Pageturners: Launching Spacewarp during Covid and feedback from kids
"I loved the story and the artwork. The art was particularly cool. I found the story really interesting. I loved the different (lettering) fonts for the different characters."
Welcome to Pageturners, a book I’m writing in which I share what I’ve learnt – and am still learning – about comic writing, film writing, novel writing and how new writers can sell their stories. I’ll publish a chapter or a section per week, available for free here on Iconoblast. And I welcome your feedback or questions, so do leave a comment below!
Missed the Pageturners intro? Read it here.
The pandemic and lockdown restrictions set everything back on Spacewarp, so unfortunately we couldn’t do what everyone does when they launch a new title: go to as many comic cons as possible, and do comic shop signings.
That wasn’t the only delay. It took us ages to get the cover right to our satisfaction and we went through several versions. The masthead, too, was very demanding – I believe there were two designers involved before we were happy with the final result (shout out to Vince Hunt for bringing our vision to fruition!) Similarly, the opening two pages, introducing the comic’s character, took around two weeks to get right!
We began with a digital launch and then an Amazon print-on-demand launch. The i national newspaper did a big piece on Spacewarp (June 2020) and there was plenty of comic media interest from vloggers and bloggers. We also managed to get a Punx edition of Spacewarp distributed to newsstands throughout the UK with the help of Shift Anthology Comic.
Back when 2000AD was launched, the sf future was still ahead of us all, but with Spacewarp, that future had arrived.
Thanks to all this marketing activity, feedback and sales were good, despite Covid. With the payments we received, we were able to pay our creators £100 per page royalties. The artists were our first priority, ahead of ourselves.
As we found, like all our self-published titles, we had to take the long view: that they’ll go on generating income long, long after the original launch date. This is partly because they are on Kindle and print on demand. And the newsstand edition, which proportionately actually sold better than 2000AD, emphasising how Spacewarp had that general audience appeal.
Here was some early feedback from readers:
THEO – 9 YEARS OLD
I like how each story has its own significant ending, but all of them link together in some way
My favourite story was Fu-tant because I like books set in the future and/or in space, I also like that the good guys are kind of working for the power crazy villain until he can save his friends.
I just like time travelling and dinosaurs and stuff so I really enjoyed Jurassic Punx.
Sadly my least favourite story was Hellbreaker because it just takes a while to realise what’s going on.
Another least favourite would be Xecutioner for the same reason my dad didn’t like it. There’s just too much to find out
I would buy Spacewarp. After reading all of that, I think a lot of people who are fans of 2000AD stories such as Major Eazy, Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd will love Spacewarp
I would definitely show Spacewarp to my friends. A lot of my friends play Fortnite (a shooter game) and like reading about guns and fights!
KAI – 13 YEARS OLD
It has busy artwork and a really well-done apocalyptic atmosphere. I feel like the world is gritty and the character and the world reminds me of Bill Savage and the Volgan occupation of England story from 2000 AD (One of my favourites).
The dinosaur designs and art are cool and the idea they brought a virus with them makes the dinosaurs a whole lot deadlier. I liked the characters as well, and the idea of a ‘smart gun’.
Another thing that made me laugh was the obliviousness of Joe Megiddo to the modern world and his assumptions based on their names.
Well. This gave me nightmares.
Wait, I need to write more than that? Fine. SF1 is very interesting, I liked the story and the pseudoscience behind it, and the fact a council literally took away humanity’s human rights because the bacteria made up more of them then they made up of themselves is pretty ironic I feel.
Unfortunately, in this story it’s harder to read as the art is very busy and the fact it’s black and white doesn’t help.
I like the idea of the Viraks for this story as it matches with the kind of gory thriller atmosphere of the story. The Viraks (Or rather what they were based off) were creepy enough alone, but them being huge and then cause the host to FRICKING EXPLODE adds a bunch to the Viraks.
The gene pools and how they regress beings is also cool.
The story kind of gives the impression they are in a strange world where cells and viruses are huge and deadly.
Probably one of my favourites so far.
By far my favourite Spacewarp story yet, I love the art, the Slayer and Cosmic Law.
Another thing I like is the Warp Knights and the zealotry they have around their religion. I again like how it’s based on the Puritan reign with the Lord Protector and the witch phobia and the ‘one true faith’.
The ship designs I love and I feel are very similar to Warhammer 40k which also has a very similar atmosphere. I feel its only shortcoming is how few panels there were.
The design of the Slayer is also another thing I take to. Even in black and white it looks very shiny and does well to show it’s a robot.
One thing that confused me though was the council bit at the end, where did he go to? How did he get there, who are they? But apart from that I enjoyed it a lot.
PARIS – 16 YEARS OLD
I liked the comic on the whole.
I liked how all the characters were interconnected between the different stories.
I loved the way the characters interacted with each other in Xecutioner. The Xecutioner story and artwork is cool!
Hellbreaker – I loved the story and the artwork. The art was particularly cool. I found the story really interesting. I loved the different (lettering) fonts for the different characters.
The story I liked least, storywise, was Fu-tant – the one that has Warpstar Academy on the front page because there is a lot of exposition in it. However, as I read the other stories, I felt it was necessary. I loved the idea of the Fu-tants. The way that they have different powers and can’t all control them. I also really liked the artwork in this one.
SF1 – I liked the story but this one had my least favourite artwork. It was old fashioned, like my Dad’s old comics. However, I loved the story. I liked that it is all revenge driven and everyone has a different, damaged backstory. And it is cool because it is really gruesome.
Slayer – I loved the Witch Alien and Schlock the Robot. I loved the (lettering) fonts for the characters and really enjoyed the story. I liked that Schlock feels mercy for the humans.
Jurassic Punx – I liked the girl time-traveller Dada. I thought her look is super cool and liked that she is confident and powerful. She knows what she wants and what she’s doing and she will get it done.
Some of the characters would be cool to cosplay especially Dada from Jurassic Punx and Anton De La Rue from Hellbreaker
All the artists were very supportive and generously gave of their time and skills. Thus Ade Hughes produced a black and white poster of the Spacewarp universe which readers could download for free.
It’s a very different world to the lack of team-manship on Toxic!
We’re following Spacewarp with Hellbreaker: Fire in the Blood: a 48-page, full colour Spacewarp special by artist Ian Ashcroft. He’s about halfway complete and all pages so far are fantastic.
It’s taken so much longer than we expected, but it will be well worth the wait. Delays and setbacks are normal in publishing: many artists are juggling different commitments, including working on other stories. In Ian’s case, he has a full-time job! We’re currently looking at publishing Fire in the Blood around spring 2024, and other Spacewarp titles will then follow.