Industry Year End Thoughts

Last time,  I took a look at what 2012 held for me personally and I got immersed in a couple of conversations about the industry as a whole so I figured I’d take a look and give my impressions of the entire comics market.  Of course, this is just my opinion and comes from my little corner of the comics world and yes, mostly anecdotal. On one hand, I’ve been involved in many aspects of the industry- as a creator, as a publisher, a freelancer, did work for hire, conventions, retailing, VP of a toy company, dealing with licensed properties, etc.  On the other hand, even though I am “part” of the comics industry, there are huge portions of it that I know next to nothing about, i.e. - what goes on in the current releases of Marvel and DC.  

I guess that’s the first point I want to make.  The comics industry is broken up into a lot of small arenas and oftentimes, one group has no awareness of the others.   You have web comics bringing in readers that Marvel would be jealous of yet most people in the “biz” are unaware of them.  You have creators who work on small projects that primarily sell at conventions and they seem to have their own network yet it is far removed from what you might read on the popular new sites.  It’s a very fractured market in terms of product and creators.  There are all these little pods of comic creation that may overlap with some but will often be completely oblivious to others.

I don’t know what the major impacts on the market were this last year.  I know Karen Berger leaving DC (or DC evicting Karen, not sure what the actual story is) was a major event but not sure if it’s more symbolic than actual effect….at this time.  Obviously, her impact in the beginning days of Vertigo was immense and as a retailer and reader, to me, Vertigo epitomized what comics could be.  But I’m not sure of the influence it carried in recent years but it surely does signal the end of an ear.

I do think that one thing the incredible success of movies like Avengers, Spider-Man, and Dark Knight that built on the previous success of X-Men, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, etc have shown is that the comic book hero is attractive to mainstream America.  However, the lack of any kind of dramatic crossover of those fans into reading comics will, I think, cement the idea that people are aware of comics; they just don’t have a strong desire to read them.  I do wonder how much the self indulgent universes of Marvel and DC restrict the entry of new readers.  I’m familiar with the two universes from a long time ago and even though I haven’t read any of them in well over a decade, I at least have a basic idea of the heroes and titles.  But when I’m in a comic shop, I get dazed and even if I wanted to check something out, I wouldn’t even know where to start.  One thing I do know, from keeping at least a fraction of interest in the goings-ons, is that whatever is happening in the titles right now is irrelevant because next year, it will all be different.  Heroes will die, dead heroes will return…revelations of who is who’s father will be revealed and then it will be found out to be a lie…so and so will turn evil and another so and so will turn good, and then in a year or two, it’ll flip flop again.  I think Marvel and DC would’ve been better to just expand their “What IF…” and “Elsewhere” worlds and left a more streamlined canon.

But then again, the word is that comic sales are up and not just over the near extinction of the late 1990’s but sales are heading to the levels prior to the implosion.  That’s in sales, not units…and with cover prices just about doubling from some 20 years ago, plus the heavy reliance on trade paperbacks, it’s safe to say that there are a lot less readers and issues being sold.  But that’s okay as fewer units produced and high sales mean more profits.  Perhaps.  Costs have escalated as well, not only in printing but shipping.

I don’t see a big shift (and I’m not privy nor inclined to investigate deeply- again, this is just an anecdotal observation) of new readers coming in.  I’ve done a number of signings this last year and most of the customers I see are older…in fact, I often come across a number of customers that used to shop at my stores and I left the retailing business around 1999.  Sure, there are some new readers and one store I been to on multiple occasions consists primarily of readers who are under 30 and never really bought comics until the store opened.  But I don’t see that at many stores.

This last year had another renewed call for some kind of organization for creators and whether it’s called a guild, a union, a consortium…whatever, it’s not likely to happen.  It would be like all actors forming a new group that would include everyone from film stars to TV to Broadway to the guy that performs at the local kid’s event…all becoming into one entity.  That’s what comics are in terms of creators; they’re all over the place in terms of what they’re doing and what kind of audience they have.  I get asked often about joining some kind of group or coalition regarding comics and it always comes down to when you have to include some, you also have to exclude others and what determines the criteria?  A creator who produces his creator owned titles has a different reality than a work for hire artist at Marvel or a webcomic creator or a colorist bouncing from one small press comic to another.  I get the idea and can appreciate it but it seems way too much dialogue is given for something that structurally just wouldn’t work.  Perhaps some kind of voluntary group with a small membership fee and strategies for building up methods of health insurance or something (but I guess Obama Care will take care of that).  As for setting some kind rates in the industry, that will never happen.  

