by Matthew Russell - Posted 5 years ago
Crypto Comics was not always a block chain idea. Way back in 2014, there was a meeting attended by 2 comic book industry gurus and a not so knowledgeable guy, who is an artist at heart, but far from a comic book “knower of anything really”. The topic of this meeting was let's start a revolution in the comic book industry. I was not aware that the comic book industry needed a revolution, given the current successful comic book movies that year, like Guardians of the Galaxy (one of my families favorites), Captain America the winter soldier, and Big Hero 6. Still, revolution and comic book industry sound awesome together, so of course I was "hell yeah".
The revolution was to somehow stop the fear that cripples the comic book industry. I was a doe in headlights. “What fear?’” I was asking. Turns out big name comic book publishers fear, that if they listen to new ideas, it will limit what they can do or are already doing. This fear has overshadowed the industry for decades and hides great independent comic book stories with incredible depictions. No one dares look at anyone else's, and because of this so many great stories go unread.
So now that we knew the problem, what was the solution? Being that I was not very familiar with the comic book industry at all, I started asking a lot of questions. Since I am not familiar with the industry I don't know which questions your not suppose to ask. At the end of the meeting, the gurus and I had agreed that if we could create a place not limited by foot traffic or store front. A portal that allowed anyone to self publish their comic, unedited, with all rights retained by the creator. We would also have to provide a good flip book reader to display everyone's comics. Creators would be able to publish their works without prejudice, and fans would be able to enjoy the stories that resonated with them. There was the beginning of a big idea that was hatched at this first meeting, and a company called eX-Comicz was born. Our tag line was: Extra! Extra! read all about it! A place for everyone's comics!
That year, Matt (M. Scott Russell) took me to my first comicon in Salt Lake City Utah (FanX). You don't have to wait till the night for the freaks to come out, like the old 80's song says. People showing up decked out in their favorite superhero or villain costume. I was blown away by the sheer volume of willing participants in the side show that really makes comic conventions awesome. If you don't know what I am referring too, check out cosplay, it is half the convention. I personally loved the people who show up with a practiced, signature pose, and I am so looking forward to taking my kids next year. Matt had created eX-Comicz shirts and business cards for us and we had a weak social media presence so we were like, “Ya, let's go shake things up a bit. This revolution is on!” We spent 2 days working the floor of the comic convention. We passed around our cards, picked up a ton of cards and had a glorious time. Our idea was received pretty well, but without a working platform, it was feigned interest at best. The one thing that did come out of that convention was a conversation that happened with Mike Grell, Matt and myself. For those of you who don't know, Mike Grell is the best artist to ever touch The Green Arrow. He even showed us his leather bound sketchbook with his original concept art of The Green Arrow. It was pretty awesome.
Mike said something that we found to be profound. He told us that our idea was good, but if we really wanted to be successful with it, we needed to create a revenue stream for the creators. Matt and Mike talked for a good while about how hard it is in the industry for the independents or anyone not signed by a big publishing company to get any kind of traction with their comic books. It was very apparent that these two creators were lamenting over the problems facing the industry they loved. But I was feeling excited because I had just been given a lesson and I had learned so much to further the revolution!
Comic book creator not signed with one of the big comic book publishing houses go through hell, and then some, to produce and sell a comic book. Don't get me wrong, there are those that are currently grinding it out, and we thank you for your sacrifice! Any person who has the heart to fight through the real struggles associated with comic book creation and distribution is a gladiator, or better yet, a superhero, when you consider how many working parts there are.
As Matt and I worked together through the years, I had the privilege to observe firsthand the complexities that plague a creator. He was commissioned to create a possible Star Trek series called “Star Trek Front Lines” before CBS they finally decided on Discovery. I was his soundboard for ideas concerning the plot. He also worked on 2 titles, but when you can pay the artist nothing but promises, nothing gets done. Ark, storyline, storyboard, sketch artist, inker; it takes an administrator to delegate out on the responsibilities! Then, after skillfully coordinating the production of the comic comes the most intimidating, and Matt would say difficult part; Selling the comic so you can afford to make another one.
What options are there? Traditional print has been the most known way, which let's be honest, is not really an option for the independent creator. Even when they have a good story, huge resources are required upfront. Then you need a distribution network to get your comic on stands for sale. If you are not coming from a big name, you probably won't get the exposure needed. The second option and more often the one chosen by the independent comic book creator is putting your comic online. This poses its own unique problems, like not being able to sell a digital copy of your comic. There are several independent comic book creators that must put up one page at a time and hope people stay interested enough with one page to stick around and buy their merchandising. Just like on Spaceballs, when Yogurt said, it's all about merchandising, merchandising, merchandising.
There is another problem with selling online. You have to take time or pay someone to keep your website updated, or running some traffic through ppc, ppi or some other known online traffic method to generate visitors.
For those creators that are building their website themselves, they have to learn html, css, php, and some JavaScript. Then comes the SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Matt used to hound me over his hatred for the movie “Field of Dreams” mostly because of the line “If you build it, they'll come.” He would constantly tell me how that phrase ruins people’s expectation of their site’s productivity. Luckily Matt worked as a UX Designer & SEO expert for years. All this and you still haven’t created a single page yet. Ouch!
Now you can start to understand why it is a miracle we have any independent comic books at all. Through the next several years, Matt and I tried so many different things to get a comic book community created online that helped creators and was driven by fans. I borrowed seed money from my friend and boss to acquire a good flip book reader. Matt tried to program the website using several different Content Management Systems such as WordPress, Joomla, Yii, Drupal, Sharepoint and other open source and lots of widgets. No matter what he did the sight was so slow and many features created bugs with other features that just left us crying. It is not that Matt is not a good programmer, he currently teaches programming at a high school in Idaho Falls, and is the CTO of Crypto Comics. It is that this project was complicated due to the social and publishing features needed to create a great comic book community experience. This idea needed a miracle.
Joseph always related a story of how comic books helped him learn how to read because he suffered from dyslexia. During one of our discussions I told Joe it would be cool if we could make a cryptocurrency to fund eComicz, so I could hire them to build the platform. Joe stated that the idea was very interesting and it had given him an idea. Now I don't mean to brag, but Joe is like one of the smartest people I know so when he said he has an idea, I just knew that something brilliant was coming down the pipeline.
We merged eX-Comicz with Apogee’s development side. He had talked with a few of his ninja programmers and they believed they could publish comic books to the blockchain. The idea that Matt and I had started with had now evolved into a marketplace where creators and fans can sell, read, buy and trade comics online.
It’s crazy looking back on everything. We have come such a long way, but there have been challenges. My wife and Matt’s wife might have a different opinion but I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
