Host your own comic con

Image from - http://comicsalliance.com/zdarscon-chip-zdarsky-sex-criminals-toronto-convention-interview/

Chip Zdardsky, comic artist for 'Sex Criminals' and probably a bunch of other stuff. I only know of him for that to be honest. He set up his own comic con 'Zdarscon' across from the comic convention, Fan Expo in Toronto, Canada. Link to an interview with the hilarious Mr. Zdardsky here - http://comicsalliance.com/zdarscon-chip-zdarsky-sex-criminals-toronto-convention-interview/

I won't repeat much from the interview because I've linked it and you can read it in it's entirety there, but the gist of it is that Zdarksy set up a one man stall on wheels across from the venue that hosted the convention Fan Expo - http://fanexpocanada.com/

I know this isn't in the UK but it's quite a novel idea for distribution. Setting up your own stall should be something encouraged, it reminds me of newsstands, which of course was one of the original distributors of comics, as well as newspapers of course. I don't know if they still have newsstands that sell comics, probably something to look into... Regardless, this is an inspiration of sorts to those in the comic industry, or rather those trying to get into it through self publication. Although some changes possibly need making, such as doing it somewhere you're allowed and not likely to infringe on any legal troubles. I suppose it's not too dissimilar to how a musician would stand on the street busking and therefore this type of thing could be possible following that logic.

It would be quite a confident move of the individual but imagine what it would do for comics. Comics on the street, there for all to see, you'd have no excuse in terms of availability, you could pass by on your way to work and pick up a comic. Perhaps it's quite a optimistic way of viewing it but if anyone were to take the risk I reckon it would do wonders for the distribution and publicity of comics.

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is exactly what it sounds like. It's held on the first Saturday of May where participating comic stores give away comics with the free comic book day logo on the cover.

Here's a video to explain it further.

Although this video only seemingly portrays it as an American event, it's held in the UK as well by independent comic stores, but not necessarily all. It's an event any store in the world can choose to take part of.

Images from FCBDs' website here - http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/985

Free comic book day is a great way to get people to physically get up and go to comic shops. It's usually those that are already interested in comics that know about it, but it also attracts new readers, and once they're introduced, they end up hooked for life. Perhaps not so dramatic as that but you do go in for your free comic and you usually stay and browse. As you usually have to buy a comic to get a free comic, you end up browsing for something anyway.

It's been running since 2002 and personally I only learnt about it a few years ago myself. About the same time I realised there was a comic store in Lancaster and since I've managed to catch 2 of them. The event attracts many people, often families who try and get their children into comics. As with comic conventions, fans will dress up as their favourite comic characters on this occasion. 

Unfortunately for some, comics are heavily dominated by superheroes in the first place, so it's needless to say that the majority of the free comics are superhero comics. Again, I'm not saying I dislike superheroes but imagine if every film or novel was the same genre, that's what comics appear like to some; they need variety.

From my own experience the first FCBD event I went to I picked up The Walking Dead free comic. This collected some short stories of specific characters from the comic, some that had been printed before, but some that were exclusive to this free comic. This was great for me because I love The Walking Dead. If memory serves me right I'm sure that year there was a variety of genres available from the free comics. However this year at my local comic store the selection of free comics was lacking in variety. The only ones there were either superhero, or aimed at children from children TV shows. Which is great for the kids and superhero fans but I wanted something different. In the end, I picked up a the Guardians of the Galaxy one because of the upcoming film release. Unfortunately it didn't make much of an impression on me as I can't remember a single thing about it, but that's just me.

To round up, it's great publicity for comics and as far as I know, the only medium that does it; you don't get free novel day, free album day or free film day (I haven't checked though, but at the same time I've never heard of them).

I created a survey

As some primary research, I created a survey to collect information on the distribution of comics in the UK. I've tried to include any format of the visual narrative medium into my survey but my main focus is comics as I'm mostly interested in how many comic shops are out there in the UK. However I do want to collect information on all formats of visual narrative as well.

Here's the link - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SNSM7F9

The 10 questions are as follows;
1. What is your Age?

2. What city/town/village do you currently live in?

3. Where do you get your comics/graphic novels from? (click all that apply)
(multiple choices with other input)

4. What influences why and where you get your comics from? (e.g. price, availability)

5. How many comic stores that you know of are in your area? (Specifically ones that have current releases)

6. How often do you buy/obtain comics?
(multiple choices)

7. What do you buy/read more, comics or graphic novels?
(multiple choices with other input)

8. What genre do you prefer to read and does this influence what you buy?

9. Do you have a favourite comic writer/artist/creator? If so, who?

10. Do you have a favourite publisher of comics/graphic novels? (e.g. Marvel, DC, image, vertigo, DC Thomson, Accent UK)

In this post I thought I'd just explain why I chose these questions and what I'm hoping to get from them. I'll just list the number to refer to the questions.

To start with;
Q1 - I think collecting the age of those taking the survey is vital, it gives an indication of what is more common to certain demographics. Instead of a categorised option, I opted for a text box as the categorised version was limited to above 18. I marked this question essential.

Q2 - Location is also vital, especially as I'm researching into the distribution of comics within the UK. Secondary to that, I need to see that my survey is making its way around the country to get an idea of the availability of the retail of comics/graphic novels. This question is also marked essential.

After getting the categorising questions, this gets into the more definitive questions. I haven't marked any more essential after Q2 as I thought I'd give space to people who might fill in my survey despite not buying/reading comics, even though their information isn't really useful...

Q3 - This question is a click all that apply of where people get their comics/graphic novels from. I made it all that apply because you don't necessarily buy from one place. These answers are essential to my research due to the title of distribution. (I should probably edit it and mark it essential). Where are people getting their comics from? This is mainly what I need to find out.

