NYC show!
Apr 11, 2004 5:26 am
 
Hey guys, just wanted to say that it was great to meet so many of you in NY!
I saw the NYC threads and photos you posted! Thanks for all the kind words. I saw a bunch of readers from the board there, Miss Fumiko, Atomic Steve, and Valter from my board, and Johnny Z (and his dad), and Moonspider, Pornbot2 and more from this board.

Also hung out with IVAN (Ivan Brandon from the upcoming NYC MECH from Image, who was great as always. Thanks for everything Ivan!

We had a great time signing at the Big Apple Con last weekend and enjoyed meeting many of you there. Some of you mentioned that you saw me on the local NY morning news promoting the show It was a lot of fun.

Oeming stopped by, and we met up with him and Ivan Brandon (from Image's NYC MECH), and Jim Lee, and a bunch of artists from Italy that I just met.

After that I stayed in NYC for a while at my friend Vicky Cao's place. If you have Reflections #4 you can see some of my drawings of her.
Andy Lee was at the show and with us afterwards as well, and it was a blast.

It was great to see your responses from the show.
Best,
DM

Thanks Mark.
That stuff is in full effect. No worries there. Thanks for asking though.
I'd love to post about it but it may sound like bragging. Even though it is really just gratitude. I'm very grateful for this life and the people in my life.

Since this thread is sticky, I figured I'd post my recent statement from the "Important things to remember" thread here in case anyone missed it.

Dear readers, potential readers, and friends of this medium and industry,

I want to extend my appreciation for those that support our books no matter where they are published. But I have been disappointed by some of the polarity, antagonism, and cynicism directed toward one company or another.

In particular, I’ve seen some anti-Image posts on other boards that have horrified me.

It’s one thing to be supportive of the decision Brian, Mike, and I have made, for our current launch of Powers and Kabuki, but there's no reason to slam Image in the process. That kind of talk doesn't help Brian, Mike, me or Icon. A healthy industry is defined by more than one or two successful businesses -- anyone eager for ANY comics publisher to fail is wishing ill on the industry as a whole. That's something to be stressed to people gloating about what's happening with CrossGen or others, and I think it applies across the board.

After seeing some posts at Newsarama and other boards concerned about the situation of Image, I felt I should say a few things.

There is no danger of Image going under, as some people posted on the newsarama board in response to Eric Larson's post.
Image has a lot of great books and continues to be the one place that any creator can go to get the fully creator-owned deal. There is a huge need for that and Image fills that need.

This move does not diminish Image's role in the industry.
Icon is not created to fill the same niche in the industry that Image does. What Image does in this industry is indispensable. Eric Larson is a stand up guy, and is running a great company.
Both the Powers and Kabuki library of collections continue to be available thru Image.
And Oeming has other new Image projects on the current schedule.
We are still in business with Image and it is the only place that you can get the entire six volumes of Kabuki in paperback and hardcover collections.

I hope that you will continue to read all of the Powers and Kabuki collections that remain completely in stock at Image. And I urge you to continue (and start to, if that is the case) to try all of the other wonderful fully creator owned titles at Image.

Besides all of the wonderful Image books that some readers here have named and discussed, I’m looking forward to NYC Mech, Mike Oeming's new books, and many other new series that I know are being launched this year.

Feel welcome to cut and paste this and post it on any and all other boards.
Kindest regards,
David Mack

None of that was referring to Kabuki moving. The move was a very recent situation.

The writing of the Marvel project is something else. Something I can't speak of yet until it is announced and scheduled.

Glad you liked it!

I reccomend having a lot of fine ladies at your house when you are enjoying a bottle. It just seems to taste wonderful that way.

Last night, Anh's friend Vicky from NYC that you met in NYC last week stopped by ur place with one of her girlfriends before she had to catch a plane in the morning, and they popped out the wine like they always do when they visit. And things were just grand.

Sorry, just got back from NYC and been hard at work on KABUKI.

I'll be happy to answer them.

GraveS, Yes, my girlfriend models for Kabuki. And some other friends and family model for some of the other characters. My sister-in-law Hiromi models for Akemi. And Akemi was named after a friend of mine named Akemi from college days.

And in a very sublte way, there is a sort of Powers cross-over with the new Kabuki series. With out announcing it, and only obliquely hinting at it, there is a Powers character that has a few scenes with Kabuki in the new series. If you are on your toes (and already a Powers reader) you'll catch it. But many will not.

Goddard,
I don't think I will be at Philly. I just got the invite from them a couple weeks ago, and my schedule is already pretty full. I have to stay home and make Kabuki.

But I will be at the Pittsburgh Comicon at the end of APRIL.
And I intend to be at the Atlanta Comicon next Sat & Sun.

I'll have to go back from the top and answer the rest, next time I drop in.

Thanks for the interest.
DM

In summer, I usually wear jockey shorts.

When colder, I often wear a sweater and sweat pants.

Then there is casual Friday...

This doesn't hurt Image at all. Image has survived way bigger changes than this.
Image doesn't make any money on our single issues.
They make a percentage on our collections.
And all our previous collections remain in stock at Image.
We all make our living off of the Kabuki and Powers collections. Those are the books that continue to sell forever.
The trades generate much more income than any single issues. For us and for Image.
Work we did ten years ago (for example Kabuki: Circle of Blood) continues to sell every year, and sells more each year than before. Those collections sell more now than they did when the year they came out.

