Art & Story

Art & Story 147 – The Big Zine

Jerzy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:00:50 +0000

We often talk about the web, apps, and print-on-demand as means for the independent publisher to bring their work to a widening and enthusiastic audience. However, all of these methods require some level of technical skill, some degree of research and study in order to avail one’s self of the technologies of the day. To that last point, these technologies are always changing. There is always a new challenge in clearly incorporating one’s art and ideas into an enjoyable form for their readers.

What if I were to tell you that there’s a tried-and-true technological standard that’s been in existence for decades, where all you truly need is a pencil, paper, and access to a photocopy shop in order to turn your ideas into a hand-held object for others to enjoy? What if this method was even more immediate and intimate than a blog, where your readers truly felt that they were engaged with what you had to say?

Welcome to the world of zines. We take an hour and change to talk about the philosophy and ethic behind zine making, how they relate to comics and comics publishing, and the role librarians are playing in keeping the medium alive. We even share a few resources on how to get your zine into public and private libraries!

Links mentioned in this episode:

What is a Zine? video from the Baltimore County Public Library
Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?
Library collections of zines (University, Public, and Private)
Jono’s zine how-to video
Wired article on the future of media distribution through apps (thanks, Dave Anderson!)
Issuu
Jerzy’s 1995 mini-comic, The Black Hole Equation
Brandon Dayton
Mark and Jerzy will be at the Small Press Expo this September 11-12!
RADIO: Truly Crucial Rock N Roll, a new zine by Mark and Kevin, is on sale now!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 146 – The Big Funk Breaker II

Jerzy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:00:53 +0000

It’s our third anniversary, and to celebrate we take a step back to revisit a topic we haven’t broached since our first and sixty-fourth episodes; namely, how to break an artistic funk and increase your visual vocabulary.

We share a bunch of exercises and strategies for conquering new territories in your art, including:

Examining other artist’s styles and experimenting with them
Creating small projects and adding only one new element you’re not used to drawing
The 12/12 Experiment (See A&S 31 & 36)
Setting strict time limits when sketching things you’re not used to drawing
Collecting and examining art books of all kinds

Books mentioned in this episode:

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Visual Cues Pt 2 – Line

Jerzy — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:48:13 +0000

We’re back with a new episode of our Visual Cues series, where we’ll be exploring the various aspects of visual storytelling that add up to what some of us call “style”. This time we wonder aloud about the role of line in visual storytelling, citing our own works as well as the works of others as a basis of meditation.

We set forth to answer the following questions:

What do lines indicate or suggest?

Emotion
Energy
Tone
Texture

What qualities differ in lines between artists’ styles?

Value
Roughness
Smoothness
Density (highly rendered images vs countour)

We talk about the following cartoonists throughout our discussion:

Michael Cho
Walt Simonson
Walt Kelly
Charles Burns
R. Crumb
Ernie Colon
Bernie Wrightson
Jack Davis
Harvey Kurtzman
Barry Windsor-Smith
Masatsuki Yamakami
Cyril Pedrosa
Craig Thompson

See ALL of the examples we talked about during our discussion here!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 145 – The Big Intervention

Jerzy — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:22:20 +0000

This week we spend an hour and a half talking about the sea change that’s been happening in the world of conventions. With new shows popping up like Intervention, the Up! Fair, and Kids Read Comics, all featuring a heavy a focus on interactive workshops and a spotlight on the independent creators, some questions arise: Why is the open sharing of information and expertise so important with these new shows? If we accept the notion that access to learning materials has never been easier thanks to the internet, why attend these physical shows at all? What makes these shows different than the traditional North American comics convention?

We tackle these questions and more with the organizers of the Intervention, Onezumi Hartstein and James Harknell, as well as Intervention guest and Art & Story Alive! co-host Krishna Sadasivam. Throughout our discussion we attempt to get to the heart of our philosophies behind our upcoming conventions/conferences/fairs.

You can help raise funds for the Up! Fair and get cool stuff! Check out our Kickstarter page for more info.

