[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: You’ve sold 3 million comics and novels?
Stephen L. Stern, Comic Book Author/President of Storyboard Graphic Novels: Yeah, probably more than that now.
Film Courage: How is this possible?
Steve: Well, you need a popular book. We did a six issue run with the Archie company based upon the content of the video games and the toys with the environmental theme that I referred to. That added a large number of books to the number of books we have in print but we did something else too because I was kind of entrepreneurial about this. We also got what back in the day was called newsstand distribution by which I mean to say there are Zen [Zen the Intergalactic Ninja] books from 20–30 years ago you can see that have a particular type of barcode on them like a UPC code. What that means is we applied for what was necessary to have newsstand distributors carry our book and that went on for a year or two. That vastly increased the number of books we sold. We did a couple of things that allowed us to sell a lot more books than a typical independently published book could do.
The death of print has been highly exaggerated
Film Courage: And unfortunately newsstands it seems to have gone away just as bookstores have?
Steve: I question the demise of newsstands. I stopped at a bookstore today and in the front is a newsstand. It had literally a 100 different magazines there.
If you go to a Barnes & Noble they have a huge newsstand section. At the bookstore I was at today there was a very interesting sign posted that basically said the death of print has been highly exaggerated and…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Stephen L. Stern is the president of Storyboard Graphic Novels. Steve is best known as the creator/writer of the indie comic-book Zen Intergalactic Ninja that has sold over three million comics and graphic novels and been licensed for video games, action figures and numerous other products. He is also the creator of Shygirl and Frickin’ Butt-Kickin’ Zombie Ants, and the author of Beowulf: The Graphic Novel and the A Christmas Carol Graphic Novel, both published by the UK’s Markosia. His other works include Alien Hero, a collection of novellas and stories about Zen, and the upcoming Majestic Comics Graphic Novel. Stern is a native of New York and former advertising agency president with clients including Johnson & Johnson, Rosenthal China and The Singer Company. He lives in Los Angeles, where he launched Storyboard Graphic Novels in 2011, working with several of his longtime friends and associates—who just happen to be some of the highest-profile artists and writers in the industry today.
BUY THE BOOK – A Christmas Carol (A graphic novel)
CONNECT WITH STEPHEN L. STERN
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