Stick Yer $3 In Yer Cape
I was tooling around the Aint-it-cool website recently, and got really bummed out when I read the following in its comics review section:
“I hate comic books that cost over three dollars. But what I hate worse are comics over three dollars that actually look interesting enough to buy. What I hate even more than a three dollar comic that looks interesting enough to buy is one that’s good enough that I’m going to have to buy the next issue, therefore causing me to spend over three dollars on another comic book. OK, fine, actually with the thirty percent discount on new books that my comic guy gives me it comes out to about two dollars and sixty-five cents with tax but you get my drift.Damn you DUSTY STAR. Damn you for being a good comic book that costs $3.50 an issue.”
Besides being a very faux-clever way of beginning a review (actually, it’s goddamn annoying), it’s a major dis to independent comics, whether the writer knows it or not. What this guy, who goes by the nom de plume “superhero”, is basically saying is that all he buys is the most mainstream of comics coming from Marvel and DC. That’s because nobody else can really deliver comics for less than 3 dollars and make any money in the dwindling comics market. Because of their decades-old marketable icons, the Big 2 can sell advertising, offsetting production costs, and still come up ahead. Not so for the struggling indy comics, which more often than not are the source of today’s quality work in sequential art.
And worse, this guy proclaims to ‘hate’ paying $3 + for comics. So, anybody out there trying to create a new and interesting work, a new mythology, a new genre, a new way to see the art form, you are screwed. You see, this “superhero” fella can’t afford your books. He’s already spent his milk money on all of this year’s Infinite Civil Crises War tie-ins. No matter that most are written in the most mundane and hackneyed manner, with little or no reverence for the characters. And who cares if the art looks like it was drawn soullessly by the HAL-9000? Not our friend “superhero”. The fact that it’s not only men in tights beating each other up over and over again – but the same goddamned men in tights beating each other up since 1938 – can never bore our courageous reviewer. He’ll buy the crap. And he can have it, for all I care.
What bugs me here is that there’s wonderful new work out there that is largely ignored by guys like this. Imagine there were two other dominant “universes” out there, and theses guys Kirby, Ditko, Kane, Siegel, etc. are just starting out. And imagine that these great talents are all reduced to keeping their day jobs at the VA (sorry, Harvey) while self-publishing their books, charging $4 bucks a piece, and still, they lose money, all because smug assholes like “superhero” would rather pay for an executive editor’s new Porsche than give new comics their day in the sun. Can’t happen? It is. Most retailers won’t even put a new title on their racks if it isn’t the Big 2, or maybe Dark Horse and Image. And “superhero” seemingly has no powers that can cut through the confusion beset in his mind by crossover fever.
Listen, bub, I don’t care if you were being whimsical, witty, or just plain stupid. And however glowing your review of Dusty Star (which I have not yet read), the fact is that you must disdain the art form if you cry about the economics in favor of the status quo. I’d rather spend 20 bucks on one great comic, than $18 on five shitty books. And I wouldn’t spend one thin dime to read your vacuous bullshit masquerading as a review of the medium I love so much. If you weren’t writing on a site with some “pop culture authority”, one that could influence reader’s opinions, I wouldn’t really care. But you do, and somebody out there may be listening. If you really had any respect for indy comics, Dusty Star, comics in general, and even just plain ol’ “art”, you wouldn’t have maligned your own essay with such a thoughtless preamble, which only serves to further damage the chances of great new work emerging from behind the eclipse of the tired capes.
August 16th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
What an animal ! What passion ! Love it. Please give us readers some B/G on who you are and what you create. Seems to be all creators posting here? NEAT.
Interested in comics.
Alexis.
August 17th, 2006 at 10:58 am
I’ll echo Alexis’ comment about the welcome dose of passion that fueled your post. As for the content of the post, while I generally agree, I take slight exception to it. Yes, that preamble is smarmy, and clearly the writer evinces an ignorance for the economics of the industry. But I think it was probably well intentioned, and from a glass half full perspective, I’m happy when anyone on a mainstream site reviews an indy comic.
I’d also like to point out that two of the most innovative comics out there right now, Matt Fraction’s “Casanova” and Warren Ellis’ “Fell”, are both great indy books that go for $1.99. Perhaps they are the exception to the rule, but Fell was conceived in part because Ellis was getting a signal from his fans that price point was a real issue for them, and sales seem to indicate that the price is right for a lot of people (although to be fair, I’m sure Warren’s name alone ensures the kind of audience that allows a $1.99 comic to flourish).
