You may have heard the term comicsgate which is thought to come from gamergate. However, it have another meaning. Check out the video below.
The most important thing to remember is to never give up on your dreams. If you want to create comics than you should do that. Just know like anything, it take work to be successful. And don’t let a few people on social media determine what path you take. That is your choice alone.
If you have ever Google comics, than the only thing will come up is DC and Marvel, Super Hero genre. When you asked the average adults if they read comics, they may say no or redirect you to their kids. I believe the average adult opinion have been influence by social media betrays of comics. Social media promote most of the time DC and Marvel everywhere. Google search engine will only pull up heroes genre. Many YouTubers will say that it is because of Google SEO system. But I have a feeling that is not the case, because I am sure that I am not the only comic writer who used SEO on their website.
It have been cover in other articles that Diamond Comic Distributors dictate that only DC and Marvel make it into major comic stores across the nation washing the competition. Marvel is own by Disney while DC is own by Time Warner Bros. However, Time Warner Bros is own by AT&T.
While Disney and Google have a huge Ad partnership which gives Disney access to multiple platform. So no matter how good your SEO is for your comic or book, Disney will get first dibs on a Google search if you have something in common with Disney productions.
https://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/google-disney-announce-huge-ad-partnership.html
Quote from article above: “Disney and Google share a passion for bringing quality content and information to everyone, everywhere,” wrote Philipp Schindler, Google’s Chief Business Officer, in a post announcing the partnership. “With this new relationship, Disney will bring its entire global digital video and display business onto the Google Ad Manager, which will serve as its core ad technology platform.”
https://about.att.com/story/att_and_google_cloud_team_up_to_connect_customers_to_the_cloud.html
Quote from article above:“We’re committed to helping businesses transform through our edge-to-edge capabilities. This collaboration with Google Cloud gives businesses access to a full suite of productivity tools and a highly secure, private network connection to the Google Cloud Platform,” said Roman Pacewicz, chief product officer, AT&T Business. “Together, Google Cloud and AT&T are helping businesses streamline productivity and connectivity in a simple, efficient way.”
And if you think that is crazy, Google and AT&T have a partnership over business cloud thought G Suite. So Google have created a separate network that all business can communicate to their employee. They can chat, video, streamline, and more on it. Ever tho Google have not came out and say that they have an ad partnership with AT&T like what they have with Disney, that does not mean that Google would treat Time Warner Bros less than Disney. In business you want to be careful about how you treat your business partnerships so it would not surprise me that DC would get more priority over little known comics and other creators.
It is a little scary how much control Google have over the internet. It is hard for new creator such as myself to stand out and be able to get in front of the right audiences. Google have been often me $150 for Ads for my website but they kept decline my ad but will not tell me why. They keep giving me a general answer and they have no way for me to talk with them about it. They don’t have person customer services for us small entrepreneur. It would not be so bad if they did not speak in code. Speaking code is there way of playing dumb so they can only help their over 1 Billion Club.
I would like to heard your thought on this topic. I would like to heard from other creator if they have similar problems or not. If I am mistaking and you found the Golden goose, pretty share.
You may wonder why the title of this blog is “Little Elf in Big Pond of Drama, The Comic Industry.” “Little elf in big pond of drama prefer to “little fish in big pond”. I am a comic book writer starting out and trying to get my name out by using what I was referral by other people. They say use social media to sale yourself and get your brand name out there. However, it has been almost impossible to grow my followers on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. I am getting a lot of growth on Instagram but little to no one on Instagram click the links on the post. So, I cannot get traffic to my website or other platform such as Etsy and YouTube. And YouTube is no better, I have been getting like 2 views per video on YouTube after I follow the instruction from education tutorial on SEO keywords, making better thumbnails for video etc. I ran a few tests myself and found out that YouTube is not recording the external views I get from linking the video on other site such as my website, Facebook, Twitter, email, WordPress, and more. For I have reach out to a few business relation and friends to asked them to review my video. They have told me yes, “I have watched your video and love it.” News is growing on the web that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are censoring people who disagree with them, small entrepreneur, or anything that maybe against the large tech company that support the three giants.
In reality, it is hard being a creator in today social media. You may ask why they would do something like this to me that is not very known, I don’t think they are target me directly. I think they are censor small entrepreneur, so we will not become competition later in the future.
I will start by explaining what my business is and what I have been working on. I will be publishing my first comic series call Angie’s Adventures in Oct 2019 under the first ever graphic novel and comics publisher call Zazu Zine + Comix Publishing. I also have a digital comics series on Webtoons call Nocturnal Orphan. I am working with Kim Eley of Kwe Publishing LLC to promote Zazu Zine + Comix. I created a video on YouTube talking about the vision for Zazu Zine + Comix. The vision that Eley have for ZAZU is to give new artist a chance to introduce new content to comic industry and to give new artist a chance to shine. You would think this is good news and no one would have a problem with it; however, when I post this information on Facebook or Twitter, I get crickets… The reason why I know something is not right with views on Facebook and Twitter is because I share the news about my business with my two blogs on WordPress NC Outdoor Adventures Mia and The Fun World of Dating yesterday. I receive several likes and new followers in the last 24 hours.
It got me thinking about how much news is out there that the comic industry is dying and how people should give up on making comics. It left me with the thought what if Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are supporting this news and want everyone to think comics is dead. If that is the case, it would explain when I made videos that comics is not dead and more people like the idea of having more diversity genres of comics than I am going against what the main media is saying. It makes me an outsider by default which is sad. For there are many people in the education field who like the idea of new comic writers. I have at least three people in the education field have asked for me to come talk with the students about making comics; one was a professional at VCU who would like for me to talk to the college art students about alternate educations, one was a recreation coordinator in my apartment community center in section 8 housing apartments who want me to talk to the children about a future in comics, and a librarian in urban setting who want to hired me as public speaker to talk with the children that visit the library about comics.
There are real people who want original content in the form of graphic novels and comics; however, there are people out there that just want only a hand full of people to make comics. They do not understand the disservices they are doing to the many people who want to encourage children from reading. Graphic novel is growing because school have open to the idea that it is better for children to read graphic novel than not read at all. People in the education field are trying their best to keep children in this model age interesting in reading and graphic novel and comics help in this area. However, the current comics industry is not meeting to the needs that education required. They are blocking self-publishing comics from getting into comics stores which in return the comics stores cannot stay in business that way. However, there are a few comics stores that have adopt more diversity of publishers, self-publishers, and brought in tabletop games. They have created an environmental of community welcome of families. These comics stores are not in the large cities, they are in the small cities across the country. That is why you never heard about them in the social media and that have been the key to their success for small entrepreneur.
I am adopting this concept into my business practice. I am focus on my location community here in Richmond, VA, USA. Therefore, I go to network meeting in my area for they cannot stop me from getting in contact with the other business entrepreneur in my area. I also travel to anime and comic con. I have staff at a couple of anime con and make a few connections with other writers who are more successful than me and publishers’ companies.
I also have not given up on social media, for I still have a voice; I will keep sharing my brand and promote Zazu Zine + Comix Publishing.
If you would like to learn more about my business Maria Hargis Art, visit my website at www.mariahargis.com. And if you would like to learn more about ZAZU, the website is www.zazuzine.com.
Oh, if you were wondering why a elf instead of a fish, it is because my main character in Angie’s Adventure is an elf. I have a soft spot for elves.
Little Elf in big Pond of Drama, The Comic Industry USA 