THE CHUK CHRONICLES #09
I hit the road and took Andy Xenon door-to-door to dozens of stores in one epic trip. The last pit stop? Comic Con!
Perhaps you're a friend, a fan or even a foe. Wherever our paths have crossed, welcome to the Chuk Chronicles – my newsletter keeping the world-at-large up-to-speed with my comics, books, TV episodes and other writing.
It’s been an extra long time since the last installment, but I have extra good reasons. Where have I been all this time? On the road! Traveling town-to-town, bringing Andy Xenon store-to-store and meeting retailers face-to-face. This multi-state odyssey's seriously been one of the best experiences of my life.
Andy Xenon started under unusual circumstances. Back in 2020, Nikos and I were putting together a limited series proposal… until the pandemic happened. Many editors we knew were laid off. Diamond's position as a distributor was in upheaval. The doors of local comic stores were closed to customers. In short, it wasn’t a good time for our pitch. So, we switched gears and made Andy instead, hoping to sidestep all the disruption.
If you've read the newsletter, you already know the long, winding road to today. But we entered a new stretch of it in the Spring, when the remainder of our print run arrived. This comic was never made with a distributor in mind (we weren't sure which ones would even be around after 2020), so I faced further unusual circumstances, having all these copies on hand which I wanted to get on shelves.
I looked up every store in one area code after another, loaded boxes of books into the trunk and hit the road, eager to meet retailers and pitch Andy to them directly. Not sure if this was the old fashioned way or not, but it worked. Here's a list of each store who liked what they saw…
Hanging out at the local shop has always been one of my favorite aspects of comics. Chatting with staff, getting their recs on titles, haggling for a deal on back issues... all of it. And since local tape stores have been replaced by impersonal RedBoxes, I've come to appreciate it even more.
So, I can't overstate how pleased I was to find such a vibrant retailer landscape, post-lockdown. Big chains and cozy independents. Long-standing stores that've stood strong for decades and equally-inspiring stores that managed to start business during the pandemic. More stores in each area than I could physically manage to visit. It’s been such a sunny contrast to the gloomy and distorted pictures of the industry which the blogosphere tends to paint.
A writer's nothing without an audience, and the comic industry's nothing without these retailers. I appreciate every clerk and manager who heard me out – this stranger stepping in on a random weekday with a box of comics they'd never heard of. At present, we've nearly sold out our entire printing, and that's thanks to all these people being open to give Andy Xenon a try. The list of stores looks like it’ll be lengthening even more after I send this newsletter out, too.
One big stop on the road trip was at Golden Apple in Hollywood. They were an early supporter of the book, and they’re a longtime supporter of mine. My first big signing (for Hybrid Bastards!) was with them, in fact. So, having my first signing for Andy there – and my first signing in years – felt so fitting in so many ways.
Had a fantastic time scrawling my name on copies, meeting fans who showed up, seeing friends who came out and even introducing Andy to customers who just happened to be browsing around the store. Ryan Liebowitz was a real champ, organizing the signing and directing traffic to me. Creating a comic takes a lot of time toiling in your own headspace, obviously, and the real satisfying part of the process is when you finally get to show it to people and talk about what you’ve crafted. Between this and the other stores, I was coming of seclusion, step by step, but there was still an even bigger reunion looming...
I went to Comic Con last week, as well. I'll admit I boarded the train to San Diego with some very cautious optimism, and many shades of ambivalence. My last con was C2E2 in February 2020, only a week or two before quarantine mandates started, and that feels like a lifetime ago. There's been much making lemonade from lemons since then. I can’t deny that a calendar totally removed of conventions (I once attended up to nine per year) and business mixers, lunches, etc, freed up a lot of time for me to advance personal projects. Again, I don't think Andy Xenon would exist otherwise.
But I like conventions. I like seeing people. I like catching up with friends in the industry, making new contacts, meetings fans, seeing what cool stuff is coming out, and just generally soaking up the chaos of a bustling exhibit hall. As much as Facebook, Zoom, et al, keep people connected, two years of teleconferencing has shown that nothing compares to interacting with people... in person. So, while I might’ve gotten a little fatigued by the schedule of so many per year before, I'd really come to miss cons.
CCI did a great job this year with security and screening, which are thankless tasks. Admittedly, I'd guess attendance was 70% what a normal year’s would be, but there wasn't any lacking in what you come to Comic Con for. Whether I had the bandwidth to enjoy it all was another matter...
