The second part of the interview Wonton and I did with Shawn Pryor and Jon Carroll for The Black Box podcast is now available. We talk more about digital comics, distribution, web comics, Jetta, Bushi Tales, my B/W art show and Comic Whore site.

Click here to go to the Black Box Podcast site.

I’ve got some news about mine and Nicki’s recent adoptions, last Friday’s art walk and George Hunt art show, Adam Shaw’s upcoming art show this Friday and more on my LinWorkman.com site. Check it out if you get a chance. Pics from last night’s Hernando Christmas parade will be up there later this week.

Type at ya later,

Lin

The PKD Black Box Podcast

Episode 3: Roger Corman & the Memphis Mafia battle Ninjas.

Oh, don’t forget to check out LinWorkman.com to find out more info on the First Annual Broad Avenue Holiday Art Walk featuring artist George Hunt!

Type at ya later-

Lin

It was my girlfriend and webmaster Nicki!

She not only reads comics, but can school me on comics trivia any day of the week- and I’ve been reading them for almost 40 years! She is more than qualified to give an opinion on getting women into reading comics, and is pretty easy to talk to.

I asked her what could comic creators do to help attract more female readers to comics?

“Don’t play to stereotypes. Not all women love manga or hate superheroes. Don’t try to write the perfect story for women- just write a good story.”

What else?

“Don’t talk down to readers- don’t patronize. People can fly, shoot laser-beams outta their eyes, climb walls, etc. and I’ll go along with it. But you have to establish your ground rules for that reality and stick to them. There needs to be some rules for that universe based in our reality. For me death is that. In Harry Potter or Star Wars you might see someone’s spirit or ghost, but dead is dead.”

Ok- so we were off to a great start. I then asked her what she thought the retailers were doing to encourage new readers, especially female readers into checking out comics?

“Not a damn thing!”

That question had an immediate response and she followed that answer with-

“Well, most I’ve run across don’t.” She then expanded on that thought.

“Whether it’s retailers not being interested in attracting female readers or just bad customer service- who knows? One of my pet peeves is not greeting customers when they enter a store. They get one first impression as a new customer. Not acknowledging they’re in your shop is just rude. If you don’t do anything to encourage them to stay, look around and explore what your shop has to offer, or to ask questions why should they? I’ve gotten the sense that many retailers have their own niche or share of the local comics market and are good with that. They aren’t really interested in increasing their core customer base or increasing business. Sure there are exceptions out there, but in my opinion comic retailers have that attitude of just opening the doors and waiting for the customers to find their way to the shop. Luckily my local comic shop owner is happy to see me when I stop by to pick up my hold bag on Fangirl Wednesdays. But I see bad attitudes elsewhere and all too often.”

I have to agree. I’ve been to a lot of comic shops all over the country and I can count on probably one hand the shops I was really impressed with their customer service. At one time, there were a dozen or more comic stores in Memphis.  Many were badly run and have gone out of business.  We’re down to two successful shops now, which is 200% more comic shops than a lot of other cities. I received such bad or rude service in a couple of the out-of-business shops that I put the books in my hands down and walked out.

I next asked her how she felt comic book publishers were marketing to new readers?

“Things are better than they used to be, but they’ve got a long way to go.”

How so?

“They are as guilty as the retailers about growing or not growing the market- otherwise they would be more open and aggressively marketing to women.”

What can publishers do to help expand the market?

“You have to get eyeballs on your products to sell them. The direct market is very narrow, and the distribution is even more so. The comics need to be in more places than just comic shops.”

“When I was a kid I could go down to the corner convenience store and buy comics off their spinner rack. I can’t do that today. Heck, my nephew can’t do that. How many communities even have a local comic shop (LCS)? I can go online and buy a trade paper back or graphic novel from Amazon.com, but I can’t order monthly titles from them. I can go into a few bookstores here and pick up some monthlies along with my trades and graphic novels, but if bookstores are unable or unwilling to carry the comics, then what are publishers doing to market TPBs and GNs to women?”

