Too hard on myself...?

Okay--maybe I am being too hard on myself in regards to the inking. I'm kind of a perfectionist, I guess. I just watched some youtube videos on inking, and they were awful. I'm certainly better than those guys. I found a small wealth of micron pens, and I was using those last night. Maybe I need to go the route of a ink nib pens and/or brushes, opposed to technical pens. Get better line weights that way, anyway.

Guess I'll try it again tonight. Zoinks.

Another day...

Not feeling so great today. Last night was a disaster. I tried to ink for about an hour, but it was coming out horrible. I think I am biting off far more than I can chew.

I am a penciler. That is my strength. Unfortunately, I am not very strong at inking. I don't think I can wing it with rough layouts and finish with inking. I still want to give it a shot, but I think I will have to pretty much do full pencils before putting ink to paper, which will take more time. I guess I don't have to be a picky about erasing erroneous lines until after the inking is done, which will save some time, but still, this is a blow to the ego.

I just need to sit down, buckle down, and draw. Last night, I didn't get home until close to 8pm, because of my full time job obligations. Not really an excuse, but between eating dinner, spending time with family, showering, shaving, doing some chores, the art gets pushed way down the line; in this case, until past 10pm.

I wish I could afford to hire an inker to take over that responsibility, but with my making $60 per page, well, I am pretty sure my publisher won't be willing to pay someone else to ink it, so I'd have to hire someone on my own, and take money out of my own fee (which isn't really an option). So, I'm stuck with myself. I'll just have to accept that I'll have a few crappily inked pages to get through before I start to improve. (but man, it sure would make my life easier).

I also have to remember that ALL artists start with the same demoralization. As long as I keep with it, I'll improve. I mean, what did I expect? I literally took years off of drawing and art. I'm lucky I still remember how to hold a pencil, let alone someone willing to pay me to draw.

I have to have faith in the process. Keep drawing. Keep improving. The artwork doesn't have to be a Rembrant or Picasso; just get paid and move on.

Time Commitments

I haven't gotten nearly as much done with the artwork as I wanted, unfortunately. It's tough. Hopefully what I am experiencing now is just growing pains to get used to drawing and commiting to the artwork for a set number of hours per week. Hopefully.

I've laid out the first page, which is a "splash" panel, meaning it is one giant frame. I am doing it to introduce the reader to the environment that the story takes place in. Lots of different levels, lots of perspective in play. It's not an easy page to draw. I don't have a light table, so I am pretty much forced to either keep the vanishing points on the 11x17 sheet of paper I am drawing on, or tape pieces of paper to the sides of the artboard, and get my vanishing points that way. It's crazy. One of my vanishing points is so far off the page that I needed to tape together three sheets of paper to the artboard, and also tape together two rulers, so I could even reach the vanishing point. Sheesh.

I am also having some anxiety with the inking. It makes sense to make rough layouts with no real detail to them, and just get those details laid down in the inking stage. Otherwise, I am essentially drawing the same page twice. I am not nearly as confident in my inks, so it's tough to get myself to sit down and do it. I'll get it done, but let's just say I am happy that the deadline for this book is months away. I have inked before, and more or less understand the bare fundamentals, but still, haven't done it too often.

It's funny. I look at other artists as examples of what is possible. For example, I know Todd McFarlane, back when he was drawing Spider-Man, has stated that his layouts were essentially just blobs, to show roughly where the people are standing. He does all of his details and drawing with ink. Am I stupid to think that if he can do it, then so can I? Besides, if I am trying to get faster, I need to take shortcuts. This seems like a good way to save a couple hours.

My time went okay, over the 3-day weekend. I took Friday night off to spend some time with my wife, but Saturday I drew for a good 4-5 hours. That's okay. But, again, I did spend some time pacing the house to get over some mild anxiety with the art, but overall, I did at least, as I stated above, get the layout done for the first page. Sunday was tough to get anything done, which was mostly my fault; I could have done more in the morning. In the afternoon, we were pretty much gone all day at my Father-in-law's place, and didn't get home until close to 9pm, as I recall. Monday we went to a SF Giants game, so no work got done at all. Hopefully, tonight will fare better.

I've adjusted my time frames a little bit. I think so as long as I can get 60 pages of art done between now and November, I'd be pretty happy. I plan to use the money I make from this gig to help pay down some debt before my baby is born. If I get more done, great, but 60 pages would bring in enough money to make our lives a lot easier come the end of November. Also, I'll still be able to meet my publisher's plan to get the comics in stores in January, and still have at least another issue in the bin ready to go (and hopefully another one close to being done, as well).

I'll let you know how tonight goes. Hopefully, I'll get some inking done.

