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Photographing Comic Creators And Cartoonists Where They Work

Published Sun, 09 Apr 2017 15:00:31 -0500

Sampsel Preston writes,

I am a commercial photographer and for the past 25 years I have been working on a heart project, photographing comic book artists, cartoonists, animators, and illustrators in their studios. To date I have had the pleasure of meeting and photographing close to 250 of the most amazing artists in these fields. No really, everyone (well, not everyone, but) from Jack Kirby, to Frank Miller to Neal Adams, to Chuck Jones, John Lasseter, to Drew Friedman, to Craig Thompson, Olivia, everyone of them a hero of mine, the list is monumental…

For me it has been true joy to meet and photograph these creators.

From the beginning, I had In the back of my mind, the thought that at some point this will be a book. Well about 15 years into the project and thanks to my friend David Scroggy, the first part of the project was published by Dark Horse Comics as a beautiful coffee table book, it was crazy exciting, my dream becoming reality… well sort of? The book came out, won a few awards including being nominated for an Eisner award, was well received, and sold out the first printing, and made a second printing, and then due to weird distribution and I don't know what, kind of vanished from everything, I can't explain it, although the bad economy of 2008 didn't help.

Since 2008, I have continued photographing for the project, and 9 years later I have another 120 portraits ready for a second book, and after a few tries with looking in vain for a publisher, (one of the photo students at the local art institute where I was teaching , explained it very succinctly "what's a book? I know, right?) Then a friend suggests "Why don't you try Kickstarter?" why not?

My first attempt at Kickstarter didn't go so well. I spent about a month putting it together, kind of winging it actually. A fellow photographer friend offered to help with video, as she wanted to learn how to do video anyway. With advice from several friends we cobbled together a pretty good presentation. Without much thought of possible outcome, I mean other than how great it was going to be, I started my Kickstarter almost a month to the day before the last presidential election. Yep!

And for the next month I worked it like a full time job, everyday I would rise at dawn, get a cup of coffee and turn on the computer. I would check the Kickstarter for new pledges, send out Thank Yous , write a blurb on Facebook about one of the artists, reach out (mostly unsuccessfully) to anyone who might be able to help me get the word out, and it seemed to be on it's way, I had lots of followers reposting my posts, I had a few interviews, I got some really great write-ups, even received the designation "projects we love" on Kickstarter, yes! It looked like it might fund, and then 2 days before the national election everything just stopped. No pledges, no notes of encouragement, nothing, it literally just stopped. The Kickstarter eneded 2 days after the election, unfunded.

I'm not one to mope…much? So, I spent the next few months drinking heavily, no, not really, but the failure did sting, and it took a while to consider how to move forward, I mean I couldn't just quit, right?

So, In February, I started working on a plan to try again. I started reaching out to my Kickstarter list, I also started working on building my audience up on social media. I started collecting email addresses of all my friends and possible donors, and started building my comeback. It turns out that Kickstarter will let you try again. So I built a new campaign, bullied my video/photographer friend into helping me with another video, started promoting it on social media and also sending out mass mailchimp emails, and launched the new campaign on March 28.

The night before I started the new campaign I received a call from Artist Keith Knight. Keith who is one of the artists in the new book and had run a successful Kickstarter, had some very cool advice on how to get through the campaign. The main ideas were these, you've got to work it like a job (sound familiar?), get the word out any way you can, don't assume people will find your Kickstarter on their own. Identify and get a hold of 25 influencers in the field of your project, like Bleeding Cool for my little project, and see if they will help. Add lots of rewards (people like rewards), and lastly, and most importantly for my project "ask the artists for help in the form of some rewards to offer", Keith says. What? It seems like a no brainer, but I had never considered asking for help from the very people I had photographed. When I said this, Keith said, "You have one more chance to get this done, ask for help!" So I did. I have made it a point to reach out to my artists, a few each day, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and because of the artists reward offers, the campaign is moving full steam ahead, and collectors are snapping up the rewards quickly. Thanks Keith-this was great advice!

So now, everyday, I get up, pour a cup of coffee, and work the campaign. I write a open letter to the backers, post a blurb on Facebook, and reach out to several of the artists for help in the form of rewards that I can offer the potential backers. I'll let you know how it goes…

You can see the Kickstarter here and view my commercial work here.

As a special perk for Bleeding Cool readers I will send along all 5 signed Bonus 8x10s listed on the Kickstarter page including Carl Barks, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Alex Toth, and Dave Stevens for each pledge at the 40.00 pledge level and higher. To get these 5 8×10 photos instead of the 2 that are offered normally, the reader must pledge by Tuesday night at midnight, and then send me a message through Kickstarter with the words " Your Book is Bleeding Cool"