We’re continuing our discussion on book design, and today’s going to be a bit more free-form; I want a lot of different ideas and as long as you build on something proposed, or throw out a different idea pertaining to the topic, I won’t cut you off. We’ll be talking about new types of supplemental content that will optimize either the 22/32 or trade paperback format. I want new ideas – back-stories, letters pages and pin-ups already exist and, honestly, they’re boring.

Take the letters page, for instance. I do the letters page for Elk’s Run. Five issues in the can so far and each one had a letters page two to three pages long, and for the most part, they’re all the same. Seriously – there are four types of letters.

1) The praise letter – We get plenty of these for Elk’s Run. I can also pick up my old copies of Youngblood and see the same exact letter.

2) The “inside joke” – Ahh, reminiscing over something a creator said at a panel or on a message board; what a great way to alienate new readers.

3) The “kooky” letter – Not the funny letter. The kooky letter. Mildly humorous, at best, in a “bombing comedian” kind of way.

4) The fake out – Oh no! Steve’s mad at us! Why’s he mad at us? Oh, it’s because we made a book so good he now has to add it to his pull list. You got us, Steve!

I mean, I understand the importance of community building, but don’t we have a better ways to use 2-3 pages? I think so, and here’s what I’m suggesting.

For the 22/32 format, a one-page Afterword, soap-boxing, letters, thank-yous; then we go outside the box a bit.

A little set-up first…

Robin, my girlfriend (the one that can’t read comics), has a collection of magazines in the bathroom. All girlie magazines, she keeps them stacked in this little basket by the bowl so as to hide my trades of Sin City when guests come over. I’ll occasionally flip through Robin’s girlie magazines, trying to get an idea of what she now thinks I’ll like in bed and laughing at each suggestion. I noticed something about them, however. The interviews are always advertised on the cover; every time.

Playboy – naked women, that’s all the customer wants, right? Interviews advertised on the cover. Maxim, interviews advertised on the cover. Martha Stewart Living, interviews on the cover. High Times, Nickelodeon, in-flight magazines – all have interviews advertised on the cover. I don’t know, but I think they may be on to something.

Sean Maher interviewed Noel Tuazon and we printed it in Elk’s Run #3; our little 22/32 is optimized, right?

Except everyone who’s reading this book is already a fan of Noel Tuazon. Is he really drawing new readers in? What if we interviewed Warren Ellis in the back of Elk’s Run? Brian Michael Bendis? We step outside of the book and give a look at comics as a whole – get some great pull quotes we can use on the trade paperback’s cover. Not a page wasted in our 22/32, right?

Except that no one outside of comics really cares about Warren Ellis or Brian Michael Bendis. A few new readers may know their names but are they really a draw to this new market?

Will Wheaton? He’s a fan of the medium and has a huge following – doesn’t work in comics, though.

Christopher Walken? You know an interview with him would get around. He’s one of the good guys; he’d likely throw you some quotes for free if you sold the idea.

What about other celebrities who a) currently (or used to) read comics, and b) would potentially do an interview on comics just for kicks; just to help promote the medium? They’d get a little extra underground credibility; keep their core audience happy.

Johnny Knoxville; M. Night Shyamalan; Wu-Tang’s GZA; friggin’ Chuck Norris! Why not Gary Busey?

What if you interview them about comics? Ask them what they like, how they got into it, first comic they owned? This does several things:

1) You can say your book has an interview with Chuck Palahniuk, but Palahniuk may say himself that he interviewed with your book. Almost anyone you get is going to have a bigger audience than you, and the mere mention of the interview on their part will cause some people to seek it out; give your book credibility.

2) Yahoo News is more likely to pull quotes from your Tarantino interview than your Mark Millar interview.

3) There are thousands of books soliciting in Previews right now; yours is the one where Samuel Jackson talks about his favorite Superman comic.

4) They may end up liking the book and there’s no way that can be a bad thing, and a hundred reasons why that can be a good thing.

“I got this property called Elk’s Run”

”Not interested.”

”Yeah. Ok. But M. Night Shyamalan is. He’s directing it.”

”Oh! Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you in the eye with that bag of money I threw at you!”

Yeah, I’m obviously going best-case scenario here and you’re likely thinking, “How would I even get in touch with these people?” Well, you probably won’t, but what if you send out a query with a copy of the book to fifty of these celebrity’s press people and just one comes back “yes”? How much additional exposure would you bank off of that day of work? I don’t know, I think that’s worthwhile.

And, let’s be honest, you get a hot book out and you’re wheeling and dealing and meeting people who know people or represent people – there may be an opening one day and you should be prepared to take it.

So, interviews in the back of comics; assuming we can find our celebrity, can we make this work? Do we announce it on the cover, or play the “cool card”, keep it low-key? What would you suggest as an alternative that is novel to comics (i.e. not back-ups or prose shorts; we’re looking for new ideas here, not repeating existing ones)?

And let’s not forget the trade; what’s something that hasn’t been in a trade that you’d like to see in one? What about in an original graphic novel?

Like I said, keep it fresh or build on the ideas being thrown out. I don’t want dismissals; if you want nay-saying and “That would never work” comments, I can direct you to several message boards that welcome people like you. Let’s leave ads out of this, too; I’ll touch on ads next week before we move into the all-important topic of funding.