How to Kickstart a Graphic Novel + Ranking The Best DCEU Films
At the end of the DC Extended Universe, Lifeline Comics rank our favorite movies from the franchise! Plus, we give our advice on how to run a Graphic Novel Kickstarter!
Hello Lifeline Comics readers!
We've got an exciting newsletter in store for you this week. We break down how to Kickstart a graphic novel and talk about our favorite DC Extended Universe Films as we look back at an end of an era.
And if that's not exciting enough, we're also going to dive into some media with our thoughts on the newest Mean Girls Movie Musical that Phil’s partner was an extra in!
How To Kickstart a Graphic Novel
You just finished creating a comic book series. Great! Now you want to launch a Kickstarter. But you’re conflicted! Do you make it a graphic novel or release it as single issues?
Floppies Vs Graphic Novels
It’s an interesting topic because there are two completely different answers depending on your target market - Kickstarter or bookstores. The direct market thrives on graphic novels. But on Kickstarter, (unless you’re an established creator) it’s much harder to fund an OGN. More pages means more expenses, which also means a high goal to reach. And graphic novels’ profit margins are higher compared to printing floppies.
So what’s the answer????
Our best advice for making the most from your comic is to do a low print run for your floppies, and then build towards a collection. This is exactly what we did for our current campaign: Like Father, Like Daughter.
But how do you make that collection worth it for long-time readers who have already purchased the title through single issues?
How To Re-sell a Series
There’s a sort of “conventional wisdom” that people aren’t interested in buying something twice. And while that is definitely true for some, we don’t actually believe it’s true for most fans - or even for ourselves.
When we love a comic series, we certainly don’t mind buying multiple different versions. In fact, we oftentimes seek it out. Looking at our own personal comic collections, we have tons of “duplicative” books. Single issues floppies, trade paperbacks, hardcover collections, and omnibuses - sometimes all of the above for the same series. When you’re a fan of something and a collector, there’s a charm to owning different versions of a story you love. And we’ve found this to be true for readers of our own titles as well.
In order to make a graphic novel collection more interesting to readers who might be on the fence, something we like to do is to include a “bonus” story in the graphic novel editions. Something that isn’t “required reading” for those who prefer to collect only the floppies. But still engaging and rewarding - perhaps adding some shading to a particular character or relationship.
In the case of the Like Father, Like Daughter Vol. 2 graphic novel that we’re currently crowdfunding, we have a new 4-page story titled “Invulnerable’s Last Fight”.
This short serves as an epilogue to issue 8 and shines a spotlight on Invulnerable’s relationship with his adoptive brother, Detective Strong. It is not necessary to the understanding of past or future issues of “Like Father, Like Daughter”. But we think it’s a rewarding treat for fans of the series and the characters.
We’ve used this same method with most of our graphic novel collections and have really enjoyed the opportunities it has afforded to tell different kinds of stories in our universes. Our readers have loved this approach as well - so we’ve heard from many readers that they enjoyed these epilogues.
What have we been up to?
Let’s talk about some of the things we’ve been doing these last couple of weeks!
Prepping for The Beast & Snow #1
We just sent out BackerKit Surveys and Digital Rewards for our biggest Kickstarter to date: The Beast & Snow #1.
We’ve already gotten so much positive feedback from those of you who have read the digital copy of issue one! It’s been truly humbling seeing so much love for the series.
The flip side of all of that support is that Physical Fulfillment for this massive project is looming over us. The printed books are set to arrive at the end of January. And when they do, we’ll be shipping out over 1,500 packages for this campaign - our biggest fulfillment job to date, by far.
To make this process go as smoothly as possible, we’re already doing as much prep work as we can. Preparing shipping batches, gathering supplies, signing the non-Snow comics we have on-hand, blocking off days on our calendar for fulfillment (including days dedicated exclusively to just signing copies of The Beast & Snow), etc.
We’re aiming to ship out all rewards before we head to Emerald City Comic Con at the end of February. It’s a big job, but we’re going to do everything in our power to make it happen.
Speaking of The Beast & Snow, if you’re a fan of the series you definitely don’t want to miss our next newsletter. We’ll be announcing something pretty exciting for fans of that title… 😉
NJEA Equity Alliance Conference!
The New Jersey Equity Alliance (NJEA) Conference is one of our favorite events of the year! A gathering of K-12 teachers across New Jersey for seminars relating to equality and inclusions - it’s an incredibly meaningful and important event.
