I suddenly just remembered during high school, I used to be selling the official Star Wars comics (though I think they were the cheaper reprints) to friends.
Then one of my childhood friends and high school classmate asked one time along the lines: “What if I already read all the contents of a single comic after I read them and don’t buy it?” — which I kinda was unsure how I would answer that time LOL I think I said along the lines: “It’s okay if you don’t buy it.”
Then come in undergrad, when Radical Dreamers[1] was formed, I personally experienced a lot of times it’s like this when we sell our komiks during conventions. People read our photocopied komiks in front of our stalls. If they liked it, they buy it. This reminded me of these scenes in Urasawa Naoki’s manga, “Billy Bat”.[2]
Now in the current digital age, I think there are those platforms where you can read the comics already and if you like it, you can buy it. May it be in full download form or something better. There’s also Ko-Fi now and Patreon, which at SkewedS Translations use a lot. Those help to break even the cost how much money we put in our passions where we are doing it to express, never to impress — where the mentality of recognition and moolah are just added bonuses, and never something that would be the main drive for every day cost of living. There are also some lucky ones who actually live their dreams for their passions. Simple examples would be successful bloggers, and vloggers. But be very sure not to fall into traps.[3]
There’s Wikipedia for community driven information and with a simple internet search, may it be Google or DuckDuckGo (which I personally use), you can find things how to earn to fuel for your passions.
“Free as in free speech (freedom), not free beer”[4], is also highly used in many coding projects. That’s why the Android OS has lots of custom ROMs. There’s also now Creative Commons License which I’m still researching if it’s possible to use the license for our works in SkewedS Translations (though I don’t think it’s feasible. So might end up using something else and have to lawyer up if I would push with what I plan for my SP (thesis equivalent in my Master’s degree).)
One of my idols, Mr Nikola Tesla, would be so proud how far humanity has become, as he works for the future.[5][6]
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[1] An indie komiks making club. Name changed to CHI, then finally Skewed Studios during my undergrad years.
[2] Was publicly available from MangaStream — https://www.mangastream.cc/ — main comics removed. Be sure to buy the official releases from Kodansha Comics. Sucks I missed the sale of Seven Shakespeares! — https://kodanshacomics.com/2020/03/03/creator-spotlight-harold-sakuishi/ — UGGGGGGGHHHH
[3] https://www.manrepeller.com/2019/02/trap-of-turning-hobbies-into-hustles.html
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre
[5] https://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
[6] Quote #3 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhuL8SdxmXA
