Comics / Spotlight / Knowledge and Scholarship

Who's Who - Andy Doan

By Hervé St-Louis
August 7, 2012 - 19:09

Where do I start with Andy Doan? Well, Andy is one of my best friends. I’ve known him since my days at crazy Cambrian House and we quickly became good friends. I don’t know how it happened though but we started to hang out after we kind of left Cambrian House. In January 2008, as I was preparing for TopShelf Comix Month, I handed him a bunch of comics and there it was his first participation at ComicBookBin. Huh, not really. Andy had been interviewed by Chris Moshier a few months prior about his start up project called Film Riot / Fundable Film. It was everything kickstarter was for independent film making but ahead of its time it seemed. It didn’t help that Cambrian House’s then president/CEO or whatever his title was, sabotaged the project. At the time, I didn’t want to interview Andy myself because of ethical reasons. I wanted to prop him up, but would not do it myself. Thankfully, Chris handled it perfectly and objectively.

I was hoping Andy would become really involved with ComicBookBin but he hasn’t. To a point it’s been a disappointment, but I should really understand that he has his own life, and a wife and kid. However, he has contributed many articles and helped me with the backend of the site several times. He’s also attended several conventions with me and will do so again in the future.

Andy really helped out in late summer 2009 when I was just about to give up ComicBookBin and quit. I was pissed off about the site (and the world). Andy was instrumental into calming me down and going through all the issues I was having and help me work them out. I was ready to close down the site because nothing worked the way I wanted.  I had just introduced the new logo and had been trying to go through an effective design change before the San Diego Comic Con. I was bound to fail! I’m not used to failure.

Andy sensing that something was up, told the writers not to panic while he literally handled me. One of his main point which he has repeated to me several times over the years in various forms is that perhaps my standards are just too high and I expect so much from the writers, that since they can’t possibly match my expectations, I’m bound to fail and be disappointed. He’s right about that. If I can let go of that and similarly let go of the expectations that I have about the comic book industry not being an optimized machine, I would just stop being pissed at how they waste their energy, money and time on futile pursuits.

Yeah, I have several beefs with the comic book industry just not reaching out and grabbing of many huge opportunities available. Were I publishing comics, a lot of decisions would be totally different, but would work. But I don’t have to do so. Read my Business Plan for comics series of articles, to see where I’m coming from.

Andy has been more instrumental in making me realize I am the best publisher and CEO that ComicBookBin could ever get. You see, I although I see my job at ComicBookBin as just a chairman. As I like to say, I founded ComicBookBin but I don’t want to bury it. At many times, I have been willing to push myself aside and hope that someone else would step in and do what I could not do to turn the site around and make it reach greater heights. I’m always busy with something else and have rarely had the opportunity to give ComicBookBin my full attention. That discussion with Andy was in August 2008 when I was about to go back to school for my master’s degree and was about to leave my other job. I had no clue what would come next and where I’d get any kind of money to make a living. I wanted ComicBookBin to have a “real” pro publisher capable of taking it to the next level. I thought I wasn’t capable of doing that kind of work.

Andy made me realize that any guy or girl I’d bring in would never get the whole potential of ComicBookBin the way  get it and would just transform the site into something else or take the best parts and kill the rest. No one else could take ComicBookBin to the next level, not before I gave it another try. And I did, and Andy was right. The mobile direction, that was all me. I built the apps, I made it all happen. My vision and choices were the right ones. I doubted myself, but I never will again. ComicBookBin may not be the best known Website in the world, but it doesn’t matter. What limits ComicBookBin is again my lack of time and lack of funding.

Oh, did I mention that Andy is a real business man and knows a lot about start ups and that’s why I listened to him? He’s the guy behind ComicWallet.com. He made those cool wallets made of comic books that many of you purchased the last few years. He was trained on the hardships of start ups with Film Riot and the crazy madness of Cambrian House so he knows his stuff. Andy will review and write about any kind of comics, books or film. He reads a lot and tries to stay informed. Actually, he informs me on a lot of stuff all the time. He’s far more militant than I am about the current Conservative government in Ottawa which many Canadians love to hate these days. Andy works hard and takes care of his three kids and lives with his lovely wife in Northern Ontario in the town of Sudbury.  He is a devout Christian.

Who's Who @ComicBookBin is a feature celebrating the 10th anniversary of ComicBookBin where publisher Hervé St-Louis features writers past and present that have contributed to ComicBookBin over the years.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12