A more amusing aspect of the industry was the attack on the fake fans and cosplayers which spiraled out of control in tweets and facebook.  It seemed odd that someone would be against any kind of fan of the industry and one thing the movies have done is to bring in new fans, yes, even ones that don’t read comics.  It reminds me of the “Sports talk” fans that always complain of fickle fans…fans that only support a local team if they’re winning and leave them when the team starts to lose.  Well, those fickle fans buy a lot of tickets and memorabilia and the sports leagues would have a lot of financial difficulty if it wasn’t for them.   How many sports teams are ready to fold or move until a winning season props them back up for a couple of years.  A good example is the Detroit Tigers.  In their record setting season of losses, they had attendance of 1.3 million but last year, as they headed towards the World Series, attendance double to 2.6 million.  I think the “true” sports fans need to recognize the importance of fickle fans and the comics industry should as well.  Being involved in the Detroit Fanfare convention, all those cosplayers buy tickets which help support the convention(and so afford to bring in “real” comic people) and many of them buy original art sketches from the creators.  One thing I’ve noticed is that they will buy from anyone that draws something they like and they don’t really seem to care about the artist’s credentials.  They like the piece, they buy it.  I think that has provided a lot of unpublished artists a great revenue stream.

Creator rights continue to be topical especially with the ongoing lawsuits about who owns what.  I’m always torn on this as I recognize creator rights first and foremost…after all, Caliber Comics was one of the leading companies for creator owned titles during the 90s and after Caliber closed, some 25 titles from Caliber stayed or renewed printing because the creators owned them not Caliber.  Of course, I was also a creator but I am and always was, separate from Caliber.  Yet, I get the idea of “work for hire” and have done it and also contracted for it, so I’ve been on both sides.  Perhaps the problem comes from not being clear cut yet in some of these cases that occur, it does appear everything was spelled out.  If I were to do more work for hire, I would understand that I do not own the characters that I create under payment for someone else.  Obviously, I would try to include some kind of royalty payment on any ancillary revenue on those characters but each situation would be different.  I don’t know what happened in the past so it may not have been so concise on what was the actual structure of those contracts.  With Deadworld, I worked with a number of creators who wanted to do some “creation” within Deadworld and over the years, I avoided any kind of problems by not incorporating those characters into the official canon of Deadworld.  I get asked numerous times from creators who want to write or draw Deadworld and I am now reluctant to do so because I don’t want it to become a problem later.  I may have solid ground contractually but that doesn’t mean some lawyer won’t pull it into a lawsuit.  On the rare occasions that I bring a contributor in on anything I do, the only characters that will be officially part of anything I write will be ones that I create.

It is great to see so many creator owned books having some success in the market.  I am quite surprised though at many fans lack of understanding that even a successful creator owned book is not likely to provide a good income for a creator.  There seems to be a tremendous shift of reality in evaluating sales and how much a creator actually makes to many fans.  This topic has been covered quite a bit recently with some numbers floating around that will hopefully fill in some of those false impressions.  But still, it’s great to see that some creators can at least venture into creator owned territory and sufficient sales to keep doing it even if they have to go back to one of the big companies that pay a page rate to subsidize their income.

Kickstarter has given quite a bit of opportunity for the creator owned comics and some of those campaigns have delivered incredible support.  I worry the bubble will burst, any by worry, I mean before I launch a couple of projects using crowd funding.  There’s a lot of negative rumblings from a lot of creators protesting that too many “big” name creators are sucking up the dollars by launching their campaigns and thereby making it tougher for the lower tiered creators have a shot.  I figure everyone’s entitled to do what they can and so don’t really understand the complaints.  However, I know of a couple of cases of relatively known creators who have collected their funds and as of yet, have not produced the work that they were paid for.  One of them is at least a year overdue.  Now, this is what will kill the crowd funding aspect…if supporters start to feel like they can’t count on the material to be actually delivered.  