Other links mentioned in this episode:

Only a few days left to apply for a table at the Up! Fair
Onezumi & Harknell’s recent appearance on the TGT Webcomics podcast
Frumph.net
Brandon Dayton and Kevin Cross will be appearing at the Portland Zine Symposium at the end of this month
Mark and Jerzy will be at SPX this September 11-12

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 144 – The Big Re-Evaluation

Jerzy — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:35:06 +0000

Today we get a little candid with the listeners and share some of our frustrations and disappointments in our workflow over the last few years. We take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate our personal project productivity as well as re-evaluate our growth as cartoonists by revisiting some of our old notes and projects. Will we ever learn to bite off more than we can chew? What are the warning signs that you’re taking on too many things at once?

Throughout our discussion we highlight the following areas of concern:

Time management
Identifying projects we are invested in vs ones we can table for another time
Prioritizing our projects
Note taking strategies

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 143 – The Big Potpourri IX

Jerzy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:43:12 +0000

It’s another multi-topic episode this week as we answer some questions from you, the Storriors!

We start with some talk on continuity in comics storytelling as we respond to a voicemail from Gerimi Burleigh, who was himself responding to something Kim Holm said in a recent episode of Art & Story Extreme!!. Does continuity automatically take the fun out of a story? Does it always make things more serious?

We then respond to a wondering pitched at us by Jonathan Rector: What strategies are available to pare down a story in order to fit a certain page size? How do we tame the flood of creativity that comes with making art on a regular basis?

After that we take on some questions emailed to us by Robert May:

With regards to conventions I was wondering how you guys come up with prints and other merch that aren’t comic books or mini-comics. By that I mean how do you come up with subject matter for prints or shirts or buttons? Is it all related to your personal creations or do you have a few references to more “mainstream” things like GI Joe, Batman, Transformers, etc. at your tables? And as a sub-question to that, does your process for prints follow the same process as your comic pages or do you spend a lot more time in inking and clean-up to create the highest quality for sale?

And

I currently work as a freelance graphic designer, and it makes me enough to pay the bills, but not a whole lot more than that. I want to expand to more potential clients and shift my focus more on to illustration and less on design. Could you share some tips on getting more gigs that have worked for you?

Don’t forget–applications to table at the Up! Fair will only be accepted until August 15, 2010! Sign up now!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 142 – The Big Logo

Jerzy — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:43:01 +0000

This week we take on a topic put to us by Michael Cruz: What is our creative process on designing comics project logos? In a bit of a freeform discussion (with a few technical glitches) we break the topic down into the following realms of concern:

Whether to title your story with a specific audience in mind
Aesthetic integration
Modifying an out-of-the-box font
Color balance

Don’t forget–applications to table at the Up! Fair will only be accepted until August 15, 2010! Sign up now!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 141 – The Big Online Presence

Jerzy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:00:11 +0000

It’s a bit of a business-y discussion this week as we talk with special guest panelist Dan Nowak about building an online presence. Dan helps us walk through the basics of purchasing a URL, exploring hosting options, and good use of design and social media to promote your project. Is your content more important than your site’s “message”? Or is the “message” what drives people to enjoy your content? What are the pros and cons of “free” hosting services vs. paid hosting? We kick around a few thoughts to get to the bottom of these questions and more.

Links mentioned this episode:

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 140 – The Big Memoir

Jerzy — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:16:21 +0000

This week we’re happy to have special guest panelist Raina Telgemeier aboard to discuss making a memoir comic, using her new book Smile as our basis for meditation on the topic.

We approach the discussion under the following realms of concern:

Sincerity

How important is it to you to put yourself back in the mindset of the time in which you are writing about? If it is important, how do you achieve that?

Writing Process

Writing at the thumbs, or start with notes/script? How is this different than fiction?
Paneling. Was the traditional layouts of the pages a deliberate choice? Would a non-traditional panel layout be inappropriate for this kind of story?

Construction/Art

Brush inks. How does this change your process of rendering non-organic elements?
First person POV in some shots. How does this change our relationship with the main character?
Color vs. Black and White. How did this decision change the way the book was marketed?

And for those interested in getting a free hardcover copy of Smile, you can enter to win it by posting a link to Raina’s Website on Twitter or Facebook between now and midnight EDT, July 14! Just email the link to your post to artandstory-AT-gmail-DOT-com to enter. The winner will be randomly selected to receive a hardcover edition absolutely free!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 139 – The Big Publishing Debate

Jerzy — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:00:33 +0000

To self-publish or to seek a publisher? It’s a tough question, and the short answer is “It depends on the project.” Still, we take time this week to explore some of the pros and cons of each side, citing our own experiences to back up our points.

