My occasional journeys through the internet to find a way to represent 10 Confessions & A Kiss have turned up next to nothing. Oh, I found this one guy that pushes mini-comics for a living but he never got back to me. Another guy who runs a small online zine/comic store never got back to me, and that was disappointing because I used to work with him when I ran Kinships Magazine. Two others will only do commissions, and you gotta do leg work to claim things back. The mini-comic exchange, in which people sent in their mini-comics in exchange for mini-comics in return, is defunct. Coldcut takes minicomics… but…. Yeah, I’d say the effects of the cheap cost of webcomics plus the economy hit the mini-comic culture pretty hard.
I love the mini-comic culture. Comics are a true American art form that other countries adopted, despite popular belief in the manga community. The mini-comic movement was one of the first self-publishing revolutions in the modern history of our country. People are saying the mini-comic is dying, but I’ve seen people at conventions. They still love mini-comics. Mini-comics are choking from lack of exposure, but they’re not in danger of dying any time soon if we make an effort to keep them alive.
I thought about it and decided that since I already am a publisher of sorts, I’d add a mini-comic section to the Apocalypse Store, The OOAK Gallery for Little People. And that I’d try to revive the mini-comic exchange program somehow, because that was a nifty program. But then again I’m a sucker for getting random comics in the mail.
While putting my plan in action, I managed to break the website entire. Which required a complete reinstall. Which means most of the old content I wanted to save – the gallery of dolls and horses for example – are gone, and if I want those images back I’m going to have to find the image backup through my host server. (sigh) Through it all I finally have a working website back up this morning, one that when I can get the funds to expand it will take submissions and allow creators to manage their own content. The comic exchange program is a working feature, and while it’s not free like the old program was with enough participants it still can be great.
So: The Apocalypse Writers (of which I’m the only remaining one) is now going to become a side distributor of mini-comics and host a mini-comic exchange program. Visit our store website: http://ooakleaf.apocalypsewriters.com, bookmark it, and keep an eye on it. It won’t be long before I’m able to do the final touches on it and open submissions. I’ll be looking to see what people have to offer. I’ll be looking to see what people want to read. I’ll be, uh, probably sleeping after an all-nighter working on the website.
