WATCH: Our Indie Comics Creators Panel at GalaxyCon Richmond 2023

Well, we can honestly say that we had a wonderful time GalaxyCon Richmond 2023! It was an incredible event, full of enthusiastic fans from all corners. And for the first time, Indie Comics Zone was a part of this great event, as we hosted our first live discussion — an indie comics creators panel. Our panel, entitled “How to Publish Your Indie Comic Book both Online and on Paper” was well-attended and was a lot of fun.

A special thanks to the four gentlemen who took part in the panel, and made the whole thing so great. They are:

Included here is the entire panel, including questions from the audience — which we had to cut short due to time constraints:

The following is the transcript of the introduction and first portion of the Q&A session with our panelists:

INDIE COMICS ZONE:

I’d like to welcome everyone here. I hope you’re having a great day at Galaxy con Richmond. And I’d like to welcome you to this panel — “How to Publish your Indie Comic Book, both Online and On Paper.”

I’m Eric Pesola, the workaholic behind the website Indie Comics Zone. I invite everyone in here who’s interested in indie comic books to check out my site. It is all about promoting and helping indie publishers get published and attention.

And I have all kinds of cool content on there, like how-to guides on how to get published, how to get attention, how to get reviewed, guides to printers, and more. There it is — Indie Comic Zone, and I have cards up here if you want more information. End of advertisement!

OK. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so happy to introduce my All-Star panel this evening. They are for indeed pro professionals. Know what they’re doing, and if you answer our questions, first…

Anthony D. Stokes. He’s a screenwriter turned comic book writer based in Virginia. Anthony is known for his indie comic books, “Intrusive Thoughts” and many more works. He focuses on horror, love, despair, grief, revenge, and end-of-the-world survival — the fun stuff.

Then we have Charlie McElvy, ladies and gentlemen. Charlie is the likeness of the “Spider-Squirrel.” And he’s also the founder of the Xeon Universe. You may also recognize him from the television show “American Ninja Warrior, Season 10.”

Next on our panel is Pat Shand — Pat is a writer, creator, and crowdfunding expert. He’s created and co-created the comic books “Destiny NY” and many more. He’s worked for Scout, Black Mask, BOOM!, IDW, Zenescope, Dark Horse, and Harper Collins.

He’s used Kickstarter to fund 27 independently produced graphic novels and runs campaigns for other comic creators and publishers.

Vince White is the last member of our panel. Vince is an art artist, creator, writer, and independent publisher known for his creator-owned work — “The Legend of Will Power.” Vince is one of the co-founders of Primal Paper Comics, a Virginia-based comic coalition of independent comic book publishers and creators

Vince’s formal training is in CAD design. But he made his jump to full-time comic work in March of 2011. And since then, he’s traveled the east coast on the comic convention circuit lecturing in community colleges, public schools, and universities.

This is our panel. Thank you! First, we’ll have about five questions, and then we’ll leave it up to the audience to ask their questions of our creators.

How did you guys get into comics as a creator?

PAT SHAND:

How did I get into comics as a creator, I grew up loving writing, and I read “Goosebumps” as a kid. I wanted to be a writer. As soon as I started reading, I would write little fan fiction stories on my typewriter. And then, as I got older, I began to push into writing for the theater.

I just looked at everything that could be written. You know, TV, movies, any possible way to express myself as a, you know, an avenue for me to get into. So I started to see comics as a goal. It seemed more accessible than many of the other ones. The creators seem to have a community I could speak to now as a fan, unique to comics.

Being able to go to conventions like this, talk to creators and make connections, and from that point on, from my first convention on, I found myself pushing more and more into the community, and, you know, just sharing samples and making connections with writers, artists, editors, and it didn’t take long for me to get my first gig. Then I was able to use that gig as a stepping stone to get to the next gig and the next gig, and it has never stopped, and it never will.

ANTHONY D. STOKES:

I remember I saw “Superbad” going into high school. So I saw at the perfect age and wanted to make this, and I started writing things down. And then, you know, so much stuff happened like a decade later, I found myself in a position to be able to make comic books and, you know, put some money aside, put everything together. And you know, it’s been amazing.

VINCE WHITE:

My brother had a box of comic books and a shoe box under his bed. And whenever I read them, he would put me in a headlock and rub his knuckle across my head until I begged for mercy. And that’s what that was the first time I got exposed to comics, which made me realize I wanted to draw these primary color, flashy things one day. That’s how I got into it.

CHARLIE McELVY:

Nice. I guess it wasn’t too different. I mean, we all started as fans, in a way. The first book I remember reading was “DC Comics Presents.” My grandma bought it, and I didn’t pay for it. But it had Superman, and He-Man fighting Skeletor … using his sword of power and that cover just like it’s still on my mind today. I have a copy but not the original one I own. But I have a copy just because I needed it, right?

But that book told me that you could tell any story you wanted. And it was that creative flood just started running through my brain, and I had ever since then, I’ve had ideas like things I wanted to do with my friends, create Transformers comics in our bedrooms that are late at night, and stupid stuff like that. So it just never stopped.

And one day, I just said what am I doing? Why don’t I just when put that book out there? I’ll say for me, I had the advice of you have the story to tell. Just tell it. And don’t let anything stop you. And I was like, Alright, let’s go then. I didn’t, I didn’t stop there. And that was it.

Special thanks to Conundrum Comics, Pocketchange Investments, and Dandyleap Productions for technical and production assistance.