tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48298109650677055392024-03-19T03:21:44.852-05:00HIL-GLE WonderblogHIL-GLE MIND ROT MODERN THRILLS QUALITY CREATIVE NEWSSTAND FICTION UNIT WONDERBLOG
Shy people can contact us directly via email at Wunker2000 at Yahoo dot com.Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.comBlogger323125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-92107397239965064762022-11-18T23:16:00.000-06:002022-11-18T23:16:56.437-06:00Life Lessons From Our Amazing Convention Tour of 2022<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Convention Update</b>: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The overall good news is that I have not gone broke. All things
accounted for, my promotional efforts are at an overall break-even. And that’s
with a few setbacks, most of which were extraneous to my campaign. Life happens
and screws up plans. The open question is whether this is the most efficient method
of promoting the game or making it viable as a business. Its alternative is
using an advertising vehicle. My plan has always been to do both. I’m not sure
that I am at the point where I can gauge how much of either I should do. My
vending gig is still evolving, and I do not have good advertising leads as yet.
My learning curve is damn steep. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Vending at conventions is just as glamorous as I imagined.
It is somewhat akin to my previous career as a newsstand operator. The physical
mechanics of it are similar. Although us dealers or vendors are similar, we are
not all in the same game. Ultimately you want to sell stuff and make a profit.
A number of dealers I’ve met are engaging at shows in an effort to drive web
traffic. And I have met some vendors who operate at a structural loss, with no seeming
profit motive. The good thing about the general fandom convention space is that
it is clean of predators and scam merchants. Somethings may not be up to par,
some efforts may be delusional, but there’s no one on the make to spring a
swindle. And if you are going to deal with the public, fandom ain’t a bad
branch to hang with. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My fellow vendors have been very helpful. It’s a happy
little tramp village, all in all. Other than weather and locking my keys in the
car, the worst thing to happen to me has been an occasional disappointment.
When compared to my professional life, this is a vacation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The following are our list of life lesson learned at each of
the following stops:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Gencon</b>: The nice folks at Gamebase7 got us a demo
invite. I did four three-hour sessions right in a row. By the end of session
four, my voice was shot. Thanks to some spot-on promo writing—which I had
little to do with—all four sessions were sold out. Most folks seemed to have
fun. And that’s the point. Next con we intend to have a sales venue available
and perhaps be on the vending floor. Failing that, we may add Origins to our
listing of cons to demo at. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Printer’s Row Lit Fest</b>: Comic books sell to people
when people can find them. I have been using a few baskets of the comics I have
as a method of helping pay for the table. Although my aim is to sell games,
that market is pretty narrow. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our position was out on the sidewalk in front of a massage
parlor, near the public reading of poetry event. To my left was a happy couple
selling their line of children’s books. They’ve spent a small fortune on
illustrations and printing and whatnot. The books looked nice. They seemed to
do fairly well. To my left was Whisky Tit, an indy publisher out of New York.
They had a line of paperbacks in various fiction genres and were having quite
the social event. In the middle of the road were various tents, denoting the
monied players in this parade. Some of these people were flat out delusional--buying
two tables to promote one book. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Quick: How can you tell the difference between a best-selling
Amazon author and a homeless person?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Answer: You can’t. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Printer’s Row Lit Fest is coming back from the dead, so I
cut them some slack. Their security people were johnny on the spot and all
knowing. The volunteer staff were… Let’s say they there were issues. I was
given every direction to my spot except for the correct one. Luckily, I showed
up early so the only additional expense was to my sanity. They didn’t have that
much of a turnout. (The claim was half a million. In a pig’s eye. Total foot traffic
for all three days was about 60K.) A lot of people walking through the fest
were residents walking their dogs. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I talked to a lot of nice people and that’s worth something.
If I did not break even, I came close. This was my most expensive venture. I
might have done better but… on the third day the Lord said let there be rain. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unless I can cop some canopy space next time, I am going to
give this a pass. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Southside Comic Book Convention</b>: Rockyfest! Rocky
rules! Rocky was set up next to me at Windy City Pulp and Paper and invited me
to this one day convention in Palos Heights. It set up in a high school gym.
Nice, steady flow of traffic. Nice vendors. Sold a few games. My salvation was
bringing some collector’s comics with me. People would look at my little
display case and they stopped. And some of them pulled out money and bought. A
few comics got a new happy home and my tour got a little shot in the arm. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Stranger Con</b>: I have never seen the Stranger Things
show, nor have I dealt with the promoter Creation Entertainment before. I did
not know what to expect. Media fandom is an odd bunch. Creation stratifies its
crowds—the more you pay, the more you get. The promoter monopolizes the concert
shirt trade, but you are otherwise free to sell whatever you want. Most of the
vendors were what I would call crafters. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sold a load of comics. Best game sales ever. I am going to
look into other Creation cons. I’m still mystified by their approach, but
whatever they are doing seems to work. At last, a productive use for tech theater
majors!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Windycon</b>: I don’t suppose the gangland shooting in
the parking lot on Saturday helped much. Or the Covid surge or the RSV surge or
coming off of a similar con which also didn’t draw much. A few of my pals from
COD CON and Stranger Con were there. Lots of crafters, some way off topic but
there didn’t seem to be a litmus test. We had a smattering of self-published
authors (which would include me) and then packs of people selling pots and
whips and jewelry and space music. (I bought me some space music.) And old books
and movies. And I wasn’t the only game publisher there. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They fed us. The food was good. The programming seemed first
rate. Just not enough folks. If this con comes back, I will come back. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Due to sickness in my household, I have had to neglect this
blog as well as some of my promotional efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am hoping to start my tour anew in February. We will have
announcements of our next shows and whatnot here in the Wonderblog. <o:p></o:p></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-47544366069845194422022-09-30T15:19:00.004-05:002022-09-30T15:22:07.772-05:00I have noted the possible end of the world. Just in case. <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PQa6qW6--Z6JwxmLDYOQgR67MFfYlAtmUmJJ7WWF4iDE9hAdVRpNBcGtwmzat9aPztARHQUh0461lRLzpaHyZEUbhL6DmMv8QbeDlfvhxjIP76nvshX3on6enyXWL-3kqh6ogAD0lyznTc98Z20a89G9vQYpIHegJGw-vjrs8gWDkYXDPoKY25ed/s917/Interweboutbin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="917" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PQa6qW6--Z6JwxmLDYOQgR67MFfYlAtmUmJJ7WWF4iDE9hAdVRpNBcGtwmzat9aPztARHQUh0461lRLzpaHyZEUbhL6DmMv8QbeDlfvhxjIP76nvshX3on6enyXWL-3kqh6ogAD0lyznTc98Z20a89G9vQYpIHegJGw-vjrs8gWDkYXDPoKY25ed/s320/Interweboutbin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Russian state television
political editor Maxim Yusin warned that Putin intended to push the button on a
nuclear attack in the “coming days or weeks,” adding that people should “have
fun because it would be a shame to live out the remaining time with pessimism.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">How thoughtful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a blogger I am inclined to immortalize
such words, just on the off chance that this might be the start of something.
One hopes this is not the case. I had hoped to report on our convention experience
instead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We here at HIL-GLE have
spent the last month or so in the shadow of COVID. I was hospitalized for it
earlier this month, as was another member of my household, and all three of us
have tested positive at one time or another. We are now all free of the malady,
although one of us is still not anywhere near 100% right now. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Sort of puts things in
perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">My stocks have taken a
header. This has been going on for a few months. The national cable stock
channel that I watch is now wall to wall gloom and doom, trotting out
prognosticators who beat up the present like a dead horse. With the exception
of the Gold Bugs and those rare everything-is-always-bad types, none of the
Market Gurus can claim to have seen any of this coming. And their current predictions
are nothing more than readings of the present and immediate past. Yep, Russia
is screwing everything up and this COVID stuff isn’t helping, either. Our
latest spate of weird and deadly weather is just piling on. It looks like a
long, cold winter ahead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Despite this, life moves
on. The NFL season got back underway earlier this month. I note that their
endzone and helmet messages are back again for another year. Each message is a
knife in the face to the Republican Party. It’s odd how a plutocratic bunch of
monopolists would turn and turn so strongly against their ideological brethren.
The Republicans earned this, though. Like all bad things, this started with
Trump’s complaints about the league’s tolerance of player opinions. He then
launched into a campaign against player safety. At some point messages started
appearing, first on shoes, then on the backs of helmets and now in the end
zones. Most of them literally say “End Racism” but the true message isn’t lost.
The NFL has deplatformed Republicans and all of their mantras. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The NFL has a hard time
forming an opinion on much. It took them a while to be sure that the term
Redskin was somehow derogatory. Suddenly they are lockstep entirely against one
of our two institutional political entities. And college football is following
them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">I know Republicans hate
lamestream anything, but I have never witnessed anything like the alignment of
all Normal American Entities against one political flavor before. One wonders
who is left in the GOP? Fox News? The Fox News that started the drumbeat FOR
the Russians AGAINST Ukraine. That won them sooo many converts. The National
Review? I still read it. It is worse than the stock market gurus, now prone to
dig into the recent past and whitewash the incomprehensible into a dialog with
a beginning, middle and end. Making it make sense is a bit beyond them, but
they are dealing with the second draft of history. The history they’ve been writing
makes the DC Universe look Homeric. The whole Earth One, Earth Two analogy has
now been imparted to the public. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We have a number of tour
dates to announce, starting with Stranger Con on October 8<sup>th</sup> here in
Chicago. I am hoping to do a convention recap this weekend. If there is a this
weekend. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-35315720226144452552022-09-22T23:24:00.000-05:002022-09-22T23:24:03.702-05:00Replated Edition in the offing<p> We will have an update on our conventions in a few days. Sadly we have had a spate of illness over the past few weeks which has had our fundies in a bunch. Hopefully I can catch up shortly. </p><p>While I am generally satisfied with the retail edition of Weird Detective Mystery Adventures, there are two sections which I have felt the need to revise. The revision is more in the realm of presentation than content. My issues are with the SUPERCAR section and the section on FANTASTIC SUBSTANCES. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLo3A9R-sEkwpx_8JjFyG-njytazxBVyQon0Hma_G5GcnP4K5W-OePqtRBaeO8s_D3a_ChAYiVL9UrgXMjdOgz4brf4-OYXnROhuPOxZpWO_j6RKECOkrtI85FXDVs_wWgKZAVlK2ISdMeCqcj0XdyD9D0d2xd3eBk-J1hPRkBMQZcDaOpAyK4Bco/s1650/Supercar%20Revision%202022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="545" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLo3A9R-sEkwpx_8JjFyG-njytazxBVyQon0Hma_G5GcnP4K5W-OePqtRBaeO8s_D3a_ChAYiVL9UrgXMjdOgz4brf4-OYXnROhuPOxZpWO_j6RKECOkrtI85FXDVs_wWgKZAVlK2ISdMeCqcj0XdyD9D0d2xd3eBk-J1hPRkBMQZcDaOpAyK4Bco/w421-h545/Supercar%20Revision%202022.jpg" width="421" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfrxEv3nRBavkIZq5q_UdO4xQzUWxCiktbua5rSgl7ewdrHN7C_Zw3F530nRGv36xuwCatDhwFAgCQiNtwXIpv-buPwASbduUS4UyWfH8n7Op7tZIgafgL5QScI38mBsIbDXo5LGfVN4AwhG2CNRpGo8DalwEFxLY2kr_GowuBP450XLDmXnN2P0w/s1650/Modern%20Supercar%20Showroom%20Revision%20September%202022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="541" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfrxEv3nRBavkIZq5q_UdO4xQzUWxCiktbua5rSgl7ewdrHN7C_Zw3F530nRGv36xuwCatDhwFAgCQiNtwXIpv-buPwASbduUS4UyWfH8n7Op7tZIgafgL5QScI38mBsIbDXo5LGfVN4AwhG2CNRpGo8DalwEFxLY2kr_GowuBP450XLDmXnN2P0w/w418-h541/Modern%20Supercar%20Showroom%20Revision%20September%202022.jpg" width="418" /></a></div>The SUPERCAR section lacked visuals, which I have manufactured over time. Now that I have a critical mass of suck, I was able to replate the pages. We will publish all of the changed pages here, in case anyone wants to update their edition. <br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-64971839637928828112022-08-18T05:10:00.004-05:002022-08-24T06:08:45.208-05:00Print Ad Reveal<p> I am not entirely happy with it. But this is largely how it will appear.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIrYt2T1AXkPdt99e0kfFY03G7wtzAUyw3X7M_QSFflW6059SR0W5cf2TJpUnsUZHeKxZkdHHK2v970ozPfvPncpW0NzleD4nHln37Wfl8ENxf6F6S59DqibjzsZL2nX9l--eeaY8BW6aVzh6INNx-38NwrrpiI2dsXOldUbMO_D-JFr2LoF6Mgp1L/s1360/WDMA%20BW%20Print%20Page%20Ad.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="762" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIrYt2T1AXkPdt99e0kfFY03G7wtzAUyw3X7M_QSFflW6059SR0W5cf2TJpUnsUZHeKxZkdHHK2v970ozPfvPncpW0NzleD4nHln37Wfl8ENxf6F6S59DqibjzsZL2nX9l--eeaY8BW6aVzh6INNx-38NwrrpiI2dsXOldUbMO_D-JFr2LoF6Mgp1L/w320-h572/WDMA%20BW%20Print%20Page%20Ad.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>More on our time at Gencon coming soon!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDQ_6-ku_xL_Z3UD3MLHpG-jQWFIJ5ezjpdM3LiH7INs_VnGAf4LInPJmmzniTeAqC6b1PvSmFhCBJTqf6ARApfG5amQc5bxVpLVhye1ucZIwzMph_oKmO4jvSi33dNnkzAroMDPEvjSV58R1v2PpurBVoyTB1e3U29GEvmz9tQ1RIHpH6ML6savg/s595/WDMA%20Consumer%20Ad.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="595" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDQ_6-ku_xL_Z3UD3MLHpG-jQWFIJ5ezjpdM3LiH7INs_VnGAf4LInPJmmzniTeAqC6b1PvSmFhCBJTqf6ARApfG5amQc5bxVpLVhye1ucZIwzMph_oKmO4jvSi33dNnkzAroMDPEvjSV58R1v2PpurBVoyTB1e3U29GEvmz9tQ1RIHpH6ML6savg/s320/WDMA%20Consumer%20Ad.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>I'm a little more happy with this. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVTF_ZQwCqpcaF28jO6oosLCencJCrdBWu093T4175Y7mJ5Sej93I4r4LxwQadD9RnaZsVyujIrqLXsgK3mfeLmI2ZqaLYseRQsXifrCB7WAdxsgpcG-6oVr2BdFKsswa3zsSdmvCgbvzo2PkLItJojE-X7W-IO9tMniaGd1kFoDOIqL5hNdfzncd9/s627/quarter%20page%20gamer%20ad%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="440" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVTF_ZQwCqpcaF28jO6oosLCencJCrdBWu093T4175Y7mJ5Sej93I4r4LxwQadD9RnaZsVyujIrqLXsgK3mfeLmI2ZqaLYseRQsXifrCB7WAdxsgpcG-6oVr2BdFKsswa3zsSdmvCgbvzo2PkLItJojE-X7W-IO9tMniaGd1kFoDOIqL5hNdfzncd9/w276-h393/quarter%20page%20gamer%20ad%201.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br /><p>I think this is my winner. Now I have to do a color version of it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiu6Kkegeai4jGS7mMxVX2zyCTFa4A3yszoCWCEchnhZDbbyywAu0e_Joljzt95y2AZVQ6zgHsWGFCNHZ4DOozquZ5Atf2NsUWoiwIOPoHLCnqQrzs_CLN8yWy6J_gmjp-3mKvUT8bMhG6TEPGyNQXClUkqd4zoVEqHIE_oFPHNDj8Nsys7DtDw-J/s677/quarter%20page%20gamer%20ad%202%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="451" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiu6Kkegeai4jGS7mMxVX2zyCTFa4A3yszoCWCEchnhZDbbyywAu0e_Joljzt95y2AZVQ6zgHsWGFCNHZ4DOozquZ5Atf2NsUWoiwIOPoHLCnqQrzs_CLN8yWy6J_gmjp-3mKvUT8bMhG6TEPGyNQXClUkqd4zoVEqHIE_oFPHNDj8Nsys7DtDw-J/w277-h416/quarter%20page%20gamer%20ad%202%20(3).jpg" width="277" /></a></div><br /><p>I'm not sure if I am letting my poor interaction with the artist get the better of me. (Not my cover artist Mike Taylor. He's a saint. The guy who did the Wally Wood imitation gave me the run around.) I may use this also. But I am not capable of coloring it. </p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-17247796093955482082022-07-31T13:02:00.006-05:002022-08-20T10:32:28.818-05:00HIL-GLE Marches on GENCON!<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is my sad duty to inform you that I did not win the billion-dollar
