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Post by G on Mar 30, 2011 7:33:38 GMT -5
I've gotten a wee bit tired of staying in the background waiting for things to change when I know they wont. Sometimes I feel like it won't change until someone steps up and makes it change. Sometimes I feel like one person can't do anything about it. Other times I think one person can get something started. I'm just going to put it out there.
I'd like to start something on here. Combining talents, resources and comic beliefs under one umbrella. We preach a lot of things about what is wrong in comics. I think we can work on fixing that. At least from our little corner of the world. I know it all seems rather pipe dreamish, but I wouldn't mind if we all contributed something to a book. Maybe 3 or 4 of us could have 4-6 pages stories. Use our resources to get it done and if we ever get around to a finish product, combine resources to get it printed up.
No, I don't think we'll end up a legit company. But I would like to think we took a shot at things. I think there is enough talent and knowledge here to do something like that.
I only ask that we don't try and copy the other guys. That we really practice what we preach. I know if I had something green lighted, I would work on it during weekends and off times. It might take me 6-12 months just to get 4-6 good pages drawn up. I'm hoping 3 or 4 others step up and say they want to do something too. And no, it doesn't have to be superheroes, although I think mine would be. It can be on any subject including comedy.
Once penciled, perhaps we can pass the works around to be inked and colored. Once that is done, we can work on building funds to print our first comic. No, I don't expect to make profits. I just want to create a comic.
If we can do one, we can do 2. Who knows where it goes from there. Like most things, these things never seem to get off the ground. I'd like to feel like we did accomplish at the very least, one completed comic. From there I'd be willing to do more. But the ultimate goal for me would be one printed comic with multiple copies going to all involved.
Please use this thread to say your desires and whether or not you would be in or not. Yes, you can post your criticism of the idea too and be dead right. Maybe so. I'm just tired of thinking that the difference between making a comic book and not making one is simply doing it.
I'm ready to do it.....Who's with me?
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Post by defiant1 on Mar 30, 2011 16:35:37 GMT -5
I really don't want to do an anthology at this stage. My stuff would be in line with my past cartoon stuff that I've done and I have plenty of ideas to fill up a comic of my own. You need to ink your own work at least once.
df1
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Post by G on Mar 30, 2011 18:51:45 GMT -5
Well, maybe the Anthology can just be a preview book. You do 4-6 pages and at the end of it, you can put down "continued in (name of your character) #1".
Heck, I'm just at the discussing part of it right now. If 3 or 4 of us decided to wait until we all had full blown books, I'd be down with that too. We could launch with 3 or 4 first issues.
However, I'm thinking the time, expenses of multiple books, and everybody completing near each other is pretty far out. If we only commit to 4-6 pages each, we can all do like preview type story lines with "to be continued in #1" with whoever's title on it after that. And I'm willing to let a good solid year to go by just letting us get 4-6 solid pages done each. In fact, I'd like to just say a year from now, the pencils for everybody is finished and now we spend the following 4-12 months finishing inks, colors and printing. I really don't care if it took 2 years to get one measly comic book out there. What I would like is to have something PRINTED within 2 years.
When I think about it, Starbrand used to be on here and he was making his own books. I'll bet you he never made a dime off of any of them. He actually sent me a couple of ashcans and 1 comic (under his former name, Landmark Comics). I personally didn't care or don't care for doing an ashcan. I've never really been a fan of ashcans. But I have to admit, he did have it done.
His actual comic was a low-mid quality comic. Its a real comic, but the paper quality seemed like it was printed at a local printer. Regardless, it still qualified in my mind as a real comic.
Since then, I know he has changed his name to Surprising Comics and I know he got at least 2 comics out if not 3 under the name Surprising Theater. Hell man, he got Stu and another guy over at Lyria to do work for him. I forget his name. It wasn't nothing amazing, but it was real. He did it. If nothing else, I have to give the man props for doing that.
I just think if we all put our minds together, we have enough talent here to do something. And no, I'm not looking for any money to be made. I'm just looking for satisfaction of a completed project and a real book in my hands. I sometimes think if I finish something once, I can do it again. Problem is, right now I haven't done it even once.
The only thing I can say is, if we do it ourselves, we're in control with how it comes out. I already know I don't want any pose fanout, poster shot, staredown covers. I don't even want to be involved if that's the case. I want to be everything we have been preaching. I don't want to be the pretenders who just copied everyone else. I want to bring back what I used to love about comics.
