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So, we just launched our Kickstarter for Toronto Comics: Yonge at Heart, and in the hopes that this helps someone else, here's how we're marketing it: — Pre-marketing — Social Media For 30 days prior to the launch, we posted a daily piece of artwork and a countdown. We were able to significantly boost our Tweet impressions by about 10k, and gained an extra 100 Instagram followers. Tumblr and FB remains a wasteland of tumbleweed corpses. Approaching journalists. Two weeks before launch, we built a press package ( https://www.tocomix.com/press ) and fired it off to 46 different comic news sites and 31 podcasts. Of the sites that responded, we completed a number of email interviews. and helped prepare news releases to be released on launch day. Some sites did break the embargo date, and we’ve made notes to send them the press package later next time. One of our weaknesses last year was not having enough press contacts, so that’s something we’ve gone full-tilt on this time. My advice is that anytime you see anyone publicly reviewing a indie comic, record their name, site and contact info to a spreadsheet. I also recommend keeping an eye on how other teams are marketing their books! Podcasts In the next two weeks, we’ve scheduled 10 podcast interviews, and will be aggressively seeking out more. Podcasts require a certain amount of lead-time, so we’ve tried to get them recorded in advance so that they can be launched during the campaign period. Contacting existing customers We set up a mailing list using Mailchimp, and gathered 502 subscribers from our customers list. We sent an email letting them know that in a month we’d be launching our campaign. — Launch Day — Contacting existing customers I sent out another mailing list update with links to the new KS. We also included a special 16-page preview of the book that literally nobody else got! Exclusive content should hopefully keep folks signing up for our mailing list. Social Media I also posted an update to both our previous Kickstarter campaigns with links to the new project. I started making noise on social media, and posted to our FB group for our contributors to do the same. Approaching journalists second round! I’m going to send out a fresh wave of press releases to sites that didn’t respond to us earlier, letting them know the KS is now active, and we’ll hope for the best. — During Campaign — Creating content to post on other sites The editors met with number of local comics pros including Chip Zdarsky, Marcus To, Jim Zub, Brian McLachlan and interviewed them about breaking into the industry. We’ll be sharing those every few days on tumblr and our site. Social Media Any time a comic site gives us coverage, we thank them and signal boost it. We’re going to be posting multiple times daily to our social media. We’ll be covering: * Personal stories of the creators involved * Images of the attractive rewards, tagged with the creators involved. * Images of the stories, tagged with the creators involved. Physical Media We’ve also ordered 1,000 business cards and 300 sixteen-page mini-comics. These will be handed out to friendly comics shops, and given away at two comic conventions this month. Convention presence We're doing two shows this month, the Toronto Comics Show and the Toronto ComiCon. At both, we'll be handing out the mini-comics and business cards, and talking up the new project. This should help us reach an audience who aren't part of our social media network.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:15
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Anyone know of online/offline fanzines that publish collections of comics based on a single topic? Basically they name a topic like "houses", and then publish all the comics they receive in a single issue. I only know one german fanzine like this, but I thought it's an easy concept so maybe more people are doing it.
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Mar 7, 2017 07:41
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Progress coming along nicely on Charred. Skipping ahead a bit to show off page 5, though it's super incomplete at the moment.  This is Jako's first real attempt at drawing humans in a professional manner, so we're working on that angle pretty hard. This isn't totally done yet- besides the obvious definition that still needs to be added here and there, some of the finer details are going to be added after it gets scanned. Specifically, the characters eyes and the backgrounds which will be done as a second layer to keep things from looking too cluttered, since we're introducing all but two of the entire cast here. And yes that one character, Doc, looks eeriely like Dale from King of the Hill. That was entirely unintentional but is also not going away what so ever. Originally Doc was going to have a cowboy hat, as he's based on Jack Hoxie, Native American Silent Film cowboy star. However Sheriff Bradford already got the big ole Sheriff hat, so I told Jako just to replace it with a baseball cap. While drawing Doc, Jako decided to give him glasses but couldn't get them to look right what so ever, so he said screw it and turned them into shades. Now, as Jako is from and lives in Poland, he's seen King of the Hill all of twice and does not remember Dale what so ever. By the time it got back to me from a much more nebulous form earlier, he was already pretty Dale, so I just had to laugh and say go with it. Ironic thing is, Doc IS Native American. ...for those of you who know who Dale is anyways. Jako is trying for human designs in the Fiona Staples style, but mixed with his rougher, super detailed art. Most of the cast comes off pretty good I think, though Roxanne, the red head in the middle of the final panel, may get another revision later. Roxanne has been by far the hardest character to design. We also tried to make sure that everyone was wearing unique outfits and items, to further help them stand apart. What do you guys think?
