Possible Cover

This was done by my main man Raph! over at MAKMA...a great piece with lots of little things to it. I'm still not sure if this will be the cover or if I'm going to go with the color coordination covers that I'm doing with the mini-series. Hit me up with some thoughts...

SLOOOOOW

Not much happening as I am right now in the middle of knocking out about 4 more CBM columns. Not too interesting to read about me WRITING the columns...I know. I have some little news that will come up once it is more solidified...but I'll save that until it is...more solidified.

I'll get more preview art up soon for the two readers of this blog to see.

New CBM's (hopefully) Soon

Had a great time at the con with Rich, Howie, and hanging with Bill from TitansTower.com. Found some great quarter books for the column and tried very hard to fill in the rest of my New Universe collection (found many a Psi-Force...you know I'm psyched.).

As submissions are still out, I'll be pressing forward shortly with some new CBM's primarily dealing with how to self-publish the book. At this point I'm unsure if I'm self-publishing or not, but best to explore that route for all of you out there who don't know what to do. I HAVE NO CLUE...so it'll be a fun exciting experience for all of us. Philip Clark had a big thing at the Big Apple Con on self-publishing today...but I was home sick watching the Eagles (THEY WON!!! SUPER BOWL BABYYYY!)

Hopefully I'll wrangle Philip up, get some one-on-one, and start looking forward to printing the book. More preview art will also come everyone's way as I want to continue showing just a little bit from each story.

Big Apple Con - Tomorrow

Just a reminder, I'll be at Big Apple Con tommorrow...doing nothing more then looking around, talking to the people who once starred in 'Three's Company', buying some trades, hanging with some indy celebs, and talking comics. I'll be the guy in the backwards blue cap, blue Brooklyn shirt, and cargos.

Release Q-Tip's Kamaal the Abstract!

Starting a grassroots campaign to get Arista Records to release Q-Tip's long shelved album 'Kamaal the Abstract'. I was partially inspired by the current Fiona Apple campaign to release her third album, but mostly inspired by Esthero's 'We R In Need of a Musical Revolution!', because she talks about the responsibilites of all to drive music to be better. Q's second album is amazing and has been sitting on the shelf since 2002, which is a damn shame. If you are a fan of Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, rap music, music in general, or hate how record companies treat artists...then click on the links below. It only takes people speaking up for our voices to be heard. That might sound like an inane, stupid comment but its true. We speak up, we will be heard, people will listen. All it takes it five seconds. Click the link and sign.

Hit up the petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/kamaal/petition.html

Hit up the site at: http://www.forgottenuniverses.com/qtip.html

Preview: Spirit Animals

Scott Kellogg is the artist who took charge on the 4 page 'Spirit Animal' story, which follows Servo into a strange dreamland where he finds his spirit animal: the one-and-only Captain Jack. As he learns from CJ he also gets to meet a host of a party, an aardvark by the name of Cerebus. Only in a dream I guess...but the story is a bunch of fun. Here is some of the story!

Character Look: Servo

Another preview of Dave Lafuente's art. This time around we meet Thomas Servo, who is featured ALOT in the Wise Intelligence Anthology and further on in the WI mini-series.

To Look Forward To In 2005

Nothing (really) comic book related...but since this is the only blog I have...I figured I'd point out some of the things I'm VERY excited about in 2005.

(1) New Jamiroquai Album - So far titled 'Dynamite', its the band's first album since 2001 and a long time coming. Done with producers from the U.S., my favorite band looks to have their first breakout album since 1996's Travelling Without Moving.

(2) Family Guy - Season Premiere May 1, 2005. This show is just brilliant and I loved it when it was on, bummed that it got cancelled, immediately bought the DVDs, and VERY glad Fox uncancelled it and started new episodes. It's been a long time coming and hopefully the show will stay on for many seasons to come. Of course also in May is...

(3) Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith. I'm a big Star Wars fan. My holy grail is framed downstairs...an original 'Revenge of the Jedi' movie poster. Now comes Episode 3 and while many hated the first two (I didn't like both at first, but they've come to REALLY grow on me) this should be the movie that fans have been waiting for.

(4) Esthero. Both her EP (We R In Need Of A Musical Revolution) and her LP (Wikked Lil Girls) come out this year and it is a long time coming...I think her first album came out in, what, 1998? Esthero is AMAZING and my 2nd favorite artist (behind Jamiroquai).

Lots of other great things to come...Batman Begins, new Harry Potter movie and book, and let's not forget the premiere of Wise Intelligence!!! But those four things are the four pillars of my entertainment year.

Comic (Nearly) Officially Finished

The final art for the last story came through yesterday and except for lettering on three of the stories...the Wise Intelligence Anthology is completed.

It's exciting at least to me...seeing this comic finally come from start to finish after so many months. While I thought it would have been done alot quicker...I'm quite pleased with what will be the final result. Ten stories, ten different artists..all for one low price of 49.95!!! (kidding).

