Creator-Owned Comics: Not Whining Yields Results

It’s just been a few days since I posted my rant about Creator-Owned comics and already the response has been pretty great, and pretty telling at the same time. 

First and foremost, thanks to everybody who re-Tweeted and re-posted my rant all over the place.  I don’t generally post things that get the re-Tweet so the ripple effect and sheer number of re-posts was amazing as was the outpouring of support. I’ve received more messages via email, Facebook, Twitter in support of creator-owned than I have for any of my projects or clever quips.

I have to say, it feels pretty good to hear people want diversity and are willing to do what it takes to create/buy what they want.  I think people are ready for the task ahead. I’m not fooling myself. Collectively, we have one Hell of a boulder to push up hill, but we can do it.

I thought some of the non-reaction to the rant was equally interesting. I sent it directly to several “creator friendly” blogs , news sites AND creators . Not only didn’t  they re-post (which is fine) it, but didn’t reply at all.  When I looked at these blogs/sites the reason became clear. Most of the news was about gossip or complaining about some character dying or complaining about a characters look in a movie. I dunno. I saw a lot of negativity. That’s fine. That’s cool. That gets them readers, but I don’t want anything to do with it.

This is just something that I (and I hope we) can learn to ignore and step around. We need to create our own news blogs and get news to fans and creators alike. Not all creators or Bloggers are going to get behind this. 

I do not fault any creator or blog/site that doesn’t get behind all this DIY, grassroots talk, but man, some show of support would really help. There are some well-established creators who could really help rally the troops so to speak, certainly more than me. I hope they’ll come to the table at some point.

There were a couple hilarious comments. The most telling was and I’m paraphrasing here was, “Why would you want to help your competitors?!”

Yes, why would we? Well, for one, I don’t view Eric Powell as a competitor or Mike Mignola or Terry Moore. I don’t have to take from someone else to gain something. That’s a very twisted way of thinking in my book.

We’re all fighting the same fight. Sure, we’re all going for a slice of the same pie, but believe me, there’s plenty for everybody, and if we work together we can actually make the pie bigger again, like it used to be.

If there’s one thing I learned from my minor roll in the DC music scene was this; you CAN do it all yourself. We put on our own shows, put out our own merch and records, booked our own tours. Nobody was going to help us and we didn’t sit around waiting for “them” to help.

To be completely honest I only looked at the comments on one blog, saw people already debating and walked away. They were actually fighting about having a positive attitude. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be hilarious.

Lots of fans seemed confused about the difference between creator owned and mainstream books, so maybe I should clarify what I think it is. Very simply a book is creator-owned if a creator has stake in the game, some portion of rights to their project. If you signed a Work-For-Hire contract, it’s not creator-owned, and that’s fine too.

Lots of people think I’m out for Marvel blood, but this isn’t true at all. In fact, with recent changes at Marvel I’m actually excited to see what books come out of there. Will I work for them? I doubt it, but only because I really want to focus on creator-owned. Many of my friends work for Marvel and I cheer them on as hard as I cheer them on when they do creator-owned.

We don’t have time for a war. If we fight, we die.

It’s hard not to react to a comment especially when it’s aimed at us or something we love. When I commented that comics need a more DIY/Punk Rock attitude I got one message asking if that meant I only wanted to produce bad comics because punk rock sucked. I just deleted the comment, and blocked the commenter. Onward.

This whole thing was triggered because of a pointless bicker-fest over nothing, that accomplished nothing but alienating two creators from each other. I don’t want to see that again. I refuse to argue about nothing. I won’t do it. Nope. Not gonna fight.

BUT, mostly the reaction was good…

So far I've been contacted to do a regular column featuring spotlights on creator-owned creators, publishers and titles.  I’ll be needing info from creators out there about your books. Send me basic info, cover, links to steve@steveniles.com so I can start collecting titles to feature.

A creator-owned publisher has offered me a monthly. This has been the single biggest thing I’ve wanted to do and next could. I’ve always admired what Kirkman did with Walking Dead and Larson with Savage Dragon. Keep the books coming out so it has a chance to catch on. I will also use this series to spearhead attention on creator-owned books.

At least two websites are doing creator-owned focus things as a reaction to the blog.

One here: http://www.BackroomPodcast.com/backroom-comics-content/indy-comic-book-fail-lesson-43-thirty-days-of-indy-comics/

Here’s one spotlighting all creator-owned! http://creator-owned.blogspot.com/

And one here: http://www.thegirlynerd.com/2011/01/25/a-few-words-from-steve-niles/

And a nice mention here: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/01/quote-of-the-day-steve-niles-on-supporting-creator-owned-work/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Next week I'm doing a podcast to talk about creator-owned books and what we’re trying to accomplish, I’ll post info.

That’s basically it. There has been a ripple effect. People want creator-owned books, but it’s up to us to figure out ways to get our material to readers.

Feel free to drop me a line at steve@steveniles.com if you have a creator blog or a book you love that you want to see get some attention.

Thank you all. Thank you, creators, thank you, retailers, thank you, publishers and huge thanks to fans and readers. Because of all of you, I feel pretty damn good about comics right now.

 Support Creator-Owned comics! Give Eric Powell a backrub next time you see him!

-Steve

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[DMP_Jay]

this is why i have so much respect for you, you pull no punches and you are always helping out us little guys.

[Sidney]

I am now listening.

[Darrin H]

Good for you man. People need to shake off that childhood compulsion to just buy what they always buy just cause they always buy it. The big two feed off that. Most of my favourite books these days are creator owned. I can't wait for the Cal MacDonald series.

[Pj Perez]

Here. Fucking. Here.

[Shah Shahid]

Awesome... just awesome. I agree, creator owned stuff not only has amazing content, but it also credits the creators with their deserved acclaim for their hard work, with no chance of having their babies bastardized by other writers.