Q: Do you have any tips for writers interested in writing comics?
Yeah, there’s usually a tip or two in an interview. I also teach classes every now and then. Some kind soul was kind enough to post their notes from the class at Ultimate Comics.
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Q: How do I donate my comics to soldiers overseas?
Andy Khouri and Mark Sable asked me on Twitter yesterday to remind them how you go about doing that. Good news: it’s pretty easy. You’re going to be out the price of postage, but it’s worth it.
Here’s how it works:
- Go to anysoldier.com.
- Click on WHERE TO SEND.
- Click on ANY SOLDIER SEARCH TOOL.
- Leaving everything else blank, put either COMICS or COMIC BOOKS into the REQUESTS AND EMAIL CONTENTS field. (As I write this, COMICS returns 8 units requesting comics–7 Army, 1 Air Force; 5 in Iraq, 1 in Qatar, 1 in Afghanistan and 1 in the Philippines.)
- Click on one of the soldiers names and read their email, making sure what they want is actually what you’ve got. Often they’re specific — they want funny comics, or newspaper comics, or Marvel comics, or they may even request a particular hero.
- Once you find someone who either wants what you’ve got or is just generally requesting comics, click where it says CLICK HERE TO REQUEST THE COMPLETE ADDRESS.
Now, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and I can’t proceed any further right now because I don’t actually have any comics to send, but if I recall correctly, you fill out a short form and then you’re emailed the soldier’s address. I believe you can request up to 2 addresses per day. (While you’re at it, you might look at what else your soldier is requesting–sometimes it’s something as simple as cotton swabs. Surely you can throw a package of q-tips in the box.)
The postage fees you pay to an APO or FPO address are NOT international shipping rates. You pay domestic rates, so while you are picking up a bill, it’s pretty small considering the effect. And it’s worth mentioning that our local UPS store in KC used to pack up any donations for troops overseas for free. They’ve since changed ownership and we’ve since moved, so I have no idea if that’s common practice or not, but it’s certainly worth asking.
Good luck!
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Q: Can I send you my comics to be signed?
Yes. BUT —
Let this be a casual thing. I can’t be responsible for something going wrong in the mail and your crazy-rare variant cover whatever gets lost or bent.
Want books signed for a gift, a lark, or just for fun but can’t make it to a con?
Send them to:
DeConnick/Fraction
PO Box 25662
Portland, OR 97298
…include a SASE and we’ll sign them and send them back.
One more caveat! We don’t check the box as often as we should, so if you’re sending something, can you tweet me @kellysue or drop me an email or something so I know there’s something coming?
A package got sent back once and I’ve been horribly embarrassed ever since.
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Q: What’s your schedule like?
I sort of answered that one here.
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Q: How do I sign up for Kelly Sue to nag me? I need that in my life.
You want me to nag you randomly? You’re now taking a class called “Bitches Get Shit Done.”
To sign up, text @bitchesg to (971) 244-8342.
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Q: How do I sign up for the MILKFED CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS newsletter?
Go fill out this form. You can unsub at any time.
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Q: What’s MILKFED CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS?
The joint venture of my husband, Matt Fraction, and myself. I could elaborate, but then you might be indicted.
Just sign up.
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Q: Who do you want to play Captain Marvel if they make a movie?
Kathleen Turner, circa 1984.
I’m not going to weigh in on any casting rumors. I want to give WHOMEVER gets cast my full support and the best way for me to do that is to keep my mouth shut for now.
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Q: blah blah MISS MARVEL blah blah blah
HER NAME WAS NEVER MISS MARVEL. THAT WAS NEVER HER NAME, HER RANK OR HER CALL SIGN.
“MISS” AND “MS” ARE NOT TWO DIFFERENT SPELLINGS OF THE SAME WORD.
WHAT THE FUCK?
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Q: What’s with the duck face selfies?
With the exception of hard core collectors, people who stand in line to get an autograph on their book aren’t actually standing in line for your signature. They’re there for a moment or two of your time and attention. They’re there for a real, face-to-face interaction. Having been on the other side of that table many times myself (a practice I am not above — I stood in line to get Gerry Conway’s autograph the last time we were at a show together!), I have a lot of respect for the line. I try to give everyone my full attention and if they want to take a photo together, it seems the least I can do.
The thing is, taking photos with strangers can be awkward. Often the person is nervous and if the photo doesn’t look good, they feel weird about asking for a reshoot because of the line.
The duck face selfie is my way of putting people at ease. We HAVE to stand close together because a selfie requires closeness to get everyone in the frame. And when you’re trying not to laugh, NO ONE looks good doing a duck face, so nobody worries whether it’s a flattering photo or not. It’s fun. It gives us something to *do*.
