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Underground > Comic Books >

Who's made a comic then?

  
  

Page: (1)234

 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
23:10 / 02.12.03
The more I read barbelith, the more I become aware that there really are a whole lot of people here who have made comics.

And in this thread, you tell us about them! I'm really interested to hear about them all, because I'm sure there's some I haven't picked up on.

So tell us about your comic! Don't go spare on the details, eh? Obvious or not, just type it out if you've got a second.

I would go first, but I don't want to seem arrogant as if that's the point of me starting this thread, so I won't.

Comic geniuses so far!

Benjamin Birdie's Genre City
Cameron Stewart.com
Vortex09 spits out Hector
ElectricMonk's Character
Flyboy, Sleazenation and he of the Evergreen forest with some good ol' Jenny Everywhere and more
Gypsy Lantern's Molotiva
Suedehead's measly first time comic for temperamental teens who are too old for this sort of thing.
Matsya's incorrigable Godlings
Catjerome's mini-comics
MC Lentil's Slab and some Everywhere for good measure.

PatrickMM wants to make the future now!
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
23:34 / 02.12.03
Do they have to be, like, on paper?

It's been a bit slow lately, as I've been working on more potentially lucrative projects, but it is in full motion and a print version should hopefully drop next year, with celebrity pin-ups and director's commentary. But, although it does have pictures and word balloons, I don't know if that's what you meant.
 
 
Bed Head
00:10 / 03.12.03
I’m doing one right now, fulfilling all my bohemian comic book artist fantasies by sitting hunched over a drawing board all night, fuelled by lashings and lashings of cheap wine.

After collecting enough rejection letters from 2000AD (BASTARDS! WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY KNOW ABOUT COMICS, HUH? ANSWER ME THAT?) to paper the walls of a small room, I actually managed to get a real-life, nationally distributed magazine to buy one of my proposals. For money and everything. Then, while I’m drawing the first episode, they move me to (ahem) ‘another’ magazine they publish, and instruct me to put more sex and violence in if I still want the gig. This I do. They’re like, “great, but it really needs more sex and violence”. What’s a boy to do? PC Principles can go hang if it’s a straight choice between this and a real job. I’ve had to dig pretty deep, first to find and then to creatively channel my inner heterosexual pig, but they’re happy now. And it’s good practice for me. I think after I meet this month’s deadline I’ll have maybe a week and a bit to work up something more, er, me

However, tonight Matthew, I am Wally Wood...
 
 
Bed Head
00:10 / 03.12.03
(Obviously, nowhere near as talented as Wally Wood... But, he is my sleazy art god, so I’m claiming every brush stoke to be a kind of homage, it keeps me cheerful).

Tell us about yours, suedehead!
 
 
CameronStewart
00:47 / 03.12.03
I've made quite a few.

Will get round to replying to your PM soon, Suedehead.
 
 
Captain Zoom
00:48 / 03.12.03
No actual comics yet. I have an extensive series bible about the wolf from all the fairy tales waking up in modern day and becoming a messiah. Another about a reporter on the "super-hero" beat of a major newpaper (though maybe a little too much Astro City to seem fresh). I've also scripted 3 or four shorts from a series of recurring dreams I had.

These will be shopped out to various places as soon as I can get off my ass and do it.

Zoom.
 
 
rakehell
02:54 / 03.12.03
I've done minicomics, but they're only available in shops and clubs around Melbourne, Australia.

My mum thinks I'm cool.
 
 
H3ct0r L1m4
03:12 / 03.12.03
I've done half of abunch of comics. complete full scripts, that is. will try selling them [the poor devil I am] to publishers after some of the art drops on my email. I'm willing to try 2 to 3 different publishers for each short story before going self-publishing. and, given the current state of my bank account, some editor better pick them up soon.

maybe in 2004 ZOMBINGO [finished art is great], THE EMPIRE NEVER DIES, GREEN RISING and others will see the light of day.

announcements here: http://hectorlima.tk.

sorry if this sounded too... PR. Damn that Ellis.
 
 
electric monk
03:20 / 03.12.03
Thanks for the chance to act like a ho' Suede. I ain't shy...

