Abe's school projects

In the last post, I was talking about the items Abe has made at school this year. So I guess now I can actually tell you about the projects. They were pretty cool to see made.

First up, there is a green Georgie print. Abe made this for his history class using the historical graphic arts process.  I drew out a Georgie for him. Then at school, he made a copy or two and cut them out to have the shapes for the various strengths of color. He was printing in green using 100% and then a thinner screen that made a lighter color of the same green. After the cutting out, he used a graphic arts camera to make a film of the image. The film of the image was then used to make a metal printing plate for the press. The printing was done on a Heidelberg press using two colors, black and green. Abe pointed out that this press was designed in the same city of Germany (Heidlelberg) where the Homo Heidelbergensis was found. Then he got to run the press and made a whole bunch of prints!

Georgie print

Another project is a red Arthur. The teachers were having a hard time explaining the process of screen printing so they did a project and everyone got to print a picture. They picked something really simple and drew it on a piece of mylar using a sharpie that they used for the photo emulsion. Photo emulsion is pretty interesting. You put the mylar with the dark spots from the sharpie on the screen that is covered in photo emulsion. Then you shine UV on the screen. The emulsion on the spots covered by the sharpie on the mylar do not harden, but the rest of it does. So when the emulsion is hard, you pull off the mylar and rinse of the screen. All but the spots where the UV light hit are hard. So when you squee-gee the ink over the screen, it only goes through where you had drawn the dark spots.  Anyways, they did this project over the course of an afternoon so everyone would understand the processes. There are only a few of these prints because it wasn’t a real project and everyone needed to print something.

Arthur print

The bookmarks were a cool project I got to work on. This was a letterpress project. I drew up three images for bookmarks because that is how many would fit on the printing press plate. Abe scanned my drawings and in Adobe Illustrator used live trace to turn them into vector graphics which means they can be resized to any size. Then in InDesign he replaced the horrible text I had drawn with a brush on the Book Love bookmark. This was another photo emulsion plate but for the printing press, so it made a plastic plate that we get to keep. His instructor and classmates were worried that the fine lines I had drawn wouldn’t print well, particularly in the squid, but they turned out pretty good. Then he just had to cut them up on a paper cutter. The one we have at home is sharper and more accurate than the ones he has at school it seems.

3 letterpress bookmarks

Another screen printing project was to make a 2-color t-shirt. I again drew an image for Abe, this time of a platypus Cupid. Abe scanned and formatted and added text on the computer and made a screen for screen printing. At this point, the process is getting pretty redundant.

2 colors of tshirts

Mylar sheet to create the screen

Mylar sheet with hearts

Finally, he made a notepad. He created the images in Illustrator and laid out the pages in InDeisgn, as you would expect. But this was totally his design and is basically fan art for Gravity’s Rainbow. Then he used an offset printer in black to print two shades of black, 100% and 30%. After printing, he had to count the stacks, add the cardboard backing, and glue the binding. Then he cut and trimmed and they were done.

Gravity's Rainbow notepad

So if you make it to a convention we are at this year, we will have these items. Otherwise, if one sounds particularly interesting, you can shoot us an email atabe@flyingdodopublications.com or angela@flyingdodopublications.com and we will post the item on Etsy. I hope people enjoy these items as much as we have.

We are still working

I was close to forgetting a blog post for March. Abe is currently going to school for publishing arts and while he is learning better how to make and print comics, he is really busy with school so the Flying Dodo projects are getting pushed off. But the good news is that he is learning a ton, he is doing great in his classes and loves it, and he graduates in June. So mid-June, we should have more time to publish things. And in the meantime, some of his school projects are making some additional weird things to sell or give away.

Anyways, lots is happening at the Flying Dodo Headquarters, just not much to really announce. If you missed it, we posted The Autovoyuerist to read online. But Abe is still working on the print version. We are still color comic newbs, so we need to correct the color I did on the computer for printing. Mostly it is just too dark. If you are interested in $1.50 copies from the Reject bin, comment here or send us an email and we will make those available. They will be available eventually. About five are hand bound, but the rest of these rejects will be stapled. They are unworthy of the love and time of hand sewing.

We also have a new book in the works about chickens and coyotes. This one is a little different and is technically not a comic, I guess. It has been a fun project though and I am really looking forward to seeing it in print. The art is all done, or nearly done (I still need to draw the cover art). Abe is spending his spring break putting together the layout for the book. What a partier.

