Mainstream Creator Blocks Indie Creator For Doing Math...
400 books later...time for another 600 books to go!
Another week with another drama story in the mainstream comics world (per usual). In today’s newsletter we’re going to talk about fulfilling 400 books, Green Lantern Drama, and The Over Extension Conundrum!
Real quick though, THE CTHULHU MURDERS: HER DARK HEART has 11 days to go on Kickstarter! It’s a fantastic 60+ graphic novel with paperback and hardback options.
Okay! Let’s get to this!
MY SEXY WITCH ACADEMIA FULFILLMENT
Finally finally finally! This year has been INSANE. In my 8 years of making comics, I have NEVER done a Kickstarter for floppy comics sent in gemini mailers. I didn’t realize all the work that went into fulfilling books like this AND at this volume.
We had over 400 books that we packaged and shipped to backers. If you haven’t gotten an email with your tracking number, give it 2-3 more days…you’ll see it.
I’m super excited about this series.
MY SEXY WITCH ACADEMIA started out as a parody story on Harry Potter. When it was time to start writing the book, I started falling in love with the world, and started rewriting and changing the story into the version that is out now. I’m so excited that we are done with production with Chapter 2 in a few weeks, and we’ll be working on Chapter 3 right after. Next year expect the release of Chapters 2-4. I think in total we’ll do around 12-15 chapters for this story.
GREEN LANTERN WRITER BLOCKS ME BECAUSE OF…MATH…
If you weren’t on comics Twitter this week then you probably had a peaceful 7-days. I did not.
Tim Sherridan, a queer writer for DC Comics, has a new Green Lantern series featuring Alan Scott coming out this month. The story revolves around Alan Scott being Green Lantern, while struggling with his sexual identity and be “stuck in the closet.”
First and foremost, I don’t have a problem with this story. I’m not a Green Lantern fan, and I was never going to buy this book EVEN had it not been about the subject matter it is.
With that being said, there were many fans of Green Lantern who were very vocal about their problems with this series. Many didn’t know that Alan Scott was gay in Earth-2, and during the DC Rebirth reboot, the Alan Scott from Earth-2 was the one that became canon. Regardless of their ignorance, these fans were very upset with DC Comics, and Tim.
Tim proceeded to make a video RALLYING his LGBTQ Allies into buying the book to make a statement to those on the political right. In a nut-shell “Buy my queer Green Lantern book to fight the bigots.” With half a million views…you can probably guess that there was an uproar.
This is where I come in. This was my tweet:
Now….this is not me attacking DC, or Green Lantern, or Tim. This is me explaining simple math. The more you niche your story, the more targeted your audience is, and the more people you alienate. This ISN’T a bad thing, but it’s something that you need to understand when you’re trying to sell a book.
If I told you that my comic “Light Man” was a superhero book, I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in it. The moment I say that you should read my comic “Light Man - a Mormon Superhero” it would IMMEDIATELY turn off the majority of people.
And that’s what happened here with his Green Lantern story. A Green Lantern story is going to appeal to more people than a Queer Green Lantern story. That’s all I was trying to say.
Well…here’s my punishment:
Here’s my statement on this: if you’re going to write a mainstream character, for a massive mainstream company, then you need to cater to THEIR fans. Your job is to cater to GREEN LANTERN fans so that you can sell the book for the company. When fans are upset with you, don’t call them bigots and block them. If you really believe in your story, stand your ground, pitch your story and how amazing it is, and allow the fans of the work you were HIRED to make, give you their opinions.
The Over Extension Conundrum
In this final segment, I want to get personal…real personal.
I’ve overextended myself to the point of that I’m overworking myself and fueling myself with FEAR. You see…I didn’t know that October was almost finished until two days ago. I’m freaking out. Here’s why.
Super Plumber Sisters is still not finished. All the line art is completed, but it still needs to be greytoned, lettered, and printed. To print the book, I need to have the art finished by October 30th, and sent to printer by November 2nd, and even then…I’m cutting it extremely close. EXTREMELY close.
And THEN I’m still working on The Girl with the Mega Fists Vol 4, but I’ve had to put that on pause BECAUSE of fulfilling Sexy Witch Chapter 1, and producing Super Plumber Sisters 1. I haven’t even brought up The Cthulhu Murders!
PLUS I have other projects that I’m working on as well.
So. I’m in a bad spot in my business in terms of timelines. But we’re going to do our best.
One lesson I’m learning for 2024, is this: I will NOT be crowdfunding THE GIRL WITH THE MEGA FISTS Vol. 5 until the book is 80% finished. That would solve like 50% of my problems.
Lessons learned in pain will forever stick with you.
October to December will be painful hahahahaha
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! Now I need to fulfill some more books, and then start editing my next Youtube video…
Uhg.
Peace!
Tyler :)