I self-published my first comic in January of this year and debuted it at MegaCon in sunny Florida. Currently trying to get some copies sold at the local shops, getting distributed to retailers across the US by Cold Cut (demand it from a retailer near you!), and selling it direct to the consumer through the wonders of the Internet. It's my look at the state of the industry and the state of myself, done in Photoshop in a photoreal/heavy ink and greytones that's hard to describe. Now I'm seeing the same or similar looks popping up in every third commercial. I was there first, yeh bassards!

Best of luck to everyone, esp. those doin' it for the luv.

Go Bed Head! Go Bed Head! Go Bed Head! Go Bed Head!
 
 
foot long subbacultcha
08:17 / 03.12.03


I wasted a bunch of university trying out a story. Managed to get an artist to draw the first ten pages of what would be a two hundred page opus. Only problem was that he would draw those first ten over and over and over again. I never actually finished writing the story in the end.

There was going to be a website at www.thefeudalsystem.com but I kinda gave up on the idea. The holding area is still there, with some of the painted pages.

Now I've done some growing up I've decided on a more manageable 20 page children's story. Just need an artist now. Much easier?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:22 / 03.12.03
Together with Nelson Evergreen, who can also be sighted round these parts on occasion, I've done a couple of Jenny Everywhere strips. As well as being available online, we also put out a minicomic containing the two stories, which had a very small print run but will hopefully see more copies in the New Year. The script for the second part of 'Damn Fine Hostile Takeover' has been in the can for a bit now (while the rightly-in-demand Mr Evergreen has been busy with other projects), but should also see the light in 04. And in the meantime I'm working on the next one...
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
08:42 / 03.12.03
I've got about five comics on-line at the moment, with more to come when I get some plausible head space. You can read them here:

www.molotovia.co.uk

The main one is 'Do Electric Sheep Have Wet Dreams', which is not entirely about big insect spaceships that have sex with each other, although that does figure into it quite heavily. The first story (22 pages) is completed in pencil with a 6-page preview fully finished on the website. Have a look and let me know what you think.

I've got a few more ready, written and pencilled, which are just waiting for me to get around to inks and colour before I can put them up on the site. There's a lot more of 'Hypno-pop' lying around in sketch pads waiting to be coloured in as well.
 
 
DaveBCooper
09:04 / 03.12.03
Some scripts for 2000AD, late 1980s UK humour comic Oink, and some small press stuff.
"Comics ? I been in it man and boy... hardest game in the world..."
 
 
THX-1138
12:15 / 03.12.03
I've done about seven 'issues' of a mini-comic. Looking back over them I have to say my writing seems lousy. Anyone interested, I could probably send some out. Augentrost Comics Presents...The Days and Nights of Jim Weaver!!
Maybe one day I'll actually finish it.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
12:43 / 03.12.03
Wow, lots of replies and everything! Ok, I’ll try and respond to each and everyone…

Cameron – Cheers! Oh hey, is your self published stuff still knocking about? The... rumble royale (?) compilation thing?

Boyfly - did you ever reply to my PM asking you about yours and Nelson’s print run? Because, you know… I was hurt you didn’t. Jesus wept… and I grew a beard. Looking forward to seeing the new shit anyway. Is all yr comics stuff gonna be Jenny Manywhere? And what is Nelson up to? Too busy for his own good, that boy. Well… too busy for me to be bug him continually. Arf.

Bed Head –Well done! But… what is this magazine?! A magazine that publishes comics, as well as being obsessed by sex and violence? I never knew such a thing existed. Hope your art survives all the cheap wine! Having said that I find it unfair that you have a drawing board when I am stuck at the kitchen table… and worrying my cat’s going to venture up on the table and try and fight all my work. And people coming home and making tea/food/being noisy/trying to talk to me when. I. Am. Trying. To. Work! I’ve never felt such frustration.

