CREATOR Tips and Tricks
SO YOU THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A COMIC BOOK CREATOR?
Below I have listed some excerpt from a thread I had posted on penciljack quite a bit back, it got over 2,000 views and has gained me much recognition respect and perhaps notoriety. Nonetheless I believe this thread had many great things posted in it and I think since it did so much for me as a person I would post it here for the Dark Elf Fans and followers... For the complete thread click this link below. but read here for other tips and tricks as well that won't necessarily be in the penciljack thread.
-Brian Germain
Ok first of all let me start out by saying i am not the one who should be starting a thread like this, but in what little time I have had on the comics scene I have learned so much that I can't help it so here goes.... This thread is not for specific tips and tricks on how to create comics but maybe it should be moved to the tips and tricks section anyway... regardless here is my advice to any of you out there who are thinking about making comics.
(1.) Make Them!- If you are sitting around waiting to be the next marvel or Image mega artist, then keep sitting and waiting cause likely that is all you will end up doing. However if you actually want to become something you have to prove your mettle. and what better way to prove that you can make a comic then by making a comic!? There are literally hundreds of ads on place like www.penciljack.com or www.digitalwebbing.com and many more from people who are all about making comics and yet they aren;'t actually making any. but there is an upside with those hundreds of ads comes hundreds of writers and hundreds of artists who could and should be working togetherto make a full comic book themselves.
(2.) Raise your Goals but Lower your Expectations.- I see tons of people wanting this style or that style of artist to do their artwork for them with the comment no pay involved unless property sells or something similar... guess what if you are lucky you get what you pay for, and if you are rreally lucky you get much better. but don't expect to be working with Todd McFarlane right out the door unless you've got big bucks to blow.
(3.) Be Realistic.- so you spent a buttload of money to get a comic printed and now Diamond won't sell it? Well there are other distribution companies besides diamond but perhaps not as well connected... burt if you were realistic you spent as little money as possible on a quality product, in a low print quantity. 2000 comics is alot when you are trying to sell them yourself at cons, but not unachievable, but anything more would be a bit ridiculous for your fist issue out. and beyond that stay low for awhile with those print runs it's cost effective and creates wonderfult things for you in the future with the law of supply and demand. If you haven't sold them all in a month well then maybe you expected too much... give yourself a year and hif you haven't sold them all within a year then maybe start to kick yourself. meanwhile get the second issue ready.
(4.) Plan Ahead- When at all possible get a backlog of about 3 issues before you go to print with the first one.
(5.) Commitment, Drive, Dedication - if you wanna make it in the comics world these are traits to have, you may be makeing plenty of money off comics but your determination should be focused so much as to say you would still be workiong toward your goals even if you are making nothing. (some of us aren't making anything yet, or again)
(6.) Learn to Deal with Criticism - were you criticized and you feel it was wrongly? Well don't respond with retaliation just stay professional nod and move on with your day. Perhaps if you calm down and rethink what they said it was constructive criticism, so maybe they were trying to help you. this goes along with almost all rules but espescially with criticism, "The greater your talent, the more likely you are to lean on it" remember if you aren't making a living at doing what you love and only what you love then there has to be room for improvement somewhere. If you can't take criticism perhaps comics aren't the world for you.
(7.) Learn the Trade.- get as many helpful hints and tips as you can from anyone who will give them. use what you want discard the rest. Be yourself but at least learn what needs to be done. if you are submitting for the first time to a big company don't send them a 48 page graphic novel, read their submission guidelines and send the five pages they asked for! I see all kinds of people who want to put together submissions for other companies with like one company in mind! ie; they wrote a 36 page DareDevil story and whant to submit it to marvel so they get an artist who is willing to pencil it, and an inker who inks it, and complete a whole comic book to send into a company that only wanted you to submit a 5 page story to begin with. (What a waste of time you just spent) you could have made a 36 page book of your own and self published at least then you'd be published!
(8.) Give yourself a break! - I mean this one in all ways... after my second year of working on Moonshadow#0 (my pride and joy) I was nearly nuts, I was almost in tears I had just completely drawn half way through the book for the fifth timeand was working on finishing the book all the way through for the fifth time when I went intoi my living room and said aloud "I think this is going to drive me insane, I think I am going f8$%ing nuts!" at which point my younger brother in all his wisdom said "why don't you just take a break?" you know right then i felt really stupid it just never dawned on me that I could take a break. i was so focused on getting it done and getting it done ruight that i was consumed by it... whenever I hada moment of spare time i was working on it... but when that light clicked on it was like "wow i really can Take a Break!"
