A Question on Self-Publishing...

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MRasheed
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A Question on Self-Publishing...

Post by MRasheed »

...among other things.

Mr. Davis I've been a big fan of yours since I discovered Excalibur #1 as a wee lad. 8) I'm glad to see that you enjoy working so much that you keep a steady flow of pages out for your die-hard fans to get their Davis Fix on a regular basis. A couple of questions if you please...

1.) I understand that you absolutely LOVE the Marvel Universe and seem perfectly content working on those characters all the time, and as a fan of your work I certainly don't mind seeing you do it. But there have been many occasions when, through the politics of working for the big corporation, you abruptly stopped work on a fan favorite series, thus plunging it into the mire. For example when you stopped working on Excalibur and ClanDestine I almost dropped dead. Your work on both of those books was absolutely BRILLIANT (and I disagree with wanting to see you collaborate with another writer... you're one of the best writers out there in your own right, definitely) and I frequently find myself wishing that you had self-published ClanDestine as well as Kylun, Feron, Necrom, etc.

Would you consider self-publishing an original, ClanDestine-like graphic novel series (like my own Monsters 101) to have printed through www.lulu.com or another Print-On-Demand service? With your super-strong fan base you could easily be financially independent through such a project, and it would free up your time to work on dream projects for your beloved Marvel as they came up to you. You would also have the freedom to work on projects like John Carter of Mars as you wished for any other company. And of course you could easily negotiate to do crossovers with your creator-owned characters and Marvel characters if you really felt that burning desire.

Please what are your thoughts on the subject? I personally know wealthy artists who reside in the Raleigh, NC area whose sole success is that they maintain a data base of fans/customers a couple thousand deep that they keep abreast of any upcoming projects they have coming out. Your list of die-hard-we'll-buy-anything-Alan-spits-out-fans is waaaay longer than a couple of thousand! PLEEEEEASE think about it if only to just give you artistic freedom, okay? please?

2.) Yes, that was only one question! What? :P Anyway, My absolute favorite work of yours was the Necrom Saga. I was fascinated with your take on the Master Magician with the story, characters... everything. The only other time I was so satisfied with a creator's vision was from the fantasy works of my favorite writer Jack Vance, from his Dying Earth series. Are you at all familier with that work? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031287 ... e&n=283155

I know it's impossible, but if you ever did a Dying Earth comic book adaption, trust me you'd sell a trillion copies from the Davis fans as well as the legion of Vance fans. Think about it! :wink:
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Alan Davis
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Post by Alan Davis »

I’m sorry my career decisions threatened your health. I’d hate to be held responsible for anyone dropping dead.

I’m not familiar with Jack Vance’s work but if I was guaranteed to sell a trillion copies of anything I would do it—but I think that would entail every person on earth buying a lot of multiple covers or the book would have to have an interdimensional distributor.
The reason I have stayed with the ‘Big two’, aside from my affection for the characters, is financial security. I just haven’t been willing to risk what it takes to self publish—And I think the sales on Killraven proves that success wouldn’t be as assured as you suggest. But thanks for the support and encouragement.
MRasheed
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Post by MRasheed »

Personally I had not bought your Killraven books (yet) only because I just discovered you'd done such a thing a few weeks ago when i found this site. If you maintained a steady data base of names/addresses of your regular customers, and kept them abreast of upcoming projects, as well as had your staff (i.e. your family) continue to put out mailers and do art shows to bring in new names I'm positive you'd be as successful as you would like. There are waaay too many successful artists who work that way who don't have anywhere near your fame and recognition, Mr. Davis. For success and financial independence it would only be a matter of organization and structure... because you already have the fan numbers.

With your art style you would interpret Jack Vance's Magicians and magical worlds PERFECTLY. It's like you already think like him (as far as your approach to fantasy.) If you could read through the book one day and draw up some limited addition prints to post on your site, and post a link through the Vance fan sites... I believe you'd be pleasantly surprised. You very well may end up encouraged to do a graphic novel adaption of his work.
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Alan Davis
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Post by Alan Davis »

I’m not going to try to defend Killraven’s lack of commercial success by complaining that it wasn’t promoted well enough. I always knew it was going to be a hard sell because the original series never really found a successful niche—that is, neither superhero or hard sci-fi. I think the series is among the best I have written or drawn but, even before it came out, there were critics asking why I was wasting my time on a character nobody cared about (the lack of interest on this forum might confirm that). All of the people I have spoken to who actually read the series seemed to enjoy it but, frighteningly, many of the critics I have spoken to directly hadn’t read a single issue-- Others said they hadn’t bought the individual issues because Marvel was bound to bring the TPB out along with the sixth issue. I think Marvel has solicited a TPB on more than one occasion but the interest shown wasn’t enough to make a print run worthwhile. I have to believe that Marvel did their best to sell the book and I certainly couldn’t have done any better (And I’d rather spend my time writing and drawing) so I have to accept that the Killraven experience demonstrates that my ‘fan base’ isn’t that large or is only interested in my work on certain books/characters. Either way, I’m too comfortable where I am to test the market for myself.

I will check out Jack Vance's work but I can’t promise to draw any illustrations based on it.
christophe
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Post by christophe »

Alan Davis wrote:there were critics asking why I was wasting my time on a character nobody cared about
Maybe because this character allow to develop themes as humanism or search for a cultural identity ?
MRasheed
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Post by MRasheed »

DungeonmasterJim wrote:Thank you for taking the time to always answer my questions. Having access to my favorite comics creator is just so damn cool!
Ditto. Thank you, Mr. Davis for being accessible to your fans on this forum (even when we ask you annoying questions).
Alan Davis wrote:I’m not going to try to defend Killraven’s lack of commercial success by complaining that it wasn’t promoted well enough. I always knew it was going to be a hard sell because the original series never really found a successful niche...
But your own original story ClanDestine did really well though, right? Even other superstars have the odd dud every now and then. Killraven by no means proves that your own self-publishing efforts would be a disappointment. Jeff Smith creator of Bone did really well with his self-publishing efforts... and I think you two have many things in common as far as a love for fantasy/legend/beautiful clean lines/humor/fun & reader friendly stories.

If you find yourself with a spark of an idea for another super cool comic series, I think you would be better off keeping it for yourself instead of handing it over to the Big 2.
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