“Publishers need to highlight female creators- writers, artists, editors, publishers, etc. and promote them.  How many people know that there are women working in comics? How many know the head of DC Entertainment is a woman? I’m not saying that women will only read female-created books, but it makes the industry more inviting. Comics are notorious for their depiction and treatment of women. They need to be less misogynistic and sexist- and I’m not just talking about the art. Most of the art doesn’t bother me. Sometimes I roll my eyes or comment on how that’s not anatomically possible. For me it’s more about how women are portrayed in the story, their characterizations. Is she just a plot device or a fully fleshed out character?”

“Publishers tend to sacrifice one female character to build up another female character. Recent Batgirls are examples. You don’t tear down Superman to build up Superboy, so why do that with two females? Recently with the Hal Jordon “threesome”, they tore down two female characters to make a throwaway joke and make Big Hal look like a pimp.”

So what was Nicki’s first exposure to comics? Funny thing, it was pretty much the same as mine.

“It was a spinner rack at a corner store. I got an allowance and I’d spend it on a coke, candy, and comics.” Me, too!

I asked her if she was only drawn to female characters/comics?

“No, I read a lot of Richie Rich, Casper, Archie, and G.I. Joe. ”

Wait, no Wonder Woman..?!

Tim and Traci's daughter Rachel as WW

“I was a HUGE Wonder Woman fan growing up, but I didn’t read the comics because they weren’t available on that spinner rack where I shopped. I loved the Super Friends cartoon and the Wonder Woman TV show. I wanted to be Lynda Carter when I grew up- I still do! My mother made me a Wonder Woman costume for Halloween, and I would wear it everyday. Mom would have to wait until I fell asleep to take it off so she could wash it. I would put on the costume and spin and spin until I was ready to hurl. I hoped if I could spin fast enough I would become Wonder Woman.”

Nicki as Wonder Woman

So had Nicki always read comics?

“No, I kinda grew out of them. You can only read Casper for so long!”

So what brought Nicki back to comics?

“I got back into them a few years ago at Midsouthcon, a local sci-fi/lit convention in Memphis. John Jackson Miller was on a Star Wars panel discussing the comic series Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic that he was writing for Dark Horse Comics. I had read a lot of the Star Wars EU (expanded universe) novels and read the Star Wars: Obsession comics mini-series, and I had played the KOTOR video games and was familiar with the era his story was set in. The way he described his story became infectious and he hooked me on it.”

Tim Brown, JJM, Jim Hall at MSC2007

“When I got back home to Nashville I bought and read the first two KOTOR trades and fell in love with them! I was only going to buy the trades, but I couldn’t wait for the story to be collected so I started buying the monthlies via mail order.”

Nicki, JJM, and Traci at Midsouthcon2008

“After my friend Traci had her epiphany with (Star Wars) Broken, she kept harassing me to read (Star Wars) Legacy- which I also loved. I was happy in my own little Star Wars niche until you and I started dating.”

“How did that change you view of comics?” I asked.

“I knew you were a big Batman fan and my only exposure to Batman was the 60′s Adam West TV show, SuperFriends, and the movies. I asked you what I should read, and you  gave me The Killing Joke hardback…and that book pissed me off royally! I was so mad after reading that damn book and seeing what had been done to Barbara (Batgirl) by Alan Moore and The Joker. I had very fond memories of the 60′s show and Batgirl, so I googled ‘Barbara Gordon’ to see if she ever got better. People in comics come back from the dead more than people in soap operas. It happens all the time in comics. I got even madder when I found out she never got out of the wheelchair until I saw the name ‘John Ostrander‘. I was familiar with his work on Legacy and found out that John and his late wife Kim Yale had created the Oracle persona for Barbara.”

"Uncle John" at Midsouthcon2009

“In that bit of research I found out that Oracle led a team of women superheroes called ‘The Birds of Prey‘. I had to read that! There I found Gail Simone’s work on the series, and my friend Traci turned me on to Gail’s first story arc, The Circle, in the current Wonder Woman series. That was when I started to look outside the Star Wars universe for comics.”

Nicki, Gail, and Traci in Metropolis, IL 2009.

Speaking of looking for comics, have conventions become fan-girl friendly?

