Independent Propaganda

I know, I know, technically these are DC Comics. They were originally given away as extras with the purchases of certain video games from Atari. They are great reads, and the fantastic website ATARI AGE has documented them for posterity. Get a good read today! I always loved these, especially when the video games, the best graphics available at the time, needed these additional stories to boost the in-game back-up story. And since I am a big fan of Atari, and even still have a 2600 console, these are fantastic.

There’s a newer Independent Propaganda in town.

Wesley is just too darn busy nowadays with his awesome little publishing company over on Ambrosia. I mean, he’s got talents like Kyle Strahm, Ben Fisher and Mike Henderson, David Doub, Scott O. Brown and Horacio Lalia. Who wouldn’t be busy with a lineup like that?

So that’s where I come in. I’m Matt Butcher and have done reviews for this site for a year now. I just think INDEPENDENT PROPAGANDA is too cool of an idea to not to be utilized. INDEPENDENT PROPAGANDA must continue and expand.

It has already given me personally so much. I have been in contact with such great independent creators. I have had the honor of not only reviewing these hidden gems, but actually being quoted by them. When I first saw my blurb on the promotional material for Hard-Boiled Comics (now Hard-Bullied Comics), I knew that Independent Propaganda can make a difference.

We have a fabulous opportunity to get the word out on these dynamic creators that don’t publish for just Marvel or DC. They have their own promotional machines. To be honest, these independents are good if not better than some of the stuff that the BIG TWO crank out. Sure, I still read my Superman, but I also love reading new and brilliant stuff in this medium of comics that I love.

I have been reading comics now for 25 years. It is the one thing in my life that, like a drug, I have always stuck with. I am an English teacher in Illinois now, complete with a Masters degree in English. I love writing reviews and letting the world know how truly great, literary, and fantastic some of these independents can be. I think that others, especially fans of the BIG TWO should branch out. Sure, you can still read your monthly Avengers, but pick up a hidden gem that you see here in the pages of INDEPENDENT PROPAGANDA. It will only make the comics industry stronger and more potent. Like great independent filmmakers who rise up, these independent creators deserve to have their stuff enjoyed. They are truly creating for the sake of creating.

Please let me know what you would like to see through INDEPENDENT PROPAGANDA. I would also like to apologize to any of the fine creators whose stuff is still in my bin to be reviewed and highlighted here. I am sorry and will get to it as soon as humanly possible. I just completed a big move from Nome, Alaska, and it took a while.

And if you would also like to write about and highlight this industry, please let me know. This is a community. Let’s get the word out.

Written by Todd Yunker / Writer for Independent Propaganda

May your Rolodex runneth over…

If you want to get anywhere in the business you will need to started networking, the sooner the better. I know, I know, you are exploring writing as a career. It doesn’t hurt to get involved with other writers on some level.

Writers groups are very good at helping you get in contact with other writers and some of the people you meet can potentially help you. You should look at joining one. A membership will help you find others who have the same interests and maybe swap scripts and critique each others work. Read more

Written by Emile Meyer / Writer for Independent Propaganda

I love films and I love making them. There’s a certain feeling to it, a type of satisfaction you get when writing and/or directing one. It’s like watching something grow and change with you, a pliant piece of clay. I’ve been addicted to film since I was very young, I can fondly remember exactly what I wanted to be — anything from an actor right up to a producer. The years went by, and my obsession for film slowly died away and I was severely interested in computers.

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Written by Todd Yunker / Writer for Independent Propaganda

“If you are one of the many who wish to take on the Herculean tasks of bringing your story to the screen I at once congratulate you and warn you. But first, I’ll take you up on that drink you offered.”

We sit at a table in the back of the bar when a commotion breaks out. A very short weapons exchange occurs in the next booth and a bounty hunter named Greedo gets his just reward. The Wookiee and the Corellian smuggler leave and the bar gets back to its old self.

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Written by Anthony Garcia / Writer for Independent Propaganda

Anthony Garcia publishes comics through his Twenty2Six publishing company. This is his report from the recent Phoenix Cactus Comic held in Mesa, Arizona.

