’s anything you want, let me know. I’ll get it for you.” That’s code for “hurry up,” ladies, in case you’re wondering why your significant other seems so eager to shower you in presents when you take him out shopping with you.

About ten minutes in (we browsed through approximately 5% of the first floor at this point), Robin starts rifling through a shoebox filled with postcards. There must have been several hundred cards in there and I wasn’t having that – I let a “Jesus Christ” escape and received the nastiest look in return.

Now, unlike when other couples say, “It’s so weird – we never fight,” Robin and I have never really fought. She’s very non-confrontational and instead of fighting, she knows how to get me off her back.

“You know,” she tells me as she walks away from the shoebox, “some of these postcards were sent out. People wrote interesting things on them.”

I shot her an untrusting look, I knew I was being manipulated but I didn’t quite catch on to her scheme yet. But Robin knows me very well – she knows I’m the type of guy who likes to find stories in people’s residuals. I’ll type up detailed character sheets for people whose writings I’ve seen on bathroom walls or in the margins of used books and use them for future stories. I’ve always found that true characterization – true drama – comes out of someone when they don’t believe they’re being analyzed. A simple song lyric scratched into a bar table can give more insight into how someone’s feeling than an hour long conversation.

I did what Robin wanted me to do – I started rifling through the box of postcards. The first postcard I pulled out was a godsend. It was sent from a Private Earl Shafer to his mother in 1942, the day before Earl’s brother, Lehr, gets shipped out to fight in the war. Earl’s telling his mother he should be going soon, too, and he’ll write her when he gets back.

Earl Shafer went to fight in Eastern Europe. He left his family and his girlfriend behind. He was in the trenches, got injured several times. He fell for a nurse during a hospital visit. Hs father found out about his cheating ways, purchased an engagement ring, gave it to Earl’s girlfriend back home. Took a picture of the girlfriend with the ring and sent it to Earl, told him that he’s an engaged man now and he better start acting like it. Earl finishes his tour, gets several medals, comes home and marries his fiancé – opens a bar and becomes a neighborhood hero.

That’s not Earl’s story – that’s what I saw when I read that postcard. In fact, that’s my grandfather’s story. Maybe Earl died. Maybe he went MIA and spent the rest of his life roaming Europe without an identity. Maybe he came home disabled, found out his girl has fell for someone else, and had to put his life back together.

The only thing that we know for sure is that Earl Shafer was supposed to go fight in World War II. There’s a good chance that, with the exception of things like birth and death certificates, this may be all we ever know about Earl Shafer. And this one insight into his life was one sale at an antique mall in Hershey, Pennsylvania for fifty cents.

I fell in love with postcards at that moment. I went through that entire shoebox and pulled out about twenty postcards, many of which are featured in this book. People writing about quarantines and sickly mothers. Anonymous cards sent from secret admirers. Little mysteries, all of them, deserving more than the treatment they were getting.

The idea for this anthology naturally followed.

We went back to the hotel. As Robin took a pre-spa treatment shower I composed an email that went out to several friends: Josh Fialkov, Saul Colt, Matt Dembicki, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, and Jay Busbee. I transcribed several postcards and said that I wanted to produce an anthology where creators took one of these postcards and built the story around it as they saw it. They can write about what led up to the postcard, what happened after it was sent – they can jump forty years into the future and attempt to catch up on where the sender and/or receiver of the card were.

Everyone agreed – this is an anthology that needs to be made. I attacked this book like a man possessed, started pitching it to people I admired and the people I admired wanted to be a part of it. The book became my life.

At the same time, postcard collecting consumed me. On any given weekend you can find me at an antique shop or flea market, rifling through shoeboxes filled with postcards collectors deemed unworthy of display cases and high price tags. Looking for pieces of people’s lives that they left behind, pieces that reminds us of our own lives - that inspire us to tell a story that needs to be told.

