What Now?

2016. That's when Matt Entin and I started an LLC for what we hoped would be a successful venture--the self-publishing of a comic book mini-series we called Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia. Over the next six years we'd hire over a dozen illustrators, colorists, letterers, graphic designers, and others to help us bring six digital single issues to life, then collect them all in a trade, which two years later we'd put into print.

While those single issues were being produced, we must have sent them out to hundreds of comic book and wrestling YouTubers, bloggers, critics, etc. While the reviews were overwhelming positive, one constant was a complete lack of sales--for all formats, across all platforms. While a critical success, thus far Wrestletopia has been a commericial disaster.

So why did we spent a little over eight thousand dollars on a print run of the collected volume, and another thirty to thirty-five thousand on art and design for the series itself before that? An unwavering (okay, to be fair, maybe it wavers a bit from time to time) that it's a great story, a wonderfully funny comic, and it deserves to be read by more people.

We also desperately want to do another mini-series (see our "What's Next?" page for more details) but the cost of bootstrapping a comic, as we found out, is considerable, especially when you want things done right and you endeavor to do them the right way. We cannot afford to bootstrap another mini-series, but our hope is that if we can sell most of our trade volumes of Invasion from Planet Wrestletpia, there will be enough to reimburse ourselves for the cost of the print run and have enough left over to at least get a good start on our next adventure in comics, BicentenniKILL.

Already, there have been some small successes. Over two dozen comic book stores in Oregon and Washington are carrying the trade, some selling on consignment, some having paid us cash. Mini-cons are on the calendar. Online sales have been scant, but we hope they will pick up once we become more active on social media, which neither Matt nor I really want to do, as we're not good at it, but we realize how important it is, so we try.

Truthfully, it would be easier to give up. I catch myself wishing I hadn't ordered this print run several times a day at least, but my hubris has forced me to move forward--no retreat--which was kind of the point. Just like "Rock 'N' Roll" Rory Landell, we may be down, but we're not out. -Ed