Recently I watched a kick assimus documentary.<\/p>\n
It was about Stan “the man” Lee — who created characters like Spiderman, Hulk, Ironman, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four (and a gazillion others…) And he was talking about how, early in his career, his publisher only sold comics based on trends — what was selling by other comic book publishers at the time.<\/p>\n
So, for example:<\/p>\n
When westerns were selling, they did westerns.<\/p>\n
If the trend was romance, they did romance stories.<\/p>\n
If it was war stories, they did war stories.<\/p>\n
Problem was, Stan wanted to write super hero comics and not a bunch of girly men books about romance or whatever the trends dictated. And so he was “this” close to quitting and doing something else.<\/p>\n
Then his wife (the original Nerd Girl?) stepped in.<\/p>\n
She knew he was quitting anyway.<\/p>\n
So she suggested writing one last story the way HE wanted to and get it out of his system.<\/p>\n
Stan agreed and wrote the first “Fantastic Four” issue.<\/p>\n
The result?<\/p>\n
People loved it!<\/p>\n
Sales went through the roof!<\/p>\n
And it was (quite literally) a multi-billion dollar decision that spawned the entire modern super hero comic book industry, along with its resulting movies, TV shows, toys, etc.<\/p>\n
The point?<\/p>\n
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.<\/strong><\/p>\n Or to go against what the rest of your industry is doing (especially how they are advertising or what they are selling).<\/p>\n Yeah, it’s risky.<\/p>\n But anything worth doing is ALWAYS risky.<\/p>\n So no need to be a wuss<\/em> about it.<\/p>\n Ben Settle<\/p>\n