The People’s Publisher

So, how about that last post, huh? That sure got people talking. A couple people, anyway. And the question remains: What lettering approach did the creators of BLACK JACK O’BREEN and I finally decide on?

Well, you’ll have to read the book to find that one out. Ain’t I a stinker?

One more quick lettering thing before I move on–here’s a page from Stephen Cmelak’s KNIGHTCAP: NOVEMBER’S SONG, drawn and lettered by the incomparable John Keane. John’s got a bit of a weird sense of humour, sometimes. He realized there was something off-kilter about panel 2, and he left it this way anyway…

Yep, that dude’s butt is screaming.

John agreed to change the placement of the balloon tail in that panel, but there was a sadness in his voice as he agreed to do it, because more than any artist I know, John likes a good screaming butt gag. Who doesn’t, really?

Moving on. While the responses to last week’s post were all interesting, the one that’s stuck with me was this comment, from Mariathedreamer: “I think its (sic) a mistake to underestimate even the newer comic reader and certainly not the best strategy to cater to that newby reader.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I read it. I wouldn’t take any issue with it at all if the subject under discussion was, say, creating depth of character, or an intricate plot. Those are things editors or the companies they represent have been known to stifle, on occasion, something I believe is disrespectful to readers and creators both.

But that wasn’t what was under discussion–what we were talking about was placing word balloons in such a way that any English-speaking reader would intuitively know which one to read first, while retaining the storytelling flow and obscuring the least, or the least important aspects of the art.

And when it comes to that, I actually think that, yes, the best strategy IS to cater to the newbie reader.

Let’s say for the moment that my call on the lettering was correct for the reasons I believe it was correct (I know some of you disagree, but let’s pretend): it’s the optimal placement to allow a new reader to comfortably read the dialogue while taking in and appreciating the visual elements of the piece.

In that case, one could argue that my wanting that placement was an attempt to cater to the newbie reader. What I don’t see is why that would be a problem.

Is a veteran comic reader going to throw down the comic in disgust on seeing my pandering to someone who isn’t used to reading panel by panel? The dialogue’s identical. The only possible difference is the perceived cadence of the conversation–something that relies largely on the perspective of the reader and which I’m not convinced is controllable via balloon placement in any but the most extreme circumstances.

So I just made it easier for a new reader to enjoy the comic I edited, and I can’t imagine doing so lost me any long-time comic readers. I can’t imagine many long-time comic readers would give such a balloon placement much thought at all. Nor should they. The only time an average comic reader–whose primary requirement of a comic is that it be entertaining or otherwise worth the time and cost–will notice a balloon placement is if it isn’t working.

There are a lot more people who aren’t used to reading comics than are. If it doesn’t interfere with the storytelling goals of the creators, why not make a book as readable for them as possible?

As for the perils of underestimating the newer reader: when it comes to creating an accessible reading experience (strictly in the formal sense of, you know, actually being able to read the dialogue in the correct order without having to reread panels), I believe the mistake would be–no, I believe a recurring mistake among many comics editors today IS–to overestimate them.

Several years ago, I got to see comedian Steven Wright perform live in a theatre that seated around six hundred people. In the middle of the show, he told a joke. Well, he told jokes all the way through the show, but this joke landed differently than any of the other ones. I don’t remember the set-up or the punchline; all I remember is that it hinged on the audience knowing that French Post-Impressionist painter Henri de Toulous-Lautrec was short.

At no point during the joke did Wright actually mention Toulouse-Lautrec’s stature. As it happens, I was aware of this trivial tidbit of information. I got the joke, thought it was funny, and howled with laughter…

…Laughter that echoed through a hall that was otherwise dead silent. As far as I could tell, I was the one person in that 600 watching who understood why what Wright had said was funny.

As I see it, one of two things happened on that particular night with that particular joke. Either:

1) Wright overestimated his audience’s knowledge of French Post-Impressionist painters, and the joke failed because of it, or

2) Wright knew not many people would know about TL’s height, and told the joke anyway. Maybe because he thought it was funny, maybe because he wanted to reward those few audience members who’d know what he was talking about. Doesn’t really matter. It especially doesn’t matter to me, because I got the joke.

This means that either the joke failed (because it overestimated the audience) or it succeeded on its own terms, but those terms were created with a different motivation than comedians usually have with their jokes (to get the biggest laugh possible.)