And of course, the digital world continued to be the top area of conversation in comics.  As of yet, it’s still hard to get a handle of not only how much money comes in from digital but how its filtered down to the creators and what kind of impact, if any, it has on the print market. Sure, print sales are doing well at the moment but how many bags of tricks do the publishers have to keep pushing out these event comics?  With the publishers jumping into the digital market so they won’t get left behind, it seems that they are the ones accelerating the growth in order to ensure that they benefit from the anticipated windfall.  I wonder sometimes if it will end up like the bookstore market where everyone jumps in big time only to find out that the new market can only support so many.  I remember the days when getting graphic novels into the book chains was the savior of the comics market.  Will digital follow suit in that the digital suppliers focus on what works in the comics market is what they’re push in the digital market so it will be constructed around the superheroes?  I hope not because I think that’s shown already to have a limited appeal.  It may be the 300 pound gorilla in the direct market but it is not the growth outreach that will bring in new comic readers.

I guess it comes down to 2012 being another year of flux in the industry but that’s the way it is, not only in comics but in all aspects of life.  Everything is at an accelerated rate compared to the past.  I look back at the early days and it astounds me how much things have changed and how quickly.  But overall, the medium of comics is still here and while I don’t like some of things going on in the comics world, I still love the medium.  To me, it is the best way for a creator to tell a story and I enjoy immensely the process of creating comics.  I really do believe that creatively, the industry is at the top of its game right now and it’s great to see comics heading towards a status of going beyond superheroes to tell stories of any genre or any topic.  As we continue the shift of labeling comics as a method of telling stories rather than a definition of the entire medium, it can only get better.  More profitable?  I don’t know.

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Looking Back...and Ahead.

So, we’re headed towards 2013.  With the end of 2012 fast approaching, it reminded me that it was about 12 years ago that I ended Caliber….and that Caliber was around for 12 years, so now the “post-Caliber” days match the “life” of Caliber.  Not that I assign any particular significance to that, but Caliber seems so long ago---in a way.  I’m entrenched in a lot of aspects of it so I’m still involved in although not as a traditional publishing company.  The time at Caliber raced through pretty fast even though it seemed to be such a major chunk of my life.  Caliber released some 1300 comics and over 75 graphic novels and considering the first and last year had very little output, that was about a 10 year period.  My fondest days were when there was a full staff of 6-7 but in reality, that was only a few years in the middle.  Over half of the time, Caliber was primarily me and one other person.

I think back on the time after Caliber and obviously, I’m not nearly as prolific in either the writing or publishing, especially considering that I dropped out of comics completely for a few years.  I am quite surprised at how much this “part-time” work which I always feel is neglected has actually accomplished in the last dozen or so years.  While I realize that I work full time teaching college biology, I always feel way behind in the writing side of things but I guess I keep comparing it to the Caliber days instead of being realistic.  I’ve had six graphic novels from IDW, five from Image, three from Desperado, one from Simon & Shuster, two from Penguin, and 12 from Transfuzion.  Plus I had three kid’s books from Magic Wagon and one from Actionopolis.  So, that’s 33 graphic novels/books released since that time and granted, many were collections but I also released some dozen or so comics plus contributions to a number of anthologies.  Yet, it seems like I never have time to work on this stuff.

2012 was a pretty good year.  I had the Deadworld series of War of the Dead come out on a weekly basis for IDW and it got some good reviews and was nominated for some awards.  I also did the Deadworld graphic novel, Voices from the Deadworld,  which is actually full page scenes with my narrations of the characters who lived and died in Deadworld.  Technically, not a comic per se but I had to write some 80 different character scenes.  I also had to write a chronology of Deadworld for the Breygent Deadworld cards and that was some 75 cards but I had some fantastic help from Dan Royer on that.  I finished off the latest Saint Germaine story and released the third graphic novel in that series.   I lso contributed three short stories for anthologies.  So, that’s a couple hundred pages I did this year but it always felt like I never had time to work on my comic writing.

