The History of Champion City Comics - Part I - It's Terrible

"It's terrible"

- Someone's opinion concerning our website c.2010

From late 2009 until early 2014 Champion City Comics experienced a creative period that I view to this day as tremendously successful. Opinions of our success will vary, but my overall assessment of our output is extremely positive and it happened because a group of enthusiastic people sacrificed time and money to create webcomics, comic books, articles, and reviews. Words cannot express my gratitude to the writers and artists and colorists and letterers that made us a great but very special community.

It was never supposed to be a community, but it happened. My Bob Ross opinion of it all was that it was a happy accident. Friendships were developed, bridges burned, and other shenanigans were experienced. My initial plan was to use Champion City Comics as a proverbial springboard which would send us into the world of comics as paid writers and artists. There was never a windfall of cash from publishing our work online or from advertising nor were there contracts from publishers to be signed. We had promises of being published but a small publishing company or two gave us the silent treatment following some brief publishing deal discussions. Is that considered ghosting? 

Our work has been praised and ridiculed. Our use of embedded PDFs created some moments of outrage and was frowned upon by our peers. Comic Related (RIP) and The Two Headed Nerd Podcast gave us plenty of publicity and we are very thankful. People told us that they loved our comics or took the opportunity to tell us how much we sucked. The bumps in the road were rough at times but it didn't slow us down initially. 

Then there was that moment where I quickly discovered that I was the "boss" of Champion City Comics and my management of projects and website updates ranged from dreadful to successful. Current and former members of Champion City Comics will definitely give you the details if you ask them nicely. 

This morning I realized that October 2015 marks our six year anniversary. The past year and a half has been interesting for me when it comes to Champion City Comics. I'm frustrated, proud, burned out, and nostalgic when it comes to this site. 

It's my goal to write more about our history, so you can better understand what we've experienced the past six years. 

Tony Wright is the owner of Champion City Comics. Follow him on Twitter @TonyDougWright.