Websnark: Dude.

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Eric: Dude.

Here's the thing. I'm a writer. I write.

I do it because I love writing. I do it because I'm not happy when I'm not writing. I do it because... well because it's what I do.

Sometimes, I get paid for it. And that rocks.

Getting my copies of books with my name on the cover rocks too. Smelling the paper, smelling the ink.

People reading what I write rocks. You all rock.

And I have had any number of moments. Thresholds. Moments that are seminal. Moments where my world rocks a little, but in a very good way.

I had one of those tonight.

I've been honored and privileged to write a few introductions and forewards for comic and cartoon collections. It always humbles me to have someone whose work I respect ask me to contribute something to one of their collected works -- I mean, this is one of the high points of their lives we're discussing. To be asked to be a part of that is an honor and a privilege. It is, in the end, fun.

And it's a blast to see them offered online. And those rare moments I go to a comic book store and see them there, it is amazingly cool. It is just as cool as it is to walk to the RPG section of those stores and see one of my books over there as well. I like RPG stores. They're good for my ego.

Well. Ever since I've sold stuff professionally, I've haunted Barnes and Noble, Borders and all of their ilk. Because while I've known that the likelihood that Sidewinder: Wild West Adventures or something from In Nomine would be sitting on a Barnes and Noble shelf was small, it wasn't zero. (I thought I'd have that moment with Star Trek: Worlds. And then it went PDF only. Sometimes, the Gods enjoy laughing at us.) I still do it to this day.

And I look through the graphic novel section. But not for anything of mine. I look there to see if folks from the webcomics world have made the jump. It happens on occasion, and I think that's really cool.

Well. So, tonight, I was looking over the graphic novels, and my heart stopped. Because the Image Comics collections of Scott Kurtz's PvP were there. And well they should be.

More to the point, volume 3 is there.

I should have expected it. PvP is big enough to make the jump to bookstores -- more than big enough. And Scott Kurtz has worked hard, and Image ain't small potatoes. Of course the Image PvP collections are there.

So I picked up Volume 3. And I opened the cover. And I read the opening words of the foreward.

I get a certain amount of e-mail about webcomics these days. A good number of those e-mails center on webcomics the writer loves. They extol the virtues of their favorite webcomics. They talk about the art, the writing, the characterization and the jokes. They are enthusiastic about webcomics and they want to share their enthusiasm with others.

I'm not going to write about those letters in this introduction.

I skipped ahead, to the very end.

Specifically, to the part that said "Eric Alfred Burns, New Hampshire" and had a picture of the Ursula Vernon 'Snarky' you see in the corner of the web site's pages.

And I knew, right then, that it was highly unlikely that a Barnes and Noble in New Hampshire was atypical in its ordering. It's better than even odds that the other Barnes and Nobles in the region carry similar selections.

And pretty darn likely the same is true throughout this half of the country. Or maybe even the full country.

And that the same is probably true of Powell's. Or Borders. Or the Elliot Bay Bookstore. Or Tattered Cover.

For the first time in my life, I can walk into any given large chain bookstore in the country and there's at least even odds I can put a hand on my book that has my fucking words in it.

I'm astoundingly grateful to Scott Kurtz for the opportunity. And I'm just blown away. This is one of those moments that just throws me. I literally have to adjust my world view to fit this fact.

I'm a writer.

I write.

The proof can likely be found at your friendly local bookstore.

Dude.

Posted by Eric Burns at May 17, 2006 10:08 PM

Comments

Comment from: Kate Sith posted at May 17, 2006 10:33 PM

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude! 'grats!

Comment from: Thomas Blight posted at May 17, 2006 10:54 PM

Dude.

Comment from: kirabug posted at May 17, 2006 11:17 PM

Congratulations :) That's awesome!!

Comment from: HumanSockPuppet posted at May 18, 2006 12:10 AM

Supreme, Eric. SUPREME.

Comment from: david_wisdom posted at May 18, 2006 1:21 AM

That is easily seven kinds of awesome. Congratulations, dude.

Comment from: miyaa posted at May 18, 2006 1:54 AM

Congrats. Now I suppose this means you'll have to copyright Websnarky.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 18, 2006 1:57 AM

Technically, Snarky's Ursula Vernon's copyright, not mine. ;)

Comment from: WestRider posted at May 18, 2006 4:30 AM

Dude. I mean, dude! That's so cool. Dude.

Comment from: Bo Lindbergh posted at May 18, 2006 4:51 AM

"foreward" → "foreword"

/ your friendly neigbourhood eagle-eyed proofreader

Comment from: Matt Buchwald posted at May 18, 2006 7:51 AM

Whoa.

