So this evening I had been reading entrepreneurial material and watching Ramit Sethi, one of my personal favorite money people, talk about creative entrepreneurship and ideas and clients and such. And I came across this article on About.com talking about manga-artists in North America, and how thoroughly screwed the industry is.
Simple fact of the matter is, unlike in Japan, the United States or even Canada (as far as I’m aware) have no magazines for aspiring comic artists to submit their short comics to. People who want to get their first work published don’t have anyone to send work to aside from talent searches, and the talent searches are often looking for a specific look. I know Yen Press and Top Cow are both running talent searches right now, but they both cater to exceptionally different art styles.
But as of yet, here in the States, there’s no real way for an aspiring comic artist to get their first work published. I was exceptionally lucky when I got my first story published in IF-X, but IF-X isn’t going to last long: they stayed local to Michigan and Ohio, and they’re down to the last two issues or so before the line is retired completely.
So my brain crack idea was this: what if there was a magazine, on closer to a national scope, that gave comic artists a place to publish their short stories?
There were similar ideas with the Flight anthologies, and that’s admirable, but they kept themselves to a particular group of friends. I would want to reach out to all aspiring comic artists regardless of artistic style: manga or superhero, noir or cartoon, or something else entirely. It would be professional and professional-looking.
But I got a lot of questions in mind about this idea, like…
Who will the magazine be marketed to? The consumers? Which consumers? Or do you market to editors? Or other comic makers?
And how would you pay for printing? Selling ad space in the magazine can be one way, but what other ways can be added to that?
Those are the ideas and questions I came up with tonight. What are some of your ideas, questions, concerns, etc? Let’s talk about it. :D