Heroes inc.

I had a great experience with Comicbreak, that I’d like to share with you.  I bought myself some trade paperbacks as a Christmas present. Under NO circumstances would I buy them here in Finland!! A typical trade costs around 35€ ($48) here!  So online was the way to go. There’s lots of comic book  services out there.  Probably the biggest, most popular being Discount Comic Book Service (DCBS for short ) For guys like me on the other side of the globe, they’re a blessing.  I was originally going to order some books from DCBS because the guys over at ComicgeekSpeak are always talking about it.

But then one of their podcast episodes was sponsored by a “newcomer”  called Comicbreak. I went to check it out and was really happy with it. Like DCBS they also have lots of discounts and they have they’re site setup with things you see in a comic book store. Everything from a 99 cent bin to comic sets. You get 30% off pre-orders, up to 20% off subscriptions, free bags and boards!!, free shipping for orders over $75 and tons of other stuff.

But onto my happy experience… So I chose to go with Comicbreak because, though I absolutely have nothing against the guys at DCBS, I really want to encourage the “little man”, the “newcomers”,  because a lot of you know how it is to make it out there.  I ordered five trade paperbacks: The Death of Captain America: vol.1-3, Captain America: The Man With No Face and Wildcats: Street Smart.  I calculated that they’d be here just in time for Christmas.  But then I got an email from them saying that all of the comics had come in, but that one of the Cap tradebacks was damaged. I sent an email back saying that I understood and that it was unfortunate, because I was really looking forward to some Christmas reading since these books are hard to get here.   But that’s the way things go sometimes. Thanked them for contacting me and went on with Cristmas preperation.

Then two days later I get another email telling me to hang on, they’ll send all of the books, damaged one too, so I can get started on my reading and then  send the un-damaged book later!  At first I didn’t know what to say.  You DEFINATELY don’t get that kind of customer service here.  All I could do was thank them from the bottom of my heart.

So it goes without saying, that I really suggest you check out Comicbreak.  For people living in the US it’s great but for us living abroad it’s even better! If you’re worried about shipping, remember: Orders over $75 are shipped for free.  Even to us guys N gals overseas. And for orders under $75 I think it’s possible to get a flat rate envelope, which costs a little over $12 (if I remember correctly)

Like I said at the beginning of this post: comics cost an arm and a leg here.  I don’t know how it is in  other countries, but there’s no way that I could have bought those books here.  I did some searching to see what they would have cost. It would have cost me a whopping 175€ !! That’s around $243 for five trades! Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Well, now you know why I chose Comicbreak.

Check them out!

-Scott-

I’ve been getting emails from people saying that the site is playing music and noise…! I don’t hear it on my computer or on our laptop so I was just wondering how many people hear stuff on the  Heroes, inc site?

Obviously there is some kind of hacking still going on.  Someone has a soft spot for Heroes, inc. it seems…

That’s right. Some greasy little scumbag has planted his code into the site.  So if you’re seeing this you’re lucky.  Google has RedFlagged  Heroes,  inc. and scare everyone off.   

I’m trying now to get things cleaned up and salvaged. Finding all of the little buggers is not fun.

-Scott-

I’ve never made it a secret, that Heroes,inc. is more than just a hobby to keep me busy.  I love comics and I love to draw and write, so creating my own comic was only natural.  So far I think that Heroes, inc. has constantly gone in the right direction.  Just by looking at the reader statistics, I know that I’m not the only one who thinks that.

However… the whole plan of gaining interest with your webcomic then branching out to selling the actual magazine… well, easier said than done. It’s been a great year, which in webcomic time isn’t very long, I know, but… I think there are many reason for the lack of it’s success. A big one is that it’s impossible for me to hit the Cons with Heroes, inc.  Comic Conventions are one of indie creators’ biggest income (or so I’ve heard) Not just selling the book, but all the other merchandise. Gettinfg a table at Artist Alley.  Not even being on the same continent is kind of a monnkey wrench So…

…It’s time to shop Heroes, inc. around the various publishers.   As we speak I’m trying to write a compact, but info filled synopsis of the whole series. Holy cow! What a job! Doing the pitch is easy. It’s short and to the point. Basically the same as in the ABOUT page.  But the series concept synopsis… whoo boy! Trying to get all the stuff that sets Heroes,inc. apart from other comics, but at the same time keep it to the point, interesting and SHORT is quite an undertaking!

I’ve made a list of publishers that I personally like and wouldn’t mind seeing Heroes, inc published at. If anyone out there has any suggestions, bring them on.  I’m open to all. The first that comes to mind is, of course, IMAGE.  I’m also looking at APE ENTERTAINMENT and ARCHAIA STUDIOS.  I would have liked to try out RED FIVE COMICS, but they’e stated that their not looking for super heroes right now. I also would have tried DYNAMITE, but they’re using the same public domain characters so I don’t think that would work out.

Now many of you are probably going “Well that’s just great! He’s cashing in. Right in the middle of the story too…!”

DON’T WORRY! HEROES,INC. ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE!!  We’ll update at a minimum of once a week.  I know that most of you would rather have the twice a week (even better three times a week) schedule in full color, but unfortunately… not easy to pull off.  Don’t forget the RSS feed, if checking back once a week is too much of a hassle.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress and more than likely I’ll have the trade paperback up for sale (hopefully in January *gulp*) before I get any interest from publishers, so look for that.

-Scott-

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

-Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator’s Alliance–a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image ( available in  color and monochrome).  Besides Diana the wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, The Uniques and four IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles, Love & Capes, and The Dreamer and lots, lots more!  Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th – 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the Comic Creator’s Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com.  To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

-Scott-