Some comic creators might want to make a book so formally obscure that only a certain kind of reader will be able to follow it. I’d argue that James Turner’s NIL and REX LIBRIS have that sort of quality, as well as much of Dave Sim’s later CEREBUS work and now glamourpuss. Hell, I think some could lump THE HOLIDAY MEN in there.

If Mark and Jessica came to me and said, “Andrew, we don’t just want the books we produce to be solid pieces of entertainment, we want to make sure it’s not going to entertain a non-comics reader,” well, the first thing I’d do is tweak the lettering to make it harder for the non-comic reader to follow.

Actually, that’s not true. The first thing I’d do is try to contain my immediate negative reaction to the idea and ask why they’d want to do that.

I can’t imagine why a company that’s building a community around work that’s not in the traditional North American comic format or genre would want to risk alienating any potential new comics fan. There’s no readers to gain in such a move, and plenty to lose.

So, again strictly on a reading accessibility level, I see no harm in underestimating the potential readership. I do, however, see a great risk in overestimating the ability of non-comics readers to intuitively grasp what long-time North American comic readers have been trained to accept as natural. And I see my own annoyance when I as a reader encounter lettering that hasn’t been given proper consideration in regards to any reader, new or old alike. It’s exactly that sort of annoyance that I want to avoid with my Z2H projects.

Hey, who put this soapbox here? Never mind, here’s some BLACK JACK O’BREEN pencils from Frank Grau, Jr.:

Ever upward, heroes, ever upward.

Foley

The end is nigh for Hero High. Diego has finished all 22 pages of pencils and inks now, (well one more page of inks to go) and just has to fill in the colours now. It’s exciting to see all of the blacks down and finalized, and it is easy to imagine how great it is going to look when it is finished. There really aren’t many titles out there that are this tight, in terms of both story content and artwork, that are marketed to a younger audience so I have to say I’m quite psyched to be part of this project.

Rip Current also is looking very promising, with some very nice inks by Christian this week. Patricio has close to 20 pages pencilled and the inks and colours are close behind. This book has some really richly detailed artwork reminiscent of some of the best European comics and Anime.

Zeros 2 Hero’s latest title Mind Crimes got off to aslightly delayed start, due to the writer, Nick Andreychuk’s new baby’s birth coinciding with Mind Crime’s win the final round of Comic Creation Nation (Congratulations Nick!), but it beginning to come together as the art team begins to tackle this story with style. A sci -fi/ noir thriller, Mind Crimes also takes place in a dystopian, not so distant future. Pencils and inks will be provided by Sidney G. Lima, Here’s the pinup.

Hey Guys,

After a few hiccups, everything is moving great. We’ve got the cover done for McElroy, and I will show you that as soon as I get to go ahead. Age of Heroes is coming along great with the letters done on our first page, and the layouts for the first bunch of pages are looking great. Minus One has an amazing pinup that is being inked right now, and Ronn is hard at work doing layouts. Alma’s team is working on the pinup, and, based upon the rough layout, it’s gonna be great.

I wish I could upload some pics for you, but I’m still on “vacation” out in BC, and my laptop would likely explode due to the awesomeness.

Later,

j

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink…. well maybe just a drop. Well, the team is assembled, the vision has been established and things are starting to get rolling on our latest effort Rip Current. Written by Carmen Wright, Rip Current tells the story of a dystopian future in which most of the land masses on the planet have become submerged under water. In this episode, Lucia Ribeiro’s predictable routine, flying patrol around her island fortress, Cascadia, is forever changed when she comes face-to-face with a mysteriously exotic man swimming deep under the ocean. With ever-increasing raids from neighbouring fortress, Cordova, her mother’s political manoeuvrings and the arrival of new guy in her all-female patrol squad crushing in from all directions, Lucia must decide how far she’s willing to go in order to find this mystery man and what she’ll do when she does.
Here’s some of the character sketches provided by Patricio Plaza, who will be pencilling the story.

The black lines will be inked by Christian Major, AKA Fetternity. The colours will be provided by Aya Ikeda-Barry, Ed Brisson will be lettering Rip Current and I, Alex Cieslik will be editing. Stay tooned for more updates as things progress

I have a confession to make. I think about physics sometimes. I know this probably seems strange, but I was briefly a physics major in university.  I was pondering the idea of light behaving like a particle and a wave at the same time specifically in the ”Two-slit, light particle interference experiment . It occurred to me that if light particles were shaped like jellybeans, and spun rapidly, they might produce phenomena that mimicked both electrons and wave radiation. Does the possibility of light particles being shaped like jellybeans explain the quantum effect? What do you think?

