Monday, August 27, 2012

How Not To Make Money In Comic Books - My Self-Publishing Adventure Part 4: 2005 (Wesleyan World)

     In late 2004, I started making comic strips that were 1 page (pretty large) and then I would scan them in with my Lexmark photoscanner and edit them in MS Paint.  I would remove splotches of pencil, then increase the gamma so it looked like the art had been inked, and finally added word balloons. 

     I had already finished 30+ comic strips, but had no way to show them off.  After talking to Rob Baden (mentioned in my first How Not To Make Money In Comic Book post) he graciously offered to host my comic book on his website DownTimeComics.com, where he had created a new webcomic, as well.  And an even greater bonus was that his webmaster even made a logo for me (it's on the Wesleyan World page in my website - http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=1219

     The DownTimeComics site was still the same web address as the old one (with the older comics from college now stored on another page called "Old DTC".  Unfortunately, this website no longer exists online or at WayBackMachine's archive, either. 

     The comic would be posted on his website weekly for 3 1/2 years.  I have since put the entire collection of strips (215 strips) on my webiste (http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=1219) seperated by storyline (though half of the storylines are just one-shot strips with a central theme) and individual strip.  If you click on the Story title, you can read the entire storyline on One Page.

     I had fun doing this.  There was no money in this, but luckily, there was also no cost (I did not buy pencils, paper, or the scanner for the comic strips, and will state when I have to buy something for a specific project).  And so, I started working on these comics for years, but about 3 months in, I realized that I had a storyline that was way too dark and didn't match the tone of the comedic Wesleyan World.  Eventually, what spiraled as many strips of a darker saga just became it's own comic book storyline.  I was still doing comedic strips and generating more funny storylines, but what would I do with this serious tale featuring some of the characters (and myself) from the strip?  Find out in the next post.



2005
Total Cost:          N/A
Gross Profit:        N/A
Net Profit/Loss:  N/A

All Years (2002 – 2005)

Total Cost:           N/A
Gross Profit:         N/A
Net Profit/Loss:    N/A

You can follow the rest of my self-publishing adventures here: http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=3473

How Not To Make Money In Comic Books - My Self-Publishing Adventure Parts 2 & 3: 2003 & 2004 (I Made No Comics)

     The year 2003 (spring of junior year & fall of senior year at West Virginia Welseyan College) I spent most of my time at college doing my Psychology Thesis and Writing Thesis and generally just enjoying life.  Though I continued to buy and ready Spider-Man & Transformers comics every month (and could continue to do so until 2011) I never considered doing them in the foreseable future.

     In the Spring of 2004 I obtained my degrees in Psychology & Writing, and still spent most of the semester spending time with friends while working on my final year to earn these degrees. 

     In the fall of 2004, I was starting my first semester at graduate school at Southampton College in Southamton, NY.  During the coming months, I was already misssing my friends from undergraduate college and created a few comic strips called "Wesleyan World" that were just me and my friends messing around at college and going on adventures.  They were one page strips that had a punchline at the end.  However, all I did was draw them and nothing became of them that year.



2003 - 2004
Total Cost:          N/A
Gross Profit:        N/A
Net Profit/Loss:  N/A

All Years (2002 – 2004)

Total Cost:           N/A
Gross Profit:         N/A
Net Profit/Loss:    N/A

You can follow the rest of my self-publishing adventures here: http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=3473