Pros:

Self-Publishing

More control to express the artist’s ideas
Wider range of formats available to the artist
Variety of marketing strategies available

Traditional Publishing

Editorial input
Deeper understanding of marketing
Larger pool of marketing resources
Perceived respectability

Cons:

Self-Publishing

Lack of resources for marketing/promotion
Artist must also be a businessperson

Traditional Publishing

Editorial input may compromise artist’s vision
Difficult to get published by some publishing houses

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 138 – The Big Personal Project

Jerzy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:00:33 +0000

With Kids Read Comics behind us, we look ahead to the remaining months of the year and feel excitement about taking on some new comics projects. This week we share some of our thinking process, creative strategies, and execution/distribution ideas for personal projects we plan to take on later this year.

Don’t forget: Applications for table space at the Up! Fair will be accepted until August 15!

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Art & Story 137 – The Big KRC Report II

Jerzy — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:00:57 +0000

L to R: Krishna Sadasivam, Jerzy Drozd, Kevin Cross, Mark Rudolph, and Sara Turner

In part two of our Kids Read Comics 2010 wrap up, we reflect a bit on the event and our experiences there. We follow this up with the recording we did at KRC on Sunday, June 13, 2010. For the first time ever, all of the Art & Story hosts were in the same place!

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Art & Story 136 – The Big KRC Report I

Jerzy — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:13:57 +0000

L to R: Krishna Sadasivam, Brandon Dayton, Ryan Estrada, Mark Rudolph, Jerzy Drozd, Kevin Cross, Laura Cross, and Sara Turner.

During the weekend of Kids Read Comics 2010, Jerzy recorded a handful of AudioBoo mini-casts with Mark, Kevin, and a bunch of the great guests who came from all over the world to be a part of the event.

We’ve collected these mini-casts into this special extra episode of Art & Story, so you can listen in one sitting to our reactions and experiences over the weekend as they happened. Pay special attention to a story that’s told around the 47 minute mark–it’s truly the best comics story you’re likely to hear.

Folks appearing throughout the episode:
Sara Turner
Anne Drozd
Krishna Sadasivam
Roger Langridge
Brandon Dayton
Ryan Estrada
Jono
Zach Bosteel
Stephanie

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 135 – The Big Potpourri VIII

Jerzy — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:49:51 +0000

This week we let our hair down a bit with a mail bag episode, and we’re joined in-studio by Roger Langridge!

Together, we take on some questions from the Art & Storriors:

Kyle Smart asks us to weigh the pros and cons between some popular different digital comics formats (PDF, CBR, Epub, and Apps).

Gerimi Burleigh (Art & Storrior #1) requests some brief discussion on whether or not we indy creators should accept credit cards at conventions, and if so, which ones?

We then answer a voicemail from a listener who asks us about our respective processes. How do we know when to stop noodling and move on? How does one streamline an artistic process?

Links mentioned in this episode:

ProPay
Square
Comical
FFView
Art & Story Extreme!! – Nicknames!! In which Sara Turner describes her experience using ProPay

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 134 – The Big All Ages Debate

Jerzy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:27:30 +0000

As we gear up for Kids Read Comics, we’re joined by guest panelist Dan Mishkin for a discussion about the importance and validity of All Ages Comics. In an attempt to put this one to rest once and for all, Jerzy assumes the role of the person arguing against All Ages Comics, with Dan, Mark, and Kevin arguing pro.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 133 – The Big Dialogue

Jerzy — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:00:51 +0000

This week we have an informal conversation about our own thoughts on writing dialogue in comics. We bounce around many different aspects of the topic, ranging from rhythmic choices to more visual approaches such as when one should and shouldn’t bold text. Towards the end we get on a minor tangent about the role of color in comics storytelling, but it stems from a wondering we have over whether or not it’s appropriate to use different word balloon styles in one’s comic.

Topics covered:

Getting inside your characters
Asking yourself :Is this the way only this character can say this?
Listening for vocal rhythms in your dialogue
Font and lettering style choices

Some books to check out for terrific lettering and how-tos:

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 132 – The Big POV

Jerzy — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:59:00 +0000

“What I told you was true–from a certain point of view”
– You know who said this, come on.