Hero High continues to come together rapidly this week. Diego has pencilled over half of the book, and he continues to amaze us all with his imaginative (and speedy) rendering. Here’s a taste…

.

Well, I have finally set Diego free now that the art is all finished.  Chris is lettering the pages, and it should be finished sometime next week. The book looks great, and I am really happy with what we accomplished.

 I am now working with Greg on “Age of Heroes”.  We are choosing an artist, and we should have some art to show you by next week.  Right now we are just going over the script and thumbnailing it out.

 Until next week,

 j

Howdy and hello readers. I am pleased to present the first in a series of interviews with members of the ReBoot Creative Team.

First up, we have Amazing Ale Aragon. I sent him a series of questions and his candid replies offer unique insights into the world of this very talented artist.

1- Ale, please tell the reading audience your full name and family background.

My name is Alejandro Aragón.

I’m the second of three sons. I was raised in a middle class environment. I never suffered any needs, nor did I live with many comforts. I mean, I come from a working family, who built his present with a lot of hard work and sacrifice (like most of the families in Argentina).

I´ve been living with my girlfriend for almost 4 years now, and with my child “Alma” (who is actually my dog)

2- Where do you live (country, state, town. Population? Neighbors?)?

I live in Argentina, in a very small city (I don’t even think you´ll find it on a map) named Fray Luis Beltrán, near Rosario (the second most important city in my country), in Santa Fe.

There are around 16000 inhabitants in my city. It´s a really quiet place to live (maybe TOO QUIET) So, in my free time, I’m generally in Rosario visiting friends, also comic book artists or just… walking around.

3- When did you start drawing comics?

I was really young, when I drew my first page. Maybe around 6 or 7 years. I do remember drawing on my primary school notebook. There´s a funny thing about this story, because, I had no sequence sense, there was no sense between one picture and another… so, as a result, there was a page with six panels and no sense at all.

I have always been sort of a lonely guy, and that behavior got bigger, when I moved from my city, around 11. There I was, with no friends in Fray Luis Beltrán, and in a neighborhood full of old people! Shit… In that time, the art was my way to get away from the sadness. I was drawing all day long. I was drawing around 8 or 10 hours (age 11 or 12) laying in my bed all day and I gain like 10 kilos (22 pounds) in two months

Then, I started high school, so, I was reconnected with the outside world, sports, and real people. ^_^

4- Who are your major artistic influences (comics, or art in general)?

Well… I think I´ve been influenced by thousands of artists. Right now, I don’t have much time to read, but a few years back, I was a compulsive comic book buyer… and I think all the influences get settled, in the brain, in a conscious or unconscious . It would be a better answer if I divide this in two different phases: My adolescence and my maturity. The first stage is when it hits you with a bigger passion and fanaticism about some things. This was the only moment of my life when I became a huge fan of a series, and that was PITT and a little less, SPAWN. Dale Keown y Greg Capullo were my heroes, those days.

Later on, when you read the comic, beyond the “pretty picture”, I´ve taken new masters, such as Eduardo Risso, Marcelo Frusín, Leandro Fernandez, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola and Jae Lee.

5- Did you attend art school? If yes where, if not, where did you get training?

I went to no school of art. When I was 15 I started and finished a 12 month mail course ^_^. Alter that, almost with 20 years old, I started to draw in Rosario, with a teacher named Esteban Tolj. I stayed there for a year. Later on, when I finished university, I received my major degree in Psychology (that´s another long story), right there I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life as a comic artist, so I spent many many hours, with my ass nailed to the bench, drawing, for 8 to 10 hours, every day, even Sundays, until I´ve got my first payed job. Alter that, nothing could stop me. Now I m lucky enough to be able to make a living of it.

6- How have you enjoyed the experience of creating comics the Z2H way?

Good points/ Bad points?

The experience is… AMAZING. I love to work for Z2H and I would never go away. I´ll be eternally thankful to Matt Toner y Jessica Clark for the trust they lay on me and for picking me to draw two double pages of Zombies… back in March, 2007.

