Unsurprisingly, Alterna is quite possibly the dumbest and least useful publisher in comics
Just to break things down for people who are curious about whether Alterna always had this model
- Some time before 2011, Alterna, in an effort to stave off bankruptcy, started shuffling the burden of print costs for their comics on to the creators
- Some time before 2011, Alterna, in an effort to stave off bankruptcy, started shuffling the burden of print costs for their comics on to the creators
In 2011, Alterna launched an IndieGoGo for about a grand to help keep bankruptcy at bay and the campaign page explains their precarious financial situation at that time indiegogo.com/projects/help-…
Last year, Alterna decided to start releasing single issues after finding a printer that would do newsprint for them and, theoretically, thus make single issues cheap enough to release, particularly in small print runs.
Around the same time as their pivot to newsprint single issues, Alterna also decided to try to sell to newstands as well as comic shops, in the hopes that ads would bolster their profits. Then they did a Kickstarter to once again stave off bankruptcy kickstarter.com/projects/peter…
Later in 2017, Alterna talked about their newsstand distribution through PDG, which seemingly centered on their titles being sold at Toys 'R' Us. Toys 'R' Us filed bankruptcy not long after, which apparently at first did not concern Alterna comicon.com/2017/10/04/pet…
Obviously, despite Simeti's comments about how confident he was Toys 'R' Us would survive their bankruptcy, that did not happen. It is around this time that Simeti and Alterna pivoted hard towards comicsgate, perhaps viewing it as yet another respite from their own bankruptcy.
In a nutshell, most of Alterna's existence has involved unveiling baffling new policies in a desperate bid to ward off their own inevitable bankruptcy and I honestly believe this comicsgate courtship is more of the same.
The problem now, of course, is that whereas before creators trying to break into comics could be convinced releasing something through Alterna could potentially be better than self-releasing, most new creators will rightly view Alterna's comicsgate front rep as a major liability.
Because, while in the short run, sure, comicsgaters will throw some dollars at Alterna, they're getting those few dollars at the expense of being able to recruit new talent. Any creator with real potential recognizes a comicsgate affiliation will close doors at larger publishers.