Mega Ball Plus lottery held this past Saturday, although I did used to live in
Des Plaines where the life-changing ticket was purchased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither did Brave Sam, who still lives in Des
Plaines. I’m thinking that living in Des Plaines is a lot less intolerable when
one has a billion dollars. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I will
never know. (It could be worse. I could live in Oildale.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I am sad to say this, but this last lottery loss is part of
a very bad and very long string of defeats I have suffered in my gambling
history. To wit, I have never won. I have never won anything. This strangely
makes me believe that I am due and thus feeds my sporadic occasional petty
wagering frenzy. At this juncture it seems that I should plan to content myself
with an economic fate predicated upon the sweat of my own brow. Shameful as it
may be, it seems my only doable option.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I will be at GENCON this coming weekend, running four SOLD
OUT demos of our fine Weird Detective Mystery Adventures role-playing game. For
a time, I will be sharing the sacred astroturf where greats such as Barney
Rubble/Andrew Luck once tread. (You will note that Andrew Luck and Barney
Rubble have never appeared anywhere together. Although this may not utterly
sell my contention that they are in fact one-and-the-same person, it is
incredibly suspicious—if you exclude the assertions that Barney Rubble is a
cartoon character from the 1960s and that Andrew Luck was born in 1989 and is
already retired. I swear they are the same person.) I intend to honor this
sacred playing surface by giving the utmost to my preparation, which has included
a previous scrimmage of my game plan at DIECON last month. I intend to be in
mid-season form by my kick-off at 8:00 AM on Saturday. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Behold, our latest promo thingy…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDYhq_Sznwztg2X8V61t06xq-qs4gF9iufV6QNnKE7DrTR803YEaJwR1LmRHOVSWKq_hOP26EH9-mpXWSF7XcyYFlGoOmVFemf7M4V6vxwjNltlmxTecUpvUgUtvZw_pvIf1HhpFbGfd--tKkG1Xqa7CqK4kzvVn4BS7WWQX_Hh7THDmdiKpmnKLk/s1475/Big%20Green%20Promo%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1475" data-original-width="1106" height="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDYhq_Sznwztg2X8V61t06xq-qs4gF9iufV6QNnKE7DrTR803YEaJwR1LmRHOVSWKq_hOP26EH9-mpXWSF7XcyYFlGoOmVFemf7M4V6vxwjNltlmxTecUpvUgUtvZw_pvIf1HhpFbGfd--tKkG1Xqa7CqK4kzvVn4BS7WWQX_Hh7THDmdiKpmnKLk/w307-h409/Big%20Green%20Promo%20(2).jpg" width="307" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Our other promo thingy, Weird Detective Mystery Adventures
(the movie) TM, is currently still in post-production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am in the process of obtaining a new score
or going with Flight of the Bumblebee and calling it a day. Its majestic opening
is planned for my web pages and perhaps YouTube once this amazing feat has been
accomplished. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A print Ad or two may also be in the offing once I can come
up with one. (Still getting over my billion-dollar lottery loss, so this may
take a little time.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you are not one of the perhaps 30 people slated to join
us at GenCon, we will be at Printer’s Row Lit Fest and the Southside Comic Book
Convention in September. After that, our tour is going on hiatus until probably
February. We intend to have a strong Spring and Summer schedule next year. We
may even play the Colts! (Not as a group, inasmuch as WDMA is really only
suited for 5 to 7 players.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-72306126532915444882022-07-07T08:14:00.002-05:002022-07-07T08:14:27.680-05:00Another Outstanding Promotional Ad<p> I never tire. I just wish I had some talent to go with my artistic ambitions. Yet another attempt at a promo ad, this one more outright copying than collage. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFhtHNsHJzmsWySd3ShWaPOLp8Gsl2H0u-L6axChPn5D8yu8WuVZQLOa7Wk8EN9A9zkASUGFySZH9stk7lw29n-KmnxSZjfuXzR_4VX2ffUfxUSuKNWdPa2wOZ4vkOdA-GLTk9daMKgUQwbpWBVvA3qO6AOaGtSV77viGrOj120kCdzGJElt7fT3S_/s1492/WDMA%20Ad%20Three%20Final%20V%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1492" data-original-width="1138" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFhtHNsHJzmsWySd3ShWaPOLp8Gsl2H0u-L6axChPn5D8yu8WuVZQLOa7Wk8EN9A9zkASUGFySZH9stk7lw29n-KmnxSZjfuXzR_4VX2ffUfxUSuKNWdPa2wOZ4vkOdA-GLTk9daMKgUQwbpWBVvA3qO6AOaGtSV77viGrOj120kCdzGJElt7fT3S_/w386-h506/WDMA%20Ad%20Three%20Final%20V%201.jpg" width="386" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-12391901494354101372022-07-01T23:23:00.000-05:002022-07-01T23:23:05.127-05:00HIL-GLE Welcomes GraphicNewsstand.com to its Family of Websites <p> <span style="font-size: large;">Our Convention Report:</span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are on tour hiatus for this month and are taking
inventory of our learning experiences thus far. Planet Funk was a lot of fun
and Davenport is a fine place to visit. As I discovered, there are several used
bookstores still in operation in downtown Davenport. The next time I am in town
I will make it a point to check a few of them out. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Iowa is its own universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I knew this from my last visit, way back when during my sophomore summer
in High School, where I attended debate camp at the University of Northern Iowa
in Cedar Rapids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that trip, I
wanted attend college there, but it wasn’t in the cards. Iowa isn’t flush or
lush and seems to be keeping its own time. It’s a well-maintained, out-of-date
place. The people are Midwesterners with a slant towards the polite, charming,
blunt, and vulgar in a seamless mix. Sentences can be separated by two ticks of
silence without things seeming awkward. Give yourself to it and you get used to
it. The whole place marches to its own beat. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Planet Funk, like CODCOM and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Windy City Pulp and Paper has become a general
Fandom convention. They all are taking their cues from the big convention in
San Diego. The focus shifts a bit but they are all doing a little anime, a
little cos play, a little comic book culture, a little TV and movie
fantastic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latest trend is in crafting—folks
making stuffed animals, face painting, t-shirt vending, dice bags and
cross-stitching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its also a forum for
authors and a source of pin money for actors and retired athletes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Programming at Planet Funk centered mostly on cos play and
costume contests, which is very accessible. It’s fun to watch and I would estimate
that about one fifth of the attendees were participating in some degree or
another. A panel on “What is new in Cos Play—Foam!” was announced, causing
Brian in the booth next to me to wonder aloud about the content. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My focus has been coming up with a method of promoting my
game without going broke doing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do
this, I have to create a table that sells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have a nice inventory of comic books which helped make Windy City and
Planet Funk less expensive. But I am a few moves away from being able to make
this venture worthwhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I have
seen selling best are toys and (sometimes pirated) art. If I can produce a few
10 bucks a throw art works and obtain a toy or two no one else is hawking, I
believe my venture will flourish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
using my off time this month to seek things out. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqo7zSLeQkQcpanLaeTtp_aDJZKKIPA_y0vH2vUnkqVOmUS1H1qPx2Cl73lZ34JBz3Q9WbV9Tk7xOQoPHYFz1Ochiz1ZvPFDDzKB6OFv09x4auEjwv6wxDIel-b5LZ2X9zEK8oX1vvfQCB18JbGnELN1nitwkAOG6vukO0Qzh20UMZvOT3vn0rYVZk/s466/BW%20Graphic%20Newsstand.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="466" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqo7zSLeQkQcpanLaeTtp_aDJZKKIPA_y0vH2vUnkqVOmUS1H1qPx2Cl73lZ34JBz3Q9WbV9Tk7xOQoPHYFz1Ochiz1ZvPFDDzKB6OFv09x4auEjwv6wxDIel-b5LZ2X9zEK8oX1vvfQCB18JbGnELN1nitwkAOG6vukO0Qzh20UMZvOT3vn0rYVZk/s320/BW%20Graphic%20Newsstand.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My fly animation is still in the edit stage. We would like
to introduce the following website to the HIL-Gle family. GraphicNewsstand.com
will eventually become my electromagnetic comic book shop and source for all
things neo-pulp. Right now it’s a space holder. I will also be working on
Vortex of Cute during the next few weeks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is the new ad for Weird Detective Mystery
Adventures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am thinking of placing
another ad in a few weeks and will announce it here. We will have a less hype-intense
Internet Outbin in under a week. <o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi52z4EHszt6NLTV8LZpXoCpEY165_g_aTvVDEUMcf6dN7K45tipd1tgUJqdH0E21_x0Kcw3_Or0Gh7LnLdwmG3pKQPq5NXWVMosQ6_5cNOXFUrRPdR_wp7vDrltve3vJmyNwvUI6zm5jmsv_9X33rid9oYRR7utoTaub9tNAWxMjBFDgU19Mev34Ou/s1480/WDMA%20AD%20One%20Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1480" data-original-width="1136" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi52z4EHszt6NLTV8LZpXoCpEY165_g_aTvVDEUMcf6dN7K45tipd1tgUJqdH0E21_x0Kcw3_Or0Gh7LnLdwmG3pKQPq5NXWVMosQ6_5cNOXFUrRPdR_wp7vDrltve3vJmyNwvUI6zm5jmsv_9X33rid9oYRR7utoTaub9tNAWxMjBFDgU19Mev34Ou/w297-h386/WDMA%20AD%20One%20Final.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><br /><br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-37426551705511944442022-06-22T07:42:00.002-05:002022-06-22T07:42:28.839-05:00New PromoAd<p> Eh... it's close. It's as close to unisex marketing as I can come to. I was going to stick "Against The Coven" or some sort of rot on here, but then I thought "Why can't they be heroes, too?" I need to find a slightly more heroic backdrop, but I think I am close here. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XzkuNJgJjFvfQPvEcfdEy7adbHmWGW-d2jVVw6xgmPUumqbK45mSfE8UAXkD0WLJ0I8MN4JuRbyvvgDSlBesTU8DR2unYHgILM2_G2ovF9rFzkDUMGZunNrI_RZSSn39-GUP-AZ2q8c-RdANZ8-cS2pk5CUY9BaAWYKumC9oRmFTcBgDlTnlvpUL/s1500/Coven%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1126" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XzkuNJgJjFvfQPvEcfdEy7adbHmWGW-d2jVVw6xgmPUumqbK45mSfE8UAXkD0WLJ0I8MN4JuRbyvvgDSlBesTU8DR2unYHgILM2_G2ovF9rFzkDUMGZunNrI_RZSSn39-GUP-AZ2q8c-RdANZ8-cS2pk5CUY9BaAWYKumC9oRmFTcBgDlTnlvpUL/w292-h389/Coven%201.jpg" width="292" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-928188465462273522022-06-11T16:42:00.002-05:002022-06-11T16:42:30.834-05:00Our First Print Advertisement<p> We are now in Bachelor Pad's Summer 2022 issue!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYx2HB_7XmYMYqrbKRRle6bQi1ZocACPJBOrNt-rjHIpKL6kRN01DnoLJh-U_pXDNjJZEl2D_x9KiORTV3cc_0bn1zH1YV1jZxTrhgQh945Rg9MzGxQ9p-K_BRqQ4Oy5DSZ1fWo0Rm8bT_CslB0m0uwPJgDWoESssbSe_a8GhFyQV3eUhGbh8tU88U/s1155/First%20Advertisement%20for%20WDMA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1155" data-original-width="735" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYx2HB_7XmYMYqrbKRRle6bQi1ZocACPJBOrNt-rjHIpKL6kRN01DnoLJh-U_pXDNjJZEl2D_x9KiORTV3cc_0bn1zH1YV1jZxTrhgQh945Rg9MzGxQ9p-K_BRqQ4Oy5DSZ1fWo0Rm8bT_CslB0m0uwPJgDWoESssbSe_a8GhFyQV3eUhGbh8tU88U/w286-h448/First%20Advertisement%20for%20WDMA.jpg" width="286" /></a></div><br /><p>There are worse places to be than under Fez-O-Rama. Or to the right of Scott Vaughn and his fine creations. As proof of concepts go, this was fine. Any coloring mistakes belong to yours truly. I am going to be working on ad concepts once our tour is over. </p><p><br /></p><p>Tonight our movie goes into prime lensing. (That's filming stuff for all of you non-Hollywood types.) I had a pre-production conference call with the prime talent and creatives last night. Hopefully our final product will appear here before too long. After that, our efforts belong to the ages. </p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-54509862409418752462022-06-10T06:18:00.000-05:002022-06-10T06:18:06.301-05:00HIL-GLE HITS THE BIG TIME<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Movie Deal and Major Expo Announcement!</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHnf2J5bArdOq0tMCZSlXo9Q54DXpnQ4mpsF9SlZQcS8WB3x9vg8CAX4G2VzvdeX3NZDM6dIhCCeHHAvK5CN65UnwQWCszB43U4MWzc035PuPqipdlJH8yBV9uvZaXpnMhExW7qnzgTXHMruGP6moaEPOBvIpuRd3Jcl9Q0gXczJFvAQpn6Hgmr-u/s1217/HIL%20GLE%20Booth%20Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1217" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHnf2J5bArdOq0tMCZSlXo9Q54DXpnQ4mpsF9SlZQcS8WB3x9vg8CAX4G2VzvdeX3NZDM6dIhCCeHHAvK5CN65UnwQWCszB43U4MWzc035PuPqipdlJH8yBV9uvZaXpnMhExW7qnzgTXHMruGP6moaEPOBvIpuRd3Jcl9Q0gXczJFvAQpn6Hgmr-u/w430-h247/HIL%20GLE%20Booth%20Sign.jpg" width="430" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Brave Sam and myself had a great time at DIECON.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We met a lot of interesting folks and even
sold a few books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like to thank
everyone who played in our inaugural demo sessions. The same scenario will be
run at several sessions during the upcoming GENCON in Indianapolis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are headed to Planet Funk in the Quad Cities at the end
of the month. We may have some details to announce about that appearance coming
shortly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span style="color: #030303; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We are headed to Printer’s Row Lit Fest September 10 & 11,
2022.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #030303; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Printers Row Lit
Fest is the largest free outdoor literary showcase in the Midwest. It will be
taking place along Dearborn Street, from Dearborn Station to Ida B. Wells Drive
(formerly Congress Parkway). HIL-GLE will have its very own table on the
sidewalk (somewhere) where yours truly will be sitting with copies of our masterpiece
Weird Detective Mystery Adventures and absolutely no protection from the
environment whatsoever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will possibly be
rained on, melted, or pelted while an estimated 100,000 people walk by… hopefully
one or two buying a book. In any case, I am hoping that it will be quite an
affair. This momentous event will mark the end of our summer promotional
campaign, after which we will award our fine raffle winner. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #030303; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Later this week,
perhaps Saturday, HIL-GLE will be filming the Weird Detective Mystery
Adventures movie. Weird Detective Mystery Adventures, the movie would cost
Major Studio Dollars at the standard length of one and 7/10<sup>th</sup> hours,
features a cast and is replete with many pre and post-production effects,
including but not limited to a rented car. A screening of this film may appear
in multiple venues as it is intended for the widest release possible. Our
hearts are already pounding in anticipation!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #030303; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Watch this space for
more amazing announcements!<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span><p></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-63852575418666462082022-05-24T18:13:00.012-05:002022-05-24T18:17:11.237-05:00HUGE CONVENTION NEWS (PENDING)!<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Balloonist SF",sans-serif">Our
biggest convention appearance yet is in the offing!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;">No, not
Gencon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As of right now, we will be
running four demo sessions at GENCON, all on Saturday. When we have the slot
numbers, we will release them here. The demo itself will premier at DIECON in
Collinsville on June 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup>. It is not a published
scenario and will appear here on the Wonderblog after I have retired it. That
said, we are not formally vending at Gencon, nor are we official guests of the
con. Until I get the lowdown on how I can promote this, all I can say is that
there will be several sessions of Weird Detective Mystery Adventures run in the
gaming area on Saturday. It is not a progressive scenario. There is no need to
sign up for more than one session. More on this later. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;">In some
ways, it’s bigger than Gencon. In other ways, it’s somewhat off the mark as far
as demographics are concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot is
going to depend on weather conditions, Covid, and turn out. They have taken my money.