Our heartache. Our desires. Our happiness. Our love. Stories people can relate to – stories that could just as well have happened to Earl Shafer, a private who went to fight in World War II just like millions of Americans. Fighting the great evil for the greater good overseas; in a foreign land. Some coming home in coffins, some coming home heroes. Like my grandfather. Like your husband or your brother or your best friend.

None of these postcards have over fifty words on them and yet there’s more life there than you’ll ever see in a novel or a movie or a TV show. Because it’s life in the raw. Unfiltered. It’s a moment from my Grandfather’s life. From my life.

From your life.

At the end of the day, when you’re not a movie star or a politician or a writer, this is what you are. This one postcard. This one paragraph. This one moment of regret or inspiration or fear.

All you are is the greatest story never told. And now we’re telling it.

Enjoy the book.

Postcards (and Jason) on MySpace

2006-08-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

Finally took the plunge. Go join the Postcards MySpace Group.

As an extra bonus, just by clicking that link you get an advance look at some of the talent in the book.

The Bathtub Art Museum

2006-08-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about working on this project is the excitement that goes along with stumbling across fellow collectors. Like Carye Bye and her wonderful Bathtub Art Museum – dedicated primarily to postcards that feature bathtub scenes.

I didn’t find the site while searching for postcards, however – I found it while searching for information on early 1900 bathtubs.

The site’s a hoot – lots of fun cards to look over – go check it out.

A Collector No More?

2006-07-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

For those who don’t know me, let me explain that I’m a holdover from days gone by when people bought comics in mint condition, encased them in Mylar, and stored them in dark, cool climates. So even though I was heading to the San Diego Comic Con to learn what it takes to be a comic’s professional, I was also ready to spend tons of cash. I was geared up to either ship home a box of goodies or check extra luggage on the flight back to Denver. I was even prepared to defend my spending when my wife asked how much everything cost.

But I certainly wasn’t expecting this.

Not only did I not buy a single book or piece of art at the convention, but I didn’t even have a strong desire to buy anything in the first place. “Is this for real?” I asked as I walked and walked and walked, looking at all the cool shit I could buy but didn’t want to. “Am I really not interested in anything?”

The first time through the booths I was pretty overwhelmed. There was just so much to do and see. Quickly enough, though, two thoughts popped into mind. First, I realized that no matter what I bought, I wasn’t properly prepared to keep it in mint condition. I certainly wasn’t going to put any books in my bag, and I didn’t have a poster tube to keep any prints or original art safe from the mobs of people bumping into each other. The second thing I realized was that there was simply no way I could decide what to get. I mean, how to you decide if a Frank Cho sketchbook is better than the other 200 sketchbooks available at the show? And don’t get me started on figuring out what to buy from Artist’s Alley.

So within two hours of entering the door, my brain was already shutting down. I had no desire to buy. Sure, I continued to look, but my wallet wasn’t burning a hole in my pocket like it usually does.

Hard to believe, I know, but that’s the way it went. It was pretty surreal. But there’s another obvious reason for the way this all went down. Although this was my first convention and I wanted to make the most of it as a fan, by primary goal was to meet some of the writers and artists I’ve worked with on Postcards. I was there to network and start learning the ropes of what it’ll take to actually get a foot in the industry.

One of the first things Jason told me at the convention was that it looks unprofessional to talk to an artist or writer with a handful of comics and other collectibles in your hand. I argued this point once or twice, claiming that I don’t want to be a professional if I can’t be a fan, too. But I understand Jason’s point. How would it look to talk to a representative at Top Shelf while fumbling around with books from Oni? Or what message would I send an artist we’re interested in for volume 2 when I’m trying to keep from damaging art from the guy a few rows over?

In a way, I felt like I was in limbo the entire trip. I wasn’t a fan, yet I wasn’t a professional either. At the same time, though, I was a little of both. I didn’t want to have a handful of loot when meeting people, but I also didn’t want to not have that handful of loot. It was confusing. And tiring. But that might’ve been from the lack of water and food and all that walking.

