perhaps surprising no one

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine; I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

Brian Scot Johnson has released his sales stats for May at Khepri.com here. Planet of the Capes came in at #2 and The Couriers at #6 in the Top Ten GN/TPB/HCs, and Demo #1 was the #1 comic sold in May. This is interesting to me because it vindicates my worldview that backlist is a viable category, since our November 2003 comic and our January 2003 graphic novel were the #1 comic and #6 graphic novel sold by Khepri this May. BOO-yah!

Also, his YTD shows Couriers 02: Dirtbike Manifesto as the number one graphic novel, Couriers 01 at number four, Channel Zero at number five, and Channel Zero: Jennie One at number ten of the top ten graphic novels sold at Khepri this year.

Coincidentally, Loose Cannon #12 addresses the getting rid of the monthly comic book and even puts out there for all eternity Rob Snell's Super-Man-ga idea that I still cannot believe DC hasn't done yet. Instead of sending John Nee around to ask people what the secret is to this Japanese comic fad everyone seems to be talking about so much nowadays, all DC has to do is read that column from March 30, 2001 and follow the map I laid out. I wrote back then "Personally, I'm not sure why this hasn't been enacted already." and that's even more true three years later. That's a big bag of money waiting for my friends at DC.

Well, I heard it's fine if you got the time and the ten to get yourself in.

Birthday Boy Bill Sherman likes the Scurv: "Co-writer Yount illustrates this slapdash silliness with a clean ink line, very little shading (just a lotta well-spotted blacks) and a cartoonishness that grows more self-assured with every issue." and "...maybe it's a better Cabin Boy..." which is high praise, indeed. Rapmaster Tim O'Neil wonders about the Scurv: "Larry Young's commercial instincts seem pretty spot-on to me: even if I don't like something AiT/Planet Lar publishes, I think I have a pretty good chance of figuring out why it was published." Yeah, Tim; that one's easy: because it's hilarious. No secret there.

Fun interview at Comic Book Resources with me where I expound upon all sort of entertaining and erudite subjects. Also, some news about a possible Demo collection there, at the end.

Mike Sterling hits his 300th blog post and celebrates with a look at Couriers 02: Dirtbike Manifesto.

John Jakala takes on Demo #6 (with comprehensive links about the discussion from all over the blogosphereiverseuum).

... and here's a link to Loose Cannon #11.

I'm not aware of too many things; I know what I know, if you know what I mean

Happy to report there's an early review of Ursula up at Variety. Tom McLean gives it an A+, saying "The art is a perfect blend of fluid storytelling and contemporary style that should help the book appeal to young readers as much as older ones." as well as "...this book deserves an audience and those who read it will find an instant gem well worth their time and money."

This is real gratifying, because this is the first book that Mimi and Ryan and Bri developed and produced without me, allowing me to work on some stuff we'll be announcing in a month or so. I may have to be careful or the sign on the door might be reading Planet Ry or Planet Meem soon.

Speaking of Mimi, we just found out she's been nominated for a Lulu Award in the "Women of Distinction" category. Nice work!

... and I don't talk about personal stuff in public, and I'm not starting now, but if anyone wants to throw some good vibes or prayers my dad's way, I'd sure appreciate it.

Get up/Everybody's gonna move their feet/Get down/Everybody's gonna leave their seat

Tim O'Neil comes back from his hiatus with a comprehensive treatment of Planet of the Capes, inadvertently helping me to prove my point about criticism from yesterday. Tim sees "...the success of the book lies primarily in the fact that it does inspire great thought on the part of anyone who reads it." and that I'm "a startlingly bright and perceptive writer." While Chris Allen, on the other hand, offers up such observations of the Capes as "a poorly plotted, mean-spirited exercise" and "Surely Young had some larger creative goal in this outing than the mindless 'Everybody Dies, Nobody Learns Anything' [sic] back cover copy, but it's not clear what that might have been."

Now, these are two guys with brains talking about the same book. What's an author to make of this except to metaphorically shrug and say "the work is the work," "people see what they want to see," or "all stories are true."

I ask you.

As you ponder, check out Loose Cannon #10, from March 16, 2001, wherein I sound like a cult member when describing my then-new TiVo.

a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop; a-lop-bam-boom; we da folks dat walked on da moon

As usual, Sean T. Collins shines out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.

Long-time readers of the daily update will remember that it was Sean who made me see that blogs were a viable means of communication in the first place, so it should come as no surprise that Sean is the guy who made me see where the disconnect was between me and the folks who had a problem with me saying "the work is the work." Seems hard to believe that people would put forward that the air isn’t the air or that the white nectarine isn’t the white nectarine or that the work isn’t the – you know – the work… but there you go. People’ve been saying it.

But anyway, Sean has written that "But sometimes what you want a given work of art to be is what it probably should have been." And that sentence made me finally understand where the bloggers who have been paying attention to our stuff are coming from. I mean, it’s all just perspective, and point-of-view. A critic of a work who wants to address what a work "should have been" is speaking to what he wants and not what is. So that’s cool; I get it, now. Sean writes: "Sometimes authors make the wrong choices in terms of what to show or how to show it" and I’m one of those cats who think an author can’t make a wrong choice if that’s what the author wants to show. An outside observer just can’t make that distinction for an author, by definition. A critic can think "it didn’t work for him" or that "jeez, that isn’t what I would do here" or whatever but it’s not wrong, you know?

Sean writes: "The author can say ‘No, no, it's exactly the way I wanted it -- it's your problem if you don't like the view,’ but that doesn't make it so." And I have to disagree and say that that is exactly what that means. If an author tells you his work is exactly how he wants it and you, personally, don’t like it, well… so what? All that means is that you don’t like it. The author still completed what he wanted to complete. A hundred million people saying they didn’t get it or don’t like it or think this should happen doesn’t matter because a hundred million other people are gonna think it’s the best thing since sliced wheat bread. Seriously. For every critic who thinks a work is crap there’s a critic who thinks a work is genius. Who’s right? Who cares? The author got what the author wanted, so the work is the work. There you have it.

Anyone who strives to make art thinks that what they produce is the best piece of art ever. If they don’t, they’re subject to all sorts of doubt and ennui and agony and eventually cannot produce their art anymore, exposed to the whims of their observers as they are. Eventually, the paralysis of indecision overcomes them, and they can’t produce art any longer, addressing, as they do, the needs of the audience instead of the needs of their muse.

Here’s what Sean made me understand: critics critique for an audience; artists produce art for themselves. The Peanut Gallery and me are in two different spots, is all. And... that's OK. Neither one of us is gonna sway the other... nor should we.

H over at The Comic Treadmill mentions that he’s picked up some Demo, Astronauts in Trouble, and some Scurv. So we’ll see what H makes of it.

Laura Gjovaag looked at Demo #7 and read it twice.

John Jakala notes that Entertainment Weekly gives Hench an A- which gave Adam Beechen and Manny Bello and me and Meem a pretty good weekend, believe me.

…and please click over to Loose Cannon #9, from March 9, 2001, wherein we discuss "terroir" and "arete." C’mon, how can you not click through? You mean to tell me you know what "terroir" and "arete" mean? Hit the link, and be illuminated.