• by Ray Schultz , August 9, 2021

Substack is moving into comics with a program that could help to turn email newsletters into Hollywood franchises.   

“There are few industries where we feel the Substack model could be more game-changing than in comics, where the gap in power and earning potential between publishers and for-hire creators is enormous, and where the creator of a story can spawn a nine-figure franchise and yet take home little more than a standard paycheck,” Substack says in a post. 

Substack will this week launch work by Saladin Ahmed (Eisner Award-winning author of  Throne of the Crescent Moon), Ignatz- and Prism Award-winning graphic novelist Molly Knox Ostertag (author of The Witch Boy and The Girl from the Sea, and artist for the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist), and multiple Eisner Award winner Scott Snyder (author of Voodoo Heart, and writer of Batman, Wytches, and American Vampire). 

These artists are being supported by Substack Pro packages that Substack claims will remove the risks of starting a publishing enterprise. 

James Tynion IV, who was lead writer on Batman, writes this, according to a Substack post:

“There is nobody you need to get permission from to do what you want to do. Make the books you most want to make, the books you think should exist, the ones that it has driven you crazy that nobody is making. Make them yourself. Produce works by people whose work you absolutely love. Will them into the world.”

It remains to be seen whether Facebook will do the same with Bulletin.