I haven’t added any new posts in the last year so I could dedicate my free time to producing my next project. That project is just about ready. Before then I wanted to think back on the last year of The Bog Road.
Sales
Publishing the graphic novel was a real life achievement fulfilled. This was something I always wanted to do and knowing I followed through with it has made me feel very happy. The completion has also brought a lot of unexpected admiration from people of all walks of life. When you take into account the small size of the market in which the book is being sold I think it has been a huge success. There are only around 300 copies left from a print run of 1250 and the publisher is very confident on going to a second print run. I think the legs on this book will go a lot further but to do that I need to ‘produce’ more. This will hopefully keep my stuff in people’s minds for longer and help bring in more sales for The Bog Road. I have decided to put out my next story as a series which will be more regular. This is going to be an interesting experiment to see if it works in our favour. I have decided to continue to creatively play in the same world as The Bog Road which should enrich the first book’s lore.
Conventions
Selling at all the conventions in Ireland was interesting. I learnt that a busier con doesn’t necessarily mean more sales. For example, I sold 9 books at Comic City Festival in Derry which was a big convention that had a lot of foot fall. Whereas in Enniskillen which was a lot smaller I sold double the amount. Dublin City Comic Con was an incredible experience where we sold nearly 80 books over those two days at the SubCity stand. It was definitely a highlight of the year to feel the buzz and interest for the book. I played with the idea of selling at local markets which wasn’t as successful as I thought it would be. I guess comics is still niche and for the majority of people they don’t even know what a comic book is. I think on my next blitz of Con’s I may be a little more selective and possibly think about hitting the U.K.
Awards
There were awards won at the Irish Comic News yearly ceremony for The Bog Road. It was very humbling to receive four for the book and I felt honoured to be recognised by my peers. I have listed the awards below and was delighted for Chris O’Halloran getting best colourist. Thanks for all who voted for us!
BEST WRITER (SMALL PRESS)
Barry Keegan (The Bog Road)
BEST IRISH CREATOR COMIC (SMALL PRESS)
The Bog Road
OVERALL BEST IRISH COMIC
The Bog Road
BEST COLOURIST (SMALL PRESS)
Chris O’Halloran (The Bog Road)
Irish Comics Community
Another discovery for me was how good comic book stores were at supporting local creators. The Dublin signing was at Forbidden Planet where I first started buying books as a teenager. This was surreal seeing The Bog Road on the shelves alongside Image, Marvel and DC. The below piece of art was the print I created for the signing. It was fun doing a once off piece after slogging through 80 pages.
Reviews
As regards Podcasts I have to say the support for the book has been overwhelming. I got to appear on Michael and Benjamin’s Podcast which was a lot of fun, thanks lads! The Awesome Comic Podcast in the U.K gave an incredible review which I will never forget. And finally I was bowled over by an epic video review from The Superior Comic Show.
Michael and Benjamin’s Podcast
The Superior Comic Show
Where can it all go?
Who knows really! But my aim is to keep putting out more work at as high a quality as I can. Hopefully this will encourage the good folks who bought my work to continue to talk about it with others. There are thoughts of putting my stories online and that is something that will have to be decided upon after this next project is complete. For now I’m just focused on this new tale, creating a buzz about Irish comics and making it as good as I can. Thanks for reading!