[dramatic music] ♪ - Hello, and welcome to Comic Culture.

I'm Terrence Dollard, a Professor in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

My guest today is Business Marketing and PR Consultant, Lisa Wu.

Lisa, welcome to Comic Culture.

- Thank you so much for having me Terrence, it's a huge honor to be here.

- So Lisa, you are the first public relations and marketing consultant we've had on our show, but you work with a particular set of clients.

You work with Image Comics, you work with AWA Studios.

So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you kind of market those companies or help them guide their strategies to get public awareness for their projects?

- Well, a lot of it is speaking with the founders and getting to know what their brand is and what kinda message they wanna put out there.

For example, for AWA, it's all about comics creators first.

So talking with Axle, he's kind of the... Well you've had Axle on your show.

So speaking with him and just communicating what his goals are to the public and letting people know.

And then a lot of it is balancing between all the different projects that they're working on as well.

So in one month I could be promoting six different comics for AWA.

And then with Image and Top Cow, would be another six.

And having to juggle the going and the new releases and things like that and getting it out there to everybody.

So they know that these comics are out here and they're available for people to enjoy.

- And I'm imagining you're working with a lot of the same folks.

And I know from my experience working in public relations before I got into academics, I know that it's about relationships, It's about out for forging those connections between your clients and members of the media.

So how do you sort of build those connections and kinda get those doors to open up?

- I try to actually break it down to understand what they need.

So I break it down.

So I send something to them, most of the work is already done for them and they can just review it and then put in their own and write it and put their own spin on it.

And then also give them plenty of lead time, and then I follow through.

So if they really want to speak to a particular creator or they have something that they need, I reply as soon as possible, I am there for them 24/7 if needed.

But a lot of it is all about follow through and building that trust over time.

- And I'm imagining it's gotta be a little different working with a relatively new imprint like AWA and working with someone like an Image Comics which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

So is there a...

I guess there's a little bit more recognition for Image perhaps in the press.

So when you're kind of working with a new client a new imprint, how do you kind of make sure that everybody knows what they're doing?

- Well, I think we have a pretty experienced team on the editorial side.

So I think they know what they're doing.

[laughs happily] But before the PR side, sometimes they have to understand, again I have to remind them that you can't just put something out there one night and then expect everybody to be able to pick it up.

So I always try to, again, give plenty people lead time and be like, "Hey, this is coming up."

So a lot of it is just being really well organized and knowing what is coming up.

So with AWA, we do work with creators that are well known, like Bryan Edward Hill, who's also worked for Top Cow and Image.

I love working with creators and getting to know their different projects and then their fan base, because every creator has different things that they're known for.

So for example, Bryan Edward Hill, he is an amazing creator.

He also does a lot of writing for movies and TV as well.

So he's worked with Top Cow and then also AWA.

At AWA, he had a project called "Chariot" that actually was optioned for film, and then a couple other projects at Top Cow.

So getting to know him and what his particular message was for "Chariot" and then understanding his fan base and his previous projects I'm able to kind of communicate his new project to different audiences.

So I approach it to, oh, his current fan base, they'll really like this particular part of the story.

And then for new people who are not familiar with him I would probably give a little bit more background and kinda appeal more generally about the book.

It's very different for each project because you have to almost talk to the creators.

Always like to interview them and see what is important to them about the particular project before moving forward.

I know some people just read the comment and then take what they feel is the golden nuggets but it's actually better to talk to the creator and kinda interview them and figure out what's important to them and then communicate that to the fans 'cause it translates better.

And with AWA, we have Axle.

So people are very familiar with the different projects that he worked on at Vertigo and Marvel.

So he has a lot of street cred among creators, and then also fans.

They know they're gonna get an amazing story.

And a lot of it is building trust again.

For new comics, I also work with the retailer side as well.

They are so used to new publishers going through and maybe not following through on the series that they're supposed to be promoting and things like that, that they know that when they're working with me that I'm gonna follow through and push my clients to really promote and support the retailers and then also bring value to their customers in some way.

It's just changes a lot.

You have to be very flexible and think on your feet when you're doing marketing and PR things.

- And I know again from my limited experience in public relations before academics, a lot of times I would have to learn what my clients, what their business was and sort of like you were saying, talk to the creators, in your case to find out what they are looking to do.

So I'm assuming in marketing and sort of getting the word out for new comics, there are many avenues especially you have a lot of, I guess traditional media like CBR, or you have a lot of podcast or in this case a show on PBS that talks about comics.

So when you are looking for avenues to discuss new projects how much research do you have to do and to find these avenues and maybe look for the the podcast on YouTube that has the most subs?

How long are you looking to find the right avenue for your client?

- How long am I looking?

I feel like over the years I already built up some relationships.

And then also some of it is, what are fans getting their news?

A lot of it was actually research and posting on Facebook and asking fans like, "Hey where do you get your comic book news from?"

And then asking retailers, where do you get your comic book new from?

