Administrative And Technical

Ratteler · Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2002 Posts: 551 Location: NYC

After reading all this... your SHOULD be thinking this is pretty “effing” bleak.

But this is where my idea for the Online Comic Venue comes from. If we can use the Internet medium to remove only a few the pitfalls that this system has... it presents a big opportunity.
The elimination of physical printing, shipping, delivery, maintenance of stock and storage of merchandise that doesn't move, is a deep cut in the already comparatively low costs of the Comic. Your potential sales base is MUCH larger than what the comic industry currently has available. Every Internet enabled computer is a potential Comic Store harking back to the days when comics were available as impulse buys on newsstands.

The downside is... we have no name properties to get people in the “door”. We have no name artists or writers with a following. We have no sales figures to prove this concept will work.

Every one of us is looking at an unbelievable amount of work for very little, if ANY payoff. Going by the guideline in the links above it's going to take between 6 and 18 issues before you have a following.

That's as much as 396 pages or 2376 panels!!!! Weather that's monthly or annually is up to you. But the faster you get it out there, the sooner you have a real brand to work off.

This is the same if your making a REAL book, or a E-Book. Some of you must be asking WHY BOTHER! Where will you see a return on all this work?

1)You won't.
Being fair and going with the odds, this will be a labor of love. It's kind of like making Poser products or being the local band at Club. You'll be known in a small community, and the vast majority of people you run into will go... WHO?

2)Experience for sale.
Doing this WILL help you learn the ins and outs of this industry, and you MAY be able to move that experience to one of the big comic companies like Marvel/DC/Image Etc. where you can make real page rates for your work. Most of the people who come through those doors don't have a body of work to show they've already made a book. They show sample pages and pinups in the hope of being given a chance. An Editor that sees some one who has already made a book thinks to them selves... “This guy is used to working, he's probably not going to miss a deadline if I put him on a project.” If they like your style on top of that... you're in.

3)Property Rights.
This is the dream. Some one sees your original story or your characters and sees dollar signs. The one thing you will own almost exclusively is your property rights. I personally think Animotions and Renderoritica should ask for a silent partner stake in that. Somewhere between 5% and 10%. So if you do start here and hit big, it helps everyone left behind. You still have full creative control, the site just gets a small piece of the Movie/TV/Toy action for having the stones give you a venue.
If you're original enough you can be the next MIB, or Teenage Mutant Turtles. Do you think they made squat selling comics? No. Their billions were made in after market merchandising and selling property rights. MIB sold only about 2000 issues before getting a movie deal. Jessica Alba signed on to produce “Beautiful Killer” after a 3.5 issue run. (Although apparently that went no where like the rest of her career, so it's not a great example.)
I'm not going to tell you what content to produce, but I suggest you think about the following.
Off the record, unofficially cast your book with some one who has enough of name that it will get people to buy it, but not so big that you can't afford them. Tom Cruise isn't going to play the hero or villain in your comic book movie most likely, and he might sue you if your character looks too much like him. You may, however be able to get one of those WB stars who's show has ended. Especially if the character is nothing like what they played in the show. The trick is... pick some one who will benefit as much from being attached to your property as you will by getting them attached. Don't use a digital clone or a direct likeness either. Leave some room so that if you don't get them you can fill the part with the next best thing. It's also a buffer in case the actor hates your idea and decides to sue you for using their likeness instead.
Think about FILM production costs when creating your property. If you're sci-fi epic takes place in mega-Dystopia where all the walls are made of gold, you're going to scare off any movie producer who's just seeing his budget go out the window. If you're hero's costume can ONLY be produced by ILM because it's so intricate and weird... that's another expense that drives people away. All this weirdness also breaks with a fundamental writing tenant. “Write what you know.” Ground your work in as much reality as you can because it makes it easier to sell later.
What toys can you make from your book? If you used all the sci-fi props you got from DAZ, or PoserPros or the Animotions Market place, guess what... that stuff can't be made into a toy without getting the rights from the designer. Who I strongly suspect will want a cut of those toy rights. Sanctum Art sent me a nasty e-mail for planning to make an low poly version of his Legion suit and RTE encode it to his original. Imagine if I was trying to make an action figure based on it? Something to consider before you create a army of storm trooper wannabes.
Your future is NOT making this comic book for the rest of your life... no matter where or how it ends up being sold. It's what happens after people find out about it and start to liking it. It may seem like selling out, plotting your creativity from step one to have some commercial value, but considering the work your going to do to get there... shouldn't you make your life as easy as possible?

I'm convinced there IS gold in “them thar' hills”, but don't let yourself believe it's going to jump out of the mountain to make you rich. You're going to have learn how to be a prospector and then go mining for it.