It's my Birthday! Will you support my comic, A Great and Terrible? Only 5 days left!

Hi my name is Chris!

I’m an illustrator, author, and one of the co-founders of Band of Bards (an independent publishing house based in Buffalo, NY).

A Great & Terrible Blog is as much about what I’m doing, as it is a resource for others that come after. Let’s work together to demystify independent comic, and book publishing… and try to help make this industry a friendlier place.

In This Issue:
A (short) Great & Terrible Update!
Another trip around the sun… so where to now?

It’s crazy enough that this Halloween was the start of my 43rd trip around the sun, but even crazier to think, that after all of this time, I’m finally making my own comic!

I consider myself a pretty lucky person. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to help others bring their stories to the masses. We’ve had amazing victories, and deafening defeat

I’m excited to close out this first Kickstarter campaign with a win, even if we don’t hit any stretch goals, it’s been an amazing experience to see everyone jump on board and support the story. I’m really grateful for that today. Thank you.

If you still have it in you to consider pre-ordering my comic (or helping out by spreading the word). I would very much like to make more issues, and I will love you for it.

There is still time to support the pre-order campaign! Click here to back ‘A Great & Terrible” on Kickstarter!

Let me tell you, in the winter of 2021 I was so damn excited to start our work at Band of Bards. Not knowing much about running a business, I relegated myself to the creative aspects of the task at hand. Branding, design, copy… these all became my specialty (it was finally time to put that fancy art degree to work).

“I wished that someone would have done that for me.”

I knew the industry was broken, but my view was from a different gate. I wanted to be published by someone so badly, I needed to be part of that… so I grew up always looking in, but never getting the opportunity to look out. It wasn’t for lack of trying.

Having a publisher tell me that my pitch or idea was great, and hiring me to write or illustrate it… well, it would have been a nice confirmation to get (for my ego, mostly).

After almost five years into this experiment I’ve been forced to learn a lot about myself and my limits, but also about this industry, and business in general.

My personal reason for jumping into Bard of Bards without floaties?

It was to show people who were struggling while trying to create something, that it was good enough for a publishing house to invest their time and money into it.

We invested a metric shit-ton of our own money into these projects (and into the people who made these projects), All without taking an ounce of ownership… of any of them.

We were called stupid for doing that, and they may have been right. I definitely was naive, especially when it came to trusting others to be good people, and to keep up their end of the agreement.

But when I was younger, man… I wished that someone would have done that for me.

What’s the point that I’m trying to make? I think it’s that in 2025 and beyond, we ALL have the ability to be our own publishers, but we still need to put egos aside and learn how to work together.

2025 is a catalyst year. What’s that mean?

The old guard at the gate (Diamond Comics) is gone and buried, but it’s up to us to ignite change— otherwise we’re just going to be settling for another gate keeper… and there is no guarantee that they will actually care about anything but money.

We’ll talk more about all of this soon.

I’m leaving you today with two quotes. The first, from an anonymous comics fan. The other, from the co-owner of Lunar Distribution.

These are both going to be important when we start talking about where this industry is going. (Please make sure you follow the link and read the interview at ICv2, your only homework is to make sure you have the full context.)

Comics retreated to the Direct Market by necessity. But once there, they didn’t have an exit plan and tailored the product to the dwindling number who were still reading. They kept what they had at the expense of mass appeal. -Anonymous