MAGAZINE Issue #2
You May Give Give Aw ay Or Share Share This Magazine With ANYONE As Long As You Follow Follo w The These se Rules… Rules… . 1) You May Not Sell This This Magazine 2) You M ay Not Modify This This Magazine In Any W ay 3) Y ou May N ot Claim Claim Authorship
Brought to you by… http://www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com and
Thought Rocket Publishing, LLC 1415 Hwy 85N Suite 310-216 Fayetteville, Georgia 30214 (678) 814-1327 http://www.ThoughtRocketPublishing.com
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
Limits of Liability / Disclaimer of Warranty:
The author and publisher of this magazine and any accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing it. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this magazine. They disclaim any warranties (expressed or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and the publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought. The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness, or applicability of any sites listed in this magazine. All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or any other implied or explicit purpose. The material in this magazine does not constitute legal advice, only the author’s interpretation of the laws involved as he understands them. As always, legal advice should be obtained from a competent legal professional in any business venture. This magazine contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or other use of this magazine without permission is prohibited. Have a nice day!
Page 2 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
Introduction Dear Reader, Welcome aboard the second issue of "Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine", Magazine" , the only digital magazine exploring ingeniously creative and outrageously lucrative ways to profit from the public domain! This magazine is dedicated to exploring unique and little known ways to repackage and republish public domain material for fun and profit. In this second issue of "Public of "Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine" we will be discussing 11 different ways of profiting from “golden age” public domain comic books. The good thing for you and I is that there’s not many people doing this because they just haven’t thought of it yet! When most people think of the public domain, they think of old books, novels, plays, and artwork but did you realize that there are thousands of comic books in the public domain as well? Maybe you have at some point considered this fact and then blew off the idea because you thought there was no market for old comic books. At one time, I held the same perspective until I learned that nothing could be farther from the truth! Comic books and comic book art are hot and not just in the U.S. but all over the world. There are so many great applications for vintage comic book art that you would definitely be making a huge mistake not to at least take a look and see what’s available. Page 3 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
Now, I have a confession to make – I love comic books! books ! Always have, always will. They’re embedded in my heart and soul. I don’t actively read them anymore but they provide fond memories of childhood and I’ll never forget some of my favorite titles. I remember when I was a little boy growing up in Miami I would get up early every Saturday morning and peddle my bicycle down the highway picking up pop bottles on the way to the store so I could collect the deposits and scrape up enough change to buy comic books! I’d buy as many comic books as I could and then peddle like mad back home so that I could sit on the front porch and devour every issue. I couldn’t wait to read about the latest exploits of my favorite comic book heroes! Yeah, I was a geek. Still am really. But that’s O.K., you don’t have to be a geek to make out like a bandit stealing material from old public domain comic books – and that’s what this month’s issue is all about. In this issue, I’m going to show you 11 different creative ways to cash in on “golden age” public domain comic books, some of which you may have never even considered. So come along with me my friend and let’s so back to a simpler time when men were men and women were women and a comic book would only set you back 10 cents. Oh, and don’t forget your cape and tights – you may just need them. In the words of the legendary long-time Marvel Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee, “‘Nuff Lee, “‘Nuff Said” . Said” . Read on and profit my friend!
