Dead Man Post-Mortem

A little while back, I reviewed Colin Panetta's Dead Man Holiday. Like any other self-published comic, it was a personal work on all fronts. Not only did Panetta write, draw and publish it himself but he also worked hard from a promotional perspective, trying to get the word out about his book.

This morning, on his blog, Panetta takes a step back to critically look at his work so far. Whether you've read Dead Man Holiday or not, and whether you enjoyed it or not, I think this post itself is worth reading through. Especially if you're creating or thinking about creating a comic on your own. Panetta looks back at not only the actual creation process he went through, but also the marketing and follow-up. While it's clear that he's disappointed about the book's commercial success, and the fact that his own grandmother didn't really understand it, he's still able to look back on his efforts with a critical eye. What worked? What didn't?

While he doesn't come to many firm conclusions about why he hasn't been able to sell more books, he does have the cajones to address any number of possible issues including the book's content itself. Now, I'm by no means a good judge of what will become popular and/or why. Even when I was reading mainstream superhero comics, the ones I enjoyed tended to be B- and C-list titles. (I have yet to figure out why Christopher Priest's Black Panther didn't sell like hotcakes, and Reggie Hudlin's Black Panther warrants a TV show.) But that Panetta is addressing the issue in such a straightforward manner, and is willing to share with the Internet some of his own failings, speaks well to his character as a budding comic book professional.

That alone, I think, warrants a look at Dead Man Holiday, if you haven't already seen it.

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