In publishing, Transfuzion released about a dozen books and I launched Binary Publications with Paul Burke and we got the first four titles out this year.  Both companies have a pretty extensive waiting list of projects to be completed for 2013 so I know that’ll keep me busy so I’d expect to nearly double the 18 books out this year.  There were a few titles that went through Diamond Distributors this year and some books had some good sales.  But because the way the market is, I had one book sell over 800 copies but it didn’t make as much profit as another book that only sold 150.  Of course, the difference is which ones sold to distributors (and then to retailers) and which ones sold directly to consumers at full retail.  We also had another title picked up for the college bookstore market.  Overall, some books continue to sell really well and one mention in a magazine brought in sales well above what comic shops ordered.  Of course, some titles only sold in single digits for the entire year so nothing’s a given.  Some books do well in comic shops and others don’t and same for other markets.

As for writing this upcoming year, I have the next Deadworld series.  I actually have the first three issues nearly done and Sami has the first issue nearly completed.  I really want to get to the Deadworld novel this year and the comic series lays the groundwork of where I want the novel to be.  I tinker with the novel continually and as I shift things in the comic, it will make both more compatible to each other.  Another project I want to finish is the Subversives graphic novel which is nearly complete but I just have to finish it off.    A couple of years ago, I released Of Scenes and Stories, which had many of my short stories along with scenes from specific comics and it came out to some 320 pages.  I plan on updating it with more recent stories and eliminating the scenes section to bring it in around 160 or so pages.

There’s two comic series I want to do.  I never like to talk too much about things in the planning stages but I’m excited about both of these and anxious to get moving.  One is a mystery set in the turn of the century and I want to bring in a lot of elements into it besides the mystery itself.  I really want to do this one as a comic series as it lends itself well to the periodical form.  I had a lot of fun with the recent Deadworld series and found that I enjoy the pacing of the serial format.  Once the first 2-3 issues are complete, I will start to look around to see if I can find a comics publisher.  Yes, I have Transfuzion but that is not geared towards doing comics and I like to try to do this as a monthly comic series with a two month break between storylines.  The second project, I really don’t want to say much about it yet although it would be a historical war focus (ala Troy or Zulunation).  I’m configuring it to see if it would work better as a comic series or as a graphic novel.  I may end up doing both projects via Kickstarter and then take it from there…depending on whether they’re successful or not.

This last year was a lot of work “behind the scenes”.  In addition to getting Binary off the ground, I spent a lot of time with the process of redoing all the websites that I have (my own, Transfuzion, Binary, Caliber, Deadworld, and a couple of others) and setting up a storefront marketplace for all of them together.  I’ve had these sites on servers and used Microsoft’s Front Page but that’s been defunct for a while.  I knew I’d have to redo them some time because less and less servers want to install the Front Page extensions any more.  I decided to take a serious look at Dream Weaver and even took a class for it.  With the websites, like Photoshop, everything I know how to do is self taught by trial and error.  I know I’m probably missing out on some techniques and short cuts, so I figured taking a class would help me with that.  All it told me was that I wasn’t too eager to go through such a learning curve again.  I found myself just resisting the plunge into revamping all the sites into full blown ones so I am just retooling blog sites to serve that purpose.  Again, I have the help of Dan Royer for that.  But it’s a lot of work bringing all the information into the right formats and structures but it’s nearly finished.

I’m also in the process of implementing an easier accounting system which means bringing everything together into a new, hopefully streamlined, process.  As far as other things go, it looks like I will have to find a compatible lawyer.  Right now, I handle everything myself and though I think I’m capable of continuing, it seems that I will need a lawyer to carry the weight of dealing with certain people.  That part of it is something that would be best served by someone who understands the legal system.  I have a couple of contracts that aren’t being adhered to and I think that legal action will ultimately have to be put in play as that’s the only way some folks will listen.  Plus, working with some licensed properties can get a bit more complex.  I’ve never used lawyers when dealing with creators as it wasn’t necessary and I still don’t think it is but there are other situations where I can see they are.  I can complain about not sticking to the contract but it appears unless legal action is taken, there’s no motivation for them to do what’s right and what was intended.