Logan Andrew Editor & Contributor, “Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine”
Page 4 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
A Crash Course In Comic B ook Histo ry… Comic books have had a very colorful history in the U.S. and they are truly an all-American art form! In order to understand why public domain comics are so valuable, you'll need to understand a little about what they are and where they came from so in this section I’ll give you a brief history of comic books. If you want the by-the-book stone cold definition, a comic book -- or comic for short -- is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. If you want my definition, comic books are little 30-page magic carpet rides through wildly imaginative new worlds of fun, romance, and adventure. Comic books came to exist in the U.S U.S.. in their modern format with the introduction of of “Famous Funnies” in the 1930’s. 1930’s . Japan, Japan , France, France , Italy, Italy, and Belgium have also had a long tradition in comic books, but it’s U.S U.S.. “Golden Age” comic books that we will be discussing here. The “Golden Age” of U.S. comic books (as coined by fans) is a duration in comic book history marked by the arrival of “Superman” in “Superman” in 1938 and lasting into the early 1950’s. 1950’s. If you would like to learn more about the various “ages” in comic book history Click Here. Here . These golden age comics were extremely popular in the U.S U.S.. and are most notable for introducing the concept of the “superhero” the “superhero” into our imaginations – ordinary people with extraordinary abilities, outrageous costumes, and the seemingly never-ending capacity for grand larger-than-life adventures. You’ll find a lot more than just superhero stories in these comics though. These comics spread across all kinds of genres – western, science fiction, horror, mystery, fantasy, adventure, crime, and war just to name a few. There were lots of comic book publishers that contributed to the golden age of comics, the two most recognized of which are D.C. comics (Detective Comics) and Marvel comics (known as Timely comics at that time). Being the two most prominent players in the comic book field with each enjoying measures of success that have allowed them to stay in business even until today, you can bet that they never let the copyright protection on any of their comics lapse so you won’t find anything by D.C. or Marvel in the public domain. But here’s the fascinating part – many of the other smaller publishers of the golden age, many of which produced titles that were just as successful at the time as titles held by D.C. and Marvel did let copyright protection lapse by not renewing in the 28th year after publication as required by U.S. copyright law for works produced between 1923 and 1963. 1963 . What this means for us as re-publishers is that there are now potentially thousands of great high-quality (and some not so high-quality) golden age comic books in the public domain that we can do whatever we want with. Page 5 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
Now, while you will not find any Superman comics (probably the most famous superhero of all) in the public domain (although there are some early cartoons), you will find tons of great comics from publishers such as Ace Comics, Comics , Charlton Comics, Comics , Fawcett Comics, Comics , Quality Comics, Comics , and others with such great titles like “Exciting “Exciting Comics”, Comics ”, “Amazing “Amazing Adventures”, Adventures ”, “Amazing Ghost Stories” Stories” and such colorful and dynamic superheroes as The Black Terror, Terror , Bulletman, Bulletman , The American Eagle, Eagle , Daredevil, Daredevil, Th e Blue Beetle, Beetle, The Black Hood, Hood , and many, many more. And of course, you’ll find more adventure, horror, western, true crime, and war themed comics than you can shake a proverbial stick at! Explore and have fun and I know you’ll uncover lots of wonderful hidden treasures and of course, this issue of “Pirates” “Pirates” will give you lots of ideas that you can use to profit from this material. Oh, and just a word of warning – a good deal of these golden age comics are very politically incorrect. You have to realize we’re dealing with 40’s and 50’s mindsets here. For instance, EVERYBODY smokes cigarettes, even the heroes. In comics published in the years leading up to and during World War II there’s a lot of German and Japanese bashing going on (especially in the super-hero and war comics). A good many of the male heroes from this timeframe seem to harbor rather sexist views of women. Most of this stuff was produced before the there was such a thing as the Comics Code Authority to step in and clean things up. But all in all, these comic books were just about having good, clean fun. Well, now you know a little about the history of the old public domain comics. Now let’s learn about how we can use them to put a little extra money in our pockets! On with the show….
Page 6 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
11 Creative Ways To Republish Republish Public Dom ain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!
Page 7 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#1 – Simply Republish Public Domain Comic Books “As-Is”! Without doubt, the absolute easiest way to turn a profit with public domain comic books is to just simply republished them exactly “as-is” exactly “as-is” , no editing, no touch-up work - just scan ‘em in and roll ‘em out. This requires very little creativity on your part and it’s pretty easy to do. You could republish them one issue at a time but that would be pretty silly since it’s hard to command high dollars for a single issue of a comic book (a reproduction anyway). Here are some ways that you can republish public domain comics “as-is” in a format you can demand top dollar for: 1.