While I wish people were more aware of the financial difficulties inherent in publishing indy books - from both the publisher and creator’s perspective - I think it’s worth noting that readers of indy books do crave some monetary relief, and that these days, it’s good when indy books get reviewed at all.
August 17th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Alexis - Thanks. I’m a writer working on a bunch of stuff and I’ll let you know more about all that soon…
August 17th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
His review has no discernible point beyond Dusty Star is a “good comic.” He’s doing a kind of subjection reckless driving with his writing here. Mentioning that he hates comics that cost North of 3 bucks, but then going on to say that — wait for it — it doesn’t actually affect him anyway. He gets 30% off at his LCS. What we’re ultimately left with is an Internet journalist running in place. And speaking to an audience in the hundreds of thousands.
August 17th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Here’s the review in question. (Not sure if this feedback form allows HTML so I’ll just paste it in.
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=24131#4
Considering it’s only a matter of time before Marvel & DC raise their prices past the $3 mark, this guy’s comic reading days are apparently numbered.
August 17th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Mark I can dig what youre saying, but will respectfully disagree with some of your points so please dont take the exuberance in my words as a personal attack, as they are not meant as such. So, in response to each of your paragraphs, if I may:
1) Fuck that guy. While Im glad for the Dusty Star guys getting a nice review, he is perpetuating a terrible attitude and hyping bad superhero comics in the process, albeit in a somewhat more subtle way. Its irresponsible and displays contempt for the form. In terms of the bigger picture, not only is the glass half empty, this prick smashed the glass on the ground and pissed on the shards;
2) Sorry, dude. While Im a fan who buys lots of their books, Ellis and Templesmith are not sorely in the need of plugs, indy creators struggling to get their work known do. Anybody with a good fan base can sell $2 books as printing costs drop like a rock when you can sell 10,000 20,000 copies (latest numbers for Casanova and Fell, respectively), as opposed to the 300-1000 copies most indys are lucky if they can shuck. Id rather you address the point of how most of the $3 comics are in fact shit, and squeeze the fanboys pockets dry before they can even get to the indy rack if indeed their store even has an indy rack. Its about how good the indy books can be vs. how bad the marketing machine books generally are, and not the price point issue. Id like to focus on that, personally, and working on changing those attitudes;
3) I hear you, bro. But I just dont think its enough to accept that somebody reviews indy books. Again, turn the tables. Pretend Dark horse and Image set up their Pantheons in 38 and 61, with Hellboy now drawn by a manga rip-off artist who used to intern for Jim Shooter. And now its Jack Kirby whos struggling to sell 1000 copies of FF#1 in the 21st century. Who deserves to get the good fight? The fact is that this really is happening. And assholes like superhero are criminally liable for robbing us of good, long, healthy careers for our emerging artists. Id rather fight to change these attitudes all the way, and not accept a back-handed compliment from superhero as a tasty bone thrown to the poor indy dog.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Miguel,
Nothing to take personally at all. I’m mostly playing devil’s advocate. I don’t necessarily disagree with points #1 or #3.
As for #2, I Fraction and Ba have less name recognition as Ellis and Templesmith. Still, like I said before, they are the exception, not the rule. But they do point out that it CAN be done.
Most $3 comics are shit? You are not going to get an argument from me there. Most of EVERYTHING is shit - movies, TV, books - comics are no exception.
Now whether they “squeeze the fanboys pockets dry before they can even get to the indy rack” is another question. It rests on the assumption that, whether or not fanboys would read good indy books if bad superhero books weren’t around - I’m not sure about that. I think that’s probably unlikely. That assumes they love the medium more than escapist fiction.
Far smarter people than me have been debating how to enlarge the audience for indy comics. I don’t think the answer necessarily lies in converting superhero readers. My evidence for this is that when popular creators move away from that genre, their sales generally decline. And if you expand that away from superhero fiction to include all escapist fiction - crime, horror, fantasy - it’s hard to think of a good crossover example.
I think the answer lies more in getting people who AREN’T fanboys to read comics, like they do in Japan. And that…that involves changing how people outside comics perceive comics. The best arguments I’ve heard are for people changing it on a retail level - I think stores like Meltdown in LA and Rocketship in NY - I know from personal experience they are less intimidating places to take non-fanboys.
