Well, it wasn’t a financial success, and very few people ever saw or read my books, but I was able to finish a comic book story-arc, and put it out in print, and I was really proud of that.
Issue one sold sold 613 copies, despite a $2300 ad in Previews and $700 worth of promo posters sent to the top 600 indie-comics-selling shops (which I assume is all of them).
Issue two dropped to 315 copies. Issue three dropped even more, down to 260, even though I ran an ad in the Comics Journal and in Love and Rockets (since the issue contained pin-ups by all three of the Hernandez Brothers). Issue four dropped yet again down to a staggering 194. And the final issue only dropped minimally, down to 188. God, what pathetic numbers. And they just got worse and worse. The fifth issue was giant-sized and more expensive, so my assumption is that, the only reason its numbers didn’t drop even more is that it had a pin-up by Mike Mignola in it. Also, Oni kindly gave me a free ad in the final issue of “Ojo,” and I ran the same ad in the Comics Journal.
As you can see from the numbers, what little advertising I did may have helped the book’s numbers not plummet…MAYBE…but never enough to justify the costs I spent for the ad. The entire five-issue run never grossed me back the amount of money it cost for that first ad in Previews. And THEN I have to deduct out the cost of printing and all the pin-ups.
I felt really lucky for Sam Kieth to have asked me to do Ojo with him, because I actually made a little money there, and what little I made got pumped straight back into the credit card debt I kept accruing with each issue I published. Whenever I looked at the Ojo work, I wasn’t really proud of what I’d done artistically. I wish I could have done better. But I was proud to have helped my friend Sam.
So this was the frame of mind I was in when that final issue came out. Proud, but a little frustrated at what a financial disaster the book had been.
I mentioned it to Sam, and he told me I should not be afraid to contact editors, and send them my books and tell them this is what I’m doing. And then he said I should just pitch a few different stories and see if anything takes.
So with all this in mind, and realizing I’m losing too much money every issue I published, and having tasted a small meal of payments from Ojo, I decided to look into publishers once again, who might be willing to pay me a few bucks a page for my stories. I figured, even if they only pay me three bucks a page, that’s considerably better than I’ve been getting – losing $50 per page, not including the cost of my pin-ups – as a self-publisher. Unbelievable to realize my page rate right now is to lose fifty bucks for every page I draw.
Darkhorse was my first choice, so I went to their website and looked at their submissions guidelines. It talked about filling out forms, submitting in a certain format, maybe not hearing back, signing a waiver, and on and on. And finally I just thought, screw this. I’m a professional now. I’ve self-published five books, and I did a book with Sam Kieth for Oni Press. That’s a real company, so I must be a real artist by now. I looked in my Hellboy comics and found the email of his editor, Scott Allie, and I just wrote straight to him. I included a couple images from Tabloia, and I went out shooting. “I’m co-artist of Sam Kieth’s “Ojo” for Oni Press, and I’ve been self-publishing a book featuring pin-ups by Mike Mignola, Mike Allred, Gene Colan, John Severin, Los Bros Hernandez, Tony Millionaire, and more. I’ve gotten favorable reviews at Fourthrail.com, comicbookresources.com, comixfan.com, ainitcoolnews.com, etc etc. My four dollar books are listed at Mile High Comics for eight or twelve dollars. I’d like to send you copies.” Something like that.
He wrote me back within an hour, and I sent him copies that day, feeling like a real stud. I checked in with him over the next few months, and every time, he was real kind and funny, and just kept saying he actually carried my books in his briefcase to work every day, but was so busy he just didn’t have time to read them. Seriously, this went on for months. Finally I had the opportunity to meet him down at San Diego, and he was once again real nice and funny, but as time went by, I began to suspect he didn’t have interest in publishing a trade of “The Lump” or looking at any new projects I might have in mind.
I tried similar tactics with Chris Staros at Top Shelf, who actually read my first chapter of “Limbo Café,” but said he wasn’t interested. Next was Idea Design Works, who said they’d seen my work on Ojo, but when I sent them copies of Tabloia and asked about possibilities for future projects, they said their plate is full for at least the next year, and AiT/PlanetLAR, who said he’d been reading my Tabloias and enjoyed them, but I haven’t heard back from him since I sent the Doris Danger book. I emailed Slave Labor, who didn’t return my email. I’ve sent periodic emails to Fantagraphics, who I thought for sure might want to do a Doris Danger book with me, on account of I had the impression Gary Groth was impressed when I’d first met him at APE-Con. I suspect I’ve embarrassed myself with the emails I’ve continued to send him, or else that he’s marked anything from me as “spam” and my emails go straight to his trash now.
At San Diego, I met Mark Chiarello, and gave him copies of the Tabloias, which he said he really enjoyed, although they weren’t really DC material. He got me in touch with Marvel, who was relaunching some giant monster books, and I sent them copies, but they sent me a form email saying they weren’t interested at this time, but would keep my work on file.
Lastly, I approached Oni, since they published my work, albeit through Sam. They said they don’t reprint work such as my Lump story, because the reprints they’ve done in the past have’t been successful. I wrote back asking if I could send them some new stories I’m working on, and didn’t hear back from them.
Now I’m not saying that these people who didn’t write back aren’t interested. I probably should have continued sending emails, but I wanted to get my books out, and not take all this time waiting. That’s why I ended up publishing the Doris Danger book myself, and that’s why I ended up publishing the Lump trade by myself, and I may check back in with these guys occasionally, but until then I’ll keep pumping things out myself. Because the bottom line is that I want to keep putting out books, and if I can’t find someone who will do it, that’s my only option.