Comic GeniusPow! He sold his comic online. Bang! He made $100,000 a week.
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Back in 1996, few had experienced the Internet, let alonepurchased from it-but that didn't stop Marc Silvestri, owner ofTop Cow Productions Inc. in Los Angeles, from diving headfirst intoe-commerce and offering his hot new comic on the Web. The movecertainly paid off-he made $400,000 in just four weeks.
With publishing rights to the character Lara Croft from thewildly popularTomb Raidervideo game released earlier thatyear, Silvestri arranged for a special-edition comic. Forgoing thecomic-book-store route, he risked selling it exclusively on hisWeb site."Even back then, we knew our core audience wasn't onlyinto comics and video games; they were also verycomputer-savvy," says Silvestri, 42. With most of his adsappearing in the industry trade magazineWizard, Silvestriexpected to move about 70,000 comics. Instead, 150,000 copies soldout.
Top Cow has since caught Hollywood's eye. A film and TVdivision has been launched, nine movies are in development, and thecompany'sWitchbladecomic is enjoying a second seasonas a TV series on TNT. Sure, sales for 2001 were about $15 million,but that doesn't mean Silvestri has forgotten the risk thatstarted it all. "We'll do more experimenting," hesays, "and see how far we can stretch this whole e-commercething."