DC's New 52

DC Comics announced last month that, this Fall, they will be relaunching their entire line of comics books; there will be 52 new titles (they love the whole 52 thing), each starting with issue # 1. A collector's dream. A great jumping on point for new readers. But, alternatively, a great jumping OFF point for current buyers. It's funny, that I think more new people who haven't purchased a comic book in ten years will likely be the majority, but the faithful that have been buying for those said ten years will quite possibly jump off the wagon and move on. Funny.

Comic book collectors, or the popular term "Fanboys" or "Fangirls", just love to complain about comic books. In fact, I heard of a major protest, picket line and all, happening this year at the San Diego Comic Convention, protesting DC's relaunching event. Again, funny.

I have always been a huge fan of comics. But, I've evolved somewhat, I guess. I've always been more of a fan of the creator's, the artists and writers, than the characters represented therein. Now that I am actually involved in creating a comic book, and seemingly, I really hope, a new "comic book" universe, I am no longer a fan, per se, but an actual pro working in the industry. Which, possiblily, if all goes well, could lead to future work with the larger comic book publishers (Marvel or DC). Maybe I am being very naive, but I've always kind of known, hey, if SOMEONE gives me a shot at creating a comic, I will not let them down, and the train will keep on going. The momentum will likely not stop, so as long as I have work to produce.

Anyway, my point. My point of all the above goobley gook, DC and Marvel have always been in direct, somewhat fierce competetion with each other. There have been times when they've done books together, and collaborated, but lately, it's gotten to be a little more cutthroat (in my opinion). DC is making a huge push to be the premier comic book company, and outdistance Marvel. And, it could quite possibily happen.

DC is also making a huge push for digitial distribution. And for the first time ever in the industry, they will be offering brand new issues for digital sale through their website on the same day as the actual comic book at stores. So, if digital sales begin to improve, and especially if digital sales begin to overtake those of the comic book stores themselves, this could lead to just 100% digital distribution, and comic book stores will be left with 1/2 their sales just gone.

DC recently made another comment about how those that do not have comic book stores near them, or can't get to them for one reason or another to get their weekly fix of new comics, can simply log on to their website and buy the digital copy. Now, I think comic book stores RELY on people to drive through bad weather, 20 miles, after work to buy their comics. If these stores, again, relied on those that live within 5 miles of their store as their sole customers, again, they would close. Man, what a fragile industry.

So where does that leave the small publishers? Image, Dark Horse, Boom, IDW, they pretty much follow in the dust trails of Marvel and DC, because without the "big two", there would be no comic book stores. If DC or Marvel suddenly decided to either go 100% digital with their output, or stop publishing altogether, then the other publishers would have to follow suit, because comic book stores would cease to exist. They could not stay open. From a business standpoint, well, the comic book store owners must have a TREMENDOUS amount of faith in Marvel and DC, to stand by them and make sure they are taken care of. I just have my doubts that they will stand by them, especially since the larger parent owned corporations have taken a notice of comic books since Hollywood has invested in the brand and characters.

I just think, in the 21st century, business will not take care of it's own anymore. A little cynical, I know, but with a pretty bad economy, and with most businesses just trying to survive, can they afford to be nice to a smaller sub-industry, and give them what they want? Maybe it's always been that way. I don't know. I've only been a working adult for 7 years or so. I don't know.

I say this because Marvel and DC are the ONLY reason comic book stores still exist in America. I believe it is only a matter of time before either one stops publishing comic books, and goes digital.

So, small publishers would have to either close down, or also go 100% digital. Comic book newstands at your 7-Elevens and Safeway and AMPs are gone the way of the dinosaur. Sure, some are still around, but the vast, vast majority do not carry a comic book rack. So, you certainly can't rely on selling your products in those outlets.

I think I successfully lost complete track of what my point was. Let's just call all of that venting, and be done with it.

:)

Maybe my point is that the comic book industry is very fragile. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few years.

The Direct Market of 2011

Warren Ellis recently wrote on his website and interesting snipet about the current status of the direct market of comic books (ie: sales through comic book stores):

"For as long as I’ve known him, Dan Didio has believed the key to a resurgent DC is reclaiming all the readers the commercial medium lost in the 90s… It’s all about accessing that hypothetical lost fan base. The impression the recent statements have left is Dan saying “comics used to sell loads back then, let’s do that again.” And that can’t happen in print.Comics used to sell loads back then, yes. But a big part of that — and this is the part he isn’t mentioning — is that there were ten thousand comics shops back then. And now there are, optimistically and rounding up, about two thousand. There simply aren’t the number of outlets left to sell the kind of volume comics could shift in the 90s.