Even though my friends who know me best still shoot me odd looks for coming back empty handed, I did come away with something more valuable than anything I could’ve paid for. By working on Postcards and finally meeting face to face with the talent on the book, I’ve come to realize that the story is the only thing that matters. It matters to me as an editor who wants to help writers hone their craft, and it matters to me as a fan who now would much rather lend out great books than have them stored neatly at home.

I want to make great books. I want to buy great books. With Postcards, I get both.

For your consideration...

2006-07-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the deadline for Harvey Ballots. You've helped Elk's Run gather 7 Harvey Noms - we're asking you to help us take one home with us. Here's the final Harvey ballot. Check us off and mail it in to pjcjmc3 @ sbcglobal . net . Thanks!

Building Postcards: Phil Hester

2006-07-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

I often get asked how I managed to put the Postcards team together. I’m going to start doing a weekly feature that tells the story behind building Postcards, one creator at a time.

I’m not shy about voicing my opinions when it comes to Phil Hester – he is one of the greatest writers working in comics today. I put him up there with Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison – and if we’re talking writer/illustrator, he’s number one. I can go on for hours listing and debating the reasons why you (yes, you, and I don’t care who you are or what your tastes are) don’t share this opinion but I won’t. Not here. This weekly feature is about networking and celebration, after all.

Phil Hester was the first guy I got in touch with after securing a couple of good friends, before New York Comic Con. Other creators love Phil; he was certainly a good name to throw out with any pitch.

Phil wrote a five page short for Western Tales of Terror #2. I wasn’t really editing the book at that point, when we first started with issue two I was doing submissions and Greg Matiasevich was editing the book. As a result, I missed my opportunity to work with Phil. I didn’t even see his story until Stakal’s art came in and I needed to make a lettering script for Jaco.

I was a fan of Phil’s work before reading this story – the Coffin and the Wretch were both fantastic pieces of literature and his artwork on Green Arrow was still fresh in my mind. But that story made me fall in love with Phil – it made me track down anything else he’s worked on. I realized something – Phil Hester is a great writer, that’s true, but he’s the master of short sequential stories. It’s almost as if he finds a different level of confidence with shorts – where he can be as poetic as he wants to be without feeling like he needs to write specifically for the direct market crowd. What he produces is magical; the best five pages you’ll read in any anthology, and because of that, Phil Hester had to be in Postcards.

When I was organizing the signing schedule for San Diego last year, Phil was the first one to respond to my group email. Despite all my talk of being professional and trying to keep a level head - I turned into a bumbling idiot – the gushing fan. I just saw an opportunity to tell Phil how much I love and appreciate his work and I took that opportunity. Maybe used too many words to do it but, you know - we all have our moments of weakness.

He humbly replied, “thank you.”

He sat at the table for San Diego – I saw him sketch. He’s a gentleman, fans of his were coming to his table to see him and on several occasions he already knew their names, as if he’s seen them at other shows and kept in contact with them.

I really didn’t exchange many emails with him between San Diego and late January when I pitched him Postcards. I wrote him, told him what the book was about, and told him a couple of people who were in it. He responded within minutes saying the project sounds great and, if his schedule permits, he’s in.

I did a jig like you wouldn’t believe. Jigged some more when I realized he’ll be illustrating his own story. I wrote him to tell him how I’d like to structure the business end of the book to which he told me not to worry about that now – the story comes first. I’ve adopted that philosophy ever since.

I got his story in – James and I flipped for it.

Got some pages in – we flipped again.

Recently I sent out an email talking about options and plans and best case scenarios. I was saying how I want the best for this book – that everyone involved is putting in such amazing work and how proud I am and how I want this book to receive all the accolades, press, and sales that it rightfully deserves.

Phil’s response? “It’s a strong project regardless…Never forget that.”

Next week, Tom Beland…

Building Postcards: Tom Beland

2006-07-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

Building Postcards: Tom Beland

When it comes to the talent involved in Postcards, Tom Beland just made sense. He can do romance and comedy extremely well, True Story Swear to God is a fan-loved and Eisner nominated godsend, and moving it to Image will guarantee some more exposure, especially in the bookstores.

