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I first met Mark Waid at the ICV2 Conference on Comics and Digital, held immediately preceding the 2010 New York Comic Con. At the time, he was with BOOM! Studios, and was getting a lot of flack for his vocal support of moving comics towards digital. “As an industry, we cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage by two thousand retail accounts”, was the quote that I most remember.

Since then, he’s left BOOM! and started a digital comics platform, Thrillbent, with Leverage creator (and comics writer)John Rogers.

The Onion AV Club (source of the great Louis C.K. interview I posted a link to here last week) has a pre-SDCC interview with Waid, where he talks, among other things, about his views on the digital future of comics, and the current state of the industry.

Waid on the bizarre contradiction, where superheroes are more popular than ever, yet comics themselves are not:

“We have over the past 50 years very, very successfully taken what used to be a mass medium and successfully turned it into a niche market. Which is crazy, the idea that comics are a destination point now, that I can’t find them anywhere. If I’m in the middle of the country, I have to get in a phonebook and see if there’s a store within 100 miles of me that even carries comics.”

Transitioning from that reality to digital makes sense:

“The beauty of digital, the beauty of the iPad, the beauty of mobile devices is that that’s the new newsstand. That gives us the potential to reach out to people and give them comics on a platform that is as ubiquitous to them as convenience stores were to you and me when we were growing up. That doesn’t mean they’ll automatically find comics. It doesn’t mean that is an automatic fix. I’m not saying that because we sold a million iPads today means that there’s a million other people going to read comics next week. But at least there’s a fighting chance. There’s a much better chance to reach them through the iPad than through comics stores.”

And his view of the future of comics, of particular interest to Insurgent Creatives:

“Self-publishing on the web, covering production costs through inexpensive downloads and/or donations, then aggregating in print along with special bonus features for those fans who want a physical object to put on their shelves. Skirting around the big players like DC and Marvel, and realizing that with social media being the power it is now, if you’re willing to put the time and effort into it and your work is good, you can build a self-sustaining fan base that may not kick in enough to buy you a new BMW every year, but can at least make your enterprise profitable, where you’re making a decent living doing what you love.”

…and that’s it, right there. The key to it all, regardless of if you’re a writer, an artist, a musician… the tools exist that enable you to do it yourself, and sure, you might not get rich — but you’ll get a decent living. If you were offered the opportunity to create for a living, and told that you probably will not get wealthy or famous, but that you will be able to survive on what you create — wouldn’t you take that opportunity?

So, why haven’t you?

 
 

This was pointed out by Chuck Wendig on Twitter — Comedian (and Writer / Director / Editor / Actor / Etc.) Louis C.K. has done an interview with The Onion’s AV Club which is well worth reading for any Insurgent Creative.

For those few who aren’t aware, Louis CK is a comedian, who has been a staff writer for Letterman, Conan O’Brian, and Chris Rock. He’s done stand-up, television, etc — and stars in a critically-acclaimed comedy on FX, Louie, which he also writes, directs and edits. In 2011, he took the full leap into creative insurgency, producing his own comedy special, Louis C.K. Live At The Beacon Theater, and selling it directly via his own website. He made over a million dollars — direct, with no distributor or broadcaster –and has now decided to sell tickets to his new comedy tour the same way. No Ticketmaster or other processing middle man, and he’s bringing in millions and expanding the tour as a result.

The interview discusses his approach to the constant pressure of having so much on his plate, as well as his business model, both of which should be of interest to any Creative looking to carve out a living independently.

Regarding his method of business, he says:

“Yeah, well, I like to try stuff. I like to try to see if something can work. It’s really satisfying to figure out, “What if we try it this way? What if we made it way more pleasurable and cheaper to come see me? Or to watch my show online? And if we do this right, how much benefit were we getting from the giant companies?”

On the subject of pressure:

” I like pressure. Pressure doesn’t make me crack. It’s enabling. I eat pressure, and there might be times when I get a bad feeling in my gut that this might be too much, but you feel pressure when you’re not doing something, you know? When you’re getting ready for something, you feel pressure—when you’re anticipating. But when you’re constantly in activity, there’s no time for pressure to just sit there and make you crack.”

The more interviews like this that I read, I continually see those common traits among those that I identify as Insurgent Creatives — a relentless activity, a drive to try things for the sake of trying them, etc. These are, really, the same traits that have always driven people to creative pursuits — the main difference is that now, the same sort of mind can also apply itself to questions of production, distribution and marketing; areas which had traditionally been handled by the media companies. In a way, this independent entrepreneurial method becomes another form of artistic performance — applying divergent thinking to a traditional method to see what results.