I guess my main quibble is that underlying what you wrote - and correct me if I’m wrong - seems to be this idea that the big 2 need to be brought down somehow for indy comics to flourish, which I don’t think is the case. To be fair, I’m biased, I’ve taken money from one of the big two. I don’t feel guilty about it - I’d like to think that what I’ve written for them isn’t shit and I don’t think I’m stopping anybody from buying an indy book they wouldn’t normally buy.
As a writer I want to succeed doing indy comics as well as superhero comics. I’d love my audience to follow me from one to the other, and I’ll do everything I can do make that happen, but I’m not counting on it.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
In the end ’superhero’ is writing a review (and i use that word in the loosest sense) of an indie book and that is, at the very least, a small start of getting the word out about Dusty Star. While it is an outstandingly horrible way to begin a positive review (”hey, this is expensive and horrible that they’re charging so much, but it’s good anyway!), it seems that his heart was indeed in the right place. I think he got on his soapbox at the most inappropriate place, but in the end he was trying to point out that a book that people might not see, (or overlook BECAUSE of the some what elevated price) was good and worth your money.
The real trouble is just getting books into places where people can even SEE them and pick them up. A lot of stores won’t even be carrying Dusty Star to begin with so how much it costs is sort of a moot point. At least with this review it might spur on some retailers who weren’t thinking of ordering copies to pick up a couple and give their customers the chance to pick it up.
As a reviewer, the guy really is an asshole. Don’t even get me started on the fact that AICN “reviewers” don’t give their real names.
Oh and HEY! welcome to the party that is the meltblog.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
I’d just like to say that I agree with Mark’s last post. It really is about getting people who don’t normally read comics into the stores. I’ve baited quite a few friends by showing them Fell or Scott Pilgrim or Black Hole. Their usual response is “I didn’t know comics were about this stuff! I thought it was super-heroes and all that nerd shit” (like Scott Pilgrim isn’t the nerdiest book out there, anyway…). Most of those people don’t give two shits if Batman has a son or who’s side fucking Bucky is on in Civil War (I really refuse to call him Winter Soldier). They just want a good story and sometimes you have to physically put it in their hands for them to find one. Books that are quality will find an audience eventually, I really believe that. Maybe it’s a horribly naive approach to it, but that’s my feeling on things. I also think that there are some really great stories being told in the “capes” world and would just as easily put those in accepting hands if possible too — even if the big boys are making bank from it.
I think it’s good and right for you to be pissed off at that fuckhead of a reviewer, but maybe just for his skillz at his chosen endeavor.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Mark-
You’re right about changing how people perceive comics. And while I agree that approaching it from the retail angle is a start, I think the industry needs to evolve past super-heroes as the dominant genre in order to change that perception. In the 50’s you had crime comics, horror, romance, sci-fi… super-hero fiction was “just another genre” being produced. Not unlike modern day film and television. Likewise for prose books.
The sooner comics take a look at history, and successful entertainment industries, the better. How do we make it happen? Jesus, who knows.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
You make it happen by getting books into stores and into peoples hands. Barnes and Noble’s, Border’s, etc. Look how well manga is doing in these markets because it’s been given a chance to flourish. But again it goes back to a lot of what Ellis has been talking about for years. Being able to pick up a story and take it with you. This is why one and dones like Fell and Casanova are doing so well. People aren’t bogged down by continuity or wanting to jump in at part 3 of 8. The fact that Batman is doing those types of stories is an amazing turn for the industry and needs to continue. If you just add one wall space, carry 3-4 issues of singles, a bunch of indies, trades, i think the profile would go up enormously. It’s HUGE that Entertainment Weekly is now reviewing GNs and comics in general. If this keeps happening it the levy on the art form might burst allowing it into the gen pop.
August 17th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Yeah, all mediums are mostly filled with shit. And while I have nothing against hero comics, lets face it, the Big 2 do a lot of damage. Rather than explore other genres, they suck young impressionable boys into tie-in land. Plus they own Wizard, wallpaper Previews, and have loads of fools clogging the blogosphere with plugs. And they created the stupid ’speculator market’ of the 90’s which screwed comics, and let’s not forget the Hero World debacle. So they have some blood on their hands for sure. But they’re losing readership, too. And I quite agree, expanded readership needs to come from the outside world, not from young men obsessed with guys in tights beating each other up.
August 17th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Pier-
Well, naturally it has a lot to do with distribution. But how will that happen with Diamond and the Direct Market structured to prevent change?
