Date:    Thu, 14 Jul 1994 23:53:46 CDT
From:    "Iain A. Bertram" <[B--T--M] at [D0SSC1.FNAL.GOV]>
Subject: Chicago Comicon: A Distant Bone

G'Day,

    Well here it is at last, my report of the "A Distant Bone Panel" at the
Chicago  Comicon last week. The participants were Jeff Smith, the author of
Bone and Colleen Doran, the author of A Distant Soil.

    This report is as accurate as possible and is taken from notes I took
during the panel. Any errors are completely my fault :-). I have rearranged
the order of a few points for clarity.

    The panel opened up with with Jeff stating that there was no plan for the
panel and that they would make it up as they went along. Jeff then went on to
interview Colleen.

What is A Distant Soil?

    A Distant Soil is a combination of  Fantasy/Super Hero/Arthurian genres
and is set at an indeterminate time. Colleen likes all of these genres and
wanted to combine them in her own book.

    (Colleen did not describe the story background which is difficult to give
since it is rather complicated. I will post a review of the books next week
with a more complete synopsis.)


A Brief History of the Publication of A Distant Soil.

    Colleen started by giving a run down on the history of A Distant Soil
(ADS). It was originally published by Star Graphics when she was a teenager,
this version of ADS was an "abortion" due to editorial interference. This was
due to the contract she signed with the company which had two key clauses.
The first promised complete creative control to Colleen whilst the second, the
"acceptance" clause allowed the editor to refuse any work that wasn't
acceptable "in the editor's opinion".  Catch 22. Unless Colleen made the
changes the editor wanted she wouldn't get paid and the publisher could claim
the money that had already been paid. Hence, no real creative control.

    This situation was repeated at her second publisher.

    At one stage, one of her publishers (who will remain nameless) threatened
to sue her parents for breach of contract if she did not agree to make the
required changes. Loaded gun diplomacy at its best.


    Colleen is now self-publishing ADS and is coming out monthly.

How does this version of ADS compare with the previous versions?

    The first publication of ADS reached issue #9 and the second publication
made it issue #5. The current version has been completely reworked for B&W
printing and a backup series of stories has been added. There have also been
changes in the story to remove changes forced on Colleen by the editors of the
original printings. Completely new work will begin appearing in issue #12
which is due to come out this October.

ADS and Hollywood.

    Colleen has been approached three times with offers to option the book,
she has refused every time. In her words an option is just an excuse for a tax
deduction and if the movie is made it would be by a small studio and end up as
a really cheesy movie. She finished off by commenting that she was not in the
business to make movies.

    At this stage Jeff made a few comments about his experiences with
Hollywood and his involvement with it whilst working in animation. He
described how the Betty Boop movie, which had been fully developed and cast
was canned because a new producer took over and didn't want anything to do
with the previous producers work!! He also pointed out that anyone who works
with Hollywood insisted on outrageous kill fees, which the various studios pay
without batting an eyelid.

    This ended the Jeff interview Colleen section of the panel and Colleen
started interviewing Jeff. Her first question was "Boxers or Briefs?" which had
the remarkable affect of leaving Jeff speechless.

What is a Bone?

    A Bone is a Bone!

    Bone was originally intended to be a newspaper strip and was submitted to
them in 1983. However they didn't want Jeff to do any long ongoing stories.

    One very important outcome of this was that Jeff asked the syndicate if
they wanted an origin? The response was no, don't explain it, so don't expect
an origin for the Bones. They just come from Boneville.

What sort of Comics did Jeff read?

    Jeff didn't read comics so much as comic strips. His favourite was Pogo
(as is apparent in his work). He then said that it was great when he came across
the various reprints of comic strips such as Crazy Cat etc. that have all come
out recently.

Bone and Hollywood/TV.

    Jeff stated that he would like to see an animated version of Bone, such as
a nightly TV series (cf with the Simpsons). He would also like to make a movie
if it could be done right.

    Colleen interjected at this stage to say that she would like to see ADS in
Japanese anime style.

    Jeff then went on to state that the problem with television is that they
want to own the entire product, they want all the rights for your character and
will then let you print comic books using your character. Not a a palatable or
workable situation.

What do the Bones sound like?

    They sound like whatever you want them to sound like. (This conversation
degenerated into comments about people I have never heard of, needless to say I
didn't remember any of the suggestions.)

At this stage Jeff and Colleen through the panel open to questions from the
floor.

What do you think of Image?

    Colleen: Most people thought that the people who left Marvel to form image
were committing professional suicide and that they were doomed to failure. Most
people were stunned by the success of the move.

    Jeff: Image broke the Marvel Zombie mindset and allowed other companies to
break into the market. Marvel at one stage in the eighties had an 80% of the
market share whilst small publishers only had 8%. Marvel now has 30% of the
market share whilst the small publishers share has grown to 30% (I am pretty
sure that these numbers depend on how you define a small publisher).

    Image broke peoples buying habits. This is why Image is important. The type
of books they are doing is irrelevant, it is their effect on the buying habits
of the market that is important.

