How can we raise the profile of comic creators?

[nolan]

I've been thiking about this.

Because a lot of comic fans see creators as secondary to characters.

And since we don't have known characters, the creators are all we have.

[davidaccampo]

nolan said:

I've been thiking about this.

Because a lot of comic fans see creators as secondary to characters.

And since we don't have known characters, the creators are all we have.

From your second line, I gather you're talking specifically about Phosphorous?

If so, then it's really kind of a moot point -- you're going to want to promote the writer and the story simultaneously since they're both unknown.

There are a lot of readers out there who will buy anything Avengers or anything Titans or whatever. But when you come to indie properties, people talk as much about Kirkman as they do Invincible or The Walking Dead.

So the key is advertising/lmarketing the book and talking about the creators and their stories, hand in hand. The rest will take care of itself.

For instance, you start with a press release. You send it to Newsarama, hope that they publish it in a Sidebar. The press release talks about the accomplishments of your writer, your artist and then talks about the story. As the publisher, you include some quote about how you were "blown away by the story and just had to publish it," etc. Then you include a link or links that will further promote the materials to those who are interested. Because the properties are unknown, you're going to have people picking it up because of:

a) the concept
b) the background of the writer (is he/she a filmmaker, a novelist...or does he/she have a fascinating background or upraising?)
c) Anything the writer says to promote his/her story or the craft of writing or comics.

Basically, you want stuff in print that shows the writer is a worthwhile candidate for your dollars.

The key follow-up to the press release would then be a creator INTERVIEW on a website. If you can't get a news site like Newsarama to take interest, then you conduct the interview YOURSELF, and you find a place to post it.

Using myself as an example (not out of ego, just because I'm trying to market myself a lot right now): I'm a filmmaker, and we won an award for our film. I have a website that touts the film, and I just put up a new blog (www.habitformingfilms.com/blog) that talks about all aspects of creative process, marketing, lifestyle, etc.

So you send out a press release, then you get me on a podcast, or in an interview for a website. Meanwhile, I re-post and plug everything on my site, then virally market that by posting in forums, etc.

You get the creator out there simultaneously with the story. Some may be interested in teh concept, and they might pick it up for that -- but because you can't give too much away, and because you have to really sell the unknown writer, you have to just blanket the web with them (since that'll be your main source of advertising/marketing), and try to get as many comics people interested in what said writer might do.

I think that no matter what you do, the writer and artist are going to be higher in profile than their story.

[nolan]

Absolutely its important for PT.


At the same time, I think its also important that comic creators in general try to achieve a higher profile and make themselves the most important part of the work. Look at the early 90s at Marvel, they didn't even have creators listed on the cover (I think it was like 1998 before this happened, DC had it by Zero Hour and I think on most of their stuff before that).

But there's still a lot of sentiment among comic fans against creators who act like they're too important, which seems to mean creators with distinct voices who actually make their presence an integral part of the story.

And I think we can do this without getting in to auteur level stuff.

[davidaccampo]

nolan said:

But there's still a lot of sentiment among comic fans against creators who act like they're too important, which seems to mean creators with distinct voices who actually make their presence an integral part of the story.

I think most of this occurs when writers work on the big franchise properties, though. There is no distinction between Kirkman and The Walking Dead, as I mentioned.

Or, better yet, there's no distinction between Morrison and WE3 or Seaguy or any of his creator-owned stuff. But Morrison on X-men is different because there are fans who care more about the X-men than the person who is writing it. The writers are seen as caretakers.

Honestly, I don't think this will change as long as their are long-lived properties like Superman, Batman, Spider-man, et al.

So it goes back to that old argument. The franchise properties will always be bigger than the writers, so the way to make it SEEM like creators have a higher profile would be to expand the comics market to include much more creator-owned stuff, pushing the franchise properties into one corner of the playing field.

There's an analogy in books, I think. I imagine that Star Wars fans feel the same way about the authors of licensed Star Wars novels. There are probably a few who follow authors, but there are plenty who feel that Star Wars is BIGGER than the writer. And I don't think that perception will change. But we don't notice it in the book market because licensed SW novels are just one tiny segment of your local Borders or Barnes & Noble.