Beard monster sketch - you can see his tri-beard has three different style of inking

I am also in the pencil stage of 2 comics, a small one about bubbles (that will be in an anthology if possible!) and a comic about a beard. The beard comic started life way back in December. This one is also unique as it is based on a poem. Sort of a ballad. The art style is more detailed than our other comics so far and should be a hoot.

So keep your eyes peeled for our new mini comics and other items. Also get excited to hear about the conventions we will be at – you can see we are already signed up for the Portland Zine Symposium. Should be interesting. We’ll put more news here for you greedy little eyes as it becomes available.

-Angela

Stop Motion Video

I made this stop motion video for a class last quarter. Angela helped with the art and moving the stuffed animals around. It turned out pretty good for our first one!

Graphic Novel Panel, Part 3

If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Publishing

To find a publisher, find comics that are similar to yours. Fantagraphics really publishes anything they like. I think Kim mentioned a few times that they are not taking many new projects on now because they are booked up with the reprints of classic comics. Image is basically on a model of you finance. You don’t earn any money from the books until Image has earned back the cost of printing and a little extra. It sounds like a fair model. At the after party, I asked why this was worth it and it seems to be mostly about branding and distribution – Image will distribute your book through Diamond to comic stores everywhere and then you have that I on the spine that is a signal of quality.

Megan recommended self-publishing. Many people start with self-publishing and as it becomes popular a publishing house might pick it up. In the world of comics, as opposed to prose, self-publishing is highly respected. As a side note, you might want to check out this great blog post by Faith Erin Hicks about her experiences publishing.

Mark said to go to conventions in your genre – not just comic conventions. His examples were the horror conventions in the Seattle area (there are no less than three in a year). In the convention vein, Matt suggested you make ashcan copies and give out tons of them. Megan agreed (that is how she got started, I think).

Emi said the web was vital for her (what with being a web comic and all). She says it is not necessary to hide your work – Show it! If you can get a response, people will want more. Comic fans like to hold their comics in their hands so web comics are a good starting place to gain followers. Use Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook to get your comics out there. In a later question someone asked how she gets people to buy the book, if she holds half back or makes everything available. Emi makes everything available, though just by chance people who buy her second book will get to read comics before they are put on the web.

Marketing

Great question – promoting on the web. Matt actually recommended reading the Fantagraphics blog. He also said go to conventions, read and comment on comics blogs. He compared commenting on a comic blog or news site to a global comics bar. Megan pointed out that the world of comics isn’t really that big. If your participate, people will start to recognize your name. Mark said to be a social butterfly. He has a Facebook page for every comic. You have to constantly put yourself out there.

Emi recommended putting your images on Tumblr. You can connect it to your Facebook page and Twitter so everyone will get an announcement when you post a new image. She was surprised how many followers she got just through Instagram. You sell yourself through your images. When her first book came out, she emailed over 200 comic shops with a link to a PDF copy of her book to read for free so they could decide whether they wanted to sell it in their shop. She also said to hand out postcard of your art at conventions for free to every single person you see.

Brandon brought up that, when getting press, you must remember that you may be addressing non-comic folk.

Random questions

Another question was about failures that they would recommend avoiding. Megan said if you have spent lots of time on a project, don’t quit. If you get bogged down, put it away for a little or for even a year or more and come back to it so you can find the good parts. Matt agreed. To keep himself from demotivating himself by over analyzing his drawings, he puts them away as soon as they are done. Don’t’ get in your own way. Emi said not to worry about what other people think. Just draw stuff for yourself. Brandon said don’t feel that you haven’t succeeded by measuring success against anything but happiness.

In regards to t-shirt profits and merchandise, Megan has found that Girl Hero swag has earned her way more than books have. Matt said it wasn’t way more for him, but still more. And he finds that the more cool crap you offer, the more real you appear. Kim said Fantagraphics doesn’t offer merchandise because it is too distracting. They want to focus on the books.

And that was it. Then we were off to the Fantagraphics Bookstore for the after party. I tried really hard and did talk to people. But we only handed out one business card. We suck. It was really fun to stand around for a few hours talking about comics with so many other people who make comics (because that is who I ended up talking to). Now that I think about it, I bet it was all people who were comic makers. Duh. So much fun. The Fantagraphics book store has that wonderful booky smell and has so many great graphic novels.