And all of that is still available ONLY through Image and we are still in business with Image through that. We are still on great terms with Image.
And we will continue being in business with Image.

For our new Kabuki and Powers, something happened and we felt the need to do them elsewhere.

Well, in light of your post, I should clarify some things.

The single issues make it possible for us to do the collections. The collections take a while to recoup their expenses. For creators like us that are building a library with a long term shelf life, we can afford to eat the expenses for a while until the trades pay for themselves. After taking a year or so to pay for the big print run and other pringing expenses, then the years after that, generate income for us and the publisher.

But that works because we continue to do them and have spent years cultivating an audience with the single issues.

Without doing the single issues most creators would not be able to afford the expense to do the collections, or to wait for the collections to recoup their expenses.

You are welcome to buy the format that you prefer. I just wanted to clarify this and to not sell the single issues short. There are some retailers and readers who only buy single issues. And some that only by trades. Some readers only buy hard covers. I try to do all three formats so readers have a choice. But with the current structure of this market, the single issues have been the foundation that enable me to do that.

And sometimes my stories will come out for a couple of years before there is a collection of it (which is the case with my current series). Alchemy is planned to be a pretty long story. It will be a while before it is finished and a collection is released.

And I have a comic signed by Jack Kirby.

Good for Cooke and you all for the discussion.

Someone asked if Powers was a super hero book.

It just occured to me that I've never thought of it like that.
It's not a super hero book. It's a cop book. A crime story, a buddy, partner homicide detective story, like like Homicide or Law and order.

About a police division that handle homicides of celibrities. In Powers super heroes stand for the celebrities. In our world, it is actors and musicions. In the Powers world it is the "super powered" beautiful people.

All the stories of Powers I read seem to be about celebrity, with the "costumed heroes" as a thinly veiled metaphor for our culture's preocupation with celebrity.

Hey Michael,
Welcome to the Bendis board!
I haven't seen you here before.
Michael is a regular poster on my board. And an artist of his own books.

DM

Rick Mays told me that he was doing some Kill Bill comic stuff for them.

If you haven't seen his stuff in Kabuki: Scarab, check it out.

Every bit as cool as the Kabuki figure.

Siamese are next.

For instance, let me know if you can spot Yukio in the first issue of Alchemy

2004 is indeed the 10th anniversary of Kabuki. The books in Circle of Blood began thier bi-monthly publishing schedule in 1994.

The first published/printed appearance of Kabuki was in 1993 in a card set. Bendis' Zora from Powers was also in the 1993 card set. It was called Comics Future Stars. It was a 90 card set, But our two characters are our names are the only ones I recognize as still in the public today.

The books in Circle of Blood (Fear the Reaper, and COB 1-6) were published in 94-95.

The books in Dreams, and Masks of the Noh were published in 1996.

The books in Skin Deep were published in 96-97.

The books in Meta were published in 97 to early 2001.

The books in Scarab were published in 99 to late 2001.

I did the first DD story during Meta.
Then I did all the other DD stuff and Alias covers after that.

And now new Kabuki- Alchemy will be my project for the next couple of years!

So this is my seventh Kabuki volume, and I did 3 DD volumes. Not bad for 10 yrs work. I have a little history about the early Kabuki stuff in the first issue of KABUKI -Alchemy.
And it shows the early Bendis art in it

I met Bendis in 93 and he was originally going to do the art for Circle of Blood. So I'm going to include some of that never before seen art in the Alchemy.

At this point, I think it is safe to say that it [Kabuki: The Alchemy] will be at least 8 issues, but it could very well end up being 10 or 12.

And I have the next three Kabuki stories after that written out as well.

All of the books have ended up being longer than I originall thought they would be in the scripts or outlines. Some of the characters just start fleshing themselves out more and more space gets devoted to characterization of new characters and thier interactions.
Which is the fun and magical part about it. I always let there be room for improvement on every level of the process.

The story after this one is the Tigerlily story which explores her life as a comic book artist. It features real life stuff with real life characters, such as Bendis, and Oeming as main characters in it, and recounts a lot of actual experiences. Dishing dirt, and all the juicy details behind the scenes of conventions and comic book business.

It's like true documentary biographical stuff, but I added the Tigerlily character in those scenes as another one of the artists there, so she can recount the story from her POV.

Thanks, Guys

I couldn't have done it withour readers like you...

Readers with good taste

Thanks for that. For introducing it to people.
That means everything.
Since Kabuki isn't very mainstream or superhero,
I've had to really depend of work of mouth from readers to be able to stick around so long.

So that is a huge help.
Thanks,
David

Rangerchic,
Smashtor,
Thanks a lot for that!
Introducing new readers to the book like that means everything for a book like Kabuki.
I really appreciate the kind words.
Really glad you are looking forward to the Alchemy story.
And let me know what you think of Scarab.
It is a unique experiment in point of view, that I haven't seen done before in a comic. It has some tie ins with the other Kabuki books. Especially Meta.

Cool! These are pretty rare too.

If anyone wants the Kabuki gallery they can order them for cover price 2.95 from Anh Tran at
its from 1995 and has 32pags full color Kabuki art from:
Bendis
Oeming
Gaydos
Dave Johnson
Colleen Doran
Paul Pope
Rick Mays
Greg Land
Mark Ricketts
Guy Davis
Vince Locke
Galen Showman
Andrew Robinson
Tomoko Saito
Me, and much more.

doesn't ring a bell...

But we did do Flaxen!