Republish As Hardcover or Softcover "Omnibus" Editions - One of the best way to republish public domain comic books "as-is" is to collect 10 or so issues and package them together into one book grouped by either a particular series or by a particular theme. For instance you could take issues of "The Black Terror" as shown in the image on the previous pasge and collect them together in one book or you could have a themed collection that collects public domain comics from particular genresl genresllikel likelwestern,l western,lhorror,l horror,lwar,l war,lsuperhero,l superhero,ldetective,l detective,lsciencel sciencelfiction,l fiction,lfantasy,l fantasy,letc.
2.
Monthly Printed Magazine - How about collecting public domain comic books and using them as content for a monthly magazine that you could charge a monthly subscription for? Each magazine could feature 3 to 4 public domain comics. You could even easily "niche" this out and have several different monthly magazines covering different themes like horror, science fiction, etc. Don't be surprised if many of your customer's are subscribed to several of your magazines at the same time!
3.
Republish As Digital eComics On CD CD / DVD - Here's probably one of the easiest methods of all - take the scans you made of your public domain comic books and convert them into PDF format. Then dump then onto a CD or DVD and sell them as collections. You could have a whole series of CD's or DVD’s to present to your customers and the cool thing is it's really inexpensive to produce a really professional CD or DVD using a print-on-demand service like SwiftCD or Kunaki Kunaki.. Again, you couldl couldlorganizel organizelyourl yourlCD'sl CD'slbyl bylseriesl serieslorl orltheme. In my experience, if you are scanning in your comics at a decent resolution (the higher, the better), an average 30 page comic will convert to a PDF with a file size of somewhere around 30Mb on average. Since a CD holds roughly 700 Megabytes of data, you could squeeze somewhere around 23 issues onto one CD. Holding roughly 4.7 Gigs of data, you could squeeze roughly 156 issues onto a DVD. I wouldn't fill these things to capacity though as you'll want to spread them across more than one discl disclsol solthatl thatlyou'lll you'lllhavel havelmultiplel multiplelvolumesl volumesltol toloffer.
4.
Membership Site / Digital Dow Dow nloads - How about this? Create an exclusive vintage comic book membership site and present your comic books as digital downloads. You could upload new comics every month and your members could login and download them to their computers or even better, you could figure out a way to Page 8 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
make them non-downloadable yet still viewable. This would cut down on the number of people that just sign-up every six months, download everything and then cancel their membership. You could completely control the distribution of your comics. Membership sites are a fantastic way of generating recurring revenue and just think - if you can convince just 1000 comic book lovers to pay you $10.00 per month for access to the site, then you’re making $10,000 a month easy! You could also implement features like a forum, where your members could have discussions about all of their favorite comics and other "sticky" features that promote long-term memberl memberlretention.
Page 9 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#2 - Translate Translate Public Domain Comic B ooks Int o Different Languages!
This method will work for any public domain book and it will work especially well for public domain comic books. Using graphic editing software like Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop , you could easily take your comics (once you've digitized them) and import each of the page images. Then you could "white out" the cartoon dialogue bubbles, replacing the text in English with the same text in another language. You'll need to purchase a "comic-book" style font. ComicBookFonts.com is one of many great places to find killer comic book style fonts. This is a great method to use especially if live in a country where English is not the primary language or if you plan on marketing the books in a country where English is not the primary language. Of course, having a mastery of the language you intend on translating your comic books dialogue into is a must unless you plan on hiring someone to translate the comics for you. Just think, by translating your public domain comic books into other languages you could tap into a whole world of otherwise neglected international markets and introduce these long-lost treasures to a whole new demographic of readers! Before you dismiss the potential of this method consider these facts: There are currently over 6 billion people living on this rock we call Urth and of those 6 billion: •
Overl Overl1 l billionl billion lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklMandarin
•
5 08 lmillionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklEnglish
•
4 97 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklHindustani
•
3 92 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklSpanish Page 10 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!" •
2 77 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklRussian
•
2 46 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklArabic
•
2 11 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklBengali
•
1 91 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklPortuguese
•
1 59 l millionl million lpeoplel peoplelspeakl speaklMalay-Indonesian
•
129 million people speak French
And that's just the top ten languages spoken in the world. You've still got German, German , Italian, Italian, Japanese, Japanese , and a whole slew of others as well! Granted, all of these people are not going to be comic book readers but, you get my point. The market could be huge. SOURCE
