arcanacomics.com

I consider myself to be a life-long student and I have just finished my first year in a three year program for my Ph.D. I recently submitted a well-timed post that really resonated with my personal and professional life.

There are times we are expected or asked to step up to lead. It is during these times that, if we reflect, we can begin to know who we are, or at least what we stand for.

Leadership in the 21st century has become an ever changing and dynamic role that demands unique attributes, attitudes, skill sets, philosophies and an ability to modify structures and practices in response to technological advances while continuing to move the organization forward. Being a leader of the 21st century involves searching, acquiring, organizing, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating an information pool that is doubling at a rate the history of the world has never experienced. With this much novel information being added continuously to our understanding, and with the half-life of valid information reaching all time lows, it is imperative that leaders understand that their vision remain as clear as ever, while understanding that the means to the vision might need to change with the times.

Sean’s recent amount of blogging has gotten me off my butt and back to the blog. Anyway, it’s been a week since Wizard World Chicago. For those that don’t know, I had a horrific time trying to get there. It all started on Thursday morning as my wife and I sat in our plane on the tarmac for 7 hours before the flight was cancelled. The first 3 hours we were delayed because the Philadelphia Airport thought the middle of the day was a perfect time to paint the runway. We literally watched paint dry for 3 hours. Then a storm came in and that was another 3 hour delay. Finally, they decided to take us back to the gate and the walkway broke (so there’s another hour waiting for them to fix that).

Chrissy and I eventually did make it to Chicago although the earliest flight we could reschedule was for Friday night. So in all we ended up missing 2 days of the con. But once we got there, it was well worth it. It was probably one of my favorite shows. The Koni Waves/Demonslayer “Windy City Showdown” variant sold really well considering they didn’t make it to the show until I showed up with them. I have to thank Wizard who was a big help promoting the book on their website as one of their con exclusives… as well as my appearance there. Thanks Wizard! If I do WWTexas, I might have to revisit the con exclusive idea.

I got to run into some familiar faces there. I saw Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Mellon from Gearhead, RD Hall from American Wasteland.  With such a good Arcana turnout this year, maybe Sean will bring the Arcana booth back to Chicago. Besides talking with friends, I I found a new artist to work with. If things work out, we’ll be collaborating on a series called Club Vampire. This is a book I have been wanting to do for awhile, but I just couldn’t find the right artist to work with. Well, the search is done. I gotta thank my wife for finding him! The way she networks she should be my agent.

Anyway, I have some more press releases to write for the boss. As for more cons, I will probably check out Baltimore. I won’t have a table, but Chrissy and I will most likely go down for one day just to walk around.

 Oh yeah, go see Super Bad. It’s hilarious! McLovin is gangsta.  

Time. There simply isn’t ever enough of it…trying to balance everything at once is a daunting task and I’ve been at a point for a couple months where I’m trying to get more efficient. Pretty much since my son, Kiefer Patrick O’Reilly, was born (June 19th, 2008) things got even faster. Egg Embry and Mark Poulton have been helping me on press releases, Arcana’s MySpace page, interviews, forums, etc. I find it funny that these digital ’solutions’ have actually taken away more time than they’ve freed up for me. Email and wireless devices have now made people accessible nearly 24/7 and sometimes all I’m trying to do is to ‘keep up on the treadmill’. I try to reply to most emails (I hit about 98% response) but the responses I give can be quite brief. I’ve heard is others talking about how short my responses are…the funniest being Dennis Hopeless where I read Gearhead #1 (well half of it) and I replied back to Dennis with a contract and the words “Looks great!”. He made the natural assumption…

So with so much on my plate I’ve been trying to do more with less. I’ve began to slim down on properties trying to focus on fewer properties but to get more out of them (the long tail which I will blog about maybe next week). I’ve also been MUCH better at working with others allowing different people to champion different projects.

I mean money is not the end game for me when I make comic books but I am hoping to be at a point in my life where money doesn’t dictate when, how or what gets done. Unfortunately for now the reality is finances do matter and as a result I take on ‘client work’ (Arcana Studios) and I’m still swinging for the fences trying to get a decent pay day (BIG movie or video game). Business has an element of risk to it and many people increase their odds by ‘playing the table’ and diversifying in various projects. I’ve definitely done that…but now that I’m spread out and have ‘hedged bets’ what I’m wanting to do is to develop a property deeper. I’m hoping by going deeper, not wider, that the payout will be better…at the least I know, from a personal perspective, that the process has been much more enjoyable. The hard part is I’m usually developing ‘new talent’ and they are eager to get their work ‘out there’. It’s easy to do press releases and tell people what’s going to happen, but it’s so much harder to just do it and get the books on stands where people love to read them. I want to really monetize properties better and as a result scheduling (so that everyone gets their 15 minutes) becomes much more difficult and everything slows down.