But I could deal with a 1 issue anthology just to get one out and then splitting into all 1st issues after that under each of the title character or story names. Hell, 2 years to get the 1 anthology book out. And maybe another 1-2 years to get individual issues out. If 4 of us did something like that, we'd have 5 comics in 2-4 years. I want to keep the expectations realistic. I think 1 completed book would just make us better for whatever would or could be next. And from there, we just improve. Who knows, the next Kirby, Ditko, Perez or Byrne could be right here.
All I know is, it would be realistic for me to get 4-6 pages of something of a quality I wouldn't be ashamed of done in a year. Thats a page once every 2-3 months. That's 4-8 pictures drawn in 60-90 days. I think it's realistic. I think it's feasible. I already have my comic paper and some tools. I just need to get started. We'll let the rest sort itself out as the work gets completed. If we have enough completed work to put something out. We can focus our efforts on getting it printed. Don't need a whole bunch of copies. Maybe 100. Maybe 50. I don't know. Enough to give each one of us our fair share to do with as we want. If after the experience we want to keep it going...then hell, now we have experience. Let's do it again!
All I know is I need a reason to work towards something. So, I just thought I'd put it out there. Everyone is welcome to their input, opinions, pessimism and so forth. I'm just ready to get beyond thinking about it.
Life is short. Its just something I want to accomplish once before I die.
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Post by defiant1 on Mar 30, 2011 22:38:29 GMT -5
It's unlikely I'll ever be a Perez. I simply do not have enough time to allocate to that much practice. It's unlikely my art will ever meet my quality expectations, though I do feel it can suffice as an underground anti-establishment tool. I know my stuff entertains which is the primary goal. I know the simplicity of my art presents a certain charm to my work. I know it has marketing potential. I just do not feel like me being the artist is the best way to reach that potential. In 1996, someone unintentionally deflated my ego and it pissed me off enough get off my ass and get published to prove I could do it with no experience drawing or creating comics at all. I tested my theory, proved myself capable of getting published and even had tentative plans to show my stuff to a producer out in Hollywood. Again though, it all goes back to unwavering belief that if you want to draw cartoons, draw them. If you want to draw serious art, draw it. Don't mix the two styles into one piece and expect to impress anyone. To a lesser degree, I don't feel that it is fruitful or advantageous to mix cartoons and more serious stories into the same publication. One thing I absolutely do NOT want to do is produce comics like Mark Davis & John Helmer have done. Unskilled talent producing copycat work isn't going to impress anyone. At best it shows you can waste money and need an ego boost from that moment you first see your name in print. I think the first two letters I wrote to comic publishers saw print. I was stunned when I first saw my name printed. When my cartoon was published locally, I was both stunned and disappointed. I was stunned that it was so easy and I was disappointed that my work didn't look better. The only thing that eases my conscience is that I know I literally had no experience drawing anything prior to 1996. Unless you count crayon drawings when I was 5, I never had an inclination to sit around and draw things other than geometrical shapes and patterns on paper. Tentacles and triangles were the extent of my doodles. The only thing that sparked my interest in doodling was the endless meetings I endure at work. Drawing slows down my thought processes enough that I can listen and think at the same reduced speed that management likes to think. I also started doodling at the comic shop when those pesky customers would interrupt my casual conversations. I'd be chatting the shop employees and a customers would ask where a product is located. The employee would help the customers and then come back and see ny stick figure of Wonder Woman with huge circles for boobs. I think I did stick figures of the Avengers on one post it note. Thor had a hammer. Giant Man ran off the top and all you saw was a larger stick figure from the waist down. Between that and making up fictitious and funny comic titles for my friend Roger to mix in with the weekly posted list, my interest in creating concepts and stories was born. I really look at comics as a fall back when I'm too old and feeble to do anything physical. I know the job I'm doing now has a global impact. I learn something new everyday and our products change the world. I feel that making comics would be a step backwards for me as far as making a difference. It's more of a retirement ambition.
