Aside from spending late nights working on my pages, I’ve been doing research on writing press releases, PR, marketing and distribution.  It’s a ton of stuff to take in. In my search for information I’ve come across a few sites that might be useful to anyone who is making their own graphic novel. Happy trolling! Is that an oxymoron?

Great Self-Publishing articles

This one was emailed to me.  It’s a series of four articles written about self-publishing an anthology comic by Sam Costello called Split Lip.

Sam Costello – On My Own in Independent Comics

Next, I found Lars Martinson, a Xeric Grant winner who wrote some interesting posts on self-publishing. He wrote and drew a graphic novel called Tonoharu: Part One. Here’s his series on How he self-published his graphic novel:

Lars Martinson – How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel

Third, I’ve been reading all kinds of articles written on Midwestbookreview.com. There is a huge resource for self-publishers talking about everything from distribution to marketing your book. Here is a link to the giant list of informative articles:

Advice for Writers & Publishers

Hopefully that can tide you over until I can get around to finishing my next coloring tutorial. Sorry to dash your hopes against the pavement.

- Jason

P.S. Please keep sending in your pin-ups. I’ve received some great ones already that I can’t wait to share here.

P.P.S. Remember, Ian, who wrote a guest post for reMINDblog.com about finding artists for your comic? Well, he started a kickstarter campaign and he needs to raise $500 in order to get the funding for his book. This book prooves that he knows what he’s talking about because he has some great artists in it. Go over to kickstarter and check it out.

P.P.P.S. If anyone wants to join the reMIND monthly mailing list to get your name added to the random drawings, receive email updates, special offers and news, then opt in by clicking below and filling out the form. This is the best way for me to keep in contact with you so please take a moment to join. No spam. I promise! Unsubscribe at any time.

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Trent Kaniuga sits in an all blue, dimly lit, dry room, in a modified bucket seat chair, deep in thought. Contemplating where he’s been all these years and whether or not he should have eaten that last taco.  It doesn’t matter. He’s here and he’s waiting. Sixteen years as a comic book artist, 8 of which doubling as a concept artist on the best selling video games in history, and it all comes down to this moment.  There are noises outside of the room.  He doesn’t respond.  His hands rest on each knee.  The air is flooded with dust particles glimmering in the blue light.  The metal shutter slides open to non-descript muttering. Three latches echo and then a thud.  The door begins to open. It’s Jason Brubaker. He stands in such a way as to imply that this will be uncomfortable at first, but eventually you’re going to enjoy it. Trent plugs one nostril and blows, smirks, and looks up, his face illuminated in the light. He lights a cigarette, cocks his neck to one side, looks Jason in the eye and calmly declares the battle… “Lets kick this pig.”.

Trent - Well, the RX-7 IS part of the Porsche “family”… isnt it? Okay well, it had to at least have INSPIRED the Porsche, right? That car WAS however, a freeway undercover police car though.  It still had the Siren in it… which was a really fun way to roll into a party, freaking people out.

To answer your question, I think I bought my first comic when I was 12 or 13 years old. It was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novel. I used to trace that stuff and  study every panel.  I think it was a Kevin Eastman book. From there, I got into Mcfarlane, Jim Lee, and a handful of other great artists and tried to emulate what I saw. My first book (that I created) was actually Deadbolt (or Hall of Heroes Presents #1). I was like 15, trying to copy what I thought was cool.  CreeD happened after I had a dream of these characters with blown out proportions and “in your face” kind of shapes and dynamics.  I’m sure I was influenced by something, but I can’t place it in any specific terms. Actually, Ethan and Matt used to make fun of my style a lot with “he’s got basketballs for calves!” and other encouraging comments. I think the rebel in me wanted to just get a “WTF” reaction from people.

Trent - Back in those days, we (Ethan, Matt, and I) used to draw actual size!  We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, I think.  Maybe it was just that it took less time, but one day I’d like, come into school with a .5 Koh-i-Nor inking pen, and be like “check this detail out!” Then Matt would roll in with like a .25 pen the next day … and it just got ridiculous.  I’ve always had a secret dream to do my books pocket sized, but in large volumes. This was before I’d ever seen a manga book before. But I just like to keep frames and page layouts simple. In fact, all of my latest books are made to be smaller, but thicker books. I think that in a lot of ways a 22 page book every month is ridiculously slow. Manga artists generate a 22 page book every week by drawing the pages smaller, and focusing on good storytelling over a longer book.

Trent – You don’t ink any more? At ALL?  That would save a LOT of time.  I played around with something like that years ago on my Image CreeD run, but there’s something about an inked page… it just feels nice. And getting away from a computer now and then feels good too. Back then, you were doing a lot of detail in your work too.  I still have that CreeD pinup that you did. In fact, I just recently found it in my parents basement back in Indiana.  Ill send it your way!

Jason – As you should be. Not many people get the chance to work on something like Ghost Rider! After a great start to your career with CreeD, Ghost Rider along with other things, like working on the biggest video game ever, I’m starting to hear you talk about making a NEW graphic novel.  Am I right or is it too early to talk about?

Trent – I have 3 potential graphic novels in the works.  One is a very hush hush deal with a big time publisher. But I’m not sure if its going to happen yet or not so I can’t say.  The second is a Nova Colony Graphic novel, which I’m 36 pages into currently. And the third is something so top secret, even my mom doesn’t know. But my #3 project is something that I started to develop about 8 years ago, and I only recently started dusting it off and reworking it to become this just… amazing story. This will be the thing that I’m known for when I die.  Not Ghost Rider, not World of Warcraft or Diablo 3, not even Creed.  I’m hoping to announce it this year, but we’ll see.  I’ve got a lot of opportunities on my plate right now.

