In our third interview highlighting some of the awesome talent showcased over at Tapas Media, Lord Vincent joined us to discuss his personal take on the business of being a web-centric creative. The Tapas community encompasses a diverse collection authors and artists from around the world, many producing relevant and engaging creator-owned content. The platform empowers these creators by providing tools to reach a massive audience and transition personal passion projects into premium content. With over 65,000 subscribers and a number of ongoing series running concurrently, Lord Vincent has masterfully crafted a thriving creative enterprise.
ComicAttack: As an introduction to our readers, what can you tell us about your background and how you began creating content for the Tapas Media platform?
Lord Vincent: I started out as a regular community creator on the site, posting my independent comics. I had been posting online on many sites for many years, slowly building up a fanbase across platforms, before I was approached by the Tapas team and asked if I was interested in creating Premium content. Since I really liked the site and the concept, and since my previous interactions with their staff had been positive, I said yes.
CA: When did you first get into writing and what influences have you drawn on in developing your narratives?
LV: I got into writing already as a child, but didn’t start doing it seriously until my late teens. I always enjoyed horror stories and they were what got me writing initially. I especially enjoy psychological horror.
In recent years I have started creating more romance and adult content, however. I found that the market is lacking in romance made by and for people like myself (LGBT people), so I wanted to contribute to changing that.
I think the biggest inspirations for my writing style have been various RPG maker horror games and my studies in psychology. Character development is something I really enjoy working with, but I would say that what inspires my style in that regard isn’t taken from any other fictional works. I take inspiration directly from real life observations.
A lot of the supernatural elements in my writing are like that, too. I have experienced many paranormal things in my life, and I honestly don’t find them all that scary. They are kind of just another aspect of some people’s daily routine, and so that is the approach I take to it in a lot of my stories.
I think one recurring theme you will see in many of my works is that the unknown and the paranormal is nothing to fear. The real horror lies in what regular, living people will do to one another.
CA: What drove the decision to take on the writing and the artwork for your Tapas content? Did you ever consider collaborating with another creator?
LV: I have always worked alone, since up until a year or so ago I have found it difficult to communicate and compromise. I have autism, so my social skills are a few years behind my peers. In the last year however I have become rather positive towards the idea of collaborating with other creators! I just have yet to actually do any collaborations.
CA: You are currently tracking almost 35 million views across 9 narrative properties, with Bloodroot alone racking up over 27 million. That is a substantial achievement for any creator. What is it about your stories that draw people in and keeps them coming back?
LV: Like I mentioned previously, I think the market is lacking in romance written by and for LGBT people. Especially the mainstream market. The webcomic industry is a place where creators like us, and the readers that enjoy what we make, can find one another and flourish.
Besides this, I think I also have a narrative style and angle that isn’t very common in today’s media. Dystopias and pessimism are common traits in the horror content we see today, whereas my approach has a more spiritual and optimistic undertone.
I think in my case the LGBT representation is what draws people in, and the narrative style/approach is what keeps them coming back.
CA: Do you feel it’s more important to have a personal investment grounding your narratives by drawing on your own experience, or to push out into the unfamiliar and challenge people with your themes and plotting?
LV: I think my own experiences in and of themselves are an unfamiliar world for many people, so when I write based upon my own experiences and worldview, that alone can challenge a lot of minds. I do however also enjoy exploring themes that are new to me for my own sake; see what happens when I apply my world view to those things, or when I take what I learn from it into account in how I view the world.
I wouldn’t say one is more important than the other, both contribute to a healthy exchange. The world learns from me as I learn from the world.
CA: How do you manage to maintain your tempo, crafting new content for so many ongoing series so consistently?
LV: Goth magic. We’re all secretly satanic witches and wizards, your paranoid grandpa was right about us all along.
Jokes aside, speed is a skill. You can practice it like any other. Speed also doesn’t have to mean abandoning quality as long as you don’t take it too far. Quite the opposite, an intuitive speedy work approach is a common part of anatomy and composition practice. It forces you to prioritize the general impression firsthand, and details last.
That all being said, I have recently lowered my own workload. Partly to have more spare time to do other things, and partly to create more detailed works and experiment more.
CA: Of your 5 series that currently seem to be ongoing, which do you feel is most representative of your range of skills as a creator?
LV: Crimson Tracks. It’s the project that will tell you the most about where I am going as a creator, and also the comic I am the most passionate about as of right now.
CA: With your Patreon, as well as sites for print distribution and merchandising, you seem to have a great handle on managing your IP. What advice would you give to up and coming creators looking to build a sustainable web enterprise around their content?
LV: Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and don’t spread yourself too thin. You need to have multiple income sources in case one of them goes ”Poof!” someday, because when that day arrives you don’t want to be left standing there jobless and unable to pay the bills. But you also need to keep things manageable. Make sure your Patreon rewards don’t require too many extra work hours from you, cut the things that take more time than they are worth, and stay as active as possible. In this online age we live in, people forget you easily until you’ve made a strong enough impression on them, and that takes time and effort.
CA: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Are you looking beyond the internet, toward film and television, or do you feel your current platform has untapped potential that can carry you even further?
LV: This will probably sound out of left field, but 5 years from now I hope to be starting up a career in music. It’s always been my dream, but it’s something I have yet to have the time to work on properly.
This doesn’t mean I intend to stop doing webcomics, however. I still have a lot of stories to tell and I enjoy the webcomic industry a lot. I think online entertainment is an undeniable part of the future and is here to stay, so I don’t feel an urgent need to go beyond it, but if an opportunity arrives I would definitely be open to it!
CA: Is there any creator, in any medium, that would be your dream collaboration?
LV: Not that I can think of. I think in order to collaborate with someone, I would need to click with them on a personal level, and that is not something I can determine simply by looking at their art, stories or other content. I would need to talk to them personally to be able to tell.
CA: Just to wrap up, as a kind of personal touch for our audience:
What are you reading?
LV: A bunch of random yaoi, to be honest. Oh, and Kakegurui!
What are you watching?
LV: As of right now, a letsplay of a game called ”The Letter”. I was following a show called ”Efterlyst”, a swedish show that is basically a weekly report on crimes and wanted criminals, but they’re on break for the winter now.
Most of the stuff I watch is horror, comedy, paranormal, and true crime documentaries.
What are you listening to?
LV: I’m really into ASP right now. Goth music in general is totally my jam.
As always, we at ComicAttack would like to thank Lord Vincent and the Tapas Media community for helping us bring new content and creators to our readers. Lord Vincent’s ongoing web-series can be found here.
Christian Davenport
cable201@comicattack.net