I first contacted Tom after New York Comic-Con – I was sitting at my desk, at work, going over the names of people I met there and trying to figure out who to contact first. While sitting there, Tom Beland pops into my head. I try to figure out who might know him but come up cold – I make my way to his website and send an email off to him.

An hour or so later he calls me up and says he wants to do the book.

And that’s really it.

I mean, there’s more – I guess. That night I send him a couple of postcards to choose from – one that leaves room for some drama and one that leaves room for some romance.

A couple of weeks later he calls me up and tells me his story – he’s using the potential-for-romance secret admirer card. The story is a perfect fit for the anthology, I ask him a couple of questions and he has good answers for all of them, and I let him do his thing.

At one point I needed some early pages from him. Not knowing Tom that well yet, I was reluctant to call him. I get him on the phone and he tells me that it’s no problem; he’ll have two pages for me within a week.

I met him for the first time at Comic-Con, this past weekend. He was signing at the Ait booth. We shook hands; he told me the book went from fun to intimidating when I announced Harvey Pekar’s involvement. Honestly – I never got that from him before, everything just went so smooth – pages and stories appearing when they were supposed to and being exactly what I needed. He tells me he’ll put the pages to ink after SDCC and I should have them soon.

If that’s Tom Beland intimidated, I need to see how smooth it goes when he’s in his comfort zone.

Of course, I heard the intimidation comment from a lot of the guys working on the book. Usually it’s a half-joking kind of thing. But it could be there a little bit, I’m sure, and for all I know it could be driving force behind the fact that everyone is turning some of the best work I’ve ever seen from them. Or it could just be that the concept of Postcards is such that the 8-pages becomes a bit of a passion project for them. But, whatever it is, Tom Beland is a great example as to what working on this book is like – even someone I’ve never met before dives into it and delivers the best he can deliver with little effort from myself or James Powell.

Next week, Josh Fialkov and Micah Farritor…

The Hive #13 - Take it Away

2006-07-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

A new article is up...

Ironically, I hate postcards.

Not the antique ones I collect and use as the basis for my upcoming POSTCARDS anthology; I hate the postcards comic publishers use to promote their books. Can’t stand them. Can’t stand the philosophy that they’re cheap to print so therefore they must be good; guys showing up at cons with a stack of five hundred postcards, handing them out, leaving 100 on a table near the entrance.

You see people grab them; throw them in their backpack, never to be seen again. What can you really put on a postcard? A picture, a cheesy tagline and “Coming June 2007”? On the back, you can put order numbers for your other books as if:

1 - Anyone knows what they’re about;
2 - Anyone knows what to do with an order number

READ THE ENTIRE COLUMN HERE.

Building Postcards: Pekar, Brabner, and Kindt

2006-07-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

I often get asked how I managed to put the Postcards team together. I’m going to start doing a weekly feature that tells the story behind building Postcards, one creator at a time.

Harvey Pekar was on my “dream-list”. I needed someone who sold well in bookstores, had a recognizable name to people who don’t read many comics (or any comics, really), and who was capable of producing a story of Postcards' caliber.

That list consisted of Harvey Pekar, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore. I didn’t expect to get any of them in the book – three of my favorite creators who happened to also meet the criteria I laid out for dream-list creators. I decided that if anyone of them showed even the slightest bit of interest I’d a) pay them what they wanted and consider it a marketing expense (since it’ll have a greater impact than a full-page preview ad, after all) and b) let them do whatever the hell they wanted as long as it involved postcards.

Chris Stevens calls me on a Monday evening – I’m playing trivia at my local bar. I decide to take the phone call outside. Chris has a hard time getting to the point, sometimes. I’ve been in conversations with him where he’ll spend ten minutes setting up a point. It’s endearing but, when you’re friends are inside a warm bar drinking beers, you find yourself getting a bit…testy.

Chris spent ten minutes apologizing for going behind my back and talking to a creator about Postcards. When someone apologizes, you get worried. You think he pissed off the person in question and made my book look bad. Turns out he talked to Joyce Brabner, Harvey Pekar’s wife – told her about Postcards and she responds, “Harvey and I met over a postcard.”

