Comics / Spotlight / Knowledge and Scholarship

Who's Who - Jesse Wind

By Hervé St-Louis
August 7, 2012 - 14:46

I took a chance on Jesse Wind and there is much to learn from the way I handled him as a writer. It seems almost every week, someone writes to me asking me to join ComicBookBin to write articles. Well, the first thing I always do is ask them to submit a sample article to test their resolve. Most never write back and just disappear. That’s a great way to weed out people that aren’t serious about writing or haven’t considered it properly. Many think writing for a Website is about the glory and that it will make you a superstar. I can attest that I am not a superstar in the comic book industry. I bet most people have not heard of me. I’m just some guy who’s been doing this for ten years. Some people know me, many more don’t.

For me this is work. The discovery and magical moments have long faded away. I work at ComicBookBin. I still get some form of enjoyment from it but it’s not a way to have my name plastered all over the place and to influence how the comic book industry is run. I’ve abandoned such dreams years ago and now just focus on what I do best. The good thing is that through ComicBookBin, I’ve learned a lot more about the world and it has opened a lot of doors for me outside of comics. It’s because of ComicBookBin that I got my master’s degree studying cyber security, Iran and Twitter.

But what has all of this to do with poor Jesse Wind? Jesse wrote two video game reviews. Well, after three months, he submitted his second article. In July of 2007, I sent out a bunch of Dark Horse Comics books at my cost to the writers of ComicBookBin. I sent a few to Jesse through FedEx which cost me more than the books were worth. The books, after five years have not been reviewed. I should have known better than to trust a new writer with so little history and so little commitment. But I wanted to be fair and gave him a chance. Whatever happened was my error in judgment. Writers, all of them want free comps all the time. I’m very adamant about comps not being some kind of freebie or a treat but being a commitment to work. When a publisher sends you his material for review, one must treat that as an honour and a responsibility. And when I pay to transfer books to a writer, I want those bloody books reviewed or you will not like me very much.

Jesse contacted me a few years later telling me he had been gravely ill and that he would return the books (he didn’t). I can’t verify since I knew him so little. But based on his track sheet, never reviewing the books sent to him was not exceptional and I should have known better. What it does is spoil the opportunities for other writers down the line. As some of them will tell you, I am not very proactive on sending review copies to writers. After having so much abuse from various writers over the years that got books and ran away with them, without ever sending their reviews, I’m quite reluctant to provide review copies.

Who's Who @ComicBookBin is a feature celebrating the 10th anniversary of ComicBookBin where publisher Hervé St-Louis features writers past and present that have contributed to ComicBookBin over the years.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12