Désormais, mes posts seront la plupart du temps en anglais. Sauf exception. From now on, my posts will be written in english, except when they’re not 😉
So, I’ve been spending all my summer in New York. For a variety of reasons. The main one being I needed time away from Paris to write more comics, without the pressure of the day-to-day job and usual gang of idiots who pollute my life (banks, public servers, assholes in general).
What did I learn?
That the comic book industry is where I belong. I LOVE this medium. The people. The shows. The print version. The digital version. The stores. Last week, I was in the subway and a guy was reading a HC version of Amazing Spider-Man with one hand (spectacular trick) and holding a Punisher comic book on the other. It makes everyone working in this industry proud to be part of it. People read our shit. We’re proud. And we write more shit for them to read. That’s the shit-food chain (I know, strange choice of words, but it’s my blog so I’m the dictator here, *laughs*).
I also saw that the American comic book industry is changing. And it’s healthier than one could think. Sales are going up. There’s a lot of diversity. It’s maturing and, unlike the French market (where publishers slowed the eclosion of digital up to the point denial wasn’t possible anymore), future is bright.
And I’m not a firm believer in new technology as a way to attract readers (sorry Turbomedia). Only a good story and solid art combined to decent marketing can work. Remember 3D comics in the early 90s? It was another attempt to use technology to avoid losing readers to video-games. At that time, a lot of pros still thought that comics were mainly for kids/teens.
Comics are a little miracle. A very hazardous blend of words and arts, a combination that’s not always working but that fascinates. Writers and artists are a team of sorcerers who try to make those miracles happen every month or so.
Of course, there are also very good comics that don’t sell. Because not everyone’s Mark Millar. But we (the rest of us), will not give up.
Bottom line?
I want to write comics more than ever (and I hope there will be some readers to be interested in those stories or I’ll be in trouble!). And I want to write them in New York because of its energy and the incredible amount of information that transit there.
“New York 2014”. Not a political tagline, but not far from it. It’s my program. 🙂
“See you in the funny books” as we say
F.