There’s another thing too — the duck face selfie was born of young girls and women trying to give themselves full lips and cheekbones in photos. Because… why? Because the message we have been sending them since they were infants is that their appearance and desirability is their value and having full lips and prominent cheekbones adds to that value. So they’re understandably fascinated by their own appearance (selfies) and, because they’re resourceful and NOT STUPID, they adjust the camera angle and facial expression to play up what we’ve taught them to value.
…and then we make fun of them for it.
I think that makes US assholes, not them.
So I guess, in my way, I try to celebrate the duck face selfie for that reason too.
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Q: How many books will you sign [at CON NAME HERE/STORE NAME HERE]?
A: We don’t put a limit on it. If we’re at a store, we abide by their policies, so check with the managers. If we’re at a con, there’s usually not a limit—check with the show.
If it’s up to us? No limit. Basically, how many do you feel like carrying around with you all day? If you bought it and brought it, it seems the least we can do to sign it. Couple of things you can do to make our lives easier, though: 1) take your books out of the plastic bags BEFORE you get to the front of the line pleeeeeease; and 2) if you have more than, say, 30 books or so, let us sign those 30, then go to the back of the line. Feel free to do that as many times as you like.
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Q: What do you charge for autographs?
A: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. (Unless you’re a company and you want to send hundreds of comics to our house for us to sign. Then we’re going to charge. But for readers? Zip.)
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Q: Can we interview you during [CONVENTION NAME HERE] for our podcast/website/newsletter/thesis?
A: Maaaaaaaaybe…? Here’s the deal: we used to try and schedule interviews and whatnot during cons and it… it never worked. What we’ve settled on is an imperfect system as well, but it’s less frustrating for us than trying to keep an appointment schedule during a con. So here it is: drop by the table, come to the front of the line and let us know you’re there for an interview. If the line is not ridiculous*, we’ll finish up where we’re at and take a couple of minutes to talk to you/your camera. Like, 5 minutes. MAX. Then we need to get back to the folks who have been waiting in line. That’s the best we can do. Priority has to be the line, okay? Thanks for understanding. (*If the line IS long, we may not be able to accommodate you at all. We really and truly do appreciate your interest, but we’re making NO PROMISES, okay? Our lines tend to move slowly because we chat with everyone who comes through.)
SOME conventions (like Geek Girl Con, for instance) have organized press opportunities. Those are awesome. Check with the show organizers.
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Q: How come they didn’t collect the third trade of Captain Marvel (2012)?
A: They did. Only it was a crossover with Avengers Assemble, so it’s called Avengers Assemble: Enemy Within. Comics!
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Q: Cosplay is ruining comics!
A: Fuck off.
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Q: Do you mind if I make and sell products from your IP? [In fairness, the question is never worded like this.]
A: Oh, man! This is so tough to answer.
Okay, deep breath:
If you want to make crafts related to our books for yourselves, or your friends for free, we are SO DOWN. If you want to repurpose actual comics (not color copies) to make crafts that you then sell, we are ALSO DOWN.
If you want to make unlicensed products to sell though… we’d prefer that you not. I know this makes us sound like capitalist pigs, I do. But here’s the thing: though this project is a labor of love, it’s also how we pay our bills. This is how we pay our employees, who in turn, have bills to pay. We can sell the licenses to produce merch related our our books and it devalues the license if the licensor has to compete with unlicensed merch. Poorly worded, I know. Does it make sense, though?
This is a bit of ‘how the sausages get made,’ so if it doesn’t interest you, no worries.
::puts on businesswoman hat and rolls up sleeves::
The economics of comics are such that — unless you’re a SAGA or a WALKING DEAD, which is a beautiful but rare state — you shed readers and you never do better than you did your first issue. Take, for instance, Bitch Planet. Now I don’t want anyone to worry: Bitch Planet is a hit — it launched very strong, has gotten a ton of press and has a community strongly behind it. But even as a hit, the orders for issue 4 came in at 55% of what they were for Issue 1. That’s actually a pretty great retention rate (!!), but it still means our income for that issue, compared to issue 1, literally dropped by about half. Traditionally numbers level out at about the 3rd or 4th issue and, if you can keep the quality up and don’t jack the schedule up too much, you SHOULD be able cut your rate of decrease, but there’s seldom a reversal of numbers on a creator-owned book, where there are no crosseover events, or changes of creative teams to give the book marketing bump.
…We have 30 issues planned.
How are we going to get to thirty issues and continue to get paid?
Well, priority one: we keep making a book that we love and we hope that we are one of those rare books that does see a shift in the numbers.
We can also look for other ways for the book to bring in income — like sales of foreign rights, trade paperback collections (the first of which, at $9.99, will have a slim profit margin) and — you guessed it! — licensed merch.
Licensed merch helps us keep the book going.
[We do have charities that we support — I am very proud of the amount of money that we have raised for Girls Leadership Institute — but in the case of creator-owned books, this is part of our core business model, alas, and not found money.]
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Q: What comics do you recommend for kids?
A: http://kellysue.tumblr.com/recommendedforkids
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Digital comics? Find me on 
