Comix Engine 10

I think I have it.

The publishing model will deliver 3 product types: a monthly PDF, a quarterly print publication, and finally an annual hardback graphic novel.

Here's the breakdown:

1) Monthly PDF

20 pages in total

2) Quarterly Print Publication

52 pages in total

3) Hardback Graphic Novel

108 pages in total (including cover)

The idea is to have a single vehicle that would act as the incubator for a regular output of graphic novels. The annual publication being a prestige hardback collecting all the comix put out throughout the year in one single volume. The story would have to be written with 8-page episodic serialization in mind, but with the intent of it adding up to one complete story by the end of the year.

Following year, a completely new story is begun.

All the other stuff going into the monthly/quarterly releases (the prose and whatnot) would remain exclusive to those releases, never seeing print in the annual (because they'd be completely separate from the graphic novel anyway). In terms of production quality, the quarterly would be on the opposite spectrum of the hardback; floppy newsprint.

May have to rely on Kickstarter to fund the annual hardback, but all the work for it would be finished anyway, so it would be super low risk for anyone pledging.

All the output would predominantly be made available through a webshop, delivered directly to readers' doorsteps (or hard-drives in the case of the PDFs), which would at best relegate them to lowkey cultish objects (but the systems surrounding retail distribution have been pretty broken for some time anyway, right?). Media-mail within the US would cost less than 2 bucks per delivery. It gets pricey with international orders which could cost up to $25 a pop.

Can probably cut stockists a 20% off deal when ordering 20+ copies, but I'm not entirely sure how lucrative an arrangement that would be for them.

Listen, I've been haunted by visions of my own little publishing outfit for years and if I don't take a shot at it sooner or later I'm going to die miserable and depressed. First gray hair spotted on my chest last week. One week after having turned 38. Better get this thing going before I hit 40.

I like the idea of getting lowkey cultish print things in the mail. I mean, if Bryan O'Malley or Alison Sampson or Jeff Lemire were making weird photocopy (or riso!) comix that you could only get directly from them? Shit, I'd pay good money for that!

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