The Phoenix Cactus Comicon in Mesa may be a relative newcomer to the comic convention circuit, but it’s certainly no pushover. With over 3,200 attendees, nearly 100 exhibitors and 60 guests, the Phoenix Cactus Comicon is a cool drink of water in this comics-parched desert. For most of us living in the Southwest, this show is a great little taste of the spectacle that is the San Diego Comicon International. The Phoenix show has patterned itself after San Diego, and it shows, as it’s a well-planned, well-managed event without all the Hollywood thrown in.

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Written by Anthony Garcia

Anthony Garcia publishes comics through his Twenty2Six publishing company. This is the first installment on his throughts and adventures in publishing independent comics.

I love analogies. I love the way so many themes in human culture share basic characteristics that lend themselves so well to comparison, if not conclusion. It’s usually in the conclusion where the whole thing breaks down if your analogy is not developed properly. I’m always looking for similarities in the various stories I hear. I’m not sure that I’m particularly good at it, it’s just the way my mind works. It drives my wife nuts. She’ll be telling me about the awful day she had teaching at the high school, and I’ll be babbling something like, “That’s like this one time, my employees were blah, blah, blah…” It might be insightful, but I’ve done it way too many times with her and so now these little metaphors have to live and die in my own head.

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Courtesy of Jim Giar

Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 3
Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 2
Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 1

THE MAKING OF SOULDRIVER is a series of articles documenting the trials and tribulations of self publishing ones own comic/graphic novel..or whatever you want to call it. Available in both widescreen and full screen and told in vivid color and excruciating detail by writer/artist and creator of his own self-publishing venture, Jim Giar.

Hello! Yeah I know…I know. It’s been a while, like I didn’t already know that. Go ahead. It’s o.k. Admit it, you missed me. What can I say? I’ve been busy. No. It’s no excuse, but it’s all I got.

The past year of 2006 was an amazing year for me. I’ve spent the last several months networking. Joining places such as myspace and comicpsace. You know, peddlin’ my wares, getting my name out there, shaking hands and kissin’ babies. So not only is Souldriver close to launching, (Tentatively for the end of January, more on that later. Quit rushin’ me!) but I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and befriending some amazing people. They weren’t necessarily in person mind you, but more of what I like to call “I-friends” or internet folks. Chances are I may never meet a lot of them in person but they have been instrumental in providing me support, inspiration and keeping me motivated….. ….Oh yeah and recipes for homemade soup. (Thanks Joanne!) So I won’t bore you with the episodes that have taken place since last we talked.

O.K..I lied. I’ll bore you. Hey, who doesn’t like to talk about themselves…and dammit it’s my article.

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By Chris Moscardi / Writer for Independent Propaganda

I was two minutes into the city before I spotted my first comic shop. It was a safari through the concrete jungle and I spotted the shop grazing idly along the sidewalk like a bored caribou. By the time I had reached the door to my new digs I had seen three others, all grazing from the asphalt savannah and looking as tempting as a New York sirloin. Shit I’m going to like it here.

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By Christopher Moscardi / Writer for Independent Propaganda

When I met Evan we talked about the rise of the graphic novel like it was a rebel faction intent on a bloody coup. We were refugees of the fall of comicdom and we were heartened to speak of the subterranean uprising that had the potential to bring the Great American Artform to its knees. It was rebel talk: riotous and violent and buzzing with nihilism. But it was also progressive talk: intelligent and evolutionary and frosted with potential. He brushed an ill strand of black hair from his eyes with his forearm, careful not to smudge himself with ink. I winced slightly in between words that we vollied back and forth like World Cup veterans on the practice pitch. The needles dug deep in my back-ink trailed down my spine. His hand was heavy, but the bite of the needle was a reminder of the permanence of the tattoo; the permanence of this moment-it was a grinding metal connection and it was shoving black ink with force into my stretched skin canvas. It was two like minds finding a singular thought. I fucking love tattoos.

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