Pamphlets. Revolution. And YOU.
Yeah, I was so caught up in past my rantiness that I channeled my frustration right into a strip. It’s still ridiculous to me, and it will remain so.
Calling COMIC BOOKS , “pamphlets” is WRONG. It wasn’t done before this little petty internet age, and trying to track down where it came from, I’ve seen some quotes from “The COmics Journal” boards… I’d really like to find out who started calling comic books pamphlets so I can smite them publicly.
ANYWAY, some snotty people decided to e-mail me and say that a comic is the definition of a pamphlet. You tards ARE WRONG. In fact, skip forward a little in your dictionary, and you’ll see that COMIC BOOKS has it’s own damn definition in the dictionary.
HERE it is:
comic book
n.
A book of comics strips or cartoons, often relating a sustained narrative.
or #2
comic book
n : a magazine devoted to comic strips
See that, dumblords? I don’t see the word PAMPHLET in there at all. I find that term demeaning to an entire artform, and you know what, beyond that, anyone who CHOOSES to use that word, will be schooled by ME and those who agree with me. Let’s NOT make a habit of shitting all over COMIC BOOK HISTORY with cheap words like that. I mean, REALLY.
The people who are so excited to see a medium die out, they won’t get their jolleys in this lifetime. Comic books will TOTALLY go on. The future of COMICs is NOT the internet. It’s not webcomics. COMICS is COMICS!— It doesn’t take Nostradamus to tell you the future of the creative comics medium. The future is already NOW. Creators will be allowed as often as they like or as long as they can keep it up, to persue an audience online and offer their works for free, or offer book collections, monthly, quarterly or annual or otherwise, along with merchandise. Creators will have to start being their own middleman, and it’s going to be a lot more work for them… but much more rewarding in the end as well.
I envision for myself, continuing as I am now… sharing what I know with others, and slowly offering products that the readers actually want. Supply and Demand on a small scale, and building up. I want to have my own little distribution nook here where I can not only offer out a bi-monthly COMIC BOOK to the readers, but also not have to worry about going broke.. if I only sell 60, I only make 60 or a little more. As technology progresses and becomes more affordable as well, where I don’t have to lease a machine for thousands of dollars like POD setups do, we’ll ALL be able to have small machines in our home offices that can print and publish full color professional documents. The playing field will be LEVELED to the Nth degree. You’ll no longer need thousands of dollars in startup money. You could pay your overhead bills with googleads alone, EASY.
Also, imagine the possibilities of personalized, self run “boutiques”– I could offer ONE OF A KIND crafty things, like my BRICKS of SILENCE (which are sold out by the way at least until the weather warms up. It’s hard to dry them in the winter. 
) — But I could also offer whatever I wanted, and if people want it.. they got it. One of a kind Sculpted office knick knacks? A tap dancing ass for your cubicle? DONE. A one of a kind Plushy Llama? DONE. — And beyond thinking small… you can be working BIG. Pitch to agencies, magazines… move your vehicle. Build your boat.
Your personal creativity is your ONLY obstacle. That AND time. But even those out there who think they lack time…if you’re creative, you can find and make time too. The sky is the limit. And while I’m being the pissed off Tony Robbins of webcomics right now I’ll add this….
Don’t EVER buy into this bullshit propaganda that things will go this way or that. You are the captain of your own ships.
Set sail!
Be free!…
… But don’t shit in my goddamn ocean.
Recent Topics: self publishing, comic books, comics, Tony Robbins, webcomic, creativity, Shaenon Garrity, Joey Manley
January 5th, 2006 at 3:53 am
You tell ‘em DJ!
January 5th, 2006 at 3:54 am
I love this comic!
January 5th, 2006 at 4:20 am
DJ, you have once again proved your godhood.
January 5th, 2006 at 4:26 am
Frankly, I think you could have used a bigger brick. Manley still has too much of his face intact.
I still love the fact that both of them talk down about something that essential assured them a career that they would enjoy. Garrity, becase she works on manga for Viz, and with Manley, would all his precious webcomics have even come to pass, had it not been for the original printed comicbook.
