Friday, January 23, 2004  
Movie Poop Shoot’s Chris Allen gives D&Q a mixed grade

:: Posted by max @ 1/23/2004 02:42:00 AM
While approving of much of the line up from D&Q in 2003, Chris questions the handling of DRAWN & QUARTERLY 5 & the new D&Q SHOWCASE anthology books. [LINK - scroll about half way down to read the report on D&Q]



A few good points are made about the navigation on their site - I have to agree; While lovely to look at, the hide and seek thing is a bit annoying and not going to help publisher or the books much: It would not kill to put a direct text menu at the bottom or something.



He also has wavering praise for the public face of D&Q, though I’m not sure I can agree with him on that. There has been quite a lot of copy written in the last part of 2003 on D&Q's books, not that their couldn’t have been more. That they are absent from the U.S. comics market's media, I suspect is due to D&Q's lack of faith in its actual 'Mainstream' status. Their Actual public face has, in fact, been pretty considerable out side the U.S. comics market, which is better than a lot of the U.S. comics market can claim. While more will be needed, D&Q has been getting about as much attention, if not more, as the rest of the field of 'Literary' & 'Art's' Graphic Novel publishers, some even front page coverage. Oliveros himself has been playing a major roll in getting books into new shops and libraries across the content. So I suspect that truthfully, Allen is way off the mark here. Likely due to the following…



Allen spends the most text griping about D&Qs Review Copy Policy, specifically as it pertains to him and his attempts to foster a relationship with the publisher as a reviewer. While Chris Allen come of as a wee bit of a big girl’s blouse on this, I have to wonder what Chris Oliveros can be thinking, copping a down the nose attitude to a potential reviewer. Surly he could have found a better way to handle that? He may not represent a 'typical' reader, but he does represent many potential readers. Personally I’d be wary not to overly narrow cast your PR, you might turn away new readers before they even know you exist! A mistake Marvel has made for years. As for not wanting to over run your comp budget…well fair enough…that’s what PDF review copies are good for guys! It totally makes sense to tailor your efforts to the most likely audience of readers, communicate with them primarily. But the web is an excellent cross-pollinating ground, it’s very narrow-minded not make use of the low cost resources it provides to get a few more seats filled in the house. Certainly you can’t send out a book to everyone who wants one, but that only represents a problem begging for a solution, not a reason to avoid a rout entirely.





Update Fri 23/01/2004: Chris responds



"While Chris Allen come of as a wee bit of a big girl's blouse on this"



Very funny, and you may be right. To be honest, that was a tough column to do, trying to balance my own ego and my role as a comics commentator, and I think I acknowledged the conflict right in that D&Q section. In talking with some other industry people yesterday, some had very nice things to say about Peggy Burns, and I'll certainly give her a try for books in the future (my fault if I burnt that particular bridge). As you seemed to get, my point was that in getting more attention in the mainstream for the books, which is very good, D&Q shouldn't abandon the direct market entirely, nor ignore critics who are reaching a good chunk of that direct market. I'll try to clarify that better for the next column, though I realize I also missed another point against D&Q--all this attention and you can't even get LOUIS RIEL these days, as they didn't print enough. [ED:the book has sold out in most locations and reprints are on their way from Hong Kong] Thanks for the thoughtful comments; always good to get another perspective. Feel free to print this if you want.



Best,

Chris Allen



   
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