Ninja Turtles T-shirt design!

I took a break from TG #4 to knock out a design for the Threadless TMNT T-shirt contest. I think it turned out pretty good - check it out! And check out the site itself, and vote for me if you're so inclined!

The cost of comic books

Toaster Guy offers commentary on the cost of comics

I just read an article on the cost of comic books from the Big Two - DC and Marvel, naturally - and I wanted to offer my commentary (which nobody has asked for). Four bucks for twenty pages of story, from some giant corporation? And not a complete story, either, but part of a seventy-four part epic?? SIGN ME UP!! No, honestly, don't sign me up, because that's absurd. But, knowing what printing and shipping costs nowadays, I can't totally blame them for charging that much. I just can't justify SPENDING that much. Not on a comic produced by a team of professional superhero comics artists, fulfilling an editorial dictate, working on some version of a childhood favorite character that I no longer recognize.

When it comes to self-publishing, the costs are pretty straightforward: I have the cost of printing, the cost of shipping the comics to me, and the cost to ship them out to the readers. (I don't consider my time as part of the cost equation.) So for Toaster Guy comics, it's something like $1.35 per issue to have them printed, and maybe 50 cents an issue for shipping (unless I need them sooner than a month from now). Then to ship them out to readers, it's three or four bucks to ship them in the US, if I don't want 'em folded in half by an uncaring mailman, and overseas? Forget it - costs just went up, so it's over twelve bucks to ship a single issue of Toaster Guy to the UK or Ireland or someplace. So there's no way to make any money where I'm at, unless I either sell the comics for five bucks each plus shipping, or I sell enough copies that it makes sense to have a thousand at a time printed in China for forty or fifty cents a copy.

These big companies, they're paying a writer; a penciler; an inker; a letterer; a colorist; an editor; a senior editor; a publisher; etc etc. PLUS printing costs, shipping costs, advertising, etc. So I can see why they charge what they charge. I just don't think it's worth it when there are guys (like me maybe) telling maybe more interesting stories with non-mainstream art and doing it all themselves.

So I guess my point is, support independent comics! Especially Toaster Guy!

(By the way, how's that art look? I just discovered Manga Studio and oh my god, what a friggin' amazing piece of software)

Bandwagoneers

Who's on Facebook? Have you seen the "support gay marriage by changing my icon to an equal sign" thing? So all your friends can show off how progressive and trendy they are. Toaster Guy ain't having it! ...Though he's a little confused, I think, over what the point is...

Toaster Guy #4 cover - now in COLOR!

Check it out - I got a fantastic artist by the name of Cam Kendell (http://www.camkendell.com/) to handle the coloring on Toaster Guy #4, the final issue of the miniseries - and man, did he ever knock it out of the park!

Great job, right?! The senses-shattering conclusion to the Toaster Guy saga is on the way! Reserve your copy now!

Cool Art from a Toaster Guy fan!

Well, he's sort of a fan - he technically hasn't read a single issue yet. BUT Tanner is a fellow artist and a fellow hardcore Ninja Turtles fan. Along with his order for the Toaster Guy miniseries, he sent along a poster of his own art, a Christmas / New Years card, a couple sketch cards, and a hand-illustrated shipping box! Kick ass!

Reviewing a comics page - World's Finest

Check this out! I swiped the image from the Heritage Auctions website (which has high-res scans of a TON of comic art! Register for an account and go nuts!). It's a page from a World's Finest comic, drawn by Dick Sprang (the best Batman artist) and inked by the superb Charles Paris. I like this page because there's a ton of dialogue, but through a combination of good layout design; clean drawing; crisp inking; and clear lettering, everything is extremely easy to read. 

Today's comics suffer from a dearth of dialogue, I think - you're left with pages showing off an impressive drawing, but not telling you much. Sure, it's a different way to write, but how long are stories in modern comics? Six issues? Twelve? This page is from an issue of World's Finest that would have had several stories in it. Probably not telling any Earth-shaking stories, but these are Batman comics for Pete's sake. Tell the story, and if it's lousy there'll be another one right behind it.

The lettering in this page was obviously laid out before anything was drawn. I marvel at this, because when I'm doing comics pages, I still fall into the "draw first and ask questions later" trap of lettering.

Look close and you'll see the backgrounds varying from panel to panel. And I love the circle panel thrown in there! In fact I think I stole that for a page in Toaster Guy!

Drawing, inking, and writing comic books

I've been very lax on my blog updating - I've been so busy doing the actual comics work that I've neglected the comics blog. So I'm hoping to do daily updates over the next several weeks.

First off - I swear I'm hip deep in Toaster Guy #4! Here's the cover art:

Exciting, right?? Hope the inside lives up to the cover!!

I wanted to talk a little bit about the process of creating a comic book (my process anyway), and how drawn-out (hyuk hyuck) and tedious it can be, and maybe give some advice to people wanting to try this. My process is as follows: writing a rough outline; drawing rough layouts; writing a tighter script; penciling the rough, uh, pencils; tightening the pencils; inking; scanning; shading; lettering. Then I'll color and letter the cover. After that, I lay the entire thing out in InDesign.

Now normally, you have a writer, a penciler, an inker (unless you scan the pencils or the penciler inks 'em himself), a letterer, and a colorist. I'm guessing somewhere in there is a production person who lays it all out - maybe the colorist does that part, or the letterer. Either way, you're still dealing with a good four people putting together a single comic book. In my case - and in the case of several other self-publishers I know - it's a one-man show. You might have a writer, but in my experience (writers, don't bombard me with hate), writing is easier from a labor standpoint than drawing.

Drawing a pinup (like the robot one on this post) is simple, it's fun, it's an enjoyable thing. Drawing comic book pages is a good old-fashioned pain in the ass. I wouldn't say I dislike it, but it's not always fun. Especially considering you have inking ahead of you, and shading, and lettering. In fact, I think I enjoy penciling the most, then shading, then inking, and lettering absolute least. And I'm drawing Toaster Guy here - this ain't exactly Watchmen. 

BUT - writing is the hardest part, for me, from a creative standpoint. Not coming up with an idea - those are the easiest thing in the world - but the mechanics of writing, putting together a story, making sure it makes sense. That's hard, and it's even harder because I don't enjoy the process.

So, I would say if you're a would-be comic book creator, and you know how to write (and you know this because you've shown people your stuff and they've given you honest feedback) then you're halfway there - you need to either learn to draw, or find somebody who can do that part for you, and come up with some cash.

Honestly, I think learning to draw is made out to be much more difficult than it is. Take a drawing class and maybe a design class. Buy a how-to-draw book (the classic How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way is fantastic and in fact is always sitting out on the table in my studio). Draw, over and over. Because I think artists will always be able to find work making writers' ideas come to life, whereas writers will always be looking for artists.

If you aren't sure you can write well, or draw or letter or anything else, my advice is to do it, over and over and over. You'll suck at first, and somewhere in there you'll realize "hey - I don't suck anymore." (For me this was around issue #3 of Toaster Guy.) That is a truly great feeling.

Questions? Comments??