The word I am looking for is what ? Hypocrites ?
January 5th, 2006 at 5:07 am
DJ, again it’s totally the little details I love. Those little tea tags hanging out of the cups, man that proves your genius.
schpat
Yirmumah best international fan (a badge I wear proudly)
January 5th, 2006 at 5:38 am
Haha! Great rant, DJ! Especially the last part, you know, about controlling your own destiny. Very uplifting.
Nice strip also. I ljust ove Drew’s face in the last panel. ‘PAMPHLET? I GOT YOUR DAMN PAMPHLET RIGHT HERE!’ Hahaha!
January 5th, 2006 at 6:23 am
*grin* Gotta love DJ on a Rant
Mind, Manley would say these things, simply because I have a strong suspicion he sees himself as the New Kingpin of Webcomics, and stands to gain a lot if enough people buy into his version of history.
Paper comics will not disappear in the next couple of decades, if alone because there’s something about Owning a collection of drawings in dead-tree format.
If alone because you can loaf in a lazy chair with them, while flipping through the pages.
In ten years’ time we’ll probably be checking Yirmumah (or any other comic of your taste.) on a handheld vapour-projection screen type device. Who knows with the current speed of development? Bi-monthly archives can be ordered on memstick from a convenient online store. etc. etc.
Then DJ would bring out his “This year’s Yirmumah in dead-tree”.
Bet you it will sell…
The comic book as economic distribution vehicle might disappear, simply because it’s being overtaken by other , cheaper distribution methods, reaching a much wider audience. But that’s simply economics, and not Manleys’ brainchild, however much he likes to see himself as a Prophet.
But comic books as an exponent of a culture will never disappear.
January 5th, 2006 at 7:14 am
Word!
January 5th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Listen… print comics aren’t going anywhere. The industry stinks right now, but print comics aren’t going to fade away. They might evolve into another form, but they’ll continue on.
Webcomics are a viable form of art and entertainment. Some of my favorite comics are on the web.
So, I don’t see a difference here. I like comics. I don’t care if they’re in print or on my computer.
What’s the deal with some of these web creators pissing on print comics all the time? Are they just upset because they couldn’t make it in the print world?
Keep kicking butt, DJ!
January 5th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Wikipedia states that Librarians define a pamphlet as any paperback book with 49 pages or less, that is not aimed at children.” I think most comics today do qualify based on that definition.
Now, I don’t think the people who were saying that meant it that way. I think they’re seeing a physical comic as something bad, denigrated perhaps in some way (as opposed to web comics or manga, which run over 50 pages at a pop). However, there are a lot of things that were originally published in pamphlet form: Milton’s Aeropagetica, Paine’s Common Sense…hell, the pocket consitutions people carry around could be considered pamphlets.
Don’t let them control the terminology so much, I say. So what if they call comics pamphlets? Ask them what they mean by it. Point out that a lot of really good, really important works were once pamplets too. If they spout off about the death of dead-tree literature, laugh at them. There is something about a physical book, in any size, that’s just tons better than reading the same thing online.
January 5th, 2006 at 11:41 am
Love today’s comic, and although I spend entirely too much time reading stuff online, paper comics will always hold a special place in my heart. That said, I think that once you begin publishing Yirmumah in print format, you should also put out a PAMPHLET (in the vein of, say, Dr. Bronner’s labels or Church of the Subgenius propaganda) about art discrimination and the Dead Tree Revolution. You could even put an old-school mail-in offer in the back of the comic books!
January 5th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Now I understand where you were coming from when we were talking earlier.
Like I said in the last post — Movies didn’t go away when TV came along, and Radio didn’t go away when TV arrived on the scene.
Either Joey and Shaenon don’t realize they’re talking crap, or more likely they KNOW it’s crap, but understand that controversial statements get people talking.
January 5th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
I’m sure they’ll say they don’t realize they’re talking shit… But deep down, they know what the fuck they’re saying when the word rolls off their tongue.