They were interested in the project.

I called Harvey for the first time later that week. I refreshed my memory and researched every project he’s worked on – reread some of the stuff I had on hand. I had a bulleted list of points I wanted to go over. I even had a page rate in mind to offer him if he asked for money. I was prepared.

I called him up.

Harvey is a smart man. I started the conversation by saying, “I’m not sure how much Chris told you about the book,” to which he interrupted and said, “not much.”

He was going to make me work for it.

So I pitched him the book and he pitched me his idea – a biographical tale where he and Joyce retell the history of their marriage using postcards they’ve sent or received. Was it a story based on antique postcards? Not really. Did I care? Not at all. I instantly saw where the story would fit, it’s be at the end of the book, a true story about a postcards impact. I’d bookend it was a story that sets the tone, a modern day postcard story – a special project I gave to Chris Stevens.

He did ask what it pays and I told him the page rate I set just for him – a number I had on my “marketing” spreadsheet, the first value to go on it. He said that was more than generous and for a moment I dwelled on how I could have gone lower.

But only for a moment. Because reality sets in and I realized I had one of the three dream-list creators in the book. A guy my mom and dad knew despite never reading comics. My coworkers and friends knew him, most of which don’t read comics. The other creators in the book were more than excited. I was leaking the information to friends who run various comic sites and people were asking when they could do a feature.

“Soon,” I told them.

I started looking for artists. Harvey’s instructions were someone “good who doesn’t do ‘superhero style’. And he needs to be well known.” I had a dream list for this one, too. Becky Cloonan, Darwyn Cooke, Paul Pope – but it turns out the perfect match was someone James Powell (and Jacob Goddard) recommended to me.

Matt Kindt – author of 2 Sisters. The man nominated for an Eisner last year - Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition. I call Matt up and he tells me that when he was sixteen he sent a letter to Harvey telling him he’d love to illustrate one of his comics one day. One page of Harvey’s story has him reading a postcard from an artist who says he wants to work with Harvey some day.

It was fate, really.

I’d call Harvey every week or so to go over his ideas. One time I got Joyce on the phone and we chatted for a bit – she wanted to know more about me. Turns out she used email so I sent her a link to some of the artists I was considering for their story. She wrote me back and said Matt Kindt is their guy.

Sometimes things work perfectly. Getting Harvey, Joyce and Matt together were one of those things. Harvey mailed the script out and Matt got started. I don’t want to insult anyone who’s worked with Harvey in the past, but these two were meant to work together. I’ve yet to see someone capture the essence of Harvey and Joyce like Matt has. And Harvey’s worked with nothing but great creators. But these pages are the best I’ve ever seen from Harvey’s publishing career. And yeah, I’m biased, but knowing they’re the best is all I need to help me sell it.

Next up is Phil Hester…

No superheroes in Postcards?

2006-06-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

I never said that...

Mazel Tov

2006-06-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Neil Kleid – he’s getting married to his lovely fiancé, Laurie, today. Why is that on the POSTCARDS blog? Well, since he spilled it, I might as well confirm that Neil and Jake Allen (the Brownsville team) are collaborating on a story together for POSTCARDS.

The Hive #12 - The Pitch

2006-06-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

There’s a new Hive up with an inside look at the POSTCARDS pitch and the thought process that went into it.

I spent all of last week putting together a pitch package for POSTCARDS because I needed to send it out to some people last weekend. Despite your intentions with your book, whether you plan on publishing it yourself or selling it to a publisher, you’re going to eventually need to pitch it to someone. Distributors, retailers, wholesalers, agents, publicists -- CUSTOMERS -- you’re going to need to sell someone on your book.

I’m not going to focus on customers today; that’ll be for the next article. I instead want to talk about making the pitch to people who will be supporting your book or buying a couple of hundred copies of it. And I’d like to do that by presenting 11 of the 28 pages I put together for the POSTCARDS pitch package and taking you through each one.

