A friend of my nephew got in touch as he wants to start publishing comics. I tried to dissuade him as I would not wish the strife of comic publishing on anyone. Anyway I offered this advice:
Hi. Firstly I do not talent scout. In the 1980s and 1990s artists would offer to draw to gain experience before trying for mainstream comic companies.
Today very few people, even amateurs, will work without being paid and that is a major problem. I work with someone I have known for a very long time and the deal is a50-50 split deal on sales from profit. My advice is if you have a friend or know someone and they are willing to work on a joint project go for it.
Unless you can pay a decent page rate of course.
How to get into comic stores. Basically unless you know local comic shops that will put your comic on the shelf (they'll expect a percentage from sales) you do not stand much of a chance. The UK has an illegal monopoly in distribution and they will NEVER take anything but mainstream comics and a lot of shop owners do not want to upset them as it can lead to delayed orders etc (all accidental of course). You'll need to basically take your book to local comic shops and ask if they will put copies on the shelf and take it from there.
THE best way to sell comics is at comic/small press events (the big ones will charge £150-200+ for a table so you throw that money away unless you can sell comics and make in excess of that amount.
Generate income. Honestly, most indie comic publishers unless they have a backer or have money from somewhere that allows them to go full time...well, they have jobs. Even some pro artists get side jobs because unless you are selling work/comics regularly you cannot make a real living out of it. You need to keep all costs down.
Printed books are expensive unless you go Print On Demand which also gets you a free store front. You can buy your comics at cost and order however many you need. The alternative is to see whether you can sell a project to an existing company.
My suggestion is look at your project and if you can draw it or have a friend who can draw and is willing to work on it with you then do that and decide whether to self publish or seek a publisher.
For self publishing Lulu is probably the easiest although Ka-Blam is a comic publishers favourite. I'll add the links
https://writingtipsoasis.com/comic-book-publishers-that-accept-submissions/
Yikes.
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