Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Steven Hoveke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Steven, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?

I think the two things are not mutually exclusive and often go hand-in-hand. One often times begets the other and finding a new, more cost effective path for anything; production, fulfillment, distribution, will only add to the bottom line over time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I worked (rather peripherally) in the toys and collectibles industry for years. This lead to many, many opportunities to interact with other creators and especially the men and women behind-the-scenes on the business side of the street. My love of comics goes back to my childhood and the classic story of grabbing comics off the spinner rack at my local corner drug store is one I definitely lived.

Through my work in the comic convention side of things, I met my future business partner, as we both worked for the same company many years ago. We started creating, with the help of a bunch of our many artist friends, alternative movie poster prints to sell at conventions. The Movie poster business was not something I wanted to get too deep into , as the market was pretty full at the time and growing rapidly. I did see however an opportunity to create collections of art based upon a single IP and publish them in a collected volume.

I think what we do appeals to clients on a number of levels. It allows them to have an opportunity to tap into the very deep well of artistic talent out there and it also appeals to artists as it allows them the freedom to create artwork based upon properties they love and have it become officially licensed work.

I think the thing I am most proud of is our first artbook collection, based upon John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. Developing that idea and then going out to all of the artists involved, creating a database of artists and help laying the foundation of a creative community, and ultimately (very recently) selling out of the initial print run of the books will top the list for awhile.

Getting those first physical copies in hand was an amazing day. Although, I wouldn’t be lying if I said each and every book we create is it’s own brick in that foundation. As we continue to build out our library of Artbooks and artist monographs, developing new project ideas and creating new licensed products, the level of satisfaction continues to grow.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

So, my business partner and I were working for the same company for years, we were both very early casualties of the difficult business environment that existed there, and ultimately it was the best for both of us. I went back to my old skillset of construction and my partner, in Los Angeles, went off to a range of opportunities. he had started a comic show in California with another former employee from that company and I began working for them at those events. That’s where we began the idea of creating the limited movie poster prints done by comic artist friends. We would get a few of the together for each show and sell them at the con merch booth. We never really blew up or set the world afire, but we had a blast and it was a great building block to our eventual (better) idea. (Most of these posters are still for sale at our website store)

Fast forward several years and I was working in property management in New York City, and he called to see if I wanted to come help him out at a big comic convention he was helping manage. Of course, I said “sure!”
It was at that show I had the idea for The Thing: Artbook collection. So, we researched licensing the movie to make the book “official” and we ended up with a very nice deal to create the book. And so, we were off to the races.
IN the intervening years, I’ve moved on from the PM job and into working directly for a toy company I really admired at the time and it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I took a pretty good pay cut to go off to do the thing I loved, but it was absolutely worth it.

I was laid off in 2019, about a year before the pandemic hit and I’ve been making the publishing thing work since then. We’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to work on some of the best film and TV properties available and create some really stunning collections. As we build out our library and continue to grow out our portfolio of properties and publications, we will strive to keep that personal connection to all of our creative partners as I believe that it is so important to nurture those relationships to help create something very special and continue to showcase and nurture artists and art where and whenever we can.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

This is tough. You just have to spend time connecting with people. Honestly all of our growth has been completely organic. I would come home from conventions and look up social media accounts for the folks I met and would try and connect. Or following artists, any and all I could find so that I could keep a steady fresh feed filled beautiful artwork. Social media can a two-edged bully, tho. The more time you spend on it, benefits you, but it also tears away at you as well. It’s important to be able to step away from time to time, healthy even. You have to show you’re active to really grow things consistently, as most of the feed algorithms lean into those who post frequently. So as an artist, I would say try and make a pots per day, at minimum. Then go outside and fly a kite. Or take a walk.

Contact Info:

• Website: printedinblood.com
• Instagram: @printedinblood
• Facebook: @printedinblood
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/printedinblood
• Twitter: @printedinblood
• Youtube: @printedinblood