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later, somebody new arrives on the scene and says, "Hey, what really hap pened with…?" and the whole shitstorm starts up again anew.

The positive side of this quick Internet-Generation turnover made itself known to me this past week, when I had a few emails from people discov ering my columns on publishing for the first time in “True Facts,” the writ ing I did for Matt Fraction’s website Savant . It’s odd for me, because those are more than a year in my past, but there are cats on the Internet who’ve never seen or even heard of them before, and there’s still amazingly a level of current interest in them.

So, let’s do a little recap and update, for those who’ve come in late:

One of the brilliant things about comic books, as opposed to movies, or TV, or the like, is that anybody can make a comic book. You don’t need hun dreds of thousands of dollars or the blessings of Columbia-TriStar to make your graphic pictorial narrative and put it out for the world to see.

In that first True Facts column, I introduced myself, and aired out a little inspiration. "Want to do a comic? Go ahead. Nobody’s stopping you."

I like that one, myself, because it really is that easy.

The second one explains pre-press and printing, and provides some con tact info for printers to create tangible copies of your comic book bril liance. Bit of a roadmap for turning your scribblings into a physical object you can show your friends. The third one explains the somewhat arcane distribution model that Diamond Comics uses, and points the budding creator to the guy who pass es on your genius to the folks who decide whether Diamond offers your work in its monthly catalog, Previews or not. Advanced students will note the address and send lavish gifts along with a copy of their comic. I talk about the importance of branding your comic; I talk about writing effective press releases and show an example. I even wrote a little love let ter to every comic book creator’s pal, the retailer. Really, if you want to do comics, the whole thing is laid out for you right here. No secret hand shakes, no passwords to learn, no sucking up to "the right people." I explain the philosophy of getting the work done in general and the philo sophical underpinnings of my company in particular. I even showed the skeleton of the AiT/Planet Lar business plan, with all of those pesky num bers removed. As a bonus, I even tell you what your comics are really worth.

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