Benjamin – Yes, yes! Any comic work! I’ve actually already had a look at yours, linked from various blogs. I shall have to read the whole thing through when I get a chance. Comic blog = good. Reminds me I was going to set up my own, once upon a time. (Eventually went from ongoing story – little strips – I’ll never do this -

Gypsy – I’ve heard of this site before, I’m sure. Has it been mentioned round here? Had a quick look at the main comic you mentioned. I’ll take a proper look later. Anyway, art looks nice, inky and sci-fi from what I see so far. Had a bit of trouble reading first splash page, but that’s what you get w/ comics online. The design of it, however, looked very nice. Any print plans?

Rake – mini comics! My mum thinks I’m cool as well, but I think she’s biased/insane. What are yr mini comics like? Can anyone give any mini comics making advice, I am sadly, very ignorant in this area, I think.

Electric Monk – your links seem to be broken. Sounds nice though, any of it available/viewable online?

Scoobyjah – I think you’ve done the right thing in sizing yr story right down. Seriously, 200 pages?! Wow. I know there are many published and respected artists who wouldn’t want to take on a project that size. Good luck finding an artist, though.

DaveBCooper – Tell us more!


It’s interesting that it seems a lot of the people replying seem to be writers… have any of you ever thought of drawing your scripts yourselves? I don’t mean that in a condescending way, but to me, it seems like writing a script and then hunting down an (decent) artist seems like a huge task. They’re very reclusive, I hear. Especially if you don’t have any gold to offer. Or clothes. Or cheap booze… don’t get me wrong, it just seems like you have to stake a lot on finding a good artist. And really, they are what’s gonna make your comic worthwhile. I totally understand the need for a work to be a comic, and things that can only work in that medium. But it seems odd to me that you would base so much of yr own work on being able to get someone else to do the lions share/do it justice, etc. Could some of this work be a simple short story? I’m just wondering, of course. I understand a comic being a desirable artform… but if you put a lot in to a project, and want something to be great, then it seems odd to hand over control to someone else, and for them to put so much in to what is, basically, your own personal work. Unless of course, you give them money. Or you collaborate – I mean really collaborate on it, and you’re both in to it ideas-wise. I mean, not every comic artist wants to write… but I’m pretty sure they’d want to draw something they believe in/are interested in. I understand I may be way off the mark when it comes to this thread (none of this is particular to anyone here, I seem to have gone off on a tangent)… but it does worry me when I see people saying things like “I’ve finished up my script and now I just need to find an artist”. I mean, like that’s the end of their part? That’s just the beginning, man!


As for me, I’m working on a 20-ish comic right now, which I’m really enjoying. I did, after all, quit my job to do this (slowly). I’m hoping I can get a print run going at the end of it all. I’m learning a lot doing it, and comic-wise I feel like I’m progressing. I think I’ll keep this under wraps for now, though… I don’t want you all to be fed up of it before I even start bugging everyone to look at it properly. Ha. As well as all that, the fact I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately has caused my mind to quite literally explode (on to my wall). Indeed, I’ve been compiling all my notes for other projects and sticking them all on my wall, so I can easily see what goes where – and it’s not all in just one note pad. I’ve got about 9 projects and counting at present. Some are just short strips, and rough ideas, which may very well merge in to other projects, but there’s at least two which are looking to become size-able comics that take over my life for far too long.

Also: there’s my experimental comic beast, over at Queer Granny.



link: http://www.queergranny.com/109feelthefear.shtml

Please bear in mind this is a rough draft I put together for a London publisher (they publish illusrated poetry books about how good life is is, so I thought this would work). I always had in mind a bit of sprucing for publication, but I can’t see that happening so I don’t mind showing it in all it’s naked glory! I don’t want to seem terribly over the top saying “oh, it’s awful! (Give me compliments)”. I think it’s just, at least in comic story telling, I feel like I’ve moved on from this a great deal. Now, part of me is kind of embarrassed by this – artwise, at least. Yet another part of me still thinks of it as lo-fi like Pavement. Part of me thinks it works beautifully like this, as a fully lo-fi creation, like looking at the actual drawing board… which is kind of (note: this doesn’t excuse my lazy art moments, however much I’d like it to) how it’s meant to be. I mean, I left all my pencil lines in for a *reason*. I am still very proud of it though,it really was an accomplishment for me, and a very learning experience, to get done. A lot of positives have come out of doing it, and a lot of renewed enthusiasm for my work. So it's all good.

