Talking Comics with Pat Shand at Anime NYC 2026

• Interview Location: Anime NYC 2026
• Interview Format: In-person, One-on-One

Anime Herald: What is your origin story?

Pat Shand: I always wanted to write, ever since I was a kid. I was in for all the good stories. I was the one with R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. I would write two-page sequels on my mom’s typewriter. I was always thinking about death, so when R.L. Stine died, I would take over Goosebumps, as a seven year-old kid. That’s what I kept doing for years. I would fall in love with stories, and then continue them myself. I would write a Harry Potter sequel.

As I graduated with my skills, instead of writing fan fiction, I would write thinly-veiled fan fiction. I loved Dragon Ball Z in seventh grade, so I wrote my version, Wishtones, where my friends were all the characters. Slowly, I began to write my own stories. I published a few short stories in literate magazines. I had a few short plays and skits produced. I was feeling all around to see which writing industry would have me. Theater, film, comics. I was interested in all of it.

My first gig in comics was a dream gig. It was Angel at IDW. I wrote two pages of that. I used that as a stepping stone to get gigs elsewhere. I began to push myself towards working full time in comics.

(Editor’s note: R.L. Stine turned 83 on October 8, the first day of NYCC.)

Anime Herald: Who were the comic authors that inspired you?

Pat Shand: The first comic I ever read was Creepshow, by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson. I was given a shoebox full of comics. It was like a pre-trade paperback trade. It was bigger and taller, and sticking out of the box. It spoke to the Goosebumps fan in me, as a horror-driven story. I fell in love with it.

As an adult, when I was in my early twenties, I saw more creators who were telling the stories that I wanted to tell. Long form creator-run stories. Brian K. Vaughan enthralled me. At the same time, he had Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina. Those were both longform stories.

I thought “Wow, isn’t just a place where you tell long form superhero stories. There’s a space for new creations to be told over a long period of time.” That really appealed to me.

Anime Herald: You like the idea of being able to grow a story.

Pat Shand: I like to start from a smaller, more focused place. As you tell a story, you expand it outward. Not just in a plot or worldbuilding way. My focus is largely on characters. For example, in Destiny, NY. It was published in 2016. I’d been working on it since 2014. The first issue focuses primarily on the main characters, but by issue four, I played it more loosely. If I wanted to follow a side character home and see his life, even if it isn’t hyper relevant to the plot, I’d build out and explore the world to make the characters more fleshed-out and real.

Anime Herald: It sounds like you are attracted to slice-of-life stories.

Pat Shand: I love that kind of stuff.

Anime Herald: What are you currently working on?

Pat Shand: A ton. My main ongoing stories are Wild Wisps, Private Dance, Callous Little Deaths, and Destiny, NY. I publish them all through my company, Space Between Entertainment.

Anime Herald: How did Space Between come to be?

Pat Shand: It started on Kickstarter. From 2012 through 2015, I was a staff writer at Zenescope, with an exclusive deal. There were a few gigs that they allowed me to take while I was still on staff, but the lion’s share of my work was at Zenescope. When I left that position, I wanted to find a way to keep telling longform stories.

A cool thing about Zenescope was that, at the time, there were multiple ongoing series. I wrote on Robyn Hood for thirty-nine issues. Grimm Fairy Tales I took over from issue 101 to 125. Charmed Season Ten. I think Charmed was nineteen or twenty issues. I was able to tell longform stories. Even though I didn’t own them, titles like Robyn Hood, I was able to build from the start.

I wanted to not lose that, even though I was on my own. I went to Kickstarter and I launched Destiny, NY, with the intention of that being the beginning of that series, the beginning of my company, and the beginning towards me being able to tell longform stories myself.

Anime Herald: How did you manage to make Kickstarter work for you? I’ve heard of stories with great success from Kickstarter, and I’ve heard of disasters.

Pat Shand: At first, it was a struggle to get people to see what we had. One thing that is great about Kickstarter is that it is algorithm-based. If you have beautiful art in your header, people will click on it wondering, “What is that?” That click will boost you in their algorithm. Going in, having developed my sense of what makes a good cover, what makes a comic book page work, what is a striking image. 

