Inside Look At The Publisher Selection Process For New Books

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m hoping to be able to bring this special column from a comics publisher to you on a regular basis. Josh Blaylock is the guiding light behind Devil’s Due/1First Comics and has also written books on comics creation and publishing.  Welcome, Josh! The newest project he’s driving is Boogly Heads. This All Ages aGOREable series is coming this Summer! Check out the creator spotlight below!  . . . . . .

with Josh Blaylock   Every week(ish) we’re joining Devil’s Due Commander-in-Chief Josh Blaylock to get a special inside-scoop on what it’s like to run a comic book company, all the while creating his own comics, straight from the source.   Hello Everyone!  How are you all adjusting back into to the groove of a post-holiday reality? Yeah, me neither, but my sugar coma is slowly wearing off, and three trips to the gym have helped reverse the effects of a few more of those cookies I digested at the parents' house. Only fifty more trips to go and I'll be back to where I was after... Thanksgiving :/ The struggle is real!  As for goings-on here at DD Central, this was a BIG week! If you’re reading this, chances are you already saw us shouting about the big Mercy Sparx News - We have a film / TV development deal with the amazing Indie powerhouse ASSEMBLE MEDIA! We’ve inundated people sharing all of the press, so I won’t repeat it here, but if you would like, here’s a link: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/01/03/josh-blaylock-assemble-media-mercy-sparx/ Next, we announced a brand new series! BOOGILY HEADS by Gus Fink and Laura Penal Why I Picked… Boogily Heads (and a Creator Spotlight on Gus Fink)  It’s been a while since we announced any titles from brand new Devil’s Due creators, but that time has finally come! Get ready for a flurry of announcements in 2019, the first being our signing of Gus Fink’s Boogily Heads!     I met Gus at last year’s Licensing Show in Las Vegas, a big event where companies go to show off their brands and hope to make deals to get them into other forms of media and merchandise. To be honest, I was there to meet with some larger corporate brand reps, but the Fink booth caught my eye. After getting to know each other a bit, I learned that Gus has sold his products all over the world, even garnering interest and sales from large chains like Hot Topic, and he really wanted to develop a comic book series. In fact, he was already working on it.  From a separate angle, kids comics have been exploding in popularity in the last couple of years, and we haven’t had much in the way of representing that. Frankly, the majority of kids titles that exist are not something that really fit with the Devil’s Due vibe. But Boogily Heads? It’s a really fun brand that delves into the spooky and the macabre, and it’s something we really enjoy getting behind. It’s a really cute book, and perfect for all of you adult fans of the supernatural to share with your little weirdo kids, or if you're like me, nieces and nephews.    Gus began making comics at a very young age, and in the late ‘90s began a comic book company that only lasted briefly, but his work continued in the field for several years. Most recently in the mid '00s, he worked with Slave Labor Graphics as illustrator of The Problem with Igor. Since then he’s been developing his art independently, outside of comics, and developing toys, sculptures and designer plush based on his own creations.  His work can be found everywhere from art galleries to shopping malls, the video game Frightshow Fighter, and even in vending machines.