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Post by G on Mar 31, 2011 6:57:39 GMT -5
Your probably right about the mixed anthology thing. I'm still not opposed to it though. I'm not really trying to make a book that will be marketed and sold to a bunch of people. And I've never had enough ego to feel I need to see my name in print and want the comic for that reason. I just want it to feel like I or we, did it. Therefore, I wouldn't care if it was half superhero, half modern story, half comedy. It can just be a Preview book. If we get our shit together, we can launch separate books. Hell, we can even start out that way. I don't really care. But it could also go from a Preview book to #1's separately.
As for the retirement thing, yeah....it works for that. But I can't wait until I'm retired to start learning how to do it. Maybe we start learning now so by time we are retired, we are doing it from the moment we leave off the working world. I don't know about you, but I'm probably looking at about 20 years before I'm retiring. Damn, if I had 20 years of practicing beforehand, I think I could be pretty decent by time I retire.
Hey, I'm not saying my idea is the way to go. The only thing I'm saying is the thread of the title and what I want to do. All other ideas are welcome. I just want some wheels to start turning. I feel like the wheel has made like a 1/16th rotation of one wheel revolution so far. Need to put the foot further on the gas and make the wheel keep turning.
Thats all I'm trying to do. Life is short. I may not make it to retirement. Therefore, I need to plan it like I might die soon. Need to get a book out before I die. Thats it....
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Post by bigw1966 on Mar 31, 2011 9:33:22 GMT -5
Well, It sounds fun, but currently I am slogging through inking the pages of that horror story whenever I have time. Its been a learning curve but they keep changing the deadline on me. I am also trying to set my WARDRONE comic up to be published and am supposed to have a skype meeting with some people after Wondercon about publishing it. If that happens, I will be working on that for at least a year, writing, penciling and inking it before sending it to the colorist. So...I don't know if I could be of help. I may be able to wrote something. Maybe I could give you guys a script that works in various elements from what everyone is interested in and tie it together in a cohesive story then we could screw around with that.
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Post by cyberstrike on Mar 31, 2011 9:46:41 GMT -5
I've got a whole comic book universe in my head.
I suck at art period.
In terms of plotting (setting up the characters' motivations, back stories, conflicts and overall direction) I think I'm pretty good at that and on action (fights, how it starts, builds, and climaxes, and resolves) I think I'm OK at.
One would think that after writing fantasy wrestling matches for almost a decade I can probably think I know how to write a set up for a fight, the fight itself, and it's immediate aftermath better than a lot of people, but I don't like action as much as I used to.
I know that my major weakness is dialogue, I can't write and make people talk in a beliveable and normal way. I also have a tendency to repeat things (this is something I do verbally as well and most likely stems from it) I'll say the same thing in different ways. I can't write humor worth a damn. I write bad comdey good and bad comdey good.
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Post by defiant1 on Mar 31, 2011 19:58:13 GMT -5
Your probably right about the mixed anthology thing. I'm still not opposed to it though. I'm not really trying to make a book that will be marketed and sold to a bunch of people. And I've never had enough ego to feel I need to see my name in print and want the comic for that reason. I just want it to feel like I or we, did it. Therefore, I wouldn't care if it was half superhero, half modern story, half comedy. It can just be a Preview book. If we get our shit together, we can launch separate books. Hell, we can even start out that way. I don't really care. But it could also go from a Preview book to #1's separately. As for the retirement thing, yeah....it works for that. But I can't wait until I'm retired to start learning how to do it. Maybe we start learning now so by time we are retired, we are doing it from the moment we leave off the working world. I don't know about you, but I'm probably looking at about 20 years before I'm retiring. Damn, if I had 20 years of practicing beforehand, I think I could be pretty decent by time I retire. Hey, I'm not saying my idea is the way to go. The only thing I'm saying is the thread of the title and what I want to do. All other ideas are welcome. I just want some wheels to start turning. I feel like the wheel has made like a 1/16th rotation of one wheel revolution so far. Need to put the foot further on the gas and make the wheel keep turning. Thats all I'm trying to do. Life is short. I may not make it to retirement. Therefore, I need to plan it like I might die soon. Need to get a book out before I die. Thats it.... Well, I'm ALWAYS learning something new at work. I was going to check an updated paint spec linked to a cabinet yesterday and the damn thing was 101 pages long. I sifted through 10 pages of applying paint to aluminum before jumping ahead. There's no aluminum on the cabinet! In 1996, I wanted to publish a comic just to say I did it. Even then though, forking out