Jason – How exciting. I can’t wait to hear more news on any of these. I’ll be following your blog closely for any big announcements! One of the things I’ve been looking into is having a literary agent for my graphic novels. Do you have one or do you even care to look for one?

Trent - Honestly, I’ve never really even considered it.  But then, I’ve never really tried to make something really successful. I just make stuff, and sometimes a lot of people gravitate toward it, and sometimes nobody notices.  I really enjoy the indy comic scene.  There’s very little money in it, unless you’ve been around forever doing the same thing.

Jason - What kind of paper and pencils or inks do you use? Do you use a Cintiq for your GN‘s?

Trent - Yeah.  Since I started working at Blizzard I spoil myself with the best tools I can get my hands on.  It’s still no replacement for pen and paper though.  Truthfully, I work with computers all day and I’m sick of them.  I like to chill on my couch with a portable sketch board and draw my pages in pencil, then ink them the old fashioned way. Sometimes I like to work in the park, or just be outside, or near the ocean. I’m doing some stuff with acrylic and watercolors now.

Jason - Do you work with any writers? Perhaps a ghost writer? (no pun intended)

Trent – I don’t.  Though I’ve considered bringing on a protege, or an assistant.  I really loathe those who take credit for someone elses work.  Credit for work is of greater value than money.  I’ve learned that working as a concept artist in games.

Jason – Yeah, tell me about it. I’ve had my share of uncredited work and it’s really frustrating.

What part of making a graphic novel do you enjoy the most and why?

Trent – Its a weird thing, ya know… cuz I dont even really read that many comics anymore.  But I love to direct my own little “movies”.  These little ideas can become something huge for other people.  I’ve gotten letters from people telling me that a book  I did changed their LIFE!  That’s huge!   I’ve been around for so long that guys write  me and tell me how I inspired them to get into being an artist, or being a musician, or just following their dream. To me… that’s the most valuable part of it.  It opens up my communication to the world. We all live in these little bubbles and these bubbles are so isolated.  Comic books and graphic novels are an opportunity for a couple of doods to really shift an entire paradigm.  A couple of guys can make something that reaches some kid on the other side of the planet, and that gets him thinking about some new thing that he wants to make, and it shifts his day, or even his life.  Think of how powerful that is! I cant think of any other art form that is more pure… more “one to one” than indy comics and maybe indy music.

At companies, in jobs we are not allowed to be individuals.  We are pushed down into corporate politics and to think as a group or not to be too abrasive, or too “different.” The reason that I got into comics and making art was to express myself.  I want to inspire people to be more pure, more honest with everything they do in life.  I worry that our world promotes the opposite far too often.

Jason – That’s by far the coolest explanation of “why to makes comics” I’ve ever heard. I can definitely relate to how you feel. I don’t really read comics anymore but I love to tell my own stories trying to inspire someone else in some way or another. Hearing you say this is pretty cool for me.

Jason - Who is your favorite graphic novel artists now and why?

Trent – I’ve always been a big fan of Mike Mignola.  When he started, his work on superheros was very unpopular.  But he found a place where his voice would carry much greater weight. That first year of making Hellboy must have been tough to stick with for him.  Sales probably didn’t do too hot because he was coming off of books that he wasn’t a great fit for.  But he stuck with it. He knew what he wanted, and he had focus.  I will always admire people like that.  Plus, he just has great content! He puts more focus on the story and makes the art serve the story.  Its simple… its raw… and I only wish that he focused on his books instead of getting wrapped up in films so much. But then… I’m sure there’s a lot more money in films than comics.He has an odd sense of humor though, and I think I make him nervous whenever I talk to him at shows.  He always runs away when he sees me. lol.

Of course, I grew up in the business with Ethan Van Sciver. He’s still pushing the bar man.  That guy has always inspired me.

Chris Bachalo has great sense of composition, and mood.  I love his artwork, and even more now that he’s working with Townsend.

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were my first inspirations. Their original Turtles are what got me into comics.

I can’t leave out Ashley Wood.  That guys a madman!  What the hell kind of a world produces an artist like that?  He’s kicking out how many pages a day?  PLUS running a toy company, PLUS doing art for games?  He’s killin’ it!  And I admire that kind of aggressive determination. Some of my favorite books lately are manga; Naruto, Dragonball (the original old stuff) and One Piece.

I want to say, also, that I really admire the effort that you’re putting into this reMIND project too!  You’re coming from a similar place as me man. Its tough to come home from work and keep working sometimes.  But you’re running a great project, getting people involved, and building something.  I really support your project, and we’re going to have to find a way to cross promote, because you’re killin’ it!

Jason - Well, on THAT note I think I should wrap this up, ha ha. I really appreciate you giving me props for reMIND and all the time you spent answering my strange questions. It’s definitely a fascinating nitch and it’s hard to find good creative insight and people who will just fill up a Google document with a cool conversation about their process. I was going to keep asking questions but this is pretty massive already. Maybe we can do a Round 2 when you have your book out!

By the way, I would love to cross promote our projects somehow! Oh yeah, it’s gonna happen!

