Who
is... Donna Barr? Donna
Barr has been drawing since 1954, writing since 1962, published since 1986,
and publishing since 1996.
She has a Bachelors' Degree in German, and
is a veteran of the United States Army (1970-1973).
Readers worldwide
follower her THE DESERT PEACH, STINZ, BOSOM ENEMIES, HADER
AND THE COLONEL, among others.
She is recognized by her peers as
a pioneer in the field of drawn books and their use in new technologies of distribution
and reproduction. She is a contributor to the world's largest webcomics site,
moderntales.com, and its affiliate
sites.
She achieved her lifetime career goal in 2004 when her life's
work -- past, present and future -- has been accepted as part of the San Diego
State University's Library's Special Collection, and will be available to students
and professors for research, and to the public for exhibits.
She can
be emailed at barr at stinz dot com (remove spam barriers). She answers. Keep
the sentences short.
Just for now, go visit a moment of ebay weirdness at: Desert Peach at Ebay. I know we didn't print a lot of these but is this for real? I'd ask if it was signed except I think I've signed more of these than I didn't.
After all my bitching in the last article about how this biz is nothing but package-less tight boys, I get all this news from my colleagues, just showing me how many wonderful things are out there, and who's taking notice of them. So I guess it's time for me to eat big greasy words. Tuck in your napkin and bring your eatin' irons.
First of all, as a concession to the Tightly Ones and to the lack of respect most of the girls got for 'em and to the fact that Your Columnist, Dear Reader, has a dorky sense of humor, we have:
Abe and Kroenen at Livejournal. The writer/photographer is totally screwing around with industry action figures, specifically some fish-faced blue guy and this black-clad mask-wearing Hitler's Assasin type. Spoiler: don't blame me if you burst your guts laughing and they find your fly-covered carcass a week later because you don't get out enough and nobody knew. My favorite scene is where they wake up in bed for the first time, and Kroenen says he thinks Abe likes him better with the mask, and all we see is Abe's poor finned blue hand poking up out of the covers, waving weakly in agreement. Lots of Warner Bros. 4th-wall-busting, too (staring at the audience, like, "Do you believe this?").
Supernatural Law is licking up the nominations and notice from the real book world -- the one that Publisher's Weekly writes about. PW says it never reviews any print-on-demand books, but little does it know that more and more books are being printed on demand, including Real Books.
Supernatural Law was nominated in the graphic novel category for The Independent Book Publisher's Association's Benjamin Franklin Awards and Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Awards.
Author Batton Lash says, "I appreciate the mention, but keep in mind that SLaw was a finalist; we didn't win the award (Papercutz's Nancy Drew series won this year). Still, it was a treat to be nominated!"
Which is just poor-mouthing and humbleness when the spooky law series does so much to drag our art form into the world of the respectable and purchasable. Good on ya, Batton!
The Pulitzers take print-on-demand books; I know because my own Bread and Swans is being shipped from Booksurge. Because of crashes after uploading the book the first time, I was still scrambling at the last minute to upload again and send out the four copies that the Pulitzers require. So I phoned their office -- it says you can, right on their website -- and it was picked straight up by a pleasant young man, who told me not to worry, just to get the materials shipped, and I'd be okay. He had to get off the phone a couple times, and his reassurance sounded a bit rote.
Then I realized -- all those publishers and authors must be frantically phoning about making deadline, and the Pulitzers just fields the calls and tells everybody to do the best they can. Ohmygod, the Pulitzer's have the notorious Fake Publishing Deadline that publishers give to their authors to keep them from being late!
And yes, as a self-publisher or small press you can submit your own book. They don't care, if you're willing to send the fee and a mug-shot. I've been sending books to the Pulitzers for years, on the off chance (ha ha) I may get lucky or all my competition will die in a FEMA disaster. They probably know me by now: "Agh! It's her again! Back, you conscienceless fiend slut, back!"
For those of you who love Fumetti and the style based on the photo-based comics, there's Paul Guinan's and Anina Bennett's Heartbreakers at Big Red Hair. The latest, Heartbreakers meet Boilerplate is a steampunk fumetti'd romp.
Oh, No! Der Upton has his own blog! The man who did Buddha On The Road,Colin Upton, finds an international mouthpiece at last. He's writing family stories. Be AFRAID.
A bone for you Funny Animal dogs: Doc Rat is from the guy who plays the chaplin in The Desert Peach. He says: "Keep a lookout for a very funny new daily comic strip, Doc Rat, available exclusively online from Monday 26 June 2006. Follow the adventures of an Australian general practitioner, as he battles to keep his medical practice running against adversity. Share the highs and the lows. Choose your favourite character. Enter the competition and win a prize. Be well regarded by your peer group for being the first one to tell them all about it. Log on as soon as you can. Trust me - you'll love it!"
I predict this strip is going to have a huge following in the medical community, because the author is a doctor and brings in his own experience. That's all I'm saying.
