The FINAL Comic Of 2023! Burn The House Down Now!

Drama is making people ignore what's happening in the comic world...GOOD!

The final book of the year has launched! Holy crap! I have so much I need to tell y’all so let’s get on with this! Drama in the indie space, destruction of creators, and the comic problem that made me throw up for a week. Let’s do this!

Cthulhu Murders Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mrsmilecomics/the-cthulhu-murders-her-dark-heart-1-a-nsfw-noir-mystery

This is a 60+ page graphic novel starting at $12 for the PHYSICAL book. Like always, I make sure all of my books are the best quality that I can achieve, at the most affordable prices. Enjoy :)

Okay! Let’s get into today’s HOT newsletter!

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WHAT ARE MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE CTHULHU MURDERS?

With the launch of THE CTHULHU MURDERS today on Kickstarter, I always get asked this question:

“What do you think it’s going to do on Kickstarter?”

I’ve done campaigns that have done $1700, all the way to $20,000. I always tell myself that I’m just happy to be making stories that people read. But it does get to a point where you ask yourself “what are my expectations for this book?”

With THE GIRL WITH THE MEGA FISTS, as long as I hit $10k at this point on the campaign, I’m super happy. Same with MY SEXY WITCH ACADEMIA and SUPER PLUMBER SISTERS. Why? Because those series have proven that they CAN do those numbers. If they DON’T then it means that I have done something wrong, whether it be the marketing, the costs, promotion, or God-forbid the story sucks. I understand that after Issue 1, there is a typically a falling out until eventually you hit a plateau of steady readers. That doesn’t scare me.

So where do I think THE CTHULHU MURDERS will hit?

I think it’ll hit around $6000 when all is said and done. I truly believe it. I think the book will end in the $6000 range on Kickstarter which means that I am able to recoup my money from paying the artist, pay the printer, and ship the books out. If that’s the case, I will write the book with a solid ending.

Now. If the book crosses over that $10k threshold, the ending of the book will leave way for two more books in the series.

But seriously…I have no idea what this book is gonna do. It’s definitely different than what I’ve been putting out in the last 2 years.

Regardless, I’m excited for this book, and no matter where it lands, I’m proud that Almer and I were able to work on a book together.

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I KEPT THIS A SECRET FROM THE PUBLIC

I don’t like bashing the people that I work with in public or private. I just don’t. It’s unprofessional and quite honestly, disgusting. I’ve been in many Twitter Spaces and Youtube streams where writers will bash their artists, talk about how much they want to replace them, and pissed at their page rates. It’s all disgusting.

But here’s the reality of making comics…sometimes shit goes down that sucks. This recently happened to me during the development of SUPER PLUMBER SISTERS. Now before I go into the story you need to understand this:

Me and Erwin (the artist) are on fantastic terms.

After the campaign however, I didn’t hear from him for two months. TWO MONTHS! Erwin and I have worked together on SEVERAL occasions and him ghosting for 2-3 weeks, and even a month was normal. He would always show up with pages when he came back, sometimes the entire book.

But two months was odd.

I was messaging him daily by the final week of those two months. Still. No response.

Every morning when I didn’t see a response, I would throw up.

SUPER PLUMBER SISTERS is my biggest selling book, and my artist is nowhere to be found. I’m screwed.

I spent two days figuring out if I could draw the book myself. Keep in mind, when I work with artists, I write the book for THEM to play off of THEIR strengths. My version of this book looked like a hot mess.

I messaged Erwin and was like “dude, please respond otherwise I’ll need to draw the book myself.”

Literally the next day was a message apologizing letting me know some personal things had happened, but that he had been working on “some” pages and would send them to me.

“Some pages.” Great. Like…5 pages?

Nah. He dropped like 30 pages on me, and we finished the book a week later.

Communication is so key when it comes to working in comics. Recently a DC COMICS artist posted on Twitter that they were angry because the writer that they were working with was 3 weeks late on a script, giving the artist only 2 weeks to meet their deadline.

Communication is the most important thing in the comic creation process when working with a team.

Oh. And Super Plumber Sisters will be at the printer in a 12 days. Exciting!!

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CREATORS ARE FIGHTING AND NOT FOCUSING!

I am very much tapped into what is going on in the industry when it comes to digital content, comics, manga, and webtoons. It’s crazy to me that other creators are NOT. Why? Because they are focusing on ALL THE WRONG THINGS. What are some of these “wrong things?” Well here’s a short list:

• Drama drama drama with other creators

• All the content they don’t like and DON’T consume

• Writing countless scripts for projects that will never happen

• creating IP after IP, and spending so much time in the “creation” process

What should they be focusing on? Building an audience and learning how to build it.

Here’s a screenshot from an article that came into my inbox this week:

MoistCritikal (aka Charlie) is a Twitch streamer and Youtuber who puts out videos daily. His comic series recently just sold 100,000 copies, and they are looking to expand. Not just that, but MORE and MORE Youtubers and digital entertainers are looking into COMICS as their way into movies and animation.

While everyone is focusing on the fact that Ethan Van Sciver and Eric July are making books, NO ONE is talking about the influx that we will see soon of other creators OUTSIDE OF THE COMIC SPACE that will start making comics.

Karl, one of the people in Mr. Beast’s entourage, has a DEAL with DARK HORSE to put a comic series based on the Twitch Streams that he has in his Minecraft RPG world.

What’s the takeaway?

Now more than ever, creators need to get serious in their marketing and content creation. If you thought people were pissed that Eric July made a successful book, wait until they found that even bigger Youtubers are entering the space.

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PROGRESS OF PROJECTS:

My Sexy Witch Academia #1 - Physicals Will be shipped out on Monday!

Super Plumber Sisters #1 - files go to the printer in 12 days

My Sexy Witch Academia #2 - line art is 50% complete! Launching in January 2024

The Girl with the Mega Fists Vol. 4 - 60% completed with art and on track

The Cthulhu Murders- launched on Kickstarter, artist paid in full, pages are coming in

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Thanks for reading today’s newsletter. I’ve had a hectic two weeks. Personal life really just beat the shit out of me.

I’ll see y’all on Monday with a fun newsletter!

Peace!

Tyler :)