A critical element in telling your story is which point of view you decide to use. This week we’re joined by Brandon Dayton for a discussion on the various types of POV we have to choose from, what each one’s strengths and weaknesses are, and how they can be applied specifically in comics storytelling.

We begin with some definitions of the various narrative modes:

From Wikipedia:

First-person narrative is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, who explicitly refers to themselves using words and phrases involving “I” (referred to as the first-person singular) and/or “We” (the first-person plural). This allows the reader or audience to see the point of view (including opinions, thoughts, and feelings) only of the narrator, and no other characters. In some stories, first-person narrators may refer to information they have heard from the other characters, in order to try to deliver a larger point of view. Other stories may switch from one narrator to another, allowing the reader or audience to experience the thoughts and feelings of more than one character.

The second-person narrative is a narrative mode in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by employment of second-person personal pronouns and other kinds of addressing forms, for example the English second-person pronoun “you”.

The third-person omniscient is a narrative mode in which both the reader and author observe the situation either through the senses and thoughts of more than one character, or through an overarching godlike perspective that sees and knows everything that happens and everything the characters are thinking. Third-person omniscient is virtually always the narrative mode chosen for sprawling, epic stories such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, George Eliot’s Middlemarch, or the great Russian novels of the nineteenth century.

We spend a bit of time discussing “Third Person Limited Omnicient”, which most comics seem to use.

After this we refer to Brandon’s blog post on Point of View and creating empathy for our characters. We use examples like Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” and the French film “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” to illustrate how telling your story from a certain character’s point of view can drastically change how your reader interprets your story.

Books and films mentioned in this episode:

Links mentioned in this episode:
- Kids Read Comics
- Shrem Cohen’s Cartoon Snap blog
- The Man Vs. Art Podcast
- Brandon’s blog and artcasts

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Audio hosting for Art & Story is provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

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Art & Story 131 – The Big Chief Emotion

Jerzy — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:47:49 +0000

This week we focus once more on character design, but specifically about finding and expressing the inner lives of your comics characters in a single image!

Based off of one of Jerzy’s classroom activities, we talk about finding and drawing your character’s “Chief Emotion”. We’ve talked in past A&S episodes about the value of creating a one-line description, or log line, for each of your characters. The description becomes a yard stick to measure your writing by, to see if you’re staying true to the character throughout the story. Eventually you throw out the description as you get to know the character better, but it’s a wonderful starting point. But can you also create that log line visually? If so, how?

As is our want, we break our discussion into a series of concerns as a means to dig at the topic.

The Log Line
The character’s “theme”. This is different than story theme. Story theme is what you’re trying to say with the work, what the message is. The character’s “theme” is a summary of why they do what they do. Their motivation. There can be layers and contradictions in your character, but most people can be summed up with a general expression of who they are. The Transformers File card.

Examples:
Peter Keating (The Fountainhead) – I’m Only as Good as They Say I am. (NEEDS others to validate his talent, and even his existence)
Peter (The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe) – Adventure
Edmund (The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe) – Danger
Conan – Self-Made Man
Spider-man – Responsibility

Gesture/Body Language
The Spine: A key element of a pose. Demonstrates the level of energy in an action. Betrays the emotional status of the character. (Hunched shoulders: Glum, frustrated. Arched forward: Dangerous, coiled. Arched back: Proud, shocked)

Arms & Legs: Expansive poses demonstrate receptiveness & ease (imagine a car salesman with his lower arms spread wide, elbows locked at the hips VS same guy with arms outstretched wide), but also can be used to express shock and alarm (though your character’s chief emotion isn’t “shock and alarm”, is it?). Or insanity, depending on how twisted and/or energetic the pose.

Off-Balance Pose: Suggests insecurity, inappropriately casual behavior (Dick & Torpedo Black’s poses in The Front, Chapter 2, Page 22).

Balanced Pose: Suggests rigidity, confidence, or sophistication.

Facial Expression: Many of the same elements of pose apply to facial expressions. Wide, expansive expressions can demonstrate receptiveness, but can also be used to show manic behavior. Imbalance can demonstrate sophisticated emotions, a casual personality, or insecurity.