And on top of that, they treat us like royalty whenever we attend! There’s always plenty of food, which is the true key to our hearts.
Full catered breakfast and lunch, plus plenty of snacks - including popcorn and churros. And they’re more than happy to share with the vendors at these events.
Most importantly, we get to interact with the wonderful teachers of New Jersey to talk about the importance of diverse and queer comics in the classroom. We’ve had so many meaningful conversations with teachers and heard first-hand how much representation in comics and other media can mean to a young person.
This year’s best seller was Hairology! It was amazing to see so much love for the anthology!
Coming Soon: Queer Superhero Work-for-hire!
The Pre-launch page just launched for our latest work-for-hire writing job: The Misadventures of Bombshell & Atomica #1!
This 1950’s Queer Superhero miniseries comes to you from Bad Bug Media! We’ll be talking more about this project (and our Work-for-hire experience) in another newsletter, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, follow the page to be notified when the project launches!
Top 5 DCEU Movies
With the end of the DC Extended Universe, we thought this would be the perfect time to celebrate the movies we enjoyed from the franchise with a Top 5 list!
5. Kat’s Pick: The Flash (2023)
Kat: I never thought I would have The Flash on this list, but I was actually pleasantly surprised with the movie. Is it the best superhero flick? …no. But is it better than it had any right to be? …yeah. There’s enough nostalgia in this one to carry long-time DC fans to the finish line.
I still don’t know if we needed a Flash movie after an almost decade running TV show, but I’m glad the movie added other characters to help inject a movie flare to the hero. If the DCEU wasn’t rebooting, I could actually see this film being a promising new chapter for the future of the universe.
5. Phil’s Pick: Aquaman (2018)
Phil: James Wan’s first Aquaman may not be a perfect movie. But it is a fun movie. One of its greatest strengths AND greatest weaknesses is its absolute refusal to sit still. It’s kind of impossible to be bored during Aquaman. The moment you begin to settle into a scene or location, everything changes and we’re somewhere completely new.
Where Aquaman really thrives is in its visuals. It’s a really beautiful movie to watch. The underwater and on-land sequences are equally colorful and vivid. I really love the variety of locations and the character design in the movie. Black Manta looks absolutely fantastic. The Trench are terrifying. The different Kingdoms of Atlantis are all unique and well-realized. And our heroes look great in-costume.
I remember when the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid (2023) came out, I was actually disappointed that the underwater sequences were not as fun and colorful as those in Aquaman. It was a whole lot of blue without much else thrown in - versus Aquaman’s vivid reds, yellows, oranges, greens and purples sprinkled throughout and the really fun way it plays with lighting (especially in dark water).
I wish the script and character-work were as sharp as the visual style and direction. No character or relationship really rises to greatness. But they’re capable enough to nab this film the number five spot for me.
4. Kat’s Pick: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Kat: Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn has always been a shining diamond in the rough for the DC Universe. You can tell how much passion the actress has for the character, and all that labor of love culminates in this installment. Birds of Prey wasn’t a perfect film, but it was a solid start to something I think could have been a lot bigger if it had the chance.
Both Black Canary and Huntress only had the chance to scratch the surface with their characters. Huntress in particular had me rolling on the floor with Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s line delivery! I just wish they had more time to breathe with that promised TV show!
4. Phil’s Pick: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Phil: Birds of Prey feels like the kind of movie that shouldn’t exist. It’s a far cry from the source material. And it’s a strange direction to take Harley Quinn following her appearance in 2017’s Suicide Squad.
But it somehow still works for me. I really like the humor and action of Birds of Prey. While the plot is convoluted and the cast of characters is kind of all-over-the-place, the sharp script manages to weave all of these disparate threads together in a fun way. It feels kind of like a proto-The Suicide Squad (2021) in that way. But granted a little more tonally inconsistent than the latter film. The scenes where we follow Harley often feel like a different movie from the scenes with Black Canary, which in turn feel like a different movie from the scenes following Renee Montoya.
But despite its flaws, I like all of the individual characters and I like the ensemble. While I was never clamoring to see more of “this” team, I do think it’s a shame we never got to see more of the characters themselves (Black Canary and Huntress, in particular) in other movies or TV shows.