The gamble here is this: that hypothetical lost fan base is older, has credit cards and disposable income, and an internet connection that can bring the DC Comics section of a notional comics store right to their desks. That, in fact, digital comics services will do the work of those eight thousand stores that don’t exist anymore."

It's a shame, but true. Comic book sales are very limited to the number of comic book outlets actually open to sell your merchandise. The 1990s were a comic book boom, because, well, as you read above, there were 5x more stores actually open, so, theoretically, that would mean 5x more sales.

Interesting to see where the comic book industry will be in 10 years.

Script is approved

So my publisher approved the script I've written for him. Which means, time to tackle the art.

The first issue comes out in January, but I'd like to have at least three issues done by then. As I write this, it is around the end of June, so I have about 6 months. Theoretically, that should be plenty of time. More than plenty of time. But, again, I don't do this full time. I can't afford to do it full time. My time is limited until after I get home from my "real" job, and to the weekends.

I won't repeat what I've said in other posts on my blog, but time management is going to be incredibly important. I've got to impose deadlines on myself, otherwise, I can see it taking one month just to get a few pages done. And if that is the case, well, I just hope I can sort through it and make it work.

So, tonight, I figure I'll sort through my art supplies, and see what I need to buy. The timing of all this is actually good, because I've a three-day weekend with July 4th coming up; I can spend some time getting back in the swing of doing art in a timely manner, opposed to drawing for five minutes and walking around to take a break. lol I tend to have anxiety issues when I draw, so I find it hard to concentrate. It's like trying to push an ocean through a cocktail straw sometimes. But, need to do it. It will be challenging on a personal level.

I just have to keep reminding myself, Jack Kirby could do it, Jack Kirby could do it.

And we're off.

Script is done

Okay--don't have a lot of time to write today, but did want to mention that the script is done, and off to my editor/publisher. We'll see what he says. I am, of course, very hopeful that he'll enjoy it :)

Day 4

Day 4 was another productive evening. I was able to get 4 pages done, which was my goal. To keep on track and finish the script by Sunday, I need to finish about 3 pages per day. So, with 12 pages done, I'm right on track. Sweet.

I've been reading Jim Shooter's blog. I enjoy the snippets about his time as Editor-in-Chief at Marvel. In more than one passage he's written, he talks about how many writers were asked to script out a story overnight. In one very recent instance, he himself wrote dialogue for a comic, overnight, which, as a result, didn't sleep that night and went to work the next day. See, when he was an editor, that was his full time job, and any freelance work is done after hours (not on company time).

Stories like that make me feel lazy. A script in 7 days?? Hell, I should have seven scripts in seven days. But, I told myself very early on that, if I am going to do this, I will not jeopardize my full time job, which means late night and all-nighters just can't happen at any regular basis. I'll accept it may happen on occasion, but my full time job takes priority. My wife agrees. Even if the comic thing takes off and I get regular work and higher pay, I'd still have a tough time leaving behind a steady full time job.

I've been thinking about what I want out of my career lately. With my full time job, I've recently been promoted to District Manager, which, consequently hasn't gone through yet, because they are trying to hire someone to take my old position--there is no one within the company locally that can fit the position, so to speak. They are being very picky. Which is good, but until they do find someone, I'm stuck with my old position and my old pay. Bleh.

I've wanted to draw comics for money for a long, long time. I won't get into the whys and hows and wheres and whens, but this is my first opportunity to make money doing something I really love and want to be a part of (and actually pays fairly well). My full time job is neither here nor there. It is decent work, and the opportunity of the District Manager position has re-ignited my interest in the Company and the printing industry. But, the comics thing, yeah, that is my hobby and where my creative interest lies.

But, as it is, I am pretty content with my career now. Full time District Manager, and moonlight as a comic book artist. Yeah--pretty happy with that.

I also want a life outside of work. I do not want to work 100 hours a week. I am trying very hard to keep my work/life balance in check, especially since I am a soon-to-be-father. As I write this, my wife is about 18 weeks pregnant. So, it is important to be able to spend time with my family and be a great husband and daddy, but I also need to keep my full time job a priority, AND I want to keep going with the comic book artist gig. I hope I am not in over my head.

Like I stated earlier, I want to keep my comic book time around 25 hours per week. My full time job, on average, as most people, is a steady 40 hours per week. Sometime I work overtime, but serious overtime is few and far between. So, I think 65 hours per week making money is reasonable. And, up to this point, if I stay up late working on the comic, it is my own doing, opposed to my publisher cracking the perverbial whip. Maybe that will change later on, but for now, I think he is more about "slow and steady wins the race."

