I wish people would read CBO or search....but there is so much here! I was asked by two Media Studies students whether I thought the Small Press was better to make money than "mainstream comics" (whatever they are!)?
Read on.
Above: Myself and the Bristol super star Paul Ashley Brown at the 2012 Bust Stop Zine Event.
Below: The Cafe Kino Zine event (where I fell down the stairs thanks to them being steep and oil on two of the steps) Seen by few but ALWAYS somewhere in a photo (see top of page): The Lurker!!!!
Below: O M G! Look out, Mr Brown!! Behind you -The Lurker!!!!!
Below: Mr Brown and -THE LURKER!!!- on the way to the Cake Kino event. THAT sign said it all.
Read on.
I was thinking how things have changed over the years. Back in the
1980s/1990s, if I had a zine that was short of 3-4 pages I'd knock out a
letter and send it off to other zine publishers/creators. Within a
week I could guarantee having enough material to fill 2-3 zines.
And,
if contacted by other zine publishers looking for material, well, yes,
I'd send something to them.
At no point did anyone ask "How much are you paying?" It was simple fun
-contributors got a copy of the zine their work was in. Again, no one
asked: "If you make anything out of this what's my cut?"
We were selling our "end product" for 25 pence. 50 pence. 75 pence or,
and, I tried and succeeded in never crossing this particular price
barrier myself, £1.00. Yes, £1.00 which back then was 50 cents? So, buy
my zines and you got a lot of pages for little money. I try to keep
doing that still.
Although, via Zine Zone mail order or marts you could sell quite a few
zines -in fact, it's odd but you would guarantee at least doing fairly
well sales-wise back then where as now the attitude and expectation is
that selling one or two books is a good day! In fact, zine publishers
reported that they did far better sales-wise with Zine Zone than they
did with Fast Fiction (which saw ZZ as a competitor though we never
considered there to be any rivalry).
"Hey -I made £2.00!" Not bad -snicker- now
to divide that up between 10 contributors! Seriously, no one expected
to make big money because it was all for fun. Also, a lot of the
creators of the 1980s who made it into comics as writers or artists all
started in the Small Press -it was seen as a place where you could hone
your skills. It is interesting to note that a few of these creators when
asked how they got started in comics tend to gloss over any mention of
the Small Press! It all seems to be "I started writing/drawing and used
every opportunity to hone that skill and then DC/Marvel saw my work" I
think that is actually shameful.
Below: The Cafe Kino Zine event (where I fell down the stairs thanks to them being steep and oil on two of the steps) Seen by few but ALWAYS somewhere in a photo (see top of page): The Lurker!!!!
Below: O M G! Look out, Mr Brown!! Behind you -The Lurker!!!!!
People
ask me how I got started I'll tell them. Putting together a school
magazine (Greenway Boys School, Bristol, 1972) titled Starkers -The Magazine That Tells The Naked Truth
which was a title suggested by our Deputy Head, Mr Wright. Getting
everything together, drawing, typing on the stencils for the Gestetner
copier and then....getting banned by the Head because one of the
secretaries complained about the title (yes, there was more to it
because I was seen as an "H-dropping" pain-in-the-ass by the snobbish
head and his school kid cronies).
Then I
got work with a printer. I then started working with the early
photocopiers. I wrote articles on everything from nature to astronomy
and history and then I decided I wanted to get into publishing so I got
friendly with those folk as well as editors and distributors and even
stupidly spent money buying rights to certain characters/publications
(see one of my previous big posts -they are there somewhere).
Putting
all of this together helped in making dummy copies of proposed titles
to submit to publishers.
Below: Mr Brown and -THE LURKER!!!- on the way to the Cake Kino event. THAT sign said it all.
Some of those titles, such as Preview Comic
got a few people into permanent comics work both in the UK and US.
Then there were scripts for London Editions, Fleetway/Egmont, Marvel UK
and so on. And even while doing my comic work (and the officially
unofficial other job) I was writing comic articles for publications such
as Comics FX and other publications promoting comics and
particularly the Small Press which has never gotten even 2% of the
publicity 'real comics' do.
Today,
obviously and I never ever do this any other way, all art is (c) the
artist. If the contributor wrote and drew something then it is all (c) the creator. Even if I lost out I made sure contributors got something. But then you hit the big problems.
You
learn, quite by accident, that an artist you have written a script for
and who then with no explanation break all contact, are actually trying
to sell the strip with a couple of character name changes. When found
out and contacted over this there is either silence or "Oh, I thought
you'd left comics" -right. Then you have the artist who wants to have
full control over the end product which includes changes made "to make
it better" and believe me I have had artists change characters names,
sex and even whole chunks of story because they feel they know better.
That just is not on.
The writer writes and the artist draws -perhaps
making an odd change to make action flow.
Below: The Cafe Kino event and Paul Ashley Brown reveals why he never wears hats!
Below: The Cafe Kino event and Paul Ashley Brown reveals why he never wears hats!
I have
had one artist ask me to draw character sketches because he just could
not understand what I meant by stating the right hand side of a
characters body was all robot while the left was wholly human. Another
had to have a sketch when I described a central tower in a city had, at
the very top, a clock face on each of the four sides...?
Then
you get an email out of the blue "I don't want this published unless I
get a 60% royalty deal, a page fee and creative rights" hmmm. Or, you
publish after putting a lot of work into a book and the artist then says
he doesn't want to be associated with it because it might affect his
work prospects with Marvel or DC???
You
will also get artists who email every single week asking about sales.
"You can't be doing enough to promote the book!" And then there are the
artists who complete books and simply vanish. They no longer answer
emails and so the book HAS to be withdrawn. Or the families of people
you have worked with....don't even get me started on that.
There
are no huge profits in Small Press publishing and Independent comics
will not make you rich! So, as a publisher you have to make decisions
that affect your output. Books are withdrawn. Decisions are made so
that you no longer have to rely on other creators and all the problems
associated with them.
Below: Thank goodness most of that weight is gone now!! The less said about the con that was The International Book And Comic Expo the better.
Below: Thank goodness most of that weight is gone now!! The less said about the con that was The International Book And Comic Expo the better.
Black
Tower no longer accepts proposals from creators. Everything is in-house
and there are only two creators...and a very large selection of books
to buy. No distractions or problems other than those you get normally
as the UK largest Independent comics publisher.
The
small Press rely far less on collaborations these days. There are some
but more and more it's an individual thing with the creator writing,
drawing and publishing the book. No profit no problem. A profit -nice.
I
think the anthology titles of old with any number of contributors will
eventually vanish because unlike the doing -it -for- fun days where
publishing was smooth and creators did not scream out "I'm a star! Pay
me!"
If you
ask what money you are going to get out of the Small Press as an artist
or writer then the true answer is that you'll be lucky to make any.
And the proof is there if you don't believe me: publish yourself and see
all the 'joys' first hand!
Do it for fun. Do not go into it thinking you are going to earn a living.
Do it for fun. Do not go into it thinking you are going to earn a living.
Only a fool argues with the designated writer. I freely admit to trying to be a fool and pretty much succeeded. How much of a fool probably depends on how long I live. Have I learnt from being a fool. Yes. I plead insanity from arrogance, genes, desperation and a mind that couldn't and won't stop still. One learns, but that doesn't stop one from feeling like a first class s***. Things in the past cannot be changed. One can only try to grow from them. In the end, through regret, sometimes through the loss of friends, one can only say sorry.
ReplyDeleteOne day you'll have to tell me who you pissed off! Everyone makes mistakes.
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