God, I’ve said way too much about my own work.

I’ve rambled way too much, so please excuse me if I’ve missed anything and/or put things badly. I think this thread is quite nice though, if I do say so myself…
 
 
FinderWolf
12:59 / 03.12.03
GypsyLantern, very cool comic! (Electric Sheep) It has sort of a Mitch O'Connell look/feel to the art.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
14:51 / 03.12.03
Is all yr comics stuff gonna be Jenny Manywhere?

Not at all, but like you say, finding talented and willing artists isn't always the easiest thing in the book (working with Nelson has spoilt me, obviously). I have two more Jenny Everywhere stories in my head, one short, one quite long - the former will almost certainly appear next year with Evergreen art, the latter, hopefully one day. Me & Gypsy Lantern may well be doing an 'Ackroyd & Sinclair' strip soon.

One of the reasons both of the above are more likely to appear than some of the other things I'm working on but don't really want to discuss, is that the characters lend themselves to short, snappy stories. A big problem otherwise is my annoying tendency to map out several 'seasons' worth of plot in my head and then not be able to write one page of actual action/dialogue. As for the question of prose - for me, they're two different things, and it's hard to imagine ever conceiving of a story in one medium and then transfering it to the other...

(Have finally replied to yr PM, by the way...)
 
 
Bed Head
15:09 / 03.12.03
But… what is this magazine?! A magazine that publishes comics, as well as being obsessed by sex and violence?

Not the kind of magazine anyone here will be reading, I hope, I pray. I am producing softcore sexy adventure comics for a dodgy top shelf gentleman’s magazine, and it’s the least erotic thing anyone, anywhere has. Ever. Done. In the history of time. But... they always pay on time, they think I’m great, its always a good thing to work to deadlines, it’s jolly good drawing practice, I’m left alone to make up my own plot as long as I maintain the required tit quotient in every episode, and it’s actually quite a spur to see my stuff in print, even if I can’t show my mother.

I’m hoping to get a Jenny Evrywhere story done in a couple of weeks’ time, if only for the novelty of drawing a girl who keeps her clothes on.

Lot of talented people working on this site. Has there ever been any effort to produce a Barbelith compilation, on paper and all? There’s surely enough potential material for an annual that would knock Drawn and Quarterly into it’s proper place.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
16:13 / 03.12.03
Fly: All I meant was that *sometimes* comic writers seem lazy to me, in that they don't really write for the medium, as it were. But just see it as an easy option. It's only people like that that I thought might want to consider options that involve them being involved more in the creation of a whole thing. Instead of hassling their artist like it's a god given right. Anyway, let's all ignore my random musings on the type of people who sometimes seem to write comics...

I look foward to seeing the continued exploits of Everywhere (and all the rest) from you and Evergreen's pen. I mean, really... that's one hell of a cliffhanger you left us on!

Bed head; do you think you could get away with crazy fiction - just with a woman who is sex crazy and always has her top off? Thus maintaining - even overdoing! - tit quotient? I'm sure you could do some wildly interesting stories of the unexpected, at least, if you could get way with this. Even with Ed Wood-like titles.... "Plan SEX from Outer Space!!!!"
 
 
sleazenation
18:35 / 03.12.03
Like Fly, i've also got a few strips out there drawn by mr Evergreen's loving quill late night queuing and for one-page jenny goodness the late shift.
 
 
EvskiG
20:15 / 03.12.03
Did a couple of one-pagers for Art Spiegelman at SVA in the late 80s. Never published, hope they never will be.
 
 
matsya
20:35 / 03.12.03
I've got a weekly strip (on hold for the christmas break, new strips up in feb) called The Godlings up at popimage. The Godlings also appeared between chapters of my novel, Man Bites Dog.

