Comic Genesis Forums

Disclaimers:
1) Vaguely pissed, therefore am not to blame for any spelling mistakes. The overall idea however is good, irregardless of my brain state
2) Am a complete and utter t-shirt freak, have over 70 of the silly things already, but always looking for additions.

Those over, I would like to raise the idea of Albion Fuzz merchandise, directed towards the idea of a t-shirt (or t-shirts) specifically, but also in the general idea of other merch, like custom 'toons and so on (artist time permitting, I am very well aware of the stresses of uni right now).

I'm not an artist (lack of any artistic ability being the main reason), but vague ideas along the theme of a character + logo on the front, with some strip on the back appears to be a popular option for many other webcomics.

Other ideas are welcome, they're probably better than mine...

Heck, I'd buy it!

Well, without delving into artists'time or interest, there's two ways to do it:

A, have the shirts printed by a supplier and sell them, or B, set up something like a Cafepress account.

Cafepress is easy, quick, and takes away all the worries of handling the shirts, money, sales and customer support. The drawback is your profit margin- if that's the idea- is absurdly low. Keep the price of the shirt reasonable and you're making only a few dollars per. On the third hand counterpoint, you save time and aggravation with not having to deal with shipping and customers, so it's a balance. You also don't have to worry about unsold stock.

Having the shirts printed can be workable, if you don't mind the few extra E-mails and trips to the post office. However, you'll have to fork out a fair chunk right at the beginning, and hope to recoup the loss. If they don't sell, you're stuck with 'em.

However, both options miss the main point of actual sales. One fellow I know has had a Cafe account with six different artworks available for four months, on a strip that sees nearly a thousand regular readers, and has sold about five items, total.

I've talked to other artists ("Strippers" in the old Bloom County parlance. ) with similar results. Most use CP, and so aren't "out" anything but a little time. I did note that Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary had small batches done professionally (rather than through a service like CafePress) and it seems to me I recall him mentioning that 24 shirts took nearly a year to sell. (And Schlock gets something like a million-plus page views a month- KeenSpots' seventh or eighth best strip.)

Thus, I would suggest for those who might like a Fuzz shirt, perhaps JimRob can offer a couple of different designs, or a choice of two or three strips. Those on the board (and the regular-readers-but-not-lurkers through a main page post) can "vote" as it were, and JR can (all assuming he's interested) post it to CP for an indeterminate period.

And with the massive influx of hard cash, perhaps he can go 'round the pub and have a pint on us.

Rennen

Thus, I would suggest for those who might like a Fuzz shirt, perhaps JimRob can offer a couple of different designs, or a choice of two or three strips. Those on the board (and the regular-readers-but-not-lurkers through a main page post) can "vote" as it were, and JR can (all assuming he's interested) post it to CP for an indeterminate period.

Deciding what's popular in advance is, methinks, a vital step in the process, should you decide to go ahead with it.

AF merchandise? Hmm, that gives me an idea! With JR's permission, I might like to create a pair of Sybil & Alex plush dolls

I did not post the previous message three times, and there are definitely some replies to this topic (it says there aren't any on the main forum page). Keenspace has some bugs that need to be worked out, I think.

Hmm. I've thought about merchandising in the past... I'm not all that keen on it as a whole, unless it's something original or better than online (e.g. a printed collection, limited-edition prints, etc). This reservation aside, SGR's tea-towels seemed particularly good to me; perhaps a copy of the 'How to Cook' strip?

I'm afraid I don't really like the idea of plush dolls, though I've no doubt you could make them well. It's a bit... cutesy. And you'd have fun trying to work their shapes out (which, after a year and a half, I still haven't). If you really want to make them, go ahead, but I wouldn't really encourage you to, if you see what I mean.

Sorry about the boards... I'll delete such messages as get repeated.

Okey Doke; to be faithful to your wishes, I will place the project in my 'vault' for now. If I decide to pursue it again*, I will let you know. I had two main reasons for wanting to do it; first, for my love of the comic (I only realized later that it might convey the exact opposite feeling) and second, because it presented an interesting challenge. It would be very difficult to get the correct form (if there is a correct form ). But, now that I look back on it, it was actually a pretty dumb idea to begin with. Because I can't draw, I have to look for alternative means of producing fanart, and on this I utterly flunked. I'll find some other way, though. Wait and see.

James C.

* Unlikely.