Comicker heading to print
Published 7:30 pm Sunday, March 13, 2016
A little over a year ago, Sean E. Williiams and business partner Saori Adams launched a digital service for comic creators.
Now the duo is geared to take another big step forward.
Comicker Digital, which officially launched the online publishing company with a nod to being more creator friendly, is now ready to launch Comicker Press which will begin selling graphic novel prints.
On March 1 the company launched a Kickstarter campaign to get things off the ground. The campaign, which is a quarter of the way to its goal, will run through the end of the month.
For a relatively young company, the step marks a quick progression to something both Williams and Adams have always targeted since starting Comicker Digital.
“Probably halfway in we realized we needed to seriously go to print as soon as possible,” Williams said.
There are two books currently ready to be published through Comicker Press: “The Casebook of Rabbit Black Volume 1” by Kate Sherron and “Lost Angels Volume 1: Paradise High” by David Accampo and Chris Anderson.
While this has always been the goal, Adams, who lives in New York City, said they got to this point quicker than anticipated.
“Print has always been on our roadmap, and we were fortunate enough to have gotten here sooner than expected due to the ambitiousness of the creators we work with,” she said through a press release.
Boasting the second best most creator-friendly working platform behind Image, Comicker requires two pages a week compared to the 20 pages a month some other companies require. It’s a flexibility that works well with those creators wanting to work on their own material.
“It came from just talking to other creators,” Williams said. “Everyone has a day job or a job working on a book for DC or Marvel. Here they can focus on a model for a creator-owned series.”
And now that they are starting to offer print copies it’s also going to help the creators get their work out more.
“The feedback we’ve been getting has been great,” Williams said. “[We’re] really excited. This will give them a book to give to friends or have at conventions.”
And that’s really where the Kickstarter comes in. Funds raised through the campaign will be used to fund the first run of the prints, but it will also serve to further lay down the foundation of the company for the future.
“Ten years out we are looking to establish ourselves as a mid-level publisher,” Williams said. “We want to be like Dark Horse and IDW and how they are establishments in their community. We want a presence in our community.”