comic industry Posts

The Ancient Chinese Secret for Indy Comic Sales and the History of Nifty Comics

A friend of Nifty Comics and fellow indy publisher, Shawn Granger of King Tractor Press, asked me after my last post how we’re starting to hit semi decent sales now after a year and a half back at publishing. I actually get a lot of requests to go over the process — one guy emailed me after his saw the Cadre in a local Borders store up in Seattle — and so I thought I’d share what I sent him to see if it helps.

The first thing to keep in mind is that Nifty Comics has been around in various forms since 1995. We’ve run through Diamond and Capitol City (when they were around) in the past and had some pretty decent sales. During the comics boom in the mid-90s we had a mini series that sold right at 30,000 copies. Of course, this was when comics were selling hundreds of thousands and millions, so our numbers were considered crap for anyone trying to be serious publishers. A good thing that came out of it was that BKN International optioned a pilot of the Cadre. It didn’t go anywhere, but it’s pretty cool to have a 20 minute animated version of a comic I created.

We run a couple of issues post-crash, but the numbers were abyssmal — under 1000 (under 500, actually) through Diamond, direct to stores and FM International. Although the books we ran were all “Small Press Spotlights” and received great reviews. Read More »

September 19, 2007 | No Comments

Success Kills — why more comic sales might not be a good thing!

I like to ramble on in this space from time to time about my experiences as an independent comic book publisher. Recently I wrote about some of the things I do to expand the sales and reach for the comics I publisher under the Nifty Comics banner. I also talked about how our initial orders (meaning upfront orders that come in either before printing or right as the comics are released in the first week afterwards) have started to hit the 8000 mark.

Now, I’m going to tell you why getting 8000 in sales can be a bad thing if you’re not ready for them. (read entire article at www.ComicBookMarketing.com)

March 19, 2007 | No Comments

Comics: Our Own Worst Enemy?

Like most comic publishers I spend quite a bit of time thinking about the state of the industry and how to make it better – well, truthfully, how to make my little corner of it better. After spending a lot of time thinking it over and discussing what everyone perceives to be the main elements leading to the downfall of comics (the distributor monopoly, for example), I realized what the biggest problem and killer really is: the industry.

I believe most of the problems that we encounter “in the industry” come from the industry itself. First off, comic companies tend to publish only for those who are already in the industry. Comic publishers usually target their marketing towards those who are already here and creators tend to create product only for those who are already well-versed in industry. Very rarely does the thought of bringing new readers in really ever pop up, which is insane. That would be like Hollywood only creating films for those who work in film and television. As wacky as it sounds, this seems to be the mentality of the industry at large. (read entire article at www.ComicBookMarketing.com)

September 19, 2006 | No Comments
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