If you want to find more info on Trent Kaniuga, check out his blog at: http://creedguy.blogspot.com

Creed Online at: www.creedcomic.com

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I got this question a few months back from a talented artist.

Question: I was just curious to hear your thoughts about whether or not publishing your pages online first, might burn any bridges when looking for a literary agent/book publisher in the future?

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Over the last 8 months I’ve talked to many people about this, read books on it and studied what other industries have and have not done successfully.  I’ve come to a few conclusions which may be right or may be wrong, but here they are and I’m not just talking the talk. As you can see I’ve risked my entire project on this train of thought:

The markets are changing. With the internet changing how everyone does business, it’s anyone’s guess if publishers are even a better bet these days. Sure the major publishers can rake in the money on best sellers and established authors, but we aren’t talking about that. We’re talking about you and me, right now.

But before we move on, take a look at this quote I recently heard from Jon Meacham, the longtime Editor of Newsweek, which is now being sold because they aren’t making enough money I guess. It’s been around since 1933.

“We live in an era where all print based media are not exactly rolling in cash.” - Jon Meacham

“Here’s what I suspect the future is. We have had it backwards, which is that we produce a magazine all week. We close it Friday and Saturday and it begins to go out online(to the printers) where the heart of the operation has been. We have Newsweek.com (internet version) every day but for 77 years the imphasis has been on the print. It’s probably time to flop that, in which you are solely focused on the digital and by the end of the week you take the best of, and for people who want to hold a magazine in their hands,(they will buy the printed version) and there are people who can still do that.”

I quoted that from The Daily Show. Did you get what he was saying? They had it backwards by focusing on print. The print should be the ‘best of’ the online content. That’s huge! Learn from this. You and I are small compared to Newsweek and can adapt easily to change. Take advantage of it.

I work in animation and this whole thing really reminds me of all the traditional animators who were laid off because they couldn’t accept the changing industry. Hand drawn animation was being replaced by 3D animation and nobody wanted to adapt. I felt for them but at the same time, it’s was a great opportunity for small animation studios to make their own feature films because the technology was making it possible. Why do we think we need Disney to produce a 2D animation when we have people like Sylvain Chomet making films like “Triplettes of Belleville” and his new one “The Illusionist”. That wasn’t possible before. I think it’s the same thing with graphic novels and book publishers. Now days anyone who is motivated enough can make a beautiful graphic novel and have it printed and get it to an audience.

From what I’ve read, a really good selling graphic novel might have a print run of 15,000. An Indy graphic novel might have 5000. Okay, now take a step back and instead of focusing on how many books that is to us little guys, think about how few people are actually seeing it. If you only print 5000 copies, only 5000 people max are going to be able to read it unless they all share but when I buy a book it pretty much always goes on my book shelf never to be seen again. There are webcomic graphic novels out there that generate 50,000 to 100,000 unique visits a DAY. There are badly drawn webcomics that have a bigger following than the beautifully printed and drawn Indy comic that sold a whopping 5000 copies at conventions. You know why? Becasue nobody knows the printed comics exist. How many people go to Indy Comic conventions and dig through all the clutter to find the one rare golden nugget? Maybe a few people out there. But how many people have access to the internet and can type in http://mystupidcomic.com? Nearly the entire world. Which brings me to another point.

You need to have fans before you can sell books. The internet is where to find your niche fans now days, not door to door with a case of books. You don’t spend all your hard earned money printing your first book and then start looking for fans. Also, an agent or publisher wants to see that you’re committed before they commit to you. Unless the agent or publisher is also a no name, but that’s another story.

I read a great quote from Seth Godin, “The only people who should plan on making money from writing a book are people who made money on their last book. Everyone else should either be in it for passion, trust, referrals, speaking, consulting, change-making, tenure, connections or joy.”

So, If your goal is to make a living with a newly started graphic novel career, then stop. Just quit while you’re ahead. Stop before you’ve wasted a month of your life laboring over it only to realize that it’s going to take a lot more work than you are passionate enough to spend. If you’re not in it for one of the reasons above then please, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY, JUST STOP NOW. I DON”T WANT TO READ YOUR HEARTLESS COMIC EVEN IF YOU FINISH IT.

So the next logical question is; Can we get from point A(no name artist) to point B(successfully published author making a living) if we are in it for the right reasons? I believe so. So how do we get there? I believe you can get from point A to B by building a fan base one person at a time through the internet. In the book The Economics of Webcomics, the author repeatedly compares indy publishers to webcomics. In every case, the artist who gave away content for free on the internet and later sold the same content as a book would outperform any no-name indy comic who printed first. In fact, the websites that were really popular would start competing with the same sales figures as Marvel’s most popular titles. Even the popular indy titles never hit that number. Even small companies who released books online a few weeks prior to the printed books would make more sales. The idea that the online release is just one big marketing campaign kinda starts making sense when you look at the figures.

There’s a term in the big movie marketing world called “Market Saturation” (I think that’s what they call it). It’s when a company like Disney goes out and asks a random group of people on the streets if they’ve ever heard of the next movie they have coming out. If a studio, through advertising, can get a high percentage of the population to (at least) hear of their next movie then they have done an excellent job marketing it. The idea is that the more people who know about it, the more sales they will make on movie tickets and related products. If nobody knows a movie (or graphic novel) exists then it doesn’t matter how good it is, it will never make any money.

