Tuesday 5 June 2018

Who wants Cerebus T-Shirts?



Hi, Everybody!

Two days, Comiclink, Auctions, Dave Sim signed...stuff. Bring all your money.

And then...

Actually, we need to talk.

As Dave mentioned in the Weekly Update, I got a message at momentofcerebus@gmail.com, (This one in fact:)
Hello.

I'm wanting several Cerebus images printed on apparel.

I didn't want to just take Dave's work from off of the internet and pay  
some other company to do it.

Is there any such official service where the money would go to the creator  
at least in part?

I don't entirely know what to look for or expect to be honest.

Regards,
David M.
I responded to David (nope, this hasn't got confusing yet,) asking what images he wanted. He said he wasn't entirely sure, but the cover to Church & State II was on his shortlist.

NOW, I set-up the "official" webstore of A Moment of Cerebus to kinda test the waters on how well Cafepress does printing shirts and stuff (I haven't ordered anything yet, but I'll let everyone know how awesome or not it is.)

This was Phase One.

Phase Two is, if there is interest, I say, "IF there is interest", setting up a webstore to sell Cerebus shirts.

This would either be:

A: art from the series being put on shirts for the first time (Church & State II cover, etc.)

OR:

B: Images that have been on shirts, but are out of print. So stuff like:
The Campaign '93 shirt

The Elrod shirt

The Jaka's Story shirt
One Big Mother, etc. etc.

The idea would be that I'd update the shirts with "copyright 2018 Dave Sim" (or whatever year, 2019, 2020,) and they would be sold as: "Official" Bootleg T-shirts.

I'd make NO claim that they weren't anything other than Bootlegs. Stuff that's IN PRINT, like Cerebus For Dictator and He Doesn't Love You... that are available from Graphitti Designs, or the Cerebus in Chains shirt, wouldn't get bootlegged.

And I'd only keep enough of the money to cover my tax burden (I don't know how much that'll be, but I can't imagine it'd be THAT much,) with the rest going to Dave.

I know Dave's not a fan of Merchendise, but I think this might be "doable".

OR:

People could just donate on CerebusDownloads.com like Dave wants.

Sound of in the comments (PLEASE I NEED input on this)

Next Time: Ben Hobbs with HIS pitch to get all your money...

13 comments:

Tim P said...

Love the idea. I would place orders if shipping costs to the U.K. were good. I’ve considered placing an order with Graffiti Designs before but thier shipping costs are too high. I’m not going to spend over the odds on a tshirt. Shipping costs might restrict your market to Canada or States

Birdsong said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
George Peter Gatsis said...

or you can do what I have done...

follow the "BABY" on this page:
http://www.georgepetergatsis.com/cerebuskingchesspiece/index.html


George

JLH said...

I would love to get Cerebus shirts, but the Graffiti ones aren't in my size (I need 3X).

Margaret said...

I do like that one "oh yeah, well Cerebus has never heard of you, either!" That just makes me chuckle. Yes, yes, I do have one. I just don't want to wear my one collectable. . .But if I had a second I could wear out and about. . .

Byron said...

I would KILL for the "Oh yeah? Cerebus hasn't heard of you either." T-shirt. Seriously, e-mail me now anyone who can make me one and mail it to me and I will pay you immediately, and if a web store opens up, I will be the first in line to buy that shirt.

George Peter Gatsis said...

where does the "Oh yeah? Cerebus hasn't heard of you either" t-shirt originate?

did dave do it for someone?

or did someone other than dave do it?

George

Tony Dunlop said...

I seem to remember ads for that Campaign '93 T-shirt in the back of Cerebus at the time - I'm pretty sure they were an official part of said campaign, which included retail displays and a Dave-n-Ger tour of comix shops throughout North America and the UK.

Mouse Skull Entertainment said...

Tony,

I think you're right. I'm gonna try to find the issue where Dave launched the campaign.
Matt

George Peter Gatsis said...

ya'll... ISAY... ya'll should look over CEREBUSDOWNLOADS.com a little more... IN DEPTH-like son... I say.

Isay....the answer has been right there... like right in front of you, son.

:)

George

Eddie said...

Well, since it seems like the t-shirt that most people want (the Campaign ’93 one) is already available through George’s site (although there are some unknown questions and variables; i.e. how much of the revenue from the sales goes to AV; if it’s more profitable for AV, and inexpensive to make and ship than what you were planning on using, etc.) (and it might be a good idea to have it more prominently shown on AMOC and the Cerebusdownloads site, since it seems most, if not all of the potential customers for it all were unaware they were available, and it required a bit of digging to find), it makes me wonder if there might be a more useful and effective use of your time, such as trying to drive traffic to Cerebusdownloads and the donation button? Because I assume the market for Cerebus t-shirts is going to reach it’s limit pretty quickly.

(I’ve been mulling over in my mind for the last few days if sales on Cerebus t-shirts and merchandise would divert at all from more profitable revenue streams for AV, such as the auctions, donations, etc. My initial thoughts are, most likely not, but it would depend on the number of people bidding on auction items, the average amount the auction items go for, and the types of items being auctioned vs the cost and demand for Cerebus merchandise, and if there is overlap between the 2 groups. As an example, I personally would much rather spend my money on auction items or donate through Patreon than the Cerebus Chess Set pieces or t-shirts (although if the former wasn’t available, I most likely would spend it on the latter), but I assume there are people who are the opposite. And then there are those who are in both camps).

I might be wrong, but I believe the last time there was a spike at Cerebusdownload donations was with your effective suggestion of offering the first? second? Both? Cerebus trades for as a free digital download over a limited time, which got picked up by the comic news sites and directed traffic towards it. Maybe something similar for a temporary time again? Maybe a different volume?

George Peter Gatsis said...

@eddie...

Please contact me @ george@tbdeinc.com

I have some thoughts...
( yes it happens sometime )

GpG

Mark said...

Seems to me that the issues are:
1) reward the artist
2) Ensure that the art is presented at its best (no blurry prints, adding new punchlines etc)
3) Cover the range of sizes appropriate to a fanbase pushing middle age and up
4) Address postage so that the solution works for an international market
5) pick images that a lot of people want.

My preferred solution would be that Dave offer "permission" for fans to pick their own image and get it printed locally for themselves in exchange for a suggested PayPal donation to the cause.