It’s a busy week, getting ready for the NY Comicon, but I didn’t want to miss mentioning the passing of Bob Oksner. He drew the absolutely cutest girls in comics, and I’ve been a fan since I was a kid. Roy Thomas has an outstanding issue of Alter Ego (#67, below), dedicated to Oksner, due out in early April. Sadly, Bob passed away before seeing it in print (but he was very cooperative in helping Roy and Jim Amash put it together).

I hate seeing these great pros leave us, but thankfully their work lives on. Here’s to you, Bob Oksner.

Any minute now, our own web-savvy Rand Hoppe will be adding a PDF preview of our upcoming COMICS 101 giveaway to its description page on our website. We just show a couple of pages from each section, to give you an idea of what it’s like.

So, how did Roy Thomas boil down 30+ years of comics history into 3000 words or less? Or how about Michael Eury doing the same for the history of comics from 1970 to today?! What figure drawing wisdom will Bret Blevins impart to readers, and can Mike Manley really show you how to break down a comics page in three easy steps?!! Plus, just what are Danny Fingeroth’s Top Ten Tips for Comics Writers?!?!

These questions and more will be answered, but only if you canoodle your local comics shop owner into ordering COMICS 101 when it hits the Previews catalog at the beginning of March. It’s for all ages, so it’s a perfect way to introduce young kids to how comics are created, and to teach them the basic history of the medium. But it’s also just a really neat collectible for us old geezers who already love the TwoMorrows mags. Our pals at Wizard are offering a sampler reprint compilation of one of their “how to draw like (insert flavor of the month here)” pubs, so if your retailer isn’t familiar with TwoMorrows already, they’d likely opt for the Wizard book (cause like it or not, all the retailers know Wizard).

So I’m counting on you, buddy. Let your retailer know you want this puppy, and stress to them that ours is new stuff, not reprint like Wizard‘s. It’s the only way you’re gonna get a copy; we’re not selling them ourselves. It’s a giveaway for comics shops, but like all the other Free Comic Book Day offerings, it isn’t free for your retailer to order it (they’ll pay a quarter for each copy). And if enough retailers don’t order our book, we end up losing our shirts on the printing bill. And nobody wants that. Least of all my wife, who foolishly thinks my daughters need new clothes to replace the ones they’ve outgrown. (Honestly, just cut the pants legs off, and you’ve got a really hip pair of fringy-bottomed shorts, all ready for Spring. Nobody’ll notice the holes…)

If you want to see the whole thing, be sure to stop by our booth at the New York Comicon next week (#975), or at Wondercon the following week (booth #913). Or go see Michael Eury in Artists’ Alley at the Emerald City Con at the end of March. We’ve got a complete preview copy of Comics 101 we’d love to show you!

While parts of the US are being hit by massive snow and cold, apparently some of you have decided it makes sense to stay inside and do a lot of reading. I’m talking about the numerous crazoids out there who’ve ordered our Ultimate Bundles! When I decided to offer complete runs of our mags for half-price, I really wasn’t sure if anyone was going to plop down the loot for full sets, as good as they are. (Especially for Alter Ego, which has 65 issues and counting…)

So far, we’ve moved several of each Ultimate Bundle (including one to Sweden!). One guy ordered four at once. I’m amazed, astonished, flaggergasted, and totally delighted that you folks love our stuff enough to buy it in bulk.

Think of us as the Sam’s Club of comics fandom.

Through the diligence of one Christopher Irving (our shipping manager), all 500 free copies of Alter Ego #64 (from our Valentine’s Day giveaway) were dropped at the post office today! So after Monday’s President’s Day holiday, they should be speeding (?) their way through the US Postal Service to their lucky recipients.

A lot of people seem to think we’re nuts to give away so many of our mags (this is our fourth giveaway in less than a year). But the cost of one giveaway—including printing the extra issues and paying for envelopes, postage, and our time—is still less than a single ad in Diamond’s Previews catalog (and based on our experience, a lot more effective). We can’t do it every month, but as long as we allocate our ad budget toward it, so far it’s making pretty good financial sense. And hey, I’m cheap (my kind wife calls it frugal, but I’m not deluding myself). I’m always looking for a less expensive way to promote our stuff. If you’re cheap too, send me your ideas!

I’ve been saving this up, and we’re finally ready to announce it. So here’s the official press release:

TwoMorrows Publishing adds a new book series to their ranks this Summer with COMICS INTROSPECTIVE, editor Christopher Irving’s outside-the-box approach to non-mainstream comics talent.

“COMICS INTROSPECTIVE conveys what it’s like to hang out with an indy comics talent,” Irving states. “It’s done with a combination of original photography, multiple art gallery sections, and an introspective dialogue with each subject. Don’t expect a standard retrospective interview with these folks: these are in-depth, casual, yet often hard-hitting conversations that just happen to be documented in book form.”