Looking back at 2012, as I said it was a good year in comics for me.  In addition to the Deadworld material coming out and well received, I also received a Shel Dorf Award (for contributions in comics), continued as a co-organizer for Detroit Fanfare, and have a new science related book lined up.  The comics market isn’t what it used to be but there are a lot of areas where one can find different types of success so have to see how those will eventually play out.  Besides, nothing is the way it used to be, and never has been, so just have to keep adapting.  Makes it more interesting.

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Independent Comics and Money (or lack thereof)

Lots of recent buzz regarding a blog from a creator who posted how little money there is in producing independent comics.  I’m not specifying who it is because it doesn’t matter…it’s the same situation for almost all of the creators working in independent comics.

My first reaction in reading his post was surprise that this was a revelation to anyone.  That’s the way it’s been for practically forever in the comics market.  But I have remember that there are a lot of creators (both published and unpublished) that grew up with independent comics always there, found on the shelf with creators making names for themselves.  Some of us older folks recall when the idea of independent comics was a “new” thing.  It’s a cyclical trend and the realities for some people are disheartening.

But comics are no different than film, music, or writing prose stories and books.  Just about all of those are also unsuccessful financially and the sheer number of entries into those areas dwarfs comic creators by a considerable amount.  Yet, of all those, comics still has the easiest time getting into the “system” than the others but being part of the system doesn’t guarantee anything.

I thought the key point in the blog and with many respondents was that the money aspect wasn’t the most important thing and is not what drove the creators.  This a realistic view necessary for those creators because the odds are that you’re not going to make a living doing comics…very few people do.  I do notice that trend of acceptance over the last few years---a lot of creators just want to create and they know it is not going to be their primary career.  You’ll find the same thing in film, books, and music.  For others, however, the passion that drives them to create comics isn’t complete unless they can make a living doing so.

Outside of being driven purely by passion, most creators have other goals in mind.  For some, it’s to show the “big guys” such as Marvel and DC what they can do and their ultimate plan is to move to superhero worlds they likely grew up on.  Others utilize the comics to build up an intellectual property for possible exploitation and others yet, work within the restrictions of today’s market with an eye on exploration into other markets.  The hope is that their style, genre, themes, etc. will resonant with those outside of the traditional comics market.  But the majority just want to create with no illusions of their labor of love spinning off into a life changing revenue process.

For whatever reasons, it’s all good.  First and foremost, creators should create the best they can and that should be the tangible goal…anything else is an exception, and when you’re modeling your plan, you always have to ignore the exceptions because you can’t build a strategy around that.  Sure, it happens and in a few rare cases, someone can plot out their exception place but it doesn’t occur too often.  When Jimmy Gownley published his Shades of Grey through Caliber, his only goal was to get his book out.  He had to tell the story and although sales weren’t great, it was enough to get the material in print.  Then he shifted to a new passion and Amelia Rules! was born.  He had no idea at the time that it would be picked up by a major book publisher for eight volumes and hit the NY Times best selling list and be signed for a film.  You can’t plan that.

At Caliber we had a lot of creators who knew that they wanted to do comics and so they did.  A lot of them got their project done and they were satisfied and went onto the rest of their lives.  Many honed their skills and eventually found themselves making a career of doing comics.  There are a couple of dozen creators in comics today who used the early days at Caliber to develop their craft and found themselves producing comics for the Big Two.  There were a few creators who found success in other avenues because their property got made into a movie and they continue to feed off of that.  

For me personally, I’ve always looked at the creative side as just that, a creative outlet.  Of course, I’d like for the comics to sell better and it would be sweet to devote my full time to writing although I wonder if I would really enjoy it as writing is a hard and lonely task dependent on motivation and diligence. But I think I’ve always been pragmatic in my approach.  Even when the first comic I wrote was nominated for a Harvey Award, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make a living on just writing comics.  I’ve done some work for hire here and there but for the most part, I write what I want to and I know the limitations in terms of appeal within the comics market.  Regardless of all the awards, acclaim, and buzz that certain non-superhero titles get, the sales still primarily go to the spandex crowd.  I enjoy doing what I do and my primary frustration is the time factor, I just don’t have enough time to get to everything I want to do.

