Hi I contributed a post to the Electric Man blog. Electric Man is an independent super-hero film based in Edinburgh and is well worth checking out. The guys have plans to fund and publish an Electric Man comic, which is also worth checking out.
My blog is based on the unsung heroes (the scheduler, letterer, editor, producer & printer) who help put a comic together. It can be seen in all its glory by clicking on the following link, but I thought I'd just repeat it here, this being my blog and all.
Okay let’s discuss the bits n
bobs that contribute towards producing a self-published comic. The creative process is a given. I’m assuming that writer and artist are
already in place and raring to go. But
there are several more aspects to consider when putting together a comic. I’m talking roles here. They may be taken up by wholly different
people, or multi-tasking may be involved.
For my sins I’m a writer and co-publisher and reliant on a team of
tremendously gifted and dedicated individuals who I won’t name here (although
there are all listed in the credits page of any Planet Jimbot comic), but they
know who they are.
So, in no great particular
order:
Scheduler:
Okay so you want to do a
comic? How many pages? How many issues? Is your creative team up for it? Are they even aware of it? What are the deadlines? The thing is that you have to be flexible and
realistic. Communication is very
important as well, but what I’m trying to get at here is that you need to have
a plan; you need to have a schedule.
Editor:
An editor can concentrate on
the writing and/or artwork. The Planet
Jimbot editor chiefly looks at the writing, but also supplies feedback in
conjunction with the writer on the artwork.
A lot of self-published writers tend to edit themselves. I would say that no matter how objective a
writer tries to be about his or her writing, there will always be an element of
subjectivity. That’s unavoidable. An editor needs to be someone whose opinion
you the writer can trust and is prepared to both argue their case and listen to
you arguing your case. A good editor can
only make you a better writer, which means a better story and comic.
Letterer:
Lettering is a specialist
subject and should be treated and viewed as such. I have worked with artists who prefer to
letter their own artwork, but primarily I work with an industry standard
professional letterer. If you are
looking to do your own lettering, there is plenty of help out there. It is something that you can improve on, but please
hone your craft first. While we all
can’t be Garth Ennis or Frank Quitely, we can at least aspire to be a good
letterer.
Production:
You need someone who can
produce a print-ready PDF that can be sent off to the printers. The person in charge of production needs to
take on board everything he or she is hit with.
Formatting, bringing the cover to life, typefaces, logos, title pages,
putting the pages in the right order and equally important make them look like
they belong together. Like a letterer,
these are technical skills that can be acquired and improved upon, but ask/look
for help first.
Printer:
You now have a print-ready
PDF, so get it to the printers. As
you’ll see by the huge amount of self-published comics out there, there are
printing companies now specialising in the dear old comic format. Equally important you can now order a
manageable number of copies in two or three figures, instead of four as was
previously the case back in the day. With
the quality of printers and photocopiers out there these days, you could put
something half decent together yourself.
Be realistic. How many copies do
you think you can sell? How many do you intend
to give out to editors/publishers?
The above assumes of course
that you’re making printed copies. You
may decide to go digital, but I think that’s for another blog for another time from
another person.
So there you go, all pretty
harem scarem, but hopefully plenty of scope for discussion and general
musing. If you’re starting out I’d
recommend you concentrate on putting out the one issue first and learn from the
experience. It’s all about going up that
learning curve. I’m still on it. It’s hard work but immensely awarding. Now it’s time to get the thing out there and
spread the word. And that again is
another blog in the waiting.