Inspired by the energy of 2006’s Small Press Expo, Irving decided to take his experience as a historian and journalist (on publications like The Blue Beetle Companion and Comic Book Artist magazine, among others) to produce a series unlike anything being published.

“Too often, people are interviewed about what they’ve done, as opposed to who they are and why they’ve approached their careers and craft the way they have… as well as their theories about the comic book artform,” said Irving. “What I’m going for with COMICS INTROSPECTIVE is a real look inside the minds of these creators so that we can better understand where they’re coming from. Think of it as the book equivalent of kickin’ it at a bar with the likes of Peter Bagge or Dean Haspiel for a few hours.”

In fact, Volume One, to be released this July, spotlights Hate! comics mastermind Peter Bagge in his Seattle studio, and will debut at Comicon International: San Diego, to be followed Volume Two on Billy Dogma creator Dean Haspiel in January. Cartoonist and animator Jay Stephens is set for the third volume, with more to come. Initial plans are for new volumes to be released at least every six months, and printed on glossy stock to maximize the impact of the art and photography. The US cover price for each 128-page volume is expected to be $16.95.

Publisher John Morrow noted, “We’re largely known for the mainstream talent we cover in our publications, but there’s a whole world of fabulous creators whose work goes beyond spandex-clad super-heroes. We really want to get to the core of each talent’s beliefs, and I can’t think of another journalist who could tackle this fresh approach better than Christopher Irving. We want this series to be as breakthrough as the innovators it covers.”

In case you’re wondering, that little cutaway illo of a man’s head is one of Leonardo DaVinci’s medical illustrations. It seemed really appropriate, since we’ll really be getting inside these guys’ (and gals’) noggins. Should be fun!

Our Alter Ego #64 giveaway is officially over, having blown out 500 free copies in less than a single day. Our new server apparently handled the hugh influx of customers without a hitch (thanks, Rand!). So now all we’ve got  to do it get them all stuffed and mailed before it’s time to leave for the New York Con next week.

Please be patient waiting for your copy to arrive; we ship by Standard Mail, and while that generally gets there within a week, it can take up to three weeks in some of the less populated areas of the US. (And foreign customers, Surface Mail can take up to 6 weeks or more in some cases, so we really appreciate your patience!) Plus, it might take us a day or so to get them all put in envelopes and labeled.
If you missed getting your free copy, stay tuned; I suspect we’ll be having another giveaway right around Free Comic Book Day on May 5.

Our giveaway of 500 copies of Alter Ego #64 started at 10am today, and as I write this (just before 1pm), we’re at the halfway point, with 251 copies gone. So if you haven’t ordered yet, it looks like they’ll all be gone by around 5pm (but we’ll leave it going until they’re all gone).

If you noticed our site running kinda slow the last week or so, we were experiencing some weird computo glitches, but webmeister Rand Hoppe transferred our entire site to a new server yesterday, and things seem to be zippin’ along just fine. But let me know if you experience any bottlenecks, and we’ll do our best to correct the problem right away.

Don’t forget: starting at 10am EST on Valentine’s Day, we’ll be giving away 500 copies of Alter Ego #64! So if you’ve never tried Roy Thomas’ long-running magazine, be sure to order your free copy. Just click the banner at the top of our home page (www.twomorrows.com), add it to your shopping cart, and checkout. We’ll ship your copy asap.

If response has our server running a bit slowly, please try later in the day. Don’t worry, it’ll take all day to give away that many copies, based on our past giveaways. Enjoy, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Our sample copies of Modern Masters Vol. 11: Charles Vess arrived today. (Our printer sends us a few hot-off-the-press copies, to make sure everything’s right before the big batch gets sent out to comics shops, and to us.) And it’s a good thing they got here when they did. Cause when the samples arrive, I usually go ahead and invoice the copies that stores ordered it from us. (Ahh, yes, part of my glamorous day-to-day existence.)
In doing so today, I spotted a really, really stupid error. On the list I’d previously sent the printer, I’d transposed one customer’s Purchase Order number with the number of copies they ordered, and had told the printer to ship them 521 copies instead of 10!

Luckily, the fine folks at Lebonfon Printing hadn’t quite gotten them all on the trucks yet, so we were able to stop our customer from getting 511 copies too many.

Anyway, the book looks great, and Mssrs. Eric Nolen-Weathington and Christopher Irving are to be commended for the fine job they did. (Oh yeah, that Vess guy probably deserves a little credit too.) We’ll have our copies to ship out next week, and it’ll be in stores on Wednesday, Feb. 28.