F.A.Q.
I love getting emails with questions about reMIND. Here are some of the most common questions I get asked. If you can’t find your answer here then feel free to email me at Jason(at)reMINDblog(dot)com.
Q. When does reMIND update? How many times a week does reMINDblog update?
A. I post new pages every Monday on reMINDblog.com. I generally try to post a new article during the middle of the week about the process of making a graphic novel. When I’m in between chapters I like to take breaks and post guest art instead.
Q. Are you going to print reMIND?
A. Yes! That has always been my plan. I never even considered it being a webcomic until late 2009. Four years after I started it.
Q. Wait, the book is only half of the story? I thought it was the whole story?
A.Yes. The reMIND book that I keep talking about is only the first half of the complete story. I still need to make the second volume which will probably be about as many pages as the first. Hopefully I can complete it within 2 years.
Q. Did I miss my chance to buy a copy of reMIND?
A. Nope, You can pre-prder or order it now on Amazon. You might have heard about my Kickstarter campaign where people pledged money for a book when it finally comes out. The Kickstarter campaign is over and you can’t pledge anymore but you will definitely be able to buy a book when it comes out.
Q. When can I buy a copy of reMIND?
A. The release date is July 21st at Comic-Con!
Q. Can I get a copy of reMIND in my country? (Outside of the United States)
A. I will do my best to make reMIND available to anyone who is interested in buying it. If you are willing to pay for shipping then I’m willing to ship it to you! I love my international reader! They are some of the most dedicated fans I have so I can’t let them down.
Q. Are you going to release a digital download version of the book?
A. I am working on it. At the moment I’m thinking of offering a PDF version of each chapter formatted mainly to read on the iPad. Once again, keep an eye on this blog and I’ll let you know when it happens. It will probably be shortly before the book is out.
Q. Who is your webhost? How did you make your website?
A. My host is Bluehost and I use WordPress with the ComicPress template. I wrote an article all about this right here!
Q. Why did you name the main character Victuals?
A. Because I like that name.
Q. How do you pronounce Victuals?
A. Just like it’s pronounced in the dictionary.
Q. How did you come up with the story for reMIND?
A. It slowly developed since 1997 with many changes and variations. It started as a funny song.
Q. What is your process for writing?
A. I start by figuring out the purpose of my story. Then I make a bullet point list of my main plot points. Then I draw a bunch of scribbly thumbnails of key scenes that come to mind which usually steers the story in new directions. Then I write a treatment of the whole story, about a page for each chapter. Then it’s off to the drawing board.
Q. What is your drawing process?
A. I fill up a sketch book with thumbnails all drawn in ink. I like drawing my thumbnails in ink so I don’t get to caught up on details. I enlarge each thumbnail to fit on 8.5 x 11 paper and trace over it with tracing paper. I trace over it with ink as well. Usually just a ball point pen. Then I enlarge my tracings again but this time I print a panel or two on a 8.5 x 14 sheet of paper. Then I use a light table to trace my sketch into a finished pencil drawing. I use a mechanical pencil for all my finished art. I scan the finished pencils and compose the page is Photoshop.
Q. How do you do your coloring?
A. I painted a bunch of textures when I started with acrylic and gouache paints and scanned ‘em all. Now I hire a flatter to flat all my pages and then I use my painted textures in Photoshop to come up with the final coloring. For more detailed info, check out my coloring tutorials about my coloring process.
Q. How do you ink your pages?
A. I don’t ink anything. I just scan my pencil lines. Here is a tutorial on that too!
Q. Will you do a link exchange with me?
A. I generally don’t do link exchanges because I only link to comics I read. I feel that link exchanges for the sake of getting more links is kinda fake and people can see right though it. If you have some great looking art then send me an email and introduce yourself. Who knows, I might start blogging on and on about how awesome you are. Then, you wont need a link exchange. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work anyway?
Q. Why did you decide to self-publish instead of looking for a publisher?
A. The exact moment I decided to self publish reMIND was when I won the Xeric grant in 2010. Before that, I didn’t know what to do. I had envisioned myself making a graphic novel and finding the best agent and getting it sent directly to Random House. But as time passed, I got frustrated with how little the publishers and agents (I wanted) seemed to care about me and my little project. I kinda got sick of waiting for someone else to say yes or no. So I submitted reMIND to the Xeric Foundation thinking if I won then my decision would be made for me. After all, money was the main thing holding me back from just self publishing in the first place.
Shortly after winning $5000 from the Xeric grant and and being committed to self publishing, I decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to try to get more money in order to print reMIND in the best possible quality I could. The Kickstarter campaign was a huge success raising $12,600. Now I am forced to self-publish because I have so much money riding on it’s release.
