Give the public what they want -- NOT!

[Yul Tolbert]

I've been told by numerous people that the only way I'll be able to successfully sell my comics is if I give the comic-reading public what they want. B?ecause apparently the way I do comics is not what the public wants. In other words, my comics present unpopular imagery as well as unpopular ideas. Now I fully understand the reasoning behind that. But I still reject the "normal" way of doing comics because (1) I live in a free country where freedom of expression exists and (2) I live in a world where the human population is over 6 billion.

It may be true that I wont make money doing comics the way I want. But it is also true that I have a consitutional right to produce comics the way I want. That also means I have the right to produce comics that are unpopular and unprofitable. As for the population of 6 billion issue, there is a lot of diversity amongst such a vast and inconcievably high population. Therefore, people who have the mentality to appreciate my comics are very likely to exist. The only problem here is the extreme difficulty in finding such people. Other than that, I should -- in theory -- be able to do comics the way I want and find a small yet substantial number of people who can appreciate them.

Of course there's a good chance that many of you will disagree with my position here. Whatever. But in any event, I still believe that I should do comics my way whether they meet the public's approval or not. Life is already boring enough as it is.

[Jme Hash]

Do what ya want! Hell with what anyone thinks! My comics are sometimes too bad for even my pals and even in my world of freaks it still gets rejected! Have I stopped doing what I feel I want to do? NOOOO! Cause it's so much fun for me and I do geta thrill seeing the different responses to it!

[Bird in the Hand Zine Shop]

I don't think anybody in the world would disagree with your position to do what the hell you want because frankly, that's what is going to make you happy and at the end of the day who cares if you spend a million dollars if you're going to be happy!

[Tiffany Rossi]

i don't know how it's in your place, but the only thing that make me proud to be a brazilian is the comics variety we have here. what i mean is that there's always someone who is gonna love what you produce. i'm a huge fan of comics about sex and violence in a funny way, with raw drawing and such, and i trully hate superheroes comics, and i know there are a lot of people who think the opposite, and there are the fans of peanuts and stuff like that, and the ones who love novels like the adriam tomine ones... you're gonna always have readers, people who who love your work, don't matter how much they are, matter how real they like you.
and you should also think about what makes you happier: doing comics on your way or getting kinda rich? i thought about it when i decided what to do in college - fine arts -, and i think i'm going by the right way.

oh, and you'll always have internet on your pleasure. there are two twin comic artists from brazil, fabio bá and gabriel moon, who never had much success by producing their comics here. then they started to show their works online and got known and amazed by the whole world, won internacional awards and such.

[Misti Ko]

I guess that depends on what you mean by "successfully sell my comics".

Of course you can produce your comics however you want.

However, that isn't the same thing as actually selling your comics is it?

Why would anyone give you money for something that they don't want?

If we agree that 1% of the population will like your comics, that means that for every person who likes them, 99 people will not. That's a lot of rejection to deal with. I guess if you want to keep at it without bending the the sway of "public" opinion, you'll just have to get used to it.

[Yul Tolbert]

If I was able to sell my comics to 0.01 percent of the world's population, I'd have a bigger audience than ever. In my mind, that would be a sizable success.

[Wes White]

Yul is right, 1% of people is an awful lot of people. How you find them is the problem.

I agree with you completely Yul but think you might largely be preaching to the converted around here...

I *do* think one can learn from listening to what people say they want. But I don't think you should do anything you don't want to just because other people will pay for it. At least, not in creative terms. What you do for a job might be an altogether different matter.