San Diego Comic Con @Home: Thursday Edition: Hustle or Die - The Way of the Entrepreneur !!!
Joseph Watkins (DA Watcher -Marvel Image)
Being an entrepreneur is especially hard, especially in the pop culture industry. I would also like to add that aside from the alleged fame you might receive, the amount of hard work that goes into being successful isn’t suitable for some. After all, as Elon Musk would say, success doesn’t work from 9am – 5pm, it’s a mostly 24-hour process.
Thursday’s events at San Diego Comic Con@Home was ripe with opportunities to expand my business intelligence. Loaded with insights from some of pop culture’s greats, I couldn’t turn away and loaded my ‘Sched account’ with over 10+ panels of watching in one day. So, rather than go in so many different directions, I decided to focus my energy on the entrepreneurial aspects of the pop culture industry and these panels didn’t disappoint at all.
Panel discussions abound, before I ventured to YouTube or IGN for some great discussions, I decided to visit the gaming discussions on Twitch. Twitch’s power in the gaming industry has a great influence on the populace and as gaming is becoming a multi-billion-dollar industry, they are intertwining gaming and podcasting in new and exotic ways. Scrolling through some of the channels, one word that grabbed my interest was the word FaZE. The definition of the word in dictionary.com means ‘to cause to be disturbed or disconcerted; daunt’; in the urban dictionary, its something different. Its terminology reflects more of Twitch’s ecosystem: ‘someone who acts like a douche-bag for immediate and fleeting social media exposure; particularly in the e-sports demographic’.
Back at the panels, my lessons in entrepreneurship came from; Building A Geek Brand: Surviving a Pandemic, followed by SYFY’s Untold Tales of Todd McFarlane, and finally a Q & A with some of Manga’s greats at the Manga Publishing Industry Roundtable.
Surviving the Pandemic: Geek Style
Clockwise: Linda Le, Tony B. Kim, Victor Dandridge & Rachel Litfin
Most people who go to Comic Cons, go for the cosplay, entertainment, fun and most importantly the merch; Yet when a pandemic hits and the majority of your income is based on selling merch at these group events and comic conventions what do you do? How do you survive? More importantly, how do you adapt? These were the questions; Linda Le (VampyBitMe), Rachel Litfin (author), Victor Dandridge (comic book author and creator) and Tony B Kim (Hero Within) answered as they hosted this spirited and inspirational discussion of survival and entrepreneurship.
This panel had me in an emotional flux. First, they discussed their personal lives, which by the way, was very informative and then they discussed how they transitioned into pop culture and was able to survive the Pandemic economically.
SDCC @Home Building a Geek Brand : Surviving a Pandemic- from San Diego Comic Con International.
Most notable was the discussion Linda Le had about how she became the superstar that she is. Working in movies as a hair and makeup artist, her colleague (who created fake blood for Hollywood which is now the industry standard) informed her that she should just network and with that sound advice she created a lane for herself in which she started to cosplay as famous video game characters. She went to every video game company in and around the L.A. and the Bay Area and spoke with multiple developers on how they would be able to move additional units in the realm of cosplay. Her hustling skills and ‘can-do’ attitude lead her to be hired by Capcom to promote the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 video game. After that deal, her career took off.
Legendary? Perhaps, but one of the biggest gems for me was when the panel commented on the loss of their income and how they had to ‘adapt or die’.
For Victor and his company: U-Cre-8 Comics, his focus was on creating content for the educational spectrum and as soon as he landed a deal with a school district, BOOM….COVID-19 hit. Total shut down. Ever vigilant, Victor took a step back, modified the business plan and came back stronger than ever. Rather than go face to face, he decided to go ‘virtual’ and incorporate his creative plan by teaching summer lessons and doing creative projects with students online. As a result, he’s teamed up with various schools and now has a summer plan available for districts.
Todd McFarlane – DeViL GoD
Todd MacFarlane: Creator of Spawn
I’ve always seen Todd MacFarlane at NYCC. Very humble and hardworking. One interesting aspect about him is his ‘never give up attitude’. He’s a complete savage. From an entrepreneur’s standpoint, he’s a prime example of a person, who, from the ground up, created a lane for himself and decided to, either hustle or die. He chose the former, even though he experienced the latter many times. Todd’s humble beginnings started with what I call the ‘300’. Well versed many times, Todd always mentioned that he was turned down by publishers approximately 300 times and by continuously submitting work to them, he didn’t give up and landed a comic artist job eventually. Using his business insight, he stuck to his values and followed his craft by making things cooler, and changing the dynamic in the comic book industry. This allowed him to become a brand name and after surviving being sued, bankruptcy and abandonment from various partners, Todd still stands triumphant in the face of adversity.
