Pencil Fight 8

Working at Copacetic Comics today in Pittsburgh. Bill has an impressive selection of mini-comics and zines from the last 20 years or so on sale. What's amazing to me is how many of these folks are no longer making work. I mean, it takes so much effort *just* to draw a comic book - let alone publish it - and then push it along so that it finds it's way to this store. Some of the folks in the small press section are still making work - some very successfully - but most are not doing any work at all anymore. The ratio must be about 100 to 1. It's kind of depressing. What's more depressing is the other day this woman came in who works for a big newspaper in town. "I'm doing a story on so and so who does the mini-comic called such and such", she said "and I want to talk to people who have read it." She explained to me that this person was a friend of hers and that she wanted to write about this friend's work for the paper. A big local newspaper. I told her that no one has bought that particular small press endeavor. Zero sales. She seemed surprised. I said "do you know who Shia LaBeouf is? Young Indiana Jones? Well, he makes comic books and they don't sell either. Just saying."