That’s why the big publishers are so powerful, because they know how to saturate the bookstores with advertising to help sell their books. But like I said before, why would they commit to selling your books if you’re not committed to your books. Publishers don’t want a one hit wonder or fluke. They want someone who can make book after book of high quality content. Someone they can rely on.

ONLY THEN can you start thinking about quitting your day job. Notice I said START thinking. I didn’t say to just quit. And don’t use this as an excuse to make stupid irrational financial decisions.

If a publisher sees that you have 2000 followers, I’m sure they’ll respect you more than a no name artist with no followers. If I can get a million hits on my webcomic, I’m sure it’s worth something to an agent or publisher. If I have an entire book online that has sold out of hard copies a few times and major followers then I’m sure a book publisher will be interested to see why. But at that point, do I care? We will see when we cross that bridge.

reMIND is the first book in my career of graphic novels. Maybe by the time I have a second one, the internet will have matured enough to start selling digital comics online somehow like through the iPad. That’s not going to kill the idea of printing books either. It’s just going to be another way to get more fans and potentially another stream of income and more market saturation. Plus, when I have a second book, I still have the following from my first one to build on. It all adds up the longer you do it assuming you have good content.

I think it’s good to shoot for the stars. But I wouldn’t worry as much about what a publisher might want of you when you’re on page 20 of your first graphic novel. I’d just focus on building an audience slowly and keep moving forward on your project. If you have a beautiful completed graphic novel ready to sell a few years from now and a nice following, you are already ahead of the curve.

(I’m sure there are many thoughts on this subject so feel free to chime in.)

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So here is the final version, first, so you can see the difference easily.

And here is the SUPER RED version that almost made the cut. I’m sure there is a group who likes this one better than what I chose. When the book is printed, you can print out the SUPER RED version and tape it over the page if you want.

And because I still like it strangely enough for unknown reasons, I’ll throw in the old version of the left page. There was a middle version where I tried to implement the crab into this version but it looked awful so I just threw it out. It’s better if it’s not seen anyway.

In addition to next weeks new pages, I’ll post a sweet interview with Trent Kaniuga, the creator behind CreeD. We started a Google document just talking about the creative process of making comics and graphic novels. I’m sure you’ll like it if your interested in behind the scenes stuff. I’m just waiting to get some cool new art from Trent to top it all off. See you Monday!

P.S. Please vote for reMIND so I can get into the top 100 this month! VOTE HERE!

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I’d like to say these pages were easy but… well, I’m still not sure if they are finished. In fact all these back story pages have gone through so many revisions that it’s a wonder I’m even able to post anything. This blog has been one of the key motivations for locking things down so I’m grateful to all of you for reading and coming back expecting more. It keeps me on schedule.

So for example with these pages, at first Victuals was suppose to be a peasant at this part and so I gave him a hand woven bed and nothing special in his room. There was no crab claws in the right side at first either. Originally Victuals woke up to the dog’s warning and then noticed his room was trashed. The following pages were him running to the palace to see if the king was alright but that never made much sense to me and I kept coming back to it wondering how to make it work. I wasn’t planning on revealing a giant crab again until later but hey. So with the changes, I was planning on adding decorative decor to his room much like Cyrene’s room but somehow I imagine Victuals still being humble in his personal life. Plus, hand woven organic mattresses are the most comfortable. It makes enough sense to me anyway.

Now on the left side, I’m still a bit unsure. It seems to me like the SMASH sound should be above the crab hands so you read it first then move down to the crab hands and then to the broken door. I could always move the crab hands down a little to make this work. Let me know if I’m thinking too much about this. Or maybe I not thinking enough. I just like the composition like this with the middle of the panel a bit empty. Any thoughts would be well received.

Coloring Tutorials Finally!

The most common question I am asked is how I color my pages. I’ve been holding off for a while because it’s just too complicated to talk about in one post. Don’t worry though, I’ve been listening and I’ve been writing an 8 part series where I show my full process from the final line art to a finished colored page. There are going to be plenty screen grabs and videos of each stage of the process. I’ll even break down making your own textures and how to best prepare and use them.

I’m hoping to start the series in June on Thursdays if I can get it together in time.

The Lizard Man.

A few weeks ago I got a nice comment from someone named Jenny saying, “I can’t believe you’re writing about the Lizard Man. I’m from South Carolina (origin of one of the tales) and I knew people who took part in the Lizard Man hunt!” I commented back explaining that I made this all up before I ever heard of the Lizard People Conspiracy but now I realize I was talking about a completely different Lizard Man.

You see, there is a conspiracy theory that shapeshifting lizards rule the Earth and take the form of Presidents and high powers and you might catch one of them transforming into a lizard if you look close enough to bad quality video. Just look up Lizard People in Google and you will see how amazing some people are. This is what I thought Jenny was talking about at first but then I decided to do a Google search for Lizard Man and I was completely floored.

There is a whole other set of stories on the Lizard Man and parts are surprisingly similar to reMIND. There’s drawings and images of sightings and 3D models of a Lizard Man head. It’s like Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster but not as popular. Here’s a Wikipedia page about it. Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. On the Wiki page it even talks about missing cats. That’s so cool! There’s plenty of other old sci-fi shows and comics with lizard type people that must have inspired the early thoughts of reMIND but this one was too similar to just ignore. I really need to plan a trip to Scape Ore Swamp when I finish reMIND. Maybe some specialty shops out there will buy a few copies of my book.

