sfx indie sampler ashcan

aubhall

As you may know, SFX magazine's most popular (aka: best-selling) item over the last ten years or so was their COMIC HEROES Special Edition, resulting in their now launching it as a standalone quarterly.

Because they go the federated trade route, they have to appeal to the wholesale/retail trade with giveaways and cover-mounts. But, bless 'em, they've come up with what I think is an inspired "add-on" for #2.

To pull a quote from their associate publisher's email to me, "For the second issue on sale in June, I am looking to produce a sampler ashcan of upcoming comic content to cover-mount. If anyone wants to get some early exposure by providing a 6 page preview or even better would want to provide us with something exclusive to include as a taster for later work then please let me know as I need to get 30 pages of content."

We tried something similar ourselves, albeit on a smaller scale, with Panel Beaters in Comics International which seemed to go down well. But this is newsstand! Obviously, if something you'd like to submit is being done for a third-party publisher, you'll need to check with them that they're up for such a promo (they'd be fools not to be!).

This could fill up very quickly, having only the space for five previews, so if you've something you think would work, send an RGB .pdf direct to me (e-mail on request) for filtering upwards... ASAP!

I'm trying to convince them to break up the somewhat rigid 5 x 6pg samplers, so they can get greater variety, so don't let the 6pg format restrict you, anything else you could provide me with would be ammo for my "more variety" plea. But please prioritize this to avoid disappointment. And let's show them there's more to our medium than a single genre and wot clever buggers we are!

Dez
...still believing the best way to make things work is to get involved positively rather than writing them off dismissively!

Hope this helps someone....