Scared but excited

Making my own comics in a cold, cold world.

Sep 15, 2024

If I’m being honest, I never got into comics so I could draw other people’s characters.

Yes, I loved every minute of drawing Spider-man, Wonder Woman, Daredevil, Superman, Deadpool, Batman and all the others. I had a “bucket list” of characters who’s comics I always wanted to draw and I’ve hit everyone on that list.

But at the top of that list was always my own characters.

Now I’m trying to transition from Batman to my own characters in Hysteria: One Man Gang.

I gotta tell you, I’m a little scared.

You see, I used to think that I’d draw all these “big name” books then bring that readership onto my own books. Like the original Image guys did. With time and experience you learn that the people putting “asses in seats”, so to speak, are the characters… not me. This comic industry is ever changing and the winds at the backs of those Image guys doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

But new things do exist though that allow us to reach out to a fanbase that wants to see what we cook up. Things like this, Substack, Patreon and Kickstarter.

If I had Kickstarter at the beginning of my career I think things would have dramatically different. I started my career self publishing my Hysteria comic and with Kickstarter that maybe wouldn’t have ended.

You see, I never stopped making Hysteria comics. After the original four issue series I self published, I went on making it and putting those stories out with any publisher that would work with me. Even online, before that was as big as it is now. All while funding it via my work-for-hire stuff.

That proved impossible to sustain though.

Now I do have Kickstarter, so I’m trying it again.

I’ve been quietly drawing Hysteria: One Man Gang, between gigs, and documenting it on my Patreon as a way to both share it with my people and to keep myself accountable.

Some weeks all I could eek out was a panel. But, it was progress. “Pa’lante”, right?.

Before I knew it I had enough to make a mini-comic and here we are with a fully funded campaign to make this thing!

It’s a very small step, but I’m so grateful I could bust. But, like I said above, I’m scared too. Because with indie comics, everything can fall apart in the blink of an eye. I know. I’ve been through several of those eye blinks.

Now it’s a numbers game. I need to build up enough steam to keep making this thing. I need to find a way to connect with enough crazy comic readers willing to gamble on this thing as I can before life sweeps my legs again.

I need to finish this book, but to do that I need to build a readership for it.

That’s the really hard part. I don’t have a publisher backing me, no publicists, no advertisements, no promotion.

Just me.

Well, and you.

Because of people like you I’ve been brave enough to even try this. Thank you!

I hope you’ll keep sticking with me through this, telling your friends about the project, spreading the word. Hell, even just commenting on the Kickstarter page helps as it shows the algorithm that the project is getting attention!