https://twitter.com/stillnewtwallen/status/1479189296070414340
It’s called Florida Man Saves Christmas. He has some concept art in the link above. This concept art has been around since at least October 2019. He posted it on Facebook then. But now it’s back.
He expects issue 1 to be shipping in April. He’s going to print 1000 copies. Then he says something about Kickstarter that I couldn’t figure out.
What is the comic about? I don’t know. All he says is that it’s a mix between Eastbound and Down and Hellboy. I have no idea what Eastbound and Down is. Let me look this up.
A sitcom about an ex-football player who gets a job as a teacher.
Umm…okay. Now let me look up Hellboy. I know it’s a comic but I never read it. I only saw bits of the movie.
A well-meaning demon.
So…I don’t know. It’s a comic book about something and Newt is excited about it.
Maybe I can get some clues from the concept art.
There’s a gorilla, a sexy lady, the titular Florida man, some sexy zombies, a tentacled monster, some sexy ladies on a boat.
Ummm…well, I’ll say this. This isn’t as idiotic an idea as his movie. I don’t mean the actual concept but just making a comic book versus making a movie. A comic book surely costs less to produce and is easier to do. So there’s a sliver of hope that this might be sort of okay.
Can we assume that Madam Fomo’s comic book is never going to be released? She said that she had a two year contract with an unnamed publisher to develop an original comic. She said this over two years ago and we haven’t heard anything about this shit in like 22 months.
I wanted to make a comic book but I was like 14 years old at the time. I had some characters but they were just Chinese bootleg versions of existing superheroes. So I had like a Punisher character and a Wolverine character as the protagonists and they were fighting like a Violator character. I never got to a storyboard stage because I couldn’t draw.
Newt also can’t draw so he’s just going to be writing this. He hired some people to do the art. This art from 2019 looks fine but is the quality going to continue to be at that level? And they’re going to crank out 30 pages by April? Newt says that he has six pages so far so I guess just 24 pages to go.
And he says that there’s going to be 12 issues. Really? Come on. I’d be shocked if any of this happens. He’s in way over his head. Twelve issues? Just focus on releasing one issue right now.
But if any of this gets released, I’ll happily purchase a copy and review it. Maybe it will be good. Live in hope.
But…Florida Man Saves Christmas. And it will be released in April. So not Christmastime. And…it’s going to be a 12 part comic. Maybe it will all be explained but this seems like a bad idea.
What about just a one shot? I read some Jeffrey Dahmer comic recently. My Friend Dahmer. It was originally a 24 page one shot comic and then, after the comic achieved some measure of success, he released a 224 page version. But this 224 version took six years to make.
The comic is also just in black and white. Six years. I don’t think that Newt realises any of this. It takes a lot of time. There are setbacks.
Also, the guy who wrote My Friend Dahmer had a story to tell. He went to school with Jeffrey Dahmer. And the guy was able to write.
I’m not sure if Florida Man Saves Christmas will be as engaging.
Newt also had concept art of Shark Vampire made. So that’s another bad sign. If he considered that piece of shit to be good enough to commission concept art, it doesn’t bode well for Florida Man.
Shark Vampire. He actually thought that this was a good idea. How? All of his ideas are like this. Just combine an animal with a classic monster. It’s fucking stupid. There’s no imagination or creativity here AT ALL.
It’s the level that I was at when I was 14 and coming up with my stupid superheroes. As an adult, there is no fucking way that I would pursue this brainless idea. “The world must see my rip off Wolverine character.” The idea was idiotic. I’d come up with something better now.
Maybe I should make my own comic. I don’t think that the woman who did the banner could do it. Her art seems to be limited to anime characters and like Pop Vinyl figures, but only from the waist up. Maybe she can’t draw feet or something. It’s a common problem.
Let me check Reddit.
I’m seeing a guy on the ComicBookCollabs subreddit asking for $60/page, black and white. That’s probably about right. Here’s another guy who’s charging $80 for black and white, $90 for colour. Here’s a guy $50/page in manga style.
Those are fine prices. I wouldn’t do a job like that for anywhere near those prices. It would take a fucking age and then you get $80 or whatever.
But I would just want rough sketches. What can I get for $5/page? And I’d make the story no longer than 20 pages.
Let’s assume that Newt is paying $60/page and it’s a 30 page comic. That’s $1800 right there. Why is he blowing his money like this? Then however much it costs to have this shit printed out. And then multiply all of this by 12 for the 12 issues that he plans to release. How does he even have this much money saved up? He’s been doing jobs in the $30,000/year range.
And who’s going to buy any of this? I know that 1000 is a low print run, that’s probably the minimum that any self-publishing company will take but that’s still 1000 copies that he has to sell. What’s the distribution method? His Twitter? He doesn’t even have 1000 people reading that shit never mind 1000 people who would part with money to buy his comic book.
Wow. Somebody says that it only costs between $0.10 and $3.00 per copy to print a comic book from a company in China. Let’s say that it costs $1.50/copy. That’s $1500 for 1000 comics.
What price would he have to sell this shit for to recoup his investment? It”s 1800 for the art, $1500 for the printing.
Well, that’s only $3.30 per copy. If he sells the comics for five bucks each, which wouldn’t be unreasonable, he’d make a profit. Not a huge profit, not a profit worth investing all of this time and effort into, but a profit.
Plus, this assumes that he sells these things. Which…again…show me the 1000 people who are going to buy this thing. There’s me, there’s a handful of his weird “fans”, there’s two or three lunatics on Reddit. Where are the other 990 people going to come from?
But whatever. I’m looking forward to it. Just make one fucking comic and see where you go from there. Don’t promise a 12 issue run.
Oh my god. I just had a brilliant idea. Comic book crossover: Florida Man Meets Shark Vampire. He’d make a million dollars.
Not that it matters here but Eastbound is about an ex-baseball player, which is probably why it has more of a fanbase than if it was just about some lame football player. That said, it's also hilarious that Newt would claim anything he makes is a mix between two famous way better things like that.Hellboy is a famous comic (though not as famous or good as Spawn) that is like a standard for horror nerds to fap to because it has to do with demons obviously. Eastbound and Down is an actually really funny parody of American sports douchebaggery and egotism.Neither of these things should Newt be comparing to his work. In fact, never say your work is “like _______” and make people think to themselves how it might be similar. I still sort of feel sorry for the dude, but you've been right about him a while and he's just become a sadsack and just barely holding on to life. A comic book is not going to improve that especially when you won't even sell all 1000 copies. You should be using all this time and imagination on/at a normal job or perhaps a lower end horror film company like Asylum. I don't know, the dude's situation is depressing to even talk about. Imagine being hit this hard from not working at Screenwave anymore LOL
I'm intrigued by this comic publishing idea so I got to looking and found this site:https://mixam.com/comicbooksThe cheapest price for a 20 page comic is $1150 for 1000 copies. I think that this includes shipping, which is 167 pound package, but I can't be sure.If he goes with a black and white comic, the cost would only be $731.Maybe he can just print them out himself. Maybe get the cover done professionally but take that $1000 and get a good printer instead. Also, this paper seems to be slick. I'd like to see an old school type comic that's done on newsprint. It gives it a grittier feel. That has to be cheaper. Maybe way cheaper.