(9.) Get Experienced!- no this doesn't mean taking mind altering drugs and listening to Jimi Hendrix but hey if that works for your creativity then I say so be it... this is in regards to everything else you need to do... keep drawing comics, keep writing, inking or whatever it is you do to create and you'll get better at it, go to cons talk to the pros check out the web learn everything you can and experience everything you can with what you have about the creation process, and don't be afraid to ask questions.
and Last but not least... for now...
(10.) Be you, and Be your best.- Most Artists/writers are their own worst critics, but even if ou set out and do fall flat on your face just do your best work and be yourself, then at the end of the day if nothing else you know you did your best. and don't worry there will be more chances and oppurtunities down the road. and if you feel like giving up then maybe you didn't read rule number 5. Never give up, giving up is the only way you'll fail.
Well Like I said someone else should have been the one posting this but it looks like it waqs lil ol' me... most of this comes from just 4 years of comic experience (I have been taking the crash course though believe me) but I have had over fifteen years of semi-pro and pro art experience and alot of the same rules apply, but no where can i stress them more than in the comic book arena...
Til Next Time....
-Brian Germain
More Tips...
Timing: Many people think they have a pretty good idea of how long it takes to create, publish, print, and distribute a comic book even though they have never done it before... why this is I am not exactly sure... part of the reason could be because there is a monthly comic coming out for all the main tier heroes at marvel and dc so it must take less than a month to draw this comic. I would say thois is true to a point but I would also submit that many of these companies havea six month or issue baklog just in case. this means everything is planned six months in advance at the very least. I guess one would have to ask those companies to know for sure. But any notions you have about doing said comic is strictly preconcieved and therefore should be treated as such. in other words don't take your great story that you think is the next best thing since sliced bread to an editor/publisher asking them to publish it for you, and then expect them to do it on "your" timeframe. It isn't gonna happen. Editors and publishers generaly know what they are doing on their end and for you to step in an try to run things it's not only going to earn you a bad rep real fast it's also rude and unreasonable. so just chill out, and expect that the person that is telling you it is going to take six months or more to publish is probably more in the know than you, espescially if they are a small press publisher. heck it takes 4 months just to find out if Diamond will distribute something for you. So why does it seem unreasonable that a book to be edited, drawn, inked, lettered, collated, printed, and so on would take less time than the actual distribution process. Patience is a virtue.
Bite Your Lip: There are two parts to this, the first part is don't bite off more than you can chew... I am guilty of this one something I do all the time. And then I get behind and people get frustrated with me. ok so it's usually not more than i can chew it just takes me longer to chew it. anyway if you don't think you can do something let whoever your doing it for know before it's too late... can't make a deadline? better tell someone a.s.a.p. better to have them not happy with you for you missing a deadline then fire you or be not happy with you or themselves because you not only missed a deadline but you made THEM miss a deadline to and you didn't tell them so they couldn't get no help for it, or do anything about it. The second part to this is don't bite the hand that feeds you. unless you have been published in several different places several different times and you know a great deal about publishing i wouldn't recommend asking how come the big guys at "fill-in-the-blank" company cant get to YOUR project any faster. don't insult the people YOU came to asking THEM if they can publish your stuff. With Dark Elf Designs (my company) if you feel the need to take your project elsewhere we encourage what ever will make the creators happy, so if something isn't getting done at our company right away we will eve try to help you place it elsewhere (usually in hopes of putting the good word out on us) but this sn't the case with all companies and neither should you expect it (even from Dark Elf designs) in fact many companies have you sign contracts right out that says you aren't able to solicit something to anyone else once they have accepted it. In my opinion, if a company says yes they will publish something for you just be patient. feel free to ask questions of course like when. and feel free to be persistent about getting a contract, us publishers can get flighty too. But try to be Nice and polite when asking these questions.. and don't ask where your publisher is getting money to puiblish something it's just flat oput rude and tasteless... Remember if you tick anybody off in this comic biz you don't know who else they know. and they may unwittingly paint you in a basd light to one of those many people you hoped to work for.