And I go after those first, but then after that I also a look at how passionate different outlets are about my particular brand.

And a lot of it is actually communicating through social media and seeing how much they post about us, and then looking at YouTube.

Yes, I do look at subscribers but then also does my particular clients business fit with that particular YouTuber?

Are we gonna get the views that we really want?

Certainly we welcome everybody to read our comics, right.

And we want everybody to be exposed to it, but we don't wanna actually go after people that aren't going to be, how you say, willing to give us a shot.

Because I've noticed that sometimes when you do pay for ads and things like that, you might actually attract people that you don't want commenting on negative things.

Like I know a lot of people think that negative publicity is good publicity, but I think in the end it actually creates a negative environment for some companies.

Having people come in who are anti this or purposely trolling to get attention and things like that.

So I'm very careful to really get to know the brands that wanna cover us.

And then for the ones that we want a lot of it is just again, seeing what their needs are and finding a way for them to mesh.

I wouldn't do, for example, a very violent book.

I wouldn't send it to "Publishers Weekly".

[chuckles happily] I don't think they're gonna cover that, a very rated R violent book, they're not gonna cover it.

So I wanna make sure that all our values kind of align for the best press release or coverage possible.

'Cause coverage is great but I want it to be well covered.

I don't want just somebody's phoning it in.

I actually don't like press releases in general.

I don't know how other people feel but don't like book cutting and pasting things and just sending it out.

I want them to really care about the the book that I'm promoting.

So I rather have few really quality ones than a bunch of little copy and paste ones.

It could just go to our website, [indistinct].

And then we get the traffic.

So I don't know.

That's how I feel about PR side and marketing.

It's all about shared value.

- I know that there's been a rise in folks who will go onto a website before a movie's released, let's say, and because of whatever political stuff is going on in the world, they'll kinda dump on it one way or the other.

- [Lisa] Yes.

- And we see this in comics as well where a creator might say something and some folks will jump on 'em for this or that.

So when you have something that comes out and is prejudged by, people who simply don't like the stand that a creator may have taken on social media, how do you kinda counter that to make sure that the folks who you probably aren't, there's somewhere in the middle of all that and don't know what the whole turmoil is about, how do you make sure that that message can get through and cut through all the crap?

- I think a lot of people just don't give certain titles a chance.

They literally judge things by the cover.

So, it depends on what the comment is.

Sometimes it's best to actually ignore them, if it's super negative, I don't even block them but I will post to the other people that are commenting positively on something or take that as a chance to educate.

So I might, depending on what the comment is, I might actually put in an article that kinda explains what the title is about or give people a link so they can be better informed.

But I don't go on there and debate with somebody that's not willing to listen to me.

And a lot of times I don't have to, honestly because I feel like for each brand that I've worked on I've created a really great community on social media where people will just jump in and defend the title and defend the company without me doing anything.

So I let the fans actually kind of handle it for me usually, I rarely really have to step in.

So again, that goes to building great relationships with creators, with the fans, with the retailers, and creating this really great community.

It goes beyond just sending out press releases or social media posts, honestly.

Part of my job also involves communicating with fans via social media.

So I've usually created a pretty supportive environment.

So I rarely, and most of the companies I've worked for from Top Cow, Image, AWA, Aftershock, I rarely ever get anybody really trolling after my creators or a title or the company, rarely, if ever.

I think that goes to also the fact that they know that I'm personally working for these companies and that I kind of don't stand for that.

I'm friends with everybody.

I'm friends with everybody when it comes to being online.

So I think that's something that's very important when you're working with a company and just creating a really safe environment for your customers as well.

- Now you had mentioned a little earlier that.

I mean, you're in New York, Top Cow is on the West Coast, three hour time difference.

And you said that, you're pretty much available, 24 hours a day if your clients need you.

So how do you avoid that burnout and how do you get to still be a fan of comics even though you're kind of forced to look at them literally every waking moment of your day?

- You actually touched on point that I really wanted to address.

When you're working with comics, sometimes you do lose that passion.

You actually don't have the time to read comics outside of work, because the last thing that you wanna do is read another comic after working all day on it.

So the burnout happens if you I guess a lot of it's just being able to balance your time.

So I've been working remotely since 2014.

Lemme tell you the first three to four months while I was working remotely from home, a lot of it was balancing my time, and I'm sure a lot of people had to make that same adjustment when COVID happened and people had to stay indoors and quarantine, start working remotely.

But you actually get a little depressed, right.

I'm sure some people that are watching got a little depressed from rolling out bed in their pajama not doing anything else, just working from home.

So I definitely went through that 2014.

It wasn't until recently that I started really setting limits to when I will actually just focus on myself and my personal life.

But most of the...

I feel like most of the people I've worked with have, they're pretty respectful about my availability.

I am truly here for them 24/7 but it's rare for them to, I think, call in at reasonable hour unless it's a true emergency.

I think I've had one or two true emergencies in the past, and it was mostly because the retailers were actually just helping me out.

