Sponsored by SHP
By Shawn Hainsworth
Four Color Dreams X Reality
I have been a storyteller for as long as I can remember. I tried to write at least three novels in high school, never getting past the first few chapters. My creative ambitions dwarfed my abilities at the time, but I wasn’t about to let reality get in the way.
The idea for SHP Comics hit me in the Fall of 2021. I was at the Austin Film Festival with a screenplay entitled Woodstake about a vampire that terrorizes the Woodstock music festival in 1969. It was scary, funny, and unique, but I didn’t want to just sell the idea. But what if I published Woodstake as a comic? I could retain creative control, build an audience, and establish ownership of the intellectual property (IP). SHP Comics was born.
I was able to find an amazing artist, Felipe Kroll, to bring the story to life. But there was so much I didn’t know about the business of comics. I remember vividly walking into Artist’s Alley at the New York Comic Con that year, not as a fan, but as a creator. With so many talented artists and writers out there, how would I ever be able to attract readers to my stories?
A few months later, I signed up for my first AA table at a small con. Like many writers and artists, I am a bit of an introvert. It took several cons to learn how to engage with fans all day long. Developing an audience in person is time consuming (and expensive), but face to face interactions are the best and many of my most loyal fans came from these events.
But, how could I reach a larger audience?
Standing Out in a Crowd
Ahh, the allure of Kickstarter. Browsing through the comic book projects raising tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, one can’t help but dream of striking it rich. Like the Little Tramp following a train of dreamers and schemers in Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, I set up my first campaign. I spent way more time than I could have imagined learning the ropes, and in the end, it was friends and family that carried me over the finish line. I barely covered my expenses (excluding my time). But I did prove there were people willing to spend real money to buy my book.
I have since run six more campaigns on different platforms. My goal was not making a profit, it was to build my audience, backer by backer, campaign by campaign. Backers, to me, are not just customers, but potential fans, and fans make the comics world go ‘round.
Juggling for the Complete Klutz
By this point, I was scheduling and attending cons, running crowdfunding campaigns, managing email lists and a web site, and trying to decode the mysteries of social media. Like a lot of Gen-Xers, Facebook, to me, was the place where people I never really knew in high school posted pictures of their children, vacations, and what they had for dinner. There were active comic communities on all the platforms, but how to reach them?
And how did I end up in marketing? I was spending more and more time on the business of comics, staying up later and later each night to do the things I love: writing, editing and collaborating with artists.
I believed there was an audience for my stories, and I really wanted to keep making comics, so I just kept working. I put two other series into production. I needed to develop my pipeline if I wanted to sustain SHP as an ongoing publisher. The crowdfunding campaigns were bringing in money, but not enough, so I was digging into my savings. For three years, I slowly built my audience, established a social media presence, and finished my first titles: Woodstake and The Killing Machine. Now, I needed to find a distributor.
Can I Actually Make a Living?
The market for comics is a crazy patchwork of small outlets (print, digital, direct, in-person). I selected Diamond for print distribution, but it was not enough to just be in the catalog, I had to meet retailers, introduce them to my titles, and assure them of my commitment to keep publishing. Another challenge to tackle, new relationships to build, and learning curve to master.
Today, with our first titles on shelves, our first reviews rolling in, and our first issue sold out, I feel a measure of optimism for the future of SHP. I am planning our first graphic novels, international distribution, and three new titles for 2025.
There is still so much to learn, but I look forward to doing what I love and to being a positive, long term member of the comics community.
Sponsored by SHP
English (US) · 