More preview art this week as there isn't much else to talk about. More character bios and perhaps some bios of more of the artists...along with the first issue cover of the mini-series.

Soon...soon...I couldn't be more happy.

Character Look: Whorfin

Continuing on with a look at the characters and a brief bio, here is the smug Johnny Whorfin.

Big Apple Con - This Coming Saturday

This week we'll continue to look at some of Dave Lafuente's art and how the characters have developed under him. As submissions are out I'm going to do some spacing out of the columns while trying to find some stuff to do so the column isn't forgotten about in the many weeks it'll take to hear answers back.

I will be at the Big Apple Con this coming Saturday (January 22nd). No I'm not going to be a booth trying to peddle my wares...I have no wares to peddle just yet. Rather, myself, Rich Bernatovech (of Sentinels fame), and Howie Noeldenchen (of Mr. Scootles and the Wise Intelligence Anthology) are simply hitting the con to look for some comic deals, make fun of Star Wars personalities (Ah...Jake Lloyd...so easy to make fun of), and probably just grab some beers.

So I've already decided on what I'm wearing...which is simply a blue 'BROOKLYN' long-sleeved shirt, a backwards baseball cap, and cargo pants. If you are at the con and see me...come on up and say hey. I'm always more then happy to sit back and bullshit about comics and the Big Apple Con is a great place to do so. Plus talking with Rich and Howie makes it all the more fun, since they are both one hundred times cooler then I.

Want more info on Big Apple Con? Simply follows this link!

Back tomorrow with more looks at the characters!!!

Mailing List

Every month or so I'll just post to see if anyone is interested in joining the 'Wise Intelligence' mailing list.

Now I promise not to bombard you with every minut detail..."I woke up this morning...buy the book!"

What I will do with the list is simply e-mail when an event is taking place...Issue #30 is out or there is a Wise Intelligence story in the new Ragtag Anthology...things of that nature. It's always nice to get a normal e-mail sometimes and not one that is for Viagra, Increase the Length of your Penis, or Marry a Russian Porn Queen.

To join the Wise Intelligence mail list simply give me a write at comicbookmaker@hotmail.com and simply put a subject saying, "ADD ME TO THIS LIST". The rest will be history. :)

BIO: The Makma Boys!

MAKMA is a studio over in France headed by my good buddy Edmond Tourriol. MAKMA has been a big part of Wise Intelligence, drawing two of the stories, one of the covers, and some of the lettering. Alot of this couldn't have been done with Ed's help and a great friendship has come from us working together. Nicolas Meylaender (with inks by Christophe Hénin) drew the Typical Fratboy story while Sid was the man responsible for the two-page story titled Invincible. Here's some short bios on the guys and some samples from their respective stories, including uber-letterer Ben Basso.



Sid is a storyboard artist. He has worked on Zak Raven (Angel Gate) and Captain Canuck (Lightningstrike Publishing).

Nicolas Meylaender used to work as a game designer in the videogame industry (Sony Psygnosis, Atari) but he wanted to work in the comic book field. He has written three short episodes for THE DARKNESS (Top Cow). As a penciler, he has worked on GUNPLAY with inker Chris Hénin.

Christophe Hénin is a creative designer (for furniture or other boring stuff) but he loves working on comic books. Right now, he's penciling and inking an episode of THE CROW for a French publisher (Réflexions).

Ben Basso has lettered many Studio MAKMA projects including Gunplay, Captain Canuck and Sierra Caliente.

Character Look: Dean

Continuing to look at different characters from the series, today I present Brother Dean. Dean is the guy you can always rely on, who always there to give advice, though his own advice never seems to work when it comes to himself.

Some Newsarama Article Links

Did a short article this week on Marvel's new Spellbinders part of the new Marvel Next line.

And this week's Quarter Bin was the one and only Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham!

Laugh if you want, monkeyboy! I LOVE Spider-Ham.

CHARACTER LOOK: JK

This is the first of a few different looks at the upcoming characters. David Lafuente is having alot of fun designing and redesigning the characters that inhabit the Wise Intelligence world. As there isn't much to talk about over the next two weeks, I figured I'd share some of David's AMAZING artwork. First up is JK, one of the four main characters.

BIO: Reilly Brown

Reilly came to the Wise Intelligence Anthology very late in the game. An artist had dropped out and Reilly e-mailed me to see if there were any stories left to be drawn. Talk about perfect timing. His story turned out AMAZING, so amazing that it is one of the three stories I'm including in the submission packets. You can see one full page of his artwork below. AMAZING!


