The Graphic Novel Archive Blog

The contributing editor with the most points earned during the month of November 2008…

mikebo, with 107 points earned!

Winner of last month’s Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween (kindly provided by GNA site sponsor InStockTrades), mikebo has earned himself more collected reading in the form of Jack Kirby’s Galactic Bounty Hunters Volume 1 hardcover, new in shrinkwrap.

And the contributing editor having earned at least one point during the month of November 2008…

mikebo, earning himself a copy of the Spider-Man: India TPB!

Hmm.  I definitely see a pattern.  Anyone wanna step up and give this guy some competition? 

The contributing editor winning the GNA prize award for October 2008 - GNA contributor mikebo, with 6,268 points earned! Mikebo wins himself a copy of Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween - courtesy GNA site sponsor InStockTrades - along with the Firestorm: The Nuclear Man: Reborn TPB, Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 4: Legacy TPB, the Daredevil DVD, and a bunch of floppy comics thrown in for good measure.

The GNA contributor having earned at least one point during the month of October 2008 - Dylnsdad. Dylnsdad will receive the Hulk: Incredible Marvel Age digest, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Volume 2: Fantastic Voyages digest, and The Helmet of Fate trade paperback.

Congrats to the winners! And remember, earning points between now and November 30th will earn your chance to win the next GNA prize package. (What prizes? I hope to announce ‘em very soon!)

To all of the GNA’s contributing editors, reviewers, and contest sponsor InStockTrades, a sincere thank you for helping build the Graphic Novel Archive into what I hope will one day be the definitive graphic novel resource.

Jeff

Wanted to let everyone know - publishing your graphic novel review here at the GNA now earns ya a flat 50 MyGNA points. I felt this was only fair to those reviewing graphic novels for the GNA, in combination with our contributing editors.

Pretty much the same review guidelines apply as before:

Submit your review to reviews at graphicnovelarchive.com.
Be sure to include your GNA registered username.
Be sure to include the edition’s ISBN or ISBN-13 with your review.
Submission does not guarantee publication (we’re looking for quality over quantity).
Points will be rewarded with publication.

Thanks all!

Jeff

Life has been crazy hectic lately, what with moving the family to a new home and all of the hassle related therein, including finding the time to work with the GNA web site (further complicated with limited ‘net access).  But between the shuffling of boxes, boxes and even more boxes, I managed to find the time to put together the contributing editor prize awards for the month of October ‘08.

(Not familiar with the GNA’s contributing editor program?  Learn more here.)

Lined up for the contributing editor having earned the most MyGNA Points this month, DC’s Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween slipcased hardcover!

Courtesy the fine folks over at InStockTrades, the Graphic Novel Archive will be awarding a new copy of the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Batman epic, The Long Halloween - dressed and decked in DC’s mega-prestige Absolute hardcover format - to the GNA contributing editor having earned the most points during the month of October 2008.

Along with, I’ll be tossing in some convention deals and Ebay extras I’ve had here for a while, including Firestorm: The Nuclear Man: Reborn TPB and Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 4: Legacy TPB, as well as a new copy of the Daredevil 2-disc widescreen DVD (say what you will of the movie, the comics documentary is fantastic), along with a collection of random comics I’ll be pulling from my comic coffers.

And for the randomly selected contributing editor having contributed one point or more during the month of October 2008, the winner will receive the The Helmet of Fate TPB, Hulk: Incredible Marvel Age digest, and the Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Volume 2: Fantastic Voyages digest.

Winners will be announced on November 1st (or soon afterwards).  ‘Till then, earning some MyGNA points will earn your chance to win!

I’d like to wrap this up with a thankful shout out to InStockTrades, provider of this month’s anchor prize.  If you’re a regular GNA visitor and have yet to give InStockTrades a try, be sure to swing by and check ‘em out.  Their discounts and free shipping offers are great, but it’s their incredible customer service that’ll win you over.  Don’t just support ‘em because they support the GNA - support ‘em because they’re fantastic at what they do.

Introducing Cheap @$$ Trades.

