Tops and Bottoms – 16th of July 2026. – Never Iron Anything

How’s it going?

I finally got to see that new film so can happily put my nose back into the internet. Once all my buddies have seen it I’ll offer thoughts and opinions. But know, very few of them are bad.

On to some thoughts at hand. Convention season is marching upon us at the moment with an Autumn (Fall) full of big events. We’ve also seemingly had a big chunk of Crowdfunders break recently. That and the exorbitant costs of some of the small press on the shelves of Gosh got me thinking about how we promote these days. Some of the dodging and weaving we have seen from our long running podcast’s perspective.

Indie and Small Press comics/comix live in a strange microcosm of opposite and sometimes counterintuitive tactics. The world of art and creativity having to jump in the pockets of capitalistic necessity. For many, not everyone, selling that comic is the end goal. The more the merrier. Then getting the taste-setters and ‘reviewers’ posting photos online of their ‘New Haul’. Often you can sniff the whiff of desperation in some tactics. Desperate, bridge-burning practises can often raise their grubby faces. Promoting their product in every way possible.

Which gets me on to the difficult subject of cross-promotion. Not hyperbole, not exaggeration, but from my viewpoint the majority of new projects (and their sales masters) only consider promoting others when, and only when, it will help sell their own books. And more often they only consider promoting others when prompted to by sites like Kickstarter. With crowd funding platforms this is built in to their software seemingly. Suggestions pour in when you run a project. For many, a pretence at a ‘Comics Community’ only kicks in when something is to be promoted (or criticised and pulled down, but that’s another topic for another day).

How much of this dynamic is propelled by selfishness. It’s hard to measure, but I’d hope that very little is with malicious intent. The seclusion of making comics may be a big factor here. People can easily get caught up in their own lives and the priorities they produce. (Especially post-COVID) Comics, especially in the small press, is a reasonably uncompetitive stage. Across all the sales styles open to us it’s also rare to hear of someone saying they can only buy one comic. (Although, with current big company pricing practises I suspect this is more of an issue than we realise). So I’d exclude that too. More promotion leads to more sales, it’s mostly an undeniable theory.

Over the last ten years we have seen unprofessional sales tactics a lot. I’m reminded of it almost daily when I look at our pod emails. Promoters come in white hot. Praising the podcast, with a quick switcharoo to talking about their new comic and requesting a review or a guest spot. We get them on in the hope we can help. A month later we find ourselves ruminating on what a lovely person they were and had any of us heard from them? Anyone? Did they even mention other comics out there? Now, not everyone is like that, there is a raft of folks we stay in contact, follow and earnestly promote for that very reason. Although sometimes quality overtakes that well-practised ‘forgetfulness’. Some guests we continue to promote despite ourselves, just because although they ain’t quite there with a polite mention or even just a ‘thanks’ their work speaks. But, you’ve seen the state of some small press, mostly it ain’t worth my efforts.

Some need to remember that the relationship with the reader goes beyond the moment that the coins hit your palm. Especially these days. Short-lived, desperate, full-on promotion may work in the short term but can have the opposite effect longer term.

Or you can just be like me and not care?

In other shameless self-promotional news ‘American Nature’ issue 3 is up for preorder! I have a piece on perverts in comics inside its covers. You can order yours by clicking here.

Tops.

I’m classing this as a new one. An eighties comic that just got an omnibus treatment. Created by Peter B. Gillis and Brent Anderson. It tells the story of an alien invasion and meta-humans created by the military to fight them. With the added twist that once you enter the program you only have a year to survive. The changes will burn you up and kill you, if you survive.

It has themes of heroism, selfishness and mortality but also deals early on with moments of suicide that are discussed between the cast. I never read this at the time, and catching up now.

Bottoms.

In the X Universe, Gail Simone has part of her cast go to the cinema. The dialogue is beyond atrocious and stinks of someone who only communicates through BlueSky!