Semantink Publishing announces a delay in MYTHOI #4

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Benjamin Glibert, Director of Publishing

(619) 206‑3563 – Ben@Semantink.com

Semantink Publishing announces their 2011 lineup

Semantink Publishing regrets to inform its fans and friends that due to a change in artist, MYTHOI #4 will be delayed at least two months.  This delay is the result a new artist being brought on to take over the MYTHOI saga for three issues.

Semantink regrets that Jed Soriano will be moving beyond MYTHOI, but wants to publicly thank him for kickstarting their inaugural property.  Everyone at Semantink wishes Mr. Soriano the best and has no doubts that he will go very far with his art.

While Semantink is not prepared to announce the artist for MYTHOI issues  4,5, and 6, we do want to assure the fans of Kevin Warwick that this will in no way stifle or impede Mr. Warwick’s progress on MYTHOI issues 7–12.  We will, however, confirm that the artist picking up where Mr. Soriano left off is not Kevin Warwick…

For more on these properties and when they will be available, keep an eye on Semantink’s website.

Semantink Publishing – www.Semantink.com

SEMANTINK PUBLISHING is first and foremost a company dedicated to quality, not quantity. We believe that taking the time to read anything should be a rewarding experience, whether it’s a comic book, a novel, a magazine or the back of a cereal box. A great story, like good food, takes time to prepare and that means we won’t churn out twenty properties a week to fill your shelves and take your money. Instead we’re going to take our time crafting stories so that you can (we hope) spend your time enjoying them. We want you to stare at panels of art for a few minutes, or maybe relax as you digest a line of text. It’d be nice if you looked forward to your time with us, as we look forward to sharing with you. In short, Semantink wants you to find the meaning of print, each time you read us.

Heya, folks. Welcome back to another Book Report.

Today I want to talk about something Semantink has been doing for quite some time now. Since around February, they’ve hosted a Comic Savvy on the third Sunday of each month. What’s a Comic Savvy? Well savvy can mean either practical understanding or experienced and well-informed. It’s a corruption of the Spanish word sabe which means “(you) know”. So a comic savvy might be a gathering of experienced and well-informed comic readers and collectors chatting and helping non-experienced and poorly informed comic readers gain a practical understanding. Savvy all around!

I admit my knowledge and experience in comic books is severely limited. I’m a fairly fast reader, and growing up, I got way more satisfaction sitting down and plowing through the 1,000+ pages of The Lord of the Rings than I did positively burning through the 20ish or so pages of a monthly mag. The stories were good (most of the time) and the art was really good (most of the time), but I was used to blasting through hundreds of epic pages in a matter of days. An epic comic only took me a couple minutes, and then I’d have to wait a whole month and hope the next issue would be just as epic? Thank god for the graphic novel format!

Why am I telling you this? I only bring it up so you can realize that I’m not particularly savvy in comic books, but I enjoy the hell out of the Comic Savvy Meetups! There are gentlemen there who’ve been collecting comics for decades, know the ins and outs of not just stories, but author and artist runs as well. To be honest, that level of devotion, and, well, nerdom is hugely refreshing (I use nerdom here with the highest complimentary tone).
I wonder how much people realize the extent of comic’s influence over us on a daily basis. Yeah, there’s the superhero movies, but even more than that. Comics get made into movies or expanded into books, but it happens the other way just as often. Popular novels, Shakespeare, even the Bible have all gotten comic book treatment. The original Aliens and Predator movies spawned some sci-fi comics, and led to a brilliant comic mash-up in the late 80s of Alien versus Predator. The brilliant comic run led to an alien skull being placed on the predator ship in the mediocre Predator 2 movie, several popular video games, and ultimately the two disappointingly craptastic Alien vs. Predator films. Movies inspire comics inspire movies…not bad, eh? Comics pervade every aspect of pop culture, whether it’s in the graphic novel companions to some albums (like Coheed & Cambria) or the only way we’ll ever see new episodes of Firefly.

So if you’re thinking that these Comic Savvies are only for the most hardcore of comic readers and collectors, you’re wrong. There have been discussions where I’ve felt out of my depth, sure, but that’s not any different than any other time I’m with a group. Other times I feel perfectly able to add my input to a conversation.
Another worry I know a few people have had is that Semantink is somehow using these meetups to push their product and steer conversation into directions that feature themselves. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Semantink occasionally mention themselves, but only the way any representative of a production company might mention themselves in the course of a conversation: to provide an example. They would certainly encourage anyone to check out their properties, but let me be clear: This isn’t like an Avon meeting or Tupperware party. The point is not bring Semantink business, it’s to tighten a sense of community around readers, viewers, and listeners.
What these Savvies ultimately provide is a chance to grab some coffee and chat, more or less intelligently, about pop culture and the way the graphic novel format influences (and is influenced by) it. And trust me, these meetings are absolutely a blast!

The Sunday Comic Savvy Meetups happen at Milano Coffee Company on the third Sunday of every month. Semantink also added a Weekday Savvy at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on the first Thursday of every month. Perhaps the only downside is these Savvies happen down in San Diego, but it should be seen as great advertising that I’m willing to drive down from Long Beach to attend these, if only irregularly.
But if you live in San Diego, or don’t mind the drive down to spend a day there, you should definitely try to work at least one of these into your schedule.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_