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Post by G on Apr 1, 2011 6:49:27 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. This is why I'm thinking in terms of a "Preview" type anthology rather than a straight anthology. The only purpose of the Preview is to get a book out and maybe make motivation for individual books thereafter. There will be no continuation of the Preview book. So there will be no issue #2 of it. This is the #1 reason why I think your work in the comedic scope could work even for this book. I'm sure you can come up with something silly for 4-6 pages and have it be a cliffhanger for your real book down the road. I'm also not interested in half ass amateur attempts at getting a book out. I'd want you to do the best work you can within your abilities and that would go for the rest of us as well. If some of us get done with our preview stories early, perhaps we can go ahead and start making our 1st issues to get them ready for after the preview book. We may end up with tremendously slow output. I don't really care about that. But if we all continue to contribute and get projects done, we can work on getting the books made up as they are completed. We aren't going to be tied down to any monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly schedule. We're just going to put things out as they get done. But I feel we can start by doing a group book unless someone has another or better idea. |
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Post by defiant1 on Apr 1, 2011 22:17:14 GMT -5
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. This is why I'm thinking in terms of a "Preview" type anthology rather than a straight anthology. The only purpose of the Preview is to get a book out and maybe make motivation for individual books thereafter. There will be no continuation of the Preview book. So there will be no issue #2 of it. This is the #1 reason why I think your work in the comedic scope could work even for this book. I'm sure you can come up with something silly for 4-6 pages and have it be a cliffhanger for your real book down the road. I'm also not interested in half ass amateur attempts at getting a book out. I'd want you to do the best work you can within your abilities and that would go for the rest of us as well. If some of us get done with our preview stories early, perhaps we can go ahead and start making our 1st issues to get them ready for after the preview book. We may end up with tremendously slow output. I don't really care about that. But if we all continue to contribute and get projects done, we can work on getting the books made up as they are completed. We aren't going to be tied down to any monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly schedule. We're just going to put things out as they get done. But I feel we can start by doing a group book unless someone has another or better idea. I'm out as stated earlier. People have coaxed me many times over the years and group projects are just not what I want to do. There is no "best work" for me. I draw better if I get practice, otherwise it just sucks more. I'm not willing to allocate the time it takes to get better. I don't have enough free time to do nothing as it is. Doing nothing means a lot to me. df1 |
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Post by G on Apr 2, 2011 8:05:52 GMT -5
This is why I'm thinking in terms of a "Preview" type anthology rather than a straight anthology. The only purpose of the Preview is to get a book out and maybe make motivation for individual books thereafter. There will be no continuation of the Preview book. So there will be no issue #2 of it. This is the #1 reason why I think your work in the comedic scope could work even for this book. I'm sure you can come up with something silly for 4-6 pages and have it be a cliffhanger for your real book down the road. I'm also not interested in half ass amateur attempts at getting a book out. I'd want you to do the best work you can within your abilities and that would go for the rest of us as well. If some of us get done with our preview stories early, perhaps we can go ahead and start making our 1st issues to get them ready for after the preview book. We may end up with tremendously slow output. I don't really care about that. But if we all continue to contribute and get projects done, we can work on getting the books made up as they are completed. We aren't going to be tied down to any monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly schedule. We're just going to put things out as they get done. But I feel we can start by doing a group book unless someone has another or better idea. I'm out as stated earlier. People have coaxed me many times over the years and group projects are just not what I want to do. There is no "best work" for me. I draw better if I get practice, otherwise it just sucks more. I'm not willing to allocate the time it takes to get better. I don't have enough free time to do nothing as it is. Doing nothing means a lot to me. df1 That's fine. I just didn't realize that you had stated earlier that you were officially out. I know you had a lot of reservations and reasons not to do it, but I hadn't read (at least I don't think), that you were out of it. That's fine though. I'm sure this project will take a long time and take lots of stages to get through. I'll have to find the time personally myself to get going and motivated enough to do it. I just keep thinking I ought to be able to push out 4-6 pages in a year. If you should ever change your mind in ANY capacity about this, you're always welcome aboard. You're an original Crackhead. So, I'd hate not having you if this thing ever gets rolling. |
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Post by defiant1 on Apr 2, 2011 12:04:37 GMT -5
I'm out as stated earlier. People have coaxed me many times over the years and group projects are just not what I want to do. There is no "best work" for me. I draw better if I get practice, otherwise it just sucks more. I'm not willing to allocate the time it takes to get better. I don't have enough free time to do nothing as it is. Doing nothing means a lot to me. df1 That's fine. I just didn't realize that you had stated earlier that you were officially out. I know you had a lot of reservations and reasons not to do it, but I hadn't read (at least I don't think), that you were out of it. That's fine though. I'm sure this project will take a long time and take lots of stages to get through. I'll have to find the time personally myself to get going and motivated enough to do it. I just keep thinking I ought to be able to push out 4-6 pages in a year. If you should ever change your mind in ANY capacity about this, you're always welcome aboard. You're an original Crackhead. So, I'd hate not having you if this thing ever gets rolling. I could tell you thought I was undecided, so I clarified. My first sentence in my first reply in this thread was stating that I didn't want to do it. I don't really understand it, but other people are constantly requesting more stuff from me. Mark all but asked me to draw something for him. Did you see the half-ass cartoon I posted on twitter? It still had stray pencil lines from when I stopped years ago half way through. I just scanned it, lettered it, and tweaked the art a little in the computer. df1 |
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Post by G on Apr 3, 2011 12:04:04 GMT -5
I've been trying to decide exactly what I want to do. I've got a few idea floating around in my head. Just trying to decide which one I want to do.