Cashing in: Money is what many people are after when they realize their comic story / arty whatever will be published but the truth of the matter is that it cost money to publish too. and probably more than you think. So if your comic sells like crap do you not think that the company printing it is going to get paid to print it? and do you not think the company publishing it is gonna take their cut plus the price for paying the printer? it's expensive people. You may not recieve anything in return, but if you have the original artwork back in your possession then depending on the terms of the contract you signed, at least you may be able to try printing it again through someone else. but they will have their expenses too... an example of why I am telling you this is that I know someone who printed something for a hopefulstarry eyed artists and the comic didn't happen to sell anywhere near what the artist expected in fact it sold so badly it didn't even make the publisher back the money. On top of which it sold so poorly that even now, nearly 20 years after the publishing date there are literally stacks of this comic book laying around in the publishers warehouse. now is it that the comic sucked? no not at all... it just didn't catch on. So the artist then took his comic and published it yet again through another bigger publisher... did it sell like hotcakes? no unfortunately in comparison to the size of the company to the first it probably only sold about the same amount, but luckily the artist was able to glean some payment from it this time as the company was bigger and therefore was able to print more and distribute to a wider array of consumers. now the artists has serious resentment toward the publisher that gave him a break in the first place, and in actuality the only person who lost out on any money was the original publisher. So keep this in mind when your comic doesn't rocket to wizard's top 10. I addressed this before.. do it fo the love first... the money second.
Ok now that I have gotten very wordy I will leave you to ponder over those new tips about the some of the goings on in the comic market. please use this advice, or don't, as you see fit...
-Brian
-Marilyn Monroe was once told that 75% of Hollywood says she had no talent. Her response: "If 100% says I have no talent 100% will be wrong."
-Every success starts with 1000 failures, so rejections are a way to keep track of your progress.
-Use rejection letters as sketch/writing paper.
-Never give up, because there is a market for everything. If people will buy crap like "Thighmaster", I know my book has hope.
Don't get discouraged because your post didn't get a response, chances are 100 other responses may have buried it before anyone got the chance to see how great that post was, also if your post is more of a statement (like this one) and it didn't get any responses it doesn't mean that no one read it. chances are they are reading it right now and you are none the wiser. So if you want a response ask for one! If all else fails post a reply to your own post asking for responses as the chances of your post getting seen again increases when it goes back up in the newly responded to list.
Know who/what you are.- Here is a little problem I ran into recently with one of my creators in my company,he didn't knwo what he was or whatr was expected of him. now many of you in my company or a similar company might have the same issue, of course right now you are probably going WHAT ISSUE WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!? So I'll do my best to explain...
There is a difference between a creator and a publisher. There is also a difference between a publisher and a studio. A studio may not create an entire comic book, or sometimes it may. Sometimes a studio may only create the art ina comic book or maybe only the letters or maybe only the colors. because you have created a studio don't expect to have to be the one who does everything involved with turning a comic book into reality. Now on the other hand this isn't the publishers job either, the publishers job is to basically get a comic into print yeah there are some more facets to that but maybe I will talk about that some other time.
A comic book may be created and published by as few or as many people it takes ie; 1 or 10 etc. and so on. You can take as much or as little of the workload as you want, however if you aren't an artist and you decide to do the art that is just stupid. Contrawise if you are an artist and you decide to write the book but you suck at writing well that doesn't make much sense either. yeah I believe you are all probably thinkign "thank you captain obvious!" but I am continually surprised at the number of "Creators" who don't know what their role in the "Creation" process actually is. If you are the Creator of a project sometimes you can helm the whole project (if the publisher let's you) but if you have a publisher it is up to the publisher to tell the editors who do what or if the "creators" are the editors then they sometimes tell the "creators" which artists, letterers, writers, etc. to use not the other way around. when you approach a publisher you don't always get the luxury of picking your own art/writing team otherwise wouldn't ,many of you be picking Jim Lee/ Jopeh Loeb as part of your team?
Point here is slow your roll, and know your role. IF you are the "creator" of a concept that doesn't always get to mean you will be doing even the actual writing or the actual art in a book. and if that's what you are holding out for, it may take a little longer to find the right publisher who'll let you do it that way.
and as a "studio" don't confuse yourself with having to be the editor and publisher unless you are self publishing because the copy will most likely still have to pass by the publisher and publishing editor as well in order to be published.