“Ok, I’m not a fan of Twilight, but it disturbed me the way Twilight fans were treated by comic fans at the San Diego Comic Con recently. It was as if a hostile takeover was occurring by these mostly young girls who were Twilight fans. It was not Nazis invading Poland. It’s acceptable to male comic fans for women to be at the con as long as they’re ‘booth babes’ or scantily clad cosplayers to ogle, but heaven forbid they take up any space in a panel room or share the same dealers room. Sorry guys- that’s sexist.”

I’ve seen the same thing with some comic fans and their feelings towards manga/anime fans, especially the young cosplayers. It’s almost like a silent turf war! “What are those kids doing here? Stay away from my comics- get that manga comic-wanna-be crap outta here! And get off my lawn!”

“Harry Potter and Twilight and even Star Wars have proven there are female fans out there. When we saw Wolverine at the theater it wasn’t all guys there. If Hugh Jackman can sell a comics property to women, then I’m all for it!”

I agree. I wish more comic based movies would promote the fact that they came from a comic and not try to hide the fact. Don’t know why there aren’t comic commercials before the movies or advertised in media other than comics.

“The comment about “sexist”  goes for the publishers, too. The publishers are the gate keepers. It’s up to them to say, “No, you can’t portray our characters this way.” or, “No, you can’t treat our female readers that way.” They should demand better from their creators. Same goes for creators of the publishers. Marvel Divas was mismanaged from the get go and Joe Quesada made it worse every time he opened his mouth to defend their actions. This is how not to market to women! We as readers should demand better. We have to vote with our ‘pocket books’, which sometimes paralyzes us as readers. We unfortunately can’t buy a book featuring one of our favorite characters because of the characterization, bad plotting, or other offensive objections. On the flip side of that we need to support the books and creators that are doing it right. If you think a story or series is good, then you have to support it. It’s a business and the numbers have to be there for it to continue, whether it’s for the big two or an independent.”

Nicki with her comics stash at Cape Comicon 2009

So what is Nicki reading and supporting these days?

“My current pull list:
Batgirl
Power Girl
Secret Six
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Legacy
Star Wars: Dark Times
Star Wars: Invasion
Stuff of Legend
Wonder Woman

I also check out the Bat titles on your pull list – Detective Comics, Streets of Gotham, Batman & Robin, and Gotham City Sirens as well as Green Arrow/Black Canary.

I just finished reading the Y: The Last Man series, and I’m about to start reading the Fables trades.  My library has a good selection of trades and graphic novels, so I’m able to read many titles like Y: The Last Man that I might not be able to afford to read otherwise.”

Nicki looking for treasure at Cape Comicon 2009

“I also love digging in back issue boxes for hidden treasures.  I had a geek-out moment when I found a copy of John Ostrander’s Batman: Seduction of the Gun in a quarter box at a recent con, and he was kind enough to autograph it for me at Metropolis.  I’m enjoying reading older series like Suicide Squad, Grimjack, Birds of Prey, Huntress and previous Star Wars series like Republic and Empire.”

Yes Virginia, it’s ok for girls to read comics.

Thanks to Nicki for sharing some of her thoughts on women and comics. I learned a lot and really enjoyed our conversation!

Hope you did, too.

Lin

My friend Shawn Pryor (PKD Media/The Black Box Podcast) turned me on to a new comics site by the guys behind Discount Comic Book Service and In Stock Trades.

It’s called My Didigtal Comics.

It’s a print on demand service where you the creator set your own cover prices and get 70% of each sale. 70%- that’s huge!

The site and service are pretty new, but will be growing rapidly. DCBS and it’s sister store InStockTrades.com have got a huge customer base and are very indy friendly. They work great with independent publishers through special price discounts to thier on-line/retail customers, special promo offers (Dave did free sketches for Bushi Tales #3), and their First Light project which helps to shine light on new comics, publishers, and creators.

For more info on DCBS, In Stock Trades, My Digital Comics, or First Light contact Zack Kruse or Cameron Merkler (the head honcho of DCBS).

Digital Comics LLC
6011 Highview Dr Suite B
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46818

E-Mail: support@mydigitalcomics.com

And speaking of Shawn and My Digital Comics, you can order PKD Media comics there!