One idea is to try and redo/finish my death of Stingray comic which I've shown here on my own personal art thread. I could start over and make the intro my Preview and then the actual book could be a death one shot. It'll be over with when I finish one book, plus I'm already familiar with how I want the story. I could just retool it and do it better.
The opposite of that would be an intro to the origin of Stingray followed by a regular first issue that finishes the origin. The advantage of this is I can just continue for however long it can take me and if I can get some old buds involved, we can relaunch the old school days universe, just done in a modern way.
A last thought is I could finish what I was originally going to do with Mark Davis. I didn't really like his concept and name, so I could make some changes and I already have a name in mind, and just go from there. Another advantage is I already know my story. A disadvantage would be I need to design the character and it doesn't seem easy to incorporate into a universe. But I suppose it could with some work.
These are really the things I am mulling over. What do you think?
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Post by defiant1 on Apr 3, 2011 18:59:51 GMT -5
Marvel has a villain named Stingray if I'm not mistaken. I'd kill him off or transform him into a name you could really use. I kinda want to go back to a Marvel chapter format like they had in the early silver age or an Archie format with short stand-alone installments.
df1
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Post by G on Apr 3, 2011 21:14:14 GMT -5
Marvel has a villain named Stingray if I'm not mistaken. I'd kill him off or transform him into a name you could really use. I kinda want to go back to a Marvel chapter format like they had in the early silver age or an Archie format with short stand-alone installments. df1 Yeah, I know. I think he was actually a hero. Red and White uniform. Low B grade or High C grade character. Stingray was just the name I had for him in Jr. High. I knew it was being used later on, but since I never did anything, it was never a problem. If I changed the name, would you rather see a kill off or an origin with an ongoing? I'm all for the continuation format, so there wouldn't be any single story arcs with me. One day would affect the next and so on and so on. Or, could just do the preview and kill his ass off in a one shot and be done with him. Either way works. But I need to commit to one direction or the other. The fact I am asking questions about it means I've been thinking of direction and moving forward with it. I'll take it a panel at a time if I have to. 4 pages in 1 year is all I am asking myself at this point. |
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Post by defiant1 on Apr 4, 2011 3:20:14 GMT -5
Marvel has a villain named Stingray if I'm not mistaken. I'd kill him off or transform him into a name you could really use. I kinda want to go back to a Marvel chapter format like they had in the early silver age or an Archie format with short stand-alone installments. df1 Yeah, I know. I think he was actually a hero. Red and White uniform. Low B grade or High C grade character. Stingray was just the name I had for him in Jr. High. I knew it was being used later on, but since I never did anything, it was never a problem. If I changed the name, would you rather see a kill off or an origin with an ongoing? I'm all for the continuation format, so there wouldn't be any single story arcs with me. One day would affect the next and so on and so on. Or, could just do the preview and kill his ass off in a one shot and be done with him. Either way works. But I need to commit to one direction or the other. The fact I am asking questions about it means I've been thinking of direction and moving forward with it. I'll take it a panel at a time if I have to. 4 pages in 1 year is all I am asking myself at this point. Stingray predated my collecting. I know he battled Sub-Mariner, but that doesn't say much. As far as what to do.... I don't really get the point of creating a character just to kill him.I believe in creating assets whether it's just for fun or just to say you did it. If the same effort is going to go into the artwork, why not spend your efforts on a character that will be memorable and marketable. I don't even consider a character unless I know I could sell the concept, not just the character. df1 |
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Post by bigw1966 on Apr 4, 2011 12:50:16 GMT -5
Just drop the Stingray name before you start, no one outside of you, or us knows him by that name, so give him a fresh start.
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Post by G on Apr 15, 2011 6:55:34 GMT -5
As so many ideas go, I've been trying not to drop the ball with this one and let it fade into the background and then be totally gone. Even though I haven't done anything physical with drawing anything yet, I've been sorting things out in my mind. I've been forcing myself to give it some time at least thought time. I think I want to make myself some character profiles and settle on my looks and character characteristics. I'm still pondering 2 storylines on 2 different characters. I'm thinking in terms of 4 page previews. Part of my ambition says do both. I'm realizing that I'm probably 100% on my own here. It would probably be easier to get going if I knew others were working on it too, but I'm realizing that is not going to happen. So I have to think in reverse. I just have to do it and maybe if I get some work done I can get others to join in down the road. However it may seem. I don't want anyone to think I've pushed this under the rug. Like I said, I've given myself 1 - 2 years to work on my projects. I think thought-wise, I've made progress. Now I just need to put pencil to paper and get going with it.
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