Finally, a dream accomplished (well, nearly)

For the longest time, I've wanted to make a comic.

I could say that it's been about seven years, ever since I made a comic to try and get in the back pages of a Matt Garvey comic and subsequently talked about it. However, the truth is that I think I've wanted to do it for even longer than that.

I remember, back in the late noughties (God, that feels like a long time ago), I'd go into what was then my local comic shop and, as we were all facing the influx of comic book movies we now take for granted, I would more often than not chew the poor manager's ear off about my ideas about various sequels of these films.

So, maybe it's been closer to twenty than it has been coming up to 10. That said, after years of writing and re-writing, umming and arring, finding the confidence to try and then subsequently losing it, I'm finally at the place of no return.

This past week (and a bit) I've been building a kickstarter project for my first (well, second) comic, Predators. This is a story about when a man meets a woman, although what comes after that moment certainly doesn't really have the makings of a rom-com (Good thing I don't plan on launching it on Valentines Day).

This was an idea I put together thanks to the wonderful British News (although I'm not really sure I should be thanking it) and quickly wrote a script for as the thoughts came together in my head. Then, thankfully, after a few years of sitting on it, I was able to put the first couple of pages together thanks to the help the great Robert Ahmad (who I always said I'd work with the moment I saw his stuff in Matt Garvey's Devil in Disguise).

Now, though, comes the hard part as I can't really afford to get any more pages created. Therefore, I decided to create a Kickstarter and try my luck.

Having seen a lot of Kickstarters run over the years (and read a lot of their successful creations), I have to hope that this can get my dream to the finish line. However, I am aware of the hurdles I face in doing so.

Firstly, I'm not exactly a known name. I'm some guy. One of millions (well, 3.5 billion to be more exact). I've never made a comic before and while I've certainly written my share about a lot of comics, I'm under no illusions that anyone might go "Hey! I know that guy!.

Also, I'm not really offering much given that I want to keep my costs down. I've gotten a truly great artist who is helping me out for a steal of his actual worth (I mean, come on! Rob's work is awesome!!) but, beyond that there is little that this comic has going for it as I'm avoiding physical copies just to stay away from both the costs and the stress.

Finally, possibly the biggest hole I'm digging for myself is the price, which is a solitary £1 (or $1USD as the Exchange rate roughly equals to that. Now, I've mentioned my plans for this to a couple of people and I've been called mad but there is method to my madness. The fact of the matter is that I'm offering a 12 page comic as a pdf with nothing but the artist to hang my hopes on and, truth be told, if I was looking to buy this rather than sell it, I would tell the writer to 'get lost' rather if he asked for close to a reqular comic price.

But, here's the other thing, as I look outside and watch the news and skim social media, all I see is how the world is squeezing every last penny from people worldwide and, as much as I want to make this comic happen, I'm not willing to justify asking for obscene amounts of money from people who just don't have it.

On top of that, though, there is one final reason for such a low price. You see, when I'm not talking about comics, I'm an accountant (although maybe not a good one) and it has always been my belief that the lower your price, then possibly the higher your sales (the business term (I think) is 'Loss Leader;, although I'd like to avoid a loss). Therefore, maybe if I ask for a little from everyone, then everyone will be happy to offer that little.

These are noble, if naive, reasons for doing so and maybe they will turn and bite me in the arse. However, it's what I feel I've got to do and so hopefully I'll get lucky.

I think I should be super positive at this point and talk about my plans post this, ideas for stretch goals, coming up next, etc, but to be honest, I'm mostly hanging my hopes on this. When all is said and done, I'm not looking to make money from all of this (which is good because, as I live in Britain, I'm unlikely to make any), I just want to prove that I can do this.

And if, worst case scenario, it all fails spectacularly, then the least I can say is I tried. 

P.s. If you made it this far (first up, congrats!), here's the link if you wanna check out the Pre-launch page.