The Beat has an interesting think piece, that includes links to some other current essays and articles, that I thought might be of interest to those reading this thread:
I don't know if I agree with their sentiments but I get the gist. My thing is that with DC/Marvel you are going to get the homogenized, sharp corners rounded off, median comic. They can be great even, but they are always going to be constrained within certain parameters. It also really only takes into account popular and famous people making the jump or vice versa. It is kinda like NIN or other big bands doing a pay what you want album 10+ years into their career... it is much easier and with next to no risk then. It is very hard though for the truly new or skilled unknown talent even though it does happen.
My thing is that I love the edges and periphery and rawness and realness of something coming straight from the creator with little to no filter. Saga for instance, you don't see actual penetration in comics, not in a hehehe perv way but as it is the scene and setting and fits and anything less is just rounding corners off in the name of censorship/filters/PC crap. I love when art is super raw or unique and again I'd be just as happy to see it on a DC/Marvel book. The few times it happens it is great (David Mack on Daredevil, Dave McKean on Arkham Asylum, etc.) But it happens so rarely and if I waited for just big two books like that to read I'd read like 3 books a year.
What I don't care for is the current glut of me-too type indie books that are weak and insipid and just muddy the waters. Image has the smartest and clearest vision and focus with their efforts and I hope they can continue to push to be like the Steve Jobs/Apple of indie comics where it is all about quality not quantity and with lazer-like focus and resolve. I can wax poetic on my love for indie/c-o comics but I also don't pretend there isn't a massive signal to noise ratio and just as much poop percentage-wise as the big two. I don't give things a free pass because they are indie/C-O.
Personally, all I'm interested in reading in general is the art/lit stuff, or whatever you want to call it. It's small press or it's from Top Shelf, First Second, D&Q, etc...I swear it's not snobbery, it's just preference. I'm thrilled that people read and love comics I don't care for. Diversity makes the world a high-quality place to be.
I bought my first-ever copy of Previews this Spring to place a Free Comic Book Day order for an event I put on with our local public library, and I was astonished at how little of the material listed under any publisher appealed to me at all.
It's all the badass, posturing genre stuff, it just does nothing for me. But then I don't enjoy action movies, either. I prefer the smaller, quieter stories that build out of the specificities of the characters and their situation. Sure, I'll dip into some sci-fi or other genres now and then, but something like "Moon" will get me going way more than something like "Avatar".
I'm not saying the hero & genre stuff is bad AT ALL, it's just playing a tune that's not to my taste.
But it did make me sad when I stopped in at the LCS (3.5 hours away, in San Angelo) to pick up my FCBD order and I wanted to buy something more so the guy got at least a little profit from me since he was just passing the books through for our Library, and it was REALLY hard for me to find something I wanted to read in his shop! Wound up with a Sandman reprint I hadn't read before, though I wasn't that jazzed about it.
And that's the last negative word you'll hear from me on this subject. There are still loads of comics for me to love!
@chrisruggia, I didn't read anything negative there... in fact I couldn't agree more. That is my personal view as well. Occasionally though I stray and try a new mainstream book or hot comic but usually don't stick with it. I love docs and indie films and I don't need a single battle in a comic to enjoy it, usually the lack thereof means I do. There's room for everyone in comics and even though we may be a minority there is not one thing to feel like you are being negative about. I'm OK with 99% of people not knowing or caring or seeing it this way and enjoying Marvel/DC/whatever, but I hope this is a place for the other 1% to get mention and chatter because there are some of the greatest comics I have ever read coming out right now and it really feels like we may be on the brink of a bright time right now.
I don't think I mentioned it before here but Anna and Frogga made me really happy. It is a little sarcastic for kids but it is great.
@chrisruggia, definitely check out the preview online for it then. That was how I first found it and it still makes me chuckle. There is some great stuff in it for sure.
I'm making a graphic novel that is approximately 300 pages, and I'm half done. I'm interested in hand lettering using Illustrator. I'm concerned as to how to make my writing scalable yet all the same size from picture to picture once printed. Do you know how to do this?
@NMStpac I'm not sure if I'm following exactly. If you plan to do your letters in a vector-based program (like Illustrator) then they will be scalable to any size which is the main advantage of vector images. But if you want to scale them then they won't be the same in every picture. Maybe explain what you are hoping to accomplish a little clearer and I'll be happy to help however I can to point you in the right direction.
This is a HUGE week for me and indie/c-o titles... tons of books that I have fallen in love with recently all dropping at once! Not to mention the 5th Hellboy Library ed. HC!