This week Shawn and his co-host Jon Carroll invited me and Jetta:Tales of the Toshigawa creator Martheus Antone Wade to be on their upcoming podcast The Black Box. We talked about self-publishing, pros and cons of Diamond and alternate comics distribution options, digital comics, the Memphis Mafia, M.C. Hammer and more. As soon as I have an air date for it I’ll post it here and on my site.

Stay “tooned” here for more info on self-publishing, print-on-demand, and Nicki’s new Web-Wednesday columns about using the internet to promote you and your comics.

See ya Monday-

Lin

#6 – Whoever Knows Fear…

…one way to create characters is for the writer to ask and answer four questions.

*What does my character always want?

*Who or what does he love?

*What is he afraid of?

*Why does he involve himself in extreme situations?

Check out Denny’s blog to find out more!

Thinking outside The Black Box

Last night I recorded a podcast with my friends Shawn Pryor, Jon Carroll, and Martheus Antone Wade for an upcoming episode of The Black Box. Not sure when the air date will be, but as soon as I know I’ll post it here. We had a great time talking about self-publishing and the ups and downs that can come with it.

I’m hoping to start my own Comic Whore podcast in the near future, but it’ll at least be after the holidays. Got enough on my plate right now to keep me plenty busy!

Like writing more Comic Whore updates for Mondays. If you have any ideas, questions about self-publishing/promotions, or things for me to pimp please send them on. You can reach me at lin (at) linworkman (dot) com.

Type at ya later,

Lin

John Ostrander and Lin Workman at Midsouthcon 2009 (Memphis, TN)

I’ve been to many conventions over the years- sci-fi, horror, comics and have even helped put on some shows. I have been on all sides of the con table. I’ve done local shows, driven to some, and flown across the country to attend others.

There are lots of reasons to attend shows- to see new things, hear industry news and announcements, pick up exclusive collectibles, see friends, meet celebs, get autographs and sketches, sell merchandise, introduce and educate people about new products or projects, cosplay, network, and to just have fun. The last one is the most important I think. If you’re not having fun at a convention- whether you’re there to sell, buy, or just see and experience it all, if you’re not having fun- well, you’re just not going to have fun!

San Diego Comicon 2008

So, why are you going to a convention? Well, since you’re visiting ComicWhore.com I’m going to assume that you’re wanting to promote yourself and your comics project. There are some things to keep in mind while attending a convention for any reason.

A good way to start is with a good night’s sleep the night before and a good breakfast everyday. It doesn’t have to be a huge breakfast- too heavy and you’ll want a nap before lunch. I like fruit, juice, muffins, yogurt, and maybe some bacon and eggs. You just need something to keep you going, because a lot of times at cons you won’t have time to stop for lunch, or can’t afford to eat at the con. Eating con food can eat up your profits. Some of the smaller ones do offer a lunch for guests and dealers, some even have volunteer runners who will bring you food and drinks from the con-suite. Be nice to those volunteers- they can be a lifesaver over the weekend.

Eric and Joe- Phoenix Cactuscon staff members

I shouldn’t have to say this, but good personal hygiene at a con is extremely important. Shower/bathe, brush your teeth, and change your clothes at least daily. Use deodorant, keep breath mints and hand sanitizer handy, and comb your hair or at least put on a hat to hide the bead-head. Remember, you only get one chance at a first impression. You don’t want to be remembered as the “stinky” guy or girl.

Lin, Micah, and Dave SDCC 2008

On the busy days I usually will wear a tee shirt or button up shirt and/or hat with my comic’s name on it. That helps people remember what I do and associate it with my face. If people can’t remember my name they usually just call me “the Bushi Tales guy”.  So far I’ve never been called “the stinky guy”.