Character Shape: Angular vs rounded: Can indicate a characters inner life. More angular shapes coupled with line style being more jagged and deliberate can represent a harsher/angrier tone, while softer more symmetrical shapes can communicate a more approachable, identifiable character. Also reoccurring angles/lines within a character can further reinforce a tone, for instance a stoic character who is frowning, incorporate that same angle into his jaw shape, check bones and eye shapes.

Exercise
Write out some general or abstract emotions (cheerfulness, frustration, avoidance, generosity). Draw a shape that corresponds to each emotion. Try to map your character’s body language to that shape.

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 130 – The Big Man Vs. Art

Jerzy — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:50:03 +0000

We have a special guest panelist for this week’s episode–Raul Aguirre Jr., host of the fun and insightful Man Vs. Art podcast! Raul, a veteran animator and cartoonist, sits down with us to discuss how we have to think visually when writing comics or storyboarding, and share some strategies we use to write entirely in thumbnail form.

We discuss a bevy of concerns facing a cartoonist when approaching a new comics project including the following:

Pre-Visualization

Finding the story’s tone, feeling, and moments before laying lines down on the page

Choosing Moments

Capturing the emotion of the moment/scene
Expressing the inner life of the characters

Thumbnails from Equalizers of the Divide

Choosing Paneling

Determining when non-traditional paneling is appropriate and when it is not

Choosing Levels of Abstraction

Line usage
Shape usage
Icon usage

Choosing Word Balloons/SFX

Finalizing dialogue/sfx on the thumbnails
Leaving dialogue/sfx for later

Spontenaeity

Finding those happy accidents that surprise, delight, and inspire you

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 129 – The Big Just Do It

Jerzy — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:41:27 +0000

In what might be considered a follow-up to Art & Story 80 – The Big Beginner, we’re joined by Sara Turner for a discussion on the virtues of just jumping in and making comics, whether or not you feel you are ready. Though we make a lot of fuss about analysis and process on this podcast, the only way you can really learn how to make comics is to start putting some pages together for yourself. Sara is a terrific example of how one can learn an awful lot in a relatively short time just by barreling through a few hundred pages of artwork, and she stops by to share some of her experiences and lessons learned through her career in comics.

Throughout our discussion we evaluate how a cavalier attitude, art buddies, faith in the process, and love of the craft are all one needs to get started. After a few years of practice and dedication, you’ll find that you’ve accomplished quite a bit.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 128 – The Big Magazine Cover

Jerzy — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:56:59 +0000

What makes for an interesting and compelling cover to your comic? Is it an eye-catching design, a beautifully rendered illustration, a point of drama that invites prediction? How much is too much on a cover? This week we spend nearly two hours on a discussion concerning good cover design. And as usual, we break our discussion into some distinct areas of concern and use the work of others as examples, as well as some covers we’ve used for our own work.

The Prediction Cover
Usually a striking image highlighting the threshold of drama in the story. Used a lot in serialized fiction comics. The cliffhanger.

Examples:

The Plot in Abstract Cover
Distilling the essence or events of the story into a single image. It may or may not happen within the story exactly as it appears on the cover, but it’s an intriguing image that summarizes the story’s “aboutness”. What’s interesting about this particular cover is it calls upon the skills we use to condense multiple moments within panels.

Examples:

The Plot in Montage Cover
A composite or montage of events from the story, arranged in an interesting or visually pleasing way.

Examples:

The Homage Cover
An image sending tribute to a more well-known image. A dicey area in terms of ethics. Erik Larsen talked about this some years ago.

Examples:

The Design Cover
An image whose mandate is only to be beautiful in its own right, only loosely related to the content within.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Cover Browser
Kids Read Comics
Up! Fair (on Facebook and Twitter, too!)
Mark & Jerzy’s upcoming appearance at Green Brain Comics

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 127 – The Big Potpourri VII

Jerzy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:28:28 +0000

This week we dig in to some listener-supplied topics!

We start with some talk on business heroes, inspired by a recent voicemail sent to us by Gerimi Burleigh.

