Marc Alan Fishman: Looking For Comics, Found Nothing But Posters

Marc Alan Fishman

Marc Alan Fishman is a graphic designer, digital artist, writer, and most importantly a native born Chicagoan. When he's not making websites, drawing and writing for his indie company Unshaven Comics, or rooting for the Bears... he's a dedicated husband and father. When you're not enjoying his column here on ComicMix, feel free to catch his comic book reviews weekly at MichaelDavisWorld, and check out his books and cartoons at Unshaven Comics.

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2 Responses

  1. More than anything it’s a question of cost/benefit. As a seasoned comics pro, I travel to a lot of conventions and paper is heavy. I can bring 100 prints with me and sell them for $20 each or I can bring 40 comics and sell them for $3 each. It takes the same amount of effort to bring either thing. I didn’t even come *close* to breaking even with my travel expenses until I began bringing prints. So… which would you bring?

  2. Ben says:

    I was at Wizardworld trying to sell my comics. I didn’t do bad. But I also stayed with family (no hotel) and the table was paid for (tables are pretty expensive, so I avoided that cost too). With minimal costs, I actually did make a profit. But selling books is a difficult proposition, where selling prints of major characters is a much simpler proposition: the buyer likes Rocket Raccoon, the buyer sees a good Rocket, they buy it. I have to explain what my book is about and hope the potential customer is interested in similar things. The print artists are selling specific things that the potential buyer already likes.

    So it totally makes sense. Easy money vs. difficult sells.

    I felt like, though, with my table of comics and graphic novels, like I was the odd man out in a Sesame Street segment from the old days. The music kept playing in my head: “one of these things is not like the others!” I was selling comics in a sea of prints.

    And I was lucky: I’ve worked on branded comics. So I had a leg up to bring people to my table. I spoke to a number of other people who were very down. A dealer friend could moylt believe the difference in sales from even the yrar before. It seemed people were just not coming to buy comics. They were coming for the celebrities first, prints second, comics third, and crafty stuff third.