Bushit Tales table SDCC 2008

Be friendly and don’t forget to smile. Make up price signs. Have a con-special on an item or package of items for a reduced price when bought together. Have a banner behind you. I like to have my web address along the top along with the logo so people can see it even if someone is standing in front of my table while I’m making a sale. Some people like to do a hard sales pitch like a carnival barker, others like to sit back and let people come to them. I’m somewhere in the middle. I smile, say hi or compliment them on their costume or cool tee shirt, and offer them one of my freebie postcards, trading cards, or buttons. If they say no, I’ll say, “Thanks, enjoy the show.” If they take the promo items and say thanks, I take that as a chance to ask if they have heard of my comic. If they haven’t or ask what it is about I give them the “elevator pitch”, a one to two sentence synopsis of my story. Mine is usually, “Bushi Tales is about four samurai girls who go on a quest for Hachiman, the Japanese god of war.” Or, “It’s a samurai epic set in a post-apocalyptic feudal Japan.” Keep it short and try to have a good hook. Don’t try to tell them the whole story. You want them to read your book for that. If they are still interested or look a bit iffy I tell them about any con specials I’m offering and encourage them to take a look at my comics or flip through my portfolio. I always have some reader copies on the table for people to look through. If that doesn’t make the sale and they’re ready to move on I remind them of my website and tell them, “Thanks, and enjoy the show.” Again, some folks like to make a big production out of their sails pitch, and others are a bit more reserved. That’s up to you, and can vary depending on the crowd or show. Just have a sales pitch and don’t be afraid to pimp yourself. If you aren’t comfortable doing it, practice and bring along someone who can.

Dave sketching at SDCC

I try to have someone with me at cons to help out at the table and watch over it for an occasional bathroom break. If you’re not very outgoing or would rather just sit there with your head down and draw sketches all weekend long then bring along someone who is a bit of an extrovert and likes talking to people. They can help you make more money by making the sales for you, or by letting you take the time to do sketches or talk business. Do you have a friend or family member that is a “people person”? Is your creative partner more of a talker than you? Bring them along and educate them a bit on your project and merchandise.

Jaynelle "Gino" and Steve "The Dude" Rude at SDCC

If you can’t bring someone along and have to go solo to a show get to know your booth neighbors. Offer to share some snacks or supplies with them. If they need to go to the bathroom offer to watch their table and ask if they’d mind watching yours later. If they do ask if they need anything like water or snacks from the con-suite while your away. And be sure to at least trade business cards before the convention is over.

Lin and booth neighbor Matt Wagner at Cactuscon (PHX)

Conventions are great for meeting new people, seeing old friends, putting a face to a screen-name, and creating business contacts. Portfolios can be shown and reviewed, samples can be dropped off, promo items handed out, and deals made. It’s a time to network. If you’re stuck behind a table all day, be sure to make plans for after the con floor closes. They can be last minute plans, but do go out at night even if it is just for an hour or two. After hours socializing can be big like publisher parties, smaller like drinks at the hotel bar, or even more intimate like dinner. Maybe someone you met is there by themselves, too. See if they’ve got dinner plans or want to catch a ride to one of the parties. Be flexible with your plans in case something else comes along.  Some of the best times I’ve had at cons have been last minute dinners or hanging out in the hotel lobby until late in the evening. Plus, there’s no reason not to explore your host city. Take a little time to be a tourist and see what else the city has to offer. I try to come in a day early or stay a day late when I travel to shows. It gives me a chance to see more of a city than to just the convention center, airport and hotel. Are there museums, zoos, landmarks, movie locations I can visit? Are there any comic shops where I can drop off some sample copies of my comics? Just because I’m taking a day off to be a tourist doesn’t mean I can’t mix in a little business or do some shopping at a local comic shop. Put together a few promo packs as leave behinds- comics, postcards, posters, press release, business card, etc. Make it easy for the owner or manager to see what your book is like, know where to order it, and how to contact you for any other questions. I’ve had a shop owner place an order on-line with Diamond for my comic while I was standing there talking to them. I always try to buy something while I’m there even if it’s just one comic, and I always take a business card and follow up later when I’m back home.

Lin, Micah, and Dave in Seattle, WA for the Emerald City Con

There are lots of other con-survival tips- like wear comfortable shoes, take cash/change, drink water, and more I’ll go into in future articles.

Wil Wheaton taking a break at the San Diego Comicon.

The main things to remember are be prepared, be ready to improvise or roll with the punches when needed, to smile and have fun- and always have your business card or handouts handy!

SDCC Freebie Table

Up next- some convention stories about what to do when your best plans aren’t working, some con dos and don’ts, and if you can’t go to the con I’ll give you some tips on how to get the con to come to you…

Lin

I started off copying comic strips in the Sunday funnies and copying scenes from Spiderman comics. I then took to drawing my own comics, creating my own characters, and even having some comics printed in the school newsletter when I was in elementary school. I did cartoons for my high school newspaper, and submitted some of my work and creations to Marvel Comics.  I got a much deserved rejection letter and kinda gave up on doing comics for a couple years.