money to produce an amateur looking product isn't really exciting to me. If I'd stayed on good terms with George, I might have considered putting together a collection of better work and seeing if he'd do all the pre-press work. There are some things I could see that he did well. The guys hocking amateur crap at big conventions are the people I ignore and get fed up with. The two guys I just started following on Twitter are local artists that do cartoons. One does animation also. They are both a hell of a lot more talented as artists than I am and know the publishing side of things. I can write comedy, but I get writer's block without a muse. Actually, I just need a different perspective to seed my thoughts. I am capable of writing, but my mind goes ten times faster than I can transfer my thoughts to paper or computer. For me, the task of writing equates to trying to carry too much. I drop portions I want to include and spend more time going back to fix all the critical plot threads I dropped. I really need someone to take shorthand as I dictate out the dialogue. The only class I ever failed in school was a composition class. I got a 98% on the final exam (a quiz), but didn't turn in but maybe 1-1/2 compositions the whole quarter. I think I calculated my average as a 0.6% grade for the course. I had to drop down a level and retake the class. They didn't make me write compositions when I retook the class. I passed that class with an "A". I hate the physical task of putting pen to paper that much. I think in concepts. Words always seem like a prison sentence and they limit what I'm thinking. I lose a lot of creativity in the transfer process. The same is true for drawing. Filling in details and textures takes so much time that it sucks the plot ideas out of my head. Thankfully, hands and facial expressions convey so much in a story. Some people even compliment my use of that in my crappy art. Time is a big deterrent. I've been working 10 hours a day and I'm on the road another 1:15 to 2:30 hrs a day. On days I'm hanging out with the girl I date, I actually sacrifice much needed sleep just to make time for us together. The main reason I'm online so much is that I'm usually too tired or sore to do anything else.... even draw. My shoulder muscles are sore even now. When I'm driving tomorrow, my right arm will probably go numb from being held in the same position for too long.
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Post by G on Apr 1, 2011 6:36:00 GMT -5
I've got a whole comic book universe in my head. I suck at art period. In terms of plotting (setting up the characters' motivations, back stories, conflicts and overall direction) I think I'm pretty good at that and on action (fights, how it starts, builds, and climaxes, and resolves) I think I'm OK at. One would think that after writing fantasy wrestling matches for almost a decade I can probably think I know how to write a set up for a fight, the fight itself, and it's immediate aftermath better than a lot of people, but I don't like action as much as I used to. I know that my major weakness is dialogue, I can't write and make people talk in a beliveable and normal way. I also have a tendency to repeat things (this is something I do verbally as well and most likely stems from it) I'll say the same thing in different ways. I can't write humor worth a damn. I write bad comdey good and bad comdey good. Maybe you can set a few plot lines up. We can fill in the dialogue around the story. I want this to be a community event so everyone who has spent any real time on my board can have a contribution....that is if they want to. I'm all for whatever anyone can offer. I've actually been thinking about what my little 4-6 page Preview would be. I'm thinking I need to draw 1 panel a week and put everything I can into that one panel. I think if I do that, I can create a decent product. The problem for me would be if I tried to rush the pictures. I want to feel like I've got plenty of time and no pressure. The idea is to get a good job done. And collectively piece things together. I want to see where we are a year from now. This can either be all talk or we have some work accomplished. Im hoping for the latter.
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Post by G on Apr 1, 2011 6:39:45 GMT -5
Well, It sounds fun, but currently I am slogging through inking the pages of that horror story whenever I have time. Its been a learning curve but they keep changing the deadline on me. I am also trying to set my WARDRONE comic up to be published and am supposed to have a skype meeting with some people after Wondercon about publishing it. If that happens, I will be working on that for at least a year, writing, penciling and inking it before sending it to the colorist. So...I don't know if I could be of help. I may be able to wrote something. Maybe I could give you guys a script that works in various elements from what everyone is interested in and tie it together in a cohesive story then we could screw around with that. Certainly I understand your REAL commitments and means to get something REAL going as well as putting food on your table. I get that. But I'd also be a bit disappointed if you didn't lend your drawing talents to the project. I'd ask simply for a 4 pager due in 1 year. 3 months per page. A panel a week. All in a Preview of your story format with a cliffhanger "continued in" type of finish. All I can say is, if everyone puts into this...we're going to make it happen.
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