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Mar 21, 2017 06:11
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Burkion posted:
I am replying so much later to this, sorry about that. My only problem with it is the overabundance of detail makes the backgrounds look flat, which makes it hard to tell what's happening. Like the further things are away the less detail there should be. I tried to show what I mean:  Here's a Moebius drawing he's real good at balancing detail, I think. 
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Mar 23, 2017 17:31
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I'm thinking of drawing my next comic (if I ever get there) with a more technical pen, without variations in line thickness. I don't have money fo real rotring pens, and the way I press my pens would destroy them too fast anyway. There are some nice cheap alternatives, but the very thin ones that I like most (pilot hi-tec) aren't water/light fast. What are some of you guys favorite weapons? Sorry if this is a repost.
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Mar 30, 2017 21:14
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mrfart posted:I'm thinking of drawing my next comic (if I ever get there) with a more technical pen, without variations in line thickness. What's your budget and why does it need to be water resistant? Right off the bat I'd recommend a disposable like microns.
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Mar 30, 2017 22:28
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Have you tried drawing with a fountain pen? Or a dip pen, I guess. There are water fast carbon based inks you can use.
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Mar 30, 2017 22:41
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mrfart posted:I'm thinking of drawing my next comic (if I ever get there) with a more technical pen, without variations in line thickness. I'm a big fan of the Staedtler Pigment Liners. Lots of thicknesses / cheapish / water & light fast. A bunch of my friends hate them (mostly because they don't last so long) but definitely worth trying out if you see a pack on offer or something as they seem to fit what you're looking for.
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Mar 30, 2017 23:06
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mrfart posted:What are some of you guys favorite weapons? Brushes all tha way, just buy some good ink (which is unfortunately harder than it sounds even good brands have lovely bottles sometimes) and a super fine tipped brush
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Mar 31, 2017 06:22
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al-azad posted:What's your budget and why does it need to be water resistant? Right off the bat I'd recommend a disposable like microns. water resistant because I like to put in some color with sepia ink or something similar afterwards. Actually, I've been using the lack of water resistant ink in the pilot pens in my sketchbook to my advantage. I just put in shades with a water reservoir brush, and the ink smears enough to put in some blue/gray shading. It's a lot of fun to sketch on the train or in a pub on holiday. I think I'm gonna give the rotring tikki pens a try.
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Mar 31, 2017 09:00
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Never used a Rotring, but if they're anything like Rapidograph then you get what you pay for. They're expensive but basically last forever and ink is about $5 once a year depending on use.
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Mar 31, 2017 16:50
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comics
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Apr 4, 2017 11:21
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hey everyone let's talk process. do you do digital or traditional or mixed comics? what is your #1 go-to comic making apparatus? i've settled finally into traditional pencilling and inking with fineliners on pretty cheap craft card at a3 size, then scanning it and colouring it in photoshop. i prefer the look i get when i go all-digital, but get incredibly bogged down in the process because i have a thing about lines i draw not having flecks or bumps and i end up going to 200% view and meticulously smoothing everything down with a 5px brush so a single pretty simple and basic page takes me like 25 hours to do. i can't go to 200% view in real life so i can't do that and now that i've switched to fineliners i can still make sure everything's smooth and it's cut my page time down to ~8 hours. colouring in photoshop is great because if you just throw a low-opacity nicely-coloured multiply layer over everything it looks like you put all this hard work into figuring out a colour palette when actually you didn't do poo poo lol
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Apr 9, 2017 09:05
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don't get too overexcited with the multiply trick or your art will end up looking like my webcomic 3 years ago, which always kind of looked like you were viewing it through a glass of raspberry cordial
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Apr 9, 2017 09:06
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If you're looking for perfect smooth digital lines without hours of fine tuning, paint tool SAI is the best. I think you can try it out for a month. There are probably ways of cracking it to get it for free, but a lifetime license is between $40-$60 depending on exchange rate and it's worth a buy if you like it during the trial mode.