Entertainment Weekly is tossing us scraps. I get what you’re saying, but a large part of Saving Comics relies upon tapping into the public consciousness. You tap into the public consciousness through media and marketing. And I’m not talking about a less-than-quarter page blurb in EW. Film, television, music, books, they all have their celebrities. We need Grant Morrison waxing intellectual in Esquire. Warren Ellis talking about comics and fine whiskey in GQ. We need Corey Lewis on the G4 channel, etc. The closest we’ve come is with Paul Pope in Wired.
We need to tap in.
August 17th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Who watches G4??? hahah. Good point though.
And yes, Diamond and the DM structure need to be overhauled. It’s almost like the old-style film studio distribution it seems, no?
August 17th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
RE: One and dones - America tunes into “Lost” every week each season no matter how many questions it refuses to answer. Baseball fans follow their teams like the Apostles did Jesus every day for six months out of each year. Dead Heads followed tours around weeks at a time, and a lot of them didn’t even do acid. Fans lined up for a month before “The Phantom Menace”, “Attack of the Clones” and “Darth Vader Cries Like A Girl”. People show up for continuity all over. And so it is with every major medium but comics. To my mind, the form itself needs to regain the respect it had in the past, and we need to get past internal solutions, forget the GN debate, and work on elevating the status of the form in the popular consciousness. So nerds, off your fat asses! Take it to the streets! Burn the old gods! We will assimilate the normals! Kill! Kill!
August 17th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
A couple things:
Is comics readership down? I don’t mean compared to pre-speculator times, but say in the last five years. My impression was that since Marvel got it’s act together comics were on the upsurge. I think most of that is old comics readers coming back more than drawing new readers, but still, I have the general feeling that: a) comics are more in the mainstream now than before and b) in general, “cape books” are better than they’ve been in a while. While there hasn’t been a Watchmen or a Dark Knight Returns in a while, I do think that with writers like Bendis, Johns and Vaughn the superhero comic is more literate.
Yes, Diamond’s monopoly on the direct market and the Big 2’s dominance do provide an obstace for non-superhero books to be published. But just from a practical perspective, if you were Diamond, why would you give up your monopoly? I don’t see anyone coming around to replace them.
As for the Big 2, they are going where the money is. I think if they truly believed there was $ to be found in non-superhero comics they’d be publishing them. (DC, to it’s credit, through Vertigo, has been doing that more than Marvel).
Again, I think there is money to be found in non-superhero books, but probably not much of that is in their existing audience. It would take a tremendous amount of money to reach outside in a major way (starting a non-superhero line and aggressively marketing it to people who’ve never read a comic before), and I don’t see them taking that risk.
I also think the turn around at Image has been tremendous (again, biased here, having a relationship with them). If you think about what they were publishing in the 90’s at the height of the speculator boom as opposed to now, the diversity is staggering. I wish there were more companies like Image, but that’s an entirely different discussion and I’ve probably taken this too far off topic already.
August 17th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
What stymies the comic industry assimilation into the mainstream then?
What are your proposals for the revolution, Commandant?!?!?
August 17th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Sadly, what stymies the comic industry from assimilating into the mainstream is the comic industry. Again, the DM is literally structured to prevent change. In order to “elevate the status of the form in the popular consciousness” we need to reach new venues, new readers.
Floppy comics — as much as I love the serialized single issue — don’t have much of a home in modern shelving and commerce. And don’t even get me started with the cultural stigma that comes along with the single issue. You want comics in the mainstream? Well, look, it’s not gonna be people sitting around in Starbucks with single issue comics and soy chai lattes.
It’ll be graphic novels.
August 17th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Nerds!
August 18th, 2006 at 11:46 am
This year has been a refreshing change, as far as the strength of the industry. And fortunately we’ve been pulling out of the ’90s nosedive since 2001. Yes, it probably is lapsed readers returning for the most part. But market share is more and more lop-sided to the Big 2. It takes quite a bit of scrolling to land on something not from Marvel or DC when looking at Diamond’s Top 300. I haven’t really looked at the numbers to back this up definitively, but it seems as though indy numbers are shrinking as Marvel & DC increase. As has been said, new readers is the key. How to grab them in and let them know comics isn’t Superman and Archie… there’s the big thorougly-debated question.
August 18th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
As mentioned earlier, this situation rivals that of film during the late 60’s and 70’s. I am a complete neophyte when it comes to comics, but in the short time that they have been a part of my life I can sense that this genre is seeking someone or some company that will challenge all the conventions. It took renegade actors and directors to get people to slowly acknowledge new content and ideas and I feel comics will be the same.
