A gay friend of mine thinks I give gay men a bad name. "My God, you are such a drama queen." He says and he's not wrong. I am. I flounce and get shirty. I even resort to really bitchy things - I suggested to someone that they were acting like Dez Skinn and frankly had I called them a c*nt I would have come off better... However, as I become more hysterical (I obviously need more orgasms) and ultra-flouncy, there is an underlying reason for it all...
Shit just got real.
When I started throwing business cards around with carefree abandon, I said, "It's all getting a bit real now." But it wasn't, really. The first convention seemed to focus it all - we were in this for real; nearly. But it wasn't, really. Now, with Dennis Wojda's 566 Frames at the printer and me starting to write BIG cheques out - it has taken on a entirely new 'realness'.
The thing is, I have actually at times been bordering on hysterical because I am surrounded by incompetence on a level that explodes frontal lobes and if it wasn't for the good team of people I have around me then I might have just said, "You know what? Stick your [delete as appropriate] bank account/e-commerce/on-line payments systems/Adobe design packages where the sun doesn't shine." There were actually other things in the last couple of weeks that have equally caused me to dance with apoplexy, but because shit happens so fast nowadays, I've clean forgotten what they were...
It really doesn't matter how hard one works to make things run smoothly there's going to be some officious twat just waiting around with his selection of spanners, ready to throw some at my carefully oiled machine. I thought all the hassle had passed once I'd got all the 'business' part out of the way, but that was me being unbelievably naive. Now it's a case of filling up things that are waiting to be filled: the web site's layout is done and I've seen it and all I have to do is write some stuff to go in it - this is actually the largest physical job left to do and as I've alluded to in the past, is likely to be one of those parts of this business that is a constant - as long as we have information for you to digest!
There is also the impending PR push...
I heard recently that there was a lot of talk about my new venture at a recent London event. The general feeling was I might be doing something good, but the question on everyone's lips was, "Why has he stayed so quiet?"
Have I? I suppose I have. but there's a reason for this and its simple economics. What is the point of me and Danny Black doing a focused PR drive when we haven't got anything to show for it. I'd feel like a politician if I was standing around promising people things that I might not be able to deliver. I'd rather release info about 566 Frames and Zombre when there's something for you to hold in your hands. And this kind of applies to corporate promotion as well; I'd rather have some product to back up any claims I might make rather than talking hypothetically.
Saying that, I have just been interviewed and that will appear somewhere I'm sure. We're slowly releasing images, cover shots and more info about the impending releases and hopefully we're teasing you enough for you to walk into a fully-fledged relationship with us - all on the back of some high quality stuff.
The only other pressing matter is the fact that we're going to be exhibiting at this year's Thought Bubble. I've taken the plunge and invested some money to ensure that we're at the premier independent comics events of the year. More info about that as and when it's relevant.