All I need now is a formal confirmation. It’s huge! It’s the one we wanted!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;">As you
may recall, we intended to premier our Weird Detective Mystery Adventures
masterpiece at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention but wound up hitting CODCOM
first instead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Windy City had booked solid,
and we had to wait for a cancellation. Thankfully there was one and we got in. Our
virgin effort at CODCOM was fairly good and Windy City was worthwhile on several
levels. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Balloonist SF",sans-serif">My takeaways
from Windy City</span>. <span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;">Most
of the booksellers I spoke with are not interested in handling games—or at
least those sellers who are sticking with brick and mortar. The majority of the
vendors were moving online or were online exclusively already. Of my fellow
publishers, few had any retail presence. Most of them were POD oriented or were
shipping online themselves. Mind you, Windy City is more an antiquarian niche
convention than a gaming convention, but the model used seems prevalent. This
is making me question my retail stores first strategy. The retail strategy
impacts consumer price because I have to leave meat on the bone for the store
and various middlemen. It is the vig middlemen are demanding which is actually
sucking the fun out of my project, since it seems to be on a cost plus sliding
scale basis. As a certified contract manager, I am not signing a cost plus
contract with anyone ever. Only arms merchants and hobby game distributors (and
big box retailers) foist these gems on the unwary. All of this has given me
some food for thought. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did make some
sales at Windy City and the comics we peddled covered the cost of the table. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;">Thanks
to networking at Windy City, we expanded the tour to the Southside Comic Show.
We may also have one other convention to announce besides the BIG ONE. Also thanks
to networking at Windy City, Weird Detective Mystery Adventures will be running
its first print advertisement in the Summer 2022 issue of Bachelor Pad
magazine. You can check out its website at www.</span><span style="background: white; color: #006621; font-family: Roboto;">bachelorpadmagazine.com</span>. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_hlWO6iywAIM4IJDsTNRqToJBcuPKagxHhNTbJuEZXlpDA2HmnCTYu1JJlAzrgHepSflV2iSSFYtgwdgB5NAYukOF2_8-qbNz0TmwlalwziNCPZBO9X78bqD2QDvpY_NuInL8ZiOmnQrWfGsnqM2CoUlNyVoperEzTX_5VJtTRR7P9pgAcNVAeot/s603/Bach%204%20inch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="399" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_hlWO6iywAIM4IJDsTNRqToJBcuPKagxHhNTbJuEZXlpDA2HmnCTYu1JJlAzrgHepSflV2iSSFYtgwdgB5NAYukOF2_8-qbNz0TmwlalwziNCPZBO9X78bqD2QDvpY_NuInL8ZiOmnQrWfGsnqM2CoUlNyVoperEzTX_5VJtTRR7P9pgAcNVAeot/s320/Bach%204%20inch.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #006621; font-family: Roboto;">My pal Brave Sam will be joining us at DIECOM, manning the table while I
am away doing demo stuff. I will let you know our table number when I can.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #006621; font-family: Roboto;"><span style="background-color: white;">ALSO: WEIRD DETECTIVE MYSTERY ADVENTURES is going to be a MOVIE! Watch this space as details unfold. </span></span></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-52728688927220554612022-05-14T18:20:00.003-05:002022-05-14T18:20:50.471-05:00Newsweek Not to Be Believed<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4Ex-uMME90nx9laqbwzkXWPGUrPngiebsClN5eTpq3PvDl_Ph68Inhrqb4TFb6mYjU_1LIoDPfJKiODCk6yfetVvYxkvJfTzAFbj9XlpK21r0JcBji31NX3WfNTTqfpXbyTTQYXStydcJAHAC1RY2K7BWb9ihhD0Iyg6Sbha67Oo0OsYT61tHxn6/s1201/Magazinemusings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="1201" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4Ex-uMME90nx9laqbwzkXWPGUrPngiebsClN5eTpq3PvDl_Ph68Inhrqb4TFb6mYjU_1LIoDPfJKiODCk6yfetVvYxkvJfTzAFbj9XlpK21r0JcBji31NX3WfNTTqfpXbyTTQYXStydcJAHAC1RY2K7BWb9ihhD0Iyg6Sbha67Oo0OsYT61tHxn6/s320/Magazinemusings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Once upon a time, I had a subscription to Newsweek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Founded by the Washington Post, Newsweek covered
much the same ground as Time magazine in its heyday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It and U.S. News and World Report provided a
more plain language counterweight to the haughty Time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of its mandate Time invented new language,
deliberately created its own compressed reporting style and appointed People of
the Year. Time assumed that it had weight and proceeded accordingly. U.S, News
and Newsweek offered English translations of Time, for people who weren’t into
the whole thought experiment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All three magazines have become relics of the past. Time
ceased being meaningful round about half past the point where a television appeared
in every living room. Newsweek held on as a method of burnishing the national
reputation of the Washington Post organization. U.S. News took the unusual
tactic of heading upscale, becoming an American version of England’s Economist.
None of them did well in the modern era. Both Time and U.S. News took to running
stunt issues or simply pulling stunts. (1) Today the haughty School Ratings
Guide is all that remains of U.S. News. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Newsweek had the most tragic fall, as we detailed in this
blog at the time. First, its parent company became taken over by an academic testing
firm. (2)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the start of the last print
downturn, the firm decided to offload all of its news assets—essentially giving
the Washington Post away to the owner of Amazon and then freebie garage selling
Newsweek to… Harmon-Cardin Speakers… then the Daily Beast… and then a pernicious
end of the world cult. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please be advised that Newsweek is still the possession of a
split off of the Unification Church, a truthfully dubious Ponzi scheme in the
form of a religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this incarnation,
the purpose of the Newsweek trademark is to act as click bait for advertising
media. Any story which surfaces on their pages has to be judged from this
perspective first. There is no actual newsgathering institution informing its
choices or abiding by any known journalistic standard. Much of what they have
reported previously has turned out to be TRUE CRIME PULP FICTION. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While we at Hil-Gle love us some pulp fiction, we prefer the
more clearly labeled as sensationalist type. We mention Newsweek’s current pedigree
only because its words are being reflected as truth by legitimate outlets. In
all likelihood the reporting that Vlad Putin has leukemia or “blood cancer” is erroneous.
It is more probable that it has no source at all. Not that Newsweek’s heart isn’t
in the right place, but rather that they are not disclosing their methodology. The
cult’s doctrine is that if something is believed in widely or earnestly enough,
it will become true. From their mouths to God’s ear. This story is doing double
duty in priming the wish pump and drawing eyes to their usual flow of nonsense.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am not about to debate the efficacy of their operant
cosmology. I would just like to point out what it is. Until Newsweek is in
other hands it may be safely disregarded. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Time took the weird tactic of attempting to
outrage the masses. This was always a part of its presentation, however at
about the O.J. Simpson cover on, it became their meat and potatoes. Alienating
middle America has its consequences, as it and Rolling Stone later found out.
Recently Time was offloaded from what had been Time/Warner (formerly AOL/Time-Warner
and Warner Seven Arts) and traded for gum money by AT&T along with cash cow
sister rag People Magazine to a firm which actually likes being in magazine
business. The new firm is now attempting to define what an international news
digest actually is. The verdict isn’t in yet but we wish them the best of luck.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Very long story, short. The testing firm was an
investment, something with a small but predictable income that would help the
Washington Post wean itself off of reliance on the spectacularly erratic
advertising income cycle. And it was a good investment, one that grew both in
size and profitability to the point that it dwarfed its parent company. Then
the Washington Post and Newsweek started bleeding red ink with no end in sight
and liability which hampered the testing firm’s continued expansion. Eventually
someone who could read a spreadsheet without sentimentality showed up and made
the obvious choice. Bad news for the Washington Post and Newsweek, but good
news for the heirs of fatcat press barons. Our fairy tale ends happily with the
rich people staying rich and no longer having to bother with a grimy public
information trust. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-46645140741986491232022-05-02T07:26:00.000-05:002022-05-02T07:26:19.410-05:00ON FOOTBALL<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNZfgZ8NkM283G5LR9rolm0rXtoEfMFlvwQSUkHT4mNoaFewhb_E9RQFHDK6iZs2vKi-XI5H7N7fkA6H9RiCzstQ5SodZAnL0gopKd_xBRiXPqPTaO1ouMXlOaRv8wI1TJpQ4qgWdQu28d9KtIBJKFKe2HTmmg0Wvzg6072OViK5oKgO-UTeDgkX_/s226/SpringfieldRifles.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="226" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNZfgZ8NkM283G5LR9rolm0rXtoEfMFlvwQSUkHT4mNoaFewhb_E9RQFHDK6iZs2vKi-XI5H7N7fkA6H9RiCzstQ5SodZAnL0gopKd_xBRiXPqPTaO1ouMXlOaRv8wI1TJpQ4qgWdQu28d9KtIBJKFKe2HTmmg0Wvzg6072OViK5oKgO-UTeDgkX_/s1600/SpringfieldRifles.GIF" width="226" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">This week my mother was annoyed by the NFL Draft pre-empting
Wheel of Fortune.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not to cut the NFL
short, but as a television program with entertainment potential, the wonderous
wheel—America’s Game—has it all over a stage of rotating twenty-year-old men in
suits being chosen for gladiatorial combat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Past day one, some of these guys are iffy as far as making the teams
they are drafted by. Yet there is an undeniable interest in hearing a parade of
them thank Jeebus, their families, their college coaches, their new fans and
then walk off into some room to become an instant millionaire. Some of them
will go onto genuine gridiron greatness and others to about four years of
brutality followed by a lifetime of physical disability. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The NFL has one good thing going. It’s too good, which is
why numerous parties take turns at trying to take a slice of its action. The
brand spanking new USFL is the latest to try. Before going into how they are
faring a short briefing is in order about what the NFL is in competition with
and what inherent barriers there are to getting into its business. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxj_seuHTuYSMmrCa4vSYz27jDc-eGDanz3i-xCgZ0Qz9ALqrxg_ckdwJMeu1rCmxePX4GnIQo2RvFu9QQ38pgXhBkus5YitDsHeAqcuUKJZlddGhWYrENSwQ3zbKzLop0kV0bx-5xTU0S1cjqQo7uz7CKcT6FNcpSigAi-jrVmgI9sCzOUREr1bm/s248/newusfl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="248" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxj_seuHTuYSMmrCa4vSYz27jDc-eGDanz3i-xCgZ0Qz9ALqrxg_ckdwJMeu1rCmxePX4GnIQo2RvFu9QQ38pgXhBkus5YitDsHeAqcuUKJZlddGhWYrENSwQ3zbKzLop0kV0bx-5xTU0S1cjqQo7uz7CKcT6FNcpSigAi-jrVmgI9sCzOUREr1bm/s1600/newusfl.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Most of us are familiar with the NFL’s Football product.
Football evolved out of the same base set of rules as soccer and rugby,
reaching its current form after the intervention of Teddy Roosevelt. As
originally envisioned, it was something like a group boxing match and a track
meet. Eventually they threw in a game of catch. It has a ridiculous number of
rules—on a par with cricket—some of which make limited sense (the ground cannot
cause a fumble). It is also steeped in jargon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can understand none of this and still enjoy
the game. (1)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It's a proven winner. Fifty years ago, a cable TV station
put the image of a football on its channel for an hour and it outdrew most of
the competition. Given its attraction as a consumer product, there is a lot of
football about. How much? The NFL has 32 teams with a legitimate ability to
expand a bit further. They are not, however, the biggest distributor of
football as a product. It is primarily and most efficiently promoted by
American colleges. The American college system fields 664 teams and out-earns
and out-draws the NFL by exponents. (2) About half of these college teams feed
into the TV football ecosystem to some degree. Maybe 40 of them would be more
valuable than NFL teams if they were independent ventures and perhaps half of
them would be viable as stand-alone businesses. In short, the colleges are the
big monkey in the football field. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Prior to the 1950s, the NFL was a sideshow venture. Started
in the 1920s and arising from the athletic club movement (which brought us
baseball), the pros were slipshod affairs, existing primarily to allow the
better college players to pick up some extra cash on Sundays. The NFL itself
only secured its position as the primary purveyor of pro football after a
series of mergers, first with the All-American Football Conference and later
with the American Football League. It was a Darwinist affair for most of its
early history, with a staggering 49 NFL teams having folded shop. It’s been
fairly healthy since the mid-1960s. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFoT23FV_52kRSDOGEtMhdvQdVq-bFh_1TSR9uB0stUqkDdtgig3Hb-iwLFGysQvZ8InIy7mM9k0uhKuXrk0ty-T6Lo33RVnSAU2pUiWeVUSouYMtEHC0_rTOYbP1x56NKLW-Aa-QTCanUW-WwJ_MefpOvofhvN6wJtKRnHq15Bilkaacg8ulQHCk5/s121/AFLOfficial.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="121" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFoT23FV_52kRSDOGEtMhdvQdVq-bFh_1TSR9uB0stUqkDdtgig3Hb-iwLFGysQvZ8InIy7mM9k0uhKuXrk0ty-T6Lo33RVnSAU2pUiWeVUSouYMtEHC0_rTOYbP1x56NKLW-Aa-QTCanUW-WwJ_MefpOvofhvN6wJtKRnHq15Bilkaacg8ulQHCk5/s1600/AFLOfficial.bmp" width="121" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">The NFL, AFL and AAFC all proved that there was room for a
little more football, provided that they did something different than the
colleges. By different, I mean they played on Sunday as opposed to Saturday.
