Supanova Invitation: 'Tides of Hope' Flood Relief Fund-Raising

Dear Creator, Friend and Guest of Supanova,

Australia has experienced some of its worst flooding in 100 years. People have died, entire towns and suburbs wiped off the map. Brisbane was particularly badly hit. Recovery is estimated at billions of dollars.

You know all this as we’ve all been living and breathing it together.

In an effort to help in our unique community way, Supanova is inviting you to contribute towards a 32-page benefit comic book that we are 100% financing in relation to printing and distributing it so every cent of the retail price can go to the relief effort. It will go on sale at the Supanova 2011 Expos, in Brisbane and Melbourne, which begin April 1st onwards alongside an on-line auction of the original art.

If you would like to help us by donating a 1-page script, or draw a 1-page story from a script (or in some cases do both), we would love to have you on board.

The brainchild of the project is Chris Sequeira (chrissequeira@optusnet.com.au) and he is editing it alongside co-conspirator and Supanova Art Director, Tim McEwen (tim@supanova.com.au), with Supanova’s Event Director, i.e. me, making final editorial and publishing decisions.

The parameters are:

• All work must be a completely obligation free donation; no remuneration is possible.
• If we sell out, multiple editions will be reprinted (and possibly made available at later Supanova cons in Sydney and Perth this year) so, please, if you participate, all rights are donated in perpetuity.
• Please don’t use characters you don’t own unless you are able to provide official permissions in conjunction with the deadlines provided.
• All funds raised to go to the PREMIER’S DISASTER RELIEF APPEAL.

Writers:

• Acceptance: Need your acceptance by Saturday 5th February.
• 1-page scripts only, theme is “Surviving Flood”.
• All-ages, material please.
• Script in by: Thursday 10th February.
• A signed, printed copy of the script to go in a set of all signed scripts for an on-line auction would be a welcome bonus but is not mandatory.

Artists:

• Acceptance: Need your acceptance by Saturday 5th February.
• You will be given a script by Tuesday 15th February, OR you can opt to contribute an existing original piece or pin-up.
• Complete lettered art to be emailed by Monday 8th March.
• YES! You may colour it if you wish or have a friend do the colouring and donate their colouring as part of the event. Just make sure to give us details of any additional person involved so we can credit them.
• Indicate early if you'll need us to letter it.
• Original art to be mailed to Supanova shortly thereafter and sold at on-line auction.

Obviously deadlines are strict due to very skinny timeframes therefore we ask that…

a) You reply “yes/no” very quickly as no answer will automatically be considered as “no”

b) If it’s a “yes” you commit to the above deadlines

c) If circumstances change and you don’t feel you can; tell us ASAP so we can go to our reserve list for a replacement.

Thanks for your time and please be aware that we KNOW how busy people are in general. So if you think you can’t find the time there’s zero judgement on our part as your contribution to this medium alone is something that we’re already grateful for; especially people such as myself whose stick figures are gender challenged and whose scripts end up looking like… well like this… a proposal.

Chris, Tim and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Regards,

Daniel Zachariou

Event Director Supanova Expo

Supanova Pop Culture Industries

Phone: +61 2 8006 0569

Mobile: +61 412 026 797
Fax: +61 2 8582 8985
Email: daniel@supanova.com.au
Website: www.supanova.com.au

Australian Graphic Novelist and Illustrator Nominated for an Oscar

The wonderful Shaun Tan, Australian illustrator and graphic novelist, has been nominated for An Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated). The nominated film is called The Lost Thing and is based on his picture book of the same name. We introduced the film in a previous post. All we can say to Shaun is a big hearty CONGRATULATIONS! We'll be watching on the night and cheering from our lounges. The Oscars screen on Sunday 27 February 2011 (US time).

To read what the major papers and Australian media had to say go to: SBS, OnePerth, The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald. In the meantime, here's another look at the trailer.

Aussie Comics Creator Wanted

Queensland Health is looking for a comics creator to develop a 24 page comic to raise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners' awareness of the benefits of being smoke free.

Production of this comic would ideally involve:

* Creative facilitation preferably by indigenous facilitators of two x 6 hour workshops with Indigenous prisoners in custody in regional Queensland to develop content

* Creation of storyline

* A draft written of the comic script for approval

* Art and text

* 24 page comic with character and environment editorial

* Cover and back page

* A1 sized poster to promote issues surrounding smoking as well as promote the comic

* Development of colour 24 page comic and poster to print stage (printing will be provided by Qld Health approved printers).

Approval by Queensland Health delegates to be sought at each stage of production.

Please provide a quote and timeframe based on the above brief.

Kate Gibson

Smoking Initiative Project Manager

Offender Health Services

Queensland Health

c/- PMB 11

CQMC Qld 4702

Australia

Phone: (07) 49126259

Kate.Gibson@dcs.qld.gov.au

WOWIO ... Not So Wow!

We recently received a rant from fellow Australian comiker Matt Elder, who's had problems buying e-comics from the WOWIO website.

Just to put you in the picture, WOWIO promotes itself as:

... a unique eBook marketplace that stands apart from the crowd by offering significant advantages to readers, authors, publishers and advertisers.

Furthermore, they –

... know authors and artists work hard to create their books, and we believe they deserve fair compensation. That’s why on WOWIO, they get to set their own prices, and keep 100% of those prices (less the credit card processing fee). That’s right. Authors and publishers keep 100% of the revenues of all retail sales.