January 5th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
not funny
January 5th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
It bothers me too that webcomic creators talk trash on print comics. But didn’t Shaenon just get published by Marvel, a major PRINT comic book company? Hypocrites, I think yes!
Great rant DJ, insightful and inspiring.
January 5th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
How do you feel about the word “dead-tree”? ::winces in fear::
January 5th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Truth in advertising
January 5th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
I think it’s a retarded term too. But not as annoying or demeaning as PAMPHLET
January 5th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Jesus Tap Dancing Christ… are you kidding me? You know I know THEY are out there.. slowly moving the world to a more f’d up regime but really - come on! tests become learning exercises… gym becomes physical education… and now comic books become pamphlets.. paaaaatoohie on it all… it’s not even political correctness thati s running this… just… stupidity..
now i am going to click on a few links, take a nap, and drink this downfall away.
January 5th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
“A Modest Proposal” was a pamphlet. “Common Sense” was a pamphlet. Given that a pamphlet was good enough for Jonathan Swift, yr _both_ abusing the word gratuitously.
January 5th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Gabrielle, you missed the point… comic books are NOT pamphlets, and have never been called pamphlets until these online fruitcakes started doing it.
January 5th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
DJ, I agree that “pamphlet” connotes the crappy-ass brochure-type-things you are talking about, but just to be sure I double checked in the dictionary and thesaurus, and I don’t think calling a comic book a pamphlet is outside the definition of the word unfortunately.
“Moby Thesaurus words for “pamphlet”:
ad, advert, advertisement, bill, booklet, brochure, bulletin,
chapbook, circular, COMIC BOOK, essay, flyer, folder, hand-out,
handbill, leaflet, notice, tract”
(emphasis added)
And the definition for pamphlet:
1. A writing; a book.
2. A small book consisting of a few sheets of printed paper,
stitched together, often with a paper cover, but not
bound; a short essay or written discussion, usually on a
subject of current interest.
[1913 Webster]
dictionary.com said that a pamphlet is an unbound book. Do staples count as a binding?
Whatever, I think the lines aren’t clear. I agree with your logic that it is insulting to comics to call them a pamphlet, but I don’t think it’s technically wrong either. Sucks.
January 5th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Nah, yr missing my point, which is that in being insulted by his abuse of the language, yr propagating the abuse. Pamphlet is a neutral term with a very respectable literary history. So the question is, why are y’all so down on the pamphlets? Were you beaten as children by gangs of roving pamphlets that left inky tracts of shame on your abused cheeks?
January 6th, 2006 at 2:26 am
I grew up w/ comics and i understand DJ’s anger of this petty yet miguided insults - so here’s a big fuck you to whoever thought of using and still now using the term ‘pamphlets’ for comic BOOKS.
Without Comics, there will be no web COMICs.
Think about it, you jerkoffs.
January 6th, 2006 at 11:50 am
Greg said: “Do staples count as a binding?”
Hopefully this is not too much off the subject, but at least it’s slightly educational: In the printing business, of all the types of “finishing,” the way comic books use staples is called “saddle stitching,” and not “binding.” Graphic novels and paperbacks are “perfect bound” or “square bound.” However, it’s probably true that the common-man use of “bound” for books is not perfectly in sync with the printing industry use of that same term.
January 6th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
If you look through many printers brochures and price lists, they have “TYPE OF BINDING” options…. which can include saddle stitch, spiral, perfect bound, etc….
I’m sick of thinking about nerding down to what a word means. Bottom line, it’s a degrading term for an artform that’s NEVER been called a pamphlet before the intenet age. And they’re all pushing an agenda to focuse on webcomics replacing comic books…. which will never happen
January 6th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
i agree with DJ that pamphlet is a demeaning term
whether or not comic books fit the definition of pamphlet isn’t really important. What’s important is that people are using the word in a demeaning way.
if i called you a loser after I beat you in a game, would you fit the literal definition? Yeah. Would it be mean and demeaning? Yeah.
you get what i’m saying?
January 7th, 2006 at 12:20 am
Actually, I stole the use of the word “pamphlets” to describe periodical slickery craptastic comic books from my hero and yours, Warren Ellis.
