How can I market my original comic book and parley it into a franchise?

I cannot answer your question from knowledge. Have you gone to YouTube and checked out videos on this subject? There are tutorials on nearly any subject so I advise you to go there and check it out and you will probably find a wealth of information?

I doubt it. Tons of people self publish comics every year and if they're lucky, they're popular among people who read such things regularly. Maybe a handful in the last forty years have ever gone mainstream in the manner that Maus went mainstream. If I really thought about it, I might come up with a dozen which eventually were made into movies.

There are plenty of people who will take your money to market it, but this is just pissing your money away.

Generally you'd go through a publisher for graphic novels and comics.

Or post 1 page every week up online on one of the comic/graphic forums like drunkduck.com or smackjeeves.com.

Or post 1 page regularly on your own website like GirlGenius.com does.

Sam, if your goal is to get your comic in stores and into the hands of the largest number of readers, you need to seek commercial publication rather than self-publish. If it does well, then franchise offers may come in, but step one is hugely increasing sales by putting it where buyers will see it.

That means identifying the publishers that get books into stores, both mainstream and specialty, and figuring out if you need an agent to submit your work to each publisher.

I suppose your goal could be achieved by a self-publisher, but you'd have to commit to spending more time (and money) on marketing than on creation. So are you a comic book writer and artist, or a marketing guy?