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Apr 9, 2017 15:00
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i draw mine with a spirograph! e: here's some comics pages i 'graphed a year ago but am not going to do anything else with  
FunkyAl fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Apr 9, 2017 |
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Apr 9, 2017 16:01
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I'm really happy with Clip Studio Paint (the merging/rebranding of Manga Studio) and Frenden's brush set. I only do black and white so I dunno much about how the program handles coloring, but I've heard some good things, anyway. My inking style can get pretty loose and I haven't done any serious physical work in ages but I think my digital stuff is pretty close to what I could manage with an actual pen and ink. But I work on a pretty big canvas and don't zoom in too close  . There's definitely a learning curve involved but I can't say how much, I only really started doing a lot of comic pages in earnest a year and a half ago.Some doodles:   Some finished pages:  
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Apr 9, 2017 16:03
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I just asked this in the general thread, but since Manga/Clip Studio probably has a lot of users here, I thought I'd ask here too: Are there brush settings that will let me have a brush whose color will fade after a long enough stroke (preferably a customizable length), but which lets me use the same stroke to keep blending after the color's dried out? I think I have such a tool in Sketchbook, and I believe Corel Painter has one too, but I've fiddled with the CSP brush settings and couldn't find anything similar.
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Apr 9, 2017 16:16
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I do everything up to coloring traditionally, and then edit digitally. I had a phase where I got good enough at coloring that I barely needed to adjust the color at all once it was scanned, but then I had a breakdown and p much didn't draw for like a year and a half so now my art is basically where it was back in high school all over again  I also need the computer to fix my increasingly worsening skew, and take the junk out of the dialogue bubbles when I color too sloppy. I just use GIMP and a mouse to edit. Colring is mostly prisma markers though I'm slowly collecting copics just for skin tones since I was loving burning through those and the copics last longer and can be refilled. My advice is more of a warning than a reccommendation.
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Apr 9, 2017 16:38
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Argue posted:I just asked this in the general thread, but since Manga/Clip Studio probably has a lot of users here, I thought I'd ask here too: Im really not sure how you would set that up, you could maybe mimic that effect by using one of the oil paint brushes with pressure set to opacity and manually let up yourself as you go, or some set up with the smudge brush where you place a dot of color with something else and just smear it really far i do all digital all the tome nowadays but still doodle/do single illustrations with ink brushes and copics sometimes
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Apr 9, 2017 16:56
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Mercury Hat posted:Some finished pages: 
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Apr 9, 2017 23:21
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I sorta didn't mention it, but I'm doing webcomics again: https://tapastic.com/series/Garden I hope it's an improvement on my previous effort. Sorta wondering whether I should have a go at flipping on the Activate Ads button just to see what would happen, but the thought kinda terrifies me for some reason. Also, yeah I work entirely in Clip Studio Paint. Argue posted:I just asked this in the general thread, but since Manga/Clip Studio probably has a lot of users here, I thought I'd ask here too: I can do something that .... seems ... like what you are saying by going into detailed options>Starting and ending and then checking the boxes for Amount of Paint/Density of paint, and picking Fade for 'How to specify'. I'm not sure if tweaking this will produce anything useful for you though. Fangz fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 00:52
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Avshalom posted:your linework is so silky smooth and i want to eat it  . Most of the brushes I use are Frenden's, I love 'em to pieces and think they do a pretty good job recreating the feel of traditional tools.Also I just noticed I grabbed the smaller versions of those off my tumblr on accident, oops. These are the more legible sizes.  
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Apr 10, 2017 01:27
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This is a double post on purpose to say Clip Studio Paint has gone on sale like it usually does: Get the standard program for $25 or the full fancy-pants program for $79. It's my main program and I really love it, it has some neat built-in tricks like screentones and perspective rulers. There's a free trial available, too.
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Apr 10, 2017 20:45
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I sketch on paper, usually 0.5mm mechanical pencils, then scan that in for Manga Studio, redo the sketches with a blue colored pencil brush so I can fix stuff, then ink with the previously mentioned Frenden brushes. Somehow I got lucky enough to win the table lotto for SPX, and it'll be my first table at a convention ever. Both excited and panicky as I need to get a lot of stuff done and I've never had the best motivational drive.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:54
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Mercury Hat posted:This is a double post on purpose to say Clip Studio Paint has gone on sale like it usually does: Get the standard program for $25 or the full fancy-pants program for $79. do they ever have a special for people to upgrade from normal to pro or would i have to just buy it again
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Apr 10, 2017 23:59
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Wowporn posted:do they ever have a special for people to upgrade from normal to pro or would i have to just buy it again Unfortunately I don't remember them ever offering a discount like that. I dunno if emailing them would be worth a shot, if you paid full retail price for the normal version. KariOhki posted:Somehow I got lucky enough to win the table lotto for SPX, and it'll be my first table at a convention ever. Both excited and panicky as I need to get a lot of stuff done and I've never had the best motivational drive. Congrats, I got in on the lotto last year and it was fun. I wish I hadn't been too wiped out to socialize that Saturday night. I didn't get in this year, but I'll be back as an attendee since I live within driving distance and it's such a fun show.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:01
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Mercury Hat posted:This is a double post on purpose to say Clip Studio Paint has gone on sale like it usually does: Get the standard program for $25 or the full fancy-pants program for $79.  i will no longer be a digital outlaw
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Apr 11, 2017 01:44
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wtf this program is so good why did nobody ever tell me heaps of people told me, i'm just a tightwad
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Apr 11, 2017 02:15
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I started trying to make myself do comics regularly, because I like doing it and I don't do it very often, but here's a thing I drew last night. I guess there's not really a joke here, I just don't like Alex Jones and think he should have his kids taken away.
