We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anthony Stokes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anthony below.

Anthony , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Halfway through 2018 I was forced to move back in with my mother. I had moved out the previous year around the same time. I was let go from my job and had been bouncing around from place to place. From March 2018-September 2018 I lived in 5 different places and was battling financial hardship. I was stuck at a dead end job who told me all the right things but refused to promote due to the fact that I had dreadlocks, which to be fair was against company policy but the only person who’d ever made a fuss was the guy who blocked me from my promotion.

My mom welcomed me back graciously and dusted me off telling me “At least you tried”. It was true I tried. I tried harder at that dead end job than I had at anything else. I had studied I.T. years before and passed one of the two requisite classes to get a certification that would secure my footing in a field where I could grow and support myself financially. My mom paid for me to take a boot camp, an accelerated class where you learn everything in two days, and after work and on the weekends I went to the class which was often times extended to multiple days or cancelled.

After a month or two I take my test and get my certificate. My financial woes were over. Or so I thought. Although I had my certificate everywhere demanded that I had a year of experience. This certificate that was supposedly entry level was next to useless. I felt like the world was intentionally moving the goalpost. It was finally 2 months later when I got my first interview through a contracting company. My contact at the contract company told me to make sure I was on time to the interview because the other candidate showed up late. After finally catching a break I got the job making well above what I was used to do a job that was cakewalk compared to working in the sun all day doing labor like I was used to.

I had to learn a lot really fast and I certainly took my lumps but I was hanging in there. For the first time in my life I felt financially secure. That was until my contract ran out 5 months into the job. Even though I did good work and I had hands on experience I was missing the requisite 1 year to get another job. I was forced to take another labor job.

While this labor job was just as if not more grueling as the one I got laid off from I had a much easier time working this one. I knew I wouldn’t be there long and was determined to get back into IT. While studying for a different cert I got another contracting job. This one in Norfolk, Virginia. About 3 hours away from my hometown. A job working for the Navy. I was skeptical but my mother told me, not suggested, that I had to go and take the job.

The job was physically easy but mentally taxing. Every work was prone for up to 2 mental breakdowns a week. The work load never ended and a lot was demanded of us. But I was making well above the poverty line and was not going back to labor again. After hounding my supervisors I was given a full time job and was no longer in danger of being fired on a whim and finally had financial security. I had gotten a Level 3 Certification during this as well for good measure. And then Covid hit.

My job was not stable during Covid it was sealed. Working for the government I was guaranteed a full time job during the worst period of time in the US that I had ever lived through. Although it was scary going into work everyday, my job literally never let us work from home, I had seen worse. And I had discovered previously that this job would let you pick up weekend shifts if you’d like. Pre-Covid I would work a 4 hour Saturday shift to pay for my bar tab from the previous night or because I still didn’t feel financially safe even though I was fortunate to be one of the few financially safe people that I knew. And even without taking weekend shifts I was working 50 hour days through this company the entire time I was there.

I started working 58 hour weeks. Then 62 hour works. And then from Early 2020 to around End of 2021 I worked around 64 hours a week. Taking an occasional day off to go see my mother but mostly working 7 days a week. My weekends consisted of working the night shift from Friday Afternoon until Saturday noon and then another shift on Sunday. Since then I’ve been able to pay off all my credit cards, buy a house, and start a small business creating art which was my passion that I was too broke to previously pursue.

For me being successful takes drive. That drive doesn’t necessarily have to look like overworking yourself for a year and a half straight but it will probably mean having to make sacrifices. I haven’t had a real New Years celebration since I moved to Norfolk. Much of my free time goes into my business. But I feel secured and content in a way I didn’t think was possibly as recently as 3 years ago.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a comic book creator/writer that currently specializes in Horror. I sell comic books and comic book merchandise such as stickers, posters, etc. What sets me apart from others is that my comic book is entirely funded and distributed by me. There’s no publisher involved and apart from the art and lettering anything that gets down for my comic or brand is done by me.

I’m also niche in that my comic was made completely cynical free. It doesn’t resemble another Intellectual Property or is targeted towards children or young adults which would make it easier to sell. My business relies entirely on people who enjoy good storytelling. One day I would like my brand to be seen in the same light as HBO or Pixar where the higher quality of story is assumed as soon as you see the logo.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Halfway through 2018 I was forced to move back in with my mother. I had moved out the previous year around the same time. I was let go from my job and had been bouncing around from place to place. From March 2018-September 2018 I lived in 5 different places and was battling financial hardship. I was stuck at a dead end job who told me all the right things but refused to promote due to the fact that I had dreadlocks, which to be fair was against company policy but the only person who’d ever made a fuss was the guy who blocked me from my promotion.

