The People’s Publisher

  Hello and welcome to what might very well be the final posting on the blog for The Mix, by Ian Goodwillie.

We are very close to finishing The Mix, I am hoping before Valentine’s day it will all be wrapped up. All of the pencils and inks are completed and more than half of the pages are coloured. 

      Now that the pencils are done, Ian Sokoliwski has been working like mad to put the finishing touches on the artwork for the book. Ian’s task has been to both complete the inks and all of the colouring on the finished pages, so he is responsible for the final look of the comic pages for The Mix.

 Ian used a muted, low contrast palette, and he acheives a remarkable range of tones which come off as rich and varied without being too bright. This really enhances the dark mood of the story, and lets the reader know that the action is taking place at dusk, as the colours reflect sunlight filtering through the polluted atmosphere of New Unity.

 Both the “inks” and colours are created digitally, though we still speak of the black lines which outline the forms in a comic as “inks”, because many artists still lay the blacks down with india ink and scan the page even if the book is to be coloured digitally. Here’s another great page.

Hey all,

As mentioned last week, we have moved to a new artist, John Daniel Bradford, on the Gustav Hayes beta book.

John Daniel Bradford’s work can be found on the Z2H galleries. I am happily impressed with Bradford’s work, speed and communication which have all been top notch. We are moving along very well!

Here is the new pin-up of Gustav Hayes…

Also I had mentioned showing more of the steps to development in a comment recently on Josh’s post. So here is a shot of the Page X script and inks (Bradford works straight to inks) so anyone who is familiar with the magazine Write Now will notice how this is laid out…

Now we are working on getting page X colored and lettered. Once those are done, I will post them up so everyone can see all the steps to the process.

Im back in Vancouver again, the greatest place on earth if you can believe the license plates, and it’s feeling pretty chilly. We have had a lot of  progress on the book this week. It looks like the pencils are all finished and posted to the dashboard. This must be a relief to Miguel, as he has really been working hard, usually completing a page per day or more over the last three weeks. As well, each page was done right the first time. Out of the whole comic I have only had to have two revisions done to pages,, and each time he brought something totally fresh and dynamic to the table.  It has been great working with such a talented, and professional artist.The pencils are the foundation of the comic book, as they will dictate where the black lines will go, (provided by the inker, of course). If the art does not look good at the pencil stage, the most talented inker and colorist will not be able to make it look good. You cannot polish a turd, and without a solid foundation, clear and correct pencils, you cannot have a good comic page. FOR EXAMPLE: Good looking pencils, good looking Inks.The inks and colours for this project have been provided by Ian Sokoliwski, and he has been impressing everyone with the super high quality and speed providing his pages for this comic.Ian has finished over three quarters of the inking, I believe we are at page 18 of 22, and the first 5 pages have already been colored as well.Here as promised is an example of one of the finished pages.  

It’s been a couple of weeks since I gave you an update on what has been happening with the Bros McElroy. Diego has been working his tail off, and we have pretty much finished the book. We are now inking up a storm, and will shortly be coloring it.

I am a little suprised at the amount of time it is taking to complete the book, as I have not had to have a client sign off on each stage of the process in previous books I have edited. Despite the slowdown, this is ensuring that the writer is getting exactly what they want, and their story is being portrayed exactly how they envisioned it.

I am looking forward to working with the various winners of Comic Creation Nation. I have been lurking around the boards, and have read quite a few proposals. There are quite a few good ones out there.

Keep up the good work guys!

j

Hiya all,

I know this is not really beta book material but I wanted to give a shout out and say congratulations to Jason Cook for being the winner for Comic Creation Nation. Jason’s pitch for Blake Undying won week one voting!

More here:
http://www.zeros2heroes.com/content/view/1983/221/

Keeping astride of all that is going on in this wacky world is enough to make one’s head spin. And so it is with my noggin, spinning furiously and around and around… Not to mention the fever that I have ravaging my clammy body. Ugh! I’m running a fever that just won’t quit! This is day three, and I’m getting weaker. From bone shattering chills, to sweat-pouring hot flashes. I couldn’t even sit up yesterday which is why I’m posting today. I’m slightly better (the fever has dropped a degree) but I’m still kinda shaky.

The Beta Books have taught us a lot about the process of creating comics the Z2H way. For instance, when one artist (such as Diego) does all the work of pencils, inks and colours, we can assume that the process is probably going to take twice as long. When an artist is exhibiting a lack of communication at the start of the project, then he or she will have to be replaced following a warning. We’ve said it all along: Communication is key.