Reilly Brown is an artist who houses the largest engine that's ever been put into a cartoonist. That's a 32-valve, four-cam V8 with 238 horsepower at 4,700 rpm and 320 lb-ft of torque at 3,400 rpm. He's contributed stories to several comics anthologies, since he includes full-time four-wheel drive with a locking center differential. Under 100,000 miles. Inquire at www.oddgodpress.com/reillybrown.



I'm starting to put some comic links to the right, so if you are bored go check out some other great indy creator sites!!!

Larry Young's Book!

Someone sent me an e-mail pointing me over to Larry Young's 'True Facts' book on self-publishing. There are LOTS of these out there (Tony Caputo's Guide To Self-Publishing quickly comes to mind) but there are LOTS of resources for those out there who want to self-publish and not going through blindly (like I'm doing at the moment.
SOOOOO...
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE PAGE!

I don't think there will be a CBM next week. I'm finally caught up to where anything that happens herein will be NOW (as opposed to the columns running several weeks behind). I'm waiting for a tiny bit of artwork back and I'm printing out submissions and pages for all to see. FUN STUFF!!!

I think tomorrow, since there is a lull, I'll preview the mockup cover for the first issue of the mini-series. Why not. :)

CBM #7 Up Today AND Interview: Lulu

Sorry...a bit behind on posting all of this...military weekend killed all of my time. Latest CBM is up today and here is the Lulu interview for all to read. The Wise Intelligence Anthology is nearly completed with nine of the ten stories completed...so there will be lots more to come in the upcoming weeks. I'll be back shortly, until then here I'm talking with Stephen Fraser from Lulu.

RYAN MCLELLAND: What does one need when coming to Lulu to self-publish when publishing a comic book?

STEPHEN FRASER: Artists preparing to publish a comic book on Lulu need the interior of their books prepared in one of the following formats:
a) A .PDF file in one of these trim sizes: 8.5"x11", 6"x9", or 6.625" x 10.25" (standard comic trim size). If you want your pages to be full-bleed, you need to set your trim size with an extra .25" on each side.
b) Alternately, .JPGs of each page of their comics (in one of the listed trim sizes) to be uploaded one at a time.
c) Most crudely, a Word document with the comics laid out as they wish them to appear (which the Lulu system can then convert into a print-ready PDF).

To publish your comic book you will also need a .JPG of your front cover and a .JPG of your back cover.

RM: I would hope that the pictures could be delivered in a digital format...what sort of resolution is best for that?

SF: Optimal print resolution is about 300 dpi. You won't see much improvement above that. Images should be sized for actual output size.

RM: Are you able to print individual issues or just comics in a book format?

SF: You can publish an individual comic, an issue of a magazine, or a book. These can be saddle-stitched, perfect-bound, or spiral bound, depending on your specification. A customer can order an individual copy of any of these.

RM: How successful has the comic book genre for your company?

SF: Lulu just began to introduce itself to comic book creators this past summer. Since then, we have seen a powerful word of mouth campaign promoting Lulu in the comic book community, driven in part by the fact that no one else offers high-quality, full-color print on demand comics with no set up fee or minimum order. We started talking to comic book creators because we have comic book fans within our company (http://www.lulu.com/comics ) and because a significant part of what Lulu set out to do in the beginning was to provide publishing tools to communities--Comic book creators and fans are an impressive community. It's been a huge success so far.

RM: What are costs usually associated with printing a comic book?

SF: Publishing a comic on Lulu is free, of course. For creators who use other means of publishing, I think there are usually set-up costs in the hundreds of dollars. You should ask Eric what he pays to publish his non-Lulu work.

RM: How is this determined and do you save less by having more printed?

SF: I guess what you are getting at is the cost of buying a published comic book. The price of a printed comic consists of four elements:
1) $4.53 base production cost
2) $.15 per page for full-color; $.02 per page for b&w
3) The creator royalty (set by the publisher)
4) The Lulu commission (equal to 25% of item #3)

So if you publish a comic on Lulu and your Mom buys a copy, the price she will pay will reflect the above elements (and shipping, of course). You will then receive your royalty (see #3 above) for that copy (thanks, Mom!) and every other copy you sell.

If you publish a comic on Lulu and YOU buy a copy of your own comic, then you will probably want to set the royalty to $0, in which case the cost of the comic will reflect #1 and #2 above. For twenty-five copies and up, you will start to see discounts on the $4.53 (#1) production cost that vary depending on the total number of copies you order.

Update / Upcoming Changes

One of the two last remaining stories to be drawn has been delivered and is currently being lettered. With that there are two stories being greyscaled (thanks Howie!!!), two to be lettered, and one story left to be finished. When that last story is delivered and lettered...this little project will be...I can't say done, because this will be nowhere near done. It will be one step closer to fruition! (Yeah..that sounds damn good).

