Kickstarting strange and amazing comics (and making a living!), with C. Spike Trotman

The Autonomous Creative

Cartoonist and publisher Spike Trotman publishes books she considers “strange and amazing.” Her company Iron Circus specializes in “underrepresented voices, underrepresented themes, stuff that has not got a big audience quite frankly or a lot of people catering to it right now.”

Sounds like a recipe for struggle.

Yet they’re KILLING it. “For the first time in my career, it feels limitless. It feels like I have so many possibilities.”

Spike is a Kickstarter All-Star champ, and Iron Circus has gone from self-publishing her webcomic collection to putting out up to 15 books a year, riding a wave of pandemic-fueled popularity into new ventures (animation) and big plans for more growth.

Spike does everything her own DIY way and is making it work (and then some), so give this fun episode a listen and find out why you’re better off better off making pineapple-anchovy pizza.

Top takeaways:

Despite reasonable competition for the hardest-working publisher and loving her work, Spike’s got hit with major burnout. feeling overwhelmed: "The answer isn't to work harder. The answer is to take a break."

The importance of delegating tasks and asking people for help. You don't have to (and shouldn't) do it all.

More from the episode...

• How the pandemic affected comics publishing (spoiler alert: 40% GROWTH.)
• Spike's struggle to shift her mindset from DIY indie comic to business owner: "I was still in that headspace where no one can do it correctly but me."
• The ins and outs of Kickstarter, including how the platform has evolved since Spike's first campaign in 2009.
• What is Spike's "cheese pizza" theory of mainstream media? And why are anchovies so awesome?
• "You do not have to be a New York Times best seller to make a living." — Why it only takes a thousand true fans.
• How sometimes, small indie creators can do better than mainstream authors. "There's still room for functioning independently."
• "We love our erotica and we love the people who make it." — How Iron Circus nurtures (one of) its niche audience(s).
• Spike describes her first vacation in over 10 years.
• The value of intentionally reserving some elements of life to be non-monetized in avoiding burnout.
• Balancing business and the need to be creative, Spike shares her low-stress method for making her own comics even while running an active publishing company.
• The value of NOT learning to do everything yourself...learning to accept help and delegating tasks within her small business: “I remember with crystal clarity the day I decided, oh wait, maybe it would be more efficient to hire someone who's been doing this for 20 years, than try and teach myself an entirely new system and do it myself.”

More from Spike Trotman

C. Spike Trotman is a cartoonist and publisher. She started an imprint called Iron Circus to self-publish her own webcomic Templar, AZ back in the late aughts, and then built that little publishing effort into the largest indie comics publisher in the Midwest!

Trotman is also known for the webcomics Lucas and Odessa (with Meg Gandy), Sparkneedle (with Matt Sherridan), and Blikada.

Iron Circus now publishes a slate of a dozen or more new books every year. They're even getting into the animation game with a short by Tracy J. Butler's Lackadaisy that Iron Circus just Kickstarted for $330,000.

Spike is also incredibly generous in helping younger and less-established creators figure out how to make this all work (check out her eBook, Let's Kickstart a Comic).

Connect with Spike Trotman

https://ironcircus.com

https://twitter.com/Iron_Spike

https://twitter.com/ironcircuscomix

https://facebook.com/ironcircuscomics

instagram @ironcircus

pillowfort @iron_spike

Additional Links

https://law-arts.org

https://mynoise.net

For full transcripts, show notes, and more episodes, head to https://jessicaabel.com/acpod/