I didn’t want to do the one-sheet with several pages of art; that’s kind of lame. Even with the talent I have in POSTCARDS, to pitch the book and all of its creators -- most of whom are award-nominated or winning -- on a single page doesn’t do the book or them justice. So I broke the rules a bit and just made one really good looking pitch with a layout that’s easy on the eyes and encourages the reader to browse through the pitch for whatever might catch their attention. The design can be expanded to however many pages I want.

Click here to read the rest.

A New Postcard

2006-06-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

I guarantee you this postcard will be featured in a future volume and I guarantee you creators will fight over it. Picked it up this weekend in Iowa. Sent from Nevada to Illinois in 1948 it sports the greatest front-side I’ve seen so far:

And the back reads:

“Thought of you when I saw this card. Reminds me of the little mule you couldn’t kill. Been quite hot today. We are not used to that being up north and at the coast for a month. Expect to be home soon for our vacation. [Signed by two currently illegible names].”

This card is perfect. Someone sees the front and thinks “cute”. Reads the back and is horrified by thoughts of mule killers. I’d do a whole volume based on peoples’ interpretations of this card. It wouldn’t sell very well, but it would be awesome.

Shopping for Postcards

2006-06-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was in Iowa this weekend for a wedding – Fort Madison – a little city on the Mississippi that has a river boat casino, a couple of dive bars and nothing else. It’s the perfect place to devote a couple of hours to postcard shopping.

I want to share a couple of the postcards I purchased but I’ll get to that later tonight. For now I wanted to fill you in on my postcard purchasing techniques. You do this enough and you get a system down, you develop some rules.

Antique Malls are the way to go – they’re these large structures that lease space to local antique dealers. The one I went to in Iowa was two stories and represented about fifty or sixty dealers. What’s nice about this is that a lot of these guys put a shoebox out filled with postcards. So, whereas you go to an antique shop and there may be a box or two of postcards, the antique malls will have ten or twenty boxes of postcards to rifle through. I can easily spend several hours in an antique mall.

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Don’t bother with the display cases. The cards in the cases are there because they’re more than five dollars, are in great condition and usually have no writing on them. And when they do have writing on them, it likely won’t be worth the five, ten, twenty dollars you’ll be paying for it. Stick to the shoeboxes and have some patience, you can get 40 shoebox cards for the price of one display case card sometimes.

The most expensive card featured in the book cost me a $1.25. Tom Beland’s using it for his story. Everything else cost twenty-five or fifty cents.

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At an antique mall you could find yourself with thousands of postcards to look through – you need to know which ones to avoid.

Avoid any box that’s separated by state, so they’ll be a group of New York postcards, a group of California, etc. Most of these cards will be a simple, “Everything’s great in New York! Wish you were here!” Whereas you may find a good story on one of those, it’s not worth going through all of the worthless ones.

Cards written by Americans visiting foreign countries, however, tend to be gold. One of our stories will feature such a card. In fact, here’s a little Parisian café to excite you:

You can usually tell how old the card is by the front, but I prefer to flip the shoeboxes around and flip through the cards by looking at the backs – this way you see the stamp. The stamp is a good indication of how old the card is and, more importantly, whether or not it was sent out. The shoebox will often have an even mix of mailed and non-mailed cards.

I will likely read any card with a one-cent stamp and most cards with a two-cent stamp. I scan it first before giving it a good thorough read to see if there’s something that jumps out at me. I probably missed a lot of good postcards by not reading them all, but I found a lot of good ones by being able to hit multiple boxes. It evens out in the end, I’m sure.

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Like I said, I found some great cards in Iowa and I’ll be sure to share them later. I’m actually going to be going to a postcard show this summer in Pennsylvania if anyone wants to join me and learn the ins and outs of postcard hunting. Everyone there will be buying rare photocards for fifty bucks and I’ll be digging through the postcard world’s version of the quarter bins.

