So, I'm thinking about letting one of my artists do graphic novels for all 15 episodes of Part 1 of the Saga. Admittedly, I know little to nothing about graphic novels. I've never read them (although I think I'd like them) and the only comic books I ever read were Archie and Spiderman. I would let others more qualified do the work. I would only be approving the panels/pages/dialog prior to production, and of course approving the final product.
Thoughts? Worth the investment?
I'd love to hear what everyone thinks.
This is something I would buy
While I too have never read a graphic novel, I do know of at least two franchises that have used them successfully. Those being The Walking Dead television series which uses the Walking Dead graphic novels by Robert Kirkman as its source material and the Honor Harrington novel series by David Weber which has had its first novel, On Basilisk Station, turned into a graphic novel.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing graphic novels of the Frontier Saga Part 1 episodes. It would be interesting to see someone bring the words I've read to life in visuals on a page. Would the graphic novels be web-based? Perhaps offered for purchase and download through this site? Or were you thinking of a printed format either sold through the addition of a "Frontier Saga store" to this site or on Amazon?
The addition of a FS store to this site could prove more beneficial to your revenue stream than selling them on Amazon. A store could be expanded later to include other merchandise such as t-shirts with the Aurora ship patch, etc. It could potentially increase traffic to other parts of this site too.
Please please please if you do make a web series for this that you do web addresses with sequential numbers (www.fscomic.com/EP1_14/16.html) and not individually named pages (www.fscomic.com/and_Scott_is_named_captain.html)... its a nightmare for bookmarking.
I would like to point out that there are a number of self published web based comics that are free and funded by add revenue from page views, and I haven't seen any third party advertising on this website so I don't know if its something you would consider. if you do try this model please block any ad with sound- they are terrible (this type of model also generally also offer merchandising to supplement they're income like t-shirt, teddies & model sales. I don't know how helpful that will be in this series, as I don't know how may readers would like to buy a cuddly stuffed Jung... maybe a action figure Ghatazach... )
If you go for a pay model (comic or web based) - then I'm not sure I would read it but Comics do appeal to a different market to book readers, so you may end up adding subscribers to your email lists. The Biggest worry I have about Comics for this series is would there be a market for the pure SciFi military story (no pretty girls / aliens / pets / superpowers to add as a gimmick)
I love these stories but I don't think that they will ever have the drawing power (in comic form) of the likes of StarWars.
If it was my money I would think very carefully about how close to the source material you would like the writer to stick to, and how much you would be willing to market this new revised story & medium to a possibly previously un-targeted new audience.
Feel free to have the writer add escalators and cloaking devises for dramatic effect.