Then I really got to thinking. I need to make a tourist shirt for Cripple Peaks kinda like this one.

Hopefully it wont look as touristy. Thanks again, Jenny, for the comment!

Link Love!

I want to thank all the new webcomics who have taken the time to link to reMIND from their sites. You guys are really helping me out and I can’t thank you enough. Every new visitor you send me is pure gold! I have a few new comics I started reading while bored at work and I really need to add them to my links pages. Some I’ve already talked about in the past but recently I got an email from Travis Hanson who has a webcomic graphic novel called The Bean. I wasn’t expecting to spend much time on his site but it sucked me in and now I’m subscribed. Check it out if you have time. It reminds me of Bone by Jeff Smith but with more gritty art. Reading about Travis’ journey to make this book really hits home. Here is a page from his webcomic.

[EDIT] reMIND is featured on a Podcast!

I woke up this morning and got word that reMIND was featured on a Podcast called Deconstructing Comics. How cool is that! Listen to it here.

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I’ve received several emails from writers trying to figure out how to find a good artist to draw their comic ideas or to team up with. I’ve had this conversation many times over the years and it’s never an easy question for me to answer because I’ve never been a writer looking for an artist.

Enter Ian Struckhoff. I meet Ian on DeviantArt and he’s been busy writing tons of stories and finding artists to collaborate with. I might as well let him answer this question since he’s actually having success doing it. Ian is also the first person to ‘guest post’ on reMINDblog. I’ll let him take over from here.

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As a writer who isn’t also an artist, there’s a high barrier to entry. Making a comic becomes an exercise in networking, delegation, and project management, on top of the usual storytelling hurdles. Chances are you will be your own publisher, editor, designer, and letterer– plus you’ll be the only person finding the rest of the team. That’s as big a job as any of the rest.

It’s not impossible, though. On July 22nd, 2009 I began writing my very first comic. On August 15th, a team of professional artists began working on the book. Now, I’m working with over a dozen artists on projects including pitch issues for two ongoing series, and short comics for my own anthology.

I have to be clear– I’m not saying I’m special. I’m an up-and-comer (or, less charitably, a wannabe). I’m just dedicated to my stories seeing the light of day. I’d like to share some of what I have learned so far with you.

It comes down to four very simple pieces of advice.

1.) Be part of a community.

I can’t stress this enough. In order to find an artist to work with, you’re going to need to talk to a lot of people. You can’t just walk in cold and say “draw a book for me”. You also don’t want to stick your foot in your mouth by not understanding the context.

Every artist that I am working with, I met via DeviantArt. It’s a fantastic community of literally millions of artists. It certainly isn’t a bad place to start.

Don’t be pushy, and don’t rush the process. Join the club before you hang up your sign on the bulletin board. I happened to be established in the community as a photographer beforehand, but I spent some time getting to know the comics community there before plowing in trying to recruit collaborators.

A good way to get your foot in the door on DeviantArt is to search for some of your favorite artists, and start following them. Then join the Groups (sub-communities) they are involved in, start following some fellow-writers and more artists. Let your involvement grow naturally, don’t make it into a project.

I also recommend getting involved in the comics community on Twitter. Again, just find some of your favorite writers, artists, and editors. Try Googling “Twitter Ian Struckhoff” or “Twitter Matthew Dow Smith” or “Twitter Ron Perazza”– and likewise with your favorite creators’ names– to get started. The same etiquette applies as above, but this will be more about learning the ins-and-outs of the industry and networking with people who you can learn from.

That’s just two examples of communities. I’d also recommend checking out ICCW, Brian Bendis’ Jinxworld Forum, and Warren Ellis’s Whitechapel.

2.) Be prepared, and communicate clearly.

Every now and then, you’ll find an artist who you’d love to work with. Just send them a note or a comment, letting them know that, in the form of a complement. Nobody will mind if you say nice things about their work, even if they are too busy to work with you.

A few of them might reply and give you a chance to pitch your idea. What do you do then? The key is to do most of the real work ahead of time.

The big thing is that you’re going to need to have some scripts for them to read. Before they dig into that, though, they will probably want to start with a “pitch” (aimed at them, not publishers) that outlines the story in no more than a page, and links to supporting materials like character descriptions/bios, a series bible, and so on. Have all of this ready, so when they ask, you have something to show them immediately.

From there, be sure to communicate everything clearly. Be clear about things like your budget, your plans for publishing, expectations around ownership, your ideal schedule, your vision for the project, your thoughts on the team structure, and so on. If you have concerns at any point, communicate those clearly and directly too.

Every bit of this, from the pitch, to the script, to the bios and bible, to the clarifications, should be formalized– not rough notes you wrote for yourself. This is a professional relationship, and the more professional you act up front, the more appealing it will be to work with you.

3.) Be respectful. And get ready to hear “No”.

As an aspiring writer, you’re a much more common commodity than a competent comics artist. It takes far more time to draw a comic than to write it, and it’s a lot easier to think you have good ideas than to think you can draw. They can do this without you, but you can’t get very far without them. Remember that when you’re communicating with the artists.

For every time you hear back from someone who wants you to tell them about your story, you’re going to hear from a bunch who don’t– and there will be even more who you probably won’t hear back from at all.

Don’t sweat it. It’s okay if it takes some time. Don’t expect everyone to say Yes, and don’t be disappointed if many of them aren’t interested. In fact, don’t be insulted if they come straight out and say your work isn’t there yet– Just keep working to get it there.