Thanks!
Joey
www.moderntales.com
January 7th, 2006 at 1:56 am
Huh? I don’t hate print comics. I love all comics that don’t suck. Like people pointed out, I’ve done work for Marvel and I’m an editor at a manga publisher, and I even do print collections of my webcomic, so it wouldn’t make much sense for me to be all hatin’ on print comics. It’d be helpful if Tic-Tac would, I dunno, point people to something I actually SAID or WROTE, but I can see where that would be kind of hard and require thought.
I try not to use the term “pamphlet” because it makes nerds cry tears of impotent rage, but sometimes there’s no better term. Usually I say “monthly comic,” but that doesn’t make sense when discussing, say, “Finder” moving to the Web. When “Finder” was a, well, pamphlet comic, it wasn’t monthly. And it’s still a print comic–it comes out in graphic-novel form–so you can’t use “print” and “web” as the defining terms. It’s just easier to say, “Carla Speed McNeil stopped publishing pamphlet comics and now does just webcomics and graphic novels.” Or something like that. Really, no disrespect is intended.
I take no responsibility for Joey, who just says these things for the easy free publicity.
Anyway, the earrings I’m wearing right now are even awesomer than the ones in that comic. Thank you, I’n great.
January 7th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Joey– I know you didn’t invent the term. Neither did Warren. But I’m still standing up to say using that term is demeaning to the comic books. I’d tell Warren Ellis the same thing, and of course he wouldn’t care, or well, not even comment on it.
I’ve been called passive aggressive before and didn’t really understand it. But wow Shaenon, your reply only amplifies how cunty you’re being. People can read for themselves how you come off, and I don’t really care which way they side. I’m sure your a nice person, just like Joey is as well.
So, you’re saying we’re all nerds crying impotent rage? Why is there no better term? Why couldn’t you say “Carla Speed McNeil stopped publishing comic books” — you HAVE to use the words “pamphlet comics” ??? Of course you’re free to use whatever words you like, just as I’m free to tell you how ridiculous and cunty those words are.
Calling comic books, “pamphlets” is getting us nowhere. Shaenon should maybe go tell the Marvel executives that everything they’ve put out were pamphlet comics. Of course, who knows who’s running that ship now, they may not care either.
But I do.
January 7th, 2006 at 7:05 am
If you can’t get the sunlight and warm air you need to dry the bricks of silence, you might wanna try turning your oven on the ‘warm’ setting, and propping the oven door open a crack with a towel to make sure that a little bit of air can get in and out and see if you can dry ‘em that way.
That’s what I have to do when I’m trying to mold leather and I can’t get sunlight to dry it in.
What the hell are the bricks made out of anyway?
January 7th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Tirade– the Bricks are a high density foam inside, and coated with a special latex texture coating, and then a matte finish coating. It’s pretty stinky to do inside in large amounts. Drying them in the oven– hmm, I don’t know. the thing is, you have to pitch them at an angle so the they dry all around, and turn them at a certain time.
It’s a pain in the ass… heh. I’ll fire up another batch in the springtime or something.
January 7th, 2006 at 7:27 am
Also– back the the pamphlet thing— obviously there are people who agree with what I’m saying and I wish there were intelligent enough people around to understand that using a term like that in articles or being quoted as saying it is bad for comics.
Shaenon says: “I take no responsibility for Joey, who just says these things for the easy free publicity”
Yeah, it’s called propaganda. I think there are better ways to promote your online comic businesses then demeaning and sitting around chortling about the demise of print comic books and demeaning them.
January 7th, 2006 at 8:24 am
[…] I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days (yeah, smartasses, it hurts) — On the calling of comic books “pamphlets” issue, Joey Manley and SHaenon Garrity decided to throw their 5cents in… and Shaenon showed just how passive agressive she can be. She said in the comments: “I try not to use the term “pamphlet” because it makes nerds cry tears of impotent rage, but sometimes there’s no better term.” […]
January 7th, 2006 at 11:43 am
My kids like the Amelia Rules pamphlets, but we can’t find them anymore. So we bought the graphic novel.