Never Give Up!- If comics or art or writing or whatever it is you think you want to do is "really What you want to do then don't let anyone discourage you. because believe me nearly everyone you know and love will try or accidentally do it at some point or another. I don't know why, but it just seems to happen that way. you can't listen to what other people think about your crazy dreams or beliefs but instead make sure you have a back up plan or make sure you are at keast taking care of business to some degree in other aspects of your life or things could get ugly. People who see you being succewssful and loving it will hate it, and people who don't see you being successful will chide you about it. People who really care about you will try to be supportive and somtimes they will succeed, other times... enh,.. Not so much. Anyway doing this is hard work and dedication but if it is what you love then the work is it's own reward. and the trying is it's own payoff. yeah we are looking for our meal ticket but you never know when that ticket is going to pay off or (even if you already have it) expire! believe me it's happened to more people than you would like to think. So love what you do, do what you love. and when it starts to become soo much that you hate it either quit and take a break (if that's feasible) or keep doing it until you remember why you love it!
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Joe Quesada's 3x3x3 Method
or
The 3X3X3 Method To Building The Perfect Portfolio
I was one of those lucky few that was hired on the spot to begin my career in the comics biz, but it wasn't just talent or sheer dumb luck that got me the gig. Sure, that had something to do with it, but I had a pretty good working knowledge of what editors were looking for because I was also a pretty good student and asked many different artists about their experiences. Now, the following information is from a class I used to teach on building your portfolio for maximum results at comic conventions (where you can meet editors from every company). You should, of course, adapt all of this information when submitting work to EPIC. In other words, keep the samples Marvel specific.
First and foremost, before you submit your portfolio for review there are a few rules that you need to keep in mind.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The editor who is about to look at your portfolio is most likely tired from looking at dozens before yours. You're probably the hundredth person he or she has seen today.
He or she is looking for someone who is going to hit a homerun right off the bat.
The editor is not, I repeat, not your friend. They have a job to do and they're going to look for the person who can do it best. Be courteous and listen and accept whatever critique you get in a professional manner. Arguing with or getting angry with an editor giving you a critique (and I've seen this happen) will not improve your chances ever. You will also be surprised at how quickly word spreads about problem cases.
Presentation is important. Do not have a sloppy portfolio. Have Xerox's with your contact info firmly in place.
Assume that we are idiots. Make your portfolio idiot proof. If you don't believe this to be true of editors, just take a good look at me! If you're a penciler, then don't ink your work, don't letter your work, and don't color your work. JUST SHOW PENCILS!
Do not bore the editor! This is very important. After a long stint of reviewing portfolios, an editor is just like you. They enjoy an entertaining yarn just like anyone else. And there is no better way to get an editor's attention than to make your portfolio easy to view, critic, and above all, entertaining.
Present yourself well. Yes, this is a casual industry, but don't show up looking slovenly.
WHAT TO DRAW?
All right, with that out of the way, let's get to the meat of this lesson.
Now, aside from the basic remarks that you will receive about anatomy and storytelling, here are some of the usual questions and comments that you will encounter during a critique from editors.
This is nice, but I'd like to see what you could do with our company's characters.
This is nice, but all I see are pages with a single character, I'd like to see what you could do with a team story. This is nice, but all I see are pages with a team, I'd like to see what you could do with a single character. This is nice, lots of action and great fight scenes, but can you draw just normal people doing normal things?
Wouldn't it be great to have all your bases covered and you could somehow avoid some of these annoying queries from the outset? Well, follow these steps and hopefully you will!
AS FOOLPROOF AS POSSIBLE
Three stories.
Three pages in length.
Three covers for each of your stories.
12 pages total. That's it!
Most young artists are under the impression that they need to show pages upon pages from a sample script when nothing can be more torturous for an editor or perspective employer to sit through. The reality of the situation is that by page two, an editor knows whether you're ready or not, so sixteen pages of a tryout script tells us nothing more than that you did sixteen pages. That's why, if you're going to spend a lot of effort on a portfolio, you should spend it diversifying yourself, and also keeping your stories short so that as you receive critiques, you can just pluck sections out of your portfolio and reinstate new and improved vignettes as needed.
Your stories should be short, three-page vignettes with a very clear beginning middle and end. No words should be necessary (see the ‘Nuff Said books), and it's always better if it's something that you've thought up yourself. Penciling samples from tryout scripts is okay, but as stated above, they tend to be run-on and are a waste of energy in my opinion.
Pick three different publishers’ characters; variety is what you want. For EPIC submissions, you must stick to Marvel characters.
Draw a solo character three-page story. EPIC submission suggestions are Spider-Man, Daredevil, Elektra, Wolverine or Iron Man.
Draw a three-page team vignette. EPIC submission suggestions are the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, or the Marvel Knights.
