Automated Transcription
Fabrice Sapolsky 0:00
Brands are fine. I have brands, you have everyone have brands, but the human factor is what makes it work. And we will never I will never have the firepower that Marvel, Disney, or Warner Brothers, or DC Comics have. Never. And I don’t want that. Because that’s not gonna happen. But I have something for myself. I have me. You have you, and all the creators, talent is not clickable. This is something that we have to show. There’s no jealousy among creators. When creators out in a good spirit. Everyone is a fan of everyone. The comic book industry is extremely diverse, extremely welcoming, extremely inclusive because we’re not afraid of each other.
Richard Matthews 0:51
… 3-2-1
Richard Matthews 1:46
Hello and welcome back to The HERO Show. My name is Richard Matthews and I have the pleasure of having Fabrice Sapolsky on the line with me today. Fabrice, are you there?
Fabrice Sapolsky 1:54
Hi. Hi, Richard. Thanks for having me.
Richard Matthews 1:57
Awesome. So glad to have you here. Where are you calling in from today?
Fabrice Sapolsky 2:00
I am in Los Angeles. Sunny LA.
Fabrice Sapolsky 2:04
Los Angeles. And for those of you who are following along, we’re still stuck in Florida. In our little piece of paradise for the remainder of our crisis that we’ve been going through the last few months. Fabrice, what I want to do. We’re just stuck. So what I want to do is introduce you real quick for those of our listeners who don’t know who you are. So, Fabrice was born and raised in Paris with a passion for American comic books and RnB music. But that’s another story. First, as a journalist, designer, editor, then a writer and now artist and entrepreneur, you are the co-creator and writer of Marvel Comics, Spider-Man Noir, as well as several independent titles like Intertwined and One Hit Wonder. You moved to the US in 2015, first in New York City then LA and you’re championing creators and especially the immigrant creators like yourself, you founded FairSquare Comics, Comic Book Think Tank! in 2019. And you’re developing numerous projects for all kinds of audiences. It sounds like you got a lot of stuff going on. To start off why don’t you tell me what it is. Tell me what it is that you’re known for, right now. What is it that you actually help people do? Who your customers are that stuff?
Fabrice Sapolsky 3:14
So I have – where do I start? First, the first thing that you have to know about me is I’m mostly self-made when I say mostly is I graduated from university, and I have a degree in history from the prestigious La Sorbonne University in Paris. But I’ve never used that. And I switched very early on in my career to art, and graphic design, and journalism. And this is where I was – so for a long time, I was known for creating the Premiere magazine about American comics in my home country in France in school comic books, they had lasted for 19 years. So it was kind of long. But then of course, in in 2008 the first issue of Spider-Man noir for Marvel Comics changed everything because I went from being from one side of the velvet rope to the other side of the velvet rope and I became a professional creator and it kind of put me on the path where that led me to change my location and go from Paris to New York then, LA and talking to you today.
Richard Matthews 4:34
Awesome. And I was just pulling up Spider-Man Noir here on my tablet. So this is the black suit Spider-Man that –
Fabrice Sapolsky 4:44
No. This is me. My name is on the cover, by the way. You will see it. Yes, no, it’s not a black suit Spider-Man because, in comic book jargon, the black suit Spider-Man is what is now the Venom suit. Spider-Man wore –
Richard Matthews 5:04
So as you say he’s the one that was in the new amazing Spider-Man movie? The guy who Nicolas Cage …
Fabrice Sapolsky 5:11
Yes. Well, this is the family-friendly version of the character that I created. But yes, it is that Peter Parker. And so in 2008 Dave Hine and I, we co-wrote this character that I came up with and then I went to Dave Hine, and we developed it together for Marvel Comics. And he’s a Spider-Man but in the 1930s and that changes everything because our Spider-Man was designed it to be socially conscious, politically conscious, with a more complex that it’s very different than any other superheroes and there’s a lot in this universe beyond just person who delivers justice.
Richard Matthews 6:03
Awesome, that’s really cool. So what I want to find out from you is how you got started as an entrepreneur. We’ve talked on this show all the time, every hero has their origin story. And as a comic book author, I’m sure you’re intimately familiar with origin stories. So this is where you started to realize that you were different that maybe you had superpowers, and maybe you could use them to help other people. So how did you get started on this journey of discovering, becoming an entrepreneur yourself?