We still have an Unca Scrooge pamphlet around too. And of course, I have several boxes of pamphlets down in the basement, but I don’t read them all that much. I probably should just recycle most of them.
Generally I like graphic novels now.
January 7th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
the ‘pamphlet’ term has nothing to do with the advent of the internet age. it came into use as graphic novels/trades became more popular and people needed some way of dilineating between the two when discussing comics. yeah, you can call’em ‘monthlies’ if you want but I fail to see how labeling them as ‘pamphlets’ is in any way a put-down - you know they’re still comics and that’s all that matters.
January 7th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
[…] And finally, no snark, just straight up, DJ Coffman continues his campaign to become the biggest fucking douchebag in comics. No, really. Posted By Erech @ 2:37 PM, January 7 2006 Filed under: Comic Inturwebs […]
January 7th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Yeah, but he’s *our* douchebag.
January 8th, 2006 at 9:59 am
When I was solely in the print comics world (Jazz Age chronicles, Neil Gaiman’s Mr. Hero, etc.), I never found the term “pamphlet” demeaning. In today’s market, you just can’t refer to the 22-or-so-page, monthly-or-so, smaller-than-magazine-size periodical a comic book, and expect people to know what you mean — the term comic book also applies to graphic novels, mini-comics, and stuff like that. Some trade paperbacks out there reprint several issues of a periodical — is that no longer a comic book? How thick should it get?
Maybe we should go with the term “periodical” — to specify a series that comes out, well, periodically, as opposed to books and other comics that don’t. But what about one-shot comics? I mean, one-shot 22-or-so-page, monthly-or-so, smaller-than-magazine-size comics?
You see how confusing it can be?
Oh, sure, when you know your audience, and you all grew up on reading Marvel and DCs as kids, like me — we know what ‘comic book’ means, But when you step outside this circle — and I’ve been doing a lot of that, promoting Jazz Age to as large an audience as I can gather — that term doesn’t work for non-comics readers. It’s a shame people find the term “pamphlet” so derogatory — though I suspect that reaction comes more from their hearing scary things about the future of print comics rather than the word itself — then what term should we use? Periodical? Magazine?
January 10th, 2006 at 5:15 am
I prefer “funnybooks,” myself: It’s a cool word, everybody knows what you mean when you use it, and it drives touchy, defensive nerds even farther out of their minds than “pamphlets.” (It’s also a useful dividing line — cooler, more together geeks find the word funny, and it’s the cooler, more together geeks that you want to hang out with. It’s the touchy, defensive nerds that really need to be poked with sticks until they finally get over themselves and grow up, don’t you think?)
January 10th, 2006 at 6:15 am
You know– I don’t find the term “funnybooks” insulting— so I must be a different class of nerd. heh.
That’s one thing though– as much as I friggin dread running into one of those sweaty nerds who has like a cart with them at a show, and they only usually buy whatever it is they’re hauling around in there (Marvel, DC) — I think that’s their thing you know? Something they’re passionate about, and have obviously spent a lot of their own money on— so, I guess it does come down to defending a term that’s almost sacred to those guys and others. I don’t want to belittle them and ruin their day, sure it’s fun to make fun of them from time to time… but looking down on them.
This whole thing shows some sort of stereotypical response. Here I am, pretty far removed from comic books by my own choosing now, and far from a comic nerd or fanboy– but I voice my digust with that word, and the people who love using that word can only really lump me into some segregated category in their mind.
I do think those comic book loving nerds are part of the future of comics online. Sooner or later they WILL be reading comics online regulary, and I’d rather not look down on them. I think the cartoonists have forgotten what it is they actually are suppossed to be doing. Does anyone here KNOW??? There is an air of self importance with all these people chiming in that makes me shake my head.
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November 16th, 2006 at 12:07 am
[…] Should we start referring to comic books as “pamphlets”? Whatever pretentious webcomic prick came up with that idea has earned the scorn of our beloved champion of online webcomic drama antics, DJ Coffman. He attacks the whole idea in a recent Yirmumah comic, and rightly so. […]
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