The Death of the Six Swords and Career Adaption

Life never goes the way you plan and not every creative project works out

The title kind of says it all.

Yes, for those who have followed me for a few years now, the creator-owned comic I’ve co-authored since 2016 is no more. After three completed issues, one graphic novel, a near-completed fourth issue, two successful Kickstarters, one unsuccessful Kickstarter, and lots and lots of promotional art, the series is well…no more.

After taking three years to fulfill our last Kickstarter in 2020, what was a labor of love simply became labor.

What started as an idea in about 2013-ish to the four years of actively writing starting in 2015, producing, marketing, attending conventions, and all that goes into creator-owned comics, we (the writing team) spent probably between 20-25k to make Six Swords possible, probably more over those four issues, with only about an 8-10k return on investment.

That’s for anyone who wants to know the reality of ‘coming up’ in the comic ‘biz’. It’s a lot of investment, a lot, with little return in the beginning, sometimes even taking decades for some creators to truly break even from all their books.

Unlike novels, comic writers have to pay artists to create the material unless they are one of the special unicorns that I am completely and utterly jealous of, who do both. In comics, comic writers create the scripts and then pay the artist to produce the book from that script, and then depending on the artist, an inker, a colorist, and a letterer might have to get tacked on, too. Unless you’re at a big publisher, basically only Marvel or DC, with an exception or two here and there, comic writers are paying for their material to be produced and then making it back off of book sales, which don’t always pay themselves off.

Is it rough? Yeah. Stressful? Absolutely. The cliche ‘comics will break your heart’? At times.

Usually, the roller coaster ride and the moments of starving artist are worth it if your heart is the work. And after nearly a decade of being one cog in the Six Swords machine, my heart has moved on for a variety of reasons.

We started this journey naive, like many, and I have to say, there is a Jim Zub blog post that basically summed up our entire experience, and I’ll leave it at that.

Besides the highs and lows, frustrations, and money lit on fire, my desire to write, create, and hopefully climb to the mid-card of comics has never wavered. It’s never been a question of what I was doing, just that I fell out of love with this particular book.

It was a co-production that saw co-creators go their separate ways, and I’ve never felt the book was ‘mine’ but ‘ours’; without the group element, it doesn’t make much sense to hobble along just cause. Which, in a way, sucks because of the entire series we created thus far; the unreleased one is by far my favorite and our best work on the book:

Plaid Klaus (VOID TRIP, HIVEMIND) captured the essence of this story in so many ways. It was the perfect encapsulation of these characters and how I saw the series in my own mind. It stings quite a bit it’ll be locked in a vault not to see the light of day.

Plus, you know, all the money that went into producing a book that will never see the light of day…

But that’s life, and it’s definitely part of the learning aspect of comics, unfortunately. Maybe, if there’s enough interest, I’ll have someone run a Kickstarter for us on the fourth issue, but that’s a big ‘if.’

One thing I’ve taken from this whole experience is that I should have listened to the advice of a particular mentor about ‘it’s a marathon, not a race.’ In retrospect, going headfirst into one series so deeply and investing everything in one basket was a poor decision, which then tied up financials on other projects until this one was re-couped. I placed a bet on the series and lost.

Plus, there were other pieces I didn’t heed as much as I should have either, but you know, hindsight.

In what is essential the eulogy of the Six Swords, I am very thankful for the learning experience across the board and that I’ve been lucky enough to have this experience and survive. The next steps are all about not repeating the same mistakes and paying that advice forward to others to hopefully help in their own journeys. The mistakes were an opportunity; what matters is adapting from the failures, building from them, and using them as an advantage.

I’m still a nobody, working for ‘hot dogs and a handshake’ in high school gyms.

But, I will say, and continue to reiterate, the last three years off, getting regular life under control, and now being afforded the opportunity to re-enter the ring with a new mindset, more mature, better informed, and as hungry as ever, has been a blessing.

This game is a marathon and something I plan to stick with for the long haul. Slow and steady wins this particular kind of race.

I look forward to providing more material I’ve been working on that is comic-related, as well as some none comic stuff, like martial art pieces and personal things. This substack will continue as an informal way to share these projects, put conscious streams of thought to pad, share some thoughts and advice, and even talk about those failures that are sure to come.

Thank you for listening and following along, I appreciate it.