Viva La Tights!

In episode #82 of the podcast Around Comics, the hosts interviewed Josh Blaylock. Josh is the founder of Devil’s Due Publishing and author of How To Self Publish Comics: Not Just Create Them. Josh talked about receiving art from illustrators looking for employment. Traditionally, it was always sent to him from artists right here in the USA. Then, in the last few years, he’s been getting submissions from around the world. No surprise there. But then he said something that really got my gears turning.

Host: “We’re seeing an influx of European and South American artists I’ve noticed.”

Blaylock: “It seems like a few years ago, a lot of Italians came out of nowhere and then a couple years ago a lot of Malaysians came onto the scene. And then a lot of like, it’s almost funny, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just making it up in my head, ya know, but it seems like you can almost tell when the country got the high-speed access.”

He mentioned that he was half joking and admittedly had no empirical data to back that up. But doesn’t it make sense? What a fantastic vantage point to watch the online world connect itself one global chunk at a time.

To me, this is a prime example of two things.

1. In true web 2.0 fashion, comic book artists exemplify that mastery of web utilities is not the sole capability of nations that have had high-speed for the longest amounts of time. Anyone can do this, given the tech.

2. Going global for business via the Internet is so far from new that it is now cliché. But this speaks to something further. Timing is crucial in terms of brand awareness. It’s an “early bird gets the worm” scenario. Now, a little research can show exactly what parts of the world are going to open up online and when. Let’s look back to comics for a more precise example. Many collectors stick with, or at least lean heavily towards the characters from the first publisher that they had access to as a kid. I.e. Marvel (Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, the late Captain America) versus DC (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman...Wonder Woman…Wonder Woman). So, your brand should be the first to plant its flag. Or fly its cape, so to speak.

One last thought-these artists from around the world have to work so hard to beat their American counterparts that they can bring the art up another level. And how sweet-ass is that? Es muy sweet-ass.

The Torment of Perfection

More on the subject of creativity, its value and its mystery — which, when it comes to copywriting, could be no mystery at all. Clarity is the game, according to British copywriter Bill Hilton. The assignment is to communicate, and that takes discipline, rigor and practice.

On the other hand, as Hilton's excellent insight reveals, there's a paradox in suggesting that clarity in writing is purely mechanical:

"Copywriting – all writing, in fact – is the only skill that gets harder the better at it you become. Forget recognition and paying work. The day you’ve become a writer is the day you find yourself staring at a ten-word sentence for over an hour, fretting about whether it’s as precise and elegant as it could be."

So clarity does more than simply communicate. At best, it brings beauty to light.

It is the primary means by which William Carlos Williams astonishes in this example I love, Pastoral (1917), after the jump:

The little sparrows
hop ingenuously
about the pavement
quarreling
with sharp voices
over those things
that interest them.
But we who are wiseer
shut ourselves in
on either hand
and no one knows
whether we think good
or evil.

                Meanwhile,
the old man who goes about
gathering dog-lime
walks in the gutter
without looking up
and his tread
is more majestic than
that of the Episcopal minister
approaching the pulpit
of a Sunday.
            These things
astonish me beyond words.

It's All A Mystery

"I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begin it's all a mystery."

Thank you, Flaming Lips, for reminding me that the magic in life, and yes, in this business, is something a lot of us may never understand.

Couple days ago I was listening to "Fight Test," the opening track from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and this lyric just blew me away. Go back and read it -- or buy the album -- and think about it.

So this post is dedicated to my friends here, here, here and here who spend a lot of their time somewhere between sun beams and starlight.

Despite all the process, spread sheets, time lines and meetings, we can't always know where the magic comes from, we can't always control it. Which is why it's so precious.

Just as beautiful, by the way, is the second half of the chorus:

"And I don't know how a man decides what right for his
Own life - it's all a mystery."

Do you agree?

The Way We See It

Starbucks is kind of blowing my mind these days.

To many they represent everything that's wrong with coffee: a cookie-cutter corporate cabal co-opting the cool culture of the coffee klatch.

To others, they're role models for business.

Now come a few reasons for both parties to hope -- along with a few that could turn both of them off.

First the downside: Starbuck's bizarre embrace of Paul McCartney as the first artist to sign with the company's Hear Music -- part of a division called "Starbucks Entertainment."

For me, this is just weird -- and validates a post critical of Sir Paul I'd actually grown to regret writing. It's another brick in a position that may attract some boomers but feed the revulsion of critics --  an example of what CEO Howard Schultz finally expressed in his much-circulated memo bemoaning the "commoditization" of the Starbucks experience.

"I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience."

Along with the strange brand extensions, the hyper-streamlining of the brand experience  (drive-throughs, automated espresso machines that block customers' sight lines, prepackaged beans, tables made intentionally uncomfortable to promote turnover -- some of which Schultz acknowledged) seems further evidence the company has lost its way -- not to mention its soul.

Here are two reasons Starbucks might be getting it back -- and both are examples of letting stakeholders control the company's message.

One's been in our face for a while: the "Way I See It" bits of customer philosophizing printed on to-go cups. One recently knocked me out of my seat:

Darwinism’s impact on traditional social values has not been as benign as its advocates would like us to believe. Despite the efforts of its modern defenders to distance themselves from its baleful social consequences, Darwinism’s connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record. And the record is not pretty.

-- Dr. Jonathan Wells
Biologist and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design.

This is freaking nuts -- when have you ever read the words "abortion," "eugenics" and "racism" printed on a mainstream company's product!? That takes guts It says "If it's thought-provoking, we're willing to embrace whatever is on your mind, even though it makes us uncomfortable."

That, friends, is social media. A two-way conversation between the company and its stakeholders. It's about the way you and I see it, not the way corporate lackeys do. And it just so happens to be a great marketing tool, too.

By itself, provocative quotations on a zillion cups might not be enough for some critics. Maybe this is:

News that the company is going to release a CD of music written and performed by Starbucks Baristas. The blog "Starbucks Gossip" reports that "Off the Clock Vol. 1: New Music from Up & Coming Starbucks Artists" will be available in stores across the US and Canada tomorrow. 

To understand how huge this is, consider this: when I was a partner (yes, back in the glory days as a struggling young writer, before the advent of the cursed frappucino), Starbucks was actively shutting out both individuality (by making people cover up unusual piercings) and community (by refusing to let people post fliers in the stores).

To the extent they're actively letting you, me and employees back into the brand, that's a good sign -- because everybody wins. And if that's good enough for Starbucks, that ought to be good enough for you, too.