JOHN
So, for today’s newsletter, Jeremy and I thought we would start the first in a series of stories showcasing the business/marketing/strategy side of this industry. For guys like me, who are not all that savvy when it comes to this biz stuff, you HAVE to have a friend and advocate like Jeremy Atkins at your side. You need someone like him who will think up all kinds of creative ways to get press, how to best present your project to the industry, how and who to shop it to for publication. You get the idea. I got lucky. I not only found someone who knows that side of the biz, I found someone who is an EXPERT at it. Lucky me!
Jeremy and I chose the title “Origin Story” for this newsletter as we feel it important to share the highs, lows, and everything in between that one goes through on the road to world domination. Ok, maybe just going from a creative person creating a comic book and getting it published (which CAN sometimes feel like you’ve conquered the world!). I’m going to hand it over to the expert today as he tells you about the genesis, and life, of a fantastic project coming soon from Dark Horse called MAFIOSA. Jeremy, take it away!!!
JEREMY
This week was to see the release of the first volume of Mafiosa, created by entrepreneur and aspiring creative Thomas Brooke, and developed in partnership with yours truly, with a team of talented women handling all of the heavy lifting creatively. As you may have gathered in this very newsletter and all of the publicity we have done up to now, I am a career marketer, and much like John and I, my relationship with Thomas begins there. Years ago when I was working with Dynamite Entertainment on a longterm contract, I was introduced to Thomas by way of his bundle platform Groupees. In setting a Dynamite promo announcement, I discovered that Thomas was also in Portland and so we met up for a drink. This resulted in my doing a few campaigns for Groupees and a longstanding friendship with Thomas. In one of our conversations, he had mentioned an idea he had for a comic book series, as he was inspired by all of the incredible new books being released putting women in the “hero” roles, unhindered by the need for a male counterpart or co-star. Thomas has a daughter (now nearly 20 years old) who had inspired his thinking of how to craft a great story about a woman in a different time in history, rewriting the rules and changing the role that women played in any corner of society at that time. A lover of such indisputable classics as The Sopranos, The Godfather, GoodFellas, and of course, Casino, the idea for Mafiosa was born.
Upon hearing about this, I was immediately inspired to help him see this idea through to eventual publication. We began conversations with editors and writers to figure out how to crack this story and also to ensure it was written with the same kind of authenticity that inspired Thomas in the first place. We met Sunshine Barbito, a young Italian American writer (then living in Portland) who was doing some editorial assistant work for Dark Horse, and also a bit of writing for some custom publishing projects for video game publishers creating digital comics content. We then spoke to Débora Cárita, a Brazilian artist who had published work for Dynamite, and Thomas provided an outline to the story as he saw it, and it evolved from there.
When discussing how best to publish this new series, I had remembered the previous success John and Joe had on Kickstarter with LIFEDEATH, and had also seen a recent campaign from crowdfunded studio Legion M for a western that seemed to have similar themes and had been very successful. Additionally, folks like Spike Trotman had begun to create a whole new publishing ecosystem for comics on Kickstarter, and it seemed an interesting path to take for an unproven property and a largely unknown creative team. We began a 30 day campaign for Mafiosa in summer of 2019, and managed to run an aggressive publicity campaign which garnered support from just about any media site that would write about Kickstarters at that time, which were still strangely taboo for some editors.
After successfully funding our campaign with an incredible cover by Kirbie Fagan, as well as variant covers from Jenny Frison and Francesco Francavilla, I emailed a few friends at publishers I had worked with in the past whom I thought might give the project a good home. We had always presented this as a story that would encompass a full graphic novel beyond its initial Kickstarter story, and I had believed from the beginning that Kickstarter is as much about marketing as funding any project, because you can walk up to any editor with an issue that has its creative costs covered ahead of going to series or OGN, and an established audience eager for more. After discussions with a few different companies, we settled on Dark Horse: my alma mater and entre into the world of comics publishing where, as I have stated previously, I spent perhaps the most defining decade of my life and certainly my career up to now.
Freddye Lins, a wonderful editor with experience with some of the company’s biggest licenses and characters took on the project and executed the original idea, expanded the story Sunshine and Debora had began on Kickstarter, and created an all around beautiful damn book, which you will be able to pick up days before Christmas, and can read the first chapter of in the meantime, by way of our friends over at ComicsBeat.
Much like the journey with Mafiosa, previous experience, past success, and excitement about new and different ways to publish comic books is what inspired the very newsletter you are reading now. As stated in our first newsletter, we wanted to bring LIFEDEATH to a whole new platform, a whole new audience, and eventually, the right publisher.
So, thanks again for joining us on this journey. Soon we’ll be announcing our first classes for paid subscribers, so that you may find inspiration and encouragement in your own creative journey from two people who may just be a few steps ahead of you, but can help you find your own path, and maybe help to avoid a few pitfalls along the way.