In theory, this sounds good unless, of course, customers can't get hold of a product because they live outside the US.

Matt wrote us the following about his experience of shopping online at WOWIO:

I went to WOWIO site a couple of weeks ago to buy some books and had a horrible experience.

Just some background info. I was trying to support a guy by the name of Kurt Belcher – I inked one of his stories for the Something Wicked Anthology 4/5 years ago. So I was just going to the various sites with some of his books. I went to:

http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86626

and managed to download it no worries... and for 99cents, I'm more than happy to pay for it.

I then went to WOWIO to get his Winter War, as well as a couple of comic titles created by others:

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=234782

I joined up, added books to the shopping cart, filled in credit card details and hit the "submit" button ... and then had that dreaded moment when you don't know if your credit card transaction has been processed or the browser has screwed up / crashed or what.

(Attached is the screenshot when I went to try to buy one of the books.)

So I tried a whole bunch of different browers, a Mac and a PC, and various Operating systems (in case there was some computer issue on my end) but all kept doing the same thing, just hanging.

I contacted Kurt saying I couldn't buy his books to support him. He came back pretty quickly saying he and his publisher had had problems with WOWIO and anyone outside of the US trying to download books would have problems. He gave me another alternative to get the books for free (but I still wanted to give him some $$$ – when someone does it for a hobby and only wants 99cents for the book, who can say no).

I also contacted WOWIO and informed them in great detail about the problem so they could fix it (obviously not many other people are going to spent 1.5 hours trying to buy a book / comic let alone give enough information to the e-retailer so they can troubleshoot the problem on their end. I mentioned I was in Australia and so was wondering if there was a content / isp filtering issue.

They took four days to get back to me with a short message:

"I had our technical team look into it - they are suggesting to try a different credit card here. We are not seeing any notices on our end. We hope this helps, Thanks"

The credit card I've used I've had for almost 10 years and been using it for internet transactions for all of that time. I've only ever had one problem with it on the internet – way back when and it turned out to be a computer glitch. It's a major credit card through a major bank so there is a 0.5% chance that was the problem.

So, not only can you not give money to WOWIO, when you explain the issue to them in great detail, they don't understand it (even their other customers have experienced the same problem) when they do decide to get back to you. I'm just really surprised because there are some Image comic books (Darkness, Witchblade etc) on the site so it isn't some small time operator.

For me, WOWIO is now a damaged brand and I would be extremely hesistant to use them again. Apart from an exercise in how not to make money, how not to handle customers, [it] might be worthwhile letting Australian comics creators know as they may not realise they are missing out on international sales.

I must add that I've purchased several other comic books online in PDF format from other retailers and actually enjoy the process and the work – paying like $1-2 a book and getting them instantly.

End of ramble.

From our POV, there doesn't appear to be anything majorly sinister going on with WOWIO except that their customer service may need some attention. However, Matt's experience does highlight a need to be vigilant about where you place your e-books and e-comics. Comics creators work tremendously hard to bring out their titles, and if customers are not able to buy them because of flawed technology, then those lines of passive income begins to dry up for the creator.

Our advice ... before becoming a publisher on WOWIO or other similar sites, become a customer first. If you find it problematic to buy and download a e-comic or two from the site (and you might want to try different browsers and computers in the process) then think seriously about whether the site can be properly trusted to service your digital backlist.

"Graphics Narratives" University Subject on Offer

The University of Melbourne is now offering a new subject – "Graphics Narratives" – to students enrolled in creative writing, editing and publishing courses. Students will study comics and cultural theory, contemporary criticism of comics with a focus on 20th century writers such as Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, Marjane Satrapi, Charles Burns, Bruce Mutard and Shaun Tan, and discuss the history and innovation of the comics writing practice. Guest tutors will present intensive workshops on drawing and storyboarding, For more information go to the University of Melbourne website or join the FaceBook page.

Mermaid Treasures 17

Received this lovely framed mermaid print for Christmas. I'm not skilled enough to identify the medium – my guess is either pastels, watercolour or both. There is a signature on the bottom RH corner starting with a "T" but I can't read it so I can't tell you who the artist is. The back of the frame has a stamp from the framers but no more identifying information. Anyway, she's quite lovely and the colour pallette is perfect for my mermaid room, which is attached to my office and is where I house my mermaid collectibles. It's a bedroom so it also comes in mighty handy when I want an afternoon snooze ...

Mermaid Books 4 - Magical Mermaids and Dolphins Oracle Cards

Okay, this is not strictly a book, but a 44-oracle card set and a guidebook inside a lovely box. The prolific Doreen Virtue is the creator of the set, and I (Julie) have pretty much every card set she has every released. (Others in the series include: Archangel Oracle Cards, Magical Unicorns Oracle Cards, Healing with the Fairies Oracle Cards and many more). The reason I'm connected to this one is pretty obvious ... There are two genuine "Black Mermaids" in the pack (as in African American inspired mermaids –the "Have Faith" and "Dream Big" cards), and there are 25 artists whose art appears on the card set. The guidebook also provides ordering information if you're interested in getting prints of the pieces. I think my favourite two cards are "Self-Forgiveness" which features a mermaid sitting on a rock in a cave (love her sensuousness, long hair and the gleam and colour of her tail), as well as the "Synchronicity" card with features two leaping dolphins above a set of crystals emanating rainbow light. Let us know which ones are your favourites ...