SDCC@Home Panel (Clockwise: Todd MacFarlane, J Scott Campbell, Marc Silvestri, and SyFy Wire Mike Avila
The best way to summarize his achievements in life is by this famed conversation Todd had with the panel about Kobe Bryant.
Todd: ….I’m a big sports fan, do you know in the NBA, who missed the most shots ever?
Mike Avila: I don’t
Marc Silvestri: Kobe Bryant?
Todd: Yep, now Kobe Bryant is in the Hall of Fame, so if you don’t keep trying then you don’t get to miss. The guy in baseball who struck out the most in history is also in the hall of fame….
Todd: ….Which basically means that they had a hell of a long career and when you have a long career then part of what ends up happening is you fail at a certain rate, but you don’t let the failures basically dictate the rest of it….Kobe’s in the hall of fame, cool, we don’t remember Kobe’s misses, we remember Kobe’s sinks in the crucial moments and it basically blurs all that negative…
Well said Todd, well said…
SDCC @ Home: SFFYs Untold Tales of Todd MacFarlane -SDCC International
Always looking forward, I decided to check in on the world of Manga to learn from the publishing companies about the newest and latest editions coming out for North America.
Manga Publishing Industry Roundtable.
Headed by Deborah Aoki of Publishers Weekly, she discussed with fellow panelists, Ben Applegate (Director – publisher services, Penguin Random House), Kevin Hamric (vice president – marketing sales, VIZ Media), Mark de Vera (sales and marketing director, Yen Press), Masaaki Shimizu (general manager and publisher, book publishing division, Square Enix), Ed Chavez (publisher, Denpa Books), Tomo Tran (marketing director, Kodansha USA / Vertical), Erik Ko (chief of operations, Udon Entertainment), Dallas Middaugh (executive editor and co-founder, Mangamo), and Matt Alt (translator and author, Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World) the current trends in the North American Manga Market and the new releases each perspective company was doing. There was too much energy in this panel as they discussed their perspectives on the ‘pandemic based economy’ and how manga was surviving in this apocalypse.
There were some gems that were mentioned, but nothing was more innovative than the arrival of the digital manga publisher, Mangamo. Recently released to the app market in early April 2020, its focus on digital manga is definitely a groundbreaker in the $1 Billion manga market. Also, with its release of their own original content, they are definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Also added was a company that needed no introduction. Famous for their video game series and well respected in the fantasy and animation sphere, Square Enix just recently launched their North American Publishing division. Headed by Masaaki Shimizu, he’s creating a new lane for the distribution of new and wonderful manga and books.
This panel inspired me even more as I listened to the words of wisdom from Kevin Hamric; Viz Media’s vice president of marketing and sales. When asked by Deb about the movement of manga in the North American Sphere, Kevin’s response only prophesied the future of the manga industry:
Kevin Hamric - Viz Media’s VP of Sales and Marketing
“It’s wider, I would say, the subject matter, the genres that we’re publishing into is just wider and it’s because it’s a wider audience coming into the category. Obviously horror seems to be one of the top genres that seems to be spiking right now, but it’s like you said, because manga has come from behind the curtain and is more widely accepted it’s firmly implanted in pop culture and pop culture is basically running the world right now….”
– Kevin Hamric.
He’s correct. With the distribution of manga and anime on multiple streaming channels, chat groups, and social media, manga has inexplicably become the normalized literature of choice for many age groups and demographics.
A prime example are the classical novels in manga form from the publishing company, Udon Entertainment. Erik Ko, Chief of Operations for Udon Entertainment, has recognized this trend and created the manga side company Manga Classics, which focuses on the manga adaptations of classic literature novels. Most prominent in the series is the company’s manga version of Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. What makes this famed piece of literature epic is the fact that Erik spoke with the heirs of L.M. Montgomery to ask permission to publish this work of art. When they saw what Udon was doing, they overwhelmingly agreed. So convinced about this manga I went to Udon’s Manga classic’s website and bought the hardcover manga adaptation of Dracula by Bram Stoker.
SDCC @Home Manga Publishing Round Table - SDCC International
Insight
Thursday’s theme really brought insight to the world of pop culture and entrepreneurship. Having a ‘survival or die’ mentality, these entrepreneurs believed in their dreams and literally created a platform for themselves through innovation and hard work. Sometimes victory is not always easy to obtain. From rejection letters to creating a brand new path; these innovators of their craft managed to survive despite the roadblocks set up for them and by hustling and making the moves that were presentable at the time, they were able to create content that continues to inspire the pop culture industry today.
COVID-19 ruined the creative industry, but there are two options, hustle or die. It’s okay to have a moment and move on, but adaptation is key. This panel gave me insight into that pivoting. Rather than look at the pandemic as a disability, they looked at it as a moment of clarity for creativity and survival.
I really wish I would have been present for these panels because I would have shake their hands and said thank you for the gems in 2020!!!