They filled the TV gap left by the colleges on Sunday. This has been the key to
the most profitable sporting venture in the history of the universe. (3) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">NFL team expansion in modern times has been sluggish and
goofy. By comparison, the top tier of college football has its teams divided up
in proportion to population centers. It has every TV market covered with its
top 133 teams. The NFL’s real expansion is an encroachment in times
played—first Monday, then Thursday, then additional games on Sunday, then on
Saturdays after the college season has ended. The NFL’s entire business plan
has amounted to playing when the colleges don’t. This has given the NFL the
ability to market its mere 32 big city clubs (with two teams each in Los Angeles
and New York City) as national or super-regional entities. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As business plans go, it’s indefensible. In a more rational
universe, the owners of the 133 teams would claw the time back or extend their
seasons. The colleges only achieved their dominating positions by making it
impossible for the original athletic club teams to compete at scale. Little mom
and pop athletic clubs, usually adjuncts of ethnic non-profit social
organizations, had to rent their staging areas. Originally the colleges were
willing to allow these teams use of their track and field facilities (or polo
ground)… until they smelled that there was money in it. And thus the National
College Athletic Association was born, building stadiums to scale and swamping
the mom and pops into oblivion. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While colleges are no more in the business of entertaining
the public than the Knights of Columbus are, money is money and successful
fundraising phenomena is precious. I’m not qualified to debate the ethics of
this nor decry the non-profit model. It isn’t restricted to the colleges. The
NFL’s Green Bay Packers are effectively a non-profit. As anyone who has lived
near a giant hospital will tell you, non-profit does not mean without profit or
prospects for expansion. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The colleges have passed rules, largely to police
themselves, which inadvertently has allowed the NFL to thrive. Only they have
the muscle to nudge the NFL from its roost. Until a moment of collective
college football clarity happens, others with less in the way of endowment have
incentive to dethrone the pro kings. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6zxTbFwgiMYGDOWAE9fpUYj1-AtpyxN-Qhlaja855wMvsgr7KvRTMGKO_rojdOhDDlgDzjim8vuo4jNTCFS8QMmzMej68GysA8bNHZznaeombjJSDjkrisYI8aAaF1P51UBz74D-C5_U1jvrJ_Whu9cQzWIh2teS4oJRvit3Ku4Zh2S89k3j-45z/s139/WFL2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="139" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6zxTbFwgiMYGDOWAE9fpUYj1-AtpyxN-Qhlaja855wMvsgr7KvRTMGKO_rojdOhDDlgDzjim8vuo4jNTCFS8QMmzMej68GysA8bNHZznaeombjJSDjkrisYI8aAaF1P51UBz74D-C5_U1jvrJ_Whu9cQzWIh2teS4oJRvit3Ku4Zh2S89k3j-45z/s1600/WFL2.bmp" width="139" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Every two years or so someone takes a swipe. Two ventures,
the XFL and the current incarnation of the USFL, are stalking horses for the
television networks themselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>TV gives
the NFL all of its money. Many in network land are wondering why. The game’s
money comes from television and television is what television networks do. Why
can’t a TV network employ football players directly? This is the outline of the
XFL and USFL experiments. (4) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Prior experiments had a different methodology. The
Continental Professional Football League was one of several attempts to make a
national minor league system, a paying alternative to college football. It
built out from secondary and suburban markets, hoping to profit, as minor
leagues do, by seasoning players destined for the pros. It floundered after changing
its focus mid-stream and then not settling on any sort of mutual strategy.
Muddling up the plan mid-res also did in the World Football League and the
original United States Football League. The Canadian Football League’s abortive
expansion into the US was similar to Continental’s as far as choice of markets
was concerned but turned out to be under-funded. Underfunding is the shorthand
post-mortem for the original XFL, the later incarnation of the United Football
League and the Alliance of American Football. An unwillingness to stick out
early losses doomed the NFL’s own prodigies the Arena Football League and the World
League of American Football/NFL Europe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One might contend that running a football league is an iffy
prospect, even if you know what you are doing and have the money to do it. Without
going point by point, I don’t believe that there actually has been a credible
effort to take on the NFL as yet. There are considerable barriers to going
after the NFL which need to be addressed correctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Briefly, these are:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*Big City Domination. The NFL has the best football venues
in the top 27 markets in which they operate. In most cases, the NFL team does
not own the stadium nor enjoy any exclusive rights to preempt others from
playing in it. That said, this is a bit of a trap. What the NFL does have
nailed down are all of the Sunday dates and best time slots for these venues.
In most places, the NFL team is the sole or marquee tenant of the stadium. Playing
in the same places and paying the same rental rates as NFL teams is
demonstrably a bad tactic for startup leagues. Why rent a 60,000-seat stadium
when you are only likely to sell 30,000 tickets? Nearly every big city market
has alternative venues, many at just the size a smaller venture requires. An
unwillingness to start small and get bigger has doomed the majority of the
NFL’s prospective competitors. Secondly, most of the population is outside of
the influence of the top 27 markets. It seems to make more sense to set up in a
smaller market—or barnstorm several cities. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*Good will. This is the currency of all sports teams and it
is hard to mint. Many sports teams have generational followings. People follow
the teams they grew up following and pass on the affliction to their children.
Some NFL teams are ancient. It’s not an insurmountable problem since there are
also people who are attracted by novelty or like the idea of getting in on the
ground floor of something new. A new league would be at something of a
disadvantage, especially teams locating in NFL mega metros. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*The NFL already has all the best players. This is true if
you compete with the NFL on its current terms. Both the NFL and the top 40
college teams differentiate themselves through player size. You largely need to
be a giant to play in the NFL. Many perfectly wonderful players are not
considered for the NFL or the other 40 college teams primary because of gross
body weight. Competing with the NFL for jumbo players may be a dead end.
Instead, if you imposed a 220 cap on player weight, you open up to an entirely
new talent pool. (5)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The new USFL is backed by the Fox Television Network and has
charted a somewhat unique course. While it is only on week two its near term
demise can clearly be seen. They’ve tried to address a few of the issues above.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">USFL Fox knows it’s a TV animal. They are not bothering with
renting venues in big cities. Instead, all of its teams are playing at two
stadiums in the same city. They have chosen the sports dead zone that exists
between the end of March Madness and the time when baseball starts to get into
full swing to stage their spectacles. As with the original USFL and a few other
start-up leagues, they are playing a Spring schedule to avoid direct
competition with the NFL and college football. These somewhat reasonable steps
have been undercut by their choice of Birmingham Alabama as the host city. They
love football in Bama and you probably couldn’t find a better weather city for
this time of year. That said, Birmingham is not huge and cannot produce an audience
for four special stadium events a week, even if they are free. You can only
cycle the sports fan population so many times. We are now on week two and the
stadiums are empty. Fox is piping in crowd noise on their broadcasts, with
comedic effect. Fox might have been better served staging the games in a
television studio or a very small indoor football-capable stadium. (6)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fox has addressed the Good Will issue by reviving teams from
the original USFL, specifically the Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers, New
Orleans Breakers, Tampa Bay Bandits, Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals,
Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers. Given the limited lifespan of the
original league and the fact that none of these franchises have played since
1986 one questions the value of the trademarks. They may have been better
served playing up the mascot names as opposed to the fictional city
affiliation. Supposedly Fox is in this for the long haul—with the caveat that
they at some point will be seeking about 200 million from outside investors.
Let me repeat that: Fox, one of the largest media conglomerates on Earth is
thinking of launching some sort of kickstarter campaign, perhaps using ownership
in teams as its currency. Pretty dubious. If things continue to go the way they
have this week, we may see yet another revision of this plan. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5QECASzCB_WZN6LUgKZByqAhpiab64LK8NEa6_WcGbZqD-X7F2mDbuQ1vd-xwcDnXwebpgKamNzBPuypSvX-srFlrm5gHmtbm8iO-rPFErqvYf_AFCWsuQIEm4bnMZHKRyhSg3pka3WfHX1CDmrRMTht0HOvjbWkv7S_-UOhPvjFsjDuQnEGPPv55/s118/WesternStatesFL2.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="117" data-original-width="118" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5QECASzCB_WZN6LUgKZByqAhpiab64LK8NEa6_WcGbZqD-X7F2mDbuQ1vd-xwcDnXwebpgKamNzBPuypSvX-srFlrm5gHmtbm8iO-rPFErqvYf_AFCWsuQIEm4bnMZHKRyhSg3pka3WfHX1CDmrRMTht0HOvjbWkv7S_-UOhPvjFsjDuQnEGPPv55/s1600/WesternStatesFL2.GIF" width="118" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">From what I have been able to tell, play quality is at a
level below most college conferences. The guys are big college huge, most of
them having some sort of NFL pedigree, they’re just not any good and haven’t
been together long enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My feeling is
that the NFL does indeed have all of the jumbo player talent locked up. It’s a
pity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The USFL can still right the ship. It means perhaps going
out and discovering players or adopting a style which favors speed as opposed
to brute force. In short, it involves innovating when it comes to the playing
of football.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure a television
network is up for that.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(1(1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->One of the attractions of football is the explosive
action, which requires no explanation of rules to enjoy. It is not universally
loved. My sister’s description of the sport is “they run into each other for
two yards and then they slap butts.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The American football ecosystem is slightly
broader than this. There are 110 or so Community Colleges with football
programs. This number has shrunk and is expected to continue to shrink due to
the liability and expenses of maintaining such programs. About a half dozen
regional Indoor Football leagues are in operation throughout the country, however
it appears that this version of the game is going the way of indoor soccer.
Since its heyday 20 years ago, few of the leagues have been able to continue to
function. The small venue operators for whom the game was devised have
traditionally not been willing to foot the expense of running the teams
themselves and few teams have proven solvent enough to consistently pay rent.
Indoor Football went into a tailspin with the Great Recession and has not
bounced back. The athletic club teams which were central to the foundation of
the sport in the late 1800s still continue today in the form of Semi-Pro
Football. Many of these teams are player-funded recreational affairs with about
twenty regional leagues in operation. Other Semi-Pro teams are adjunct to
social programs or are involved in variants of the sport. Despite the number of
organized entities involved, football is a very thinly participated in sport,
with opportunities for involvement winnowing to nothingness for most males past
their first year in high school. This is true to some degree with all team
sports. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->This is an accident of history. The three
distinct levels of football—high school, college, and the pros—abided by a
gentlemen’s agreement to carve up the weekends. Friday nights is for high
schools. Saturdays are for the colleges. Sundays were defaulted to the pros not
out of gratitude but rather because the pros and colleges were sharing
personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Traditions once established
often outlive their usefulness. Being the only pro league left standing, the
NFL inherited Sundays as its birthright. Except for tradition and its sway on
network programming, there is little reason that the colleges can’t take Sunday
away. If colleges were rational actors, they would have done so by now. I would
be at pains to dismiss the success of the NFL as being entirely accidental,
however it is better to be lucky than good. If the NFL has any real advantage,
it is due to being the most rational actor in a field dominated by irrational
actors. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Silly technical innovations and occasional rule
changes are also thrown in. The XFL attempted to infuse its brand of football
mayhem with a little wrestling theatrics, with spudriffic results. Not only was
their product largely not being watched, it was being mocked by all who
mentioned it. The powers that be at XFL attempted their experiment again
recently, only to have Covid wipe the opportunity away. USFL has so far stuck
to presenting football in empty stadiums with the exception of a roto-droid
camera stunt attempted during the premier game. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(5)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->If you go through the dedications listed at the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio you will see one descriptive word used
more than any other: undersized. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not
sure if these players were so successful because of this or in spite of it. My
thinking is that size itself is overrated as a qualification at all levels of
football.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you restrict size, gross
weight, you will probably cut down on injuries and overall health issues. Very,
very few people are naturally heavier than 220. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(6)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The crowd noise is so loud that the announcers
are straining to talk over it. It is also looped, on a repeat playback, so that
the same sounds can be detected over and over again. Fox tries to keep its
shots tight on the action, however there is no disguising the utterly empty
stadiums. There are several indoor venues Fox might have had better luck with.
Both Dome of America in St Louis and the Alamo Dome in San Antonio have ample
population bases and could cycle in casual crowds. Heading downscale are Alerus
Center, UNI Dome, Tacoma Dome, Kibbie Dome,and the stadium at East Tennessee
State University, amongst others. Las Vegas also hold many opportunities. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br />Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-3096650112721402632022-04-27T00:51:00.002-05:002022-04-27T00:51:22.230-05:00Sales Portal to Go Live Soon!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZRIrB6E3buGpTL3n1oYGu2APaOASBiIwA388FGLD9AtaQJAb-y4XFrbUBCkQ1DiTw-GJzz-MV8BFdPV8fQp4Am-J3QfGquNM02KxX5n0sA_1ccYA2oegqkFeBvwx8mp70hWHyePKmBkxfdqLOoDM4vlX2bxWoTOYp_6fzjBFivLEyxxND9-Dzbtr/s2398/flatlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="2398" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZRIrB6E3buGpTL3n1oYGu2APaOASBiIwA388FGLD9AtaQJAb-y4XFrbUBCkQ1DiTw-GJzz-MV8BFdPV8fQp4Am-J3QfGquNM02KxX5n0sA_1ccYA2oegqkFeBvwx8mp70hWHyePKmBkxfdqLOoDM4vlX2bxWoTOYp_6fzjBFivLEyxxND9-Dzbtr/w465-h58/flatlogo.jpg" width="465" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">With some luck our sales portal for Weird Detective Mystery
Adventures should be live by the time Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention
starts next week. In the meantime, we will be selling our paperback and
prototype hardbound editions at conventions through the summer. Both of these
editions are offered at a special Show Only price of $30.00. We have a limited
supply on hand and once they are exhausted, neither of the editions will be
available again. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaxBDPCOkVlrQGl54MB7T7eZ38D8G9BjzngLLjU0NyvQqFrtJ3ajKO8wd8NZ_bKFYA7hA4lWkRJwlsVYRdd-6-MFQNBvEq-w1QMCjHUV30oKBZIYxSK9Ir6XrPLW99Ic6uHc8KKXAtAAikIuAqpe9aHWsdDN00bu_yOvJDajLjCcQmVYpPP1INnI1/s3508/Mindark%20New.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3508" data-original-width="2480" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaxBDPCOkVlrQGl54MB7T7eZ38D8G9BjzngLLjU0NyvQqFrtJ3ajKO8wd8NZ_bKFYA7hA4lWkRJwlsVYRdd-6-MFQNBvEq-w1QMCjHUV30oKBZIYxSK9Ir6XrPLW99Ic6uHc8KKXAtAAikIuAqpe9aHWsdDN00bu_yOvJDajLjCcQmVYpPP1INnI1/w268-h379/Mindark%20New.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Our production hardbound edition will be available only here
through the web at our <a href="http://www.WeirdDetectiveMysteryAdventures.com">www.WeirdDetectiveMysteryAdventures.com</a>
website. This edition features a full color cover, is 500 plus fully
illustrated pages, and is casebound. We believe that this format is as durable
as our paperbacks with the added feature of a hard cover.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkMsW0uUBlNheSKKg9Y6_CRfzsWs1zmYBDPXqOSjhatgpMF6y-bRfVbrrCc7kaNKyvsZMCxjup5CliqEuZak9Tr7hMSnXtU2anAdGNQED-lcnIjfUWm1BLJUhzQ2Y2Hgpzx3EuOId7iSrTxajfv-HCgkG84l_kajdLC1p8W5FRDTusKZAL57feK_aG/s724/HIL-GLE%20PROMO%20CARD%20FRONT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="724" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkMsW0uUBlNheSKKg9Y6_CRfzsWs1zmYBDPXqOSjhatgpMF6y-bRfVbrrCc7kaNKyvsZMCxjup5CliqEuZak9Tr7hMSnXtU2anAdGNQED-lcnIjfUWm1BLJUhzQ2Y2Hgpzx3EuOId7iSrTxajfv-HCgkG84l_kajdLC1p8W5FRDTusKZAL57feK_aG/s320/HIL-GLE%20PROMO%20CARD%20FRONT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">$47.95 Including Free Shipping to the Continental United
States</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Persons living outside of the contiguous lower 48 please
contact us and we will make accommodations for your delivery. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We will also be distributing the production hardbound edition
direct to stores. Please contact us at <a href="mailto:Sales@HIL-GLE.com">Sales@HIL-GLE.com</a>
and we will respond with details regarding our attractive wholesale program. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Persons wishing to purchase a paperback copy may also
contact us at <a href="mailto:Sales@HIL-GLE.com">Sales@HIL-GLE.com</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will hold to the $30.00 price point with a
nominal add-on for shipping. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our two other projects are moving along well, and we should
have details about them soon. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the Windy City
Pulp and Paper Convention May 6<sup>th</sup>, 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>
at the Westin Hotel 70 Yorktown Center in Lombard IL 60148. We will be in the
dealer room. As with all of our tour stops this year, we will be running a
raffle. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirmC-Q_miM9e84LFT7KQ_lsZX8ybe3R4yTRciProEBn2yT_dHltvWvsgmzllUJdoU0BXTG5BmX5pNuxVLLtJzJf5MCBgJ8liVS3DYpcrvsAJOta7obTQSHDV03aHfk6RrFLY6tkYzBL9ugbbEkTUkE6VkU1pjuSqIMmS4YotIS5xkJoNfEmI0P90FJ/s1650/Raffle%20Card%20Promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirmC-Q_miM9e84LFT7KQ_lsZX8ybe3R4yTRciProEBn2yT_dHltvWvsgmzllUJdoU0BXTG5BmX5pNuxVLLtJzJf5MCBgJ8liVS3DYpcrvsAJOta7obTQSHDV03aHfk6RrFLY6tkYzBL9ugbbEkTUkE6VkU1pjuSqIMmS4YotIS5xkJoNfEmI0P90FJ/w301-h390/Raffle%20Card%20Promo.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">I have attended the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention for
the past ten years and have always found it to be a great time. It’s one of the
few places where one can find pulp reference works and facsimile editions for
sale. There’s also lots and lots of pulp magazines and other genre related
materials. Our table will also be selling back issue comic books.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The hotel itself is very clean and in a safe area. It is on
a pad site in the Yorktown Shopping Center, to the east of the main mall.