I’ll let the site speak for itself, but I wanted to point out an exclusive tie-in between CAT and the Graphic Novel Archive.

You’re already familiar with the GNA’s point system, right?  Where - if you join the GNA’s team of contributing editors - you have an opportunity to win monthly prizes by helping improve the GNA’s bibliographical database.

I wanted to take these rewards a step further.  The GNA is ginormous in scope, after all, and for those of you taking the time and making the effort in helping improve the site, I wanted to find some way of thanking you even more.

So over at CAT, there’s a commission sharing program called CATLink.  And while this explains everything in detail, suffice it to say, linking to CAT via a CATLink earns ya the chance of earning a sales commission if someone buys something.

Usually, this chance is 50%.  But for every point you earn at the GNA, those same points - per trade - will up your odds over at CAT.

Here’s an example.  Say you earn 7 points by updating the Batman: Dark Knight Returns HC here at the GNA.  Your odds of earning a sales commission for the Batman: Dark Knight Returns HC, over at CAT, just jumped from 50% to 57%.

Better yet, for every 5000 points earned here at the GNA, your odds jump by a permanent 10% over at CAT - across the board.

So why not give CAT and CATLinking a look?  And thank you for your contributions to the Graphic Novel Archive!

Wanted to let the GNA’s visitors and contributing editors know about some recent updates.

I’ve added a new section to each graphic novel’s profile - the Editorial Contributors section.  If a graphic novel has been updated by one or more contributing editors, you’ll find a list of contributors along with the option to display the edition’s complete edit history.  (This is rather rudimentary currently, but you’ll see some significant improvements in the near future.)

To learn how you can become a GNA contributing editor, click here.

I’ve corrected a number of bugs found within the GNA’s edit history routines, including issuing points awarded for non-existant Imprint/Studio updates.  These have been fixed, and as a result, some contributors will notice a slight drop in their overall point totals.  Sorry about that folks, but a fair playing field is paramount.

Finally, a shout out to GNA contributing editor mikebo.  Dude, you rock.

I’m glad to announce a new online speciality shop added to the GNA’s comparison shopper mix - InStockTrades!

I’ve been trying to add these guys to the shopper for a while now, as I’ve always been incredibly impressed with their customer service.  So writing this announcement has been something I’ve been looking forward to for a long, long time.  Great service, great pricing, great shipment packaging, and free shipping for orders over fifty bucks.

If you haven’t already, give InStockTrades a try.

Jeff

Some would say it had to happen eventually. The GNA’s blog has moved to the WordPress platform.

It wasn’t an easy choice. And it wasn’t entirely an easy transfer. But it’s finished, and with WP’s handy browser integrated plugins and a more stable backend dbase, should make for easier blogging ahead.

Expect a nice theme or some major integration to be applied in the future - this default skin is ugh.

Between life in general and the Dark Knight movie (wow), I spent some quality time adding Ebay “Buy It Now” and Half.com listings to the comparison shopper routine. Yet another means of tracking down those hard to find, out of print books.

Also uploaded the latest Community Editor tool - the Edition Title editor. Log in to your MyGNA account, click “Edit Edition Title” in your MyGNA sidebar, and voila, Internet magic will allow you to update an edition’s title and save it to the GNA’s graphic novel database. This garners points and points can garner prizes. If you haven’t already checked into it, give this a read.

More to come.

Besides catching up on solicitations and adding Alibris results to the comparison shopping routine, I’ve been working on a new MyGNA editor for the web site.

If you’d like to make changes to a graphic novel profile’s Edition Detail (the handy sidebar indicating such data as an edition’s publisher, scope, format, etc), click the “Edit Edition Detail” link in your MyGNA sidebar when viewing a profile.

Make your changes, click Submit, and rest easy knowing you’ve saved yet another graphic novel edition from incorrectedness.

Remember, edits earn points, and points earn ya a chance to win monthly prizes.

Not a MyGNA registered visitor? Why not!?! Besides earning your community editor badge, MyGNA let’s you track your collection, build a wish list, and watch prices for graphic novel bargains.

Best sign up now before you forget. It’s free.