[Watch the source video on CRB.com]

The text below is a transcription of the Robert Kirkman “Mission Statement” that he put together on a video after getting back from the San Diego ComicCon, August 2008. The video was edited and hosted on Comic Book Resources website. I do not claim ownership over any of the text, and have provided this transcription as a way to spread Robert Kirkman’s message to the masses.

I have taken liberties to present Kirkman’s message in as “prose”-like a manner as possible–editorially cleaning up sentence structure for clarity. If anyone feels anything is inappropriately presented please leave a comment below so that I can edit the transcription.

Mission Statement, by Robert Kirkman

Hi, Robert Kirkman here. The question that I was asked the most is: “Why did I do it? Why did I leave Marvel Comics to do creator-owned work, exclusively?” Aside from a thousand other reasons, the main reason, the one reason I want to talk about now is: I did it to save the entire comic book industry.

I know that sounds a little arrogant, a little goof-ball, and that’s fine, but this is very serious, and I’m going to tell you what I’m thinking.

Right now, the comic book industry is backwards. No one watches a movie and decides that they want to do movies and aspires to only ever do pulp fiction too; and no one reads a novel and decides they want to do novels and only ever aspires to do Moby Dick too.

In the industry, the way it works right now is, a lot of times guys come into creator owned comics like me, like Bendis, like Jonathan Hickman, like Matt Fraction, we come into the comic book industry doing creator-owned work, and we eventually graduate up to Marvel and that’s the end of the story. Then you work your way up the Marvel pecking order and sometimes you get to the top, and sometimes you get to the middle, and sometimes you languish at the bottom; but you make a good living and it’s excellent, excellent work, it’s fun to do. At the end of the day I had a great time at Marvel. Joe Quesada, super brilliant man, but at the end of the day, when you’re hot, you’re hot, when you’re not, you’re not—and when you’re not hot, they don’t want you and your career is over, and that’s bad for creators.

The thing you need to do is eventually go off and do creator-owned stuff, it’s been proven that when you do creator-owned work, your life in the industry is a little longer, as long as it’s good. They sell very little but they make a lot of money because they’re not paying for a corporation. I’ve got artists making a living just by doing my books and I make a swell living on trade paperbacks and single issues and everything that I do. So I’m here to say that it can be done, and that it should be done.

The way that the comic book industry should work is that you start out in low-selling creator-owned stuff that you do on your own, or low-selling books that you eventually graduate up to Marvel from doing—or DC—and you work your way up through that, and when you hit a certain level when you can sell a book on your own—you leave.

The problem is—and this is where it gets into “saving the industry”—I read a ton of Marvel and DC books, and I love them because they are fantastic, and I am the target audience. I’m going to be 30 years old this year, and I’m just going to get older, and older, and older. The books are tailor made for me, they’re the characters that I grew up loving, but they are doing things that are more mature, and stories that are more complex. They are all excellent, excellent comics, but the fanboy becomes the fanman, becomes the old man, becomes the dead man, and we are all going to take the comic book industry with us. There are not enough new people coming into the industry as it is.

If all those people that are getting the kind of freedom at Marvel and DC to do whatever they want and make the stories as complex and entertaining as they are—we’re doing that on creator-owned books. The audience that we have now would be able to read those books and enjoy those books, but they’d be on original characters. That opens up a whole new door to cinema and adapting movies—it’s a whole new revenue stream for creators. It is more lucrative than working at Marvel or DC.

I know that people are watching this—Marvel and DC are saying, “What the hell is wrong with this guy?”, “This is the worse thing in the world!” that, “He should not be telling people to leave Marvel and DC!” I am telling you right now, that in the long run, it would help Marvel and DC because our audience—the 30 year olds are reading all the top guys’ creator-owned stuff because we follow the creators. Younger kids don’t care about the creators. Appealing to kids is what Marvel and DC should be doing. Darkhorse and Image should be appealing to the “fanmen”—and I hate that term—but if you’re 20 to 40 to 50 to 60 and you’re still reading comics—and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m still reading comics, comics are better than television and movies, and the more people that knew that, the better off they’d be.

We can’t put a lockdown on Marvel and DC characters because those characters belong to the world. Those characters help children learn to read, and help children enjoy reading. I know there are “Adventures” lines and stuff like that, but those talk down to kids to a certain extent and that’s not what kids want. Kids want to feel like they’re reading something that’s not necessarily meant for them, but appropriate for them.

That’s what we need to do. That saves the comic book industry and that makes Marvel and DC’s work easier because they’re appealing to a larger audience, they’re not having to give these ridiculous contracts to these high paid writers and artists, and the writers and artists are happier because they’re doing what they want.

The more people that do creator-owned work, the easier it’ll be to sell creator-owned work. I’m one guy, I’m out there, I’m doing it, I’m making a living—I’m making a good living. If there were two of me, we’d be selling better. If there were six of me, we’d be selling huge. If there were twenty of me—fans—would—come.

It can happen. Creator-owned books would be selling better, and Marvel and DC books would be selling better. Marvel and DC would still be number one and two, and everyone would be happier.

We’re doing great right now. The movies are great. Sales are up. Trade paperbacks are killing bookstores; graphic novels are the only growth department. It’s a good time for comics—and people just aren’t really talking about the state that we’re in as much as they used to.

It’s not time to rest on our laurels; it’s not time to go, “Well, we’re on an upswing! That’s great!” There’s more that can be done and I think that this is a discussion, this isn’t the final say. I’m sure that I said things that are completely wrong, but I think that everyone should consider thinking about this and talking about this. We shouldn’t be so afraid to have an open discussion about such things.

I propose a conference: The heads of the companies should get together… on a cruise?—who knows, whatever—and talk about this kind of stuff. There is no way that through cooperation, and communication, we can’t do huge, huge things that we never thought we could do. We can still compete—and competition is excellent, and we should still compete—but there’s no reason that we can’t work together to make comic books what they once were, what they can be, and what they were meant to be.

I love comics, I love everything about them, I love everyone who reads them, and I love everyone who does them. It’s a special part of my life and I just want to make sure that my great-great-grandchildren can still read the same medium that I grew up loving. I don’t care if they’re reading it on a television screen in their wrist—as long as they’re still reading it: comics will survive. We’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen.

I hope that this didn’t infuriate too many people. I hope that you see the intent. I think that’s enough from me. I’ll sign off. Thanks a lot guys.

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