Page 11 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
# 3 l - l Republish Public Domain Com ics By Tapping Into The Pow er of “Reimagination”!
Remember way back in Public Domain Treasure Hunter Issue #1 when we talked about “reimagineering” old public domain movies by wiping the soundtrack clean and adding fresh humorous and deliriously corny dialogue? Well, guess what – you can do that with comic books even quicker and easier! Just like with Method #3 above, you could easily import each of your page images into Adobe Photoshop and “white out” the cartoon dialogue bubbles. Then you could replace the existing dialogue with zany off-the-wall one liners and just plain silliness. Just like those old public domain movies some of these comics are so campy they’re just begging to be fun of.l of.lRememberl RememberlM ad l Movies? Movies ?lHowl Howl’boutl ’boutlM ad l Comics? Comics ? Just have fun with it and let your imagination run wild! You could republish whole issues using this method but I’ll tell you something else this method works really well for as well – advertising! Using a simple short panel layout like the one above works remarkably remarkably well. There’s something about a comic strip panel that just absolutely will not let you glance by it without stopping to read it first! C’mon, admit it – you read the panel above as soon as you placed your eyes on it didn’t you? You couldn’t help it! Using a panel like the one above works great in advertising because it takes people’s guard down immediately and gets them to read your ad without even realizing they are reading an ad! And if you can make ‘em laugh that’s even better! You could use this method with banner ads on the internet as well.
Page 12 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#4 - Create Exciting Exciting New "Derivative" "Derivative " W orks! Creating a derivative work simply means that you take a work, and then build upon that work creating something entirely new in the process. Old public domain comics are an absolute goldmine of creative ideas, innovative story telling techniques, and unique visual concepts. Many of these comic books were authored by some true masters of storytelling and illustrated by some of the greatest sketch artists to ever hold a pencil. Most of them eventually went on to create comic books for the big boys like Marvel Comics Comic s and D.C. Comics. Comics . Imagine all of the material that public domain comic books could provide you with in the creation of film scripts, animated cartoons, and even novels. Stuck on a plot idea for your next novel? Beating your head in trying to think up a fresh idea for a movie script? Want to create a new cartoon series but short on original character ideas? Look no further than that stack of old public domain comic books. It would take you years to exhaust all of the possible ideas that you could extract from them!
Page 13 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#5 - Create Your Own Line Of Retro-Cool Vintage Clothing! How about using public domain comic book art to create an entire line of hip apparel? Comic books cover images (and even images from the pages themselves) look really cool on tshirts! Over the past few years a trend has emerged for vintage clothing with classic images like t-shirts with old cartoon or cereal box characters or even video game characters on them. I would bet that the same crowd that's into that stuff would really dig clothes decorated with golden age comic book art. You could use images from public domain comic books to create all sorts of nifty apparel. Check out some of the stylin' threads I created at Zazzle in just a few minutes using public domain comic book covers...
Page 14 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#6 - Use Public Dom ain Comic Book Cover Images To Create C reate Jaw -Droppingly -Dropping ly Beautiful Posters and Framed Prints! What's usually the best part of a comic book as far as visual appeal? That's right - the cover. Generally, the cover always receives the most attention by the illustrators because it's the cover you see first peeking at you from the magazine rack. It's the cover that catches your attention and seduces you into spending your lunch money. The covers of these golden age comics are usually brilliantly colored, bright and vibrant. Sometimes, they’re dark and moody depending on the theme, but nevertheless they're almost always beautifully and skillfully drawn. Comic art is an art all to itself and even people that don't read comic books can appreciate it. Vintage pop-art is hot! You can use this to your advantage by using comic cover art to create posters and framed prints like these groovy framed prints I created on CafePress in less than five minutes…
When creating posters and framed prints, image quality counts so make sure that you are scanning in the covers at as high a resolution as possible and then use a graphics editing program like Adobe Photoshop to clean up any imperfections and tweak the brightness.
