I don’t think I care about marketing—but maybe I do. Or maybe I just don’t like the way I’ve been seeing it used lately. Because when I really think about it, I love marketing. I grew up on pro wrestling and cereal mascots, working events and parades like a carnival barker. I was made for marketing—the in-your-face, loud kind of marketing, not the sneaky “it’s not marketing” marketing that’s become so common.

I came into marketing because I like making stuff. I grew up tracing comics before I learned to draw them on my own. I started bands so I could screen print t-shirts and flyers (yep, marketing again). But ultimately, I found my home in education. I taught teenagers how to do the things I loved and had fun doing it. My dream, however, was always to own a comic book store. So after a decade in the classroom, I packed it up, cashed in my retirement, and opened the store of my dreams. Turns out, I still needed to work for someone else sometimes to keep the lights on. Enter: my creative marketing career.

I’m not the kind of guy to not love what I do, so I always find ways to connect it back to the things that move me. If I’m making art or design commercially, how can I approach it like I’m making a comic? Turns out, that mindset has helped me a lot—and here’s why.

You’re Living in the Second Act

In comics, it’s rare you’re writing Act One. You’re usually taking over a character that already exists and telling stories in their world. It’s even more rare you’re writing Act Three. If the story tanks, it gets canceled before closure. If it’s great, you need to keep it going. That’s why no one really stays dead in comics—every good storyteller knows how to bake in a trap door so someone else can grab the baton.

Marketing works the same way. Sure, it’s fun to create a brand voice and style from scratch—that’s the rare origin story. But most of the time, we’re in Act Two, keeping the story alive and engaging. Your creative might be someone’s first interaction with the brand—or their fiftieth. Every issue of Daredevil is someone’s first comic. Respect the current audience while welcoming the new. That’s Act Two thinking.

Understand Your Medium

Comics are inexpensive stories meant to entertain and engage. They’re not museum pieces—they’re meant to be stuffed in backpacks, shared with friends, read and reread. They’re engaging content you enjoy and move on from. Marketing is the same. You’re not making a masterpiece to be studied for 1,000 years—you’re telling a story that leads to the next one. It’s not a means to an end, it’s a means to a means. That’s liberating. Take risks. Have fun. Don’t take it all too seriously.

Show, Don’t Tell

It’s easy to tell someone what to think or do. It’s harder—and far more powerful—to show them something that gets them there. I can’t quote many lines of dialogue from comics, but I can describe splash pages, panels, and covers forever. We’re visual creatures. Visual storytelling is often more compelling than the information itself. Start with what you want someone to think, feel, or do—then strip it down to as few words as possible.

And here’s the thing: not every client is Spider-Man or Batman with instant name recognition. Some are Aquaman, some are Mr. Terrific—and those can be really fun, too. So the next time you get that “unexciting client” and none of your ideas feel right, stop thinking of it as just another content cycle. Instead, focus on making the best Aquaman comic you can—because that client and their audience deserve it. And who knows? You just might breathe new life into the character (or the client) along the way.