For example, if we have a comic that's coming up called final order cut-off, the last day for retailers to order and get their discount in.

And a retailer actually is helping me out, letting me know that there's a discount that wasn't correctly listed.

And when I was notified of that I had immediately started going online and helping my clients, let people know that, hey, this is an error, make sure that this is 75% off and you guys can order as many as you want to qualify for this, this, this.

But other than that I feel like most people are quite respectful of my time.

And I actually have to take time just on my own, 'cause I'm a bit of a workaholic.

I love working.

So I have to take a step back myself.

And that's the great thing about having an iPhone or any kind of cell phone you just set alarms of when you need to shut everything off, if you need to.

But if anybody out there is thinking about working for themselves, just know you don't get days off really.

But, if there's something that needs to be taken care of it's your own business and you have to be able to take care of it yourself.

There's nobody else there to take care of it for you.

So that's the one negative about being a entrepreneur and working for yourself, 'cause you're on all the time.

- You mentioned how working from home you kind of feel like you roll out of bed and start working.

And I know for a lot of us in that pandemic, there was the meme, I'm not working from home, I'm living at work.

So it was a difficult adjustment for a lot of us to do that and I think it's a great idea to kinda have that set schedule so that you aren't always working all the time.

But you do say you're a workaholic and it seems that even when you have free time, you're also thinking about comics because you are the Founder of the Asian Americans in Comics Society.

So can you tell us a little bit about that organization?

- Sure, I actually founded that after New York Comic Con, before COVID hit.

I was like, there's such a strong Asian community in New York city and there's so many Asian creators, why are we never hanging out?

At first, it was this idea of just being able to hang out with my comic book friends.

And then also for me, because I grew up in the South and I didn't have a lot of Asian friends and things like that.

It was very diverse in my hometown.

I wanted to get to know people in comics that's from my culture and seeing their different perspectives and just hanging out, having great food and drinks.

But then as I spoke to different people in the community, I realized that we don't really have that much of a voice in comics.

There's nobody really talking about it.

I feel like we don't have a lot of voices.

I mean, there's a lot of Asian creators a lot of Asian creators, but I don't think we ever really voiced anything or really been truly supportive of each other except for groups here and there.

So I knew that there was a lot of creators locally that wanted to get their foot in the door, I guess, and publish comics, that I figure some of the veterans comic book creators that I knew would wanna help out.

So we started this group in New York city and then people started inviting people from other parts of the country.

So it kinda just got really big and we were supposed to actually meet monthly but because of COVID, we weren't able to do that.

So when the quarantine hit, we actually did a lot of monthly Zoom meetings where we debated a lot about different things.

Because there was a lot of creators and there's some retailers in the calls.

And I think I was the only one that's mainly marketing.

So I had a different perspectives than the creators.

So it was actually kinda funny to argue, no have discussions with each other about comics.

So it's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of support.

And then hopefully..

I think everybody's still a little cautious about COVID but hopefully we can do our in-person meetings soon, I think that'll be a lot of fun.

- It seems like you've built this great community because it's not just centered in New York anymore and you're able to do these online meetings but you're hoping to go in person.

So, as the person who is not the comics pro, who's on another side of the field, I guess, how does it feel to have built this community of people who just wanna share experiences?

- I think it's great because I feel like working from home all the time, even before the pandemic it gets kinda lonely.

And you realize you want somebody to talk about other than the people at work.

It gives people a chance to really see different perspectives and talk about different things that isn't completely related to their job.

So anytime I can create a little sense of you're not alone, I think it's very important to me and I know it's important to other people.

And that's how I actually got into marketing was doing something nice for a stranger and then getting the community behind what I was doing for that person.

So the community is everything.

I think if you can't build a small community and get somebody behind something just kind and nice, then it you're gonna have a hard time being in marketing or PR.

- Have any of the folks who have met in this group have they maybe started collaborating and-- - Oh yes, they have.

Bernard Chang, he did a variant for my other retailer friend in Michigan.

Stephanie and, they collaborated I think on a few projects.

And then I actually got my job at AWA through one of... Well, I interviewed a year before this so they already knew me, but didn't work out at the time.

But Stan, he worked for AWA, he worked with Bill James for a long time, I think at Double Take.

And then he was like, "We really need a social media person, "a marketing person."

I was like, "I'm here."

So I got the second interview, like a year after my initial one and then it worked out great.

So I started the Asian society I think in January of 20, is it 2020 or 2019 when it started, COVID?

- It was January, 2020 is when everything started to shut.

- Yeah, January, 2020.

And then I got my first contract with AWA in May.

So I know other people are collaborating and then also mentoring each other as well in the group.

- Well, Lisa, I wish we had more time but they're telling us we've run out of time today.

I wanna thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk to me today.

It's just been a fun and fast half hour.

- Yes, it was.

Thank you so much for having me.

- And thank you everyone at home for watching Comic Culture.

We will see you again soon.

[dramatic music] ♪ - [[Announcer] Comic Culture is a production of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

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