My mom welcomed me back graciously and dusted me off telling me “At least you tried”. It was true I tried. I tried harder at that dead end job than I had at anything else. I had studied I.T. years before and passed one of the two requisite classes to get a certification that would secure my footing in a field where I could grow and support myself financially. My mom paid for me to take a boot camp, an accelerated class where you learn everything in two days, and after work and on the weekends I went to the class which was often times extended to multiple days or cancelled.

After a month or two I take my test and get my certificate. My financial woes were over. Or so I thought. Although I had my certificate everywhere demanded that I had a year of experience. This certificate that was supposedly entry level was next to useless. I felt like the world was intentionally moving the goalpost. It was finally 2 months later when I got my first interview through a contracting company. My contact at the contract company told me to make sure I was on time to the interview because the other candidate showed up late. After finally catching a break I got the job making well above what I was used to do a job that was cakewalk compared to working in the sun all day doing labor like I was used to.

I had to learn a lot really fast and I certainly took my lumps but I was hanging in there. For the first time in my life I felt financially secure. That was until my contract ran out 5 months into the job. Even though I did good work and I had hands on experience I was missing the requisite 1 year to get another job. I was forced to take another labor job.

While this labor job was just as if not more grueling as the one I got laid off from I had a much easier time working this one. I knew I wouldn’t be there long and was determined to get back into IT. While studying for a different cert I got another contracting job. This one in Norfolk, Virginia. About 3 hours away from my hometown. A job working for the Navy. I was skeptical but my mother told me, not suggested, that I had to go and take the job.

The job was physically easy but mentally taxing. Every work was prone for up to 2 mental breakdowns a week. The work load never ended and a lot was demanded of us. But I was making well above the poverty line and was not going back to labor again. After hounding my supervisors I was given a full time job and was no longer in danger of being fired on a whim and finally had financial security. I had gotten a Level 3 Certification during this as well for good measure. And then Covid hit.

My job was not stable during Covid it was sealed. Working for the government I was guaranteed a full time job during the worst period of time in the US that I had ever lived through. Although it was scary going into work everyday, my job literally never let us work from home, I had seen worse. And I had discovered previously that this job would let you pick up weekend shifts if you’d like. Pre-Covid I would work a 4 hour Saturday shift to pay for my bar tab from the previous night or because I still didn’t feel financially safe even though I was fortunate to be one of the few financially safe people that I knew. And even without taking weekend shifts I was working 50 hour days through this company the entire time I was there.

I started working 58 hour weeks. Then 62 hour works. And then from Early 2020 to around End of 2021 I worked around 64 hours a week. Taking an occasional day off to go see my mother but mostly working 7 days a week. My weekends consisted of working the night shift from Friday Afternoon until Saturday noon and then another shift on Sunday. Since then I’ve been able to pay off all my credit cards, buy a house, and start a small business creating art which was my passion that I was too broke to previously pursue. Giving up was never an option for me.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I knew that entering in the comic book industry with no experience or a publisher to back me nothing was going to be given to me. I couldn’t go the route of releasing a small sample of artwork because my comic book was so story and character based showing a snippet wouldn’t even work that well. It was also very expensive because I had to pay for every piece of art work. My best weapon I felt was that I had nothing to lose and a really good product.

One of my favorite genres of music is rap. The stories about struggling with poverty really resonate with me. What also stuck out to me was the business model of handing out mixtapes. People aren’t willing to try something if they have to pay but they are willing to try something for free. My friend suggested that I make the comic book $1. My logic was that the inconvenience of putting in credit card information might turn people off from something that they don’t necessarily believe in yet. Nobody owed me anything not even a dollar.

I decided in spite of the protests from my some of my friends who had no business or publisher experience I started sending my comic book out to people. The response was unanimously positive. Even better than that people immediately asked where the second issue was at. After sending it to probably well over 150 people I successfully crowd funded the first issue. And a number of the donations were people just paying for the PDF that they had already been given for free. This time for the up charged rate of $5.

It’s my favorite marketing story because I bet on good storytelling and believing in the best of people and I won.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/decay/decay-issue-1-2-revenge-tour
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decaycomic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/StokesTheWriter

Image Credits
Luke Dodson