Aspen Comics questions for those who read it or not

[paradise]

hey guys,

So, don't ask me why, but I am trying to figure out how to sell Aspen comics. I don't need " I hate Aspen, because they suck..." type comments, I know there are a lot of them.

I am honestly trying to figure out how to sell those better. Those guys are friends of mine but unfortunately I have not been able to sell their books well. Looking to grow the audience and to find out, IF you like them, what it is that appeals to you and what I should do to grow that audience.

Thanks!!!!

[Andy]

I don't read a lot of Aspen but I enjoyed Lola XOXO. It wasn't perfect but the art is striking and had elements of both Jeremiah and Into the Badlands. It's only a couple of minis right now so its easy to get into.

[Shadowman99]

I've only ever read one title by Aspen, and that was 'Jirni' - a kind of female conan-type character.

All I can say based on that experience is that they desperately need to straighten out their publishing plans. Seriously, they put Series#2 Issue#1 out in say June 2015 with solicits for the remaining issues in the back of the comic. Now, after 6-ish months of following up and not seeing Issue#2 published anywhere I'd genuinely stopped caring whether or not the title would ever see the light of day again.

However, I forgot to take it off my pull list and was surprised one day, about 6/7 months after #1 came out, to find that a new '#1' was sitting in my pullbox for me - turns out this 'new#1' was actually, in fact, just the original issue#2 renumbered because it'd been so *SQUEE* long since the actual issue#1 came out.

Sure, they did actually finish publishing series 2 in the end, but that's the last time I ever buy an Aspen comic. I mean, what kind of writing/publishing schedule bungle caused that to happen? Useless imo.

Now I know it's definitely not up to me to advise you how to run your business but all I can say, based on my experience here, is that I wouldn't dream of working with a publisher this slack if I ran a shop; I simply wouldn't consider it worth my time or effort. I know you mentioned those guys are pals of yours, but based upon what you wrote above Ed, I'm not sure it's necessarily solely your aptitude at selling their product that's lacking: they clearly need to do a much better job of getting their own books out to retailers to sell on in the first place - they're not helping themselves with these kinds of management decisions

[Cyberstrike]

First: They need to stop with the never ending mini-series. Use a mini-series as a either tryout for a series if sells then launch it as an ongoing series if it doesn't sell then reprint it in TPB or HC and move on.

Second: Make deadlines. That will kill a line and a creator's reputation faster than anything.

Third: Variety of art styles. Look I know the late Micheal Turner founded this company and they want to keep his legacy alive but simply put all their solicits make all of the artwork for their books look like it being done by a bunch of Micheal Turner knock-offs.

Fourth: Make TPBs and hardcover collections more available.

Fifth: Stop will all the cheesecake female characters. Look I know again Turner made his reputation off Witchblade, Tomb Raider, and the original Fathom but even with the original Fathom series he had one issue with the lead character barefoot on a beach standing on tip toes like she was wearing high-heels for no real reason. I'm all for strong female characters but the Aspen characters pretty much all look the same to me: busty leggy 90s supermodels with the personality of the awful mid-90s "bad girl" fad.
Sorry but that doesn't appeal to me anymore.

Sixth: What genre for example is: the current Fathom series, Soulfire, Lola, Kiki, and Executive Assistant in? Are they superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy, action, or some kind of hybrid? Are they all in the same universe or each series and their various spin-offs in it's own stand-alone universe? Again I can't figure out what is what and who is who in Previews.

Seventh: Get someone to run the company that knows how to run a comic book company.

[ironherc]

To be honest I've actually been interested in reading Aspen before. Since i was younger Fathom and Soulfire have been interesting enough for me to want to pick them up on trades but problem always came lack of money and spend the bit i had on other bigger things i liked. I also don't know which series are worth getting into besides the two i mentioned and some of the trades are hard to find. Is there any good jumping on point right now?