I had a friend that said I was lucky that I had a real job to fall back on (I teach college biology) but luck had nothing to do with it.  I earned that position as I went to school at night while toiling at dead end jobs and even after I opened my comic shops, I continued to go to school eventually earning my Masters.  Granted, I left the academic world and concentrated on the stores, the publishing, and other ventures such as McFarlane Toys, but at the time, that was the path that was there.  When I closed Caliber, I moved into teaching part time in more of “let’s check this out” and found I enjoyed it.  I teach a full time schedule yet still spend considerable amount of time writing and currently am involved in a few different companies.  I like the balance and certainly feel more secure knowing that the teaching not only provides me with a good income (dependent on how much I choose to work) but also a benefit package and a retirement plan.  

Although I’m certainly not a big name in comics, and I doubt if anyone who rarely ventures outside of Marvel and DC would even be remotely familiar with my name, I feel successful in the biz even though to many, I remain an unknown.   I’ve been able to write some 30 graphic novels (some are collections of comics), I’ve had some of my work used in teaching college classes, been sold outside of comic shops in book stores, Wal-Marts, and had many deals signed for exploitation whether games, films, CDs, card sets, etc.  I have a number of books that continue to sell primarily on Amazon that provides a small but steady stipend each month.   I seem to have a pretty strong base in the foreign markets as I quite often get large orders from countries that look outside of superheroes.

Simply put, I ain’t got no complaints. Would I like a best seller?  Sure, of course.  But that doesn’t motivate me.  I will likely never appeal to the market that determines “success” stories in the comics market---I don’t see myself ever writing  Marvel or DC superheroes---so I am relegated to that “independent” creator and I’m fine with that.

I think that the creators out there who adopt the same approach in understanding that the separation of the creative endeavors with the realities of the market are likely to have more long term success.  They may have less of a resume but it’s better to create out of desire and satisfaction than out of desperation.  You also have to take a long range goal…existing from project to project, especially when you accumulate nothing in terms of ownership, is likely to land you in a murky situation when you get older.  We’re seeing that now with a number of well known creators who have been discarded, for whatever reason, and have had to go to charity organizations for help.  I know of quite a few creators who had their time at the Big Two and now rely on government assistance.  Some have gone to have minimum wage jobs and living on subsistence incomes.  I think fans would be shocked at just how many of them are out there.

Going back to the blog, outside of the surprise part, what I found intriguing was the attitude that the “creators” were being short changed because of the amount of money going towards the distributor and retailers.  Well, that’s the system and anyone that deals with it understands that those are necessary components.  When creators make little money on doing comics, they aren’t getting screwed by the system as a lot of the comments indicate.  Sure, they do all the work and often times for minimal money and believe me, I know how discouraging that is, but it isn’t because they’re being taken advantage of in any way.  They just don’t have enough sales for whatever reason.

Sure, you can bypass the system and keep a much higher percentage but your sales likely will be a fraction of what they could be.  But, and this is a big but, you have to evaluate whether more sales will equal more profit.  I have always been someone that looked at profit over sales figures.  I do a number of titles that do not go into the system and obviously, they sell considerably less…but they are more profitable.  I do understand though, that sometimes going through the system has other benefits such as exposure.

There are a lot of creators who are upset that they can’t make a living doing what they so passionately want to do.  Well, passion is not enough.  Just think of all those hopefuls on shows like American Idol who feel that they deserve their shot because they “want” it so bad.  Frankly, the “want” is irrelevant except in terms of how much it motivates you.  Your passion doesn’t entitle you to anything.

I will agree that it’s a shame because even though I’m not a big comic reader myself, the few books I do pick up and the ones I browse indicates to me that there’s probably more good books out there than ever before.  It would be great if the sales reflected that.  I’m glad that for some, their passion continues them to producing comics.  It’s what continues to drive me.

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