Muslim Comics

Assalaamu alaykum. In this blog post, I wish to share some of my book making journey. Where it started, where I am now, and how I got there. If you’re new to the site, my name is Ahmad Philips and I’m an author and illustrator of two published books by Tughra. Feel free to check out the previews of my books here.

I’m going to be honest and real in this post. I’m pretty ordinary, as an author and illustrator. Even though I’ve been doing this for near a decade now, I still feel like a beginner. That’s probably because I haven’t dedicated as much time as I would like to due to other obligations such as work, family and other responsibilities. Those are just excuses though. There have been many times where I’ve had the time, but just didn’t work on my projects. It sometimes felt pointless. Like it wasn’t going anywhere. It was easier to just zone out and entertain myself rather than work at home after already working a 12 hour shift.

Art isn’t always fun. In fact most of the time for me it’s not. For me it’s mostly work. Work that I would love to do for a living full-time, but still work nonetheless. So when people see comics, or animation they might think that people are doing it simply for the love of it. And that might be true for others, but that’s not really true for me. At least not anymore. Now the joy I get is from the kids who read and love my books. The kids who beg for a sequel. The few positive reviews I receive, whether online or in person. And so I keep pushing, no matter how slow or how long it takes.

Childhood

Both my parents have had their books published. That may have influenced me, but I don’t think it did. Neither had published graphic books, but rather educational material generally for adults. Like research books.

Both my parents went to art school. I knew my mother had but hadn’t found out about my father until much later. This also may have influenced me, but most likely it was a reason for them to encourage rather than discourage my artistic endeavors. There might be a genetic side to it as well, but I’m not sure if art can really be genetic. It’s a skill that has to be trained. No different than sports.

Like most kids I enjoyed comics and cartoons. I started off with Spiderman, Superman, and Captain Majid (Captain Tsubasa in Japan). Like any other kid, I was in awe of it and tried replicating the drawings as best as I could, while also making my own little comics from time to time.

I would fill books and books with my comics, and not for anyone else to read except myself. I would read back my own comics again and again enjoying the action and the story.

So unlike most kids from Muslim households, I kept drawing and illustrating. I had no clue that it could be haraam whatsoever. No one ever told me, and my parents never stopped me. So I kept drawing for fun and making comics as well. My mom bought me books like, how to make comics the marvel way, and other illustration books. I learned from them, but I didn’t dedicate myself to art, like maybe I should have if I actually wanted to excel in this medium. It was just one of my many hobbies which included, basketball, video games, cartoons and so on.

College

When it came time to decide which major to choose for university, I automatically chose art. I didn’t understand the purpose of university to be honest. I just knew what I wanted to do, and figured everything would just work out. I decided I wanted to do animation, since I saw it as an evolution of the comic medium. Most of my favorite comics were animated after all, such as Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Bleach and many others.

The university I chose wasn’t an art university, and so their art program was pretty bad. It didn’t have any comic classes, or animation classes. At the same time I was taking classes at a local community college, focusing on animation. Honestly I should have just gone full time to the community college instead, but the university was prestigious and so I was influenced to do both. This proved to be unsustainable and I soon dropped out of university but ended up enrolling in an actual art university about an hour from where I lived.

The art university was an awesome experience but in the end I was living in a bubble. And the reality of life soon hit me like a truck. Having an art degree really means absolutely nothing. Nobody looks or cares about it. What’s more important is being a great artist, which I wasn’t. I was above average in my department, and in my arrogance I thought I was perhaps the best in the animation department for my year, but the truth is none of that matters. What matters is, can you make this a career?

It was around the time I was going to art school that I became more religious and realized that I couldn’t take the same art path as everyone else. Everyone in the animation department had a goal of making it to Disney. Working for an animation studio. But I knew I couldn’t do that, because the cartoons being produced were against basic Islamic teachings. I knew that my only hope would be to work in a Muslim animation studio.

Through my father’s connections, I got a job offer in Qatar to do video editing. I figured while I work in video editing I could work on improving my animation skills and find a job in a Muslim studio. Unfortunately this is where my lack of research and preparation worked against me. There weren’t any animation studios in Qatar, at least not for cartoons or movies. There were for advertising and what not, but not for making cartoons which was my goal.