Business Heroes
Leo Laporte
What we like about his plans: He keeps operations lean, and he’s always looking for new ways to create & distribute content (streaming the iPad announcement, smartphone apps w/streaming audio/video). As a result, he’s making over $1.5 Million a year just from podcasting.
What we don’t like about his plans: Ad supported. Fine for someone doing a topic with wide appeal, but I don’t think it necessarily works for little niche people like us.
What he teaches us: You can be ambitious in your goals while still being a small operation. You don’t need hundreds of people to make a professional project.

Sara & Brian Turner
What we like about their plans: They provide highly specialized designs and services that make them a unique resource. Also a good mix of global and hyper-local business.
What we don’t like about their plans: I can’t think of any drawbacks to what they’ve accomplished. It’s a pretty solid business they’ve constructed.
What they teach us: The internet is not the end-all solution to business. A physical presence in a plugged-in community is another part of the puzzle. PLUS: You can help CREATE a plugged-in community, even if it’s not a “hip” town.

Some podcasts we can recommend for more listening about small businesses:
This Week In Media
smBizz

We can then kick over to some talk about freelancing, based on a voicemail from Jonathan Rector.

Freelancing

How much money should we have saved up?
How many clients should we have?
How much money should we be making from freelance before we quit the day job?
What unexpected pitfalls did we discover once we took the plunge?

From there we can take on this topic proposed by Corey Johnston w/a book recommendation of Picture This By Molly Bang.

Finally, we close out with an email from Dave Anderson, who asks us about how tightly we pencil when working with inkers.

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Visual Cues Pt 01 – Preface

Jerzy — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:00:16 +0000

We’re excited about this week’s episode, as it launches a brand-new mini-series for the podcast! In the Visual Cues series, we’ll be exploring the various aspects of visual storytelling that add up to what some of us call “style”. But don’t let the name trick you into thinking that we’ll only be focusing on the illustration aspects of visual cues. Throughout this series we plan to explore how lines, colors, shapes, moment choices, page layouts, and dialogue rhythms all contribute to the style of the visual storyteller.

In this first part we begin by discussing the definition of style that we plan to operate under. We use an excerpt from an entry on “style” from the Grove Dictionary of Art as our starting point:

…modern accounts of style have ascribed to it a characteristic regularity or reiteration…

In other words, what is consistently used throughout the work, whether it is a certain type of paneling, line weights, moment choices, rendering techniques, or color families.

We then answer the question: Why dig deep at defining and exploring the components of style at all? Does it have practical value to an artist, or is it merely philosophical navel-gazing?

We complete our introduction with some preliminary discussion on the topics we will investigate in subsequent episodes.

Some links to related past episodes:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 126 – The Big Supporting Character

Jerzy — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:00:52 +0000

This week we return to discussing characters, but this time focusing on the secondary or tertiary characters who contradict, support, and otherwise help flesh out our protagonists.

As always, we try do divide our discussion into areas of concerns. These are some of the things we like to think about when creating supporting characters:

How are they opposite of the lead?
What do they lack that the lead has?
What do they have that the lead lacks?
In what way, if at all, do they work better together than apart (this can be a pure literary choice–it could be they work terribly together in the story, but it’s a more interesting read that way)?
How is the theme of the story supported or argued for through these characters?

We then meditate on some of our favorite supporting characters from comics, film, and literature, including Justice League Unlimited, Human Target, Beast Wars, and C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Thunder Punch Daily 06 - Where Jerzy discusses some of his thoughts on writing opposites in support of a story’s theme
Art & Story Supreme, our new premium content project featuring over 29 monthly shows
The Kids Read Comics convention, this June 12 and 13 in Dearborn, MI
The Kids Read Comics Charity Art Auction–you’re invited to submit artwork!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Hotline: (262) 299-3729

Art & Story 125 – The Big Time Management

Jerzy — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:00:56 +0000

Does a structured schedule diminish creativity? How does one manage the demanding and capricious nature of being a contractual illustrator? How does one find the time to work on personal projects while still attending to the responsibilities of a job and a family? This week we all throw in to answer a voicemail from Jamie Gambell, who asked some of those questions.

Time is invisible, which makes it easy to lose track of. Creating a visual representation of time is key to managing it. We discuss the following strategies we use as an answer to that:

Routine

Having a regular schedule for creating your content trains you to intuitively mark your week with days where you just have to get the stuff done. Even if you only have an hour a day, just setting aside a lunch hour three times per week to put some work in will add up to a lot of work; it will also get you accustomed to having that work as part of your weekly experience. When that happens, your week will feel “off” if you skip a day. You’ll learn to rely on that time for creativity.

