I am working on my expanded edition of issue number one of my comic book series. This expanded edition will officially launch the run of my comic books. I have been hesitant to go “all in” with my dream because of the fear of going broke.

I am still about concerned.

I average a sell through of 20 comic books per show which is the minimum I felt would be successful. I have some shows where I only sell one or two… and I have other shows were I sell 20 – 30 books. When I executed the first print run, I told myself that if I did not sell at least 30 at the first show, I would not produce a second run until I sold 100 books. This logic made sense at that time. I had ordered 150 books, so if only 20 sold that first show, I would have inventory for two years. Well, that first show was Comicpalooza, a show where I have a massive following. I sold 85 books ayt that first show… and I reordered 200 more with a new, alternative cover.

Then came the average. I sold 25 at the next show… and then I had a bad show with a poor attendance and sold two… and then I sold 30 and have a string of bad shows the remainder of the year, selling 5 to 10 per show.

I have a lot of books left.

I have another great show coming up next month in a city where my comic strip runs in the local newspaper. I am hoping to have another big sale through on my comic books. I am actually gambling on it.Last year, sales performed extremely well at this show, and I had not printed my comic books yet. I am hoping the addition of these books will mean a great show where I can exhaust much of my inventory. I doubt I deplete it, and I hope I do not because I will need books for my show in March and I cannot get more printed in time.

EXPANDED CONTENT

The comic book’s first issue serves as a treasury collection of my first two years running in newspapers. The original printing was geared towards comic cons and contained pinups of my characters mashed up as other popular characters. I want to sell this new run at comic book stores and digitally through Comixology. In order to sell these in such manners, I need to remove any copyright issues. Mashups are fine at a comic con when selling directly to my fans, but at retail, I need to be smart.

With the mashup pages removed, I need to replace these pages with new content. I am creating a story to lead in and out of the collected works. The new material will be original and exclusive to this first issue, serving as an impressive beginning to what will become an amazing collection of comic books starring my troop of army ants… and that stupid monkey.

Stay TOON’ed for more updates.