Welcome to the fifth installment in my series of blog posts that will highlight the various issues and obstacles that confronted me on the road to creating my first ever comic book series. When it comes to the art, we’re closing in on the halfway mark so hopefully soon I will finally be sharing some sneak peaks.

Okay I exaggerated a little for dramatic effect with the title of this post, people will care about your comic, just not to the same level that you do. This is hands-down the hardest lesson I’ve had to learn while working on this project for the better part of a year.

So why is this the case? If you’re the sole creator, there would no doubt be no-one else who would have injected as much emotion and hard-earned money into the project. It’s the same thing with children, it doesn’t matter how many Facebook updates you post  gushing about how smart and beautiful your child is, people simply won’t feel the same way that you do. Harsh I know but at the end of the day your creative project is similar to having a baby.

How can you get people to care about your project? Well in my case, I’m a writer and had to hire artists to bring my comic book to life. One of my most important decisions was to offer my artists a competitive salary. Sure I could have hired a talented artist for a much lower salary but how invested would they be in the project? What would stop them from throwing my project in the garbage if someone else waltzed in and offered them a better pay rate? Pay artists what they deserve.

I’m also ensuring that my artists see my project as a collaborative effort. I have written full scripts but I’ve also made it clear that I am extremely flexible about my ideas. The creativity of artists must be nurtured and not stifled if you are to see the best possible artistic outcomes.

One of the key things I had to come to terms with as well is that if my comic book is to be successful then I’ll have to promote the hell out of my product to reach potential buyers. The comic book industry is massive and the amount of new comics being published is endless, so why would comic book readers care about a brand new writer like myself? I’m going to have to convince them that my product is top quality and unique (which it is of course!). So I’ll work extra hard to make it happen.

Hopefully that didn’t sound too depressing. My message is that if you want to bring your comic book to life then you are going to have to work your damn arses off, because no-one else will care about it the way you do!