Travis Seitler: Web Designer

Now that I don’t work for Geppi anymore, I’ll go ahead and “out” him on this one.

For both 2007 and 2008, everyone at Gemstone Publishing was given pre-filled ballots (typically leaving one or two blank spaces for our own personal choices) to sign and send in. Nobody was required to submit the ballots (I didn’t either year; mostly because I was disgusted by the scheme), but I’m sure we still had two- or three-dozen nearly identical ballots sent for both of those years.

The worst part is that they were so pathetically obvious about it. In 2007, completely blank ballots were e-mailed to Gemstone employees… and then we were told to not touch those, but to instead wait for the “J.C. Vaughn-approved” (pre-filled) versions to be passed around.

In ‘08, after the pre-filled ballots were given to us, Vaughn had a member of the Scoop! editorial staff e-mail everyone in the company, looking for a tally of who all was going to submit ballots. (Now maybe I’m just clueless, but why would he even want to know… unless they were planning on submitting forged ballots “on our behalf”?)

Spammy, attention-grabbing behavior like this from the people in charge is one of the many reasons why I got off that sinking ship. (Sigh.)

I really don’t know what to suggest in the way of fixing the Harveys. Maybe a ballot system where you aren’t allowed to nominate any project you were involved with? You’d still get backscratching, but it wouldn’t be as much of a “biggest publisher who cares, wins” nomination process.

(This post originally appeared as a comment at Heidi MacDonald’s THE BEAT.)

UPDATE: Not only did my remarks influence a follow-up article at THE BEAT, but I’m getting incoming links from CBR’s Robot 6, Comics Worth Reading is quoting me, and I landed a mention in TCJ’s ¡Journalista! Nuts, I tell you! NUTS!

It’s now been three years since I started this blog, and so I’m doing a little bit of reminiscing. Gosh, I’ve sure put on some weight since then! (Glad I’m now losing some of that!)

I also can’t help but notice that a far greater proportion of my posts focused on Gemstone Publishing’s Disney comic books. Nowadays I’m far more likely to talk politics. (Hey, I found it interesting!)

But you know what I found even more striking? Back then, I would tend to just post a quote from a book, article or sermon. You know, the way Josh Sowin likes to blog. These days I tend to feel guilty if I don’t inject some of my own commentary.

But tough noogies, Travis! Because as part of my plan to celebrate these past three years of blogging, I’m going to goof around get back to my roots with Quotes Week! “What is Quotes Week,” you ask? Silly human! Each day I’ll post a quote (maybe a couple if they’re closely related) and very little personal commentary. You will then be led to marvel at the intelligence of others, rather than marveling at my own intelligence (which, let’s face it, is what typically happens around here).

Hopefully y’all don’t notice this is a dumb excuse to not write much enjoy it as much as I do!

Ooh! Ooh! And there’s a special, secret surprise in the works! I don’t want to reveal too much about it right now, but something super-fun will be happening on April 10th! So mark your calendars, folks! You heard it here first… primarily because nobody else knows about it.

I feel extra goofy all of a sudden. I wonder if it’s more from the lack of sleep, the Benadryl, or the giddiness that is writing whatever the heck I want to!

Woo-hoo! Go, diphenhydramine, go!

Free Weegie has been freed! There were some shipping snafus, but Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #686 is now in stores—and we’re shipping two issues a month until we catch up (in April)!

Here’s the breakdown on the new on-sale dates:

January 9, 2008: DuckTales #3: Scrooge’s Quest
January 16, 2008: US #371, WDC #686
January 30, 2008: US #372, WDC #687, Treasures #2
February 12, 2008: US #373, WDC #688, Barks/Rosa #2
February 27, 2008: US #374, WDC #689
March 5, 2008: US #375, WDC #690
March 19, 2008: US #376, WDC #691, Spring Fever #2

This just in: Donald Duck tried to mass-duplicate and sell pirated copies of a popular album on CD, and got caught (and fined) by the record label’s CEO! It’s all in Dutch, though, so good luck reading it.

Well, at the very least this proves that Disney comics can command attention in the U.S.!

Okay, not really. But one of the really neat cool awesome things about my job is when I get to handle work from the pros that hasn’t seen publication yet. Especially when it’s the work of a perennial Eisner-award-winning pro.

Right now I’m merging Todd’s lettering for “Burning Hearts,” the lead story in our January issue of Walt Disney’s Comic and Stories (#689). It was originally slated for Donald Duck & Friends #348—but that series was canceled, so we had to shelve this Valentine’s Day story… until now!