If access exists as I know it does for many on this post, then the only remaining obstacle is content and cashflow. It seems that many of the artists and writers work with the Big 2 so they can pay the bills, while funding their own personal and creative ventures. Perhaps it is only a matter of time when the quality stories that are being told will remain truly independent, thus retaining their revolutionary status and hopefully bringing other creators with them. But, I assert that these stories are out there. So, what is missing?
The audience…why are people still satisfied with the existing ’superhero’ genre? The cash…how can a small company rival that of the Big 2 in promotion? The revolutionary…who has the balls to make it happen no matter what?
My $.02
August 18th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Greg! Look at you, just jumping into these treacherous waters. For a neophyte you had some pretty accurate comments. I also think it will take a renegade company or creator to come in and change the standard conventions. Somebody who makes it into the public spotlight. A comic book creator who is dating Lindsey Lohan. heheĶ
August 18th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I just put out my first comic- it’s a 20 page book on toilet paper so we’re selling it for ONE DOLLAR which is almost exactly at cost which means we’re losing money any time we spend money to try to sell it (like going to Wizard Chicago which cost over $500 between tickets, meals, gas and hotel for 2 nights). Well, most people won’t even look at it because it’s not something familiar and it’s not superheroes or goth or big breasted chicks with guns. The few that do actually give it a look are shocked to find it’s a dollar and gladly buy it when they find out- though I have to wonder if 99.9% of those people wouldn’t have paid $2, $3 or even $4- I’ve seen photocopied digest size 8 page minis being sold for $2 or $3 since we put out our book (though I wonder if anyone’s actually buying it at that price). I almost think the industry demands indy comics be priced higher since most fans are willing to spend the money and if only 100 people are going to buy it anyway, then aren’t you better off selling them for $4 and making $400 than selling it for $1 and making only $100? Frankly, I don’t know anyone in indy comics makes money since conventions are so damned expensive and the market is flooded with a lot of quality stuff.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Hello Joe-
Um — I apologize in advance — but do you mean that your comic is drawn on toilet paper, or that the subject matter, in fact, is — toilet paper?
August 18th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
I would pay $4 for 20 page book about toilet paper.
August 18th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
Forgive me for not having something witty to say about toilet paper save that I agree with Mark.
On the renegade tip, I think the concepts that Virgin Comics is producing seem to have some of the strength of a renegade firm. Devi is interesting, albeit similar to a super-hero, but it is rooted in Indian lore. Ramayan Reborn also seems interesting with a more mythical take on convention. Plus, Snake Woman seems like a sinister dive into some heady and dark drama. Something new?
Plus, with authors like Deepak Chopra and John Woo, Virgin stands a good chance to attract their fan base in addition to rousing the interest of other people who are new to comics. Wow, putting those two celebrities in one sentence about the same subject just tripped me out.
For me, the question remains. If the industry demands a renegade, will that renegade be a true contributor or a name slapped on a cover? Sad to say that we live in a world of marketing and manipulation. Who gets duped?
August 19th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Best thing I picked up at Comicon this year was a $4 mini called ‘tuesday.’ by tom neely that i bought at the global hobo (right, matt?) booth. absolutely blew me away. http://www.iwilldestroyyou.com is his website and i’m glad i can give him a plug.
but a revolution is in order. it might have to come from a miramax type company that is willing to start small but be complete ball breakers in getting their comics into retailers both large and small. obviously they have to have impeccable taste and be able to both market and bust their ass for nothing for possibly a few years and that’s where the capital comes in. but it might be worth a shot in the long run. cut out the middle men who have the choke hold on the industry and see what happens.
August 19th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
No one in Thousand Oaks stocks Dusty Star ;(
Matt does Meltdown in Eagle Rock have it?
I want to know if the reviewer has taste under all the bloaded writing.
xoxo
Alexis.
August 19th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Alexis-
Nobody in Thousand Oaks stocks anything.
Send me an e-mail and I’ll make sure you get a copy.
August 19th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
I just meant that we didn’t pay close attention to the paper info on the quote and they printed it on the shittiest newsprint you can get ink to stick to. And actually if we had done a comic ABOUT toilet paper we might be selling more copies. However, we did just get reviewed at Broken Frontier and it wasn’t completely awful so I’m kind of happy about that.
