“There’s no denying that Double Barrel is perfectly suited for digital” Kevin and Zander Cannon on the pros and cons of digital publishing
How much of an overlap do you get with readers? Is there any kind of internal competition between you two about which books does better now that they are both out on their own? And is there a danger that fans of Double Barrel might be required to chose a favourite whereas when they are published together you can pick up twice the number of fans?
Z: I don’t think that we’re too worried about that. Unless…wait. Mm… No, not at all. Maybe a little. Possibly. No, it’s never even crossed my mind. I think.
I know that I like to know what Kevin is doing whenever we’re both drawing equivalent pictures that will appear together, or we’re putting out cards or collectibles or whatever, just because I like to be in the same ballpark. He’s a tough act to follow, so I like to at least know which bar he’s clearing.
I like that these books can be marketed together since even though they’re different, we can make the most of the shared qualities they have, which is the main theme of Double Barrel. We love doing genre stories, and we love having strong, cohesive narratives to our tales, and we both work in indie-friendly styles. All of this is not the usual situation in indie comics, so we like that when the books — whose tones are pretty different — are put together, they give a sense of a healthy indie-pulp genre for the coming decade.
K: I definitely don’t check Amazon stats every day to see which of our books is winning. Definitely not doing that. Seriously, though, Zander and I are both competitive people to begin with, and competition has been a part of this project from the start. We even had a race to see who could finish their graphic novel first (I won). Fortunately at the end of the day it’s all in fun, because the books are different enough that they’ll naturally attract different readers, and neither of us are counting on book sales to pay for our mortgages, so there’s no life-and-death element to it. Plus we’re huge fans of each others’ work, so watching the other succeed would not be such a bad deal.
Z: The stories were originally drawn to be read as a book. I think because of that there were some odd breaking points in the serialization of Heck (only a short chapter in one issue because the next chapter was 50 pages long, to choose one example), so I think we were pretty well set to go when the books went to print. The intent of the physical books was to collect the material all in one place and allow readers to move through it at the pace we intended. The extras will find their homes in coming releases over the next year or so, and additional material often finds its way to our website at barrelmag.com.
K: Because Double Barrel has so many extras, we didn’t feel the need to pad the graphic novels with anything. But if people do want some extra goodies, Top Shelf is offering signed & numbered editions of both of our books that come with mini-comics and some other stuff. It’s very giftable.
What’s the next step for Double Barrel? You’ve recently introduced Tim Sievert’s Clandestinauts to the title? Any plans to bring in anyone else or new characters perhaps? Any plans to collect together the other strips from Double Barrel like Jin or Penny Dreadful into their own collections? Or what about releasing Double Barrel as a collection?
Z: There are a lot of factors in bringing in other creators, including money, time, rights (say, to continue to publish their work in Double Barrel if another publisher decides to print it as a book), etc, that are tricky but surmountable. We are in the process of working out other creators for upcoming issues, and we think that it will be truly magnificent.
There has been some talk about releasing some version of the editorial material in Double Barrel just so that people can have all of the extra stuff in one place, but we’re still figuring that out. Most of the other work will be collected in one way or another, particularly Penny and Jin.
K: I kind of like the idea some some of the content wouldn’t be collected, that it would only exist in Double Barrel. As for next steps for Double Barrel, we’re definitely going to be taking a hiatus to figure out what’s next. People may not realize that Zander and I have a combined 800 pages of content already in the can before starting the first season of Double Barrel, and now we have zero pages ahead of Season Two. Because of that, we’ll probably be looking at issues spread out farther apart, and hopefully more contributors. But whatever we do, we’ll announce it on barrelmag.com.
Finally, do people still tell you they’re ‘waiting for trade’ and how do you feel about that now you’ve taken matters into your own hands with Double Barrel?
Z: I think that people do wait for the trade, not just because something is expensive, but just because there is so much out there. I anticipate comics going into a golden age as we realize that parceling out work in drips and drabs and not taking the creative step of making it a complete story is hindering people’s ability to get involved with a work. I think we will start taking a page from episodic TV and making our serialized comics a little more complete and therefore a little more essential.
K: I know a lot of people who have been waiting for our books to come out in physical form. Hopefully they’ll read the print versions and then go back and explore all of the extra content in the back issues of Double Barrel. They’ll be surprised by how much they missed!
Heck and Crater XV are available via ComiXology for £6.99/$10.99 per volume or for download the individual issue of Double Barrel magazine for just £1.99/$2.99 each. For more info you can also check out barrelmag.co
Alternatively, if you want to get the hardcover editions click here to buy Heck or click here to buy Crater XV, both are available via Amazon.