3. Kat’s Pick: Blue Beetle (2023)
Kat: Another recent addition to the universe! Blue Beetle feels very similar to the first Shazam!’s tone by keeping family at its heart, and that’s exactly why this movie works. Again…are there better versions of this movie, yeah…The Marvels and Shazam! are two examples, but that doesn’t take away from how much fun it was to watch Jamie learn about his powers alongside his rambunctious family. There are even some moments that pull at the heartstrings!
3. Phil’s Pick: Shazam! (2019)
Phil: Shazam! is just a really, really fun movie. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel for superhero movies. It just looks to tell a fun story filled with likable characters. The “Shazamily” may not all be fully fleshed-out characters, but we spend enough time with each of them that their personalities and voices are clear. And they contribute to a great family dynamic that makes Shazam! one of the more heartwarming superhero movies out there.
There are tons of great gags throughout the movie. It’s well-paced. And it stretches its (relatively) lower budget very effectively. But the biggest triumph of the film lies in its two leads. The Billy-Freddy relationship is a strong one. And the movie really lives-or-dies on whether you find their antics charming (which I do).
It’s a real shame that the second Shazam! film failed to make lightning strike twice. I was really looking forward to seeing more of this family of superheroes. But a lackluster follow-up doesn’t make this first entry any less enjoyable.
2. Kat’s Pick: Shazam! (2019)
Kat: Speaking of Shazam, this movie showed a brightness to the DC Universe that had not come before. (Ironic, since Marvel has actually always been the more grounded/dark universe in comics compared to DC’s fantastical heroes.)
Zachary Levi brings that lovable kid like spirit with Asher Angel being his perfect foil, but I especially appreciate the inclusion of Billy’s family. They are just as well rounded as Billy, and they’re transformation into the Shazam Family is one of my favorite DCEU moments of all time. Shazam is a solid flick with a lot of re-watchability!
2. Phil’s Pick: The Suicide Squad (2021)
Phil: After the disappointing 2016 Suicide Squad, James Gunn’s 2021 follow-up was exactly what I wanted from a Suicide Squad movie. Funny, dark, surprising, action-packed, and with some great unlikely character relationships.
There are so many standouts among the ensemble cast. Margot Robbie, as always, shines as Harley Quinn with just the right amount of screentime to not overshadow the rest of the cast. Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher is both funny and incredibly endearing. John Cena’s Peacemaker makes for an excellent villain who oozes pathos (which is furthered by the FANTASTIC Peacemaker HBO Max series). Idris Elba’s Bloodsport (AKA Deadshot-lite) could have been a one-note stand-in for the first film’s lead, but is made charming by a charismatic performance by Elba, plenty of funny lines, and great relationships with Ratcatcher and Peacemaker. He’s also in the funniest scene in the DCEU.
The Suicide Squad thrives on its ensemble, which gets it the number two spot for me!
1. Kat’s Pick: Wonder Woman (2017)
Kat: I can’t tell you how important Wonder Woman was to me when it first came out! I’ve been waiting decades to see a female led superhero movie like this one. It’s near perfect! Gal Gadot embodies everything Wonder Woman has been across comics and media culminating into the perfect version of the character for the big screen.
There are so many stand out moments: Pine and Gadot’s electric chemistry, Diana’s charming fish-out-of-water curiosity towards life, and that “No Man’s Land” scene will forever be engrained into my mind as one of the best superhero fight sequences of all time!
1. Phil’s Pick: Wonder Woman (2017)
Phil: There’s honestly zero contest for me when it comes to the best DCEU movie. In fact, Wonder Woman is one of my favorite superhero movies, period. I’ve easily seen it fifteen or twenty times since its release over six years ago.
Everything about this movie comes together for me. Every element I’ve complimented from other entries of this list is also achieved in Wonder Woman. Incredibly well-paced. Fantastic action. Amazing location (and color). Phenomenal character work. A beautiful and tragic relationship. And a great script that is full of memorable lines.
I wouldn’t call it a perfect movie (there are things I don’t love about the third act). But that honestly doesn’t even matter. The highs of this movie soar so high. While there are plenty of things I liked from the DCEU, this iteration of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor is the only thing that it is a true shame to lose, in my opinion.
Media
And let’s discuss some popular non-comics media!
Mean Girls
Kat: Fun fact: Phil’s partner, Julius, was actually an extra in Mean Girls! So our whole friend group went to see the flick to support him. The movie was filmed in NJ, so we met up with the other extras of the film and filled up a few rows in the packed theater. It was one of my favorite theater experiences in a while! The extras were excited to see themselves on the screen and the super fans were thrilled to watch Mean Girls for a new era.