I started my Kickstarter journey having honed that over the years. I feel like we had a good first presentation on Kickstarter. From there, it was a matter of using social media, doing interviews, and learning what works on the platform and makes campaigns stand out. It’s a lot of work, but it has become second nature to me over time.

That was ten years ago, 2016. Now my company does multiple campaigns per month. It’s second nature, but it is very much a new system to learn. It’s very different from the direct market and previews that we were used to.

Anime Herald: What advice would you give to creators preparing their first Kickstarter in the comics space?

Pat Shand: My main advice is to study the campaigns that are doing well right now. Not to copy them, but to see how they take their idea and communicate it to the audience on Kickstarter. What is so useful, that algorithm lets you sort, by popularity, by most funded. You can check every day and see what is or isn’t working for new Kickstarters that have just launched. How many variant covers? What styles of covers? What cover artists are popular right now that have their own audience outside of just that specific title? You’ll see patterns over time if you study Kickstarters.

I think knowing the platform in and out will be an invaluable piece of knowledge for you to operate from. Beyond that, the core of it is an intriguing concept, well told, with gorgeous art that you can look at that makes you want to click the image.

Anime Herald: The other question this raises is fulfillment. If you have a successful Kickstarter, you have to print and deliver all of the books. That is where a lot of groups struggle.

Pat Shand: Yes. The number one mistake I see is that things can pop up. A book can be late because the writer is late, the artist is late, the printer is behind. There are so many reasons you might miss your delivery date. For me, the key to avoiding problems here is to always communicate with the backer-base. Post an update monthly, no matter what. Give them something. Complete clarity. Complete transparency. That’s #1 for me.

#2 is the more difficult thing. The best way to avoid any problems is to go in with as much already done as possible. I’ve Kickstarted a comic with five pages done. The lion’s share was done after the campaign was funded. But generally, I like to go in, especially with a single issue, to go in with it already done. As soon as the Kickstarter ends, Kickstarter will give you the numbers which you can then bring to your printer. That makes it much quicker.

One more piece of advice would be to overestimate how long it will take you to make it. For example, if you think you will be done with the book in October, give the printer a month, it will be in stock in November, so I’ll put November. I would say “no.” I’d call that March. What if the artist is sick? We’ve had a printer shut down by a hurricane? Backers won’t punish you if you deliver it early. Give yourself way more wiggle room than you think you will need. Don’t tell them when you hope to have it. Tell them it will be in their hands at a time later than you know you’ll have it.

Anime Herald: That sounds like good advice.

You’ve mentioned working with artists. Some writers are artists. Some are not. I am getting the sense that you are not.

Pat Shand: Yes.

Anime Herald: How do you choose who to work with? What do you look for in an artist?

Pat Shand: Oh, so much. There’s the aesthetics. I was just talking to someone about this. As far as interiors go, what sets artists apart for me personally is acting. Seeing life in the characters. Being able to see the character in a move in a way that is almost magical. There are beautiful art styles that seem almost lifeless because you don’t see the character emoting. Or you see them showing too much emotion when it doesn’t fit the story. Someone who can have the character vibe with the story and the dialogue perfectly is the number one thing I look for. As far as covers go, it’s whoever can create a striking image that embodies the cover concept best.

Anime Herald: What would you like our readers to know about Space Between?

Pat Shand: My intention is to tell longform, character driven stories that you will remember beyond the page. We want to explore multiple genres. Destiny, NY is an urban fantasy. It is in its seventh volume now. It’s been going since 2016. We’re approaching 2000 pages of story.

Wild Wisps is an epic fantasy. It is very different from Destiny, NY, but I take that same approach to building characters and asking interesting questions about what it means to be alive. Wild Wisps asks what if creatures like Pokémon were in a cutthroat Game of Thrones style setting.

We have Private Dance, a drama that takes place at a strip club. What would an HBO series about a strip club be? We explore the lives of the dancers, the customers, the boss, and the DJ. We make that world into a microcosm and dive in to see what makes that characters tick.

We do horror with Council of Deaths. There’s something for everyone. What links all of these titles together is the focus on character and theme.

Anime Herald: Thank you very much.

Pat Shand: Thank you.