[Repost] The Industry of Independent Comics

An Interview with Ray-Anthony Height

Kris Simon here! Long-time subscribers may recognize this post all the way back from 2023. It was previously only available to paid subscribers, but I am releasing it again to free subscribers since I will be on a panel with Ray in just a week and a half! Ray is participating in the We Are All Superfans panel at Comic Con Revolution, with fellow panelist Stephan Franck, co-hosted by me and Christian Gossett, as part of our Superfan Podcast, where the comic creators you love talk about the things they love…that aren’t comics. The panel occurs on Saturday, May 17, at 3:30 pm in Room 200C at the Ontario Convention Center, Ontario, CA. If you’re local, tickets are still available! The Superfan Podcast Substack will be running a feature on Ray this coming Monday, where it will reveal what he is a Superfan of, which will be discussed on the panel. Stephan Franck’s topic was divulged last week, check it out if you missed it! And don’t forget to subscribe, so you can be alerted when these podcast episodes are released! And now, let’s go back in time to August 30, 2023…

In case you’re not in the loop, this week the comics news sites were all a-buzz with the story that comics writer Mark Millar (known outside of the comics industry for the KINGSMAN, KICK ASS and WANTED movies) publicly claimed that the comics industry is in the worst state it’s ever been in, and there hasn’t been a successful independent comic since SAGA, written by Brian K Vaughn (known outside of the comics industry for the TV shows LOST, Y THE LAST MAN, and PAPER GIRLS). I won’t go into everything, but the result was Image Comics “leaking” its top 25 sales figures of all time, and blowing the internet’s collective mind because not only was SAGA not on there, but books people had never heard of were apparently selling hundreds of thousands of copies. And the majority of the books were released in 2020-2021. The oldest being from 2013. Apparently, things are not as dire as Millar thinks. However, the death of indie comics is a conversation we have had since…forever.

Since my background is in independent comics, I thought I would interview someone who has a foothold in both to see where he thought things were at. Ray-Anthony Height is the artist on Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man and is currently crowdfunding his creator-owned comics series, Midnight Tiger.

When we asked Ray to tell our subscribers a little bit about Midnight Tiger and how it came to be, he laughed and said, “When asked that question I end up trying to come up with a version that fits the interview, but in truth the real story of how Midnight Tiger came to be is pretty convoluted. That said, MT came to be from a combination of my life growing up in Compton, the characters my friends and I created as teenagers, and the Midnight Tiger name that was gifted to me by a longtime friend and collaborator from a pitch we were putting together in 2003. He made his published debut in 2012. Essentially, he’s my Spider-Man.”

Midnight Tiger was published before at Action Lab Entertainment, where I was also editing a book called ALBERT EINSTEIN: TIME MASON. To be brief, Action Lab closed down, they weren’t paying creators what they were owed, and on top of that, they were claiming they owned the IPs they published. Creators were outraged, shit went down, and most of the creators wound up getting their rights back. Now, Midnight Tiger is being published by CEX Publishing, and when asked how that all happened, Ray relayed, “After I regained my full rights back from Action Lab Entertainment, representatives from CEX approached me to bring the title over there. It was refreshing to discover that the CEX team at the time had either a direct connection to me as a creator because we’d worked together at Marvel or a direct connection to Midnight Tiger. With that, CEX’s combined experience in the comics industry at the highest levels, and a great creator-owned contract, it was a no-brainer.”

One can only hope for a great creator-owned contract, so that right there would get most people on board immediately! When deciding to crowdfund through Kickstarter, which many publishers are deciding to do now, to both gauge audience interest and also cut costs by going DTC (direct to consumer), they also had a background in crowdfunding. “One of the greatest benefits was their organization and professionalism,” says Ray, “Even though the publisher is running the campaign, I’m involved in every aspect of the process. The CEX Kickstarter team is pretty incredible. Two very successful KS professionals, one of whom is our production manager, the savvy CEX staff, and I. We had meetings months prior to launch to organize everything, and we still have weekly meetings during the campaign. They make sure that I’m comfortable with every decision made as the creator. We sign off on most things together as a team, and everyone has a voice. Deciding to collect the completed origin in a hardcover was a given. We all figured it was the best way to kick off the new series that’s coming in 2024 and gives previous fans of the book a nice addition to their collection.”

Ooohhh, a new series coming in 2024? Something to look forward to! But here’s the real meat of what we want to get to. Why Kickstarter instead of traditional publishing? Apparently, this was not Ray’s decision, as he stated we would need to ask the Publisher of CEX, Andy Schmidt. However, Ray did have some thoughts about why Kickstarter is a viable alternative to self-publishing, stating, “I consider Kickstarter to be this generation’s Image Comics. This is 100% my opinion, but I believe strongly that being a KS comic creator maintains the same independent fire that Image Comics was built on. There is no gatekeeping, first of all. Absolutely anyone with any story at any level can launch a KS campaign for their comic. Doesn’t matter the format or the content. You can be a complete unknown and it’s your very first comic, or a superstar creator at Marvel & DC with hundreds of issues under your belt. It just doesn’t matter. You’re dealing directly with your fanbase with no middleman or red tape. Your success at Kickstarter depends mostly on the quality of your product, your hustle and savvy at marketing it, and your responsibility to deliver. There are creators doing a thousand times better self-publishing via KS than they ever would have at a publisher. Times have changed, and the average creator now has more access to things like printers and distributors, much more than they did only 10 years ago. These are things only publishers had decent connections to previously. With the right fulfillment connections, KS creators never need a warehouse or Diamond Distribution. Things publishers typically take care of that cost both them and the creators. With 500 loyal fans on KS, you can have a pretty stable, even lucrative, comics career. At a publisher, you’d need 5000+ to break even. Not to mention you’re probably not getting paid for months while you’re working to produce the books. I still think there is a certain prestige to having a book at Image Comics, but your life as a creator isn’t over if it doesn’t happen there. You have other options that may fit your needs better.”

