| Frequently Asked Stupid Questions |
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| What is an Independent Comic? |
| A comic book that is not published by a "Major" Comic Book
Company. There is no hard and fast definition of a "Major" Comic Book Company. I have already taken some heat for this but for the purposes of this site we define "Major" comic book companies as Marvel, DC, Archie and Disney. Some may argue that Image, Dark Horse and other larger companies don't exactly qualify as Independent Comic Companies. It is a subjective definition and at this time we choose to include these publishers, primarily due to the fact that they are an environment for creator owned properties, and unlike the "Major" Companies are not widely distributed with Newspapers and other Periodicals. |
| Why review Independent Comics nobody reads those? |
| This is exactly what we've set out to change.
Small publishers and creators need all the help they can get.
This is why I've designed this site to help them spread the word about their comic. Please take a moment to read our mission statement. |
| Who does the reviewing? |
| Fortunately I am not doing this alone anymore.
Please visit our staff profiles(they will be available soon). |
| Is the Independent Universe a new site? |
| For those of you just joining us the Independent Universe started in 1996 and was one of the first websites
devoted to showcase the wide range of quality comics being published by small publishers. Honest, concise comic reviews were posted weekly until late
1998 when it became too time consuming for one person to handle. |
| How did the Independent Universe start? |
| Back when my comic was being published by Dilemma Productions I visited a lot of comic conventions to promote it.
I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of talented comic creators and reading some fantastic books that I never knew about.
We came up with the idea of cross promotion of these titles through a trading card set. We got about 72 creators to contribute to a 120-card set.
Each card was designed with one purpose in mind to try and help the struggling publishers out there by introducing their books to people who might not
have seen their work otherwise. This set sold out almost immediately. Series II came out a couple of years later and received a lot more press.
The concept was a winner. TOPPS trading cards came out with The Creator's Alternative Universe Cards and released them the same month as The Independent
Universe Series II. The fans were a bit confused and sales suffered to the point where it wasn't financially possible to raise the money for a Series III. I then decided to redirect my energies into building a web site that would do the same thing as the cards were mean to. Spread the word about some great comics.. |
| What happened its been years??? |
| Almost 4 years to be exact. Originally this site was a labor of love. Sometimes real life (jobs, kids, spouses)
asks you to put things like this aside for a while. You do so knowing someday you'll return. Someday has arrived. |
| What was the old site like? |
| The Independent Universe was started as a free website off my AOL account.
It was done in HTML and too much time to maintain. It looked very simple and contained only static HTML pages with comic reviews but got the job done. |
| How do I get my Independent Comic Reviewed? |
| There is nothing more frustrating than to submit a comic to a reviewer and if never gets read.
We will try to review EVERY comic submitted to us. It is done on a first come first serve basis. Please review our submission guidelines before sending anything. |
| Why go to all the trouble of programming a website couldn't you just use Dreamweaver or something? |
| There are many functions on the web that Dreamweaver isn't able to give you.
Countless hours of programming have gone into this site to automate "the work involved in maintaining a web site".
Doing that allows us to keep the content fresh and save lots of time. Time being our arch-enemy. We have enough time
to read comics and write reviews. With this new site the computer takes care of the rest.
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| Can I make a site like this? |
| Yes, it takes time, a logical mind and knowledge of databases and web-based
programming languages. If you don't have these skills I would be happy to give you a quotation on your project as I
design web sites for a living. |
| How long will the Independent Universe be around for? |
| We plan to stay around as long as we have the continued support of comic creators, publishers and fans. |
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