If I must say something is that Z2H, when working with clients, the revisions are… excessive ^_^ I´ve worked on many projects, with many editors and artists, who have some limits in a creative way, and a bigger tolerance. If you limit the creativity of and artists, you´re not letting him give 100% of himself. I agree with revisions, with the hope to improve the art. But sometimes, revisions are all about “I don’t like this” or “I´ll would never put it down that way”. Alter a certain quantity of revisions, you can get to feel kind of tired, because, doesn’t matter how hard you try, it is never enough. Anyways, I think it is better off to be prepared for everything, be strong, and wake up every day with energy to show that you know how to draw, you can draw, and that there´s a reason why you´re standing here.

The good stuff about Z2H are:

The professionalism. The contention. The respect. The disposition for always listening and helping work out troubles. The responsibility. The good money the pay ^_^ the good people they are.

7- Franco has done some excellent colours for your art. How did you two meet?

We met in a comic forum of Argentina. I was following his work, but we never talked. Someday, he told me how much he liked a cover for a horror comic, and our relation began there. I remember contacting him trough MSN, to check if he wanted to work on some of my stuffs, but he had no time. Nevertheless, we talked, during the nights. When I drew my first pin-up for Image Comics, “Strongarm #3”, Franco liked it so much, that he asked me if he could add some greys on it. The final work was EXCELLENT. Weeks later, he painted my first drawing of a character from “Hell Patrol” (a Visionary Comics issue, in which I drew around 6 pages) and when I saw it I said “woow… amazing!”… He didn´t just color the picture, he added some elements, that made it really awesome… From that day on, I learned that Franco is one of those artist, who not only does a great job, they also add some things, leaving a characteristic signatura in every piece of art they´re involved in…

Three weeks later we entered the Z2H contest, about ReBoot.

Franco is the best colorist I know, and is going to be one of the best in the whole world. No doubt about it.

8- If you could work on any comic book/project of your choice, what would it be?

I cannot die, without drawing a Pitt issue… and a Spawn issue too^_^ I no longer follow the series, but I have to accomplish this dream, that got stuck in me since my youth. It would be a dream to work with Paul Jenkins, Neil Gaiman or Grant Morrison.

In a more personal way, I would like to work and draw in the Thriller genre, with dark tones, where I can play with many elements for creating environments or climax…. I love to use black (obviously I didn’t do so in ReBoot cuz I thought there was another air, another vibe, in the series, besides, talking with Franco, he felt more comfortable putting the lights on the scene. That´s the reason why in my pencil there are almost no shades)

Actually, any story is welcome, I know I’m capable of adapting to any kind of genre.

9- Now that the ReBoot pencils are all finished, what would you say was the most challenging page to do? Why?

Every single one of them! ^_^

I think, the harder part, was the first page (page X) In my case, I always find the beginning kinda hard to do, but as I go drawing along, I’m raising the level, page after page. Many artists begin with a great level, but alter that, for getting tired or whatsoever, the next pages looses quality in huge amounts. Well, I’m the opposite of that. I started really uptight, with many revisions and corrections. After 4 or 5 pages, I wasn’t happy with the final result of my work. It was tough, but, like many other times in my life, the obstacles cannot stop me, they only make me stronger, I CAME back with everything, with more energy, and I raised the level of quality, step by step…. I started to feel “pressure free” alter the first 17 pages ^_^ that was the point when I could relax, think and let the art flow from inside out, and to give 100% of my level… Was a hard job, but, I have no doubt, I’m improving a lot, I know I’m much better now, than I was two months ago. I grew up a lot, thanks to this team

10- What projects do you have scheduled for the future?

Well, in this profession, there´s not such thing as “certain” (unless you sign a contract for a 6 to 12 issue, which is not my case) because, things, tend to change. Currently, I’m finishing a horror comic, I must be 5 pages from ending it, and it may be published this year. I´ve got two more projects to be approved by editors. I’m also working with Josh, a script writer from San Diego, with many projects on track… He´s a really talented writer.

Finally, to conclude, I would like to add, that in my future, Z2H, is totally included. They know where to find me and what can I give to them.

Next Week: Professor WhizzyWig

This week, all the editors here at Z2H located in the scenic downtown eastside of Vancouvertown have decided to create posts based on a theme: The process of creating a page of comic art the Z2H way.