Page 15 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#7 - Comic Book A rt Clip Art Collections! It never ceases to amaze me how well clip-art and stock images sell online. I guess it makes sense when you consider that there's millions of websites on the 'net and they constantly need graphics! “Retro” and “Retro” and “Vintage “Vintage Look” graphics enjoy brisk sales online (see RetroClipArt.com for some examples) and you could easily put together a collection for sale on CD by clipping them from public domain comic books. Public domain comics are an absolute treasure chest of high-quality images especially when it comes to human facial expressions. In any given single issue of a public domain comic you could probably find facial expressions that cover the whole range of human emotions. Start clippin’ and snippin’ cause you’ll find a virtually unlimited supply of great clip-art in public domain comics for people to use as graphic images on their websites, in their advertising, in their documents – whatever! It wouldn’t take long at all to produce a CD containing thousand’s of great images! images!
Page 16 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#8 - A Unique Way To Use Public Domain Comic Book s To To Create Flash Videos And V iral Traffic! Here's a really unique idea that I don't really see anyone doing yet - Use public domain comics to create flash videos and upload them to online video sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video and use the videos to drive insane amounts of traffic back to your website. Here's how you do it - You can really bring an old comic to life by using a screen capture recording application like Camtasia Studio to "record" your comic book. If you arrange the panels from the pages in your comic book and then play them back in a slide show presentation, you can record the slide show on your computer screen to produce the visual elements of your video. Then add your own soundtrack to produce the audio elements. You could narrate the dialogue (using different voices for each character of course), and add your own sound effects (BAM! WACK! CRASH!), and even add your own music soundtrack for dramatic effect (public domain music of course). I don’t know anyone that is currently using this method so I don’t have a perfect example to show you. You’ll have to use your imagination! But you’ll get a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about by checking out the links below…(BTW, none of these are public domain comics) Click Here for a trailer for the “Spiderman 3” movie made from various Spiderman comics… Click Here to watch a trailer for the “300” movie made from the graphic novel…. Click Here to for a fun video I just wanted to add because it made me laugh…
Page 17 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#9 - Use Public Dom ain Comic Book Im ages To To Create Unique Physical P roducts! roducts! You can put public domain comic book images on just about anything you could possibly imagine. The only restriction is the age old question – “will it sell?”. The interior panel illustrations of a comic work great with novelty items like coffee mugs (especially in combination with Method #3) and such while the cover art works great for clothing and more “artsy” type items. I’ve included some goofy products I created using CafePress to serve as a visual aid. There’s no limit to the kind of products you can create except your imagination, your time, and your manufacturing contacts. BTW, if you would like to order this cool Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine BBQ Apron, shoot me an email!
Page 18 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#10 - Don't Forget About Those Great Full Page Ads Found I n Public Domain Comics! And don't forget about the vintage ads! When I was a little boy I used to drool over the goofy little one page ads that ran rampant through my comic books - Wow! 100 little green army men and a plastic tank for $1.00! A miniature "spy" camera for just a buck? I used bug my mother relentlessly for a dollar every time I saw one of these ads but she never gave in. She was a wise woman. It wasn’t until years later that I found out that most of the products in these ads were total rip-offs designed to cheat little kids out of their money but that’s not the point. The point is these ads were just plain fun. They remind a lot of people of their childhood days. Ahhh, smell the nostalgia! How can you you profit from these goofy ads? ads? Well, you you could publish publish a collectab le book of classic comic book ads called, “Mom, Gimme A Dollar!” or Dollar!” or you could sell these ads on eBay . Yeah, believe it or not, there’s people clipping the classic advertisements out of old magazines and selling them on eBay – and they sell well too! The big difference here is that, since these ads are from comic books in the public domain, you could reproduce them in volume and sell them over and over again rather than making a one time sale. Think about it! Here’s a few examples….
