DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

6.30.2005

Here's the Thing... #4 - Spinning

Last time, on Here's the Thing...

When I was in college I was involved with a theater troupe. I started out acting, moved to directing and eventually cowrote and coproduced a play for them (and acted in it) along with my homey, Guam. During my last semester, when we were producing our play, the president of the troupe showed me the one acts he was considering for the spring festival and I gave my opinion. When I told Josh I wanted to work for him, that little exchange back in college got spun into “submissions editing experience.”

Spinning is tough because you never want to get caught. But at the same time, we’re all starting from the ground floor and a little spin here and there can sort of give you that extra push you may need. But you should never have any qualms about occasionally warping the truth because everyone else is doing it in some way, shape or form. The key is to never look too obvious and always have a fallback story.

Look at Obi Wan. Homeboy lied right to Luke Skywalker’s face, told him Darth Vadar killed his father. When Luke found out the truth and called him on it, Obi Wan pulled an “Oh snap” for a second and then explained away his lie. Obi Wan isn’t just a Jedi; he’s a spin-master.

I honestly think you need to learn how to think on your feet and fill in the gaps pretty quickly to network in any field. With comics, however, I think it’s a lot easier to do. People are so hung up on their “celebrity” and accomplishments that they won’t notice you’re lying as long as you say what they want to hear. The ability to adapt quickly will make you into more than the awkward guy on the convention floor with a box full of sample packets; it will make you a player.

Last week I said that you don’t hand out scripts at a convention. The convention is mainly for meeting people, handing out some business cards, and trying to make a good impression. The first follow-up is at the bar that night, when you try to get into a conversation or at least make a presence. When you walk up to a publisher at a convention, your only goal is to get that publisher to not shy away from you at the bar.

When you walk up to that table, you should:
a) Know about the publisher and at least one of their books
b) Know who is who before you get up to the booth

If you know who you want to talk to before hand you’re all good. Get one of their books before the convention and do a Google image search on the credits list. All you need to know is one of the people involved that are likely to be at the convention.

If you’re at the convention and see some company that you’ve never heard of but they look good (it happens), you have to be ready to go into spin mode because you don’t know anything you need to know in order to establish that contact and you are going to have to make it seem like you worship these guys. Me, I like to bring a spotter with me. A spotter is a friend with no interest in creating comics that goes up to the table first, gets names and books and brings it all back to me.

If you don’t have a spotter you can wait in the wings for someone to walk away from the booth that was talking to one of the guys on the publisher side and casually ask him, “Hey, who was that guy you were just talking to? Do you know what he does?” Most people at comic conventions are so afraid of random strangers talking to you they’ll spill the beans and briskly walk away.

Now you have your target. And now comes the fun part.

When it comes to the big picture of comic creating, I have done jack-shit. I’m nobody. I’m an editor and whereas I bust my ass, 99% of the people that read comics have no idea what I do. They think I proof-read. But god-damn I love to talk about myself. I love to talk about our books. I love to talk about our reviews.

And that’s ok, that’s what conventions are for. Conventions are there so we publishers can talk about ourselves and you can listen. If you know nothing about the books you can most likely pretend you do by making the publisher do all of the talking.

How, you may ask? By asking questions. Asking questions is the best way to lie and not get caught. This way, you’re not saying anything about content, you’re just pretending you know all about it but you’re more interested in the publisher’s thoughts. Observe:

“Oh, hey, Jason. I’m loving Elk’s Run, man. Great stuff.”

“Thanks! We dig your support, it means a lot to us. Have you checked out Western Tales of Terror as well?” (Please note that the people behind the booth always sound fake, that last sentence was not a flaw in my dialog skills).

“Oh, hell yes! I love that friggin book. You know what’s kinda cool? Most of the cats at this joint, from what I’ve seen, can’t even put out a single quality book. How the hell did you put out two?”

“Well, blah blah blah Josh. Blah blah Chris. Blah blah blah blah blah Wizard blah blah Entertainment Weekly blah blah blah Bendis! Hah hah hah. Blah.”

“Yeah, I saw all those reviews. You must be happier than a pig in shit, huh?”

“Happy? Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah! Hah hah ha. Blah.”

“What’re you guys putting out next?”

“Blah blah blah blah Speakeasy blah blah blah The 8th, blah blah blah Red Mafia blah blah blah. Blah! Blah blah blah.”

Now, you can’t keep this up forever and you don’t want to. Two or three questions, all smiles and handshakes and then you leave your business card, say it was great talking to them, can’t wait for the next issue and maybe you’ll see them at the bar. Don’t mention writing, stories, nothing. Leave us hanging. It’s called networking – you’re friendly, engaging and you leave us wanting more.

You just housed that bitch more than you know. You left an impression. And all you had to do was let us blowhards talk. When we see you at the bar that night, we know that you’re ok to talk to. You won’t yap our ears off with pitches and ideas and diatribes about what’s wrong with comics. Congratulations, you’re sociable. And sociable people are automatically worth more than $2.95.

That’s just one example; there will always be times when a little spin is necessary, you just have to recognize when your knowledge and experience aren’t enough to set you apart and you need to quickly adapt without blatantly lying. Piece of cake.

I’m going on vacation for two weeks. I may update this one Friday while I’m away depending on whether or not I write the article before I leave. The next article will either be a couple of pointers for at the bar after the convention and email follow-ups or it could be a follow-on article about when publishers lie. It all depends on how I feel. Come see Hoarse & Buggy at San Diego, booth 1833. We’ll have:

1) Signers: Phil Hester, Ryan Ottley, Tom Mandrake, Stuart Moore, Juan Ferreyra, Dan Wickline, Tone Rodriguez, Marco Magallanes, Greg Thompson, Benjamin & Marlena Hall, Raven Gregory, David Hopkins and Saul Colt.
2) Western Tales of Terror 1-5 and Elk’s Run 1-3.
3) Information about our new deal with Speakeasy.
4) Previews for our new properties.

Jason at 10:45 PM  |  link to this     

1 Comments

Another fun read Jason.

-pbd at 7/05/2005 11:46 AM   

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