Creator Caleb York on the Success of “Bouncy Ball Man,” and How His Book Landed in Comic Book Shops
I connected with writer Caleb York after he submitted his indie comic book, Bouncy Ball Man, to the site for a listing. His character looked unique, and the title looked like a whole lot of fun. I was happy to boost his book, and his successful Kickstarter campaign. Caleb’s Bouncy Ball Man is the story of an out of work stuntman who gets talked into portraying a corporate character, and in a way, becomes an accidental super hero.
A few months later, I was in my local comic book store and it just jumped out at me — an issue of Bouncy Ball Man! I was so happy to see one of the titles who I helped get some eyeballs make it into print. Caleb reached out, and he agreed to do an interview.
I thought what he had done was remarkable… not only getting a great story published as an indie title, but somehow creating distribution for himself. I knew that others would like to know how he did it.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Tell us a little bit about yourself…
CALEB YORK:
I grew up in Richmond, Va., and am currently living in New York City. I do miss the natural beauty of Virginia but the subway commute makes for a near-endless supply of good stories, so that’s a perk.
Right now, I currently write ads for a living, which is a lot more fun than some other gigs I’ve had in the past. These gigs include being a sunglasses salesman, a bodyguard for the Vienna Boys’ Choir, and the operator of an illegal laundry business I started in college in order to make money for comics.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
When did you get into comics?
CALEB YORK:
It’s honestly hard to pinpoint an exact moment I got into comics. “Batman Beyond” and “Spider-Man: The Animated Series” were probably the first exposure to superheroes that I ever had as a kid. Or maybe it was “Scooby-Doo Meets Batman.” I also grew up reading old “Peanuts” and “Calvin and Hobbes” collections that my parents had, which was probably my first time reading something with thought bubbles and word balloons.
The first true comic books I ever read were some dollar store reprints of Stan Lee’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” run that my uncles had lying around in their room. All of the above happened when I was 8-10 years old, so I’ve been into comics for just about as long as I can remember.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Tell us why you decided to create Bouncy Ball Man? How long did you have this idea?
CALEB YORK:
The idea actually came from a drawing I made. When the pandemic hit, I started taking a bunch of online courses and one of them was a cartooning class. I’m still not a great artist but one of the exercises in the course was to draw a bunch of circles in a row and, after the class was over, I started messing around with some of those circles.
Out of those doodles came the prototype of what would be Bouncy Ball Man. I thought having a superhero in a giant bouncy ball suit was a funny premise and I thought it’d be even funnier if that premise was taken seriously, so I started brainstorming on how that kind of story would work. I’d say from those initial doodles to actually finishing the script probably took two months? Maybe three?
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Did the concept for Bouncy Ball Man come out of any projects you happened to be working for your day job?
CALEB YORK:
My experience in advertising definitely informed a few aspects of the corporate scenes. The idea of promoting your brand by putting a man in a giant rubber version of your product is a classic advertising idea that just about every company has done at some point. Jerry, the sycophantic executive, is an amalgamation of the worst kinds of ad people I’ve met over the years.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
How do you compare writing in your day job vs. writing for a comic book?
CALEB YORK:
Both can be fun and both have their own challenges. Writing for ads helps you stay snappy and to the point, which is a plus in any medium. It’s also a blast to do work for a brand that you’ve always loved.
On the flip side, ads are inherently intrusive, so your audience is automatically uninterested in what you have to say, which can be challenging to overcome. It can also be difficult marrying the needs of your agency, your client, your coworkers, and your own creative vision together.
Comics, on the other hand, is probably my favorite medium, which makes it a lot easier to find motivation. You also have far more control over your vision and the final product, which gives you a stronger sense of ownership at the end of the day.
That being said, because it’s just you writing it, you have to constantly self-edit, stay objective about your own writing, and kill scenes or characters you love but don’t serve the needs of the story. In advertising, you have people paid to do that for you.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
How did you find Bouncy Ball Man artist Rick Alves? What was working with Rick?
CALEB YORK:
I found Rick Alves the same way a lot of comic writers found their artists nowadays — on Reddit. There’s this great subreddit called r/ComicCollabs that have a whole bunch of talented writers and artists out there looking to make cool stuff together.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Tell us why you chose Comix Well Spring… what are they like to work with?
CALEB YORK:
Comix Well Spring is great to work with! Super cheap, super easy, and super quick! I also loved that they had a multitude of options for you to customize how your book looked. I kept seeing their name pop up in some of my favorite indie comics and, after looking around their site, I decided to use them.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Was this your first Kickstarter campaign? How well did it work out for you?
CALEB YORK:
This was my first Kickstarter campaign and I had no idea what I was doing the entire time. For that reason, I decided to keep the goal small — only a thousand bucks. But we actually ended up reaching $1,300 during the 30-day campaign and I hope to surpass that during the next Kickstarter.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
How did you get distribution? My jaw hit the floor when I found your book at Comic Cubicle here in Virginia. I just assumed that I would have to go to a Comic Con to get a physical copy of your title… but there it was! Do you know how many comic book stores Bouncy Ball Man is in?
CALEB YORK:
Well, I wish I can say I have a huge distribution network but, right now, it’s just me. Currently, Bouncy Ball Man is in five comic book stores across America (including Forbidden Planet in New York City).
Once I print more issues (I am sold out at the moment), I hope to get it into even more! I started with my two local stores because they were places I already had a connection with and a rapport with the owners. They already knew who I was and that made it easy to pitch to them. After the pitch, they agreed to stock a few issues.
From then, it was easier to get other stores to agree to stock the book because I had proof that other stores were selling it. And if other stores were selling it, then it had to be a real book, right? So, basically, I faked it till I maked it.
Incidentally, I learned during the process that, no matter how small a local market is, there is always some guy that will collect a comic with an author’s signature. Multiple stores insisted that I sell them at least one autographed copy.
INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Tell us the plan for Bouncy Ball Man, Issue #2. How many issues do you think the Bouncy Ball Man saga will be?
CALEB YORK:
I do have plans for Bouncy Ball Man 2… and 3 as well! In fact, they’re both going to be released together and I plan on Kickstarting for them in January. My original plan was to make a five-issue miniseries and I have all five of those stories plotted out right now.
But recently, I’ve been kicking around an idea for a potential sixth story but we’ll see how these future issues go first. I didn’t produce it solely to have something to pitch at Image or Dark Horse — although if someone from those places happen to be reading this article, I love your outfit today.
It might sound a bit hokey but I really do love writing so the first reason I wrote Bouncy Ball Man was for myself. Toni Morrison said that you should “write what you want to read.”
I am not, in any way, comparing myself to Toni Morrison but I’ve always loved that bit of advice. Bouncy Ball Man is exactly the kind of offbeat title that I’d pick up in a comic book store and just to have a printed copy of that in my hands and in my favorite comic shops has made the whole thing worth it.
Follow Caleb on Twitter and Facebook. You can get behind his new Kickstarter, which will support Bouncy Ball Man issues 2 and 3.
