Essays by Von Allan

This area collects a lot of the writing I’ve done over the past couple of years. Much of the older content originally appeared elsewhere. Some of it was first posted on our blog and some of it was initially posted over on GirlAMatic.com. Most of these touch on some aspect of the world of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics, but a few are entirely unrelated. I’ve tried to keep it organized so that navigating it is, hopefully, fairly intuitive. No promises, though!

1. Guerrillas in the Mist - the effectiveness of exhibiting at comic book and graphic novel conventions. Why do artists and writers exhibit at them? Do they really stand to gain anything? Especially if you're new and unknown? I based this on a lot of my own experiences but I still stand by my conclusions.

2. Xeric Grant Proposal - while this proposal was ultimately rejected, I think the research I did could benefit writers and artists thinking about entering the world of comic books. I will add that you should always do your own research, of course, but this is a good starting point if nothing else.

3. Marketing the road to god knows... - this essay details all of the marketing efforts that my wife and I put into the road to god knows... If you're new to the Direct Market, I think this is well-worth a look. Especially because most of the marketing efforts failed and you can come to your own conclusions on the reasons why.

4. Tony Shenton and Fantagraphics' recent move to exclusivity in the Direct Market.

5. On Merit - a response to Brady Russell's essay on creativity.

6. Webcomics Blueprint - before I launched road on GirlAMatic.com, I did as much research as I could on webcomics. I wrote this report to try and crystalize my own thoughts on online readership, advertising, revenue generation and the like. It's fairly extensive but the opinions, of course, are mine. I'd certainly encourage you to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Certainly some of mine have changed since this piece was written!

7. Bill Mantlo - Mantlo was a prolific writer for Marvel Comics in the late 70s and 80s before he suffered a catastrophic injury that caused brain damage. This piece goes into my feelings of Mantlo as a writer and the recent downloadable version of his Swords of the Swashbucklers.

8. Comic Shops - some of my favourite stores across North America.

9. Image Comics and Rejection - back in 2005, I submitted the road to god knows... to Image Comics. It was rejected. In hindsight, it was the right call. This essay, written just after I received the rejection, discusses going forward when you've been told "no." It also touches on the direct market and why I feel that Image is so important for small and self publishers.

10. Robert Kirkman and Invinicible - a few years back I took a look at the rapid rise of Invincible and tried to determine why such a rise occured in the first place. I'll never know if this anaylsis is correct, but it certainly was interesting to look at. And I think it does shed some light on what factors lead to a comic's success or failure.

11. Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators - Agents' Day Part One - I attended a one day conference in September 2009 featuring Mark McVeigh and Edward Necarsulmer IV, two agents who work with children's books. This post covers my notes on McVeigh's talk.

12. Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators - Agents' Day Part One - and this post covers Necarsulmer's comments.

13. A comparison between FreakAngels and the road to god knows...: this was originally written in the spring of 2008 after road had been serialized on Girlamatic.com for a few months. If you're interested in doing a webcomic, especially a long form one, I think you'll find it interesting.

14. A comparison between the historical prices of mainstream comics and the United States Federal Minimum Wage: For those wondering why comics seem so expensive nowadays, this is an attempt to show that there has been a very real inflation in comic book prices since the 1970s and the amount of comics one can buy on a minimum wage job is now very small compared to what it once was.

15. A photo essay on the March 25th, 2012 visit by CHIKARA PRO to Ottawa, Ontario. Not many words, but loads of photos! CHIKARA's wrestlers are amazing athletes and they offer a really unique brand of wrestling that's very different.