Dancer #3: This still has me on the hook entirely. I wish it was a straight spy/espionage story and not the sci-fi aspect but even still, one of my top pulls at the moment and this was an off the rack grab for #1.
Enormous One-shot: I have zero expectations for this. I still hold to the fact that very large scale/sizes do not translate well to comics. Small panels never convey massive size and foreboding well and a comic can't be all 1-2 page spreads. I'm going in with the lowest expectations so I'll be pleasantly surprised if it proves me wrong.
PLANETOID #2: This is like Prophet but different enough that I'm happy to read both. I really respect the fact that Ken Garing is doing everything on this title and I feel his art will continue to improve and evolve with time and he is a name to watch heavily in comics. Next big thing, you heard it here first! :)
REVIVAL #1: I have been lukewarm on this title since the teasers/promo attempt that fell really flat for me. I love the team on this one and I should be more excited than I am, maybe this first issue will snap me back around.
THE MASSIVE #2: I wanted to dislike this for a number of reasons while reading the first issue, but it managed to keep my interest and even pull me in a bit. It isn't super strong all-around but it is very competent and I want to see how this issue goes.
WILD CHILDREN One-shot: Easily my most anticipated book of the week! I hope this blows me away. It is either going to be awesome or bite hard, I think this will be a pretty cut and dry pass or fail.
Harbinger #2: This will be make or break for me on this one. The first was a bit of a mess at times and I want to like it, especially since it is set in my own city (even though the artist failed to get even one aspect of Pittsburgh correct in any depiction).
The Crow #1, Transformers #81, Battle Beasts #1, Chew Poyo one-shot, Richard Stark's Parker: The Score, and Walking Dead #100 all on my pull list as well... this is a super hefty week for me. Can't wait!
Generally I lay out my artwork for my comic pages in Photoshop when it's final prep-time. The last step before flattening to send to the printer is lettering. For that I open Illustrator, create the word balloons and lettering to get it just right, size it up in Illustrator, then cut and paste it over to photoshop. You can import it as a Smart Vector object, to allow resizing, or just size it up right in Illustrator and make it pixels.
Don't be afraid to use different font sizes (or fonts) depending on what your book calls for. Just make sure people can read it! :) You can see how my lettering comes out at www.thugsonline.com.
@Zhurrie You are delivering a lot of good news here:
Walking Dead #100 is tomorrow?? Oh, HELL yeah. Also a really remarkable achievement. Will start a separate thread for that one tomorrow, as I believe it is merited.
And Parker: The Score is tomorrow, too? Another one that is a highlight of the year for me. I pre-ordered it I don't know how many months ago from Amazon, and I feel like I have a collection of emails pushing the release date back and back (Thanks, Before Watchmen!) so I had started thinking it wasn't coming until August or something. Looking at the current Amazon estimate, they have it as July 26th, so hopefully if it ends up hitting direct market stores this week then maybe the Amazon ship date will get moved up. Regardless, it is worth the wait. And as long as it is getting in people's hands then the date shouldn't be pushed back any further.
Excited for Revival, which I've got coming through DCBS.
I'm intrigued by Punk Rock Jesus and will probably get the first one off the rack to decide whether or not to get the collected edition later.
And I've got Stitched and Crossed: Badlands coming via DCBS as well.
@David_D, seriously, when I looked at my pull list this week it was insane and filled with amazing stuff! Some may not actually drop as detailed but I think they are all valid shipping dates. I'm as pumped for Parker as you are! Walking dead has lost me personally but I had to have the wrap-around cover for #100. Punk Rock Jesus I forgot to mention, it isn't my cup of tea but I will say that it is massively oversized issue at $2.99 and no ads at all! I plan to make a game-time decision on that at the rack myself. This may be the priciest week I've ever had when the HC are factored in if it all actually ships. It's like a $200-250 week. Glad these don't happen too often... or ever again :)
For those of you who dropped Snarked! but still wanna catch up, it's ending at issue 12, at which point the second 6-issue trade is being released, so it'll be easy to read the whole thing then.
Comments
The Big Two: Not the biggest opportunities in town anymore as creators move on
My thing is that I love the edges and periphery and rawness and realness of something coming straight from the creator with little to no filter. Saga for instance, you don't see actual penetration in comics, not in a hehehe perv way but as it is the scene and setting and fits and anything less is just rounding corners off in the name of censorship/filters/PC crap. I love when art is super raw or unique and again I'd be just as happy to see it on a DC/Marvel book. The few times it happens it is great (David Mack on Daredevil, Dave McKean on Arkham Asylum, etc.) But it happens so rarely and if I waited for just big two books like that to read I'd read like 3 books a year.
