This evening I received an email query from P. Craig Russell about whether the Comic Book Creator's Cookbook had ever been published and I said no, then ran down a few points that had weighed against it. I asked him for his opinions about working with overworked comics pros and the publishers so the book could get done and he replied: "I understand the $ issue with generating new artwork. For myself, I would have no problem granting fair use for, say, the banquet scene from The Magic Flute. Surely the various artists must have material of their own to grant use of. Maybe not. Some don't ever do anything beyond the big three."How about a combination of pre-existing art and/or photos of the artists in their kitchens? Or at the dinner table? Maybe you only need money for an original cover.
"Since this could be seen as a scholarly work, under fair use couldn't you have a chapter illustrating 'food in comics' which could give you all sorts of images? Perhaps as interludes between recipes so as to keep the images dispersed throughout the book?
"If nothing else is there any way this could be published online? Shame not to have access to all those recipes.
"Good luck."
So he inspired me to sally forth and get the book done so it can be published in some fashion ... maybe not through Square One out of NY, but possibly self published or through on of the online sites. I will dedicate it to Russell and to the late Tony Dezuniga (who donated four recipes!!) And I believe I will go back to using Rick Schmitz's Creeple-inspired cover. ;-)
7 comments:
I think Russell had some really good suggestions. Nowadays, there doesn't seem any reason NOT to publish things in digital format somewhere, maybe on Amazon? If it gets a lot of attention you can always publish a hard version later.
What have you been up to lately Tom?
Love Russell's work! I'm glad to see he's such a cool guy as well!
Tom C., you know that I'm always up to lend a hand. If you need some new art just let me know. :)
You and I should chat some time soon! Alas, I will not be in SD for the con.
Next time you talk to Craig, tell him I love his work too.
The Ebook will probably smash all your regular book sales. Hope it does well. Nice thoughtful ideas from Russell.
Shows what a close reader I am. I have to read everything twice. At least.
So the cook book never came out as a regular book. For some reason I didn't know that.
This looks really cool, Tom. I will keep my fingers and huzzahs crossed!
I met Tom C. for the first time at the Con Wed. night. Like he said, nice to put a face to the name after all these years.
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