Comment from: UrsulaV posted at May 18, 2006 8:39 AM

I gotta go check it just to see Snarky!

Comment from: glych posted at May 18, 2006 8:48 AM

I rarely comment here...mostly lurking in the shadows of the internet and the snarky posts...reading quietly, and never rasing my voice...

That happened to me twice thusfar...Once, was when I walked into a B&N in Hollywood and found a copy of Drunk Duck: Drunk and Disorderly on the shelf with my painted cover and Red Dahlia adorning the inside... It was a magical feeling.

The second time that happened to me was in a comic book store up here in Canada. I had bought 7 copies of Narwain's Tales of a Forgotten Planet with my story Polarity inside... What made that so magical, was that ahead of me a guy had bought one...When he saw how many copies I had, he asked if I was buying them for friends...I told him that yes, I was...and family...That I was sending them out for Christman. When he asked me why I would send out a comic for Christman, I told him that I had worked on it, and showed him my portion...

He had said it was MY art that had inspired him to buy the book when he had flipped through it.

^_^

Congrats, Eric. You've earned it. You are a writer... a starving, mad, crotchety old writer...Just like me!

*welcomes you to club*

-glych

Comment from: larksilver posted at May 18, 2006 9:34 AM

oh, Dude. That's just.. well, that's just smurftastic.

Hmm. Maybe now I'll finally darken the door of my local B&N and use that gift card I've been carrying around since Christmas....

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at May 18, 2006 9:41 AM

Sometimes a me, too post isn't inappropriate.

Congratulations.

Comment from: Pseudowolf posted at May 18, 2006 9:44 AM

Very awesome, dude!

Actually, I was in a B&N just yesterday to get a gift card for my mom and sis. I looked around a bit first and I saw some PvP volumes sitting on a table, but I didn't look through them.

Still, way to go!

Comment from: Andrew Grilz posted at May 18, 2006 10:09 AM

Golf clap for you, buddy. Congrats.

I got a similar zing when I found out my name and my contribution (as curator)were mentioned specifically in the acknowledgements in the "Star Wars" exhibit companion book the museum co-published with National Geographic. Thousands of people worked on the exhibit. Maybe five got an acknowledgement. Of those, only two of those work at the museum.

In a book that's printed by the freakin' National Geographic and sold worldwide.

Yeah. It feels good. Let's bask.

Comment from: miyaa posted at May 18, 2006 10:35 AM

Andrew...

I've got to ask: National Geographic? Star Wars exhibit? Smithsonian, yeah, I can see. But National Geographic? I know them as the guild that sends photographers all around the world to view events around the world and Geography!

I'm not trying to knock down your achievement, but there just seems to be a disconnect between the two. Unless they were asked to make a map of Dagobah.

Comment from: Kirath posted at May 18, 2006 11:33 AM

Dude.
*nod*
That's cool. I may have to stop by the Manchester B&N on payday. Congratulations!

Comment from: Chris: Wannabe Academic posted at May 18, 2006 2:50 PM

Dude.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at May 18, 2006 4:15 PM

The closest I have to this just yet is that I can go into a bookstore right now and find a book with my wife's words in it. Neat, but in a different way.

Sigh... this just serves to remind me that I have to get off my ass and get bound too.

But for this, Eric, congrats.

Comment from: Andrew Grilz posted at May 19, 2006 9:54 AM

Miyaaa-

Actually, it was more about them documenting the real science, like robotic technology or cybernetics, that made up the 'real world' side of the exhibit. As one of the curators, I was the guy who had to make sure these prototype robots, which were assembled with the general attitude of "how far can we push it until it breaks?" and never with any thought of posterity made it to the photographers studio and back again without falling to pieces.

By the way, the 'real' Millenium Falcon about the size of your dining room table, and is one heavy bitch.

A fold out map of Dagobah would have been cool, but the closest they get to something like that is discussing urban planning and cities of the future, and how the flying car will change the world. Eventually.

Buy your rocket packs NOW.

Comment from: gwalla posted at May 19, 2006 10:42 PM

Wiigii!

Comment from: Tim Tylor posted at May 20, 2006 9:17 AM

Neat. :)

TC's having trouble logging in, but he's giving his congrats too.

Comment from: Tovias posted at May 23, 2006 5:07 PM

Just a heads up, I recently picked up Volume 3 at the Barnes and Noble in Virginia Beach, VA.
I was shocked to find it on the shelves there, not because I didn't think it belonged there, but the fact that it was so unbelievably cool to find a copy.
I don't know how many they originally ordered, but I bought the last one on the shelf.

Websnark

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