While in Qatar I looked up some animation studios in other Muslim countries and found there were a lot in Malaysia. So I flew out to Malaysia and visited the animation studios there. Unfortunately none of them were interested in hiring an American junior animator. They were under the impression they would have to pay me more money, they would have to set up my work visa, and it just wasn’t worth it for them. This was ultimately for the best since all the cartoons they produced had music in them and some of the content was haraam. So I was back to square one.

I had basically given up on animation at this point, when two of my siblings suggested I make a crowdfund campaign and with the money make a cartoon. I wasn’t for it, because I knew how much time and work it would take. But they pushed me to do it, and there was a wealthy investor interested in funding animation projects. So I jumped in and that’s how episode one of The Muslims Cartoon was produced.

The Muslims Cartoon

A 9 minute animated cartoon of a 7 year old boy named Hani and his younger sister Huda playing soccer. It was a fun little story that my brother came up with, teaching young children patience. I got a lot of help with the sound design, and voice acting. It even aired on some satellite channels.

I really gave my all to make the best cartoon I could do at the time. I was still a beginner in animation. Yes I had graduated in it, but I had no professional credits under my name. After finishing the episode I was really excited to show it to the wealthy investor. He however had moved away from investing in animation studios, since they didn’t yield a lot of profit. I was incredibly deflated to hear that.

I tried going back to my job, which I had taken 9 month leave from, but of course they didn’t accept me back. I kept applying for all sorts of jobs, but nobody would hire me. So at this point I was worse off than before making the cartoon. The cartoon didn’t have many views, I had gotten no job offers, the wealthy investor dropped me, and I had no money.

“Failing” here engrained in my mind that animation was not a solo effort. I still wanted to tell stories and make something of my degree. So rather than focusing on animation I decided to shift into book making.

The Muslims Picture Book

My first “book” was an unpublished picture book I made based on The Muslims characters. It was a perk of donating to our crowdfunding campaign. After making the picture book, I figured I could try publishing it.

No publisher picked it up of course, because it wasn’t that great. I honestly looked down at picture book making, and figured with my skills I could easily publish something. While I was waiting to hear some positive responses regarding the picture book, I thought I would continue The Muslims story through comics, since it didn’t require anywhere near as much time to draw as cartoons.

The Muslims Comic and Self Publishing

After preparing the first episode of The Muslims cartoon, my brothers and I had planned out many future episodes. We were all so excited with the prospect. I enjoyed coming up with stories and lessons, and so did my siblings. So before we knew it there were 30+ stories.

However since the cartoon wasn’t going anywhere, I decided to transform these stories into comics. My goal for the first chapter was just getting started. Up to this point I had been a perfectionist. What I learned from my father was, sometimes it’s better to start something that isn’t perfect and just polish it as you go, rather than trying to plan for everything but never starting. Basically it’s better to complete something, even if it’s below your standards, rather than complete nothing.

So for the first chapter I tried to keep it as simple as possible and finish it within a week or less. As a result it wasn’t the best looking chapter, but it got me started. I released the chapter on this website and shared it on my socials. I even had it translated in various languages through the help of some connections. It really felt like this project was taking off.

I started the comic series in 2016 and finished the last released chapter 2019. I released each chapter on Amazon and as a digital download. I went back and corrected earlier chapters, improved some of the drawings and remade chapter 1 completely.

Looking back I wasted a lot of time on marketing the books. I so badly wanted to succeed and make it my full-time job, but it wasn’t meant to be. Eventually I had to shift my focus from making art/comics as a living, and more as a time consuming hobby. Marketing was just so draining. Hours and days were going by without it reflecting in actual sales. I enjoyed making comics and improving my craft, and hated marketing.

Till this day I hate marketing and have basically decided not to do it anymore. I would rather spend that time making more books, than trying to market old books. I’ll pay for marketing of course, but the whole social media hustle just isn’t for me.

After finishing chapter 8 of The Muslims, I decided I needed a break. I had been neglecting my family for some time and honestly was pretty burned out. The comic series wasn’t taking off like I anticipated even with all the marketing I could afford through Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. So I took a much needed breather but sent out my comic one last time to publishers.