(On a related note– You’re going to find a lot more artists who want to do covers than interiors. Pick the cover artists last, because your penciller will define the style of the book, and you’ll get plenty of chances to find the right cover artist as time passes.)

4.) Aim high. Just not too high.

Since I’m being honest and direct with you, one more thing– The secret to creating a great comic is the same as with almost any form of collaboration:

Work with people who are better than you are.

Don’t be afraid to reach a bit out of your league to find the right artist. If you don’t think they are intimidatingly good, then why are you trying to get them on your book? Don’t simply decide someone is too good for you.

On the other hand, there are limits to this. There’s no point in asking people who won’t be able to work with you. If you know someone is getting paid more, or working on a much bigger book, it’s probably not going to make sense to ask them to draw your book. Chances are a big name won’t be dropping a world-class book no matter how stupendous your pitch is.

Thanks to Jason for checking out my pitches, and asking me to contribute to his blog– and thanks to all of you for reading all of this.

_______________________________________

If you’d like to find out more about Ian and his projects, here are some of his sites:

Ian_X on Twitter
Ian_X on DeviantArt
Ian-X.com

Thanks, Ian, for taking the time and thought to answer this question for all of us.

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Planning out pages has been the most challenging aspect of creating reMIND and when planning a good set of pages, I always start with thumbnails. I’ve mentioned it before in the past assuming everyone knows what I’m talking about but since every artist is unique with their workflow I figure I should show the early stages of mine. I also noticed many young artists visiting here, trying to make heads or tails on how to start their own comic or graphic novel so hopefully this can shed some light on the subject enough to get the ball rolling.

After I finish a loose script (and I mean loose. No dialogue. A script with the main plot points. About a chapter per page) I started my thumbnails. Thumbnails are super small drawings just to get the initial ideas of composition and page layouts out of my head and on paper. Sometimes I have a clear idea in my mind but most of the time I don’t. If I have absolutely no idea where to start I force something out, however crude it may be, and this usually gives way to ideas that eventually start to gel.

I usually don’t like to show my thumbnails because they are so sloppy and bad. In the case of the pages above, you can really see where I struggled to figure out what to do. There are a few rehashed versions of the same things. Now days I like to draw my thumbnails with ink. This forces me away from little details. If I mess up then I have to start another one. It keeps the ideas fluid and loose.

Thumbnails can easily get really messy and scattered here and there and lost on small random pieces of paper. To battle this bad habit I’ve learned to keep all my thumbnails in nice tidy sketchbooks. I learned this working with many commercial directors. Many would keep similar hard bound sketchbooks clearly marked for each project in which they could collect all their random thoughts.

I started doing this for reMIND long before it was a graphic novel. The top book with the Fuel sticker is full of storyboards and concept art when I was planning on making reMIND an animation called “Vittles”. Most of these pages are full of clipped sketches and thumbnails, taped down to keep organized. I’m glad I did this otherwise I would have lost track of most of it.

This is the first image of Victuals (Vittles at the time) that I liked. I cut it out and taped it to the front page. Yeah, that says Tender Vittles 3.2 for some dumb reason. I just like that cat food name. I don’t have a cat…really. I don’t even really like cats. I just like drawing Victuals.

Above are some storyboard thumbnails for the animated version in it’s extremely early stages. The yellow panels were sticky notes that I later taped in the book. The lower left page is the first sketch of a lizard man. Sonja was going to be a boy at one point and above is a sketch.

Anyway, that’s my way to develop ideas. I’ve got to keep it all organized or I never get anything finished. And hey, it’s fun to look at later on…or put in a blog.

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Although it can seem like a daunting goal, there are ways to achieve a project of this scale in a reasonable amount of time. To make more sense of my following points, I need to first bring up Parkinson’s Law.  It goes something like this:

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

In the years that I’ve worked freelance I can definitely say that this law was in affect. In fact I’ve had commercial storyboarding jobs in which I was given 3 hours to finish 26 frames. That amount was usually a full days work for a storyboard artist. I was also considered a fast storyboard artist in the agency that represented me. I honestly think I was considered fast because I was the only one to accepted the fast jobs. Other artists would just turn them down saying they were impossible. So, in turn, I became the fast artist. Any impossible storyboarding deadline would immediately get sent to me before anyone else. This was good and bad. Good in which it brought me plenty of work but bad because it was all crazy deadlines that drove me nuts.

The invaluable lesson this taught me was simple; work doesn’t need to take as long as the status que says it does. I applied this thought process to all my personal projects from that point on and because of it I’ve been able to accomplish tons of stuff in my limited free time. If I thought a project would take a full day in a studio environment, I would give myself three hours. And guess what? It usually would get done in three hours too. Maybe four.

It wasn’t until a month ago that I learned about Parkinsons Law. I never knew it was a specific term for what I was doing, only that it worked for me. I have to admit, if you work in this fashion long enough, you will be mentally drained of all your creative juices. There is a limit to how far it can be pushed. As long as I only apply it to my personal work every other night and not my full time day job then I can usually keep my energy tank full for when it really matters. My day job pays me to work at the status quo speed, which in a corporate environment is an extremely slow pace. So this works out well for me in my current situation. If I was still doing storyboarding at lightning speed then I would never have the mental energy to go home and do more, which is one of the main reasons I got out of storyboarding.