For the purposes of demonstrating the Comic Creation Nation process I will be using art samples from the ReBoot comic that is nearing completion. For even more info on that fine project (and to get the lowdown on that particular book’s process) please visit rebootcomic.zeros2heroes.com

In an ideal world (and things have been quite ideal lately) this is how we make Page X of a given book:

First, the editor is given an assignment. He/she researches the pitch on the Z2H website, then contacts the creator via email, introducing him/herself as an editor who will be working with them on their comic. A sample of available artists can also be sent to the creator at this time, where he/she can peruse the portfolios and choose the artist they feel could capture the mood/tone of their book. A phone/Skype/MSN mini-conference is then held where the editor explains the process that you all are currently reading. At this point the editor will ask the creator for a copy the latest version of the script.

Next, we read through the script at least three times to guarantee 100% comprehension. Then we create thumbnails of the panel layouts to ensure there is a good flow to the story, to figure out what pages face each other, if dialogue needs trimming, and to layout 2 page spreads. The thumbnails are created as bold blocks of panel layouts and uploaded to the dashboard. The creator looks at each layout, suggests revisions, and then re-formats the script to reflect exactly what the layouts detail.

The editor then sends a questionnaire to the creator called the Vision Document Template. The creator will answer the questions as thoroughly as possible: What is the name of the book? Please list all important characters. What are the cultural influences you see in the book you have created? etc…

The editor then formats the responses into the Vision Document proper which can be as short as three pages, or as many as twenty. This is then submitted to the creator. Another conference is held between editor and creator to make sure the Vision Document contains all the pertinent information. Once the document is approved, it is then sent to the various members of the art team along with the script.

A Creative Conference is then held between the editor and the members of the art team (generally the penciler, inker and colourist) to ensure they understand the Vision Document and the script. Once the art team has been fully briefed on the book, it’s characters, plot, mood, tone, etc then we are ready to create a pinup of the main character. Essentially the pinup follows the same process as Page X.

The penciler uploads to the dashboard a couple of versions of the page.

The editor makes them visible to the client/creator who then chooses the one they like, or suggests revisions. Generally we try and limit revisions to two per page, but Page X (because it is designed to exemplify the mood and tone of the book as a whole) might need a few more.

Once a rough has been approved, the penciler creates tight pencils and uploads those to the dashboard. Once again the client/creator has input, and revisions (if needed) are communicated back to the penciler through the dashboard. If there are no changes to be made, then the pencils are uploaded as high resolution tiff files to an art storage site by the penciler.

The inker is then notified of the pencils being available, and he/she renders inks (so far all digital) on top of the pencils. Like so:

Once again the process of communication is relayed back to the creator, who suggests revisions, who makes the changes, then uploads the finished art to the storage, which is then downloaded by the colourist who layers colours like this:

Finally, the letterer is told Page X is ready and he/she downloads the high resolution art for lettering. A low resolution version is uploaded to the dashboard, revisions are suggested and implemented.

Then we can say the page is done, twenty-one more to go!

Good Night!

Julian

Welcome to the blog for the Mix part 6. Hey that rhymes.

 I’m writing this from La Ventana Mexico, and I probably should be out on the water right now, the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, but when ya gotta blog, ya gotta blog. Hey it could be worse I know. I went to the circus last night in La Paz, and ended up “volunteering” to be the assistant for the knife throwing act. When I say volunteer I mean I was dragged into the ring by clowns. I’m not kidding. Clowns are intimidating. Luckily he was a very talented knife thrower, and I escaped without injury.

This week I asked the writer for The Mix, what his thoughts and observations were about this process of making these comics, so I should be able to share someof those insights with all of you next week. It is sure to be enlightening, and I think he must be excited to see the story coming to life as a comic, and I imagine that he is feeling pretty good about how things have been developing so far. I know I am.

We have had some really great pencils coming in , too many to show you at this time, but we are close to the halfway mark now on those. We have a couple of pages of the inks completed, and those look pretty great too. It seems like Miguel is really finding his stride now, and I really like the look of his new pages alot, really tight line work, and his character’s expressions are bang on. There has been very few revisions necessary, and I am feeling really lucky to be working with someone who seems to nail it on the first try almost every time.

The only frustrating part of the process so far has been trying to keep everything on schedule, and meet deadlines. Whenever one is collaborating on a project, staying on top of the work, and making sure it is consistently finished on time is crucial, because the team is only as fat as the slowest individual. Let’s face it, life has a way of intruding on the best laid plans, and the best intentions can be waylaid so easily. So far, things have not happened quite perfectly for this team, some of the deadlines had to be pushed back for various reasons, but, knock wood. that seems to be past now.