Jessa Crispin Hates Self-Published Books, Except Self-Published Comics, Which Are Even Cooler Than Legit Books.
by Jessa Crispin
*This article was first published at The Book Standard in 2006 and is being reprinted with the author’s permission.
Self-publishing. The term has always had a ring of desperation. With the number of books published annually now reaching the hundreds of thousands, and after seeing the quality of a great percentage of those multitudes, it becomes easy to dismiss anything rejected by all publishers as unworthy.
An author going the self-publishing route, then, is just someone not coming to terms with reality.
Except for when it comes to comic books. Some of the strongest writers and illustrators of comics have decided to dip into self-publishing from time to time. What makes that medium so different that going the self-publishing route isn’t so cringe-inducing, but rather a means of heightening credibility?
In 1977, Dave Sim created Cerebus, the odd tale of an aardvark. Later, Sim declared that the self-published series would run 300 issues. About 25 years later, the project was complete, perhaps the largest successful self-published project in comics. The comic was popular and easily available; even today, you can find at least a handful of the volumes at any decent chain bookstore. Self-publishing probably helped Sim immensely when he started integrating conspiracy theories into his work. An editor might have come in handy, but it’s likely a publisher would have shut down the series all together.
Other comic-book writers have self-published. Jeff Smith stayed with his own publishing company, Cartoon Books, in order to publish the fantasy series “Bone.” The books are now being republished as a young-adult series by Scholastic. Countless comic book writers like Jessica Abel and Jeffrey Brown self-published mini-comics before being picked up by big imprints like Pantheon (Abel) and Top Shelf (Brown). It’s a way to get your name out without becoming a cog in charge of inking the latest superhero for DC or Marvel.
Both Bone and Cerebus are older, created when there was no talk of comics being “art” and before indie publishers started cropping up to publish the more offbeat material. It’s easy to see why Sim and Smith would have found such a marketplace hostile.
I wanted to know if self-publishing comics still had its advantages, so I spoke with Steve Rude, who has announced on his website that he will be starting his own publishing company to handle to release of The Nexus and The Moth, which had previously been published by Dark Horse comics.
“I’ve worked with all the major companies for years now, and all have had good and bad points,” Rude says. “The decision to self-publish came about mostly from the negative experiences, which ran the gamut from understandable to completely absurd. This will be my first experience making a go of it on my own,” he told me.
Of course, once an audience for a series is established, as is the case with The Moth, it’s no longer a matter of making some copies at Kinko’s and hand-selling them to comic-book stores. Readers have expectations, and Rude gets that: “All the responsibilities now rest firmly on my own shoulders,” he says. “Extensive homework is required to make sure that things are done right the first time. I’m contacting all the people required to make this outing with Rude Dude Comics a success, and I’m finding it an enjoyable process. Everyone from the printer to the distributor to the retailers, I want to find a way to make their experience with me as easy and hassle-free as possible.”
I asked if Sim’s or Smith’s successes had any influence on his decision to self-publish. “Not really. But still 300 issues of a single comic is an amazing experience to pull off!” Hats off to all those who follow in Dave’s path.
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Jessa Crispin is the founder and editor of Bookslut.com