As for the film itself, I was pleasantly surprised by the reboot. Mean Girls (2024) truly felt like a retelling for a new generation. They kept a few of the old jokes, but reinvented them to better represent a Gen-Z audience or added a new twist so it wouldn’t feel stale to us Millennials. But most importantly, 20 years later, Mean Girls was allowed to be gay, and no one’s queerness was used as a weapon. IRL bisexuals Renee Rapp and Auli'i Cravalho especially help to bring that extra sapphic flavor!
Remakes are a hard nut to crack. How do you keep the spirit of the original without treading old water? …make it a musical! It was a unique take of the source material, but as a musical…there are moments that do fall flat. Rapp’s Regina steals the show, but doesn’t have any breakout musical numbers, which is a weird move for a rising pop star. Cravalho has the strongest musical moment with the Broadway flagship - “I’d Rather Be Me”, but sadly the movie’s lead, Cady, just fades into the background. She’s not as punchy as Lindsay Lohan’s version of the character, which makes the “mean” thesis statement falter, and she doesn’t have any standout songs to lean into the franchise’s newest angle.
Mean Girls (2024) isn’t a perfect musical, but it’s a surprisingly solid reboot.
Phil: Mean Girls (2024) is a surprisingly good movie based on a bad musical based on a great movie.
I’ve never been a big fan of the Mean Girls Broadway musical. On top of a lack of great songs, I also think that the majority of the story changes from the original movie to the musical adaptation hurt the characters and the themes of the story it’s trying to tell. So going into this film adaptation, I wasn’t really expecting much. But I’m happy to say that I found myself very pleasantly surprised by this charming movie.
I honestly think Mean Girls (2024) is the best way the musical could have been faithfully adapted. The cast is incredibly charming - particularly Jaquel Spivey’s Damian and Auliʻi Cravalho’s Janis. The script is sharp and funny - paying plenty of homage to the 2004 film and the Broadway musical, but also making tons of its own laugh-out-loud additions.
*Minor spoiler for the below paragraph*
And there are a few areas where I think it even improves on the original movie. Particularly a conversation between Cady and Regina following the fateful bus incident that I think puts a great cap on their rivalry and the movie as a whole. I don’t actually remember if this conversation was part of the Broadway Musical. But if it was, I don’t think it came together as nicely as it did in the film adaptation.
/Spoilers
That said, the movie cannot sidestep all of my issues with the musical. With the exception of one or two songs, there’s still an unfortunate lack of great songs in this musical. While the one original song “What Ifs” is a solid addition (and much better than “It Roars”, which it replaces), it isn’t exactly a breakout hit.
And the movie also shares one of the biggest problems with the musical in its weakening of the Cady Heron character. The 2004 original movie does a fantastic job of letting us get into Cady’s head (literally) and seeing how the new school environment changes her into a “mean girl”. She’s funny, sympathetic, and flawed. But both the musical and its movie adaptation sometimes feel like they consider Cady an afterthought. She doesn’t even get the “biggest” musical number in the show - which is instead given to a sanitized version of Janice. While the movie makes some attempts to make these problems smaller, there’s only so much it can do when it’s a largely unchanged adaptation of the stage show.
All-in-all, Mean Girls is a fun ride and a good adaptation. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re a fan of the stage musical or the original movie.
Now give us Heathers the movie musical!
P.S: As Kat said, my fiancé was an extra in the movie. So it was a lot of fun playing “Where’s Waldo” looking for him on screen. Having a theater packed full of extras made for one of the most excited movie crowds I’ve seen in years.
Comics
Let's discuss some comics we've enjoyed recently!
As usual, we'll spotlight a Direct Market Indie Book, a DC or Marvel book, a Kickstarter book, and a Webcomic!
Indie Comic: Transformers
Kat: I’m not an 80’s kid. I know next to nothing about Transformers, but if there was anyone who was going to make me a fan it’s Daniel Warren Johnson. DWJ’s Transformers isn’t a nostalgia trip that only hardcore fans will understand, it’s a new reader friendly series that looks at the humanity of these robots in disguise.
The book walks a fine line between delicate and balls to the wall. Johnson continues to top himself, even following the masterpiece that was Do A Powerbomb! He’s putting independent comics into the mainstream, and Transformers is the perfect bridge for this movement.
