John from Beyond

Attention Comic Book Creators! For over 30 years comics has allowed me the freedom to live a great life, provide for my family in a one income household, befriend my heroes, meet the most interesting people and travel the world. All this came about because I learned how to publish my own creator-owned IP. God Bless you comics and the comic book community for changing my life. Now, cartoonists and writers! Here is some free advice. Comics are VERY competitive. It is extremely rare in these trying times for anyone ever attain the deserved legendary status of @robertliefeld or @GregCapullo while working for Marvel or DC Comics. Instead of chasing that dream, be a @TheBrianPulido. Take charge of your own destiny, your own life and that of your own creations. Learn to create and publish your OWN IPs. Do not ever waste your talent on corporations who are worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS yet who deem you so insignificant that they issue a heinous "pencils down" order to rob you of your livelihood after comic shops closed for a few weeks during a folly that was the COVID pandemic. There are thousands of resources and those who have come before you that can assist you in your quest to independence. I can tell you from experience that there is no greater career satisfaction than to have someone hand you a copy of your IP and thank YOU for creating it. So many creative heroes who changed our world, USN Veterans Denny O'Neil & Dave Cockrum USAF Veterans, Herb Trimpe, & Russ Heath... the list goes on and on, all suffered financial and health hardships after sacrificing decades of their time, talent and lives to mainstream comics. Despite all their contributions, and during their darkest hours, Marvel and DC Comics abandoned them... And left them with nothing. Again, the moral of the funny book story is for you to be strong and publish YOUR own creations. Start a webcomic and promote it panel by panel via social media. Then build yourself a YouTube channel that documents your creational process. Afterwards, move onto crowdfunding and then, if you’re so desire, into comic shops. The fans are out there waiting for something great. GIVE IT TO THEM by giving your all. It is well worth it. Cheers and Happy New Year!