Well, this will be short blog as I’m feeling kinda dizzy and I have a ton of work to catch up on. Needless to say things are chugging along quite nicely here at Z2H and in the coming weeks I will be revealing to you the exciting new project I will be undertaking.

TTFN,

Julian

OaUJHasdjkaLKJDfklj… Okay… hi everyone… I am tryinsdklnfkl trying to send out this post. “Seems that the Zomboids have gotten loose and they are… oh gawds, she was just sixty-two!” “AGGH… my eyes…” so work on Gustav Hayes has hit a bit of a snag… “No no! They’re chewing on me! CHEWING ON ME!” CIGHJKr… communications with the editoSDFHJKNSDFciler hit an all time low and due to LAK%$&@se our deadlines began to slip out of control.. “They are breaking through, everyone grab what you can and…” asjkaSDF JHd…

Alright. Enough with the fun. Unfortunately Gustav Hayes had an issue with the penciler Mauro which impacted the deadlines. The crucial issue was communication. Without proper communication while working virtually it is like working in the dark. We did not know when work was going to be done, when to expect work and this put undo stress and frustrations on everyone. A decision was made to go in a new direction. Everyone was informed and talks were held with the writer / creator on a new visual look and feel for the book. So now we are off into a bold new direction… well okay maybe not that new, we are moving forward with a new artist and once all the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted and we have something to show - I will.

Same Gustav time next week, same Gustav channel… I mean blog… (I really need to stop watching those old Batman TV shows)!

I can’t believe I have already been in La Ventana, Mexico for a week. The weather has been pretty consistently good on the water. Baja Joes and the rest of the town are booked up solid for the kite board race and competition scheduled for this weekend.

It’s pretty great to be able to keep working on the Mix while travelling, and things are really coming together quickly. We now have most of the book pencilled and the inks and colors are almost half done too. The dashboard seems to be working well, and there have been very few problems of late.

For the writer and the editor both, much of the work in making a comic this way comes at the beginning of the process. Making the script fit into the comic book format can be challenging, and making sure that it works well at this stage is crucial, so that revisions later on are kept to a minimum. It is not possible to simply put a film script together with PANEL1 replacing SCENE1.

Because the comic page is a static image, motion and action, two of the main elements of a dynamic story must be broken down into: before, and after; or during, and after etc. in order to be read effectively. There are many ways to do this, and keeping things interesting usually involves using more than one way to show an action so that it doesn’t feel too static and predictable. The author and editor will collaborate at this stage, making thumbnails and revisions, to see what is working, and what isn’t. Once this part of the job is finished and the script is finished, the art team must then go to work and bring the script to life with dynamic images to illustrate and complement the written word.

This week, as promised Ian Goodwillie, the author of the mix has sent some of his thoughts and impressions about the process of making a comic with Z2H and I would like to share those with you now:

“As someone who has been involved in a variety of creative processes, I
have found work on a comic book in this fashion interesting. Naturally, it
is weird working with people via the Dashboard you haven’t met in person
but I got used to that quickly. The steps are key to the process. From the
vision document to Page X to creating pages of the actual book, it is
about the steps of taking the vision of people new to the project and
matching it up with the vision of the creator.

Page X is the first time I could feel everything coming together. It was
the first page that was fully scripted, inked and colored. I was amazed by
how close it was to what I had been picturing. After that, it has been
interesting to go to the Dashboard and see what new developments have been
put up. It’s actually been quite exciting.

I can’t wait to see how everything looks when it’s done… ”

So there you have it, the straight goods from a writer who has seen his vision come to life page by page over the last month. Next week I promise to have some of the artwork to show on the blog here. Until then, Buenas Noches.

Alex

The Bros. McElroy is moving right along, so I thought I would take the time to update an article I had written earlier to give you insight into what my process is as a writer, and what I look for as an editor.

You’ve got a great idea, wonderful characters, a mcguffin, and a plot is starting to formulate in your head. How do you go from an idea to script? An outline is the tool for the job. Some writers don’t use an outline, and after years of sellable writing under your belt, you may not need to either, but you may find that without one, you will end up either writing yourself into a corner, or finding your story nowhere near what you wanted it to be. Lots of writers do it differently, but I’m going to let you in on how I do it. My method was created through the amalgamation of a few techniques, picking and choosing what I liked and assimilating them into my repertoire.