DC Comics: New 52 Aquaman (2011)
Phil: With Aquaman: King of Atlantis now in theaters, we thought it would be fun to revisit my favorite Aquaman run for this week’s newsletter: Geoff Johns’ New 52 run.
We’ve seen a lot of different iterations of Aquaman over the decades. Goofy, edgy, angry, dudebro, human, atlantean…the list goes on. But Johns’ introspective take on the character remains my favorite take. From the moment we meet him, he’s torn between two worlds. And Johns does a great job letting us live in both of those worlds as he rounds out the cast of the series. I especially love the relationship between Aquaman and Mera in this run. It feels lived-in. And it’s really great that we get to spend time with Mera outside of Arthur - a luxury she is often not afforded in other Aquaman runs.
This run also has some fun playing with the “Aquaman is a joke” narrative that dominated the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. This narrative isn’t particularly relevant any longer following Jason Mamoa’s run as the character. But at the time, this was a really fun choice and made for some memorable exchanges in the New 52 run.
Geoff Johns’ and Peter David’s respective runs on Aquaman are the two I find myself more often returning to. And it’s nice to return to one of them with the release of this newest movie.
Webtoon: Not So Shoujo Love Story
Kat: I love a story that puts what you know about a genre on its head! Not So Shoujo Love Story is about a girl who is addicted to manga about love and wants to find her own romantic adventure with the long chinned, HANDSOME. But there’s a RIVAL, a girl who might also be in love with Handsome, but our leading lady will quickly learn that this girl is ACTUALLY IN LOVE WITH HER!
This is one of my favorite WEBTOONS because it’s equally funny as it is dramatic. The relationship is really easy to get behind because both characters are just as interesting separately as they are together. Not So Shoujo Love Story is a romcom that’s puts emphasize on the com.
Kickstarter: Where The Nightmares Are
“The children's classic Where The Wild Things Are gets a nightmarish twist in this fun, all-ages comic of adventure, fantasy and horror.”
Phil: Creator Frank Martin has become known for really fun comic one-shots on Kickstarter. And this is one of his coolest to date.
A horror take on “Where the Wild Things Are” that is enjoyable for younger readers and adults alike is a fantastic concept. Almost everyone has read the original children’s book and has some connection to it. And there’s nothing I love more than putting a horrific spin on something familiar. I also love the personal touch of the protagonist being based on Frank’s own daughter.
Very excited to read this one!
Back it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frankthewriter/where-the-nightmares-are
In Closing
Thanks, as always, for reading our newsletter!
If you’re not already subscribed, what are you waiting for?! Don’t miss out on future posts!
Current Kickstarter: Like Father, Like Daughter Vol. 2
Next Kickstarter: To Be Announced Next Newsletter…
Next Convention/Event: Emerald City Comic Con (2/29-3/03)
"FLOPPIES" vs GRAPHIC NOVELS: I think we all stress over this, but my Indie/KS experience has been very similar to the main publishers: "floppies" (a term retailers hate, I'm told) nearly pay for themselves (cost of talent, printing, etc.), while Graphic Novels are where you make the money you can, y'know, live on.
Since I can't afford to produce a hundred pages of a comic without getting paid by someone (be it a publishing company or Backers) the "floppy" lets me get new work out there in smaller, more affordable chunks (for both Backers and myself)— which (Big Bonus!) keeps my comic in the public eye more regularly (as opposed to only doing Graphic Novels, which have a much longer "dead zone" between publications).
As you said, you need to give the people who supported those "floppies" something extra in the Graphic Novel. You not only need to make it worth their time, you have to make it (to my mind) almost IMPOSSIBLE (Ha! My main character is called IMPOSSIBLE JONES; see what I did there?) for them to NOT get the collection/Graphic Novel.
Personally, I do that by collecting the floppies into an oversized (7.5 x 11) hardcover with a ribbon bookmark, extra/new story pages and— in the next IMP KS (launching 2-15-24) a fold-out of the characters in the IMP-verse drawn by Arthur Adams! (Something I have been working towards for YEARS, in order to get on Arthur's dance card!)
How can a fan of IMP *NOT* get that?
Of course, this could all still crash and burn. Maybe that'll be the month no one supports Kickstarters because Elon Musk suddenly decides to buy the company. But I'd like to think I've stacked the deck in my favor as much as possible.
Which, in the end, is all any of us can really do.
Karl Kesel