On my first go of this survey I put down all the options I could think of (at the time) and a 'other' text input. After a few hours of sharing my survey around via facebook and twitter I received some feedback via comments suggesting what I should add as options (and also other suggestions for the other questions). I amended this when I could by adding some more options, using those comments and what people had already inputted in the 'other' choice.  (Thanks to Dan Berry and John Freeman).

Q4 - Another thing I want to find out is what influences why and where people get their comics from. I opted for a larger text box to encourage some some further explanation. Two suggestions I made were price and availability; price of course would sway most people's decisions on any matter, although not vital to my research, it does play a role. Availability of course is more direct to my enquiries, comics need to be available for people to buy/read them.

A problem that I've experienced is that I wasn't aware of the availability of comics in my area, as in weekly and monthly releases. As my interest in comics grew I realised that there was a comic stall in a market in Lancaster, which now has moved to it's own location - https://www.facebook.com/FirstAgeComics

Q5 - Given that the person filling in the survey has already given their location, this is a great way of discovering how many comic shops there are across the country, or at least those that the survey fillers are aware of. I suppose a problem with this question is the names of those stores, or a defining area radius. The question provides a text box for the person to expand if they feel it necessary.

To try and illustrate that problem... Person 1 might live in location A with 0 comic stores but person 2 lives in location C with 1 comic shop and location B has 2 comic shops. Location B is the nearest city to locations A and C. Person 2 considers location B and C to be in their area, totaling to 3 comic shops but person 1 considers that all locations are within their area and also puts 3, or they could put 2 or 0 if they count location B in their area or exclusively location A respectively. If that's too confusing I'll probably draw that out when I collect my answers to this question and post it.

Also the survey fillers may claim to live in location B when they actually live in location A for survey purposes.

Q6 - To get an idea of how frequently the survey filler buys/obtains comics. 'Obtain' is used for those who don't necessarily spend money to get their comics, for example through torrent downloads, gifts or their local library. I made this multiple choice and included a 'never' answer, which is there for anyone who stumbles on my survey and they don't read comics themselves. As I mentioned before, their results aren't so helpful.

Q7 - Another multiple choice question, by asking this I should get an idea of what's more common in the UK, I'd predict that graphic novels are because of their availability. They're distributed through the same way literature is, Waterstones or Amazon for example and usually cheaper from the latter than the prior. I added a 'other' text input option for anyone who considers what they read doesn't quite fall into those 2 definitive terms; 'zines', 'minicomics' and 'webcomics' are some examples.

The next few questions aren't vital but I feel I can assume some information from the answers I'll receive.

Q8 - Genre. Personally I'll read most things as I want to create comics myself, I need to be open to what the possibilities are, however some may have select tastes for their own reasons. Asking this question I can get an idea of what kind of stories people in the UK are more interested in. Most people think superheroes when they think of comics, but I think the industry in the UK is getting more interest because there's more creator owned, original stories being made, proving that comics aren't just capes and spandex; they're capable of a lot more. Responses to this question will hopefully prove me right, although as comic fans are commonly into superheroes I may get more predictable results.

That's not to say I dislike superheroes, I like them, I just think comics as a medium of storytelling shouldn't be exclusively superhero stories. Also I'm aware that there have been stories told through visual narrative of various genres for as long as superhero stories, but there's no denying that the capes and spandex have dominated the perception of the industry.

Q9 - Favourites. We all have favourites of something, favourite actor, favourite director, favourite authors. I'm interested in the survey takers' favourites in the comic industry. Who are their favourite comic writers, artists and creators, this also gives me an idea of what type of comics people go for, as different creators are known for different genres or just being flexible in their storytelling in general. Although some people might not have favourites and may skip this question.

When I started reading comics I would look for specific names. When I read Watchmen, I looked for more Alan Moore, then amazon suggested other graphic novels and at the time kick-ass was coming out which intrigued me, I got the book and read that. I had seen the film 'Sin City' and loved it so I looked up Frank Millers' books, which led me to his famous 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' and '...Strikes Again'. So from one name my interest in comics escalated continuously, leading me to reading various stories by different creators by association. Even now I do it when I go into a comic store, I may go in looking for a specific comic, but I'll also take some time to have a browse and see if I can spot a 'Mark Millar' or  a 'Robert Kirkman' (I look for artists too but the ones I'd look for are usually the one I'm going in to get).

Q10 - Adding to the favourites is publisher, deemed irrelevant by some, although I think that in most cases a publisher speaks volumes from what they choose to publish. If the survey taker mentions a specific publisher that they like, I can again make some assumptions of what genre of comic they go for and in the bigger picture what is more popular in the UK.

For example, DC and Marvel would be your superheroes, they're the big 2 of course and they dominate the shelves of the comic shops I've been to. On the other hand, Image comics (my personal favourite) are known for a wider range of variety in their stories, granted they do have capes and spandex too (e.g. 'Invincible') they also publish comics like 'CHEW', a humorous crime story of a detective who is a 'chibopath' (gets psychic impressions of whatever he eats). 'The Walking Dead' Is a long running series with Image that you've probably heard of, if not, it's a story of the struggle of humanity set in a zombie apocalypse (I hope that does it justice because it's really more than just zombies). 'Saga', a sci-fi drama? Is another of my favourites from Image comics about the life of a child that's born of two warring alien species (again I hope I've done that justice too, it's also really good).

Having gone through all 10 questions, I hope I've explained thoroughly what I'm hoping to achieve with my survey. Any readers of this blog (if any) feel free to comment asking any questions if there's something that I've not quite made clear, or just any questions on the subject, any feedback will be helpful towards my research and eventually, my dissertation.

If you haven't already, could you please fill out the survey here - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SNSM7F9

If you have filled it out, then thank you, and thanks for taking the time to read this.