I've made a few minicomics too:

- The amazing atavistic adventures of the fish. A 12-page lineart b&w about a fish-guy and Australian bushranger Ned Kelly.
- Neuronn, the creature from a human brain. Another 12-pager, drawn crudely using Adobe Illustrator, about a giant nerve-cell.
- The Book of Job. More Illustrator art stick-figures. A sort of school playground interpretation of the Biblical story.
- Rude Boy, P.I.. A pseudo-noir piece drawn using only the character set of the webdings font. Starring a hovering rude boy.
- Lifeguard. Illustrator lineart. Abstract. Erotica.
- The Lives and Times of Jerry the Nerky Lizard. Various short pieces starring a sentient bipedal lizard with a liking for chicken soup.

There's kind of a list of them, with cover shots, here.

I too have had difficulty finding artists to draw my scripts. Most of the people I've got to do some work on my writing have been busy producing their own work, and it's a lot of work continually prodding them about finishing things. But it can be worth it. Sometimes I'm happy to draw my own stories, like with the above minicomics, but sometime I want another look to it. The Jerry the Nerky Lizard comic has a "poster" section right at the back where I had other artists draw Jerry, and that seemed to work well - they only had to do one page each.

I've also got a script called The Mighty Three, a pretty straightforward superhero parody, being drawn by someone I hooked up with through barbelith, which is nice.

More power to the comic-makers.

m.
 
 
matsya
20:54 / 03.12.03
Hey Vortex09, ElectricMonk - tell us more 'bout yer comix - what they 'bout?

m .
 
 
rizla mission
21:26 / 03.12.03
I've now finished the long awaited (by about 9 people) second edition of my comic, now renamed Building Ghosts.

I'll get round to printing it as soon as I've got the more immediate issues of my life figured out.. it'll be about 20 pages and will feature beatniks, rock n' roll, Lynchian weirdness, deserts, ruined cities, graveyards, Jenny Everywhere, meddling kids, supernatural visitations, a dead cat, shameless pop culture referencing and the occasional gigantic explosion.

Which obviously makes it sound way more exciting than it actually is.

I started off by trying to do one panel a day with no forward planning and just seeing where my whims took things.. and obviously it takes, like, about two days before I've got a massive forward planned plotline involving alternate realities, parallel storylines and casts of freaky characters.. it's always the way..

The general idea though is that whenever I feel like adding a new scene of idea, I'll just chuck it in and figure things out later..
 
 
Jack Fear
22:06 / 03.12.03
I've done a bunch of comics, on and off through the years.

It was okay.
 
 
moriarty
22:26 / 03.12.03
"...ruined cities, graveyards, Jenny Everywhere, meddling kids..."

Wicked.

"I've done a bunch of comics, on and off through the years.

It was okay."

Mind if I use that for my tombstone?

I've been drawing comics on and off since I was a little kid, as I imagine most of you have (now wouldn't that be a neat thread?). High points include drawing a weekly sci-fi, Buster Crabbe style action adventure blockbuster called Captain Zoltan Smith of the Zero Brigade for a university paper, an old-school adventure strip called Hugo, Master of the Seven Seas, a short-lived stint as a political cartoonist on a strike paper, a few months worth of cartoon diaries, numerous comic jams, and many half-finished projects that I had to abandon once school came along. Everything I draw these days seems to be course related, so I'm looking forward to having some free time to work on something personal again.
 
 
Catjerome
03:03 / 04.12.03
I do minicomics (though not as often as I'd like to). I have a bunch of graphic novel scripts on the slow burners, too, but they always seem to require a lot of research, which ends up being the First Phase of Procrastination.

I'm going to set up a decent bit on my website devoted to these minis, but in the meantime, I point everyone to a page on my old school website.

Minicomics are great! It's fantastic how easy it us to draw up a bunch of stuff, take it down to the copy shop, and actually have comics in your hand that you can give to friends! Something about the printed, bound word is just so damned cool (and impressive to other people).
 