Depending on the property I’m now developing style guides, storyboards, voice overs, animatics, budgets and more. It’s becoming quite the production and hopefully I’ll have a chance to get some of those projects ‘on shelves’ as well.

So I have been scaling back a bit in regards to output, but hopefully the quality of outputted material will soon be seen…

I’ve heard the term ‘million dollar idea’ before but I really have to wonder if it’s still applicable in the 21st century. It’s the information age and with literally billions of thoughts beings self-published and shared through the Internet, can there truly be an idea so novel that it’s a ‘million dollar idea’? It’s my belief that much of the intellectual novelty of an idea can either be sourced, referenced or at least inspired from another idea.

Christopher Booker says there’s only seven (plus two) types of stories:

http://denisdutton.com/booker_review.htm

and Joseph Campbell provides his insights into myopic story telling:

http://www.divineparadox.com/Arts/archetypes_on_the_path.htm

Movies can have ‘high concept ideas’ which is usually an innovation on pre-existing material, but from my humble experience the most valuable intellectual property (IP) stems from putting forth time, thought, energy, resources, money, etc. to develop an idea from creation to completion. Comic books are a good example of this…I get a LOT…a LOT of submissions and many are either just a concept or possibly a concept with three pages of art. I enjoy seeing these but at the end of the day in comic books a company needs a ‘widget’, that is something I can print and put on a shelf. Arcana’s submission policies actually reflect this as I don’t want to promise that something will be delivered and then it doesn’t arrive. The more time and energy someone puts into an IP, the more it’s worth…so here’s a provocative thought that is somewhat close to home…

Superman was created by Canadian Joe Shuster and apparently sold for thousands of dollars. I’m not wanting to argue if it was/is fair or put a judgment on this…I just want to provide an insight about IP value and the money that helps establish the product. So, from the moment where Superman’s rights were transferred to the point at where Big Blue is today his visibility, cache and recognizability has gone way up. My dad even knows Superman and Clark Kent but has never read a comic book (maybe outside of Kade). The right’s holder of Superman has spent tremendous money in writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, editors, paper, toys, movies, video games, etc. over the decades to brand and establish the ‘Superman’ name to where it is today. Had the rights never been sold, and had all that money been funneled into, say, Shazam, would Shazam have the same level of IP value that Superman has? (would my dad be able to recognize Shazam). Is it just money equals fame? Or is there an elusive combination of idea, execution and financing? (I’m sure you can guess my answer).

I’m not saying Superman should or should not have been sold and I’m not saying it would or would not have worked…I’m hopefully just trying to give some insights into branding and establishing IP’s in the comic book industry.

Just one man’s humble thoughts as he continues to blog…

Well I’ve been challenged to blog at least twice a week so I’m going to try to give this a good shot…the key for me to successfully blog will be to ensure that the times and scheduled and routine. Wish me luck on this…

What makes independent comic book publishing so difficult is the fact that so many hats have to be worn. Everything from the creative to editorial to workflow to legal to advertising to business development to accounting…it’s been a daunting task and one I can say I’ve done for three and a half years. I’m passing judgment on how well it’s been done…

The irony is the most difficult part of this industry, from my humble perspective, is the people element. Yes it’s difficult to develop new ideas and develop a comic book that can hold it’s own in a small and competitive market. Of course it’s tough to keep up on bills…to manage a company or comic that can continually be improved with regards to quality and promotion….to search out new properties, nurture and monetize old ones and take advantage of ever changing opportunities. But what is the hardest thing to manage can be people and personalities and to live up to other’s expectations.

I’m sure I’ve failed as many times as I’ve succeeded and of course I’ve made mistakes. I’m usually the first one to recognize it and I’ve tried to amiably work things out with every person…with limited resources and time I’ve always tried to do my best but sometimes it’s not good enough. What I’ve now recognized is the value of collaboration…there are some people who I’ve worked with that simply make situations better. This is a business of ideas, pencils and paper but ultimately it’s the people that really drive forth a project or company. It is integral to find people who are talented, optimistic, intuitive, resourceful and ultimately collaborative…people who want to work with other people and who actually make the entire project better.

Surrounded with talented individuals who are collaborative team members, a person is able to achieve a greatness they could not have achieved alone.