You think you got it bad:
What self-publishing looked like in the early 90s
Until recently, I conveniently forgot that I had developed a whole entire business in my early 20s (though I never would have seen it that way).
I was a self-publisher.
This is what comics self-publishing looked like...before the internet:
I would go at night to a friend’s workplace to make “free” photocopies (I did bring my own paper), then hand-print and hand-bind my comics.
I’d send out review copies…
Hope for a tiny one-line review in some zine.
Check my PO Box several times a week to find handwritten notes and a few bucks in an envelope.Â
(This is actual cash from the 90s! I found it in an old fan letter from Germany.)
Send off a comic in reused packaging.
Call comics shops across America to get them to carry my book.
Create handmade invoices and consignment forms
Call again to get sent tiny checks…
and so on.
Not efficient. Not fast. Not remunerative.
But it did get me to comics festivals where I met the aforementioned famous people.
And it got me weirdo jobs, some of which never saw the light of day....UNTIL NOW
