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As a child, my first answer to "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was a cartoonist. Once I realized how much bullshit that required, I said "gently caress that! Lets go with comic books." And although I've never really taken any steps to make this a reality, I've held on to that idea ever since. I hesitate to call myself an artist, because I don't really produce much art. However, I compulsively doodle on anything resembling a blank surface and have made small comic strips for friends illustrating obnoxious customers at my various jobs, chronicling my early-twenties emo woes, and so so many set ups for bad puns. I could comfortably make a dumb webcomic, but that's not what I want. In high school, I started making up a comic story that was identical to every plot made up by a teenage boy who was way too obsessed with bad anime and Final Fantasy VII. Though most of that was cringe worthy in hindsight, there were a couple elements that stuck with me and some new ideas blossomed and grew. About 4-5 years ago, I got with some friends to help make this comic idea a reality. Which turned out to be a lot of talk and overly confident goals. The project died before the pen ever touched paper. But the story in my head lived on and flourished. And maybe it's because I'm a couple months away from hitting 30 with nothing to show for it, but I've decided to actually, seriously, super for realsies, make this poo poo happen. [needless back story over] A few close friends and I have started working on a comic book, recently. I was never expecting this to be easy, but now I have a realistic idea of how much time and effort this will take. No one is expecting to make bank on this project. It is purely a labor of love. But, ultimately, I would like to sell it to the public. Since this is the first time I've attempted anything like this, I would love to hear any advice from someone who has worked on comic books professionally or recreationally. As I work on it more and more, several technical questions start popping up. Such as:
And again, any and all advice is welcome. I'd love to hear your suggestions and cautionary tales. Desrever fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Feb 1, 2015 |
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Feb 1, 2015 20:52
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 04:54 |
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There's the Making Comics thread in Creative Convention sbf.
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Feb 2, 2015 02:00
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DON'T DO IT.
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Feb 2, 2015 02:24
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Desrever posted:In high school, I started making up a comic story that was identical to every plot made up by a teenage boy who was way too obsessed with bad anime and Final Fantasy VII Well I have good news for you, because many people on the internet are big fans of bad anime and Final Fantasy VII and that's pretty much normal for webcomics
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Feb 2, 2015 02:45
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Desrever posted:
That all depends. There are a couple of ways you could go about distribution. You could take the first issue of your comic to your local comic stores and see if they will sell your book for commission. This is probably the easiest route, as a number of comic stores like to have some books produced by local talent. My stores has a whole section dedicated to local, independent books. The other way is to make a pitch to a variety of comic publishers. Find out what their submission guidelines are and send out as many as you can. Often, a pitch will include a story synopsis and around 5 completed pages. Prepare to be rejected a lot. quote:
Getting your book picked up by someone like Image is far more cost effective, but also incredibly unlikely. If you're going to print it yourself, there are places like RA Comics Direct and KA-BLAM that can print the books for you. With the book I'm currently working on, we've had no problems with KA-BLAM, and the books looked great, but a friend of mine started having problems with them and switched to RA. His books came way later than expected and had some staining when they arrive. I guess KA-BLAM could be hit or miss. quote:
It's up to you, really. If you do have mature content, just make sure to put a label on the cover that it's an adult book if you're printing and distributing it yourself. quote:
I have no idea what this means. The content should probably take priority over everything else, unless you want to go for a quantity over quality thing. If you're talking about how many pages each issue should be, again, that's up to you. Most comics are 22-24 pages, not including ads. Some are a bit bigger than that. quote:
Yes. Absolutely anyone can set up a webcomic on one of the many webcomic hosting websites. It's very easy and is probably the best way for you to start out. Having a web presence is a great way to build a fan base and advertise your book. quote:
If you want a better artist to draw your comic, be prepared to pay them a decent wage. So many people want an artist to draw their comic for them for $5 per page and that's simply not feasible for most people. One option is to Kickstarter your book. The comic I am currently working on (as a colourist) was originally pitched to a bunch of different comic companies who didn't pick it up. The first issue was then Kickstarted. When the companies still didn't want to pick it up after seeing a completed issue, the next several issues of the mini series was Kickstarted as well and that will eventually come out as a trade paperback. It's really a labor of love for the writer and the Kickstarter was just so the artist and I could be decently paid for our work. quote:
I can't answer this one, so you should probably ask a professional. From what little I know, you'd probably have to reach some sort of minimum threshold of income to need to declare yourself a business. My suggestion would be to set yourself up with a webcomic and eventually try to get into some local conventions (with a buddy to split the table costs). At a convention, you can promote your comic with bookmarks or printed comics and interact with comic fans and other comic creators. The writer of my comic sent me some copies of the book and I've sold some of them at local conventions, some of them to people who just really want to support local creators and some to people who just thought the comic sounded awesome. Feel free to ask questions in the Making Comics thread in Creative Convention. That's what the thread is there for!
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Feb 2, 2015 03:51
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Don't quit your day job.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:09
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 04:54 |
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Liquid Communism posted:Don't quit your day job. Oh, I'm going to. But not because of a comic. This is all extremely helpful. Thanks for the insight. I checked A/T and BSS, but completely blanked on checking CC. I thought it was odd that I hadn't come across similar threads. Scrambled eggs all over my face... what is a boy to do... Closing the thread and heading there. Thanks again for the help. Even the "Don't do it!" comment. Thats still valid.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:32
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