 
H3ct0r L1m4
03:10 / 04.12.03
matsya:

ZOMBINGO [10 pages] is about an old fella who wins at the bingo but fears his prize came with a curse. horror, in a modern EC-fashion. some sketches here: http://geocities.com/hectorgouvea/zombingo.html [where some of the pages may appear soon]. art is almost complete;

THE EMPIRE NEVER DIES [12 pages] is set in the near future, when Amerikkka's worst enemy becomes its best army strategist. his loyalty is tested when a bunch of terrorists try a 9/11-type attack to bring the Government down. a new artist has been attached after the first guy had the script for a year and produced nothing;

GREEN RISING [10 pages] is another EC-style short about a teen girl who has to cope with her brother's death, neurotic parents and being treated like an alien at school. recently had an artist attached - he didn't complain about the paper or glue;

others being written now include THE ALBINO [an interview with the world's oldest and most dangerous man], THANKS, BRO [or BIIIIIG BROTHER, about a psychobilly band member with a temper disorder and a strange scar in his belly].

some long story projects still in early stages are RED SKY [a surreal school reunion], SEA DRAGON [an Ultimate Fighting champion discovers he soon won't be able to breathe on the land].

I've got no publishers for any of those yet, nor money to self publish them. anyway, the struggle continues - because we're all stubborn.

your stuff looks nice, matsya. will read THE GODLINGS soonish. and RUDE BOY PI looks like a great idea.
 
 
electric monk
10:48 / 04.12.03
This link will take you straight to my comic's homepage.

There's a wonderful summary, a Flash preview (by my Web Boss) and even an interview where I act like a hot-shit superstar. Enjoy.

I'm going to check back and follow everyone's links soon, but now I gotta brush my teeth and drag my ass to work.
 
 
louisemichel
12:03 / 04.12.03
I made quite a few (graphic novels), and non-graphic novels too...
But as I'm french and nothing's published in english, nobody cares...
But if you read french, greek, german, dutch, italian, spanish, polish, portuguese, corean or even Islandic, I may have somthing for you...
 
 
rakehell
22:54 / 04.12.03
suede: My mini comics are written by me and drawn by someone else because I no good at drawing. They're fairly short, just one A4 sheet, printed on both sides and cut in half. We get guest artists for the back cover though.

There's only been two but there's more in prepdoduction. We're trying to get clever, so they're all layed out and lettered in Illustrator and Photoshop. One day we hope to collect them in a single volume.

There's tons of creative people here. So cool.
 
 
lentil
23:25 / 04.12.03
Damn right. I'm quite amazed by the number of creators springing from the woodwork.

I've illustrated a Jenny Everywhere story, "My Bloody Valentine", scripted by Sax, and have done two issues of my mini-comic, "Slab". I am also gag cartoonist for a trade magazine about, um, workwear.
 
 
PatrickMM
23:53 / 04.12.03
I've got two graphic novels and one short piece in the works.

Make the Future Now is a graphic novel about a guy who invents a device that allows the user to re-experience all the memories stored in their head, and the massive societal change that occurs as a result of this. Thematically, it's about complacency vs. activism. The artist, Jason Vasquez is working on the script now, and at the end it will be around 90 pages. We did a four page mini-comic preview story, that's available on the site. The site is still being worked on, so everything there doesn't work yet. We're hoping to have this finished by autumn of 2004.

Division Shadow, the other graphic novel, is a big cast, multi-story thing. It's all centered around a branch of the military, Division Shadow, that deals with controlling the status quo. They do this by deciding what technology gets released, etc. So, the three main stories are, one DS operative is in the process of being promoted within the organization, but has to deal with his family, and a captured scientist, he is quite attracted to. Then, in the Middle East, the US government has taken control of vast areas of land. Two people try to help build a refugee camp, while all the time threatened by Division Shadow troops. And, an old man is dying of cancer, and the nurse caring for him doesn't know why there is so much security surrounding him. So, this one if a bit bigger, and probably won't be finished until mid 2005.

Finally, I've got the short piece Supernova which will appear in the Zebra anthology, which I'm helping to put together along with Jameson Lee aka Mister Six of this board.

