The Quarter Bin

On day two of WWPhilly, we took in the Archaia Returns panel, where we got a chance to hear about the publisher’s recent restructuring and what they have in the works.

Archaia Returns featured David Rodriguez, Nick Tapalansky, and Alex Eckman-Long; the three were waiting for Mark Smylie, founder of Archaia, who was stuck in traffic. While we all waited, things got started.

-Nick noticed Jill, also known as The Nerdy Bird, sitting near the front. “Has Boobs, Reads Comics. I’m just putting that out there. Thank you for both of these things.”
-They began by talking about the company’s restructuring. In January 08, most printing/publication stopped.
-Archaia was purchased by Kunoichi Inc.
-The publisher covers many different genres, but one rule they tend to stick to is no capes (superheroes).

Still waiting on Mark, the others opened up the panel to audience questions.

-What other publisher would they compare themselves to now, post-restructuring? Business model close to IDW, mutual property rights for publisher and creators.
-Is there pressure to form stories into something that could be commercialized? It’s up to the creators whether or not something gets made or adapted into movies, etc., so no, they don’t really feel that kind of pressure.
-What is the future for Archaia? Joined with Roddenberry Productions, have a book coming out with them called Days Missing, a sci-fi tale. Another big partnership to be announced Monday. Ooh, intriguing.
-They like to shine a spotlight on new and unique talents.
-They are not talking loudly enough or talking into the microphones!
-Nick and Alex talk Awakening, a zombie noir. HOW HAVE I NOT READ THIS YET? Note to self: track this down and buy it tomorrow.
-Mouse Guard is like their Spider-man, but Mark’s Artesia is their banner book.
-They’re all friends, looking out for each other, they want each other to succeed.
-Does everything go through Mark, submission wise? They actually work on submissions together.
-The Killer (film) in the works, but really early on, and they don’t know much about it.
-How do promotions work (for marketing and such)? Among other things, they now have Mel Caylo (woo!) formerly of Top Cow doing marketing for them. They also do what they can to promote themselves, using twitter and other social networks. Twitter has been very helpful.

Mark then arrived, late, after being stuck in Philly traffic. Since they already covered the restructuring, the group took more audience questions.

-FCBD sampling? They’ve never done it, but they might try to do it next year.
-Days Missing is alternative history and science fiction; pivotal moments from history have been erased from human memory; the “true story” of famous historical events is now missing from human consciousness. Each issue will have a different writer/artist, 5 issues, first should be out in August (premieres at SDCC)
-For Mark: How has his job changed after the restructuring? His duties vary from month to month, he takes on whatever responsibilities need to be filled, but pieces are falling into place and allowing him to get back to working on comics.
-Do you miss running the company? No. He still looks at submissions, and enjoys that, unlike people at bigger companies.
-What are you looking for that’s out there as far as submissions go? They’re actually about to change submission guidelines, things are going to be sent as PDFs now. They’re looking for the most complete submission possible. The more art and pages you can show the better. Content-wise, avoid writers/artists making comics about themselves. If they can think of another company that could publish it, it’s probably not for them. They like stuff that doesn’t fit the mold of other publishers.
-Nick and Alex met on a comic message board, but they like to make up stories about their meeting.

That about wrapped things up for Archaia, but it sounds like the publisher is back on track and has some exciting things in the pipes. I’ll be checking out Awakening ASAP, and we’ll have more previews from Archaia this summer.