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Last Updated: Jan 1, 2009 - 6:19:39 PM

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Does The Comic Book Press Needs a Watchman? By Hervé St-Louis Nov 25, 2008 - 11:45:10 PM

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I’m often known for writing incisive and controversial articles about topics that many people would rather I left untouched, like say, the discrimination of the Doug Wrights Awards towards French-speaking Canadian cartoonists, about Marvel Comics’ questionable privacy policy on its Web site, about how I believe all comic books should be only sold as books as collected editions after having been published online. It’s the Latin factor, I guess! Yet, I’m always taken aback when confronted with genuine nastiness and personal attacks from people in this industry. I’m Canadian after all, and we are genuinely nice people.

I always assume that the people on the other end are professionals and not bitter old men that call themselves professionals, but act nothing like them. And so I was surprised at some responses I got from a well-known comic book professional in response to the article I wrote yesterday on the sad state of public relations in the comic book industry.

Following this article, I sent this note to several publicists with whom I’ve had a less than optimal relationships in the past. A few of them, in hindsight, have always been gentlemen, although I did put them in the list. I may not like some of the answers they’ve given me over the years, but they’ve at least tried to accommodate me on several occasions. That’s for you Alex and Gianluca.

In that note, I told the recipients how I didn’t like working with them, and how I wish they would become more responsive. I sent them the link to yesterday’s article. I received this angry and nasty response from the boss of one of the recipients on that list. Notice that I addressed only publicists in my article and email. I didn’t address specific publishers. Yet this publisher felt he had to respond and attack. And attack he did. Personal  attacks. The likes of which I will not post here to protect the “innocents.”

I responded to a few of his comments, and in time, his publicist replied too. About the publicist, all I can say is that we may disagree totally on the functions of the press in relation to the comic book industry, but at least, it was a professional discussion. He thinks that Web sites like The Comic Book Bin should be doing more to reach out to publishers, because we are so small and insignificant. For him, reporters are the ones that should cuddle with the industry and, although he didn’t say it, we should be their mouth piece and help them make a sale at every opportunity.

Of course, I come from a totally different perspective, where the press is needed to keep the industry in check. We are not here to help sell copies of comic books, no matter how dire the outlook of the comic book industry is. We are here to inform the public and tackle issues that the industry would rather we leave alone. That’s what the press is about. We should always function at arms’ length of the industry. Our readers should always expect that we are not in bed with the publishers we cover. And if we have biases, and God knows we have a lot, we don’t hide them. For the record, I like Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese, Walt Kelly’s Pogo, and John Ostrander and Geof Isherwood’s Suicide Squad. My favourite comic book characters are Black Canary, Daredevil and Nexus.

The Comic Book Bin is how I express my passion for comic books. But, I’ve been working in industries where I’m expected to present to groups, convince clients, deliver on time and budget and be accountable. When I look at the comic book industry, I don’t always see the same standards of business professionalism. So I complain a lot and I do what French-speaking people are known for, I write essays! The Comic Book Bin is not here to fall in line and be one of those comic book Web sites where being politically correct is the norm. Where you always try not to piss off a publisher, because it’s a news source. I’m not doing this because I want a job at some comic book publisher. I’m doing this because I care about comic books and the people that buy them. I don’t care much about creators and their publishers to tell you the truth, unless their name is Hugo Pratt, Walt Kelly or Milton Caniff.

As for the publicist’s boss, who shall remain nameless – I asked him if I could publish some of his comments, but he said no – he thinks I might gain too much publicity from it – I can definitely say he’s not a gentleman. You often hear rumours and comments about some people. I’m not one to follow such gossips and I don’t like them. I like to think of everyone in this industry as a collegial person with whom one can have disagreements without it having to be a personal thing.

What probably pissed him off the most was that I said in yesterday’s article that I should probably publicly denounce publicists that don’t do their jobs properly. I’d like to point out that we do have a set of rules about such affairs at The Comic Book Bin – in our About page. Our rules are quite clear and they apply to me 100% and the other editors have the power to censor me and edit my comments, if they feel I have crossed a line. It’s always been clear and I’ve said it many times. It’s called checks and balances, because even the press needs someone to watch over them.

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