Fabrice Sapolsky 6:31
I don’t know. Maybe being an entrepreneur is a beautiful curse. Just like every superhero has a curse. So my curse is that yes, I’m an entrepreneur. And it started very early when I was 15 years old. I was doing fanzines with my brother and we were selling it at school. With the comics that we were creating, and we were selling to other students. I guess this is the birth of my life. I was an entrepreneur but for the real birth of my entrepreneur life, I have to go back to 1998. So 22 years ago, I had, I was bored. I was working in publicity and I was an art director and I was bored with publicity and designing stuff for banks and really administrative companies and insurers. I mean it’s fine but there are more exciting ways of putting yourself out and my grandmother gave me some money and it was my inheritance money. But she said to me, I’m gonna give it to you while I’m alive so I know you’re spending it wisely. And of course, I didn’t because I created my first company with that, and that company was named TSC and this is where I started my magazine – my magazine about American comic books because this was my, it was my first love. So I wanted to, and there was no news magazine or professionally done magazine about American comics on the French market. So I thought it was a good idea. And it was not a blessing in disguise at all. It was hard every day. And after three years that went bankrupt, because one of the companies in that sector, that field decided that we were a parasite. So they launched a competitor just to kill us. And even though we remained on top, we were the number one comic book magazine at the time, we didn’t have … we couldn’t breathe anymore financially and I had to go chapter 11 and then I lost the company a few months later. And then I did it again, a few years later, but this time, not as a publisher, but as a packager. I was packaging magazines for third party companies. And this is how I brought back my main show project, my magazine comic books. And I did a lot of activities around that as a packager working for other companies there and me and my team, we grew at one point to 11-12 people. So we’re a fairly decent sized operation. And after nine years, crisis hit 2009. And we had to go bankrupt again. And the company was under administration for a few years. And then it was never the same after and I said, Look, I don’t want to be in the magazine business anymore. What I really want to do for the rest of my life is making comics and the only way to do it is to move to the United States and that’s what I did. So I started working for other people versus independent than an employee with American companies. And then last year I decided that it was really high time that I prioritize myself. And I created FairSquare Comics on the side while I was still employed. And of course with COVID and and and financial and everything collapsing in 2020 I was laid off. And now, of course, FairSquare Comics is my priority. So my own companies my priority because there’s no way to put myself out.
Richard Matthews 10:36
It’s just FairSquare Comics now and FairSquare Comics is the publisher behind Spider-Man Noir, is that correct?
Fabrice Sapolsky 10:41
No, not at all. No, no, no. Spider-Man Noir is the property of Marvel Comics. And Marvel Comics is a property of D.. So I have no rights over this. This is what we call work for hire contract. So even though I created the character I created the character. And I co-wrote his adventures. And I even designed a couple of characters myself for a few years – 13. Marvel owns every right. They don’t have to consult me for anything. They’re doing what they have to do. And I mean, they’re currently publishing the Spider-Man Noir series that I’m not involved with. And it’s absolutely normal. This is how things work. And it’s also why it was so important for me to create my own future, my own company because developing other characters and characters that I own is also a way to have my – … my legacy.
Richard Matthews 10:42
So I’m just curious. I’m not familiar with the industry at all. Since you wrote and co-created and co-wrote some of the comics. Do you see any royalties from those or is it like you get paid for it once and it’s over?
Fabrice Sapolsky 11:54
So I was paid a very very little amount of money in advance. I’ve seen some royalties, but I can’t say it’s spectacular. It can’t grant you a good restaurant on a date with your partner once in a while, but that’s all. I mean, you can’t really build anything with that. I mean, we’re not talking royalties for books or for movies or even for music, royalties in comics, especially with the way my contract was shaped didn’t bring me a lot.
Richard Matthews 12:34
Interesting. So, now what is it that you primarily offer as products and services through your current, the comic company you have now?
Fabrice Sapolsky 12:45
So, first, I am producing as we speak, seven new comic books that I will either launch directly to the public and sold directly on my website or digitally through other platforms or kickstart through, of course, Kickstarter, which has been a weapon of choice for a lot of comic book creators because it helps drain a lot of money quickly. And I also offer consulting to comic book company because I’ve been an editor and a professional for over 23 years. So all that knowledge whether it’s on the American market or in on the international markets because I know everything that happens in Europe, I have contacts in Asia. So I’m pretty familiar with the comic book scene all over the world. And I am, I’m offering those services as a consultant to companies if they have a need. I also – because I have a vast network of talent, I can act as a talent scout or talent manager. I have done that and I offer portfolio reviews for new artists who want to break in. I also like to give more information about the business and try to kind of tell the truth. Because the problem is that there are a lot of fantasies around the publishing industry or the comic book publishing industry. And it’s sometimes it’s really interesting to say, okay, you think, but here’s what’s exactly happening here. And the other thing is that I’m trying to provide an experience that’s different because I’m not American. And the American comics industry is kind of a bubble.. So by bringing another type of experience and another type of – because I was raised in the country that have set of references and a lot of nuances. Bring something fresh to the table.