POSTCARDS on CBR

2006-06-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

Comic Book Resources publishes the first of a series of features on POSTCARDS, a 168-page anthology I'm putting together for 2007 release. Go check it out. I've been teasing people on message boards with preview art already featured on this blog, how about an actual page:

You Can Peek

2006-06-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

CBR feature's set to be published today.

Almost There...

2006-05-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Whew! It took longer than expected, but I’ve finally narrowed down the list of open submission stories we’re interested in for the anthology. Everyone who submitted a pitch should expect an email from me within 48 hours explaining my decisions one way or the other. I still need to take care of a few details and clarify a few things with Jason, but by Thursday night, the open submission process should come to a close.

While many of you will be disappointed with my email for the simple fact it will be a “rejection letter,” I would like to congratulate everyone for making my job more difficult than I had imagined it would be. It wasn’t easy because each story was unique and stood to impact the book in a positive way if included in the anthology. Naturally I had to make some cuts and decide what would be best for the book, but believe me, if there was a way to get more pages I’d certainly add a few more of your stories to the lineup.

Working with an Icon

2006-05-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Just printed out my “thank you” letter to one of the writers involved with POSTCARDS. His story has been finished and he mailed out to the artist today.

I’m not going to lie; there are a lot of great guys and gals involved with this book. But this guy, opportunities like these don’t come around too often. Being able to work with one of your all-time favorite comic writers is the kind of thing that makes you glow whenever you think about it.

I was so nervous the first time I called him. Hell, I still get nervous and we’ve talked several times. I try to take care of business without gushing too much and get off the phone before I make a fool of myself. He probably thinks I’m a boring dude in return but hopefully I’ll be able to slip into a more casual mode now that his story is completed.

Besides being a favorite he’s also a great addition to the book from a sales perspective. Not to say his name alone will sell the book, I still need to work hard, but his name being on the book guarantees that there’s one person in the book that 95% of the people who read comics will recognize. Hell – everyone in my family recognized his name – it took some of them a minute to place it but they got it eventually. And these guys don’t even read comics.

I don’t know – seems like a better move than a full-page Previews ad from a marketing perspective and, at the same time, I get to say I’ve worked with a comic book legend in every sense of the word. A Guest of Honor at major conventions. Award winning and highly celebrated. A man who’s worked with some of the greatest American illustrators of our generation.

I’m working on a getting a feature out that’ll announce him along with two other creators involved in the book (you know, in case you haven’t figured out who he is from this post). I’ll be sure to link it up when it drops.

Here’s Where the Fun Begins

2006-05-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, let’s get down to business, shall we? The open submission deadline has passed and we have a lot of good story ideas to work through. I have a daunting task ahead of me. Reading through the submissions is one thing, but comparing story pitches that vary so greatly and deciding which ones will work best for POSTCARDS is a scary proposition.

As if comparing one great idea to another weren’t hard enough, I have to also look a little deeper and consider not only the story, but also the writing style and techniques. Heck, even the artist’s style if the writer chose to include samples of art that might work well with the story. And as Jason said in his post, “Talent Only Goes So Far,” it’s clear that the person we ask to join the crew will need to be more than just a great writer. All of that adds a level of difficulty to the task.

This may be a little time consuming, it might even be a little stressful, but let’s face it, this is the fun part. I thrive on this stuff. Reading pitches and soaking in the writing, the ideas, the very essence of the story, that’s the exciting part of editing. Right now, the book has six blank pages, and I get to fill them. No, not with my own ideas, but what I’ll be doing has its own sort of creativity. Instead of a pen and a pad, my medium just happens to be other people’s creations.

When it’s all said and done, the writer and the artist will get all the credit. They’ll get the praise, the recognition, and hopefully they’ll get the feeling of a job well done. And that’s the way it should be. But when I hear fans say they really liked this particular story, and I know that I chose the right one, there’ll be a part of me that feels like the proud papa.

So I have my work cut out for me. It’s a job I look forward to; one that I’ll take seriously because I want to do right by Jason, the writers, and the fans who will one day be spending their hard earned money on our creation. But I’ll also be having a whole lot of fun with it, and I’m excited to get started.