Fleen: The Awkward Christmas Dinner Of Our Obligation To Existence

Beyond T-Shirts

One of the things that you get used to real quick when you read webcomics is merch. This is a pretty natural thing, given that the people producing that webcomic you love so much ain’t paying hosting bills for the sheer fun of it. If there’s not a tip cup, there’s stuffs for sale, even for the semi-hobbyists.

But fundamentally, those stuffs fall into the categories of:
1. Shirts and shirtlike garments
2. Books
3. Art

That’s about it. Oh, sure, if you’re willing to associate with Cafe Press, you can get your character on a frisbee or whatever, but why so few options?

There seems to be a dearth of stuff that people would want that associates with your strip; yeah, Megatokyo has things like marker sets, but they’re just acting as a distributor for somebody else’s product in that case. The only other item that seems to get much traction in the minds of the audience: some form of doll.

And here’s why things may be so sparse in the merchandise world: making those things is time-consuming. The hand-made things over at Sluggy have always been historically backordered. The initial Keenspot attempt to bring stuffies was measured in geological time (although it mostly appears to be lead time to get that first damn doll sewn; after that, the supply chain appears to have improved). You can get Schlock Mercenary figurines, but “handmade” should tell you it’s gonna take a while and cost a bunch. The only attempts at quantities of actual action figures (with accessories!) that I’m aware of are from Messers Bell and Rosenberg. And these are fraught with delays, as the only manufacturies are a) far overseas; b) speak a different language; and c) hate you and want to make you suffer.

So, if you’re out there, studying something like fabric sculpture, toy design, or the like: there’s a market here. If somebody can put together a business that doesn’t require lead times measured in whole years and can keep a reasonable price-point, there’s a lot of people that would love to have stuff based on their favorite characters.

Final disclaimer: as with almost any webcomics discussion, this one must acknowledge that Achewood is the proverbial atypical outlier. But seriously, why shouldn’t we have nuts for our cell phones?

I’ve actually had a lot of success selling posters. I know it’s a bit off topic since you’re really talking about stuffed dolls and the like, but just thought I would bring it up. The profit margin is pretty huge, they don’t take up a lot of space in the ol’ inventory corner, and if you put something exclusive on it there’s added incentive to pick it up.

Nothing’s off topic here, Zach; I didn’t know about the advantages of posters, and now everybody reading does. Thanks.

Now, I just wonder how cost-effective prints of strips are. Just how much profit does Mr. Rosenberg make off of the prints he sells of various strips? I’d imagine that even with a good quality print, the margin is pretty large.

Well, offering to print individual strips is less cost effective, but a single large run (by large run I’m talking over 200 pieces) poster sold for $10 can net you $8-9 per unit easily.

I think that Little Dee is close to off-topic.

And Garfield is definitely off-topic. Except by way of counter-example.

So, not everything is on topic.

It’s always about Garfield with you, isn’t it, Jeff?

I’m actually spending this weekend working on the “hopefully” final prototype for our first batch of plush Radioactive Pandas. We’ve been looking at doing this for about six months, and only now getting to the point where we have something I’m happy with. We’re going through the same people who made the Bun Bun beanies for Sluggy, and they seem to do good work.

It’s a large investment, but we’re hoping it pays off. We’ll see soon.

I’d say talking about what’s off-topic is probably off-topic…

Meta-off topic!

Over the summer and fall I made “fake bricks” , which were from our regular gag “Brick o’ Silence” –and sold hundreds of them– it was a little extra work and took some time to make them, but it was well worth it… I’ll probably be doing another batch when the weather warms up. (I have to dry them outside on the porch) :)

[…] We have previously reported on the failure of Vault Distribution and the impact it had on the creators that were involved. At that time, we also pointed out that there now an open niche in the market and creators who were looking for someone to help sell their stuff. (As a side note, if you’re one of the small distributors out there, and are looking for some exposure – please use our contact form to tell us your story.) […]

Having had a grandfather who ran his own specialty advertising business I can safely say that the issue with production of more complex products is setup costs. While creating poster, or a compilation of pages 1-200 of your comic is as simple as sending the artwork to the printer, selecting paper stocks, and paying the per piece cost, more complex things like dolls have a greater setup cost for the creation of the prototype and the re-tooling costs make producing small runs cost prohibitive. Until such a time as an artist can make an order large enough to properly absorb the original setup and re-tooling costs, the price of such complex products will remain prohibitive. Either that, or production will have to be located in China where workers can be paid .12 an hour.

[…] Gary From a January discussion on webcomics merch: The only attempts at quantities of actual action figures (with accessories!) that Iâ€™m aware of are from Messers Bell and Rosenberg. And these are fraught with delays, as the only manufacturies are a) far overseas; b) speak a different language; and c) hate you and want to make you suffer. […]

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