Rachel the Trend Whore, Page 2

PANEL 1

Rachel tries to explain her work but is interrupted.

RACHEL: "Um, it's not anime, per se—"

WOMAN 1: "Oh, more anime. The market is flooded with that stuff. It's getting so hard to publish real comics these days."

PANEL 2

Multiple women make assumptions about Rachel's work.

WOMAN 2: "Let me guess, you have a little right-to-left comic on DrunkDuck.com about a school girl named Yukiko or something."

RACHEL: (thinking) "You haven't even read my comics!"

WOMAN 3: "Bah, they're all the same."

WOMAN 3: "I bet you have the ubiquitous misunderstood female protagonist with talking animal mascot."

PANEL 3

Rachel is speechless while a woman in glasses makes snide comments.

RACHEL: "..."

WOMAN IN GLASSES: "Stick 'manga' on any trite piece of crap and girls will gobble it up."

PANEL 4

Another woman suggests Tokyo Pop while insulting Rachel.

WOMAN: "Instead of self-publishing, why don't you hit up Tokyo Pop?"

WOMAN: "They love that sort of thing."

WOMAN: "Pocky-muncher."

RACHEL: "I don't even eat pocky!"

The woman carries a book titled "Nothing Sacred Nothing Burned"

There’s always some really grumpy old talent who’s annoyed with the new talent. Now I’m probably that grumpy person.

I did get tired of hearing people ask if I’d tried publishing with Tokyo Pop over and over again. I didn’t like TP’s practices, their policies, or their CEO. I wanted to work with Slave Labor Graphics or Oni or Top Shelf. My work never seemed polished enough to attract their attention, though. I still really like these publishers–who are still around while Tokyo Pop has imploded, I might add.