Parking is free, nearby, and ample. You will get rained on. It’s Chicago in
early Spring and Spring is cruel here. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The <a href="http://www.WeirdDetectiveMysteryAdventures.com">www.WeirdDetectiveMysteryAdventures.com</a>
website will be expanding soon. Pages will include changes to rules or rule
expansions, scenario briefings and an ongoing project defining all of the public
domain heroes in both historic and player character versions. While we have no
intention of making our core rules obsolete through provisioning nifty
expansions (and then scrapping them to make a new edition), there are a few
additive features which we left out. With the exception of typo extermination,
the core rules are fairly set. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sadly, our venerable HIL-GLE site is beyond salvaging. I can
replate it, but the previous content will be lost. I believe its future is as
our wholesale and distribution site. The majority of its features I will port
into this blog and then reconstruct the other pages as time goes by. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This blog will return to a less hype focus in due time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you all for your time and
consideration. <o:p></o:p></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-25037316952937519672022-04-12T06:12:00.002-05:002022-04-12T06:12:21.708-05:00Lessons From CODCon 2022<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAb7lo8i4j0Ub14RDQvhM63JYqFdQxex-ihAwHZnF-6dGIfLTMVt2vDyk9yh3T075oSPCFD9HMnU4r_bSVD38Wh12t4Ppb3x5nDnCvN3kbbqsUZ5ahAGrRayQD4PpgBnM7vSdHMmfma2YoRU7fTIWKaqHGCEDq19jETR3Cd3mcYmhU6T6ibsW61H5/s3324/Promo%20Drop%20WDMA%20Two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3324" data-original-width="2574" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAb7lo8i4j0Ub14RDQvhM63JYqFdQxex-ihAwHZnF-6dGIfLTMVt2vDyk9yh3T075oSPCFD9HMnU4r_bSVD38Wh12t4Ppb3x5nDnCvN3kbbqsUZ5ahAGrRayQD4PpgBnM7vSdHMmfma2YoRU7fTIWKaqHGCEDq19jETR3Cd3mcYmhU6T6ibsW61H5/w256-h341/Promo%20Drop%20WDMA%20Two.jpg" width="256" /></a></p>CODCON 2022<br /><p>As Proof of Concepts go, my virgin attempt at gaming
convention vending went better than I expected.
I did not become lost, drop things in puddles, cry, or set myself (or
others) on fire. That in my world is victory
with anything I do for the first time. I especially dislike the blubbering,
flailing around with my hands part, which is rather unbecoming a person of my august
vintage and claims to stoicism. The mission was to get there, be on time, have
the thing set up, conduct myself in a semi-professional manner, keep my ears
open and learn what I can. The stretch goals were making a few connections,
promoting the game, and perhaps selling a few games. I may have overestimated the difficulty of the
basics, but those are pass/fail items, the progression of which needs to be successful.
All in all, it was all good news. The best part was the people I got to meet,
from the fine collection of vendors to the members of fandom itself to the
people who gave their time to make the event happen.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have been to College of DuPage several times, however
never during daylight hours or when actual students were present. My parents
and some pals used to go to this Computer Club gathering, held back in the days
before microchips became a commodity. It’s an impressive sprawl of mostly
white-clad buildings in contemporary style. Most of the attendees at CODCOM
were college students, either from DuPage or nearby schools. I am happy to
report that fandom does seem to have an active and burgeoning youth faction.
The show itself was a mix of animation fans, costume players, live action
role-players, board gamers, tabletop role-players and video gamers. And there’s
a lot of cross-pollination between these sects. Everyone involved was happy to
be cohabiting the same space as their fellow man. With Covid potentially receding
hopefully we will have more of this. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I had the good fortune of sharing vending space with Lon Lademann
(and his two sons) from Fair Play Games as well as the husband-and-wife team
from Space Gallery. Of special mention are…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Julie Swendsen and her husband Dennis Jones, who kept us all
in a good mood. Julie has life entirely figured out. I would promote Julie and
Dennis further, but their venture Illinois Jules does not have a website or a
schedule. They had several tables of vintage fandom toys and ephemera which drew
crowds. Julie figures that most people at game cons already have games and that
they are most likely to buy fandom adjacent paraphernalia and trinket items.
That turned out to be an educated bet. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Candace Rakow of <a href="http://www.candicoateddesigns.com/">www.CandiCoatedDesigns.com</a>
custom creates fantastic original dice bags in two sizes. Her design allows for
the bag to lie flat when open so that you can easily pick out your needed dice
without having to rummage. All of them feature two quality fabrics, one for the
outside and one for the interior. She has an eye for popping textiles, too. As
a side niche, she makes monsters out of yarn and is expert in costume design.
Her and pal Jenny Mayton are also great salespeople—and nice folks!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Artist Joe Abboreno also had the fandom peripherals down
pat. He was selling clothing, post cards and a great set of encounter cards—all
with his own original designs on them. Joe’s works are striking and on gamer
theme while maintaining the joy of life. The mix works. His fine line of
materials can be found at <a href="http://www.joeabboreno.com/">www.JoeAbboreno.com</a>.
He also creates character portraits and was selling various character sheets,
including one which folded like tent to show the other players what they could
determine of the subject at first sight. Joe’s work is very inventive—and bright
and colorful and fun. And Joe’s a great guy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My own objectives were fairly narrow. “Making the table” and
earning an immediate worthwhile profit was never going to be in the cards.*
Instead, my primary objectives are publicity, fathoming interest and building
up sales tradecraft. Strip this of pretext and I’m a shnook hawking a book.
Shlepping my own designs from convention to convention is the default mode on
this. In order to make that viable, I need more than one product. My thinking
is that I would need to have six or seven—and they would all have to be at industry
standard and look like something distinct. Right now, I have one product with
an add on following shortly. Getting my other ideas in motion needs to take
less than the two years that Weird Detective Mystery Adventures has. My penultimate
goal is to have a network of retailers, which would also work best if I had
more than one product. Either I am going to be a small press niche publisher or
the modern incarnation of Lou Zocchi. <a name="_Hlk100634228">It’s the same
work. It’s just a question of scale. And I’m not either place yet. <o:p></o:p></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk100634228;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="background: white; color: #111111; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">"Everybody has a plan until
they get punched in the mouth."—Mike Tyson<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I didn’t get punched in the mouth. I’m mostly looking at
good news. And I certainly need to improve on just the promotional and sales
dynamics. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Product: There may be a reason there aren’t any comic book
hero games currently in print. Fandom itself is a leading indicator not a
lagging indicator. The fascination with everything super may have died out. I
could have been facing utter disinterest. It’s a hard test to conduct. The game
is derived from the fantastic subset of modern setting escapism. I’ve put the
comic hero idiom up front and player activity is cast in the solver role. I
consider all of Earth-bound science fiction my gaming domain. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidY_BUHrBHj78tuCDSafI9liEDIIWBum1550gb2s_R_4Fyeme1OUbDgnz2adHgQ8RAm6C0TMcw10_Iyq4puubRkcyhJKk7EvZtU64yicLiymB5ga8tv9tNL7Nns-E35NeuQ7Nw-RoL2RsB2Lbo3T_NybshYuiuvw6g0DcDaQtxG2gJlguC5uZWg7fG/s1160/WDMA%20Sales%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="860" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidY_BUHrBHj78tuCDSafI9liEDIIWBum1550gb2s_R_4Fyeme1OUbDgnz2adHgQ8RAm6C0TMcw10_Iyq4puubRkcyhJKk7EvZtU64yicLiymB5ga8tv9tNL7Nns-E35NeuQ7Nw-RoL2RsB2Lbo3T_NybshYuiuvw6g0DcDaQtxG2gJlguC5uZWg7fG/s320/WDMA%20Sales%20Cover.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">Weird Detective Mystery Adventures did not get laughed out
of the room. <b><i>Some fanboy with a homebrew thinks he’s gonna be a gaming
mogul.</i></b> Dodged that. The money I’ve spent on it shows. Weirdly my dated
artistic sensibilities seem to be a plus as opposed to a detraction. The
product screams Golden Age, but that’s not taken as negative. The crammed to
the gills interior presentation works, too. I’m also retro as in retro-chic.
Not broke. Don’t fix it. And the presentation is transportable.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Missses</b>: I did not run a demo. I probably would have tripled
sales had I just demoed the game. I tried to cover this with sales patter. Moreover,
I didn’t know my pitch and I’m not as good as I need to be at giving it. Lacking
a demo, I should have had an active sales portal on my website. And lacking
even that, I should have had cards out which directed people to my websites (I
have three plus this blog). Some of this I can rectify in the near term. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHKEgUyX4v0ZhpWej_Tkuvt_FRfL_UNif_nsk4RdqVfdV0xjqBKa_uaIjkBQgcK2hmcFFGK52uh93bhAb1BwVUIBJWSH4i4bC59XyRW7blKQYoDXZ-JwyjLK_SH5wANM9aiEjZC5yuz_TXxAMj96ERTFe5XUTNur6WKkTIWPF-Crr2peBCzOppZEv/s2113/Poster%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2113" data-original-width="984" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHKEgUyX4v0ZhpWej_Tkuvt_FRfL_UNif_nsk4RdqVfdV0xjqBKa_uaIjkBQgcK2hmcFFGK52uh93bhAb1BwVUIBJWSH4i4bC59XyRW7blKQYoDXZ-JwyjLK_SH5wANM9aiEjZC5yuz_TXxAMj96ERTFe5XUTNur6WKkTIWPF-Crr2peBCzOppZEv/s320/Poster%201.jpg" width="149" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">My sign is going to die before the tour is over. After no
uses, it does not roll up right. After one use, part of it popped off. I will
need a workaround for it becoming completely non-functional. The table liner
left a lot to be desired also. Next time I go full color and not hand-adulterate
my own logo just to save a few bucks.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the other hand, the raffle idea went well and will go
better if I push it a bit more. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our next stop is Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, where
I hope to make the table selling comic books while also pitching Weird
Detective Mystery Adventures to the pulp community. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lon Ladermann is also the coordinator for the Polar Vortex
convention in February. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*I did make the table, selling ten copies. I would say that
it outsold every other game offered at the convention, but that is truly
bragging about being the tallest midget. <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-77881128328352266782022-04-03T22:12:00.003-05:002022-04-03T22:12:49.974-05:00We Will Be at Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention <p> New Tour Date Added!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxudI57CXVE4ZWho0QwD8TjoYWj97Ej-BkhsRUVSwwQgX8CYfl0U6LlwJPuSgIfyYOgbaXvVc4yCBxn6PITNJYTFw7ancopqrmsAzMHXInF7ZOFGmkmtJWdkMThZaEcS8O4W4m1dKEGnJFOdpoIzBr6YMwr0qHp-sUWp3McunvQ7-HoFxWG-PscdRl/s2398/flatlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="2398" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxudI57CXVE4ZWho0QwD8TjoYWj97Ej-BkhsRUVSwwQgX8CYfl0U6LlwJPuSgIfyYOgbaXvVc4yCBxn6PITNJYTFw7ancopqrmsAzMHXInF7ZOFGmkmtJWdkMThZaEcS8O4W4m1dKEGnJFOdpoIzBr6YMwr0qHp-sUWp3McunvQ7-HoFxWG-PscdRl/w464-h58/flatlogo.jpg" width="464" /></a></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-center;">We will be at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention May 6th, 7th and 8th here in Chicagoland at the Westin Hotel 70 Yorktown Center in Lombard IL 60148. </div><div style="text-align: -webkit-center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-39809556291193779322022-03-29T02:49:00.000-05:002022-03-29T02:49:07.015-05:00Another Web Advertisement<p> Possible Placement</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjex1O_2H4CDyKPLxj_vx8GRjuwZccgEzWBDAVH1lJhsIfHcHwhlPikanV0F_A4rCn6Z2D1Ypo6QElkYDAQgSe0OHrd7nmSapevVTsu0ZwNmn4cTIQCmT6MDXdnjJLD2nm6sb2Hx3aWBd1vyn4ng5zqU8zpTzVRR562ihshZNcyYmIEiKZta-njm9Su/s1501/Its%20Got%20Bop%20Advertisement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1501" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjex1O_2H4CDyKPLxj_vx8GRjuwZccgEzWBDAVH1lJhsIfHcHwhlPikanV0F_A4rCn6Z2D1Ypo6QElkYDAQgSe0OHrd7nmSapevVTsu0ZwNmn4cTIQCmT6MDXdnjJLD2nm6sb2Hx3aWBd1vyn4ng5zqU8zpTzVRR562ihshZNcyYmIEiKZta-njm9Su/w516-h305/Its%20Got%20Bop%20Advertisement.jpg" width="516" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-31843919874517653162022-03-28T16:19:00.000-05:002022-03-28T16:19:21.156-05:00Web Advertisement<p> Potential Placement:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzj_7ck8wMeTWd0jJda6h5QRYrP2ixVwUVAWXuzj-lk5poDYfEWk5wYWjDfRHP9McyHu2tHXH2dBO33ypq8I5jjpjfRym1FbKewrWJ2WQrlO1nlimKv4OjxQ_FwgE9TMpHCVDQMXvKlI3RFwZ3rE2J-H5Xyop3KJsLmCsSquPjwMqNqgP1-Q6UYUK6/s1650/hil-gle%20webad%20one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="1650" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzj_7ck8wMeTWd0jJda6h5QRYrP2ixVwUVAWXuzj-lk5poDYfEWk5wYWjDfRHP9McyHu2tHXH2dBO33ypq8I5jjpjfRym1FbKewrWJ2WQrlO1nlimKv4OjxQ_FwgE9TMpHCVDQMXvKlI3RFwZ3rE2J-H5Xyop3KJsLmCsSquPjwMqNqgP1-Q6UYUK6/w548-h422/hil-gle%20webad%20one.jpg" width="548" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-88408767644540284422022-03-25T12:10:00.001-05:002022-03-25T12:10:35.489-05:00Convention Promotion Previews<p> We showed you our big poster. Here are the rest of our Point of Sale Convention Promotion material, so you can gawk in advance and be able to pick us out in person. </p><p>Our Awesome Table Awning... </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyI3Wtepq975LMNqz84W8y3Tf_heMKJ3CztSGNTFdAwe2MtyI97o8ivufk87N_RJXWpAIN0T244goAEgFf0cExUvBz2dLrPE8DZiBxZecd7PPgw_thf7gAFYCQBzAiYc09T24fX6MWFjOsCDxK7PVL6lOt7rUNauSHbD-KdZVmM4xtnEBTd90BMb7y/s6979/web102866388_cv8dbwhcp_proof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2212" data-original-width="6979" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyI3Wtepq975LMNqz84W8y3Tf_heMKJ3CztSGNTFdAwe2MtyI97o8ivufk87N_RJXWpAIN0T244goAEgFf0cExUvBz2dLrPE8DZiBxZecd7PPgw_thf7gAFYCQBzAiYc09T24fX6MWFjOsCDxK7PVL6lOt7rUNauSHbD-KdZVmM4xtnEBTd90BMb7y/s320/web102866388_cv8dbwhcp_proof.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Our Fantastic Promotion Table Card...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-AOL7I232USxS-y9p2k4MaOeGD-cKdtZujrbw0U7GzOLtumsDmL7Fn8vh-PlqO4n9r9a132GWCWjnbQNgFENPtXRxnzTWODqCMBgswzyucBsnxE1xlTXSug1n9EuwWaMY1W_FErkf9BVsFW2PW8ubqnh_vyOtny2CvSU-H1Owp52oDTAXfVa32ZX0/s1650/Convention%20Card%20One.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="1650" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-AOL7I232USxS-y9p2k4MaOeGD-cKdtZujrbw0U7GzOLtumsDmL7Fn8vh-PlqO4n9r9a132GWCWjnbQNgFENPtXRxnzTWODqCMBgswzyucBsnxE1xlTXSug1n9EuwWaMY1W_FErkf9BVsFW2PW8ubqnh_vyOtny2CvSU-H1Owp52oDTAXfVa32ZX0/s320/Convention%20Card%20One.