Just about every year while making The Muslims comic I had been sending them out to various publishers in the hopes that it could be traditionally published. I was hoping it could reach a larger audience that way. Also the cost of the books was very expensive through Amazon’s print on demand. Although it was very convenient, it was extremely pricey due to the books being in color. Each chapter was sold at around 8 dollars while only being about 30 pages in length. People were buying it which was great, but I felt they deserved a better deal. Also I never actually wanted the chapters as separate books. I wanted them as one complete graphic novel, but with Amazon that would be impossible so I settled for separate books. The only other option would have been finding a printer and ordering 5k copies of my own book, which was not something I could afford.

The Muslims Comic Sales

The below are only sales numbers and do not take into account money loss due to advertising. They also do not include in person sales. These are strictly Amazon’s numbers.

Total earnings of all 8 books + original graphic novel (books 1 – 5) 2017 – 2021: $1,166.11

Total sales of all 8 books + original graphic novel (books 1 – 5) 2017 – 2021: 972

Total earnings of all 8 books + original graphic novel (books 1 – 5) in 2020: $864.51

Total sales of all 8 books + original graphic novel (books 1 – 5) in 2020: 789

As you can see I made a lot of sales in 2020, but that’s due to the huge amount of advertising I did. I mostly came out even and didn’t earn much in 2020. It’s hard to gauge the long term impact of the advertising (increasing my sales rank, leading to future sales even after ads ended etc), since due to my contract with Tughra, I had to take down my books from Amazon

Hani and Huda

I had essentially given up on being traditionally published, after submitting my books to dozens of publishers over the course of several years. Some publishers responded after a year or more. Most didn’t respond at all. Many of the responses were positive, in that they liked the book but it wasn’t a good fit with them. Some stated they only publish in house.

I kept submitting my book to publishers however every year since 2017 and eventually Tughra agreed in 2020 to publish my book. My vision finally came true! All 8 chapters of my comic in one 200+ page graphic novel. It was like a dream come true. The only downside is how long it takes for a publisher to actually print and distribute your books. By the time it was in bookshelves two years had passed.

Hani and Huda Sales

Below are my sales numbers based on Tughra, which doesn’t include the books I sold myself.

Hani and Huda Earnings (2022 – 2024): $1,688.22

Hani and Huda Sales (2022 – 2024): 996

So overall I made more sales and earnings with Tughra in less time and with minimal advertising money spent compared to by myself with The Muslims.

Stuck

Now that I had finally traditionally published my first book, making the second one was much easier. I had more confidence, that yes my stories and art are of a professional level. I had always believed it, but having a publisher was the objective proof I needed.

One goal behind making each chapter of Hani and Huda was to improve on the previous chapter. After completing 8 chapters, I wanted to make a new graphic novel with a complete story. I had always liked time travel stories. Stuck was heavily influenced by the movie Groundhog day. I probably should have re-watched the movie before making the book, but I didn’t want to be influenced beyond the basic concept of the film. The basic concept is there’s a person with a lot of flaws that he himself doesn’t see. For some unknown reason he’s forced to live the same day over and over until he finally realizes his flaws and fixes them. Once he does, he breaks the time loop and can go on with his life. I told essentially the same story but for a Muslim audience.

A secondary goal for Stuck was to finish the graphic novel in a year, which I somehow was able to do, Alhamdulilah. In order to do that, however, I had to keep it in black and white. It was a bit of a risk, since I knew kids would prefer color, but it was worth exploring.

Stuck Sales

Below are my sales numbers based on Tughra, which doesn’t include the books I sold myself.

Stuck Earnings (2023 – 2024): $312.46

Stuck Sales (2023 – 2024): 209

Total Sales stats

Below are the combined sales of all my books sold, which doesn’t include the books I sold in person.

Total Earnings (2017 – 2024): $3,166.79

Total Sales (2017 – 2024): 2,177

So overall the numbers don’t look great. A lot of time was spent figuring out what I was doing, what I was going to do, and how to do it. It took a long time to figure out what works best for me, and what’s most effective. I would definitely say making more books and improving my craft is better than trying to market. Especially when I only have 2 books so far. Marketing makes much more sense when you have 6+ books as opposed to just 1 or 2.

Future projects and goals