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Apr 25, 2017 23:15
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RoryBlank posted:I started trying to make myself do comics regularly, because I like doing it and I don't do it very often, but here's a thing I drew last night. I knew exactly what case you were referring to the instant I saw the second panel and I don't know what that says about me
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Apr 25, 2017 23:19
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Xarbala posted:I knew exactly what case you were referring to the instant I saw the second panel and I don't know what that says about me Oh I've been following the dude since like 2005, when I read Them by Jon Ronson, and it's really weird seeing a guy that used to be kind of a private joke in high school turn into like a national news story. Also I work like a mile from the court house and it's taking all my strength not to just walk out the office and go over.
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Apr 25, 2017 23:25
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RoryBlank posted:I started trying to make myself do comics regularly, because I like doing it and I don't do it very often, but here's a thing I drew last night. You could probably stick a punchline on there, like having some normal bit of courtroom business bookend it, possibly while the man grinds his crotch against a flagpole in the background or something.
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Apr 26, 2017 19:25
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idonotlikepeas posted:You could probably stick a punchline on there, like having some normal bit of courtroom business bookend it, possibly while the man grinds his crotch against a flagpole in the background or something. Yeah, probably. This was more of like, a really spur of the moment thing where I mostly just wanted to dig at Alex Jones, and just kind of leave it in an awkward moment. Here's one with an actual punchline I guess.  How do you feel about the concept of recycling panels vs redrawing things? Part of me feels kind of lazy whenever I do it, but at the same time, I'm not really great at drawing, as much as I may have improved from say, when I was in college, it's still fairly rough, and usually the words are the thing that come easily. I dunno.
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Apr 28, 2017 19:25
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RoryBlank posted:Yeah, probably. This was more of like, a really spur of the moment thing where I mostly just wanted to dig at Alex Jones, and just kind of leave it in an awkward moment. By the way, I love the aesthetic of your comics!
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Apr 28, 2017 20:40
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Yeah I think your art is cool, I just haven't really been amused by either of the ones you posted so far. It almost feels like I'm reading them backward, like I start off on board and then it just kind of trails off. Copy pasting isn't a "never do." Some people overly rely on it, but some find a way to make it work. If it feels lazy, don't do it; if it feels like it's adding something to the comic, then do it. Basically it's a rule because a lot of comic artists starting out overuse it and in those cases it does look lazy as hell. But like, in that second comic you posted, I'm really only paying attention to the guy's facial expression and words anyway. You get the sense that that guy just sits there motionlessly on his porch all day, and I think that your style is effortful enough, yet not too overly detailed, that the copy pasting doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. I think the fact that you broke it up with that close up in the third panel helped a lot, if it were all four panels the same pose and framing that would have been less visually appealing.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:19
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Whenever I've needed to copy paste something I've always scuffed it up a little to give it extra marks or skewed it slightly and did some minor paintover on it. The details are what tattle on a copypaster, its always a cluster of distinct penstrokes you can pick out from one panel to the next, if you copy and paste and take like a minute to fudge some of the interior lines you can usually cover your tracks pretty well.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:29
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On the other hand, having an excuse to practise by redrawing similar panels over and over is probably a good idea to help improve.
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Apr 29, 2017 12:48
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Szmitten posted:On the other hand, having an excuse to practise by redrawing similar panels over and over is probably a good idea to help improve. Yeah. I thought about doing that, and probably should. I was tired when I did that, and trying to get to bed before my bedtime. :/
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Apr 29, 2017 20:18
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Drawing each frame individually will absolutely make you the stronger artist in the long run. The smart artist will duplicate their sketch layer and ink over that three separate times, it saves you time and produces three distinct same-panel panels.
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Apr 29, 2017 20:53
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