Getting Small Press (Comics) To The Masses

Comicguy456 writes "At the recent Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo, a panel was held to discuss how to get the masses to check out indy comics. In this transcript, experts including Sean McKeever (The Waiting Place) and Max Ink (Amoeba Adventures) talk extensively about creating, selling, and marketing such books, as well as the small press industry in general. Manga is covered as well. " In many ways, the same advice here applies to people trying to get word about out bands/books/games etc etc.

Old line comics

[ch-chuck]

All my old favorites are here [kingfeatures.com].
Katzenjammer Kids are still running after over 100 years.

Marvel's new Epic line.

[Lachrymite]

People interested in becoming creators of comics might want to check out Marvel's Epic line [marvel.com], which is accepting submissions from newcomers to the business. If your work is accepted they guide you through the process of basically getting the entire book together yourself, and then they publish it. Because they only have to worry about publishing and you do pretty much everything on the creative end of things, books don't have to sell incredibly well and they can remain viable entities, unlike Marvel's normal titles with are pretty much all top 100 sellers.

I believe it pays $8k to be split up among the creators as they see fit. The big drawback is that they gain ownership of any new characters you create if I remember correctly, but to people trying to break into the business this may be a great opportunity.

Just so they don't get slashdotted.

[will_die]

Did not see anything about the $8000.
Basicly the process is that you send in some sample work, if Marvel likes what they see they contract out to you(you need to fill in the appropriate IRS forms) to do a comic based on what you sent them. Marvel sends you $500 as payment for the contracted work. Marvel may or may not print your stuff in the Marvel Epic Line of comics.
Since you are a contractor working for Marvel, Marvel ownes the work you do. However you can use Marvel owned characters in your comic, just no other trademarked characters.

Re:Just so they don't get slashdotted.

[Lachrymite]

From Newsarama [newsarama.com]:

According to comments made by Marvel President Bill Jemas, when a creative team submits a comic book they receive an $8,000 budget to produce it. Marvel then covers the cost of publishing, marketing and distribution, and pays bonuses to the team, based upon sales. If the book sells well, the creators could earn a number of bonuses at different tiers.

There's also a lot more information here [newsarama.com], and there will be more info in Marville #7 (which is probably the only way they can get that particular comic to sell, it it not popular).

My 14,6 øre...

[WegianWarrior]

It has been ages since I bought an indy-comic. Partly because there nearest decent comic-store is an hour or so from here - and that seems to cater mainly to the young, inmature section of the market (more tits than in a porno-rag), partly because much of the mainstream norwegian comics are very good (karine haaland [karinehaaland.com], Nemi [darkrealm.no], Pondus [opera.com] and EON & Wildlife [bladkompaniet.no] to mention a few), and partly because the web provides me with more under- and overground comics than a sane man can read (Comander Kitty [commanderkitty.com], Fur Will Fly [purrsia.com], House of LSD [keenspace.com] and Kevin & Kell [kevinandkell.com] to take the first four on my list of bookmarks).

I don't think that indy-comics printed on dead trees has the importance they had for say, oh, ten to fifteen years ago. The ones that are good will find their way into mainstream magasines (at least this holds true for Norway), the ones that ain't good will die out. That, and the World Wide Wait is the underground printingpress of today; both for comics as well as for writing, art and music.

But as the subject says, that just my 2 cents (by the exchange rate anyway).

My favorite webcomix site at the moment is

[Multiple Sanchez]

serializer.net [serializer.net]. They strike a tone that finds that sweet spot between art, commercialism, and the necessary self-awareness of a frontier market/nascent medium. Also, they've got exclusive comix by two of my favorite artists, Ethan Persoff [www.ep.tc] and Chris Onstad. [achewood.com]

How quickly they fade

[unfortunateson]

... and I don't mean the colors on cheap newsprint either.

Aside from the Sturgeon's Law factor (95% of everything is crap), one of the main reasons why I don't buy many new indy comix is because anything I'm likely to enjoy has a high probability of just plain disappearing:

• companies fold (big examples include Fireman, Comico, even First!, Pacific, Eclipse if you're old enough)
• artists can't be kept to schedules when they're doing it themselves (THB anyone?)
• or they get "hot" and snatched up by the majors (example: Kelly Jones' early work on Chrome -- I want to know where that story was going)

Trade papers are the evidence of success: if it's good enough to get 4-8 issues collected, grab it!

Prime examples: "Bronze Age" by Eric Shanower, and "Girl Genius" by the manic Phil and Kaja Foglio

dinosaur comics

[potaz]

First, a plug: people interested in small press independent comics might be interested in my dinosaur comics [qwantz.com]. They are a study in genre and form!!

About getting comics to the masses: all I'm intending to do is self-publish and sell over my web site (and in a few comic book stores locally). When the price of self-publishing is so small, and you can distribute so easily, I don't see the real allure of professional printing. You can even get things professionally bound for a couple of dollars at your local copy shop.

Some things that work, some that don't

[WillASeattle]

A friend of mine, Roberta Gregory, has travelled around the world promoting her comix ("Bitchy Bitch" is one of them) and been able to get by doing that. She also has found that some weeklies have been good for a partial income stream, as well as doing small shows at various restaurants and coffee shops and bookstores.

I guess the main thing is realizing, as with any art, that half of your job is promotion and sales, and adjusting your life accordingly.

The other thing is doing stuff people want to buy, not necessarily the fun things you want to do - if people want you to do comix with young women with large breasts and unicorns, then you spend part of your time doing that - it pays the bills.

But, overall, it's a hard business to make much money at - usually you have to have a second job.