Independent Propaganda

Courtesy of Jim Giar

Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 2
Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 1

THE MAKING OF SOULDRIVER is a series of articles documenting the trials and tribulations of self publishing ones own comic/graphic novel..or whatever you want to call it. Available in both widescreen and full screen and told in vivid color and excruciating detail by writer/artist and creator of his own self-publishing venture, Jim Giar.

To Web or Not To Web?

I know what you’re thinking. Thought you’d get by this month without having to read my prattlin’ and rantin’…didn’t ya?

Well you’re wrong…

..Lucky you!

As I draw closer to the brass ring of self publishing…Final publication, I’ve reached the point of making the inevitable decision all creators, I imagine, have to make.

Chicken or fish?

Well, all right, make those two decisions.

The other decision, maybe not as important as the later. Do I publish this beast on the web or do I throw it into the pond with the rest of the fish and wait to see whose gets taken home in the little fish bowl? I went into this with a plan, a target audience. I had it all mapped out, the sequence in which I would move and the steps that needed to be in place when I got there. But as with any well laid plans…they’re doomed from the word go. Well..doomed is kind of a strong word. How about…adaptable?

I’m a rag man through and through! I grew up on comics from the late 60’s till the late 70’s and re-entered the industry in the mid 80’s and remained there until the end of the 90’s. So I’ve always had the joy of holding the comic in my hairy little mitts. The smell of the cover, the sound the pages make as you hurriedly turn to the next. Going into this I was set on printing my book. Like thousands..maybe ten thousands of others. I wanted it to be a physical experience as well an emotional one.

Like my first date.

So I continued working, writing, laying out pages and more importantly asking questions. The plethora of people and information on the web is staggering. (When’s the last time you had a chance to use a word like plethora? God I love this writing stuff) And I discovered there were folks that were willing to not only help me get there but also taking the time to answer questions, read my script, shower me with gifts. O.k., I lied about the last part.

My point is that there are those out there that know what they’re doing. And they’ve been doing it long enough that you can benefit by listening to their advice and avoiding their pitfalls. Then it came down to the nitty-gritty. Cash! Moolah! Greenbacks! Cheddar! Payolah! And this is where my feet got cold and the hairs on my neck stood up. Even with advertisers, I would still be looking at a sizeable up front investment on my part. And with all the fish in the pond, I stood a good chance of spending that money and maybe not seeing any return of it…a loss! Now I love comics, especially when they’re well written and well presented. My family knows what I’m doing and supports me in any way. (My youngest has been supplying me with Smarties..to keep my spirits up.)But I most certainly didn’t want them living under the freeway bypass, just so dad can fulfill a childhood dream. There had to be another option I had overlooked.

This brings me to web comics.

Alright stop rolling your eyes.

An industry started in 1993, webcomics opened the door to thousand….millions of readers and for the most part with minimal up front investment on the creators part. The amount of readers flocking to them increases daily. Most staggering is that the most popular webcomic or strip boasts an audience of an impressive 3.1 million readers. Did you hear what I just said? 3.1 Million Readers! As a creator, especially an independent creator, in rag form you would never reach that size audience. Never. I would have to be completely daft to not recognize that potential of this medium. If you haven’t checked out web comics and what they have to offer…you’re missing out on some incredible work being put out. Wesley and the gang here have covered many on this site, Wisp, Finder, and The Chemistry Set among many others. Creators now use the web to build awareness, to build a fan base and to establish them in the ever growing, ever changing market. Later collecting their online comics into rag form and selling them. Increasing ones chances of success.

All well laid plans…remember?

Adaptable!

If you’re going to survive, web presence is a necessity! So I put this query to my “I” friends at Digital Webbing. If you don’t know what Digital Webbing is and you’re in the comic’s biz you’re missing out? A rogues gallery started by Ed Dukeshire, of creators, artists, writers and some established pro’s that pop in every now and then. Other than Mr. Wesley Green and Independent Propaganda, I would be lost without them. I won’t insult anyone by forgetting their names, they all know who they are. But these folks are in the trenches and on the front lines. If you need a question answered this is the place. They are literally my brother (and sisters) in arms.

Sorry….got emotional there.

So, as I was saying, I posted this question on the board at DW. The responses were numerous but all echoed the same mentality. Two came from two titles that I’ve had the good fortune of reading, Warmegeddon and Family Bones. I recommend both highly. The other is from an online comic that is now available in print, Johnny Saturn. With their permission I present their responses in whole or part.

L Jamal Walton, creator and publisher of Warmageddon.
“Warmageddon started on the web with an online RPG online (that will return). It also has an online strip (http://eando.warmageddon.com) written by Richard Nelson and drawn by Jon St. John with my letters and colors. The online strip is updated 3 times a week and is a traditional comic strip. It’s a totally different beast than the print comics. The web strip spun out of a print story featured in Digital Webbing Presents #26.
I chose to go with the comic strip format because I wanted to present a different product online. One of the keys to my plans with Warmageddon is having a wide variety of products. There will be the online game, the magazine, the art books, posters, prints, tarot cards and the online strip.
The original plan was for the online strip to be collected into a print comic every 3 months with the archives removed, but now, I’m leaning towards every 6 months. The print comic will likely include an exclusive story that does not appear online. Any one publishing for the first time should base their decisions around their audience not around a perceived industry standard. If the quality of your book is high enough then standards mean nothing.”

Next we have Shawn Granger of King Tractor Press. The creator and publisher of Family Bones and other titles, you can check out his new webcomics here at http://www.kingtractorpress.com/
“Family Bones & Devil Water will continue to be singles and finally be released in trades. If I can keep my artist on Gene Gardens (please pray)…then that will be singles, webcomic, and trades. But I’ve gotten my trades in through Ingrams and Diamond, while the singles are only through Diamond. Ingrams dwarfs Diamond, so it just makes sense to focus my limited resources on the widest audience. I love singles, I hope they don’t go away. But the audience is dwindling, my local store buys less and less but their graphic novel selection grows. With titles like Family Bones and Devil Water, there has been a lot of press…so I should be able to keep breaking even on the singles at least. With the new series the risk is greater with the singles so we can be safe with trades, and by moving them all to webcomics we can build fans that wouldn’t care less about King Tractor before. I’ve spoken with a lot of you here who do webcomics and if anything they help sales, not hurt. Just as a side note, Shawn has informed me that in the short time his new webcomics site has been up, his traffic has increased by 400%. And that’s without advertising. He’s averaging 20 to 30 new hits a day. Most impressive, and encouraging for the rest of us.

And finally Scott Story, creator, artist and publisher of Johnny Saturn, a webcomic nestled in at Graphic Smash. You can visit his site and find all things Johnny Saturn at http://www.storystudios.com. “Do both. Web and print audiences don’t cross over much, so build a web following and a print following. In fact, with Johnny Saturn, we have shared the story with thousands of people a week (numbers vary), and in three print issues so far. The five issue series may be printed again by a larger publisher, and a trade paperback is planned. So, when you draw pages, use them again and again and again!”

So..if you’ve been napping. What have we learned? (Other than I like hearing myself talk!) That in today’s market and with today’s audiences, the only hope for a comic’s creator lies in several things. Know your market and target audience. Work both the web and rags. But do what works for you. And lastly there are people out there..creators, artists and writers, who want you to succeed and are willing to help. All you have to do is ask.

Oh! By the way..the word of the day is,”plethora”. Use it when you can!

Technorati Tags: Jim Giar, SOULDRIVER, self-publishing, graphic novel, web comics