+EV comics - more original content coming
From next week you can expect even more exclusive new poker comics and to celebrate we chat with +EV creator Bobby Crosby.
We have two pieces of exciting news for fans of poker comics today. As we celebrate almost a year partnered with +EV Comics, we can reveal that starting next week, we will get three brand new +EV comics a week from Bobby Crosby.
The other big announcement is that starting from next week we will also be producing some of our own comics. Many of our worldwide communities have been creating their own comics and the best ones are going to get translated into every one of our PokerStrategy.com languages.
• Previously we would receive five old +EV Comics and two new exclusive ones per week.
• Now we will receive three new exclusive +EV Comics and two new local comics per week.
The new running order will see +EV Comics on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Our home grown comics will be published on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
To whet your appetite, we took some time out to chat with +EV creator Bobby Crosby to celebrate the renewal of our partnership.
"Having my comic translated is an honour"
PokerStrategy.com: It’s been almost a year at PokerStrategy.com for you – what’s been the highlights and challenges so far?
Bobby Crosby: The best thing about working with PokerStrategy is the honour of having my comic translated in so many different languages every day for the largest poker community in the world.
Unfortunately that's also the biggest challenge, because each comic has to make sense in every language, which eliminates a huge amount of possible jokes, including a lot that I had no idea wouldn't be translatable. And even when the main idea of the joke does work for every community, the subtleties of the dialogue are often lost in translation and the comedic timing is thrown off.
This is a large reason why the television show "The Office" has been re-made by about 10 different countries instead of simply running subtitled versions of the original. So it's certainly a challenge, but it makes it even sweeter when a comic gets a good response from every community. Another challenge was posting five old comics and two new comics per week and trying to keep a proper flow.
I didn't anticipate how difficult that would be and it was sometimes confusing for new readers who weren't fans of the comic before it came to PokerStrategy.
PokerStrategy.com: Have you found yourself changing your content a little to suit this audience?
Bobby Crosby: Yes, because it's 15 different audiences and it has to work for all of them. Also, I need to submit the comics two weeks in advance to give the translators time to do their work, but unfortunately that means I can't make a comic about any breaking news in the poker world and have it posted while it's still a hot story.
I did a lot of comics like that back when "+EV" was only in English on my web site. I'm hoping to do some of those timely comics for PokerStrategy moving forward, even if it's only for the English community at first.
"I've made some adjustments based on reader comments"
PokerStrategy.com: What's it been like getting the pretty instant feedback in the comments box?
Bobby Crosby: It's great. I've previously written a couple popular webcomics that got over a hundred comments per day, but those were all in English. It's a lot more fun switching through the languages on PokerStrategy and having Google automatically translate them for me.
I've made some adjustments to the comic based on the comments, although it's often difficult to figure out what the readers want, since the different communities often contradict each other. Sometimes the Spanish readers love something that the Russians hate, for example.
PokerStrategy.com: Have you found yourself taking more of an interest in European poker?
Bobby Crosby: Yeah, because I've been reading all the news on PokerStrategy, which focuses on Europe a lot, of course. I've enjoyed your articles!
PokerStrategy.com: So you are going to be creating even more comics for us – how hard is it to find new ideas?
Bobby Crosby: As I mentioned before, and this is something that most readers weren't aware of -- for the first year we posted five old comics and two new comics per week.
We've now run out of translatable old comics and we're switching to a schedule of just three new comics per week. It always gets harder to find new ideas, and now I need an extra one per week, but it's a relief to no longer have to fit the new comics in with the old ones. Now that I can focus exclusively on the new ones, the quality should improve.
PokerStrategy.com: The outlook for poker is more positive in the US, where you are from, today than it was when you first started doing comics for us, are you finding yourself taking more of an interest personally in poker again?
Bobby Crosby: Yeah, definitely. I live in Los Angeles, so I'm just hoping California will pass legislation soon for online poker. Lately I've been going to the Commerce Casino to keep my game sharp and find new comic ideas. I recently bubbled a $350 buy-in tournament and that was pretty frustrating.
"The +EV book is selling well"
PokerStrategy.com: How have sales gone with the +EV book?
Bobby Crosby: Great. I'm hoping to sell out of the entire first print run by the end of the San Diego Comic-Con in July and then go for a second printing.
PokerStrategy.com: Have you made any more progress with the proposed TV series?
Bobby Crosby: Yes. It's actually been optioned by a production company and I'm working on a script for the pilot (first) episode. Who knows what might happen with the series, but I'm hoping we'll at least get the pilot produced.
PokerStrategy.com: What other comic projects do you have in the pipeline?
Bobby Crosby: I'm currently finishing up a second volume of a comic called "Marry Me," which was funded by a Kickstarter project that raised $33,752. I'm also working on a novel.
PokerStrategy.com: What advice would you give to anyone wanting to create their own comics?
Bobby Crosby: Other than the basics that they could find anywhere, I'd say that you better have a thick skin, because even if you achieve all your goals, you're going to have lots of haters. This is true of most things in life, not just comics, but I've especially noticed it in the field of humor. There are many people in this world who think that if they don't find something funny then no one else should either.
See more of our recent interviews with the biggest names in poker
The images used in this article are from previous +EV Comics, not our new offerings.
 Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. He has been working in the poker industry for nine years and in 2013 won the APAT Award for Best Poker Media Provider. You can learn more about his work here.
Follow Barry Carter on Twitter l Follow Barry Carter on Google+ |
//