Most times, I come to SDCC determined to leave no stone unturned and let no moments go wasted. That translates to networking parties every night – sometimes double or triple-booked – with me racing about every corner of San Diego’s Gaslamp District. Pulling that off invariably means I’m getting little sleep each night, losing my voice two days in, then coming down with some cold the week after. This time, it didn't feel smart to push my limits. So, I planned my agenda to be laser-focused on who or what I needed to see in the exhibit hall, then got out as soon as I was done. I took the after-hour parties on only as they came up rather than chase any down.
Was there more I could’ve seen or done? Perhaps. But I’m fine with that. I managed to hit all my goals for the con, save one – which isn’t a bad ratio. Haven't gotten any sniffles over the week since then, either, so I think this approach worked well enough.
Everything's in early talks, of course, but we may be seeing Andy in some new format following some discussions I had at the con. Nikos and I have resumed work on that limited series I mentioned earlier (more on that in a moment, still), and I talked to some editors who may have a home for it. I also spread the word about my next comic, which is currently in super-secret soft launch. If you happened to see me at the con, you already know what it is. I was handing out cards with a QR code offering early access.
There wasn't time to take a lot of snappies, but I did grab photos with a couple colleagues. John Zuur Platten was signing copies of his series, St. Mercy, at Top Cow’s booth. (Eagle-eyed readers may connect his name to the university Andy attends). I also finally met Eric Moss in person, one head honcho at Zoop, after working with him remotely for over a year. He was promoting their benefit book for Ukraine, which has a really staggering roster of talent involved.
C2E2, Emerald City, Long Beach and other mainstays are coming back throughout the rest of the year, but I have schedule conflicts with all but NYCC. I’d like to attend that, but I’m still weighing whether I can. It’ll depend in part on how busy these projects keep me…
So, as mentioned, the comic I've been teasing for a few months is available in some select circles, now. The publisher decided it'd be better to hold off a couple weeks, lest we get lost amid all the other big news coming out of Comic Con. Expect this announcement, and probably some interviews, very soon.
It’s actually looking like I’ll have two comics to announce in the next newsletter. This second one was a big surprise waiting for me on the floor at San Diego, in fact. I happened to stroll by one publisher's booth and spotted a preview copy on its shelves. Getting scoops about your own projects’ progress? Another good reason to attend cons.
The TV show I was on staff for earlier this year has been fast-tracked. It’s actually been announced elsewhere already. There's even been a news segment about it. My involvement hasn't been announced yet, however, so I'm in that whimsical, contractual limbo for now. I did do a little promotional interview for it the other day, though, so whenever my part’s revealed, there’ll be some pomp and pageantry.
I'm writing the last pages of the limited series I've been working on over the past couple years. This is the project Nikos and I needed to set aside to make Andy. I've used the extended development time to get all scripts done before he really gets into thumbnails. I think this will benefit everybody in the long run, allowing for revisions and refinement you really don’t get if you're assembling a series on-the-go. Doing it this way is a big gamble, of course, but our experience with Andy has convinced me it's worth taking. I've vowed to Nikos we'll be making this comic, one way or another, one place or another. More to come when the time is right.
One last thing: during my road trip, I just had to make a pit stop at the "Pop Culture Revolution" exhibit of Bill Sienkiewicz's art. Reading Elektra: Assassin was a transformative moment for me as a comics reader – expanding my horizons in so many directions about what was possible for the medium – but I never in a million years imagined I'd see his work in a museum. Yet there they were: original pages from Love & Death, New Mutants and even Stray Toasters hanging on the Dunn Museum's walls.
It was really revelatory to see how some of his collage pages are only delicately held together by tape and string. I got the sense they might fall apart the moment after they were photographed. Bill’s multimedia style has been oft-imitated by other artists who rashly skip over mastering plainer illustration techniques before moving on to the flashier stuff. Examining his simpler pen and inks pieces up-close really showed how arresting his style can be, regardless of the tools he uses.
I've met Bill a number of times at cons. He's always so gracious and humble, and those qualities come through in the interviews with him that play in the gallery's video installations. In one, he readily admits he doesn't get to reinvent the wheel on every project – nor should he, if a deadline's looming. The candor even carries into the exhibit plaques, too, which surprisingly admit that his early work on Moon Knight was a bit derivative of Neal Adams and Stray Toasters was a bit oblique to a lot of readers. So, some pretty poignant depth to this gallery.
I saw Bill again at SDCC and let him know how much I liked this. He told me it’s meant to be a traveling exhibit. If it comes to a museum near you, by all means go!
As promised/threatened, the Chuk Chronicles will be back sooner than you’d expect. I’ll have a reveal of at least one new comic – and very possibly two! Get excited. And feel free to drop me a note in the meantime if you feel compelled!