What I don't care for is the current glut of me-too type indie books that are weak and insipid and just muddy the waters. Image has the smartest and clearest vision and focus with their efforts and I hope they can continue to push to be like the Steve Jobs/Apple of indie comics where it is all about quality not quantity and with lazer-like focus and resolve. I can wax poetic on my love for indie/c-o comics but I also don't pretend there isn't a massive signal to noise ratio and just as much poop percentage-wise as the big two. I don't give things a free pass because they are indie/C-O.
I bought my first-ever copy of Previews this Spring to place a Free Comic Book Day order for an event I put on with our local public library, and I was astonished at how little of the material listed under any publisher appealed to me at all.
It's all the badass, posturing genre stuff, it just does nothing for me. But then I don't enjoy action movies, either. I prefer the smaller, quieter stories that build out of the specificities of the characters and their situation. Sure, I'll dip into some sci-fi or other genres now and then, but something like "Moon" will get me going way more than something like "Avatar".
I'm not saying the hero & genre stuff is bad AT ALL, it's just playing a tune that's not to my taste.
But it did make me sad when I stopped in at the LCS (3.5 hours away, in San Angelo) to pick up my FCBD order and I wanted to buy something more so the guy got at least a little profit from me since he was just passing the books through for our Library, and it was REALLY hard for me to find something I wanted to read in his shop! Wound up with a Sandman reprint I hadn't read before, though I wasn't that jazzed about it.
And that's the last negative word you'll hear from me on this subject. There are still loads of comics for me to love!
I don't think I mentioned it before here but Anna and Frogga made me really happy. It is a little sarcastic for kids but it is great.
This is a HUGE week for me and indie/c-o titles... tons of books that I have fallen in love with recently all dropping at once! Not to mention the 5th Hellboy Library ed. HC!
Dancer #3: This still has me on the hook entirely. I wish it was a straight spy/espionage story and not the sci-fi aspect but even still, one of my top pulls at the moment and this was an off the rack grab for #1.
Enormous One-shot: I have zero expectations for this. I still hold to the fact that very large scale/sizes do not translate well to comics. Small panels never convey massive size and foreboding well and a comic can't be all 1-2 page spreads. I'm going in with the lowest expectations so I'll be pleasantly surprised if it proves me wrong.
PLANETOID #2: This is like Prophet but different enough that I'm happy to read both. I really respect the fact that Ken Garing is doing everything on this title and I feel his art will continue to improve and evolve with time and he is a name to watch heavily in comics. Next big thing, you heard it here first! :)
REVIVAL #1: I have been lukewarm on this title since the teasers/promo attempt that fell really flat for me. I love the team on this one and I should be more excited than I am, maybe this first issue will snap me back around.
THE MASSIVE #2: I wanted to dislike this for a number of reasons while reading the first issue, but it managed to keep my interest and even pull me in a bit. It isn't super strong all-around but it is very competent and I want to see how this issue goes.
WILD CHILDREN One-shot: Easily my most anticipated book of the week! I hope this blows me away. It is either going to be awesome or bite hard, I think this will be a pretty cut and dry pass or fail.
Harbinger #2: This will be make or break for me on this one. The first was a bit of a mess at times and I want to like it, especially since it is set in my own city (even though the artist failed to get even one aspect of Pittsburgh correct in any depiction).
The Crow #1, Transformers #81, Battle Beasts #1, Chew Poyo one-shot, Richard Stark's Parker: The Score, and Walking Dead #100 all on my pull list as well... this is a super hefty week for me. Can't wait!
Don't be afraid to use different font sizes (or fonts) depending on what your book calls for. Just make sure people can read it! :) You can see how my lettering comes out at www.thugsonline.com.
Walking Dead #100 is tomorrow?? Oh, HELL yeah. Also a really remarkable achievement. Will start a separate thread for that one tomorrow, as I believe it is merited.
And Parker: The Score is tomorrow, too? Another one that is a highlight of the year for me. I pre-ordered it I don't know how many months ago from Amazon, and I feel like I have a collection of emails pushing the release date back and back (Thanks, Before Watchmen!) so I had started thinking it wasn't coming until August or something. Looking at the current Amazon estimate, they have it as July 26th, so hopefully if it ends up hitting direct market stores this week then maybe the Amazon ship date will get moved up. Regardless, it is worth the wait. And as long as it is getting in people's hands then the date shouldn't be pushed back any further.
Excited for Revival, which I've got coming through DCBS.
I'm intrigued by Punk Rock Jesus and will probably get the first one off the rack to decide whether or not to get the collected edition later.
And I've got Stitched and Crossed: Badlands coming via DCBS as well.