AMA — Arch Bros

Q.: So, what's the history and future of what you now have as the Arch Brothers? You haven't been giving them much love recently.

A.: Arch Bros was an idea I started working on around July 2014. On the 7th, I shared some pages from my sketchbook here on Patreon...

... and by the 11th, I was posting prototypes of Arch Bros. And soon, the comic became a part of the $1-tier reward on Patreon.

The concept was to have two boys — one a superhero and the other a supervillain — living under the same roof. It was loosely based on my own boys, although — as I stressed to them at the time — each of the characters was a combination of each kid.

I didn't want one of my sons to think that I thought of him as a supervillain. For that matter, I didn't want one of them to think I thought he was a superhero either. That's a lot to put on a kid!

I posted them here, promoted them from the Evil Inc website and on my social media, and I built a website for the strip. As a matter of fact, the Arch Bros played an important role in signifying the end of the previous Evil Inc comic strip.

As you noted, Arch Bros updated sporadically, and there hasn't been a new comic in nearly two years.

Will Arch Bros come back?

In the preceding AMA, a patron asked if I would ever restart the Personnel Files series, and my answer included:

The Personnel Files have no significant value-add to the books, and they're unlikely to drive Patreon pledges. Therefore, devoting time on Personnel Files means I'm stealing time from things that actually benefit my business.

And my answer in regards to Arch Bros is pretty much the same. The strip received a yawn on social media. The Arch Bros website received little traffic, and the comics received little attention when they were featured on the Evil Inc site.

So, I moved on to other things.

Now this is important: That doesn't mean that you — as a fan of Arch Bros — somehow failed. This isn't sour grapes or scapegoating or anything else that has a shred of negative emotion. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty emotionless cut-and-dry business decision. Arch Bros didn't move the needle significantly in terms of reader support, so I put energy into other things.

That doesn't mean I ended it. I never end anything. I simply hit the pause button. If web publishing sees another massive shift, I could definitely see myself re-starting Arch Bros. Heck, if there were ever a standalone concept I'd pitch to a publisher such as Scholastic, it would be this one.

My decision making

When I try out a new idea, I'm looking at two factors: Social media shares and Patreon/Kickstarter pledges. I keep a close on on social-media shares. Favoriting content is nice, but it's pretty meaningless. However, when a reader shares your content to their own followers — then you've got a hit. I don't care about the little hearts. Give me those arrows. And of course, when something I do drives Patreon pledges or Kickstarter pledges, then I know that's something my readers are interested in, and it's in my best interest to do more of that content.

Arch Bros was a good comic, but it didn't pass that test. It doesn't mean that it's gone forever. It's just on the shelf until the time is right for it to be dusted off and relaunched.