And, a lot of the projects mentioned in here look great, I've got a lot of links to check out for the future.

It might not be a bad idea to create some kind of running thread, or mailing list, where we could talk about our experiences trying to get stuff into print, and published. And, also artistic tips, either here or in the creative forum.
 
 
matsya
23:57 / 04.12.03
louisemichel: bollocks to that! there's dictionaries, ain't there? and comix got pictures, too. so spill the beans, mon frere. spillez-vous les legumes.

m.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
17:21 / 05.12.03

GypsyLantern, very cool comic! (Electric Sheep) It has sort of a Mitch O'Connell look/feel to the art.

Thanks very much, glad you liked it.

I’ve heard of this site before, I’m sure. Has it been mentioned round here?

Aye, I posted a link up a few months back when I launched the site. The thread slipped off the map pretty quickly though. I need to do a bit of promotion at some point soon, try and get it reviewed and suchlike.

Had a bit of trouble reading first splash page, but that’s what you get w/ comics online.

If you click on the floating ladybird pic it’ll open up a larger version of the double page splash, so you can see the detail and read the speech bubbles.

Any print plans?

When the rest of it is inked and lettered we’ll probably look into self-publishing, or maybe try and pitch it to some place as a finished piece of work.

It’s interesting that it seems a lot of the people replying seem to be writers… have any of you ever thought of drawing your scripts yourselves? I don’t mean that in a condescending way, but to me, it seems like writing a script and then hunting down an (decent) artist seems like a huge task.

I’m primarily a writer but I draw as well. I work with a very talented artist, but I’m fairly prolific so it made sense for me to learn how to draw myself in order to make as much interesting work as I can. I used to be able to draw when I was younger but I let it slide for about 10 years, however, 6 months of life drawing lessons soon sharpened things up and I don’t think I’m too bad these days. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m getting there. You can see my efforts on the comic ‘Hypno-Pop’ and the inset panel for ‘Strange Aeons,’ which can be found behind the purple cocktail glass on my website.

But it seems odd to me that you would base so much of yr own work on being able to get someone else to do the lions share/do it justice, etc.

I find that tendency a bit odd as well. I’ve certainly been guilty of it in the past myself, but you get to a point where you’ve been writing for a year and all you have to show for it are a bunch of scripts waiting for an artist. Not the most rewarding approach to follow.

Or you collaborate – I mean really collaborate on it, and you’re both in to it ideas-wise. I mean, not every comic artist wants to write… but I’m pretty sure they’d want to draw something they believe in/are interested in.

I think a lot of creators who are trying to break into the comics industry seem to, consciously or otherwise, impose the limitations of the work for hire production cycle on themselves. Knocking out a script and passing it over to the artist to create the actual comic, without much in the way of discussion or very many re-drafts taking place. I really think this defeats the point a little. We’re not working for hire, so surely it would make more sense to really concentrate on making your comic as perfect as possible.

The process of creating “Do Electric Sheep…” was really rewarding because it was a real collaboration. I wrote the script and drew a little thumbnail mini-comic of the whole thing as I saw it. The artist then looked at that and tried to find ways of making it more visually appealing and more interesting for him to draw. He’s from a film school background and was able to bring all sorts of cinematic concerns to the visual narrative that I hadn’t considered. Essentially playing the role of Director of Photography, to my Scriptwriter and Director. Sometimes he would come up with cool ideas that I felt worked against what I was trying to do with the narrative, so we’d knock ideas around until we came up with a solution that satisfied both of our concerns.

We had late night arguments over the practicality of alien insect reproduction cycles, countless design meetings, about 5 major script re-writes, and at least 3 thumbnail mini comics produced before we got anywhere near the pencils. I think all of that paid off and it’s a much better comic than it would have been without all of the care and attention we put into it. I learned more about the craft of writing comics by engaging in this process than I ever would have done had I just written a script and handed it over.

Me & Gypsy Lantern may well be doing an 'Ackroyd & Sinclair' strip soon.

It will be done.
 
  

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