Graphic Novel Panel, Part 2

If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here. I intended to post this on Wednesday, but Drink and Draw made me forget.

Art and Writing

Someone asked what not to do in art and writing. This rather stumped some of them. Kim said not to submit too little – at least 6-10 finished pages, if not more. Show you have gumption to finish what you start. A one and a half page synopsis and a couple character sketches is way too little. A completed story is great. One to two dozen completed pages is good, too.

Brendan said to be a professional. Approach it as a job. Write inquiry letters. Everyone nodded.

Matt’s was interesting. To make comics your job, you must decide what you want from it. Indie comics feed your soul but pay shit. Marvel/DC pay great, but it is a crappy job. I bet that last one depends on the person, but that is just part of figuring out what you want.

Megan basically said don’t bite off more than you can chew and if you are bored with it, so is the reader. When she first started drawing comics, she started with a long, feminist, cyber punk story, but felt she couldn’t draw. Then (after many years) she realized that she had a problem with people walking down halls for pages to get from place to place. Then she realized she’s in charge and can make the decisions about what to show. Her rule is if she feels ennui when drawing, there is a problem she needs to work out – find a new way to transition, stop and think about what would be interesting or enjoyable to draw.

Mark said to pick a subject you love to death and can never fall out of love with.

I like this question for Kim: What to do it I have a great story but my art isn’t up to par? Should I wait? Kim said give it a shot and see if you can get something that will work. Some artists have started making a graphic novel to force themselves to draw so they would get better. This is actually why I do mini-comics. I get to practice and get better, but I can try new techniques and tools and maintain visual consistency within each story.

Someone asked at what point do you need to layout where a lot of scenes occur. Of course, this varies from person to person, but led to interesting answer. Megan’s first comics all took place in her apartment for this reason – she knew it like the back of her hand and could get visual reference whenever she needed. Matt once took 25 hours to use Sketch Up to plan out a detailed 3D model of a house for a story. When sounds useful.

Then my favorite part: Tools! Though the question was specifically about computer tools:

• Mark – Word for the script, Photoshop for the scanning, Illustrator for framing and layout. He hand letters everything.
• Megan – Photoshop to scan and fix line art and color. Hand drawn and lettered.
• Matt – Finaldraft (and Notecard) and Word for scripts
  Art laid out by hand in ink and pencil – he actually scans and resizes throughout the process.
  Sketchup to build 3D models
  Illustrator to letter
  Photoshop to color
  Manga Studio is for comics like Photoshop is for photos. I am actually starting to be tempted by this program. Might need to look for a demo.
  He likes to do bruises because he gets to dip his thumb in ink.
• Emi – mostly traditional. Photoshop to tone. She finds that she loses the grittiness that traditional provides (I agree).
• Brandon – Word and Google Docs. I always wondered if professionals used Google Docs and now I have my answer.

I will post Part 3, the final part, tomorrow. Look forward to it!

Graphic Novel Panel, Part 1

On Jan 28, Abe and I went to a Graphic Novel Panel hosted by the Seattle Graphic Artists  Guild. We missed the last one and I had heard of three or four of the five speakers that would be there this time. It’s a panel, so it was directed at Q&A basically. The moderator would start things off and then the rest of the time was spent with the audience asking questions.

We spent almost the whole first hour listening to them introduce themselves – entertaining, but not useful. I took 9.5 pages of notes in my 8×5 inch drawing pad, so I will try to just hit the highlights.

• Mark Monlux – moderator and member of the guild. He has been an illustrator and cartoonist since the 80s. I think he was a decent moderator. Forgot his own rules sometimes, but he was jovial about being reminded.
• Megan Kelso – she was supposed to speak at a Cartoonist NW once, but she lost her voice from having so many speaking engagements! I have two of her books, Artichoke Tales and Squirrel Mother, but neglected to bring one for her to sign. Whoops. Oh well.
• Matt Southworth – He draws Stumptown for Greg Rucka and does some more mainstream DC/Marvel stuff for the money. He had a lot to say and is a charismatic speaker.
• Emi Lenox – of Emitown. She was the newest to the comics game and the only web comic. She felt too new but added a good voice from both the web and newb point of view.
• Brandon Jerwa – mostly writes for licensed characters. He was the most mainstream of everyone, but still had interesting stuff to add. Not that mainstream Marvel/DC is bad, just not my interest.
• Kim Thompson – co-owner of Fantagraphics, who hosted the event. He was pretty quiet. Felt like he felt he didn’t belong, but I thought he brought a good voice from the publisher viewpoint.

