Last weekend, the Gold Coast hosted its first Supanova pop culture expo. Late last year, I was invited to attend all of the six Supanova Events for 2012 and I had thought it a good opportunity to publicise Comicoz' book John Dixon, Air Hawk and the Flying Doctor. However, on reflection, I decided that I would attend Expos of this nature when I had numerous volumes on offer...
As you are aware, only one book has so far been published to date. It's a tough game. Australian cartoonist Pat Grant has placed an interesting Blog ('Ninth Post') about the financial realities of local comic/book publishing that makes sober reading. Yet, there are more and more comics related product being published in Australia lately. (Which I unfortunately have said little about and of which I intend to say more about in the weeks and months ahead.) Despite these publishing perils, I still have more plans to publish more books ... and not just volumes on AIR HAWK either!
I have been (and remain) somewhat disappointed about the Coffs Harbour outcome, and I am presently a little distracted with events in my personal life (Miss Lovely Little Lollie, now 3, is arriving after our Longreach trip and her Mum is marrying in November); but plans to publish further comic-related books still remain in my mind. I have taken some steps to securing some Rights to Other Material, but in order to keep confidence of those involved I shall say little here until the signatures are signed ...
One of the sticking points with Mrs Karmichael in my desire to publish more books has been the need to outlay large tracts of money with little guarantee of return. (John Dixon, Air Hawk and the Flying Doctor, for example, remains in the red.) So I have had to explore other options. I still have not signed the printing/distribution deal on offer that I mentioned earlier (although I may yet do so). On another front, I have for some time been aware of some interesting web-sites that offer allow the general public to fund projects. Kickstarter is the big one (although they do not allow non-USA citizens to raise funds), and another more universal one is indiegogo (with a Canberra comics collective being successful in raising funds for the publication of Beginnings: A Comics Anthology and which was financially supported by Comicoz). I am presently weighing my options about my seeking to raise funds through one of these sites/methods for the next Comicoz project ...
And I shall talk about it in due course, here ....