    This is also important to the retailers since their dependence on Marvel is
reduced.


Any Plans to sell your books in Bookstores (eg Daltons).

    Both Jeff and Colleen pointed out the differences between the Direct comic
book market and the retail book market. Books are in general fully returnable,
which means that a much larger print run than the expected sales is required,
something that is not possible for a independent. The other major down side is
that most bookstores do not return the whole book for credit. Instead they just
tear off the cover of the book and return that, rendering the book unfit for
resale (leaving aside the highly illegal practice of selling the book without
its cover).

    On the plus side, Jeff announced that he is exploring the option of getting
a "book" publisher to publish Bone for the retail book market.

    Jeff then commented that like it or not Comics are beginning to be noticed
by big corporations and it is only a matter of time before they are drawn into
the mainstream. Jeff hopes that the small comic book store does not get
destroyed in the same way that Blockbuster put many small video rental store
out of business.

Merchandising?

    Jeff likes T-shirts and toys so we can expect a bunch of stuff from him,
however he will keep a close watch on what comes out.

    Jeff said that there would be plenty more statues coming out beginning with
the Red Dragon. They will all be to scale so that they fit well together, hence
the smallness of the Fone Bone statue. He commented about Disney figures when
he was a child and how it annoyed him so much that they weren't to scale,
mentioning that at the time he thought it was inconsiderate of Walt to let this
sort of thing happen :-) (thinking at the time that Walt made them himself).

    At this stage Jeff said "Briefs!"


    The conversation now moved on to the Bone preview in Hero magazine last
year. What happened is that Jeff did art for a small ashcan, that was then blown
up to full comic book size. At this stage the printers messed up and the blurry
preview resulted. To rectify the situation the printers reprinted the ashcan but
doubled the numbers, these previews were then sent to all the stores that get
Hero. Since there were many more copies than were needed of these previews were
given away for free (like at this convention). This led to a significant
increase in sales. Jeff wished this sort of thing happened more often.

    Jeff then commented on the Disney reprints of Bone which he is very pleased
with. They were happy with one time reprint rights so Jeff keeps full control of
his character and gets added publicity.

    Colleen then commented on her experiences with Disneyland, specifically her
work on the Beauty and Beast adaptation.

    She commented that many thought that the screen would be wet at the Preview
(which means that the film would have been so freshly developed that it would
have been still wet, i.e. the film was running very late). Her deadline for
producing the art was setup to be ready for the film release. Unfortunately the
animators kept on changing the design for both Beauty and the Beast (look for
the changes in the film) and Colleen had to redraw the comic several times to
get it right. Colleen described the whole experience as hell, something that she
will never do again.


Creator Rights?

    The question was phrased in the following way: You are friends with Dave
Sim, do you share his views on Work for Hire.

    Jeff: Nothing wrong with work for hire, it is a good way top pay the rent
and to break into the comic book industry. It is important that you understand
what is involved in work for hire though, that is, you give up the rights for
any characters that you create whilst working for the company.

    However, the problem with comic book companies and work for hire is that you
give up your rights like an employee but do not get any of the benefits such as
medical, pensions etc.

    DC are now pretty good at this and give quite a few additional benefits.
Marvel on the other hand give you nothing and force you to sign an agreement
giving up all rights to the characters you created in the known Universe (Jeff
isn't kidding here) for them to give your art back. Marvel considers that it is
doing you a favour by giving your art back. Image is one of the best of the
"large" companies as far as work for hire goes since the creator owns the
characters that he creates.

    Colleen is glad to be out of the work for hire environment and has no plans
on doing any work except for A Distant Soil in the forseeable future.

This is were the panel ended.

Advertisement and Personal Comments.

    I got my A Complete Bone signed by Jeff Smith on the third day of the con
(it was my third attempt to get through the line), Jeff is a genuinely nice
person and did a nifty little sketch of Fone Bone in my book. By the way he
looks like Smiley Bone.

Bone can be purchased directly from Jeff by writing to:

    BONE
    C/O CARTOON BOOKS
    P.O. BOX 1583
    LOS GATOS, CA 95031-1583

Individual issues goes  for $2.95 each (includes p&h).
Complete Bone Vol 1 goes for $12.95 + $1.50 p&h.

The complete Bone Vol 2 should be out soon.


The first pro I met at the con was Colleen Doran. I bought the ADS starter pack
and all of the issues except #7. She happily signed all of the issues and came
across really well. She also drew a really nice sketch for elmo.

A Distant Soil can be ordered directly from Colleen by writing to:

    ARIA PRESS
    12638-28 JEFFERSON AVE
    SUITE 173
    NEWPORT NEWS, VA 23602

Subscription $17.50 for 8 issues.
$1.75 for individual issues.

There is also the ADS starter pack delux edition which has the first three
issues plus a bunch of goodies, including original sketches for $25.00.

I recommend strongly that you try out both of these series, and if possible
order them directly from the authors.


Iain