I got back into doing comics by an offer of free pizza and beer (or Coca-Cola in my case) from Greg Cravens, a friend in the MSCA who was running behind on a deadline and needed help adding Zipatone to some comic pages he was inking. If you’re asking yourself what “Zipatone” is you probably didn’t read comics until after the black and white explosion and people quit listening to 8-track tapes. What “black and white explosion”, and what are “8-tracks”..? We’ll get to those some other time.

After the “zip” party, I volunteered to help some friends work on a comic. They asked me if I could airbrush in Photoshop and I said, “Sure!” Hey, I had airbrushed t-shirts in the local malls and I had a computer with Photoshop- how hard could it be, right? Well, I jumped into the deep end and had to learn how to swim inside the computer really fast! Lesson #1- just because it looks easy doesn’t mean it is.

That had a great run and lasted a couple issues- a few if you count a reprint of #1. Lesson #2- nothing lasts forever not matter how bright the future looks.

After that my friend Dave Beaty (who had worked on the previous comic venture with me) and I decided to create our own comic. If it failed it wouldn’t be because of things we couldn’t control. We would be our own bosses. Lesson #3- you can’t control everything. That led to lesson #4- just go for it. So we did and created “Bushi Tales”- which led to many other lessons. I’ll get to those. The important thing is we did it, and so far it’s lasted more issues than the previous comic we got our feet wet with. We worked hard, we stumbled from time to time, moved nearly 2000 miles away, but we kept moving forward, and had a lot of fun the whole way.

Lesson #5, have fun.

We wrote, drew, colored, and lettered our new comic. We decided to do a web comic and post new pages weekly (most of the time).

Lesson #6, if you set a schedule you should stick to it and get the book out on time or pages updated on time. If you don’t stick to a schedule why should your readers?

After setting up a website to host our new comic we went to comic shows to promote our new opus. We handed out postcards, gave away some buttons, sold some art prints and t-shirts, talked about how cool a story it was, but the one question we kept hearing over and over was, “So when are you going to print it as a comic book?” Good question, and as soon as we had enough pages finished to fill a comic that’s exactly what we did.

Lesson #7, don’t think comics are a get rich quick scheme or a good way to invest in your retirement, and don’t quit your day job- yet.

We did what you could call a “traditional” print run. We then shopped around for a good printer at a good price, found Morgan Printing, placed our order, and then dropped a couple grand on 5000 copies of our first issue. You really don’t realize just how many books that is until the FedEx guy drops them off at your doorstep! Another lesson learned.

Now what to do with all those books? Well, Diamond Comics Distribution would be happy to sell and deliver our great new comic book to comic shops all over the world. All we needed to do was send them a copy and they’d see just how great it was and we’d be the next Ninja Turtles! They passed. This lesson was not everybody is as excited about your book as you are- including Diamond. We ended up selling our comic to local comic shops and sometimes quite literally out of the back of our cars.

We decided to do a second issue and another print run (this time we ordered less). If we could show Diamond we were serious and could finish a second issue, surely they would pick up our book. Nope- they decided to pass again. We went back to selling them to our local shops and questioning if we wanted to go to print with a third issue or just go back to doing just a web comic and selling merchandise.

Of course we went with paying for another print run. This lesson- “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

Well, between issue #1 and #3 we had been doing well with our books locally and had even had some good shows under our belts. Some of the local comic shop owners here and out in Arizona where Dave lived asked their Diamond reps why they weren’t carrying “Bushi Tales”. It was selling well for them, and they’d order it from Diamond if they offered it. Diamond listened and picked up our comics. We now have sold three issues of Bushi Tales through Diamond and have had it on comic shops and in the hands of comic fans all over the world now. With Diamond behind us you would think that we had finally made it, right? Next lesson- being picked up by a distributor doesn’t guarantee success in the world of comics.