Page 19 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
Page 20 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
#11 - Public Domain Comics Mix-N-M atch! The real beauty of the last 10 methods for using public domain comics books is that you can easily mix and match methods to fit your needs. No matter what marketing tactics you employ you’ll find at least a handful (if not all) of these methods useful. You could sell a softcover omnibus edition on eBay and then invite people that buy your book to join your membership site or visit your online store stocked full of merchandise like t-shirts, framed prints, posters and more. You could create flash videos like we discussed in Method #8 and post them on YouTube driving traffic back to your membership site and / or online store. You could place downloadable PDF sample versions of your comics on document sites like Scribd and include a link back to your website within the e-book. There are so many possibilities! And with a market as hardcore as comic book lovers you should do really well. Trust me, I know a few hardcore comic book fanatics. When they love a comic they just have to own all the related merchandise as well!
Quick Quick Tips For For Working W ith Public Domain Comic Book s: •
•
•
•
•
For graphics editing and formatting, you’ll need a good graphics editor like Photoshop or GIMPShop and at least a passing familiarization with the software or alwillingnessl willingnessltol tollearn. To digitize your public domain comic books, you’ll need a decent flat bed scanner (unlessl (unlesslyoul youldon’tl don’tlmindl mindlremovingl removinglpages). You’ll need to have a decent computer with plenty of horsepower in reserve. Scanningl Scanninglandl andlgraphicl graphiclworkl workltakel takelquitel quitelalbitl bitlof lsysteml systemlresources. Finding old public domain comic books is easy using auction sites like eBay or by trollingl trollinglyardl yardlandl andlestatel estatelsales.l sales.lTherel Therelarel arelalsol alsolalfewl fewlgoodl goodlonlinel onlinelrepositories. To determine the copyright status of any comic book published in the U.S., follow U.S. Copyright Duration Law. “Golden Law. “Golden Age” comics fall under the rules governing all works published in the U.S. between the years of 1923 and 1963. 1963 . In order to have retained copyright protection, the comic book must have had its copyright renewed in the 2 8 th year after initial publication. If it was not renewed, it’s in the public domain. For more information about understanding U.S. Copyright La w 1and1 and1finding1 finding1andl andlprofitingl profitinglfroml fromlpublicl publicldomainl domainlworksl workslof lalll alllkinds,l kinds,lvisit PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com/ kit.ht kit.html ml..
Page 21 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
In Clos i n g … . We’ll there you go – 11 creative ways to republish public domain comic books for fun and profit. Which method will you use? In any case, I bet you’ll look at comic books in whole new light now! What we’ve discussed in this issue is just one of the nearly endless creative and profitable ways to make money and have fun with public domain material. If this method appeals to you then take it and run with. Go nuts! Create something that’ll set the internet on fire! Just don’t forget to send me copy…. Hey, do me a favor – if you enjoyed this issue of “Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” , drop by our blog at PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com and leave a comment for us. Let us know what you think! If enough people leave positive feedback, we may get motivated to quit reading comic books long enough to put together Issue #3! #3 ! Until next time, let’s go plunder the vast treasures of the public domain! To your success,
Logan Andr Andrew ew Editor & Contributor, “Public Contributor, “Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine”
Page 22 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Thought Rocket Publishing presents….
“Public Domain Treasure Hunter Magazine” Issue #2 - "11 Creative Ways To Republish Public Domain Comic Books For Fun and Profit!"
Page 23 © 2008 Thought Ro cket Publishin g. All Rights Reserved. www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited.
"How To Make Money Republishing Republi shing Copyright-Expi CopyrightExpire re d B ook s, Magazines, Pho tos, & Mo re .. ..." ." Once You K now Ho w To Identify, Identify, Repackage and Market These Copyright-FREE Copyright-FREE Treasures, Y ou’ll Have A Ser ious GOLDMINE Of Unlimited Unlimited Niche Content On Your Ha nds!
Click Here Now To Find Out More…