Richard Matthews 14:58
Awesome. So in light of what it is that you do now, we can talk a little bit about your superpowers, and this is what you do or build or offer this world that really helps solve problems for people. The things you use to slay the world’s villains. The way I’ve been framing it for my guests is if you look at all the skills that you’ve developed over the course of your entrepreneurial career, you probably have one skill, your zone of genius, so to speak, that really empowers and energizes the rest of your skills. What is that for you?
Fabrice Sapolsky 15:25
Well, first, let me say that entrepreneurs are really superheroes because we’re asked to master about everything possible. We have to be good at accounting, at marketing, at SEO, at production, at driving a truck, at cleaning a house or factory, at everything artistic, we have to be good at everything. So I guess we are the supermen and superwomen of our world, as entrepreneur. That being said, I think my own superpower is that I never give up. Every time I get hit, I come back on the ring and I fight back. And that I’ve learned that this is a superpower. It’s being resilient, being resistant, is a superpower itself because you get bruised a lot. You get bruised a lot, but by not giving up, you’re showing the world that your voice deserves to be heard.
Richard Matthews 16:33
Absolutely. And the whole idea of never giving up is such an important aspect. I tell people all the time and it’s like, you can’t compete with me because I’ll work you under a table. And that’s the way a lot of entrepreneurs are, is that never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up and it doesn’t matter like you have mentioned already. You’ve been through bankruptcy twice and yet you still came back from both of those and created a successful comic book line in Marvel Comics, you got a comic business going now. And not a lot of people are willing to continue past the first failure, or two or three or four, to grow a business. So it’s a huge asset to have that tenacity.
Fabrice Sapolsky 17:19
And also, I think when you’re starting your first company, you’re afraid of bankruptcy. You’re afraid of a lot of things. But I have to say my first bankruptcy was a liberation because I understood that it was not my fault. It was just that it happened at a time. And I was young, I was 30. So it happened at a time where I needed a slap in the face to remind myself that the world was bigger than just me and my family. And of course, I was it was disastrous financially, and a lot of entrepreneurs are losing losing losing, not counting the money that we lose. We invest so much compared to what we get. But the thrill of going out there with our own products, defending our own ideas, and doing something with our lives with our 10 fingers and like, Okay, this is me, this is what I did. This is what I created, and I’m going to give it to people. And I would say that because I mean of course with COVID everything is different now, but I’ve toured extensively. Since I came to the United States, I’ve covered over 60 comic book conventions, where I meet people directly, and where I sell or promote my art or my comics, and I will tell it to everybody. The audience never lies. Never. And it’s a beautiful thing. When you talk to the public and the public doesn’t want to see you, they’re not seeing you. But once you get them, you have them and they are not buying your product, they are buying you, us entrepreneurs. So we have to put ourselves out. We have to show our faces, we have to show who we are. We have to tell our stories. For a long time, I was very shy, I wouldn’t tell my story. Now I’m telling my story everywhere. Because this is what people want to hear. They want human contact. They just don’t want a random company that’s just a brand. I have this hashtag that I’m working on, creators over brands. The brands are fine. I have brands, you have brands, everyone has brands, but the human factor is what makes it work. And we will never I will never have the firepower that Marvel, Disney, or Warner Brothers, or DC Comics have. Never. And I don’t want that. Because it’s not it’s not gonna happen. But I have some things for myself. I have me. You have you, and all the creators. Talent is not clickable. This is something that we have to show. There’s no jealousy among creators. When creators are in good spirits. Everyone is a fan of everyone, the comic book industry is extremely diverse, extremely welcoming, extremely inclusive because we’re not afraid of each other. And that’s a huge gift to the world.
Richard Matthews 20:25
It’s very true. One of the things that I talk about in my business is building heroic brands. And what’s interesting, the whole idea of a heroic brand is it’s a brand that is based around a human story. And that’s what makes the brand a heroic brand and even if you get into bigger companies, if they don’t learn how to tell the human story behind their company, it’s very difficult for them to be successful, especially so today.
Fabrice Sapolsky 20:55
Well, unfortunately, we live in a world where it’s very hard to do kind of really tell what’s right and what’s wrong, and who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. But actually, when you look at how companies have been built in the past century when a new member comes, he or she comes, they come with their own network, with their own sensibilities. These people are left alone and work with their own sensibilities, with their own moral compass, with their own methods, and they’re not completely watered down by the company they’re working in? It will work because, I mean, there’s another thing that I say all the time is that the companies that succeed are the companies that put common sense before process. Too many companies are putting process before everything because of fear and common sense is something that I mean, we shouldn’t even have to tell it. We shouldn’t have to say that, common sense. It’s common sense. You see a situation, you adapt. It should be common, and if yes, but it’s not. And too many companies forget that. And you shouldn’t forget that you’re human beings. We’re not always rational, we will make mistakes, but we’re always trying to get from point A to point B, to the best of our abilities, and to the best of our knowledge.
