And I mean from the industry as a whole.Thers an article on it : http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=17:CASEY: So, now that convention season is in full swing, I guess it's time for all of us to brace ourselves for whatever announcements and so-called "news" that might come out of these situations. Lord knows what the big publishers will come up with to hit us over the head with this year, but if there's one thing we can count on, it's that whatever projects, exclusive signings or otherwise relevant news is unveiled at these things... they'll surely be presented with the attendant amount of hype.

Ah, yes... Hype. Once upon a time, in our cute little business, hype was actually "promotion." It served as promotion, providing information that would serve to inform potential readers of what was coming. If genuine fan excitement came along with it -- what was once referred to as "buzz" -- then so much the better.

These days, simply providing information just doesn't cut it. If you can't get people excited, get message boards buzzing, get misinformation running rampant, force that buzz to somehow exist... then you're obviously doing something wrong. That's what Hype is all about, isn't it? Generating a histrionic reaction to -- at that point -- nothing. In other words, it's gotten to the point where publishers can hype a series before one page is written or drawn. Now, the layman may ask, "How is that possible... to promote something to the moon that doesn't even exist yet...?" The answer: Well... this is Hype we're talking about, not promotion.

Hype. Where the public is told what it will like before it has a chance to actually see the product.

Kind of like a magic trick, wouldn't you say...?

FRACTION: Definitely a trick, I'll give it that much. Am I nuts, or are we very quickly approaching some sort of Bullshit Singularity? All love of hyperbole and the cleverly placed PR bombs aside, things are starting to feel like just... yelling. And not even articulate yelling: it's like two white noise makers cranked all the way up and pointed at one another from across the convention floor.

I mean, I by no means claim to have my ear to the ground of the heart of the market or anything, but even I can tell that when, like, Newsarama is running stories about how much it actually costs to follow either of the Big! Summer! EVENTS! that... shit, man, people are going to burn out on this fast.

So then you'll have readers rejecting books before they've even read them, critiquing not the books but the hype. Which, while it certainly seems natural, doesn't seem any more right.

CASEY: Y'know, the sick thing is that I can actually appreciate a good... well... Hype Job. And God bless Brady for running what I call the Lick Of Sense. One counter balances the other, which is ultimately a good thing. But the well-done Hype Job is, I suppose, an art form in itself.

But it has nothing to do with comicbooks, does it?

You're absolutely right. Judgment passed on a Hype Job should not be mistaken for judgment on the product itself. But how many folks really think to make that distinction? Well, the superior Hype Job doesn't allow for you to make that distinction. The superior Hype Job eats away at your ability to think rationally. All that's left is the thought, "I have to have this!"

Hype forces everyone to pass the buck. Publishers need to sell their product, and so the Hype Job begins. Retailers and reader alike are subsequently exposed to said Hype. If one doesn't buy into it, the other will. So, whose fault is it when a new Hype Job works? No one's. And everyone's.