As someone who has lived the pains of comic book publishing for the past 10+ years, I’m going to go over a list of the most important cold hard facts of the comic book industry.

Here are what I like to call…

The 7 Comic Book Publishing Realities

1. Most comic books suck, and yours probably does too
This may be a painful thing to hear and I hate to be the Simon Cowell of the industry, but the majority of comic books produced today are unprofessional and poorly done. With the advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology, there are now more bad comics available for purchase than at any time in the past. If I was forced to take a guess at the percentage of unsellable comic books on the market today I’d have to say 99.9% of independent comics aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

Far too many publishers rush to press with talent well beneath the pro level, and a lot of creators feel their work is a lot better than it really is. Since I’ve already made a Simon Cowell reference, it isn’t that great of a stretch to compare the comic book industry to American Idol. We’ve got a lot of talentless hopefuls but only 1 in 20,000 contestants is actually a winner.

What this means for most of you reading this book is: more than likely your work falls into the talentless hopeful portion of the industry. They may be a harsh realization for you and I’m sure most are either spitting venom at me or are in complete denial of the fact. Luckily, there is hope for you. Keep practicing. Keep putting out comics and get your work to the level of a professional. Sure your books may not be able to stack up to the latest comics from Marvel or DC but you will get better with practice. Read the rest of this entry »

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