Broken Frontier

In the second part of Broken Frontier's Orang Utan Comics interview, OC's Ian Sharman talks about breaking into the U.S. market, self-publishing, the convention circuit and Orang Utan's future plans. For the first part of the interview click here.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How important is it to break into the US market?

IAN SHARMAN: It's essential. That's where the majority of the fans are, and that's where the big publishers are. Of the small number of big UK comic book publishers, AAM/Markosia sells more books in the US than any of the others (yes, their books sell better in the US than 2000AD), and that's just one of the reasons that we've done so much work with them over the last couple of years. For us, the next step is to begin forging relationships with some of the publishers in the US. I'd love to see one of my own books, that's currently in development, Young Gods, with a US publisher.

BF: Going up against the Big Two is hard enough and there are a lot of great titles from mainstream and independent publishers out there. Do you have any advice for self-publishing hopefuls or small companies that are struggling to make an impact in an industry that can be intimidating for newcomers.

IS: Sure! I think the first piece of advice I have is - don't spend money you don't have! Yes, making comics can be an expensive business at times, but it's not worth getting into debt for. We limited the print runs on the first two issues of Eleventh Hour to just 150 copies, because that's all we could afford (and, in fact, the money we made back from sales of #1 covered the print costs on #2!).

You don't need to print thousands of copies to make an impact. 150 copies may not sound like much, but if you get them into the right hands then they can make a huge impact. Save money by sending PDFs to reviewers where possible, rather than hard copies. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're going to get rich, or make any money at all, doing this. You won't. I'm not saying "Just do it for the love", but have realistic aims. Do it to get your work out there, do it to get experience, if you're a writer - do it to get your work published and in a form that it might just get looked at by editors.

The second, and arguably most important piece of advice, is that quality counts. When you advertise for artists, don't just settle for the first person that says "Yes". If you want to be taken seriously, if you want to get noticed in this industry, then you're going to need artists that are good enough to work at Marvel, DC, Image or Dark Horse. You're going to need to find undiscovered gems. People with a passion for comics, and a huge amount of talent who just haven't been noticed yet.

There's a myth in the comics industry that there are thousands of hugely talented artists out there that haven't been discovered yet. It's just not true, these people are hard to find. Generally, the artists you come across will fall into two categories - those that just aren't good enough and never will be - and those that have the talent but don't have the dedication to actually complete a project on time. Talented, reliable, dedicated people are hard to find, but the wonderful thing is, when you do find them, they're likely to have the same passion and determination to succeed as you.

Thirdly, build yourself a good website, and use the likes of Facebook and Myspace to promote yourselves to the hilt. Use every resource available to you to get your name out there, to get yourself known. You can't just rely on people stumbling upon you by accident.

BF: What do you enjoy most about the conventions?

IS: For me, personally, conventions are where all the hard work and effort that goes into making these comics really pays off. I'm not just a writer, I ink, I color, I letter and I do all the pre-press work on our books. I literally pour my life into everything we do. I get up in the morning, I work on comics, and then I go to bed. Conventions aren't just a break from that, they're when I get to see that people actually care about what we're doing, that people are into our stuff and willing to part with their hard earned cash to read it. Also, conventions are a great time to just meet up with fellow creators. The UK comics industry is still very small, and everyone knows everyone else. A little nobody like me can easily find myself sharing a drink with a legend like Dave Gibbons, it's a dream come true!

BF: What are your plans for 2008 and beyond?

IS: Well, the big thing for 2008 is that Eleventh Hour will now be available to order from comic shops as it has a new home at AAM/Markosia. It's still 100% produced by the writers and artists at Orang Utan Comics, but with the new issue weighing in at a whopping 80 pages, and the quality of both writing and art reaching new heights, the book had simply outgrown our meagre publishing abilities. We had a simple choice - invest money we don't have in printing and distribution - or find the book a new home with a bigger publisher. That had always been our aim with our other titles, for us to essentially act as a studio and for other people to publish them, but we honestly never thought that there'd be enough interest in a black and white anthology title for a bigger publisher to want to pick it up. I'm very happy to have been proved wrong there.

Our other plans for 2008 involve us finding homes for all of our other projects - Young Gods, 5th Outlaw, Project Raven (above right), etc. Young Gods is the most pressing of these, with a 46-page graphic novel completely written, pencilled, inked and lettered - our new colorist, Mauro Barbosa, is hard at work finishing the book now, and you can check out a preview of the first six completed pages on our website.

Hopefully we'll be entering 2009 with a brace of books coming out through a number of different publishers, and with any luck that'll bring the big guns to us, to find out what all the fuss is about!

BF: Is there a release date for Mamluk (left)?

IS: Not yet. As with all of our titles, our aim is to find Mamluk a home with a much bigger publisher. Development of the project is nearing the stage where we'll be able to start approaching publishers to see if there's any interest in picking up the book. We've always given a guarantee to all our creators that if they work on something for us, it will see print, but publishing books ourselves is a last resort. We don't have the resources to be anything more than a small press publisher, selling books through our wbesite and at cons - but our books are better than that! They deserve to sit on comic shop shelves across the world! They deserve to sit next to the X-Men and Superman, and reach a wide audience, entertaining people across the globe!

For more on Orang Utan Comics and their projects check out their website here.