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Our Wonderful Raffle...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMGMalYwO8IcL5aQkxGwTCz4EMuUtj_EDM-jENsNOhyDtB8V-3zZ_o7ZyBd5jHRUSkbMifI70jtUOQGjy_SjmlmC9wi_5NxroNVtO_TN_zZitHQ8n4l6zACJFbye3-SsS8YYtf36FQMNwRe_5cAE8LP8WaM_Mh7_HjzxcwRtYflSipDNYakHCioyxO/s1650/Raffle%20Card%20Promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMGMalYwO8IcL5aQkxGwTCz4EMuUtj_EDM-jENsNOhyDtB8V-3zZ_o7ZyBd5jHRUSkbMifI70jtUOQGjy_SjmlmC9wi_5NxroNVtO_TN_zZitHQ8n4l6zACJFbye3-SsS8YYtf36FQMNwRe_5cAE8LP8WaM_Mh7_HjzxcwRtYflSipDNYakHCioyxO/s320/Raffle%20Card%20Promo.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-76598253586414149932022-03-19T19:18:00.000-05:002022-03-19T19:18:02.873-05:00Additional Tour Date Added: DIECON June 3rd, 4th & 5th<p> We are near certain confirmed at DIECON in the St. Louis Metro area. DIECON is held at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville IL. We may even have a Demo Event (or two). Chances are we will be running one of the scenarios from our upcoming Warlords of Wonder World manual. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJdMayKUd-lWYFmIva0C_6XhQCc9GKWmzD_fajEpKK-VTkYF_W-euxlUZrpRdKa6IS8g46kVr6QPpYmrAb5cowEEkAn1kD5OAt_on-BP1koooyKUSjgHzTQouyuxvgtU6HzRYjkopCqSyawaD2-nYbJWyvQdQ-O6hyxVyhpRYzh-XWTHjxLNVmDhR/s1834/happylogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1442" data-original-width="1834" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJdMayKUd-lWYFmIva0C_6XhQCc9GKWmzD_fajEpKK-VTkYF_W-euxlUZrpRdKa6IS8g46kVr6QPpYmrAb5cowEEkAn1kD5OAt_on-BP1koooyKUSjgHzTQouyuxvgtU6HzRYjkopCqSyawaD2-nYbJWyvQdQ-O6hyxVyhpRYzh-XWTHjxLNVmDhR/s320/happylogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-50147646443686223592022-03-16T03:58:00.001-05:002022-03-16T03:58:11.104-05:00WORLD TOUR NOW ON!!!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia2wosoA2ku-arErezPGZ95PPngAY8ODimRWcYMZXOmem-h4TwZO8axjVjv5mbQB_IifNIJtgugWUErERzxRVz_YfRkv0dpUCgmCEx5vJt0c1NgqH4WSX2uZRSLxU7mAXD07tH5_3xcFmzO53L4CxMnkhKEIyUxQKBKWZt_R7yoplUJBx2wAV7kbXR/s1217/HIL GLE Booth Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1217" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia2wosoA2ku-arErezPGZ95PPngAY8ODimRWcYMZXOmem-h4TwZO8axjVjv5mbQB_IifNIJtgugWUErERzxRVz_YfRkv0dpUCgmCEx5vJt0c1NgqH4WSX2uZRSLxU7mAXD07tH5_3xcFmzO53L4CxMnkhKEIyUxQKBKWZt_R7yoplUJBx2wAV7kbXR/s320/HIL GLE Booth Sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">What a difference a few days make. When last we spoke, I was
all afunk because the convention I had hoped to premier our masterpiece Weird
Detective Mystery Adventures at had filled up and shunted me onto a waiting
list. Woe was me, so I thrashed out with an arsenal of polite business emails
to various genre-related gatherings and, in less time than you can say
carinthropopinopoulous, had two engagements booked and confirmed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will start our World Tour at CODCON XXV April 8, 9 &
10 at the College of DuPage Student Events Center in Glen Elyn, IL. Our table
should be in the vendor’s area.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">We will also have a sales table at the Planet Funk Convention
June 24, 25 & 26 in the fabulous Quad Cities at River Center in Davenport
IA. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">I am also hoping to announce two other conventions. Fingers
crossed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-15514306759907921802022-03-10T07:06:00.003-06:002022-03-10T07:06:33.852-06:00We May Be On Tour Yet <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMB64LNUg3cu7c716VkYBOZDYyC1LsG4aEx7aMW5jZ0EHdX2ETotGglAd1V6U1euqkdRN2fhX9xZVT6x_Ink8frVhQr87u16uA3wgRTemzkriadAGJJgZo-cCovl4ww1qQMOldATojnpqoaLj8sgiuQQ-WOqCaOF-AyoAhIH888cdtcKQ4CXyBGJfj=s917" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="917" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMB64LNUg3cu7c716VkYBOZDYyC1LsG4aEx7aMW5jZ0EHdX2ETotGglAd1V6U1euqkdRN2fhX9xZVT6x_Ink8frVhQr87u16uA3wgRTemzkriadAGJJgZo-cCovl4ww1qQMOldATojnpqoaLj8sgiuQQ-WOqCaOF-AyoAhIH888cdtcKQ4CXyBGJfj=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">I have been spending a lot of my time writing a manual of
losers, crooks, monsters, and super villains for Weird Detective Mystery
Adventures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming up with statistics
and power sets is tedious, but there is a formula to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real imagination work is compiling a
unique context for these disparate fictional desperados and mad men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to give them a plan, a motivation, a
reason for operating which makes some semblance of sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am about 75% done with the text at this
point. Nowhere in my fantastic blatherings on this subject did I contrive an
arch foe whose aim it is to steal the Ukraine. We need to look to reality for
insanity like that. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Vlad the Failure would like to remind everyone that he has
nuclear weapons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From what I can glean,
this gives him the right to take over all states adjacent to Russia. This is a
new fiat power he has granted members of the nuclear club. Even the pumpkin
head in North Korea isn’t that presumptive.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Previously Vlad has limited his hijinks to attempting to get
into the G7 and propping up his client dictators. It seems his battle-hardened
troops are most adept at shooting unarmed civilians. (Similar to their fellow Chinese
autocrats.) When confronted with something as onerous in opposition as Armed
Civilians, Vlad’s battle-hardened Cossacks get slogged down. So Vlad is going
nuclear, or threatening to. Or he’s going to blow the Ukraine up, bit by bit,
and threaten anyone who sanctions him, aids his victims, or speaks harsh words
in his direction with TOTAL WAR as only he can wage it. Because he has nuclear
weapons. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This really puts writing role-playing game stuff in
perspective. I was going to use this post to announce the convention that Weird
Detective Mystery Adventures would be premiering at. Unfortunately, it got cancelled.
Not the convention, just my participation in it. (I may still get in, but as of
this moment I am frozen out.) I have, just this morning, applied to four other
conventions. Provided Vlad doesn’t start a nuclear war, I may get to vend at
one of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I bought this nifty convention banner. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEig6PNx3u4h0hJBQTxlCzwJmk8hABrDlAY7C2fbux5mRZT7-om8SzVTpc7wOqIv1oppuD0l4yh1ECMpYG3U53WmTwWa-hGXBsoY9LsIYM2xpceKjyLddycG5pG73pXgvgjyuyd2UHMWnPNU0I-t2QkjudWIRNFAxcu4InhD2zciLiW3TcdD_oxx6UWb=s2113" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2113" data-original-width="984" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEig6PNx3u4h0hJBQTxlCzwJmk8hABrDlAY7C2fbux5mRZT7-om8SzVTpc7wOqIv1oppuD0l4yh1ECMpYG3U53WmTwWa-hGXBsoY9LsIYM2xpceKjyLddycG5pG73pXgvgjyuyd2UHMWnPNU0I-t2QkjudWIRNFAxcu4InhD2zciLiW3TcdD_oxx6UWb=w174-h374" width="174" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Hopefully I can use it as intended. And not as a protection from fallout for my
horde of canned goods. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I recently decided to abandon the paperback edition of Weird
Detective Mystery Adventures. All of the other role-playing games are hardbound.
Mine should be hardbound, too. Not that there is anything wrong with the dozen
or so paperback editions I have printed up so far. They look great! But
hardbound is the way to go and thus I have ordered me up some hardbound
editions. And… there’s an issue with the case-binding system that my short-run
printers have been palming off to me as hard-binding. It’s not hardbound, as in
folios sewn into a coated board jacket, but rather just a one up on perfect
binding, laser spewed paper wedged into a pre-gummed bit of coated cardboard.
At 530 pages I am at the staple limit for such a system.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While I am not wedded to a single printer, each of my four printers
is using the exact same system. Hardbound Prototype from Printer A seemed fine,
but the paper stock was flimsy. He did a wonderful job otherwise and if he wasn’t
the absolutely most expensive printer I can find I would probably go with him.
Hardbound Protypes from Printer B, who also did a wonderful job on my
paperbacks, was so futzy that one out of three books is bowed and ready to pop.
They’ve either farmed out the case-bound system or they have not mastered it. Paperback
prototypes from Printers C and D have been all over the board but are generally
acceptable. (It should be noted that Printer C was just pimping for Printer D.)
The Hardbound Prototype from Printer C is now in and… it’s acceptable for what
it is but no great jump in durability or overall book experience from the
paperback. In fact, the paperback perfect binding system is far more flexible
and robust than the case-binding system and thus the paperbacks will probably
wear better. And wear is an issue with games of this sort. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I have ISBN for both a paperback and a hardbound. I will go
ahead and produce both. I just can’t upcharge for the hardbounds. At a higher
print run I can address the hardcover’s quality issues without jamming the price
out of whack. I could solve it now if I wanted to farm it out to China, where
slaves would be sewing my masterpiece together as their god-less overlords pound
drums and snap whips. For various reasons I have decided not to do this. There
are some perfectly good American printers who do real hard binding. I need to
coax demand to get to that print run point.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I am now going to go flush my entire head down
the toilet. Hopefully I will be allowed to ponder these things as opposed to
hunkering in bunker with my unsold games, waiting out the radiation</span>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-65631418620446367252022-02-11T07:35:00.002-06:002022-02-11T07:35:27.505-06:00WE are BACK and ready for business (almost) <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">“His motives are still unknown
but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity.” </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxPlkk5lo-UIYa7srvrnjCpxqrqKDSIpwO-Wg6QnqYK7VPPAinV-_kd8tQfZtHMOb_NdYdmQf3I_KjfXYCddp80z_KZFv4Yw_Tw-Hicw5uNhlVirJL-EqkcDOqLsOsBUhpvZVSb0KyP6wTGaiiGKzPiM8oVjyxSqjyNYbxVJhICuAHAGtuc0oaEjxe=s1217" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1217" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxPlkk5lo-UIYa7srvrnjCpxqrqKDSIpwO-Wg6QnqYK7VPPAinV-_kd8tQfZtHMOb_NdYdmQf3I_KjfXYCddp80z_KZFv4Yw_Tw-Hicw5uNhlVirJL-EqkcDOqLsOsBUhpvZVSb0KyP6wTGaiiGKzPiM8oVjyxSqjyNYbxVJhICuAHAGtuc0oaEjxe=w414-h238" width="414" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We are open for business. I am
open. I am in business. It’s taken a while. Several thousands of my dollars
have been incinerated. But I am now here. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">What separates my being in
business from not being in business is actually fairly slight. From a NASDAQ
perspective, I’ve been in business for decades. I could have sold oodles of
stock by now, if only I had focused on writing a 530 page prospectus as opposed
to a 530 page role-playing game. Both are forms of fiction, and generally the
kind it’s not so much fun to read. With a prospectus, you just wave the thing
around and the money just rolls in. It’s like Kickstarter, but for adults. With
role-playing games, you have to produce the thing. That doesn’t mean writing
it. That means having it printed in a saleable condition. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">And thus I mark the start of this
new venture. I now possess saleable product. I beat my own deadline by a couple
of months. There are still a few warts which I will need to prune as I go
along, but we are ready to set sail for high retail and wholesale adventure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The plan now is to introduce the
game at a convention and then start a short tour. I am also going to do some
footwork locally. It’s a vast test to see how much of what I think I know I
really know. I hate this part, however that is where the rubber meets the road.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">My next step is setting up a
payment system so that people can buy these wonderful games from me online. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">All of this fun will be announced
here and hopefully in short order. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-74535451511631704652021-12-04T23:04:00.003-06:002021-12-04T23:04:50.591-06:00Our Latest Cover Illo<p> Our print edition is now a reality--as in I really have spent some money and time to get our paperback edition to the stage where I have something to show people. The hardcover awaits the approval of its ISBN and the issuance of a barcode. I am hoping that will take place shortly. </p><p>Which brings me to our follow-up product in the WDMA line. It's not soup yet, but I thought I would share with you the status of its cover. As you may recall, my original idea was something along the lines of: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRG_gOdV4aPqUhtYA_3CsynDOGUnzyxgnnW68NCvY3s3j_QCo7vBxtlIky8nXBX7D14SltfughgRvs9a7i3NZupTMTBvRLzCXiiclcvSgHC3W-ZXeP-USaZW3ozJEyNMfVLC2zQKJY2-Y/s805/Menacing+baddies+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRG_gOdV4aPqUhtYA_3CsynDOGUnzyxgnnW68NCvY3s3j_QCo7vBxtlIky8nXBX7D14SltfughgRvs9a7i3NZupTMTBvRLzCXiiclcvSgHC3W-ZXeP-USaZW3ozJEyNMfVLC2zQKJY2-Y/s320/Menacing+baddies+a.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Again, it was not entirely my idea, but rather a montage of sorts. I sent my idea to a real artist and then tried my hand at coloring it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlEwFu8clyuYdvTipcLZ7gxDWlZkGs3Tr-HHHLbpbtcvafgOT7YchDZDLHv5V1DStDfEpDY4vMHpzzBT3OKz7an1sNGiFCKidMdaxzc2mp6bR7MyyKYIG9miSiI4LF22ayLLezNDJsNY/s2048/Warlord+Working+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1592" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlEwFu8clyuYdvTipcLZ7gxDWlZkGs3Tr-HHHLbpbtcvafgOT7YchDZDLHv5V1DStDfEpDY4vMHpzzBT3OKz7an1sNGiFCKidMdaxzc2mp6bR7MyyKYIG9miSiI4LF22ayLLezNDJsNY/s320/Warlord+Working+Cover.jpg" width="249" /></a></div><br /><p>I then reached out to my consultants (personal friends) who... told me to have the cover professionally colored. In fact, they want the cover of the core game recolored also. My colorist did that good of a job on the Modern Thrills cover that my own efforts no longer seem up to snuff. Here is the new cover...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGefKnv-hotifnRJ5zeXoaRfeeDgh5hMhJSP87R5_zkus7uz6AP7DGV-eCXHp1snTYSZ3bdOMYoG3-sHRg7rF_jE2HruPFgyhUlDP7E9oeJU6UqbVBvPNv5YagA-J6I-jBDih9I3QMjk/s2048/Warlords+January+2022+working+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1599" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGefKnv-hotifnRJ5zeXoaRfeeDgh5hMhJSP87R5_zkus7uz6AP7DGV-eCXHp1snTYSZ3bdOMYoG3-sHRg7rF_jE2HruPFgyhUlDP7E9oeJU6UqbVBvPNv5YagA-J6I-jBDih9I3QMjk/s320/Warlords+January+2022+working+Cover.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><div><br /></div>At some point I will stop spending money and start making it. It may take a year or so. I but two weeks or so, I will finally have something to sell. <br /><p><br /></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829810965067705539.post-67521580241120696992021-11-18T23:45:00.000-06:002021-11-18T23:45:07.870-06:00Women in Crime and the Twilight of the Pulps<p> <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Note: Some of this appeared on a page linked our HIL-GLE website.
