I’ll Do It Myself- Part 1: Crazy for Comics?

[Indy Comic News]

“My only regret is not doing everything myself forever.”- R. Stevens, creator of Diesel Sweeties (http://www.dieselsweeties.com/)

I might be crazy, but I don’t think so.

Of course, no crazy person actually thinks they’re anything but a clear-eyed rationalist, so I’m going to leave that final judgment up to more objective observers: you — my readers — and the marketplace. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s back up a smidge and begin at the beginning.

Hi.

I’m Sam Costello and, among other things, I write the webcomic Split Lip (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/splitlip/). Split Lip is a horror comics anthology which (almost) every month publishes a new story written by me and drawn by artists from around the world. Each story is self-contained: no recurring characters or story lines, just recurring themes.

With each Split Lip story, I try to craft a script that’s atmospheric, creepy, disturbing, and generally a good time for folks who like to get scared. We’ve got 24 stories on the site totaling over 275 pages of free comics.

I started Split Lip in 2006 because I needed to take my comics career into my own hands. Which is going to be a theme.

I’d tried for a couple of years to place my short comics in anthologies and to make connections with publishers. I’d had a little success, but not much, and knew that I needed a larger body of work that I could point editors to in order to convince them that I could handle work.

Since most of my efforts to get into print had been frustrated, I decided to make Split Lip a webcomic (an especially easy move because I work in web development and marketing by day – and by night and by weekend and every other unit of time).

So, off I went, on my own. I wrote the scripts, found the artists, gave art feedback, learned how to letter and lettered most of the stories, did the promotions, placed Split Lip stories into print anthologies like Negative Burn. Of course I couldn’t have done it without the talented artists I’ve been lucky enough to work with, but, on balance, I did a lot of Split Lip myself. And I’m comfortable with that. I’m a good co-worker for myself.

So, besides that last sentence making me sound as though I have some kind of personality disorder, how does any of this make me crazy, you may be asking.

Well, maybe you’ve heard about how changes to Diamond Comic Distributors’ terms of service (http://indycomicnews.net/soapbox-diamonds-policies/) have made it much harder for indie comics and publishers to get their comics to shops and thus stay in business? And you’ve probably heard about the little problem with the world economy that’s causing people to not want to lay down extra money for much of anything?

To most people, in those conditions, the natural, logical — sane — instinct would be to hunker down, conserve cash, and ride out the rough patch until things get better.
Well, not me. Into a bad economy and a tough comics market, I’m self-publishing the first Split Lip trade paperback this spring.

I’m excited by the challenge and the opportunity and by knowing that if I succeed I’ll have done it on my own – and what’s more satisfying than that?

It’s also why I might be crazy.

I suspect a lot of you watch Lost. Remember that part in the first season or so when Locke tells Sawyer that the way you can tell a crazy person from a sane one is that crazy people only ever think they’re getting more sane?

Well, I’ve spent some time thinking about it, investigated my options, tried practically everything else, and I’m still going ahead with this plan.

I think I’m getting more sane.

Let us know what you think of the first part of Sam Costello's I'll Do It Myself by posting a comment. Thanks!