I don’t believe you can just jump in and start doing this from the start. If you don’t have a good understanding of anatomy and perspective and other fundamental skills then you will spend more time focusing on learning these things then you will one getting the job at hand done. So if your just starting out then take your time to learn your skill. I’m also not suggesting that you only focus on speed and only produce sloppy crap. It’s not a race. But if you can achieve the same level of quality in half the amount of time then why not learn to do it. We are talking about quality AND quantity here and I think it’s achievable. After all, my dream is not to spend 24 hours a day locked in a room doing my art.

Here are a few tricks and programs I’d suggest if you want to push yourself to get work done in a shorter time.

1. Remove distractions

This is important for me. If my office is cluttered with all kinds of other things that are more interesting to me at the time then I will space off and think about all the other stuff I could be doing. The internet is the biggest distraction of all time to me so one method of removing this distraction is by…removing it. Below is a link to a simple program called Freedom in which you can turn off your internet for a specific amount of time. It’s pretty awesome if your like me and want to check your email every five minutes. You can set it for the amount of time you think it will take to get your piece finished and the only way to get back onto the internet is to restart your computer… or wait until your set time expires.

Freedom – a great program to turn off the internet when you need to focus. There is a free donation version too.

2. Set a Timer

The best way to push yourself to speed up while staying focused is to get a simple kitchen timer and put it next to your desk. Think about how long it will take to complete a small task and then set the time to half that. You will be surprised how many times you will catch yourself getting sidetracked and then noticing your time is ticking away and jump back to work. Even if you don’t finish by the time the buzzer goes off you have at least started training yourself to think this way.

An alternate approach is to download a timer for your computer that will count down. I found a really good one for the Macintosh that politely beeps every 5 minutes to remind you that you’ve got work to get done. Trust me, if you do this long enough, you will be amazed at how much work you can generate in your free time.

Chimoo Timer for Mac

The timer combined with locking off your internet can do wonders in crunch time. And lets admit it, the time we spend at home after work is definitely not long enough to be filling every second with more work. Remember, work expands to fill the time available for completion.

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These pages went through several changes before I finally figure ‘em out. For example, the first panel used to be Victuals at the doorway of his mom’s house and he was in peasant clothes. All the detail in the room was added after the fact and with a Wacom Cintiq. I think it blends pretty well with the pencil drawings. The beads are also all digital. The third panel use to be 2 frames. One with Victuals giving her a ring and the second with them kissing. The ring idea was bad from the start. I mean why would lizards be giving each other rings like humans? Then the kissing panel just looked silly so it got cut. When I think about it, most of the time when I can’t figure out how to draw a story point, I just cut it out and let the narration speak for itself. What a cheap trick. Anyway, I hope this conveys the story I was intending.

If you want to see thumbnails, sketches, pencils and the first coloring pass of these pages then vote HERE!

6 Month Milestone

Today is a special date for me and reMIND.  Six months ago I published the first 2 pages of reMIND. I had no idea what would happen when I started this blog and I had no idea what I was doing either. But now after six months, I can’t imagine trying to finish reMIND without it. I had concerns and doubts when I started but now I can’t stress the benefits enough. I’ll talk much more about this in the future because it’s a fairly new and misunderstood path for publishing. I also hit a few milestones that I want to share real quick:

• I just hit 200 RSS subscribers about a week ago. For some reason I had 200 as a goal for myself. Not sure why but I’m pumped that I hit it!
• According to ComicBlogElite, reMINDblog has had over 50,000 unique visitors in the last 6 months. That’s cool!!!
• I colored a complete spread in an hour and a half yesterday.  This is really fast for me. When I started reMIND (4 years ago) it took me about 3 days to color a spread because I had no idea how to even start. I’ve refined my coloring over the years and started using a flatter and in turn, whittled down the process to a reasonable time. I’m not saying every spread takes me 1.5 hours now, some may take a good 6 hours until I’m happy but the fact that I don’t have to kill myself to get this done is very relieving.

T-Shirt Update

I just talked to my brother-n-law who is also the one making my T-shirts and he told me that I should have my first batch of shirts this Saturday. So it looks like I will be packing up all the Gorilla Packs next weekend to ship out.(assuming all goes according to plan). I still have a few left to move. I have 3 small, 10 medium, 10 large left. So jump on it if you want it for $10. Once I finish selling these I think I’m going to raise the prices to $15 (plus shipping this time). I’m basically selling them for no profit this first batch just to get the word out there. It also leaves me with the bill unless I sell them all. So yeah, buy a shirt so I can pay my brother-n-law. haha

Click here to order shirts.

Also, thanks to all who donated a little extra to help me cover the shipping outside the US. I’m really excited to know that reMIND shirts will be seen around the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium! In fact, I’ve almost sold as many shirts in Europe as I have in the US. Maybe it’s because I like European comics better than most US comics. Interesting.

Rock Stars and Comic books

In my career as an artist I’ve noticed some strange things. One thing that keeps surfacing is famous musicians making comics. In my article about Agents, I talked about an unnamed famous rock star who hired me to draw his stupid comic and never paid me. Yeah, talk about a looser.

I have a good rock start story though. It’s about Rikki Rockett. You know, the drummer of Poison. He’s pretty much the coolest rock star I ever met. When I was at the San Diego Con back in the 90′s I showed him my portfolio and he immediately wanted to hire me. I was invited to Rikki’s private party that night for his new comic company called “No Mercy Comics”. That was cool.

