by Brian Hibbs
Welcome to Version
2.0 of Tilting at Windmills.
Tilting at Windmills
appeared originally in Krause
Publications' Comics and Games Retailer magazine, running
there for 116 issues, and eventually collected
in book form by IDW publishing. TaW is an opinion column,
covering comic industry issues, and is generally retailer-biased.
Matt Brady made the very generous offer to take TaW to a larger
audience, and I thank him for it.
It may take me a little while getting back up to speed with this,
as my TaW muscles have grown a little rusty, and I'm probably
less cranky than I used to be because of my wonderful new son, Benjamin.
But I'm still probably cranky enough.
TaW is all
about advocacy, about righting wrongs, and, above all else, passion
and love for working in the comic book industry. Like Quixote I
may charge blindly, but my heart is pure.
(I'm also,
I'm sure you'll find, full of myself. Whether that's charming or
not is up to you.)
I'll be covering
a lot of topics here about the industry - some times an assessment
of a company's efforts in the Direct Market, other times critiques
of current trends - all with the goal of making the comics industry
better. I'll try not to blow any smoke up your ass, either.
#1 - "What
is this, Anyway?"
#2 - "The
Bookstore Equation 2003"
#3 - "Wading
for the Trade"
#4 - "Conjunction
Dysfunctions"
#5 - S.S.,
D.D
#6 - The
Order of Things
#7 - The
Stores Are Aligned
#8 - Don't
Shit Where You Eat
#9 - A
Tale of Two Publishers
#10 - My
Monthly Dues
#11- Below
the Radar
#12 - The
Horse Isn't Dead Yet
#13 - My
Monthly Dues, Part Deux
#14 - Looking
at Bookscan, 2004
#15 - The
Two Problems
#16 - We're
Going to Need a Bigger Boat
#17 - Stupid,
Stupid Publisher Creatures!
#18 - Lifers
#19 - The
Calculus of Hype
#20 - Come
Together
#21 - Streams
of Consciousness
#22 - 2005
RRP Report
#23 - One
Year Later
#24 - Diamond
#25 - Looking
at Bookscan 2005
#26 - Conventional
Un-Wisdom
#27 - One
Year (and a few weeks) Later
#28 - Publishing
is Hard?
#29 - 52
Pick Up
#30 - The
Rising Tide
#31 - Trifecta - Plus!
#32 - First
Call - Or Last?
#33 - Quality
of Life
#34/151 - How
to Sell Comics
#35/152 - The
Christmas that Wasn't
#36 - One
Success, One...Not So Much
#37 - Bookscan
2006
#38 - America
Dreaming
#39 - Viva
Las Vegas
#40 - It's
the End of the World as We Know It
#41 - What's
the Point of Sales?
#42 - Burn Out the Day, Burn Out the Night
#43 - G.I.G.O.
#43 - Steam Engine Time
#43 - A Disorder of Balance
#43 - The Digital Bits
#43 - Unintended Consequences