But, it is inevitable that deadlines will become a regular part of the gig. That is why now, I am hoping to get a few issues drawn and ready for publication before January, so I'll have lead time and not be up all hours of the night trying to hit deadlines, because those said "deadlines" are months in advance.

Maybe I'm being naive. I am sure someone, somewhere will tell me I am. I just won't know until it happens.

I'll update again on Monday. If all goes well, I'll be telling you I finished the script and sent it in for approval.

Marketing your comics

This has been on my mind lately. How do you get comic book store owners to order your comic books? It's a very small industry, and the way distributors are set up, these stores take a tremendous risk each and every month when they order, because there are no guarantees that customers will walk into your store to buy their inventory. This is how most of the comic book stores collapsed in the 1990s, after the speculation boom, because they ordered way too much, lost money, and had to close down.

And let it be known, I believe you are selling your products to the comic book store owners, not so much the fans or customers. Sure, those guys are the ones that collect your book, or idolize you in those rare cases when you probably don't deserve it at all just because you are "good" at art, but the ones that actually purchase your comics are the few and far between comic book store proprietors. They are the ones shouldering most of the risk.

So that leads to the question, "Why should I give you some of my precious magazine rack space, when I could put Wolverine, Batman, or Spider-Man there instead?"

That is an excellent question.

Going back to the aforementioned risk, as you likely know, the big two in this industry are Marvel and DC Comics. Their comics are almost guaranteed sellers. Some are better sellers than others, but more or less, if a store owner is conservative in their purchasing and does their research, by all rights they should sell all of their Marvel of DC comics, without much of a problem. Then throw in the other small publishers: Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Boom, upcoming Valiant, Archie, Slave Labor, etc etc. The store owner, I imagine, pretty much divides what little space he has remaining on his shelves, and gives it to those guys. And, again, some sell better than others.

And then, the REALLY small publishers, well, where do they fit in? Well, some stores likely don't even sell those kinds of book at all, because there is no money in them. Why would a store give you the time of day, if they can order Spawn and sell 15 copies of that, opposed to your little corner of the universe comic book??

It's a tough industry to be in. There is very little room for distributing your work, outside of online maybe. But, if you want your book to be visable, you need to be in a store, a brick and morter honest to goodness comic book store.

So, how do you do that?

I think you have to introduce yourself as personally as possible to these store owners, perhaps threw a mailer; it's easy enough to get a list of all the comic book stores. Then, you have to prove that you are marketing your comic properly, getting the word out, so there will be people willing to spend money on it. Get your name out there, get your work out there, and the store will take a shot on you. In a perfect world, each month your orders improve, however slightly, but, really, one should feel lucky to only LOSE 10% of your readership, especially after the first issue. Like I said, tough industry.

Wish us luck. Part of the Work-for-Hire contract with my publisher is that I get 15% royalty checks based on comic book sales. I think it works out to around .06 cents per issue, based on the offset printer we found (cheaper the printing, more money you profit - cha cha cha). So, it is in my best interest to help market and promote the work. I'm looking forward to it.

Plus, I want to do this for a while, so the more money my publisher makes, the more he'll be willing to stick around another month and publish more comics :)

It's coming along...

I had a productive day yesterday. While I didn't start writing until well past 9pm (chores, we went grocery shopping, it's tough to do those things during the week and get home with a semblence of any free time left), but I got four pages done. Best night so far. I've a total of eight pages written.

It is interesting writing a script 1) based on someone else's short story 2) knowing that you will be the one drawing it. I try to write so someone else could draw it, but leave enough there for them to come up with their own ideas; but I leave enough there for me to remember what I was intending.

I found myself writing narative in the script, then going back to the short story, and find out on the next page that it contradicts what I wrote in the script. I had to re-write some stuff. It's fine, but it's easy to get ahead of myself with an idea, and then realize that it goes against the story too much. Ack.

I try my best to refer to the story as much as I can, but when there is stuff there that comes up later and contradicts mine, well, either I leave my idea, or I follow the story as it was intended. Since I'm a Work-for-Hire guy, and this is not my property, well, I lean toward playing it safe and changing it to match the story. My publisher is giving me a lot of latitude with the project, but the least I can do is keep the majority of his ideas intact.

Day 2 Results

I didn't get a whole lot done last night. I opted to join some friends at our pool, eat pizza, socialize; I guess it is a fine line I'll have to walk to work being a comic artist into my lifestyle. It's tough. Plus, I've no real deadline, outside of what I've given myself, so this surely doesn't help. It's nice to have the flexibility of time for sure, but at the same time, the longer I take to write/draw, the less money I make.