Go out and buy some ruled index cards. I would recommend the 4″x6″ size, although it’s up to you. I always stock up in September (along with my note and sketch books) during back to school sales. You will likely want start with around 100 of them. Also go out and get a recipe or coupon organizer, and make sure that it fits whatever size cards you purchased. You will want one that has at least 5 sections, but the more the better. Also make sure that the organizer covers the cards totally, protecting them from spills and other mishaps. Some organizers come with labels to name each section. If yours does, here is what I would start out with:

Characters
World
Props
Plot
Questions

Done? Good. Now let’s get started.

Grab an index card, and on the ruled side write the name of one of your characters. Underneath, fill in some of their vitals, such as eye and hair color, height, weight, nationality, or anything else you may think is important. If they are a superhero, put down his alias, powers, where his hideout is, and even the names of some of his rogue gallery. You can reference other cards you may have. For example, if you were creating a card for Batman, you could put World: Batcave or Prop: Batmobile on it. Repeat this for your entire main and supporting cast. If you run out of room, grab a new card, and just label them 1 and 2. Treat your supporting cast with just as much care and thought as you do your main one. Flat characters (even red-shirts) can ruin your book as much as having your 3 yr old nephew draw it. The opposite side of your card should be blank, giving you the perfect opportunity to doodle a little character sketch. It doesn’t have to be pretty as you’re the only one who is going to see it, but it can give you an overall impression of what your character should look like. Your other choice is to find a printer that can print on the cards, and find reference pictures on the net. Is your character like Angelina Jolie in Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Put a picture of her on the back. Cut pictures out of magazines and glue them on if you have to. Take all your characters and put them in the Characters section of your organizer.

Grab a fresh card. Write down the name of an important location within your story. Using the example of Batman again, I would create a card for Wayne Manor, the Batcave, Gotham City Police Headquarters, The Joker’s hideout, and the Gotham Toy Museum (where the crime will happen). Put down everything important you will need to know about these locations, such as where they are located, physical description, and why they are important to the story. You can also reference other cards like you did with your characters. Once again, the blank side of the card gives you a great opportunity to put a little sketch on it, or reference photos from magazines or the net. Once you are done these, put them in the World section.

Props are anything your characters use or touch that is of importance. A generic prop does not need a card, but unique or important ones do. I include vehicles (batmobile, batwing, bat-mars rover), weapons (batarang, grappling line), accessories (bat-shark repellant), and such things as what the villain is trying to steal or manipulate (the world’s largest cotton candy machine). I would recommend referencing who or what uses the props somewhere on the card as well. Put a sketch on the back, and drop them in the Prop section.

Congratulations, you’re done the foundation. Now you can start crafting your outline. Grab some more cards and stack them in front of you. Start writing down ideas for scenes or panel progressions as they come to you. Don’t worry about the order just yet. Once you have a bunch finished, spread them out on a flat surface in front of you. Move them around and try to put them in some semblance of order. Move them around again and see if there is a better fit. Once you have them laid out how you like them, read over them. Do you find a scene gap between two of the cards that you think needs something to link the two? Grab another card and create that scene, then place it between the cards. Pretty soon you will have your entire series, novel, or story arc laid out in front of you. When you are content with the order, number your cards in pencil.

Now you can take your story, and break it up into sections, such as chapters or issues. While doing this, you may find that you have too much or too little to fill your requirement. Don’t try to force it or pad it. Can you extend or shrink your chapter or issue numbers? If you need to shrink it, can you combine two scenes, or create a new scene that can take the place of two? If you need to expand it, can you think of any more scenes that you can add to you story that won’t simply pad it, but contribute something meaningful? If you can’t, you should seriously consider shrinking it. Once you are content with the breakdown of your story, renumber your cards by issue/chapter and then scene number (i.e. book/chapter 1 scene 1). Now take your cards and put them in the Plot holder.

The questions section is something I heard about through Denny O’Neil. While you are writing or creating your cards, write down any questions that pop into your head about your story. Keep the questions out in front of you while you continue writing. This will ensure that you will answer them later on in the story refinement process. I also use this section to jot down ideas.

This is only one method you can use to lay the foundation for your story. In the end, use whatever works best for you. I prefer this method because it allows me to change stuff around on a whim while being able to revert it later. It also allows for portability. If I’m sitting at a diner and something I see triggers an idea for a scene, character, or prop, I pull out my organizer and pull out a fresh card.

I hope this helps someone out, and I can’t wait to read all the great stories on here. Next week I will talk about crafting a pitch that will help sell your idea to a publisher.

Cheers,

j