« For Some Reason... | Main | Year In Review: November »
December 29, 2005
More Anthology Thoughts
I think my favorite book coming out right now is DC's 'Solo', which just happens to be an anthology. It's an artist-driven book, coming in at 48+ pages, all by this one artist, sometimes writing their own stuff, sometimes working with a writer. Each issue spotlights a different artist. They've had Tim Sale, Howard Chaykin, Paul Pope, Darwyn Cooke, Richard Corben, Jordi Bernett, and the latest by Teddy Kristianson.
The book feels really eclectic, but still has a singular vision and feel that keeps it cohesive. It's spear-headed by editor Mark Chiarello, a fantastic artist in his own right (Batman/Houdini being a high spot, along with his covers for Terminal City), who decided to just go and find the very best creators working in the industry today and have them just cut loose. I think the only caveat is that at least one story has to feature a DC character.
So, for instance, in the Teddy Kristianson issue, you've got that one story featuring Deadman, written by Neil Gaiman(!), and then four other stories that really let Kristianson show his wares. A Tales From the Crypt-style shocker, a love story, an historical fiction story, and an I-haven't-read-it-yet-so-I-can't-tell-you-what-kind-of-story-it-is story.
So, my thinking on how to apply this to that anthology I've been pondering on:
With the caliber of creators who will be in the book, I don't feel the need to even have to worry about editorial oversight, with again just one caveat, that being that the stories all be self-contained, but each issue would have those characters or setting continue.
So, since all of the individual creators are going to retain all of their own rights, once they feel they've amassed enough content, they can then release their own Solo-esque collection of this work they're doing for the anthology. If we release quarterly, and set the individual creator page-count at eight pages, each creator by the end of the year would have a minimum of 32 pages they could collect. It'd be easy for them to add their own 16 pages of additional content and get a nice 48 page book out. If they'd be game, I'd like to release all of them as some sort of non-line. Some sort of thing that would let people know that it's a part of this whole thing. That'd be cool, wouldn't it?
If everyone's bringing their A-Game, branding all of these together would only strengthen the possibility of cross pollination of interest.
Your thoughts?
Posted by Schamberger at December 29, 2005 12:18 PM