We'll be destroyed for sure!

Chapter 21: Big week!

• Things are going badly, but that’s okay… I hope!

• But we might need your help!

• The Signings!

• The contest!

• An interview!

  

So it’s a big week for us here at Team Me. My new creator owned book WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? comes out on Wednesday. Tyler Boss and I have been working on the book for a couple years, and putting together the accompanying vinyl 7” for around a year, so there is a lot of pressure for everything to go perfect but I’m sure it will. I’m just going to relax and catch up on the news.

Oh. Well we planned way far ahead so I’m sure it’s fine…

Wow. Okay. At least we have the comics ready…

Oh. Well they were printed. We just need them to get to where they’re going…

Wow. Well once they are out our distributor Diamond they should be fine…

Cool.

So, what does this all mean? I’ll be honest here. I don’t 100% know. The 1st printing of the records are pressed and in transit to Diamond Comic Distributors, but will not be in stores this week. The books are printed and at Diamond. But I’ve heard from a few shops that there are delays in books this week from this cyberattack beyond the normal 2021 shipping delays. I expect most stores will have them this week, but maybe call and check with your local shop? I’ll just be over here sobbing.

And please, please be patient with comic shops staff. This is a brutal time of year for them regularly, and this might be the most difficult year they’ve faced in long time. A little kindness goes a long way.

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Now this is where I ask for your help. Didn’t sign up for a newsletter thinking you’d have to do me favors, did you? Well, lesson learned. As of right now, due to global supply chain issues, we aren’t sure we will be able to reprint issues of our book. The normal life cycle of a comic is a weird thing, and is different for every book, but for many books like ours it involves staying in print and on shelves until the first collected trade paperback comes out. It’s how shops can keep excitement going, it’s how a new audience can find the book if it has good word of mouth, and it helps us, the creators, make money. And we may have just lost all of that, which is pretty fucking brutal if I’m being honest.

These paper shortages will impact a lot of books and creative teams livelihoods. But it impacts some books in a really unique way, ours included. For books that launched earlier, many have already had reprints and had a chance to find their audience. For books that launch after us, retailers can adjust their orders knowing that what they get on release day is all they will get. But for us, whose book was printed but hasn’t come out, we have 0 idea what the actual number of people who want the books will be and retailers ordered with the assumption that if there was high demand after launch they could get more. It’s tough. And this is true for WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? #1 but also a bunch of the Image Comics launches in November. So titles like NEWBURN #1, A THING CALLED TRUTH #1, GRRL SCOUTS: STONE GHOST #1, and PHENOMX #1 are all in this weird limbo. If you want to check out those books, and you should because they are all pretty great, make plans now to get them. I’ve already heard from a few stores that comic speculators have put 2 + 2 together and realized that our book might be scarce, so they are trying to get a lot of copies to put up on ebay.

So what’s the favor? It’s a few things actually, you lucky duck. So first thing, if you want to get a copy of the book maybe try to get it on Wednesday. There isn’t a lot I can do for you if your local shop sells out. But more importantly, if you think you want to read the whole series, please let your local comic shop know this week. The way comic shops work is that they order a lot of issue #1 so people can sample it, and then they order less on on subsequent issues until a real steady monthly readership can be determined. Since we may not have the luxury of reprints, we really need the audience who are excited about the book to let shops know so they can order subsequent issues with confidence.

That’s it. That’s the favor. Not so bad, right?

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With all that said, I am doing 3 signings this year and they are all this launch week. I’m a little nervous because I don’t want to get sick, but moreover I don’t want anyone to get sick because they came to see me. So, if you’re thinking about coming please wear a mask, be cautious, and respectful. I’m hoping the world unfucks itself some more next year and I can get back to traveling all over and writing my name on stuff, but in the meantime you should get your signed books now while you can.

WHAT’S FROM THE FURTHEST HERE? PLACE

This Wednesday Tyler and I will be signing with our good friends at Midtown Comics Grand Central store from 5pm until ? This is a good poster because it accurately captures my demented enthusiasm for signing books AND Tyler’s quiet disdain for me. Odds that I will be wearing the same outfit as seen in that photo from 2+ years ago? 3 to 1.

We are also signing at 2 locations of the great Third Eye Comics on Saturday- Annapolis from 11-1pm and Lexington Park from 5-7pm. Come hang out. Or if you can’t make it you can go to the website and pick up the exclusive Third Eye Comics cover by our good buddy Alexis Ziritt.

And as a special cool thing we’re doing because we’re special and cool, the first 25 people in line at each signing gets a variant cover for the book not sold in stores for free! Neato.

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There is also still 2 days left to enter the #WTFPFHgiveaway on social media. How do you enter? Simple. Go to Twitter or Instagram and post the name of the store where you plan on picking up WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? #1 and use the hashtag. If they have social media tag the store in the post. Or you can just reply to the Instagram post below if you’re feeling extra lazy. Also if the store has a poster, sign, or sticker up and you take post a picture that counts as 2 entries!

Sorry, no Facebook. All 3 companies suck but Facebook extra sucks.

imagecomics

A post shared by Image Comics (@imagecomics)

We have a bunch of cool prizes-

🥉Bronze level prize (24 winners) will receive a copy of an exclusive variant cover by Tyler Boss and Adam Gorham that won’t be available for sale anywhere else.

🥈Silver level prize (1 winner) will receive a set of every variant cover (not including store exclusive variant covers) + a copy of an exclusive variant cover by Tyler Boss and Adam Gorham that won’t be available for sale anywhere else.

🥇Gold level prize (1 winner) will receive a super rare test pressing of the What’s the Furthest Place from Here? #1 vinyl record by Joyce Manor & Blake Schwarzenbach, + a signed set of every variant cover (not including store exclusive variant covers), + an exclusive variant cover by Tyler Boss and Adam Gorham that won’t be available for sale anywhere else, + the local comic shop they tagged in their entry will receive a signed set of every variant cover (not including store exclusive variant covers) & a copy of an exclusive variant cover by Tyler Boss and Adam Gorham that won’t be available for sale anywhere else.

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In belated news, I was on the great WORD BALLOON Podcast a little while ago to talk about WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? JOKER: PUZZLEBOX, and more fun stuff. John is one of my favorite people to talk comics with and it’s always fun to get on his show. I’m hoping that translates to it being a fun listen, but I don’t know because why would I listen to a podcast of myself? Give it a listen-

http://wordballoon.blogspot.com/2019/12/comic-books-matthew-rosenberg-talks.html

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That’s it for me. Looking forward to seeing what else can go wrong this week.

-Matthew Rosenberg

NYC 11/8/21