This page and a few others are in the process of becoming defunct. (After a
mere fifteen years of my free use. Capitalist bastards!) Prior to starting
HIL-GLE and this blog, I had a number of free webspace ventures where I covered
much the same material that I do now. I’m not quite egoist enough to port it
all over to this blog simply for the purposes of preservation, but there are
some topics which I know a bit more about than I did before which I would like
to cast new light upon. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">We are starting
this updating venture with </span><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Women in Crime.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_13F1_CtNr0pKTMhueFhXGF69rP0JMMCWDbnDys7_ve-EvJMPO3rMc7hxZP0LasYTOS4XS3eiLIVmVsmMvNodMr_Yk-Qc_DHadaaQWmHHjFPlU0q1gvU7jGS8riXRZ0XRVr3uKWQi7E/s1201/Magazinemusings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="1201" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_13F1_CtNr0pKTMhueFhXGF69rP0JMMCWDbnDys7_ve-EvJMPO3rMc7hxZP0LasYTOS4XS3eiLIVmVsmMvNodMr_Yk-Qc_DHadaaQWmHHjFPlU0q1gvU7jGS8riXRZ0XRVr3uKWQi7E/s320/Magazinemusings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">There’s really no excuse for <b>Women
in Crime</b>. Whenever people claim entertainments of the past were tame in
contrast with today, I am reminded of Dick Tracy blowing folks’ brains out in
four color Sunday Funny Page glory, Popular Publication’s Horror Stories,
newsreels of Chinese monks being shot by the Japanese and… <b>Women in
Crime</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">It really should be called ‘Sex-Crazed
Female Murderers on Drugs’ since that is its entire literary slant. <b>Women
in Crime</b> occupies an odd place in the history of pulp magazines. It
spans the transition from pulp paper to photo offset and from painted covers to
color retouched black and white photos. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqUvh19uzMTvjOzWN7GOdS4wnhOn2Fs5D0UPIe-iFhnWdA3o8JCUqOEDKOZdNdhLc6a7DzbV_-zrQMoaKOlMtEUcZGRglPiWnrDzzueAsK3iAlBR8L0yZQ949wz919vMjY6yi_4lr674/s410/Intro+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqUvh19uzMTvjOzWN7GOdS4wnhOn2Fs5D0UPIe-iFhnWdA3o8JCUqOEDKOZdNdhLc6a7DzbV_-zrQMoaKOlMtEUcZGRglPiWnrDzzueAsK3iAlBR8L0yZQ949wz919vMjY6yi_4lr674/s320/Intro+women+in+crime.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Women in Crime</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> owes
its existence to a ban on the importation of pulp magazines
into Canada which was instituted at the start of WWII. (1) With the flow of comics and pulps from the US
suddenly cut off, Canadian publishers rose to the challenge, fulfilling
their patriotic duty by producing a slew of slam-bang knockoffs of every genre
with a following. In general, most of these simply reprinted or repackaged US
offerings under another title. Not to cast dispersions upon dead folks, but
many supposedly Canadian pulps were more or less smuggle jobs sent over the
border and haphazardly distributed by front companies. <b>Women in Crime</b> is
not. It is a homegrown, all original, all Canadian publication. Moreover, it
was something of an export in its day: perhaps the only Canadian pulp to be
widely distributed into the United States. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Its secret? Focus. The publisher
only had one magazine and he put all of his efforts just into it. Unlike others
in the trade, the publisher, whom I will call Merchant House, did not have any
connections to legitimate avenues of magazine distribution prior to the war.
Instead, it had spent its entire pre-war existence as an advertiser in pulp
magazines--a mail order distributor of flatware, novelties, and paperback
editions of well- known classics. From its start as a publisher of any kind--
offering paper bound editions of the <b>100 Greatest Books of Western
Civilization for $10.00</b>--it branched out to commissioning original works,
starting with manuals on the subjects of art and photography. It is from the
production of these manuals that it evolved into its true publishing niche.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzD3l76GXDElj2xEIjuTG-U3J6VGYChtNX1zaZ8uL5VuJ55tlgDCHHBVrX-zD3a0nbaVCqOElvO3EfT86CM8i0X69FUj_4iYNQawOCi6kZhBup4QsC2R4ERSktW569v1h5TfG2LCHS38/s530/second+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzD3l76GXDElj2xEIjuTG-U3J6VGYChtNX1zaZ8uL5VuJ55tlgDCHHBVrX-zD3a0nbaVCqOElvO3EfT86CM8i0X69FUj_4iYNQawOCi6kZhBup4QsC2R4ERSktW569v1h5TfG2LCHS38/s320/second+women+in+crime.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The ban on American pulps was a
boon to other Canadian publishers, but sort of a pain to Merchant House. From
their perch on King Street in Toronto, Merchant House had been
able to service the novelty needs of both
the US and Canada by placing ads in US based pulps. At the
time, there was a good postage deal for Canadian mail order firms shipping into
the United States. In the wake of war rules, that economy had vanished.
Moreover, the new Canadian pulps were restricted in page count, had limited
advertising space and were possessed of far more stringent editorial standards
for advertising material than the types of pulps Merchant House was used to
advertising in. The Canadian pulps had slated themselves as strictly kid’s
stuff—and that wasn’t Merchant House’s market. Finding a vehicle for their
advertising seems to have been Merchant House’s sole motivation for getting
into the pulp magazine business.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That is, if they were in the pulp
magazine business at all. Every physical copy of <b>Women in Crime</b> that I
have is built around their advertising. As I will touch on later, this does not
necessarily make them the publisher. </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The entirety of Women in Crime’s
editorial is a tease for the firm’s other offerings. And what offerings they
are!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As a novelty house and a purveyor
of gadgets, they were closer to Harriett Carter than they were to Johnson Smith
Company (a dealer in fake dog vomit). It was in literature that they were truly
distinct. By the time WWII rolled around, Merchant House was publishing sex
manuals almost exclusively. Due to restrictions on such vividly illustrated matter
being imported into the US, also brought on by the war, the publisher had
repackaged some of its catalog of naked women as photographic study manuals.
Not much of an innovation. And they were certainly not the first to think of
this. What they <b><i>were</i></b> the first to think of was
publishing fast fiction <b><i>with the spurty bits fully detailed</i></b>. Not
only that, but Merchant House’s core literary theme was <b><i>Depraved Girls
Who Do It in Depraved Ways</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As the blurb advertising the <i>best-selling,
exclusive to readers of </i><b>Women in Crime </b>novel <b>‘Diana’</b> from
Dr. Victor Robinson states: <b>“The Publishers wish it expressly
understood that this is not a work of fiction. It is a true story, fearlessly
told, of women you have heard whispered about. It is the frank autobiography of
a woman who tried to be normal but couldn’t. Although the author has found it
necessary to hide the identities of the women whose life stories have fused
with hers, she boldly tells the truth about them and herself.”</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This ad is not hidden in the back
pages. It is full page, page one, across from another Merchant House offering
for a <b>Pre War Quality Cutlery Set from a Renowned Manufacturer.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Besides setting a sort of standard
for original smut, Merchant House was also in the business of spicing up the classics.
One ad promises that their offering of the <b>Three Musketeers</b> is <b><i>Definitely
not the book you read at school!<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2Yu1v8l4CZFxaEu7p3xUzfI7ETc3DRWH_YT2ArGqj0Kx7lKFF36jfcC05udH5wHu3j2sXgD8pi1LObKDh5PcTmey-MoUaQpPXQ9iHfkpkOf-5BCjETP3QBa5-o9q-NGG2K3V5bLhqCY/s1586/women+in+crime+bondage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1586" data-original-width="1199" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2Yu1v8l4CZFxaEu7p3xUzfI7ETc3DRWH_YT2ArGqj0Kx7lKFF36jfcC05udH5wHu3j2sXgD8pi1LObKDh5PcTmey-MoUaQpPXQ9iHfkpkOf-5BCjETP3QBa5-o9q-NGG2K3V5bLhqCY/s320/women+in+crime+bondage.jpg" width="242" /></a></b></div><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 10pt;">Even today this would be considered a
shocking cover. The artwork on the cover is a black and white photo with an
overlay, not an actual color photo. As these things go, it is rather well done.
Like most pulp publishers, Merchant House shot its production budget wad on the
cover and then cheaped out everywhere else. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Merchant House may have taken
economy one step further by importing some of its interior staged photographs
from Argentina. Very similar magazines with very similar themes had been
popular there since the 1930s. As per the Argentine convention, many of the
models in <b>Women in Crime</b> seem spectacularly overdressed for
their given situations. There is also a certain style to the Argentine form
which <b>Women in Crime</b> seems to match.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The end of the war killed the
Canadian pulp magazine industry. Without the tariff barriers and restrictions,
the poorly executed Canadian pulps were swiftly swamped by
their US cousins. Seeing as how most of them were simply fronts to
begin with, it was no real loss. <b>Women in Crime</b>, however, marched
blithely on.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">And here is where my extrapolation from the original essay goes
entirely astray</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">. As per
my introduction, I know more now than I did before. I initially wrote off <b>Women
in Crime</b> as some sort of one-off smut purveyor’s advertising vehicle,
stating that it was probably using the porn and digest distribution system, and
that rather appearing on newsstands, it was sold in barber shops and pool
halls. While that may be largely true, I no longer believe that it was an
orphan sole publication but rather the progenitor of what turned out to be a
healthy line of pulps from a 4<sup>th</sup> Wave publisher. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I have seven or so issues of Women in Crime, all of which are from
the war years. Sources on this title are spotty. It could simply be a title
that several publishers have used over the years with no real relationship
between any of the runs. The variance in
titles would indicate as much. Except that the variance in titles and cover
presentations are with the book from the start. This is the cover of what I
believe is the first issue. The photographic bondage cover from above is either
the second or third issue<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATTrp9CaW9kB7nJ2vizIfcKF5YCNCoEeAm0qOmZ_7ZhlUs6SkneDcYbA-XLiDJvJidYLdl2E5OuQojNin4AC5GknOdcG_5i0jjQDyGRuCp3omW8hmduhhf680yNAvvZISd-9qMiUnkeE/s1626/First+issue+Women+in+Crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1626" data-original-width="1232" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATTrp9CaW9kB7nJ2vizIfcKF5YCNCoEeAm0qOmZ_7ZhlUs6SkneDcYbA-XLiDJvJidYLdl2E5OuQojNin4AC5GknOdcG_5i0jjQDyGRuCp3omW8hmduhhf680yNAvvZISd-9qMiUnkeE/s320/First+issue+Women+in+Crime.jpg" width="242" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">After the bondage cover, <b>Women in Crime</b> mostly went back to
using retouched paintings which first appeared in other pulps. The interiors,
interior stock, and binding remain consistent—as does an early photo-offset
interior print job. The staged crime photographs reproduce poorly and the
lay-out is not quite up to snuff. It’s not scaled correctly. All in all, it is
shameful and shoddy—matching the layout stride for bad stride with the ads from
Merchant House itself. Clearly all the work of the same all-thumbs hands. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Women in Crime</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
was published from 1942ish to 1961ish, with about 30 total issues. If we could
find evidence of six more issues, it might even classify as a biannual. But it was
not published at all regularly, is not dated, and sources vary as to its
publisher. Only Merchant House is willing to fess up on the issues that I have.
Sources cite Alval (Canada), Detective House Inc and Skye Publishing as its
producer(s). The long and short of my current thinking is that these are three
names for the same publisher. The publisher became known as Jalart (like Alval,
the contraction of two first names. My own personal preference is that Jalart
is a contraction for Jail Art, but I have no substantiation for this). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Like people, publishers have affinity orbits. Several sources
state that Detective House is related to a low rent smut digest producer who
fronts for Lev Gleason (Comic House), and that Gleason and a pal of his are
also affiliated with Skye, and that Skye and Voliant are the same firm. I have
no doubt that all of these people are thick as thieves and that all of them
surround Lev Gleason in some way. That said, I have good evidence that Jalart
and Skye are the same firm. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqpmd4thyphenhyphenORQ-7UYXxTLledNt2c5wDdOidqW7mGEvwICz9TQkeuTFEGntO71CMHmLE5sLFrr1GGUYoCBVOVGpoZ5PHha98UePgOHOOwXt5FIMj9oCAihVoJD6S6Fjr5_bTPunKzNajEw/s613/0397+envelope+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="613" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqpmd4thyphenhyphenORQ-7UYXxTLledNt2c5wDdOidqW7mGEvwICz9TQkeuTFEGntO71CMHmLE5sLFrr1GGUYoCBVOVGpoZ5PHha98UePgOHOOwXt5FIMj9oCAihVoJD6S6Fjr5_bTPunKzNajEw/s320/0397+envelope+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">My evidence, such as it is, comes from January of 1956. A lot of
things could have changed between the time Women in Crime debuts in 1942, and
1956. In 1942, Lev Gleason is printing money in comic books and has no reason
to dabble in near-smut smut advertising vehicles. Gleason doesn’t start
dabbling in other publications until the middle 40s. Moreover. Gleason is at
least a middle production quality publisher. Nothing as poorly done as Women in
Crime came out of his shop. It’s not Lev. Enough said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">While Lev Gleason and a few others are doing well in comic books,
not everyone in the pulp adjacent industry is weathering the storm of price
controls, restricted markets and paper rationing brought on by the war. Under
war time rationing, publisher paper volume was itemized by gross weight and
allotted based on a fraction of previous average use. Everyone is getting a 35%
haircut—and that’s if you are in business before rationing started. Your ration
is zero if you weren’t in business before then. This means that the number of
new publishers for pulps, comics and anything else low brow would be zero for
the war. For the most part, this turns out to be true, with the exception of
Women in Crime and a handful of other Canadian pulp publishers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCj1J3X03DLW5rxFsET3QBohufY75BI-aBqNSqatb1OJR7wnL9Lo-VVyXWLhRnmB_-srCErpQW2g-YuSBEa6-uVUM_Xbg3pzxTq5j-P2oJKB87J0u7prlG4nBJsb-5-ellnpO5MojBszc/s775/third+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="775" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCj1J3X03DLW5rxFsET3QBohufY75BI-aBqNSqatb1OJR7wnL9Lo-VVyXWLhRnmB_-srCErpQW2g-YuSBEa6-uVUM_Xbg3pzxTq5j-P2oJKB87J0u7prlG4nBJsb-5-ellnpO5MojBszc/s320/third+women+in+crime.jpg" width="248" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Canadian publishers, by contrast, are getting a fresh start in
a now protected market. Their ration is based on the circulation of pulp
magazines into Canada—mostly from American publishers. Prior to the war, there
is no Canadian pulp or comic book industry to speak of. The canuks are being
given a competition-free interval to start this industry. Women in Crime is
unique as a Canadian publication, inasmuch as it does not seem to be intended
for the Canadian market.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Printing in Canada for US consumption and thus bypassing rationing
was attempted by a few other firms later in the war. (2) Women in Crime goes
this one step further, since the magazine would have been illegal to distribute
in Canada. Not to paint the Canadians as prudes, since Women in Crime would not
have passed American standards for decency during the war years, either. For
this reason, Women in Crime spends its first span of ten or so issues stripped
of any sort of publisher information whatsoever. It just sort of mysteriously appears
at your barbershop, pool hall or liquor store when it feels like it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">US pulp publishers were largely playing by the rules. (3) The
rationing and price control regime forced a majority of them to cut titles and
focus on their most profitable lines. Comic books were the best bang for the
buck, provided the publisher had the enormous amount of up-front cash required
and the network of special connections to pull it off. This was a <i>you
snooze, you lose</i> industry. If you weren’t in comic books by 1942, you
weren’t getting in. A number of pulp publishers simply blinked and bungled it.