They went into their histories more than I did here. Those were just the final impressions I am left with.

Planning

I thought Emi had an interesting planning process for Emitown. Emi town is a daily autobio comic. Each day she writes down notes of interesting things that happened over the day. That night or even that weekend or later, she goes over her notes to draw some pictures that she later adds text to, if I understood correctly. She stayed on top of it for a year, but fell behind. Then she went back to her notes…1 year later! And had to decipher her notes from each day. She mentioned that Flickr, Tumblr, and Facebook were handy references to decipher her cryptic notes.

Megan likes to go to a place and get a few sketches down to cement the idea in her head. Then she can use those sketches as a memory jump later. She seems to do a lot of planning work. For instance, she did lots of sketches of a climbing knot for a scene in Artichoke Tales. She knew it wouldn’t be prominent, but wanted to get it right, make it authentic. She also solves her visual problems in the layout.

Editing

Matt said editors for a comic are not like editors for prose. In comics, they are more like a film producer. For mainstream comics, they really just keep hold of their licenses, making sure the guidelines for the character are followed. Brandon called them traffic cops.
At this point, the dreaded graphic novel v. comic book question came up. However, (and they all agreed with my point of view, that in the end, it doesn’t really matter), we did get some interesting information from Kim out of it. The difference in publishing a monthly/pamphlet vs. a whole graphic novel I 30 days vs. 30 weeks or more. This panel was the end of January 2012 and Fantagraphics had already locked in their publications through March 2013! He also mentioned that monthly/pamphlet format is dying out for indie comics.

Part 2 coming Wednesday! Art and writing portion of the panel.

2011 was great

So I guess now that 2011 is over, we can look back at what a success it was.

Uh, probably most significant – we started Flying Dodo Publications to publish all our comics under. We are loving it.

We published a bunch of comics:

• Hardly Kind – though it was drawn over my winter break in the last week of December 2010, it was published in January, so that counts right? This was a fun one and is still one of my favorites.
• Herbert – a great collaboration between Angela and Abe. Not their first, but a good story.
• One Lemming’s Loss – Angela’s first comic in color.
• Ooh! Shiny – this one took all summer and longer. Probably one of the most difficult ones because Angela had to print all the linocuts.
• The Fire Breather – first one in water color. This was all painted over a three day weekend and the next night.
• Fart Happens: The Jerks Year One – we published the first year of The Jerks in a book!
• The Autovoyuerist – I am not sure if this technically counts. It was published in December, but we have to sell them as rejects because something went wrong. Except real copies soon.

We published mini comics!

• The Saddest Sasquatch – seems to be a favorite. It is one of my favorites.
• Square Today, Circle Tomorrow – this poor little fella seems to go unnoticed, but I think people like it when they read it. This is Abe’s favorite comic.
• A Not-So-Quiet Mouse Krismas – not for sale, but you can read it on the blog. We gave a printed version out as Krismas gifts.

We put some of the published comics up to read online! This one barely counts because we did it the last two nights of December, but we got them done!! We will continue to put more up for the rest of January and publish new ones online as we finish them.

• The Autovoyuerist
• Hardly Kind
• Harrowing Tales at the Bus Stop

We put comics up for sale IN COMIC STORES! The Comic Stop people are great and you can find our comics at the one in Lynwood and the one in the U District. Both are great stores and the people who work there are super friendly.

We also had our first booths at comic conventions: Bellingham ComiCon and Jet City ComicShow. We had such a good time; we are really looking forward to doing more next year. Yay! As soon as we know which ones we have a table at, we will certainly tell you here. And our own blogs. And on Facebook. And on Twitter. You’ll hear.

Abe started school to learn about publishing, which was a direct result of his work on all our comics this year. He loved working on it when he didn’t know anything and had to learn it all through trial and error. Now that he is in school learning all the crazy things like letter press and even more about desktop publishing, he is ready to burst with excitement.

This was a big year. We started toying with the idea of comics in 2006, but this year we really took the bull by the horns and put in a lot of effort. Angela treated it like a second job, getting home from work at her full time job and spending the rest of the day drawing away and on weekends.