While it definitely remains to be seen whether I'll have the financial aspect ready in time to prepare, I am hoping to take the next step toward broadening my audience and beginning to actually draw income from my comic as its second year of existence begins next February. I'm tentatively planning to start putting money into ads on other websites via Project Wonderful and other means and to attend a comics show or two in my local area with perhaps some print copies of individual issue-sized segments (between 32-48 pages) of my initial storyline, The Warstar Gambit, along with some other inexpensive items.
Part of establishing your comic's identity is targeting its most likely audience; being a sci-fi military adventure saga, my demographic would likely be made up mostly of youth and young adult males (though I realize that ladies occasionally like that stuff too). But Tomes of Atlantis kind of walks a tightrope, which will be particularly evident in this week's post and many in the weeks to come. It's targeting Christian readers on one hand while reaching out to lost readers who'd never pick up a Bible or darken a church door directly. While my hope is that its underlying themes will help lost readers to pause and consider a Biblical worldview and its implications (ultimately the need for a relationship with Jesus Christ), I also have to be careful to avoid running such folks off by being overly "preachy" or heavy handed by keeping such references in small but effective doses. I believe most Christian readers will be able to recognize the topics and appreciate how they're relevant in our society that right now is frankly a total mess, and hopefully they'll find in my comic a good sci-fi saga they can read without an atheistic, secular worldview being predominant.
Ultimately, though, I have no idea whether or how many lost readers will be willing to tolerate what they're reading; let's face it, you mention God or Jesus in a typical internet forum right now and you'll likely be trolled from every side, and often in a very vulgar manner as I'm sure many of us here have experienced. There's a lot of vitriolic hatred around us for Someone so many people say they don't believe in. I can't control what those readers do or decide as far as whether to keep reading; I just want to present a Gospel message in what I hope will be a worthwhile, entertaining story and let people choose for themselves (Keep in mind that in essence it's not YOU the readers are rejecting, so if you can relate to this please stay positive, don't take anything personally, and stay the course). But that's precisely why I made so many of my characters lost and yet simultaneously identifiable and sympathetic, so that perhaps a lost reader might gravitate toward a favorite character that poses the arguments they would or has a background they can relate to. In a sense in this way they'll live that character's experiences vicariously; at least that's my hope.
In closing, I would like to ask permission to include the fact that I am a member of the Christian Comic Arts Society on things such as future business cards, banners, etc. I think that doing so would, at least in a small way, let potential readers know where I stand up front, and then the decision to read my material would be up to them. That's the tightrope; not being heavy handed but at the same time making it clear who you are as a writer and as a person. If we're a light we can't hide; we have to let the chips fall where they may and trust the Lord to give the increase according to His will.