We decided to go quarterly with our comic series. We wanted to be able to hit our deadlines, make issue #3 bigger and better, and not go broke, insane, or lose our day jobs trying to keep up with a monthly publishing schedule. After all it was our day jobs that were helping fund our comic book, and provide some inexpensive promotional items (I worked for a screen printer at the time).

We hit our deadlines, didn’t go insane, completely broke, or become unemployed. But there were unforeseen problems. We did ok numbers for our first issue, but our numbers dropped with issue #2, and then again even more with #3. Now while drops from issue #1 to #2 and even #3 or more isn’t unusual and should be expected, we dropped a lot. Even a full color ad in Diamond’s Previews catalog, direct mailers to comic shops, or a special Bushi Tales site for retailers helped. We had offered a “buy 5 copies and get one free” incentive for retailers. We had gone to shows to promote it. We had built mailing lists and sent out promotional items. What went wrong? I don’t know. I do know that the economy had started to take a down turn, comic numbers across the board were dropping, and Diamond dropped our incentive with #3.

I’m not here to trash talk about Diamond. They are a business and as a business they make good and bad business decisions. Their decision to not offer the incentive of free comics didn’t make our numbers tank, it just didn’t help them not dropping. One thing I did hear from a few friends around the country was that when they saw #2 on the shelves and mentioned they knew us the owners replied, “I’ve just about given up on those guys- I haven’t seen anything new from them in months.” We were quarterly! The fact that we hit our deadlines (and even shipped a week early with #1) didn’t matter. They assumed that since they didn’t see a monthly book from us that we weren’t shipping on time or producing at all. I can’t blame them too much. How many times have we picked up a first or second issue of a new comic series and never saw any future issues? The problem was, if a few retailers felt that way then how many others felt that way?

After that we took a break from publishing Bushi Tales. We didn’t want to quit, but if we did another print run we would have negative numbers on our orders through Diamond. We needed to come up with a new strategy. Next lesson-we needed to work smarter, not harder.

We are currently working on the next installment of Bushi Tales and our game plan for getting it out to comic fans. I’ll keep you updated and let you know of any other lessons we learn this time. Wish us luck!

Lin

Let the comics exposing begin!

First company up is ClubFlyers.com. I’ve ordered a lot of promotional 2-sided postcards through them, as well as gotten some free postcards. Yep, free- you just have to pay shipping (about $13.00 to get to where I live) and you can get 500 free full color 4×6 postcards, offer the same deal for business cards. They also have great prices and turnaround for many other printed promotional items. If you need promos for shows, mailouts, leave behinds and more check out ClubFlyers.com. (And don’t forget to put your web address on all your promo materials!)

Do you need a short run of comics, or maybe even just one copy printed? Want to be a “P.O.D. person“? You know, “print on demand“. Then check out Ka-Blam! digital printing. They offer print on demand services for comics, mini-comics, trade paperbacks, hardcovers, posters, flyers, and more. They can even sell you comics for you! They have Indy Planet (on-line P.O.D. comic shop) and Comics Monkey (comics distributi0n) to do just that.

Need more than a couple of your comic books printed, say maybe a 1000 or 2000+..? Then give Gary Grinde at Morgan Printing a yell. You can have your comics shipped directly to you, or they will work with Diamond to get your comics delivered to comics shops. I’ve had my comic series Bushi Tales printed by them and have no complaints. Great service, turnaround, and more. We even had trading card sets printed by them.

Speaking of  Bushi Tales that’s my comic series spotlight of the week, and just so happens to be my comic series. We’ve got 3 issues out so far, and more are in the works to be released. There are also lots of great Bushi Tales merchandise available, such a tees, prints, greeting cards, buttons, and even a soundtrack- it rocks.

And, hey- if I can promote my comic here, I should promote myself as well! (See how easy it is to pimp yourself when you have a website..?!) In case you didn’t know already, my name is Lin Workman and I  draw cartoons, paint monster portraits, self-publish comics, and more in my “free” time, and design tombstones as a day job. You can see more of my work and find out some fun facts about me on my website LinWorkman.com. It’s updated frequently and run by the lovely and talented Nicki Howe, who is also the webmaster for this site and the MSCA site.

Well, that’s the first Pimp It Friday update. See you here Monday for my next Comic Whore blog.

Type at ya later,

Lin