2020 - 01/2020 Meeting

Page Created: 01/13/20. Last Updated: 02/20/20.

LINCOLN FARQUHARSON

MEETING DETAIL

Meeting Date: January 11, 2020.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Attendance: 25.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A by Comic Book Creator / Publisher.

Newsletter Account

The January 11, 2020 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Comic Book Creator / Editor Lincoln Farquharson of FarCorner Studios was our speaker.

The Writers' Space Salon discussion of Holidays, Celebrations, and Festivals was lively and well attended. The Ice Nine General Discussion of Cool News took a bit longer to hit its stride, but was in full swing by the end of the session.

Our speaker had not planned to become involved in the comic industry. He had read a certain amount while growing up, but they were just a casual interest. He runs FarCorners as a part-time concern and considers himself more a business builder than a comic book guy per se. He graduated with a BS in Business Management and a MS in Public Administration.

Mr Farquharson stumbled into comics by accident. He had an idea for creating a company to sell tee shirts. He searched for artists and discovered a network of talented illustrators who desired to break into comics. One thing led to another and our guest found himself creating FarCorners in December 2014.

FarCorners has at its core a commitment to diversity. The creators and characters have a range of nationalities and backgrounds, but there is far more to the concept than race, nationality, and species. While the stories feature characters who have special powers, they are not superheroes or supervillains in the traditional sense. They are pursuing courses of actions which they consider just, but which place them in opposition to one another.

There are four teams of characters: The Delta Squadron, Sisters of Tomorrow, Team Genesis, and the Zenon Group. They all operate in the same shared universe and interact with one another. Aliens, time travelers, and genetic manipulation are responsible for their powers.

The physical comic books are a money losing proposition. Buyers refuse to pay more than a certain price for a comic, and the cost for a small publisher to produce that comic is higher than the cover price. The way around this problem for a publisher is to consider the work not a comic book, but rather an intellectual property. The comic book is only one manifestation of the IP. You sell tee shirts, coffee mugs, and other merchandise to create multiple revenue streams.

FarCorners allows fans to create characters in their universe. For $ 250.00 one can create a metabeing. The fan chooses the name of the alter ego, their super ability, and certain other details. Then Lincoln fills in the background and other information and works him into a story. The contract assigns the copyright and the trademark to FarCorners.

The internet allows our guest to outsource the project to craftsmen all over the world. It is not unusual for the artist to live in Asia, the colorist in Oregon, and the letterer in Alabama. Push the button and it's there in Newark!

The key for a small business is to be willing to innovate and discover new niches for your product. Mr Farquharson is currently exploring the audiobook market. Some comics are available as audiobooks, but they are produced as an afterthought and generally consist of one person reading a comic. But what if one were to produce a work with a team of actors and sound effects? Could it find an audience as a modern day audio drama?

The meeting was interesting from both the creative perspective (this is how the super powers work) and the business perspective (it costs this much per page to create a comic). Even people who are not fans of comics told me he was a great speaker. Our thanks to Mr Farquharson and everyone who helped out.