The chapter below is from my new book, Comic NFTs - An Ethical Approach. I am offering this 200+ page PDF ebook to all subscribers, paid or free! If you are not already a subscriber, please use the “subscribe now” button below. You will find a link to download the PDF version in the “Welcome” e-mail.
The book is also available on Amazon Kindle and Gumroad, if subscribing to another newsletter isn’t your thing.
Don’t have time to sit with a book about a fringe topic? Each week I read the next section of the book in podcast form. You can listen on Substack or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (search for “Comic NFTs”).
Whichever way you explore the book, I believe it is a must-read for any independent comic creator hoping to make a living from their own comics. Being able to incrementally generate more revenue from existing content is a game changer for the industry.
And no, NFTs are not dead. NFTs are not a scam. And NFTs are definitely not destroying the planet. Don’t believe me? I wrote this book for you.
Chapter One - Why NFTs?
I have been following developments in NFT technology since long before the term “Non-Fungible Token” hit mainstream news. Why? Admittedly, I’m a technonaut who has been attracted to bleeding-edge technology since the 80s. It is mildly disturbing to acknowledge that my first computer program was handed in on punch cards; I graduated with a Computer Science degree back when personal computers were in their infancy. I remain constantly in awe of how far we’ve come and continue to be drawn to subtle advances in technology filled with the potential to change the world. NFTs are definitely that.
I absolutely, positively, 100% believe that, if done thoughtfully, NFT technology will powerfully transform and improve the independent comic book industry – but only if we let it. In making this declaration, I take a real risk of destroying my comic book career before it even really starts. If you are thinking of launching your own NFT project based on your comic, there is a significant risk in travelling this path. You have been warned!
Why? Comics are collaborative and if no one will work with you, you are done. Sadly, right now, much of our tribe firmly holds that “NFTs are the spawn of Satan.” Hackles raise and Twitter flame wars ensue at the mere mention of NFTs, blockchain, & cryptocurrencies. Frankly, hating NFTs evolved into an identity issue for some fellow creators that precluded any hope of nuanced discussion.
So why risk being low-key blacklisted for supporting NFTs? Because of the lost opportunity cost of staying on the sidelines. Simply put, I want my talented comic industry friends to eat. NFTs are not a panacea, but they are a low-barrier, incremental product that can help us pay our bills.
Simply put, I want my talented comic industry friends to eat.
I believe every truly talented comic artist, writer, and creative team member deserves to make a reasonable living from creating comics. Just comics. Not comics plus “maybe a movie deal one day.” Not comics plus a day job “until I make it big.” But right now, the harsh reality is that comic creation remains a pro-am or hobby activity for most independent creators. Ask around and you’ll discover that almost every comic creator has another gig that actually pays their bills–whether it is teaching, publishing, or graphic design. This is especially true for writers who tend to be the ones expected to finance independent comic projects. With a few notable exceptions (we could come up with five writers in the UK) the number of writers living well off of their work in comics is extremely low. The independent comic book landscape is one defined by scarcity and side hustle.
I encourage you to play with a copy of my “Comic Break Even” google spreadsheet to prove to yourself how hard it is to feed your family as an independent comic creator. I used feedback from various creators to answer to the question, “If everyone on the team worked full time, produced a healthy amount of content, and earned a reasonable wage, how many comics would you have to sell in a year?” The answer: “a lot!” In one scenario, the answer is 36,000 across four issues assuming a generous 15% margin on a $3.99 US cover price. Most years, this figure easily rockets you into the top 50 titles on the comic charts dominated by the big two. In comparison, one of the most successful campaigns on Kickstarter ever, BRZRKR by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, & Ron Garney gathered only 14,571 backers. The average for the platform is far less, typically in the low hundreds for comic projects. Yes, you can (and should) strive for more margin per sale, should always seek more backers, and sell vigorously beyond Kickstarter, but I would be surprised if more than a handful of comic creators actually feed themselves and their team exclusively from sales of their independent titles. The reason? Few creators run more than four campaigns in a year. The federal minimum wage per year in the US is currently $15,080.00 for individuals; the average Kickstarter campaign (including everything from high-tech gadgets to celebrity mega-projects) grosses less than $28k. Realize, it is the net revenue from any project that needs to support every member of the creative team. Even with subsequent sales of inventory, making a living in the independent comics world is hard - really, really hard.