I'll be adding some columns to the right early next week. I've decided that I will add some links to any preview art that is shown on the blog, so if anyone decides to click over and read quickly, those links can provide you a quick look at the artwork. I'm also going to link some of the great sites I look at near daily, mostly comic sites of other comic writers/artists that I haunt. If you are reading this blog thing you are a comic fan...so I mine as well clue you in to other places you might want to hang out at also. :)

Tomorrow I'll be posting the Lulu interview and then nothing over the weekend as I have to go do the military Army thing. FUN!

INTERVIEW: COMIXPRESS

Continuing to post the full interviews used for Comic Book Maker, here is the first of two blogs from this week's column on Printing-On-Demand. For the first I talked to Stuart Robertson from ComiXpress about how their services worked and what does it entail.

RYAN MCLELLAND: What does one need when coming to Comixpress to self-publish when publishing a comic book? I would hope that the pictures could be delivered in a digital format...what sort of resolution is best for that? What is the minimum print run?

STUART ROBERTSON: The preferred file type for printing with ComiXpress is PDF. Files should be 300 dpi CMYK for full color pages (and covers) or 600 dpi Grayscale for black and white pages. Digital files can be burnt onto a CD and mailed to comiXpress, or posted to a website or FTP server and the details included in the order form. There are no minimum orders, and comics sold through the comiXpress online store are printed on-demand and shipped directly to the reader when they place an order.

RM: How successful has your company been? What has worked and what have you went back and changed?

SR: We've been incredibly busy since opening for business this past summer. We've printed thousands of comics and have 64 different titles available for purchase in our online store with more being added all the time.

RM: As we continue to grow and adjust to the increasing demand we're receiving we've had to make some adjustments to our prices, but we remain committed to offering affordable low-run, low-cost printing and distribution to comic creators.

SR: To accommodate the increase in printing, we've made some upgrades to our printing system, and look forward to adding perfect-binding sometime next year to add graphic novel style books to the services we can offer comic creators.

RM: What are costs usually associated with printing a comic book? How is this determined and do you save less by having more printed? How easy is this all to do?

SR: Once you've finished creating the files for your comic, you can use our online Comic Printing Cost Calculator ( http://www.comixpress.com/printing/ ) to get an estimate and place your order. We offer the same low prices whether you're ordering one book or a hundred. When we have received your order and files, we will email you an invoice for the total cost including shipping which you can pay directly with PayPal or by Credit Card.

We have technical specifications and downloadable templates for Adobe Illustrator ( http://www.comixpress.com/technical/ ) that help creators get their files setup properly.

RM: Is it true you charge less if you put your logo on the back cover of the book?

SR: ComiXpress is dedicated not only to providing affordable print on demand comic books to creators, but also to selling them for the creators as well. ComiXpress ads featured in any comic serve to show readers where they can purchase these comics online, and serve to increase sales potential for every comic sold through ComiXpress’ online store. For this reason we offer discounts to printing comics that feature Comixpress ads and all pricing is based upon three specific tiers of ad placement: back cover, inside front or back cover, or no ad.

RM: What's been your most successful book published?

SR: We can't really discuss specific printing/sales figures, but we can tell you our current top selling comic is James Patrick and D.J. Coffman's "Lionxor" ( http://www.comixpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29 ). "Timmy Kat" ( http://www.comixpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=85 ) by James Grant and Mel Hynes, has also been selling very well since we put it online this past weekend.

BIO: Nicholas Piterra

Glad to see this week's column started off some great dialogues. Actually had quite a few people e-mailing me thanking me for the information on Printing-On-Demand. There is never any thanks needed, I'm just glad to get this information out in anyway possible, even if it is just me learning some of this for the first time.

I'll be posting the full ComiXpress interview tomorrow followed by the Lulu interview on Friday. Not sure how much more information there will be in regards to what was left out of the article, but someone out there might find the full interviews interesting.

Here is the bio for Nicholas Piterra, who drew the story 'Little Late':
Nicholas Pitarra (npitarra@hotmail.com) is currently penciling ‘In Our Dreams Awake’ for Egg Embry and Arcana Studios. His inker is Cory Petty who is 6 foot 5, 185 pounds, and likes to eat glue.

Finally here is some of Nick's early pencils. Enjoy and tune back in tomorrow!

CBM #6 Up Today!

Welcome to any readers who surfed over from Newsarama today. CBM #6 was posted and dealt with my first looks at self-publishing by talking to Lulu and ComiXpress about print-on-demand comic books. It all seems quite interesting how they do it...so I'm eager to see what the results will be should I go that route.

Tomorrow I'll be posting another artist bio then later in the week publishing the full interviews from ComiXpress and Lulu, so you can read everything and anything that was said.

6 stories of the anthology are done...though one is going to be greyscaled by my main man HC. 2 stories need to be scanned...and only 2 stories left to go before this bad boy is completed.

Come back tomorrow to learn more about...hm...I'm not sure who we'll learn about next, but be here to find out.

Ryan