Starting a black comic industry?

Arishok

Arishok

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KidStranglehold said:
  1. What are your plans?
  2. How will we get started?
  3. What is your budget?
  4. Do we fund?
  5. How do we link up?
Just asking these questions to challenge(help) you.
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Get a group of writers and illustrators to make a couple of interesting characters in a shared universe.
To get started, I wanted to see people's ideas. Bounce our ideas off of each other, critique, and refine them. Then start to write scripts and pair up with some illustrators who'll do the artwork and then critique and refine them.
I currently don't have a budget since I don't have a team. Plus everyone should have some source of writing software like Microsoft Word and artist definitely have sketchbook pro, photoshop, illustrator. I know a couple of places we can publish pdf files for free and earn royalties. I'll have a budget when I have a solid team with stories and characters.
Since it's a startup, it'll have to start as a hobbyist thing. I can publish the finished products on Amazon or we can pool money together to get some print outs from Fedex, etc. Help each other market using social media and flyers. Or we can get a one shot done and generate some popularity that way then start a kickstarter/crowd fund to get some money and write/illustrate our ideas.
Linking up I want to start off making a coli group then go into Google since they have so many ways to share info like hangouts to talk and drive to share files. If that can't work then trello is another good idea to share while we can talk to each other the group text app.
 
IllustratorMike

IllustratorMike

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Native of the NYC, getting fed in the Big D!
Dwolf said:
@IllustratorMike don't you do comics :leostare:
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Yeah I dabble a little bit. I have my own character I'm currently working on and trying to expand other ideas I have as well.

Done some stuff for Image and other independent labels as well so I know how hard it is for black creators to see their work realized in a mostly white medium.
 
B

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MarsPunka said:
Get a group of writers and illustrators to make a couple of interesting characters in a shared universe.
To get started, I wanted to see people's ideas. Bounce our ideas off of each other, critique, and refine them. Then start to write scripts and pair up with some illustrators who'll do the artwork and then critique and refine them.
I currently don't have a budget since I don't have a team. Plus everyone should have some source of writing software like Microsoft Word and artist definitely have sketchbook pro, photoshop, illustrator. I know a couple of places we can publish pdf files for free and earn royalties. I'll have a budget when I have a solid team with stories and characters.
Since it's a startup, it'll have to start as a hobbyist thing. I can publish the finished products on Amazon or we can pool money together to get some print outs from Fedex, etc. Help each other market using social media and flyers. Or we can get a one shot done and generate some popularity that way then start a kickstarter/crowd fund to get some money and write/illustrate our ideas.
Linking up I want to start off making a coli group then go into Google since they have so many ways to share info like hangouts to talk and drive to share files. If that can't work then trello is another good idea to share while we can talk to each other the group text app.
Click to expand...

For now I'll give some ideas. I am a writer tho I have not published a book yet(trying to already finished two), but I am not skilled in writing in script format. My dialogue does need some work, but other than that I am confident with my writing. My grammar does need some work, but that is nothing serious as long as the story is good.

Start a group and we'll see where it goes from there. Then we'll come up with some ideas.
 
L

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MarsPunka said:
There in with DC though :leostare:
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I skimmed through the article but it seems they have 100% ownership and they license with DC.
This whole time, Milestone has a good deal. All their books were published, distributed, and promoted by DC. Milestone retained 100% ownership of copyrights and got the final word on any licensing, but they and DC would split profits. DC had no editorial control except for right of refusal to publish. Milestone called the shots, and as long as they didn’t rock the boat at DC, they could do basically whatever they wanted (This was tested when DC forced Milestone to hide parts of STATIC cover depicting the character kissing his girlfriend—DC contended it was overtly sexual, Milestone founder Dwayne McDuffie maintained it was black sexuality, specifically). And on top of that, they had a much better scheduling record than Image—the latter notorious for their egregious lateness; Milestone almost always put their books out on time. However, the story I’ve heard is that many retailers didn’t see a market for black superheroes. They assumed nobody was interested, nobody would buy them. They received zero exposure in the poor excuse for a comic book press that existed the time (I.e. Wizard). They were just one of many tangential universe expansions from the major publishers. All of these factors conspired to put Milestone out of business, and by 1997 they had completely stopped publishing comics.
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Representation Matters: Milestone Media & Milestone Media 2.0 - This Is Infamous
 
L

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MarsPunka said:
Oh ok, will look into it then. Just didn't want my characters owned or halted by DC.
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i feel you. i think black owned comics is a great idea. i remember someone posted in the film room that Blade was Marvel's first box office success.:ohhh:

being a nerd i looked it up and its true. their movies before blade where pretty much bombs, direct to video, or unreleased.
List of films based on Marvel Comics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

when you make it big give us some chapters/scenes like this one.

:steviej:
 
M

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MarsPunka said:
I'm about to make a group for the folks who want to discuss, just tell me if you want an invite.
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I'd like an invitation. I'm not capable of pumping out a full length comic by myself, but I'd like to take a shot at writing stories and coming up with concepts and designing characters though.
 
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