Richard Matthews 22:34
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Richard Matthews 24:05
My next question for you then is the opposite of your superpower. The flip side of that coin and from developing superheroes, every superhero has their fatal flaw just like Superman has his Kryptonite. And I’m curious what is before we get into this, what is Spider-Man Noir’s fatal flaw?
Fabrice Sapolsky 24:21
So Spider-Man Noir is very special character because his mentors were kind of screwed up kind of insane. His latest mentor, before this person was – met his creator, met his maker was a drug addict and with questionable methods. So Spider-Man Noir’s flaw is probably that he has a very Black and White sense of justice. There’s no Shades of Grey. He is like, you’re good, or you’re not. And he will go to sometimes extreme measures to deliver justice. And I think that’s because he’s also young. I mean, I’ve listened to the story as I’ve written. I mean, I can’t speak for what has been done after me, but the way Dave Hine and myself have written the character, Peter Parker, is this 18-year-old kid who has this immense power and now has the possibility to make a difference in a very unfair world in 1932, with a huge crisis, and he’s been raised by his uncle and his aunt, and in the story, they’re communists running a shelter. So he also has this very socialist way of thinking. And that’s our Spider-Man. So you can’t really put him in the same basket as the other character. Because he’s simply different. His upbringing is different. The way he sees the world is different, he will always root for the weak. And he was always root for the people who need him.
Richard Matthews 26:21
Awesome. So with that, framing for our discussion, the fatal flaw for your business is something that you struggled with to grow your business over the years, that you constantly had to fight against yourself. And I think more important than what it is, is how have you worked on it for other entrepreneurs who might suffer from the same fatal flaw that you’ve had, for me, it’s always been perfectionism. And I use that perfectionism as an excuse to not ship products … procrastinate, things like that, and I’ve had to work on that over the years. So what is that for you?
Fabrice Sapolsky 26:53
It’s definitely not perfectionism and let me tell you why. Because when you are in the press, you’re on the fast train that cannot stop. Every issue replaces the previous one. And you have to ship on time. So between an issue that is not perfect and an issue that will come out and make money, you will choose the issue that will come out and make money. Because that is the priority, you have to put the product out. So I will never say perfectionism, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to fight for it. We’re fighting for it. We’ll fight for it. We’ll try every month to do better than the previous one. But shipping on time, delivering products, very important. The second thing is and I really think that the challenge in my industry, in the creative industry is really to have especially now where there’s so much out there. There are so many comics. There are so many different publishers and different flavors. I guess the problem is to get your voice heard. It’s really hard because social network can sometimes be very disappointing. Because you’re throwing something out there, you don’t know what the others are doing. Sometimes it’s not the right time. Sometimes it’s not the right moment. And you’re disappointed because you bet a lot. You invested a lot in something. And it doesn’t work. Last year, I did a Kickstarter campaign. I failed. The first time, I failed. And I rethought completely my process. I retro engineered the way I was doing that Kickstarter campaign and why I failed. And when I failed, I realized that most of the people that would have invested in my Kickstarter didn’t even see it. So I guess when you’re an independent and you don’t have again, the firepower of a big company, is to exist is to show that you’re there because people if they don’t see you, forget who you are, they forget you even exist. And the attention span of the consumer right now is extremely short. So we have to be constantly out there. And the challenge when you’re a small boutique independent publisher like I am is to have people interested, constantly keep them coming back, coming with new ideas. We know that bigger companies don’t have to do this because they’ve been established for decades. They have the advantage of being just there. They control the distribution. They control a lot of things, they have more money, they have more everything. How do you do? You don’t have access to that. And on top of this, I’m an immigrant. I’m never going to be in pole position. I’m always going to be the underdog. I’m always going to be the person who comes after the other. Not that it’s good or bad thing? It’s just that it’s harder being an immigrant entrepreneur in America. But let me tell you, even when I was in my own country, I was not an immigrant, but I’m a minority. And it was And it was also difficult because you are fighting against a system that is already established and doesn’t need you and doesn’t want – so how do you make the difference?
Richard Matthews 30:26
So you have to step in and actually find a way to get attention and then try to provide value.
Fabrice Sapolsky 30:32
Exactly. And you also have to have advocates. Whether you will be one of my advocates tomorrow. We also have to have advocates that believe in us that will say, Okay, well, this person looks interesting or sounds interesting. Maybe we should listen to what they have to say maybe we should read what they have to offer. Maybe we should try to do business with these people. And that’s what I’m counting on. Because look, I can speak your language can you speak mine?
Richard Matthews 31:01
We had so much fun in this episode we had to break the episode into two parts. Check back next week for part two of this exciting conversation.