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As I stared across a table full of final paste-ups [yep,some of us can create a comic without a computer!!],ink pots,brushes and other miscellaneous paraphenaelia you might expect to find in any artists work room,I wondered just how mad you have to be to even be involved in comics creation?

I decided that my “Words Within Words” was going to be a Small Press title.  I’ve not done one for a while,though I’m sure someone will correct me on that.  I’d put together the preview copy that went out to a very select few for comment.  Naturally,Paul “The Biscuit” Brown had to critique certain things.  In fact,his suggestions were basically echoing what I had planned to do originally but decided against [just don’t ask why -I have no idea!].

The lettering type was awful;I’d tried to be a wee bit arty and stylish and,er,failed.

So,a re-touch of the art,new paste up and here I am. The FC220 copier will be chugging its little heart out tomorrow!

Then there is “GO BO”.  What is “Go Bo”?  Well,I had this ridiculous little idea that I’d like to put together a mini comic -A6 in “Hooperscape” [or landscape to everyone else!].  Never done a mini comic before and I wanted to see how you’d put one together.  Oh boy. Let me tell you:always -always- double check your paste-ups because after you’ve run off 20 pages you do not want to discover that you’ve put the wrong pages back-to-back [not that an old pro like m’self would make that sort of stupid mistake..seriously]!

So the two books are put together and will form a double offer package of Hooper mayhem -hopefully reviewed on CBO by,uh,”Biscuits”?

There are many others out there who produce their own Small Press comics -in Europe,the USA and around the UK.  Some have been reviewed on CBO but what astonishes me is how few get in touch!  I mean,few comic news/reviews sites touch the Small Press and as people of taste come to CBO to see the sort of thing other sites leave alone because,as we know,Marvel and DC are the only ‘real’ comics out there!

If you have a comic then get in touch.  We’ll review fairly.

And,as far as Independent comics go;you’ll notice we have news from Heroic Press.  Apparently my local shop “cannot order them” so I’ll not be seeing them.  Even Image comics appear to be getting missed out -I still have not got The Perhapanauts #2 and was lucky to find #3!

If you publish comics and you are neither Marvel nor DC then get in touch -CBO gets enough hits to put certain “bigger sites” to shame.

And action figures -even now the hits looking at the items on action figures,Papo Toys and so on are high despite the companies ignoring us.  Well,their choice.

CBO is here for the Small Presser,Independent Comic publisher and we’ll cover action figures and toys BUT we need to be contacted and sent items first!

REMEMBER:we do not review based on pdfs -only hard copies. From September 2008 CBO will be tightening up its policy:we publicise and publish press releases but we’d now like to see more from publishers -actual copies of the books we’ve publicised.

I know some might think “Oh he’ll never dump so-and-so –they’re big hitters on site!”  Well,I could cite samples of big hitters we’ve dropped because they thought they could “play us”. 

Our coverage of HeroClix for example got massive hits but time and again we got excuse after excuse as to why we could not be sent review figures despite promises.  I think even HeroClix were a little shocked when we dropped them!

There are others,as those of you who’ve been CBOers from the start will know.

So,don’t expect to just use CBO to churn out press releases if you are a publisher. I would -seriously- shut CBO down rather than turn into a mere press release site.

CBO and myself have gone out of our way to help companies,small and large,and I’d like to see us expand more in future.

So,the question of how mad you have to be to work in the comics business?

Quite,quite mad.