Cap it off with a short three-pager with nothing but normal people doing normal everyday stuff, or even better, comedic slapstick. EPIC submission suggestions are Alias, Deadline, Ben Urich, Peter Parker and Aunt May, or Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson.
Now, I know a lot of up-and-comers like to do pin-ups in their portfolios -- the temptation is irresistible! Editors hate to see these because they tell us nothing of your storytelling chops. However, there is a way to do pin-ups and have them serve a purpose in your portfolio. Show off your cover skills! Think of what would be the appropriate cover for each of your three stories and design one for each. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to do cover logo lettering, just leave the appropriate space at the top; editors are savvy enough to get the whole picture!
This will leave you with a portfolio twelve pages in length, which is more than enough to show an editor whether you have what it takes to make it at their respective companies. You will have concisely shown how you handle a solo hero, a team and normal people and environments in simple sequences that demonstrate your skill with sequential storytelling as well as your ability to do covers. You're also giving editors an idea of how you handle characters from varying companies. Now mind you, the publishers I listed as examples are merely that. You can use any three you like, just make sure they're three publishers you would like to work for.
One more thing — let’s talk about adapting these rules to EPIC submissions. When submitting work to EPIC, you only have five pages to work with, but those five pages should reflect as much of the stuff I talked about above as possible. You can skip the cover illustrations — it’s more important that we see you can tell a story, so don’t waste pages on pin-ups. You’ll have to make some sacrifices, but the most important thing is to show examples of super hero action as well as everyday people doing everyday stuff. You might want to break up your allotted five pages into a three-page super hero story (which you can grab right out of your 3x3x3 convention portfolio) and a two-page everyday people vignette. Lastly, make sure you are sending your absolute best work here — with so few pages to play around with, every single one of them needs to shine.
So that's the formula in a nutshell. Now let's look at a sample silent vignette. I
recommend you think up three of your own since the one I'm including here is merely to give you an idea of what to do. Remember, make sure they have a beginning, middle and end!
IRON MAN
"Cat Day Afternoon"
By Señor Swanky
We open with a shot of Iron Man flying happily and enjoying the freedom that his jet boots bring him.
We pull back to see that our image of Iron Man is actually on multiple view screens. A villainous, shadowy figure sits with his back to us as he looks at the bank of monitors.
We close in on the face of that villain -- dear God, it's Doctor Doom! Doc is pushing a big button that obviously is activating something nasty. Perhaps the button is labeled "Something Nasty!" That's a joke of course, but it might bring a smile to an editor's face.
Cut to a down shot of a cat in a tree with a worried little girl below. We are somewhere in the suburbs
C.U. (close up) on the little girl's face -- she's looking astonished.
Worm's eye view from behind the little girl, she's in the shot. We can now see what is causing the look of astonishment. We're looking up at the tree as Iron Man is slowly gliding down with kitty safely in hand.
Iron Man hands the little girl her cat -- she's ecstatic!
Iron Man turns his head; he's heard something with the help of his armor’s enhanced hearing.
Shot of Iron Man in an obvious rush, flying through the clouds. There's a very serious attitude to his posture and his boot jets are blazing on high! There is obviously danger in the air!
Now we need an establishing shot of Manhattan from a P.O.V. (point of view) just behind Iron Man. This gives us a sense of what Iron Man is seeing and the fact that we've changed locations.
Suddenly in front of Iron Man a giant Doombot appears between buildings. It's starting to tear them down in a very Kirbyesque fashion.
Similar shot to last panel but smaller, perhaps an inset. This is from inside Iron Man's helmet. It's a heads-up display showing him, in MIR imaging, what's inside of the Doombot's head structure. We can clearly see that there are no humans inside. Marvel heroes are very careful!
Iron Man swoops and knocks the Doombot's head right off with one giant haymaker
Shot of Iron Man standing victorious on top of the Doombot 's head while the remainder of the Doombot has collapsed as well in the distance. People in the background cheer!
We pull back to see that the same shot of Iron Man is on Doctor Doom's monitors.
Medium C.U. of Doc Doom slamming his fist and destroying the console in front of him. Curses, foiled again!
TA-DAA! There you have it. A quick and simple story that should break down easily into three pages. Now, I encourage all of you to think up your own three-page adventures -- it show us that you can think in terms of story and structure!
Have fun and good luck!
See ya in the funnybooks,
JQ
EEK!
-This Excerpt was taken off of Joe Quesada's Website JoeQuesada.com With the consent of Joe Quesada via e-mail
-Brian Germain
