CBR: "Underground": From Bootleg To Breakout

[CBR News]

Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker explain how a posting of their Image series "Underground" on the infamous 4chan led to a massive sales boost thanks to Lieber's participation and how they plan on moving forward.


Full article here.

[Ex_]

Fascinating!

[Sci-Guy-Jim]

do they believe the sales spike was due to the fact that the comics were available "for free", or the publicity surrounding Lieber's actions?

[Ex_]

do they believe the sales spike was due to the fact that the comics were available "for free", or the publicity surrounding Lieber's actions?

They go hand-in-hand. While I'm sure the initial piracy on 4chan garnered a small handful of sales, Lieber advocating the thread and putting up the issues on his actual website brought even more attention to him. Then you've got people buying this because they've had a free preview, AND because you're supporting a creator who is willing to move forward with comics. Lieber was smart in realizing that digital is the future. Showing support for forward-thinking creators is good for the industry.

[DonC]

do they believe the sales spike was due to the fact that the comics were available "for free", or the publicity surrounding Lieber's actions?

I haven't read what Lieber said on 4chan, but I would imagine it was something like, "Hey, if you read this and liked it, why not come over to my website and actually buy it?"

If that's the way things went down, I'd say it was Lieber who made the sales. Not the freebie nature of the book.

[Steve Lieber]

You can read most of the thread where it's archived on my site here:
http://undergroundthecomic.com/4chan..._20614483.html

Looking back, the main thing I did was post a goofy diagram, and make fun of Justin Bieber. Others can try this, but I'm told it's not scalable.

[DonC]

That was interesting, Steve. I'd love to say I'm going to go read your book online, but unfortunately I actually bought the thing last month.

[TanGent]

What a fascinating turn of events.

Something profound happened in that thread.

Thrilled for Lieber and Parker that Underground is getting more attention(and sales!) because it is AWESOME, and they deserve it.

[Steve Broome]

Good for them, I agree that books should have free digital previews of some kind although obviously having the full run up won't work for most folks.

[DonC]

That was interesting, Steve. I'd love to say I'm going to go read your book online, but unfortunately I actually bought the thing last month.

So, let's see. According to this post, I bought this in September, 2010.







And I read it today.

Good stuff, though. Very intense, tense chase book through a cave. A book like this is hard to do well, depicting movement underground and making it suspenseful and interesting. Damn if they didn't pull it off. And it looked like Steve and Jeff Parker did their homework on caving.