We were lucky to catch up with Tyrone Jackson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tyrone, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I’ve always had this vivid, creative imagination. It’s something that’s just come as second nature to me, and in many cases, the stories and worlds I created were escapism for myself. During my deployment to Iraq in 2007, I began writing the stories that would later be the foundation for my comic book universe. At the time, though, I had no idea I would use comics as my storytelling medium. I went back and forth between novels and animation, but in 2009, I decided to make comic books and came up with the name for my company. This entire universe was built on the back of one story, Infinite Reign, a story that I can’t disclose or publish as of yet because doing so would give all sorts of spoilers. More than wanting to tell my stories to the world and create escapism for readers, I started this company for my children. I wanted to leave a legacy behind for them, so I take what I’m doing incredibly seriously.
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?
Sure thing! My name is Tyrone “Tyr” Jackson, and I own the comic book publishing company SoveReign Comics LLC. I’m from a small town in North Carolina called Trenton. I moved around a lot when I was younger, mainly throughout North Carolina but also to Florida and out of the country to Germany. I’ve been writing and creating since the first grade; it became my way away, my escapism, and my primary form of expressing myself. I’ve created worlds, universes, and many different types of characters in my stories and have written across many genres. I’m also an artist and have been drawing just as long as I’ve been writing, but writing is my more robust skill; I concentrate on that more. So, deciding to create comics is destiny.
I have an MBA in Marketing and am also a Veteran. I spent 13 years in the military split across the United States Marines and the United States Army. During those times and deployments, I continued to write, and eventually, the company I own now sprouted from those stories.
My company sells comic books, posters, apparel, and trading cards, and I have other things on the way. In creating my world, I have characters at the front who are non-stereotypical POCs. To be clear, this isn’t something I just started doing; every story I have written throughout my life has had a POC lead. It’s just something that I felt was right and meant more to me when creating my stories. So, in my comics, that same thing is reflected; however, I am a storyteller first, so my reports are for escapism, you will get a good story, one that you enjoy, no matter who you are and who the characters are and in that, one of the significant issues that I feel like I am solving is, creating legitimate literature escapism while making non-stereotypical POC characters the main antagonists or protagonists of these stories. However, remember, there are many types of characters in my universe, so it’s not one-sided.
This leads to some of the things that I am proud to have accomplished in my comics, and that’s creating characters that anyone can relate to, as well as creating characters that feel real to the readers and as though they can exist…characters that aren’t shoehorned into a position to check a box. The character, their persona, powers, lifestyle, upbringing, and backstories are thoroughly thought out, and because of this, I have gained some lifelong fans of different cultures.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Of course! One of those times that comes to mind was, and I’m being openly honest and transparent here, when I forgot what I was writing for. With everything going on in the world, I found myself starting to pivot my stories to reflect a lot of what was going on and using that for fuel to tell stories. Now, I know that some may feel that this doesn’t sound like an issue but what snapped me back to reality was when I realized that even so, my stories weren’t being received or read by many of the demographic I was intentionally reaching out to with the change. After a while, I had to ask myself what it was that I was doing, and in doing so, I found that I had lost myself a little, that I had put on the back burner the real reasons why I loved writing in the first place, which was for escape. That was the high point for me, why I continued to write my stories and create my worlds, but, for a moment, I had forgotten that. So, in the end, I had to go back to the basics, before to why I started, back to what lit a fire under me to write, and since then, I’ve felt less pressure as well as more love for what it is that I’m creating and, I’ve gained an actual supportive fanbase because of it.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Oh wow! Well, I’ve never applied for a loan for my company, and I only recently applied for a grant (still waiting on those results). When I started my company, I didn’t have any capital. The only thing that I had was extra money that I had from my paychecks. Over 90% of the money for my company has come from my pockets. I have done a few kickstarters, but the products I kickstarted were already finished, or close to, because of the extra money I used from my primary income. Then later, as the company grew and more sales were made, that money was recycled back into the company. This isn’t something I’d recommend, though, haha. I chose this route because I didn’t want to owe anyone during my first years in business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sovereigncomics.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sovereigncomics
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sovereigncomics
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/sovereigncomics
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/sovereigncomics
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxi9HkouOYZ7StHqlnERTrg
- Other: My Patreon: www.patreon.com/chimerakingdom My Store: shop.sovereigncomics.com