The funny thing is, now publishers and agents are starting to come knocking.
Q. What do you do for a living?
A. I work for Dreamworks Animation as a visual development artist.
Q. Do you take commissions?
A. Not right now.
Q. Will you draw my comic?
A. If I could find any more free time in a day then I’d probably want to use it to sleep. Even if it’s a paid job I wouldn’t have time to do it because I already work full time in addition to working on reMIND at nights.
If you have any more questions you want me to answer here then leave one in the comments below. Thanks for your interest in reMIND!
Hi there, Mr. Brubaker. I’m here because I desperately need this question answered and you seem to know a ton about webcomics and GN’s so I’m sure you’ll know what to do. The thing is, is that I’ve been working on a graphic novel of my own for years now, and I really want to share it with the world by making it a webcomic, but I’ve always been told to avoid letting my artwork loose on the web without getting the story copyrighted, but I’m not very sure how to do that or if there really is an official method of copyrighting a webcomic. If there is, I’m all ears because I’ve been trying to find it out for myself for a long time now. I don’t want to watermark every single page that I submit to my host site because I feel it will ruin it entirely. All I want is to keep my work safe. I apologize if this comment was too lengthy, but thank you so much for establishing this site. It’s been really helpful.
Hey Mo. Great question and one that many people including myself have struggled with. Here’s my opinion.
As soon as you create a piece of art or story it is automatically copyrighted according to the US copyright office. But if you want to have a stronger case in court then you should file a copyright. You could stuff copies of everything you are going to put online into one copyright envelope to file under one copyright instead of doing it with each piece of art. So that’s a place to start. Now if you don’t have something complete and you’ll just be finishing one page at a time then I don’t think it’s worth it to file each page before posting it online.
The thing about posting it online is you have a time stamp that has been publicly displayed. I STRONGLY recommend putting your name, website and even copyright date on each page that you put online so that if it starts randomly floating around the net, it can still be linked back to you. The thing is, if someone really wants to steal and use your work then it doesn’t matter if it’s in a book or online, they will steal it.
My philosophy is to get my work out there for everyone to see and make sure that they know it’s my work. The more people that become fans of my work the stronger a case I will have if someone decided to infringe on my copyright. In fact, the more popular you can get online the quicker someone will report something that might be happening if someone is trying to use your work or claim it as their own.
It’s a catch 22. If you never show it then nobody will ever be able to copy it but nothing will ever happen with it either. But if you show it to everyone then you can actually start getting fans and readers but someone could copy you.
But honestly, I don’t think you should be worrying about being ripped off. You need to just focus in building a fan base and getting readers. You can never have the next greatest graphic novel if nobody ever sees it.
So, file a copyright if you can. Watermark each page that you put online. And get your work out there. I hope that helps.
Hi, Jason. I know you’ve been busy getting all those goodies to your fans which is greatly appreciated but I have one question that I couldn’t see has been answered…although I’m sure it’s been asked ;)
How can I make a guest comic for you?? I have a couple in mind but I wasn’t sure how to go about getting them to you.
Thanks a bunch!!!
Lindsey
Lindsey,
You can make a guest comic and send it directly to me in an email if you want. Just make sure it’s big enough to fit into my template. Here is a link to a template that I made for my pages and guest posts. If you want to do a double page spread or single page then that’s fine. In fact you can make it any size you want and I’ll work with it.
http://www.remindblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/reMIND_page_template.png
I’d suggest keeping it to one post though (a page or spread) but if you really want to make multiple pages then that’s fine too. PG rated or less. It needs to be safe for work/kids/grandma. hah
If you are questioning if I will want to post your idea then send me an email about what you are thinking of doing. So far I’ve posted everything that has been sent.
Thanks again and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Where do you get your t-shirts / merchandise from???
That’s changing all the time. At the moment I use my brother-n-laws company to make my shirts. We cut each other deals and he drops them off at my house so it works out well for me.
I use Overnightprints.com for most of my printing stuff like fliers/business cards/post cards. I like them a lot.
I hired a highschool girl with a button machine to make my buttons for really cheap. I hired a few girls to make my plushies that are trying to start their own company I met in the artist alley section of Anime Expo. It’s pretty much all about me just making connections close by and coming to an agreement.
Hey Jason! I’ve been reading your posts for a few weeks now and i have almost all of them read. I am writing a graphic novel as well and just got my blog up and running. I really appreciate all the great articles and love the book. I hope you don’t mind but i’m totally emulating some of your site layouts. Keep up the good work.
I don’t have a question- I just wanted to say HOLY COW PRETTY ART!!! I wish I could color like you! Keep up the great work!