I was kind of into what I was saying but I accidentally sent it out before editing it so you get a pretty unrestrained bout of stupidty at the Comic Book Resources "Robot 6" blog.
Tom Spurgeon wrote this in response to my interview on the Comics Reporter:
"Chris Mautner interviews Dylan Williams about Sparkplug, focusing a bit on the Diamond minimums. Williams admits that even his best-selling books won't make the minimum sales points and then just kind of shrugs and vows to keep on going about his business."
It is a misinterpretation of my interview, or maybe just taking one sentence out of context. Either way, Sparkplug plans to do business based on our values and not on outdated market theory. Diamond is a good source for comics, but there are others and they will only become more common. Much like how the death of Factsheet Five didn't kill zines.
After I wrote this I sent in a comment to the Comics Reporter, but again it was interpreted in some kind of weird personal way.
I wrote: This is a most inappropriate interpretation of my interview. But it does show how everyone re-contextualizes information to prove their agenda.
Tom Spurgeon Responds: I stand by my take -- I can point out the exact sentences if you like -- and said what I said out of admiration. You're welcome to think otherwise. I like a lot of your books, wish they sold more, admire your commitment to them, respect how well you treat your artists, and frequently post about them -- I gave some pub to Austin's work (that you at least carry if not publish) today. That's my Sparkplug agenda. If you'd ever like to provide actual sales figures instead of your usual vague assertions that everything is better than ever, even if it's just to point out that they're not important to you, I'll give you as much space as you want on the site to say so. Until then, you're going to leave yourself open to interpretation.
I used the word agenda, which is a totally loaded term. His interpretation is weird to me because I didn't mention Sparkplug as a company that he didn't like or something. I am always amazed and happy with any press that Sparkplug books get. The agenda I was referring to was his downbeat news agenda, but if everything were "doing okay" then that wouldn't be as much of a story.
Tom Spurgeon wrote this in response to my interview on the Comics Reporter:
ReplyDelete"Chris Mautner interviews Dylan Williams about Sparkplug, focusing a bit on the Diamond minimums. Williams admits that even his best-selling books won't make the minimum sales points and then just kind of shrugs and vows to keep on going about his business."
It is a misinterpretation of my interview, or maybe just taking one sentence out of context. Either way, Sparkplug plans to do business based on our values and not on outdated market theory. Diamond is a good source for comics, but there are others and they will only become more common. Much like how the death of Factsheet Five didn't kill zines.
After I wrote this I sent in a comment to the Comics Reporter, but again it was interpreted in some kind of weird personal way.
ReplyDeleteI wrote:
This is a most inappropriate interpretation of my interview. But it does show how everyone re-contextualizes information to prove their agenda.
Tom Spurgeon Responds:
I stand by my take -- I can point out the exact sentences if you like -- and said what I said out of admiration. You're welcome to think otherwise. I like a lot of your books, wish they sold more, admire your commitment to them, respect how well you treat your artists, and frequently post about them -- I gave some pub to Austin's work (that you at least carry if not publish) today. That's my Sparkplug agenda. If you'd ever like to provide actual sales figures instead of your usual vague assertions that everything is better than ever, even if it's just to point out that they're not important to you, I'll give you as much space as you want on the site to say so. Until then, you're going to leave yourself open to interpretation.
I used the word agenda, which is a totally loaded term. His interpretation is weird to me because I didn't mention Sparkplug as a company that he didn't like or something. I am always amazed and happy with any press that Sparkplug books get. The agenda I was referring to was his downbeat news agenda, but if everything were "doing okay" then that wouldn't be as much of a story.