Something is Changing at Dichosis Studios

Something is Changing at Dichosis Studios

Recently I’ve been thinking about what makes something successful. Last night at the time of this writing I hit 100 likes on my studio’s Facebook page and after watching the Comic Book Heroes documentary air on ABC1 last month I can feel something needs to change before I’m too far down any particular road to turn back.

It goes back to what I thought I ultimately wanted to achieve when I embarked on this journey of running my own alternative comic book publishing house at the beginning of the year. I thought that what I wanted was to produce comics for myself and self-promote my own works.

While this hasn’t changed I’m finding myself at a cross roads caught between the success of digital comics and the webcomic model in America and adapting it to suit a far smaller, near-non-existent Australian comic book industry. 

What is interesting to me is that my webcomic site has done comparatively little for me in contrast to my Facebook page and most of my sales (including sales of digital comics) are converted during convention attendances.

It’s a rare event for me (and I’m fairly certain it has still yet to happen) when someone stumbles across my website and proceeds to purchase a copy of my book online immediately after flicking through the four short comics I have uploaded.

It feels as though my website is really only masquerading as a store front. So what would be the harm in dissolving such a site in exchange for something more professional that yes, would be more static and would update less often?

As of right now Dichosis Studios only publishes my own work and if in future I manage to source and publish other comic artists, would my webcomic site actually be doing my roster of publications a disservice?

I now believe that a webcomic website is just the first step to more solid ground for many creators. It’s a necessity for us to get our works out into the world and when you’ve done that and have a sizable audience what should you do then? Continue to let new viewers sample a work for free that has a proven track record of shipping volumes?

The answer comes down to the differences between the American and Australian comic book industries. If you’re in America and have access to the history and market of such an established industry then I would say I could see no reason to switch from the webcomic model. As an independent Australian small press, Dichosis Studios has the opportunity to become a major niche-market publishing house for the simple fact that we don’t have the industry you have in America.

With that in mind I feel well poised to take the route of abandoning the webcomic model in exchange for something that can rival the established publishers around Australia. There is space here for what I have in mind to grow and support a loyal comic community that might even develop into an industry provided ideal conditions are found and met.

So in conclusion I guess what I've decided to do is make changes to a formula I adopted that has served me so well so far in an attempt to create a comparable yet equally cultured audience for comics in Australia as a result of my unique position.

This is not to say that I will not be contributing to the world of webcomics but it will mean I will begin slowly moving away from that business model as of 2014 and towards something more professional and practical. The simplest reason I can come up with for this is that the studio as a whole must grow in order for the industry to grow. As a webcomic creator I am one in a sea of tens of thousands but as a studio I am one in maybe a few tens.

 I have set down roots in both the American and Australian comic communities and I will always feel the need to promote and respect the artists and relationships that have been my support over this past year. To that end you will see more posts like this on forums, reviews of other self-published works and a dedicated comics podcast channel in the near future. I’ll only be posting glimpses of story up on the Facebook page and everything will be moving into established traditional and digital distribution channels.

I will make you the promise that www.dichosis.com will remain live and update as usual over the course of the next few months and The Darkening Issue #2 will be uploaded online in its entirety as pages become available.

This is not the end, it is only the beginning.

     - Marcus