Small Press Delusions Part 1 of 1,000.

This is part of an ongoing blog post series. First off, don’t worry. I won’t be naming names. Even though I’ve been accused of quite a few crimes recently by the usual knuckleheads.

But, recently I interacted with a small press / indie comics creator and I thought it was worth repeating.

If for no other reason than it made me laugh.

I was, much to my shame, scrolling through the Awesome Comics Podcast Twitter timeline. We are always on the look out for good new books to talk about and sometimes, even in that world of self-obsessive baby-talk, you can spot an occasional gem. During this dead-scrolling I noticed a fantasy styled comic book looking for ‘Friendly Reviews’.

I reached out.

After some interactions and a failed attempt to supply a Google Drive document and awaiting a further try (the failure may well have been at my Luddite-Headed end) I decided to ask what they meant by ‘Friendly’. I got the following reply (I have taken the identifiers out of their messaging):

‘Oh. I just meant reviewers who are fair, inclusive, constructive in their criticism, and aren’t into trashing stuff just for the optics, I see a lot of toxic stuff in the comics community unfortunately. You don’t consider your platform “friendly”? ‘

I felt like they had become a little defensive. Especially in the way that last sentence is formatted.

Six minutes later they messaged again. It felt like they were looking for a way out…

‘If you don’t feel XXXX is for you, that’s absolutely fine. No worries.’

I replied in the following:

‘This is Tony speaking here. I will be honest about it. No soft soaping. Down to you.’

Unsurprisingly they did not reply.

They continue to rattle on about their new comic in social media.

Dear Comics Folk. A review is not free promotion. Some sites may just want to blow everyone but not the good ones.

Hahahahahaah Asking for a ‘Friendly’ review is still making me laugh. Try reading some good comics reviewers and see what they say is good and bad and how they go about it. And be prepared to take it on the chin if you ask for it! There’s a metaphor for life if there ever was one.

PS, It’s hard to judge a whole comic on four pages. But the ones I saw for this one were not very good.

Many thanks for reading.