Check email/twitter only twice a day. Turn off the internet/phone during certain hours a day. Give clients office hours. Employing these little things can give you a good chunk of uninterrupted work time that is more productive.

Even if you only have 20-30 minutes at the end of your day, these small increments add up fast if you stick to a routine.

Wall Calendar & Task List

A large desk calendar for daily scheduling and a seperate list for overall tasks. With this system, one must evaluate and coordinate them every day. The task list is made weekly, and entered onto the calendar on a daily basis. A chisel-tip marker is great for crossing out finished to-do items for maximum satisfaction. This system is especially useful for the artist who mistakingly sets the alarm clock for PM instead of AM by mistake–it’s all analog, so no GIGO problems (usually).

Google Calendar (or any digital calendar app)

Creates a visual representation of what needs to be done, so you can easily spot schedule conflicts. Also offers the chance to create alerts for deadlines (like an alarm clock), so even if you’re not at the computer all the time, you’ll be reminded via email that a deadline is approaching. This means you will have to be diligent in adding events to your calendar as jobs come in, but you benefit in the long run by having a robot assistant reminding you of things you scheduled out weeks in advance.

Peg Board System (from past design jobs)

An “IN” and “OUT” hook for each day, holding collections of small jobs spaced out throughout your week. Creates a visual representation of what needs to be done, which both boosts morale as well as gives you a daily reminder of what you hope to accomplish. If you don’t finish everything on today’s hook, you move what’s left to the next day’s hook. Like a calendar app, requires a bit of maintenance, as you have to update the hooks each week with what you need to do (this is where a routine can help).

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Hotline: (262) 299-3729

Art & Story 124 – The Big Convention Field Guide

Jerzy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:03:39 +0000

Though we’ve talked about conventions in many past episodes of Art & Story, we’ve never formally discussed our thought process behind convnetioning in general. This week we answer a question from Jonathan Rector, who asks us to share some of our thoughts on preparing for tabling as we enter the convention season for 2010.

We start with an overview of the kinds of conventions we’ve attended throughout the years, highlighting the pros and cons of each, and giving a general sense of what kind of creator is suited for them:

“Mainstream” Conventions (Wizard World, SDCC, Emerald City, Heroes Con, etc)
Indy Comic Cons (MoCCA, APE, SPX, SPACE, etc)
Art Fairs/Book Fairs (Miami Book Fair, Kerrytown Book Fest, Portland Zine Symposium, etc)

We then give an overview of what kinds of costs and materials one should consider when preparing to exhibit at a convention. We’ve even included a handy spreadsheet with the materials we bring to shows and examples of setups to show how quickly the costs add up.

NOTE: these costs are estimates and averages! Obviously they will change depending on the show you decide to attend and how you choose to print your materials. This spreadsheet is only meant to give you a demonstration of how the costs can break down.

Links mentioned in this episode:

More episodes on conventioning:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 123 – The Big Format II

Jerzy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:32:14 +0000

This week we’re joined again by Kevin Cross for a discussion on the various print formats we’ve explored over our publishing histories, highlighting the pros and cons of each. While there are many more formats beyond what we’ve outlined here, we focus on the ones we’ve personally used and share our opinions based on experience.

Sizes

Standard Size: (roughly 6.5×10.25″)

Pros:

Most recognized American comics size. Offers lots of vertical space w/good horizontal space for ambitious layouts. Good for books where the art takes center stage.
Print costs. Usually standard sizes are cheaper to get printed.

Cons:

When page count exceeds 100+ pages, format can seem kind of big and unwieldy nowadays.
Form factor. Not all stories are a good fit for this size. Might have a less intimate feel than, say, a mini-comic.

Manga Size: (roughly 5×7.5″)

Pros:

More and more comics are being published in this format. The popularity of Manga has made smaller books more favorable with people. Plus it’s a much more portable form factor.

Cons:

Smaller page size means the art has less room to breathe and sing. Plus, some cartoonists may not want their work being associated with Manga.