Also, since we mention that Ray straddles both worlds of independent comics and licensed properties, there’s the personal satisfaction of it all. Some creators are lifelong fans of Marvel and DC characters and want nothing more than to write or draw their favorite ones. Some have their own creations. Which is more rewarding? Is there even an answer to that? Ray weighed in:

“Doing my own projects is much more rewarding, but doing work on licensed properties carries more weight with the general public. I currently get paid more to draw Spider-Man than Midnight Tiger. I adore Spider-Man, Moon Girl, & Doctor Aphra, but it does come with a twinge of sadness. It means I haven’t put in the work on my own stuff. That’s why the goal is to turn my creator-owned properties into household names. When I think of Mike Mignola, I think of Hellboy. I don’t think of Gotham By Gaslight. When I think of Akira Toriyama, I think of Dragon Ball, etc. Creators are tied to their creations on a global scale. I’m aiming for that.”

In terms of fighting for shelf space, that’s a can of worms as well. Retailers only have so much space to stock books, and they’re going to give it to the products that sell, by and large. Crowdfunding does remove that problem, but it limits your distribution options. Does that mean there’s no room for unheard-of independent books? Ray seems to think there is a solution.

“Part of me feels that it’s by design. Retailers are more inclined to stock their shelves with Big Two books, and the Big Two are more inclined to produce more books to fill those shelves, regardless of whether they’re any good or not. It limits consumers' choices when they go to their LCS, and it’s in the retailers’ hands to give smaller publishers a shot on the shelves. So, smaller publishers must rely on licensed properties to be more appetizing to both retailers and consumers. Licensed properties like Power Rangers and TMNT cost smaller publishers to use, so they shrink their creator-owned and original content to cut costs. That includes page rates to the creators. So we end up with indie publishers mostly greenlighting popular creators instead of taking more chances on unknowns, etc. etc. Guess what smaller publishers and creators brave (or desperate) enough have to do in order to carve out a niche and potentially make a profit away from the oversaturated direct market? KICKSTARTER! See how that works? It’s an easy fix, but it’ll take guts from the Big Two to pull off. Cut the core books down to 15 titles each. Absolutely no limited series. Fifteen titles period. Maintain those for at least a year. The consumers will likely buy most, if not all, of them. Single issues are already expensive enough as it is. Do them in 6-issue arcs to produce 2 trades a year per title. This will allow smaller publishers to gain a little more shelf space and retailers to take more chances on them.”

We haven’t even discussed the digital aspect of distribution. With no shelf space taken, unlimited audience capabilities and distribution, plus the ability to market to new audiences, are we looking at the future of comics there?

“I personally see the digital market like I see the Japanese weekly manga zasshi (anthology magazines) on newsprint. An inexpensive way to advertise the eventual print release of the upcoming completed book. Almost everything is digital now, and everyone has everything they consume on their smartphones. Shonen Jump can tell whether a book is worth going to Tankōbon (printed completed volume) or not by the popularity of the chapters printed in the zasshi. If the zasshi chapters aren’t popular, they eventually get cut from the anthology and replaced. This is how I feel limited series in the American market should be handled. They start as digital comics, and if the digital version makes it an equivalent of a 6-issue run, it graduates to a printed trade. Then, the next 6-issue digital starts and so on until it completes that arc/volume or gets cancelled. If a title isn’t popular enough before the 6-issue digital completes it, it essentially dies on the vine, gets cut, and is replaced. You can see how popular a title is digitally in real time. Depending on the story and the proposed demographic, doing it that way will make it more accessible to all manner of untapped markets who seem physically bonded to their devices! I know DC’s Digital First was going in this direction. They just have to tighten the ship a bit more.”

I can attest that more and more traditional publishers are going to be going this route. If they’re smart. You can still back Ray-Anthony Heights’ Kickstarter for Midnight Tiger for ONE MORE WEEK. It’s already hit its goal, so you’ll receive your reward!

I hope you found this repost entertaining. It is certainly still relevant, even a couple of years later.

If you haven’t heard, I am on a podcast! The Superfan Podcast’s latest Substack went out on Monday, and if you subscribe, you get access to kick-ass recipes that relate to the fandom of our guests! This week, we’re counting down to our live podcast from Comic Con Revolution! Check it out!

Thanks for reading, and welcome to my new subscribers! You can also find me on Instagram as @geekchic_promos, and on Bluesky as @kris10simon. There’s also the Editor Girl website. If you’re on Cara, you can search for me using @kris10simon. See you next week!

Onward,

Kris