Later that year my friend, Brian Brethauer and I planned a road trip to LA from Idaho to see Rikki and show him some more work. Needless to say, nothing ever panned out. Rikki was awesome but it just wasn’t the right timing. Talk about a surreal moment seeing Rikki Rockett color one of my comic pages in Photoshop. I’ve never seen Photoshop before that day either. Remember, this was 1996.

Rikki coloring one of my pages.

Here’s another picture of Rikki Rockett and Brian Brethauer. I’m not in the picture because I was the one behind the camera. Rikki was eating a giant sandwich.

Since I have no pictures of myself and Rikki to prove that I actually met him. Here is a picture that has Brian and I so you can at least see that I know the guy sitting next to Rikki.

From left to right: Jeremy Barlow, Me, Jon Barlow, Brian Brethauer. Brian’s face is half covered but it’s really the same guy. Seriously. Brian, help me out here! This proof would never hold up in court. Brian?

I bet Rikki and Brian are off somewhere playing golf right now, laughing.

Anyway, so the point of this rock star memorabilia is this.

Last week, I was contacted by someone who works for the singer VV Brown. I guess VV is really into graphic novels and is making her own called The City of Abacus. I was asked to do a feature review of her book but instead I just want to say how fascinating it is that everyone is in the same boat when it comes to making a graphic novel. They might have more fame or money but in the end, they are the same as you and me, just trying to make a cool comic. It’s kinda encouraging when I think about it, I mean the fact that someone famous is asking me to plug their book? Me? I just have a blog and a comic that’s not even published.

I wish VV Brown all the best in her new venture as a graphic novel creator. When I cut my first thrash-metal-country-opera album I’ll know where to go for some press.

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I get tons of people coming to me asking for advice on how to get into the field of art. I use to get confused when self proclaimed artists would approach me for advice but when asked to see their work they only had old school assignments from years ago. If they really were artists, I thought, then where was the art? Anyone can be an artist if they love to draw. This person must not love to draw, so why was he asking me for advice on how to become an artist?

I finally realized these artists who don’t do art are approaching me because they think I have a natural talent and they think they might just have a natural talent too. Perhaps someone told them in the past that they are “a natural”. They think art is just super fun and easy for us gifted ones born with the talent to draw. Artists have the good life. It’s all about who you know. You sit back and draw a little here and there. It just flows from you like a river of gold. You can whip up something on a napkin to pay for your meal. Art is easy work. Art is fun.

Ever since I was a little guy scribbling with my crayons I’ve had people look at my art and say, “You sure are talented. It must be nice to be born with it!”  I’d shyly say thanks and continue with my masterpiece while they move on after mere seconds.

Aside from my late teens, art has been my only source of income. I’m in my mid 30′s now and I’ve had a blessed career as an artist and it wasn’t until my mid twenties that I started thinking about what talent really was. Contrary to the dictionary definition, this is my opinion…

Talent is created and grows when you are overly passionate about a specific subject.

So committed that you spend large sums of free time studying a subject beyond what anyone else could stand. So interested that you try to decode what others are doing who excel in the craft. So obsessed that you will spend hours alone trying to meticulously perfect a nuance that only you will notice. Then, when the moment of focus is over, you have gained a small fraction of knowledge that only you were passionate enough to spend the time to understand.

Now, are you an artist?

A musician?

A chef?

A businessman? (Yes, even businessmen have the talent of being good at business)

Writer?  Jogger?  Halo champion?  Fly fisherman?  Snowboarder?  Surfer?

Now days, whenever someone comes to me for professional advice in the field of art, I always start with this question…

What do you love to do?

This is a hard question for many people to answer. It’s not really hard but people make it hard when they replace what they love with what they think they should love. For instance, a friend asked me what programs he should learn next to help his career. My response was, “Only learn the programs that will help you achieve your personal goals. Don’t learn a random program just because you think it will help your career even though you have no interest in that program. But if a program will aid something you’re passionate about then it’s worth learning. Nothing launches your career better then a personal project that you LOVE. Remember, a client will most likely ask you for something you’ve already proven to do well.”  So, in other words…

If you love animation, start animating your film.

If you love to draw comics, start drawing your comic.

If you love to make stuffed animals, make the best stuffed animals you can.

This may seem like lame advice. Most people want me to just hook them up with someone who will offer them a job. Some people just want to be told which school will guarantee their success. Reality check. Schools don’t make you talented. What you are passionately interested in creates the talent.

If you LOVE music, you will pay closer attention to it than the majority and in turn you will become more talented at music then the majority.

If you LOVE comic art, you will study your favorite comic artists and you will become more talented at drawing comics then the majority.

If you LOVE animation, you will closely examine master animators to see what makes them tick and in turn you will become more talented at animation then the majority.

If you LOVE amazing food, you will start to study what makes something taste good and in turn…

Get the picture?

None of this stuff is something you are born with. I don’t believe anyone is born with talent. I will say it again. Nobody is born with talent. Sure, I might have shown early aptitude as an artist even in preschool. You know why? BECAUSE I FREAKIN LOVED ART AND I DROOLED OVER IT WHEN I SAW SOMETHING THAT I LIKED I WOULD STARE AT IT FOREVER UNTIL I UNDERSTOOD IT A BIT MORE THEN THE AVERAGE PRE-SCHOOLER OKAY!

I still can’t draw feet very good. You know why?

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