Recently, I was on the most excellent Wayne’s Comics
podcast over at Major Spoilers, talking mostly about Pawn Shop. But Wayne
has been one of the most vocal and supportive readers of Captain Ultimate,
the all-ages superhero comic by myself, Ben Bailey, Boy Akkerman, Ed Ryzowski,
and Adam Pruett, published by Monkeybrain Comics. As such, we talked a little
bit about the book and where it’s headed.
The question was raised of when Captain Ultimate would be coming
out in print. It’s a question we get asked a lot by fans of the series or by
people that simply prefer print to digital comics. As usual, I had no real
answer to give him. And since doing that interview, I’ve thought about it a
lot, and decided that I’m kind of sick of beating around the bush in terms of
what’s happening with the print version of Captain Ultimate. For a while now
we’ve been telling everyone that we’re still “working out the details.”
Which is true, but the more honest answer is: we’re having a hard
time working out said details. Do we want to bring it to print?
Absolutely. We want the book in libraries, in schools, at book fairs — we think
it will do incredibly well in that environment, and have been told as much by
educators and librarians.
But here’s the thing: all-ages comics, as you probably know, are a
pretty hard sell for direct market retailers, which is who most comic book
publishers are really selling to. There are certainly bunches of all-ages
books at various publishers — really, really good ones — but you’ll notice
that most of those books, outside of a limited few, have something in common:
they’re based on existing properties, either from other mediums or
long-standing comic book franchises.
And that’s great, it gets kids reading, gets them excited about
comics, and gives parents and their kids something to do together. That’s
HUGELY important and is the very reason we do Captain Ultimate in the first
place. But publishing all-ages comics can be an uphill battle, particularly
when it’s not based on an already successful cartoons or whatever.
And therein lies our problem. We’re remarkably grateful that
Monkeybrain took us in and is so committed to the cause of not only publishing
great, innovative comics, but including all-ages books among them. Unfortunately,
we’ve been turned down by print publishers we thought would be a great fit for
Captain Ultimate. This could be because of the other books they publish, or
maybe they like all-ages but hate capes/superheroes, or maybe because we’re
unknowns. It’s even been suggested to us that we might be better off shopping
our comic bookoutside of the comic book industry. Meaning, we might have
better luck with our all-ages comic at a publisher that does traditional kids
lit. But whatever the reason, it hasn’t been in the cards thus far.
And that’s totally fine, honest, we’re not complaining. Rejection
is a part of this line of work. It’s certainly not the first time any of us
have been rejected and it absolutely won’t be the last. It’s frustrating,
sure, but it’s nothing personal. We’ll get to print eventually, one way or
another, and in the meantime we’ll keep putting out the best book we can and
try to grow the digital readership.
But there’s a larger point, which is this notion that original
all-ages books seem to be undervalued in the direct market. It’s a Catch-22
scenario, where the sales aren’t there if the direct market offers them,
but if the direct market doesn’toffer them and give them a shot, the sales
will never be there. The reason I bring it up is because we got a
letter to Ulti-Mail, the Captain Ultimate letters page, that we printed back in
issue #3 that put everything we do into perspective.
This hit us hard when it came in because it was validation of
everything we believed, and has been a reminder for us during the journey of
bringing Cap to print that it’s a worthwhile effort. It wasn’t
a brand that attracted this kid, it was the story itself. A story
with a character he’d never seen or heard of before. A story he wouldn’t have
ever seen without the help of Monkeybrain and the digital platform. There’s no
reason the same thing couldn’t happen to a kid that comes across the book at
his school library or local comic shop.
Of course we’re biased and confident about the book we put out,
but there are lots of other great all-ages books out there that are in
a similar spot. We know that it’s hard, as a parent, to go into your comic
shop on Wednesdays with your kid and turn them away from Batman comics that are
too violent for them or Spider-Man books that are too mature. There are the
licensed options too, but as Logan has shown us, sometimes that’s not enough.
But there are other options waiting to sit on those shelves, so we
encourage you to let your retailers know that, hey, you wish they would carry
MORE stuff like Archaia’s Cow Boy or
IDW/Monkeybrain’s Amelia Cole. In turn, the retailers can tell the
publishers what their customers want more of, and trust me, the publishers will
listen. As much as the publishers sell to the retailers, the retailers will
listen to their customers and order what they know will sell. So it all comes
from you, the readers.
Kids like Logan deserve to have access to books like these
that could affect their love for comics and for reading, and it’s up to all of
us to make sure we acclimate the direct market properly if the industry is
going to grow and survive.
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