New comic companies

[Antrustion]

I seem to remember you stating in one of your Permanent Damage columns that a new comics company should really be starting with $6 to $8 million of capital, but almost none of them do. I was picking through the archives and couldn't seem to find where you said it, though, so am I remembering that correctly? And if I am, why is it that much? I assume a lot of that is production staff salaries combined with the cost of commissioning work, printing, and paying distribution costs well before any money is coming in, but that still seems pretty high. If I am correctly remembering the amounts, is it safe to assume the reason that most people who start comics companies don't start with that much money is simply (a) they don't have a real business plan and (b) they simply can't raise anywhere near that much money?

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

I seem to remember you stating in one of your Permanent Damage columns that a new comics company should really be starting with $6 to $8 million of capital, but almost none of them do. I was picking through the archives and couldn't seem to find where you said it, though, so am I remembering that correctly?

I remember the article, though I remember it as $5 million... but their definitely was an article where Steven wrote about that.

[Steven Grant]

I remember the article, though I remember it as $5 million... but their definitely was an article where Steven wrote about that.

Couldn't tell you which column it was - a nod's as good as a wink to me on that, unfortunately - but pretty sure I said five mil, yeah.

Course, that was before inflation.

- Grant

[Charles RB]

why is it that much? I assume a lot of that is production staff salaries combined with the cost of commissioning work, printing, and paying distribution costs well before any money is coming in, but that still seems pretty high.

It sounds about right if you want to be a big publisher (or at least medium-sized). For a start, that's more money to keep you going until you start making a profit.

I presume you wouldn't need that if you only want to be a small company.

[Steven Grant]

It sounds about right if you want to be a big publisher (or at least medium-sized). For a start, that's more money to keep you going until you start making a profit.

I presume you wouldn't need that if you only want to be a small company.

If you're self-publishing a book you're writing and drawing yourself, no.

If you intend to publish as few as four or five good books and pay your talent a living amount while you're getting the business off the ground, because you'll want talent who can produce a product you might even be able to sell, and you want to be able to survive the six months or so without much cash influx and through the expectation adjustment period and uncontrollable market setbacks without panic or screwing anyone and you don't want to live in a constant state of anxiety and panic, I wouldn't say five mil is an extreme amount.

The five mil isn't needed so much to be able to spend it but to calm panic over what you are spending, because everyone badly underestimates the expense involved, and, really, it's not even the expense, it's the gap between money outflowing, which starts the instant you said, "I'm going to publish comics," and money inflowing, which would take months and months. It can be done for less. But what you'll end up spending nearly that much on Pepto-Bismol anyway...

- Grant

[NatGertler]

That's where you're losing your money. Pepto Bismol is so much more expensive than Rite-Ade brand Peptic Bismark, which is almost the same color!

--Nat, publisher who never had $5 million, and probably never will

[Charles RB]

If you intend to publish as few as four or five good books and pay your talent a living amount while you're getting the business off the ground, because you'll want talent who can produce a product you might even be able to sell, and you want to be able to survive the six months or so without much cash influx and through the expectation adjustment period and uncontrollable market setbacks without panic or screwing anyone and you don't want to live in a constant state of anxiety and panic, I wouldn't say five mil is an extreme amount.

Clearly I've underestimated the black hole of money that is making comics.

What's that joke? "How do become a millionaire in comics? Start with two million."?

[NatGertler]

Steven's right: when you're doing color monthly series, money ties up very quickly on the front end. Let's say you've got a team that works like clockwork for a monthly schedule - writer takes a month to write an issue, then the penciler pencils the issue in a month, then the inker inks it in a month, then the letterer and colorist do their thing together in a month. Yes, in the real world one can overlap these things more... but in the real world, creators often have more complex schedules that tie things up more. So let's deal with this simple model.

Ideally, you want to have three issues at least penciled and inked before soliciting the first one. So if the issue 1 is written in month one, it's pencilled in month two, inked in month three. Assuming everyone's been continuing to work at the proper pace, issue 2 is inked in month 4, issue 3 is inked in month 5. So after 5 months, you can solicit the distributor. The book ships 3 months after solicitation, so that's eight months. Distributor cuts a check a month after the book ships. So before you get that check, you're 9 months in. You've been billed for 9 scripts, 8 issues of pencils, 7 issues of inks, 6 issues of letters and colors. That's man-years worth of creative pay. You've paid for printing on issues 1, 2, and 3. You've paid for advertising, marketing, logo design, alternate covers. And that's all for each title you're launching. As a company, you're doing conventions and retailer outreach.

Doing a B&W book yourself is markedly cheap, particularly if you only pay yourself in ramen noodles and attaboys. (Alas, the self-published B&W is unlikely to succeed these days if yu don't already have a track record of doing them.) Doing proper corporate production ads up quickly.