Popular stayed out of comics and decided to convert its flagship pulp Argosy
into a slick magazine. Macfadden blinked and watched its circulation shrink in
half. Fawcett killed its pulps in favor of comics. Street & Smith got into
comics at the sacrifice of both pulps and dime novels. Staying pat in pulps
meant accepting higher prices and diminishing profits, leading publishers such
as Martin Goodman to bail out entirely. A few publishers also began dabbling in
the digest market, producing various prototype paperback formats. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvNUCpr_3hGEGcr76j6xUguUpfH4kpnBC06ZI9EgXUGxjUsemDx2ULN0iESwoAzrRdHho94RF2vHj9gRZAdSZTJ_C-W1w2MF3ZCipnpbxfsZ27jRu05Mf1vUM3Fp9dCH9mb1jfyCga-E/s812/Four+Women+in+Crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvNUCpr_3hGEGcr76j6xUguUpfH4kpnBC06ZI9EgXUGxjUsemDx2ULN0iESwoAzrRdHho94RF2vHj9gRZAdSZTJ_C-W1w2MF3ZCipnpbxfsZ27jRu05Mf1vUM3Fp9dCH9mb1jfyCga-E/s320/Four+Women+in+Crime.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">While all of this is well and good for the publishers, it leaves
the pulp’s stable of advertisers, such as Merchant House, in the lurch. Comics
are a juvenile medium. Digests carry few advertisements. The remaining pulps
have cut page counts and frequency. The majority of pulp’s fine advertisers
have been frozen out. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Enter some enterprising pulp insider, someone privy to the ins and
outs of distribution and printing, but with rather light pre-press skills. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jalart does have a provenance. The firm remained in business
perhaps as late as 1990. It was a substantial publisher, although in about the
lowest wrung of the field as one can get. Except for a brief period in the
1950s, their works have a family resemblance, much the way that Charlton Comics
had one. Women in Crime seems to have been their first child. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jalart was only tangentially in pulp magazines. Headquartered in
Scottsdale Arizona, Jalart’s stock and trade was sports fandom. It produced one
of the first catalogs of baseball cards. They published pre-season predictions
for baseball and football—and special off-season baseball updates for the hot
stove leagues. Initially focusing on baseball, football, and hockey, they came
to promote and cover boxing, auto racing, and roller derby. They were one of
the early prime promoters of professional wrestling. The firm occasionally spit
out sports cards of their own as well as a few comic books, posters, and
sticker sets.</span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFlDlOTnERZnP5tdHLEwVP3_YuGRwBqNqZRIEWz-kzTcS7HekAhyphenhyphenqjRvzej0es8c2vaUHy7IX58UGh_TFZ6V9-vlrpcyc3EKVOCPD6TXILWDGq1wlDkn8FuGpIK5WkyP-GQGnzNOzlHUY/s798/five+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFlDlOTnERZnP5tdHLEwVP3_YuGRwBqNqZRIEWz-kzTcS7HekAhyphenhyphenqjRvzej0es8c2vaUHy7IX58UGh_TFZ6V9-vlrpcyc3EKVOCPD6TXILWDGq1wlDkn8FuGpIK5WkyP-GQGnzNOzlHUY/s320/five+women+in+crime.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /> <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The only name we have to hang on Jalart is Leonard Greene and
that’s from a 1967 edition of True Crime. Jalart is very weird when it comes to
information they are required to disclose in magazines, producing such gems as
“published bi-monthly except for summer and spring” and charging the full cover
price plus unspecified shipping for subscriptions (in type you would need a
magnifying glass to read). (4)</span><p></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Pinning a start date to Jalart’s sports publications is currently
beyond me. Although sports fandom is healthy, it’s history is unexamined.
Whether Jalart started in sports publishing or came to it is unclear. If they
were in it as of 1942, then they had motivation to try something else. The
audience for their materials was leaving for war. The leagues themselves were
contracting or suspending operations. If they had a paper ration as a publisher
of sports annuals it was probably cut to zilch. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The way I believe the deal with Women in Crime went is that
Merchant House paid for the printing and then let Jalart keep whatever they
could get for the magazine. To Merchant House, it’s like having their catalog
printed up and then getting its distribution for free. For Jalart, it’s largely
a shlepping exercise involving a little smuggling and some low rent adventures
in clandestine wholesaling. Women in Crime used the same distribution method
that was being used for proto-paperbacks. (5) As propositions of this kind go,
it was worth a shot. Merchant House didn’t have too many other options. It
seems to have been worthwhile enough to do ten or so times. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">After the war ended Merchant House went back to its normal advertising
venues. Since I do not have a copy of the post war Women in Crime issues, I
will have to take it on faith that they are listed to Detective House and Skye
in the early 1950s and to Jalart from 1955 on. From the end of the war on,
Women in Crime and the digests matriculate into the drug store distribution
system where they and a slew of similar materials will enjoy a ten-year heyday. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilx6zJVoVfoJuebIWhQR8sN2lFJCD6wVdbEdnusyovFJsdgpRO6RABT5W7jPjYmtVm7GDJIjVGagT4VUiudLQXIcezPXg54ndPJhnBE3__sznVmJEaYAzbZtI8uhtvL2rlY0sqB2QONOk/s797/Six+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilx6zJVoVfoJuebIWhQR8sN2lFJCD6wVdbEdnusyovFJsdgpRO6RABT5W7jPjYmtVm7GDJIjVGagT4VUiudLQXIcezPXg54ndPJhnBE3__sznVmJEaYAzbZtI8uhtvL2rlY0sqB2QONOk/s320/Six+women+in+crime.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">There was something in the post-war air. For a few brief years it
seemed that America was destined to become a version of France. We had just
defeated totalitarian book burners. Stuff like Women in Crime became
neo-kosher. All sorts of magazines sprung up. And nearly every pulp title from
before the war came back, mostly in the form of digests or short run
photo-offset magazines. Women in Crime remained an infrequent presence on the
magazine racks, probably because Jalart had developed better titles. Although
no one dominated this market early on, Martin Goodman and Jalart were the two
largest publishers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Every publisher we have covered has a unique spin to his business
model. I intend to do a publisher’s biography of Jalart at some time when I
know a bit more, but from what I can tell their guiding light seems to be
ATTRACT MALE EYES. In this respect Jalart is typical of magazine publishers. It
has a targeted demographic and everything it publishes is designed to reach
that audience. Jalart does have a few interesting twists to its formula.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Other than the sports titles, nothing they produce has a regular
publication schedule. And even the initial sports magazines are essentially
annuals. The pre-season for baseball comes out in March. The football
prognostications, both college and pro, hit shelves in late July or August. The
hockey preview is out in September. Then there’s the post-season in
anticipation of training camp baseball thing, which shows up sometime after the
baseball winter meetings, covering trades and coaching changes and whatnot. That
has a shelf-life through January. In effect, this is a quarterly advertising
buy. As in Women in Crime, Jalart is driven by advertising packages. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-eTIKiDXDZBEFqTOvwMUygGQptGE4fRHwsTdRDkz9q7lN0lMj2ZSJODtN0TPQmZfPLZRagRFmwi2ApnZRxKKYLrFdVKnoIYYXkmPXDcxovhQ75TuF45oRlh_8UUxSY9bN0mXvB4yPJVo/s776/seven+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-eTIKiDXDZBEFqTOvwMUygGQptGE4fRHwsTdRDkz9q7lN0lMj2ZSJODtN0TPQmZfPLZRagRFmwi2ApnZRxKKYLrFdVKnoIYYXkmPXDcxovhQ75TuF45oRlh_8UUxSY9bN0mXvB4yPJVo/s320/seven+women+in+crime.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The package is initially built out through expansion in sports
magazines. The objective is to hit the next benchmarks for newsstand exposure
advertising buys, from quarterly, to bi-monthly, to monthly. At its height in
the mid-1950s, Jalart is spitting out two magazines a month, a bi-weekly
publishing schedule. This makes them a perfect avenue for advertisers with
seasonal or short run goods. All in all, Jalart is your one stop shop for the
entire false teeth, watch, technical school, novelty, and rupture truss mail
order industry. (6)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Moreover, most of the sports magazines don’t cost them much to
produce. The information they are peddling with the mainstream sports is
provided, or at least produced, by the leagues themselves. The contents of
these magazines are mostly grids of numbers, with the occasional square
photograph or “Crimson Tide hopes for top national ranking” blurb thrown in to
round out pages. The editorial objective of the layout for these magazines is
uniformity and ease of use. It’s even two-column
pages, straight through the magazine. I think this focus explains their
problems when it comes to the lay out of pulps, wherein the objective is to
cover as much paper as you can with something fetching. If they are using the
same layout boards (or personnel) from the sports magazines, then they are
winging it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Compounding their production quality issues further, I believe
that Jalart is wedded to its printer. The same bad layout and photo-offset
print job found on 1940s era Women in Crime is also evident on 1950s and 1960s
issues of True Crime and other Jalart offerings. If Jalart is just the sales
office of a printer, their focus is on prospecting for advertising and
conceiving ad vehicles (magazines of male interest) and they probably have no
say in the lay out, other than in the provisioning of art elements. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTQjLDMQGTbBXGXC_erNV_W5-v3HPw8wNeYAvErurPwxIjkaN61MYhAk1DW-2GPabmCYLU5YplOuds8k8CMOBWUSt_r0jC961AV5ef7m33kinSnkNRZ-fHnAky14abzTQx0HfSX-KCMHg/s773/eight+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTQjLDMQGTbBXGXC_erNV_W5-v3HPw8wNeYAvErurPwxIjkaN61MYhAk1DW-2GPabmCYLU5YplOuds8k8CMOBWUSt_r0jC961AV5ef7m33kinSnkNRZ-fHnAky14abzTQx0HfSX-KCMHg/s320/eight+women+in+crime.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Women in Crime uses a lot of found objects as art elements, from
the cover to the interiors. Some of the covers are sourced from decade-old
pulps, others from digests, and others from hardbound dust jackets from
circulating lending library materials. At least on the war era run, Women in
Crime’s editorial seems to be original. It may be written to order based on
obtained photographs, but it does not seem to have appeared elsewhere first.
This would not be true of Jalart’s other pulps. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
</p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jalart did build out its editorial capacity. The materials for
auto racing and wrestling and roller derby need to be hand-crafted, need to be
columns of words, since these sports are more spectacle than statistics. It’s
doubtful the same writers they contract for the sports magazines are also the
ones they used for their Ten War Stories pulp. From what I’ve seen, all of
their pulps are entirely made of recycled editorial. True Crime magazine in
both its 1950s and 1960s incarnations is wall to wall reprints—from other true
crime magazines—some of it quite ancient. (7) Jalart hoovered up a bunch of old
pulp material and repackaged it over and over. Or seems to have. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcPHPudJOXpzLiYHIb4D9zBLbtBnuGQimYO3c4cB1OMqKzRcO_6m0YdfoubjRx9uwaZW_HZ2m-rdOsuK6UMt0go3gG8UKrGK_jAb8NVMah8LJKHJVuoedhhk88s83V1WtVM_aqWC6bK0/s791/nine+women+in+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcPHPudJOXpzLiYHIb4D9zBLbtBnuGQimYO3c4cB1OMqKzRcO_6m0YdfoubjRx9uwaZW_HZ2m-rdOsuK6UMt0go3gG8UKrGK_jAb8NVMah8LJKHJVuoedhhk88s83V1WtVM_aqWC6bK0/s320/nine+women+in+crime.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The firm became something of a multi-media enterprise. Several
sources cite Jalart as the producer and syndicator of first roller derby and
then wrestling programs for the burgeoning UHF market. They certainly went all
in on these efforts on the publishing side. The firm also produced a weekly
supermarket tabloid, but it is unclear which one. I suspect it is Confidential
Flash, which would tie the firm back to Toronto printing interests. In fact, a
lot of things seem to tie Jalart back to Toronto. Given that Merchant House is
itself a publisher, Jalart may be part of the same entity—perhaps not legally,
but the same fluid partnerships parading around under several names—the same
set group of people engaged in various different ventures. If that is the case,
then this is a business story which went on a long, strange trip—from Women in
Crime to videotaping men smash each other with fake chairs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">WE DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING! YOUR COMMENTS, CRITICISM AND CORRECTIONS
ARE ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED. AS WITH ALL OF OUR POSTINGS ON HISTORICAL TOPICS, THIS
IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(1)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Canada
loves to ban magazines. This is actually a reimposition of a ban which dates
back to the 1920s. The original ban was against flapper fiction titles such as
Breezy Stories and the Smart Set. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(2)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Both
Archie and Harry Chesler both had Canadian operations which served that market
and then occasionally slipped titles into the United States. Chesler can be
given a pass, since he is an art studio which only tangentially dabbled in
publishing. Once wartime provisions took hold, he sold his going Dynamic line
of comics to a Canadian firm who continued them, serving both sides of the
border. Archie seems to have reached an agreement with something called Greene
Publications, which comically put new covers on Archie titles and then offered
them in Canada. On occasion this firm would ship two-year-old re-covered and
re-titled Archie content into the United States. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(3)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
rules had set prices for everything, including author’s rates. But the rules
only covered existing types of products. What the rules did not cover were the
creation of entirely new types of products, which the publishers could charge
whatever they wanted for. This is what was leading the evolution of the digest,
a type of paperback. Whereas most pulps were price-controlled and mandated to
sell for ten cents a copy, digests were comprised of one third of the paper and
typically retailed for twenty-five cents. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(4)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jalart
does not quite go into the conniption fits that Dell and Martin Goodman did
about changing titles of magazines to make use of a limited number of special
rate mail permits for subscription fulfillment. In order to qualify as
periodical literature of any kind, the publishers were required to offer
subscriptions. This was a provision enacted by the Post Office to thwart the
dime novel industry’s practice of using the mails at a reduced rate, and it
carries over to this day. Jalart simply did what it could to discourage subscriptions
of any kind on magazines whose frequencies depended entirely on the volume of
demand for advertising space. Per the terms
they offered it is entirely unclear what a prospective subscriber would receive
and for how long. My best guess is that those confused enough to subscribe
would wind up on the mailing list with Jalart’s advertisers, being sent
whatever the publisher was printing that month. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(5)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
system is similar to how comic books are distributed today. The publisher pays
his printer. The distributer pays the publisher. In modern times, the
distributor is in turn paid by the retailer. There’s no credit extended anywhere
in the process, with the ultimate risk being shouldered by the retailer. In the
digest system there’s a middleman between the retailer and the distributor, the
regional distributor, who is actually the party taking the risks. Retailers
only paid for copies that they actually sold—or wanted to keep around, for whatever
reason. The regional distributor generally moved his unsold inventory around to
a succession of outlets until they all found a home. The system’s primary
outlets were liquor stores, pool halls, taverns and street corner grocery
stores, and usually in that order. This is in contrast to the typical system,
wherein only the printer is paid off and everyone else gets a slice only if the
magazine sells. In the depression printers often were involved in extending
credit and accepting payment on the basis of sold magazines. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(6)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jalart
came to also stray into female slanting titles, thereby picking up potential
for diet pill, weight loss, cosmetic and lift bra advertising. In the end, they
had a whole mail order panorama of advertisers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(7)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In
pulps the rights to content remain with the publisher in perpetuity. (That’s
what their contracts say.) There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to Jalart’s
sourcing from other pulps early on. It’s unclear who they are buying this stuff
from and under what conditions. They do come to own a number of once-promising
pulp titles, mostly in the true crime category. In the mid 50s they bought out
Skye, which seems to have been the repository of some MacFadden material.
Whether they were plying an asset sale or making ad hoc purchases is up in the
air—at least from my standpoint. A few True Crime issues appear to have content
from Police Gazette and other dime novel era publications. </span></p><p><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"></b></p>Ajax Telegraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06404358715275935104noreply@blogger.com0