August 19th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Joe-
Congratulations on the new comic. Yeah, you pretty much have to be prepared to lose money when starting out, especially self-publishing single issues.
How was Wizard World Chicago for you guys? What are you doing in terms of marketing? How are you guys reaching out to retailers? I wouldlove to hear a bit about your strategy. What are you doing to get Red Flags out there?
August 20th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Thanks, Matt. Well, Chicago was more of a learning experience than anything. I’d only been to two cons before (Motor City and SPX- both as a fan) and my collaborator, Jim, had only been to gaming cons. Jim didn’t want to pay the extra amount to get a table because we had decided early on to do the book as more of a business card so we were thinking we would just walk around and hand the book out to people in hopes of getting a paying gig. Plus, we were only going to be there Thursday night through Saturday morning so we weren’t sure if paying for a table would be worth it especially since we only had two books to sell. I think we made a big mistake because we spent a lot of money going to show, it would only have cost a little more and we potentially could have sold a decent number of our books given that the anthology, Red Flags, is only priced at $1. I also think not having a table prevented us from being seen by more people and networking- I think the table earns you a status as an equal whereas wandering the show we were just part of the mass of fans.
We did get Quimby’s in Chicago to take our erotica book on consignment so that was a minor success. Also looking into trying to sell some through Independent Propaganda’s online store.
Our local efforts have produced almost nothing. We work at a local newspaper publisher and put out our press release in a couple local papers and put the book in two local shops and have sold only a handful- I’ve really been let down how few friends and family have seemed interested in the books since many of them don’t read comic books but I thought they’d at least support us (the ones that have I will certainly remember). Then again, neither of these shops has a huge indy comics customer base so I wasn’t expecting much. My partner Jim still hasn’t gotten our Pay Pal link up yet so I haven’t been doing too much trying to get people to the site. When the site first went up Jim hit all the message boards and we got lots of hits but we didn’t really have too much to give them so I can’t say how much it paid off though I’m sure it helped build an awareness. At the show we had custom shirts and bags with our logo and had a few people ask us about our company- we probably looked a lot more professional than we are- either that or we looked like chumps and people were secretly goofing on us ; )
Like I said, we planned in the beginning to give it away as a showcase of our work to companies but since we still have quite a few copies left over (our run was 500 and we probably still have over 400 on hand- we were originally just going to do 250 but for another $20 we figured why not get the 500 and improve our chances of paying for the run) we are just now turning to trying to sell them. We are planning on hitting the Motor City show next month. We also made a mjor mistake in underpricing the book- we had discussed it a lot and didn’t think people would pay more for such a slim book but I’m really finding that for most people the difference between $1 and $2 is not much- the ones that would even consider buying such a book aren’t scared off and I saw similar books going for $3 and $4 at the show.
As I said, we learned a LOT and will apply those to our next venture- we’ve been discussing doing some web exclusive stuff to get better, build an audience and save money on printing until we know we can sell out our next print run. If you have any tips, feel free to pass them along. I’ve been following comics a long time and planning on doing them but it’s like watching somebody swim and then getting thrown in the pool- it looks a lot easier than it is.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Holy crap, that was a long post. Sorry!
August 20th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Joe-
It sounds like you guys are off to a good start. You definitely want to try to recoup as much of the printing costs as possible, but I’d also recommend setting aside, say, fifty copies of the book to mail out to retailers, creators, and publishers. Make a list of some influential retailers, creators that you admire, publishers you want to work for, and get your book into their hands.
Make follow up calls to the retailers (the SPX site has a list of indie friendly stores) and ask if they’ll carry your book. Even if you only get five to ten responses out of the fifty, I’d count that as a success. This is such a small industry that we’re part of. When you start building relationships and getting your name out there to the right people, it really goes a long way.
A completed, self-published comic book is a damn good business card. Use the grassroots approach and set your bar high — think big. It’s always best to chat with people face-to-face, but you can cover some major ground via mail, phone, and the Internet. Hell, you could hit the top 20 American retailers in no time at all. And after that it’s just doing some research and picking some other popular shops that are influential destinations in the industry.
Take an extra look at comic book hot spots like Portland, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, etc. I’m not sure where you live, but don’t get too bummed out if it’s not exactly a bastion of comic book culture. There’s people out there who love indie comics, and will gladly support your book, you just have to find them.
I’ll be shooting you an e-mail to buy my copy of Red Flags.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Good advice and thanks.
October 9th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
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November 10th, 2007 at 4:53 pm