This has implications for the future of our industry. Some creators rationalize the expense of creating comics by viewing it as a route to selling their epic adventure to Hollywood. This skews the types of stories told. Other artists are migrating to Webtoons where there is at least a glimmer of hope of making a living if you put in the work. But it is my belief that full-page, multi-panel comics are a unique art form in and unto themselves. If we want to make sure that independent creators survive in this medium of storytelling for this medium’s sake, we need to find as many ways as possible to attract more customers to each project without adding a lot of expense.
A key problem we have is that there really aren’t that many existing customers out there. One industry expert I interviewed estimated the upper limit of casual comic readers in North America at about 1,000,000 with 200,000 hardcore comics buyers — about 100 per shop. This is a large enough audience to support active, multi-title publishers, but it is a really small potential marketplace for independent, niche comics. What we need is a way to grow the overall reader base.
Enter NFTs and re-purposing existing artwork. NFTs are not an “and” like a movie deal. They represent a new way to distribute existing, full-page, content… much like adding Lunar to Diamond in your print comic distribution stream.
The potential market is huge. As one example, consider the customer base of the WAX NFT blockchain. WAX boasts over 13,000,000 user addresses, 500,000 daily unique visitors, and 15 million daily transactions. This one small corner of the NFT space dwarfs the direct market for comics by all metrics. 2021 saw the sales of NFTs eclipse $25 billion–roughly the same as the combined gross revenue of all the Marvel Movies since Iron Man in 2008! The best part? This is only a nominal overlap between current NFT buyers and existing print comic customers. The new customers we all want and need for our art form are there.
But aren’t NFTs dead? The typical NFT story as of the end of 2022 talks about the dramatic drop in sales and volume this year versus 2021. These stories are not wrong. As an example, the Globe and Mail here in Canada recently reported "Sales volume plummeted from US$5.7-billion in January to $903-million in July, according to data tracking firm DappRadar, while transactions fell about 50 percent to 5.9 million.” The bubble has truly burst. But if this is the death of an industry, the comics world should wish for a similar demise. Publisher’s weekly reported "Sales through comics stores rose 60% over 2021, to $705 million.” That’s $705M for an entire year vs. $900M in a single month. While these numbers are not directly comparable for a creator (one represents retail sales of which a creator gets a small %; the other represents retail at a higher percentage plus aftermarket churn where an artist would also get a %), it is safe to say that the “NFTs are dead” perspective is grossly misleading.
For a historical analogue, consider the Dutch tulip bulb market bubble aka "tulipmania" of the 1600s. This event was so dramatic that it became a metaphor. Still, as epic, as it was, tulipmania did not result in the extinction of tulips. The current state of the NFT world echoes that. Even as prices crash further, NFTs are here to stay and are an opportunity for independent comic creators to profit incrementally from work they have already created.
NFTs are here to stay and are an opportunity for independent comic creators to profit incrementally from work they have already created.
So given their ability to help feed creators, why are many in the comic book industry so upset about NFTs? You may have heard NFTs damage the environment, encourage copyright infringement, come with privacy issues, and are synonymous with greedy venture capital bro culture. From a historical perspective, there is an element of truth to all of these issues.
But things change. They say that in the blockchain world, a month is like a year, and we are now years past the creation of the first NFTs. In this guide, I want to bring to your attention recent developments in this rapidly evolving industry. It is my thesis that virtually all of the initial concerns about NFTs have now been addressed, can be addressed, or could be addressed. I want to move beyond the broad-brush myth and rhetoric to help independent creators discover a truly sustainable path forward that honours & feeds artists, brings in new full-page comic readers, and doesn’t destroy the planet. There is a path forward, and I hope you will allow me to be your guide.