Good ol' Ellen Lindner writes :"This summer I took to the road, and even sometimes the streets, as part of a grand experiment in comics distribution called The Comix Reader.
The Comix Reader is a comics newspaper edited by Richard Cowdry and published in the UK. All of the artists club together – there are 22 of us in each issue – and contribute to a giant publishing pot. We print about 9000 copies of the Reader, and we each get a sizeable number to distribute ourselves.
Staring at a pile of literally hundreds of comics can be a daunting experience. And with a majority of the cartoonists involved living in London, just taking some to the local comic book shop is not a viable way of selling them.
So what's a girl to do? My pal J. Homersham, the author of Chuckle Sandwich, has come up with a great solution – THE BOARD.
The Board is basically a hand-made sandwich board. I got my first taste of The Board at this year's West Dean Festival, where J. Homersham and her partner Gareth Brookes had a stall for selling comics as part of their Aaah! Distro project.
We walked that board all over the festival. Unlike my prior experiences of selling comics on the street, where I felt that myself and my audience were, urm, not communicating (I often got the feeling that they thought I was some kind of religious fanatic) the Board made things very simple and clear. We are selling a self-published comic called The Comix Reader. It costs one pound. If you'd like one, we are here to serve. As the Brits say, end of."
Check out the video of J. Ho and El working the Board!
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