I wrote two additional pages last night. I didn't start until almost 10pm, and wrote for about a hour before going to bed. I'm happy with what I have written so far, but I would like to be faster. Perhaps with time and repetition, I'll get the speed I need to be successful.

Believe me, I have no delusions of how deadlines and time work with drawing comics. I know it is hard work, and if you want to make money, you have to produce output; a lot of output. I may be delusional in thinking that I can pull this off and still have a life, but not about the hard work. I've heard all the stories. It's tough when you know you have to go to your "real" job for 8am the next morning, so I hesitate to stay up late. The real job is my bread and butter.

Sure, time might seem flexible now, but my publisher wants to get first issues out in January. And, I could be wrong, but I think he wants to do monthly (though I am going to try to convince him for every 6 weeks, unless he gets me help). So, come December, I mean, shouldn't we have a few issues in the can before the first issue even comes out, to ensure timely release dates? Nothing, and I mean nothing pisses off stores and customers more than late comics. Maybe Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image and other larger publishers can get away with it and fans just grumble a little, but for a new publisher just coming out of the gates, with no well known creative talent, no way. Once you lose that confidence from the store owners, you're done. At least, this is my humble opinion.

Just because you offer something to people, doesn't mean they will buy it. You need their trust, their support, and their willingness to give you some of their own hard-earned money. It's a tough industry. Especially done on the cuff.

Update again tomorrow.

Day 2

So, I did it. I sat down at 8:30pm last night and started writing the script, based off of the short story my publisher provided. I only got threw a few pages, but granted I literally was given the go-ahead yesterday to start producing the book. So, my point being that I haven't given the story much thought outside of some cool scenes or quotes. Nothing sequential. So, when I hit a mind block, or writer's block I guess, at 10:30pm, I closed MS Word, and left it alone until the next day (which is tonight). As I said before, I'm trying a schedule of 8:30pm-11:30pm each night during the week.

Ironically, I thought of a new scene last night as I was going to sleep. The story takes place in the future, a few centuries from now, so I am trying to make up situations that will better acquaint the reader to the future society presented in the book. Fun fun. :)

Now on to Day 2. Hopefully I'll get at least five pages scripted out. That would be good. Like I said, I want a finished draft out the door and off to my publisher by this Sunday night. Chances are there will be changes or edits, but hoping everything is great and I can start drawing Monday night. We'll see.

Day 1

Today, I was given the perverbial green light to begin production on a comic book for an undisclosed publisher (new company), for an undisclosed project. Looks like they want to get the book on the stands in January 2012. Okay. That is plenty of time. At least I hope it is. I'll know real quick if I am in over my head.

A little background on me. My name is Jason, and I am married to a wonderful woman named Clarissa. We are expecting our first child in November. I have a full-time job working in the printing industry as a District Manager. I decided to get a part-time job to bring in extra money.

I graduated from the Academy of Art University in 2003 with a major in Illustration. Since the age of 11, I've dreamed, or obsessed (might be a little more appropriate) of being a "comic book artist". Long story short: went to college, found out I wasn't the best but actually far from it by leagues, got discouraged, gave up, still managed to graduate, got a job not related to art, etc etc. Now I am 33 years old, and, for some reason, someone threw me a bone and awarded me an actual paid comic book artist gig. Not only that, it pays well for a brand new artist with no professional experience.

Not sure how this happened. Well, actually, I do know. I just answered an ad on Craigslist. I was looking for a part-time job, happened across an ad for local comic book guys, answered it thinking "what do I have to loose?" Somehow got it. This was about a month ago or so. Actually, maybe closer to 3.5 weeks ago. Something like that.

Anyway, today I spoke to my editor/publisher/owner and he said to run with a project he wanted me to do. He provided me with an eleven page, detailed plot/short story, which I will create a script out of, and draw 20-25 pages of art. Letter it. Hand it in. Get paid. God, I hope it is that easy.

We'll see. I hear comic book guys go on and on about staying up well past midnight, working 12 hour days, and still not meeting deadlines. Then, I think of Jack Kirby and how he drew 80 pages in a single month, month after month after month. Then I think I can do it. My plan is to devote 25 hours a week to the comic book, and hopefully get at least 5 pages done per week. Pencils and inks. So, within a month, I should have 20 pages done, at least.

Work from 8:30-11:30 each night during the week, and 5 hours each on Saturday and Sunday = 25 hours. Therefore I will still get enough sleep each night, and I won't wreck my free time to complete oblivion.

So, day 1, start scripting out the comic book. I'm hoping to get this done this week, and start drawing as early as next Monday.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'll post again tomorrow.