Digest: (roughly 4.5×8.5″)

Pros:

Easy to print at a local kinkos or copy shop, while also printing it as a POD or offset book.
Very little difficulty in collating or assembly, since it’s based on standard paper sizes.

Cons:

Depending on the audience, your comic may be assumed to be the work of a hobbyist (depending on the production values).

Rudy: (roughly 5.5×7.25″)

Pros:

The smaller print size means smaller original art, which usually means quicker turnaround for books.
Form factor. There is a totally different feel to a mini comic, than a standard size comic. The size changes the reading experience when you can throw it in your back pocket.

Cons:

The smaller size also means you can’t use (at least we can’t) brush for as much of the rendering as you may like. Your tool choice becomes limited from the page size restriction.

Mini-Comic: (roughly 4.5×5.5″)

Pros:

Possibly the most personal and intimate of the formats. Complete lack of pretense (depending on the production values), which allows the reader to just jump right in.
Time. A mini can be completed relatively quickly compared to a standard comic.

Cons:

Still some backlash from the days when they were considered “ashcans”. Some folks overlook them as being less “serious” works.
Limited space means layouts and rendering style need to be evaluated before committing. For instance, a very detailed style might become muddy at such a small finished size, so typically an opened line or simplified style seems to communicate best.

Book & Record: (roughly 6×6″)

Pros:

The square size (or any non-standard size) creates a perceived difference in content from standard comics, which can be appealing to non comics fans.
Novelty. Format alone can imply to your readers that this is somehow special.

Cons:

You almost loose 1 of the typical 3 tiers of a rectangular comics page. From experience, it can make layouts more challenging dealing with more horizontal flow than vertical.

Hammy: (roughly 8.5×3.75″)

Pros:

Offers a unique reading experience. Fun to hold, and reads more like a comic strip. Novel, for now.

Cons:

You’re working with a single tier of a standard comics page, so the storytelling changes. Also, the Tiny Hamilton book was a bit of a pain to collate and staple.

Page Count

8-page:

Pros:

Immediate satisfaction of a completed work. Audience can enjoy the work in a single browsing. A great exercise in brevity. Some readers enjoy reading a book they can take in quickly.

Cons:

Obviously not a lot of space to fully explore a world or characters. Working with severe space limitations. Also may be a harder sell as a mini (perceived value).

16-page:

Pros:

A reasonable size for a done-in-one story. Seems more substantial a value when printed.

Cons:

Like the 8-pager, might be a harder sell when printed on its own.

24-page:

Pros:

A page count most often used in serialized American comics. Readers associate a sort of “gold standard” in value with this size (though that’s changing?). A good length for doing a 3-act story (8 pages per act).

Cons:

With the rapid changes in comics format and publishing, is this a dying format? If doing a done-in-one, still dealing with page restrictions.

100+ page:

Pros:

If the story calls for it, you can dwell on scenes for prolonged amounts of pages to get a point/feeling/tone across. In shorter form comics, you have to find a more expedient solution.

Cons:

Time commitment. You have to live with those characters/situations for a lot of pages. There isn’t the more immediate gratification that comes with shorter comics.
A freedom of page count might open the opportunity to ramble. You must be extra judicious about choosing moments that best tell the story.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 122 – The Big Little Triumphs

Jerzy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:35:45 +0000

This week we explore some of the minor artistic victories we’ve had throughout our own careers in an effort to highlight some strategies we’ve used to improve our cartooning. Listen for some overlap between us and the differences in how we achieved those little triumphs, as it demonstrates how there’s more than one way to punch at this cartooning jazz!

Jerzy’s:

1-point perspective down-shot of a person

Difficult because it uses extreme foreshortening, & easy to goof up.

Solution: Use 1-point perspective trick in “How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way” to map the human form onto a 1-point perspective box. This helped to make cars make more sense, too.

Cartoony faces for women

Difficult because each line counts for so much.

Solution: Learned a lot about drawing contours from experimenting with Manga for a few years. Taught me how to use smooth lines for maximum effect.

People just standing

Difficult because people just standing are still in some kind of motion, & easy to make them look stiff.

Solution: applied the trick learned from Mike Grell, turning/angling the shoulders in opposition to the waist, & thinking of the spine as a fluid shape that is always in movement.

Eye Acting

Difficult because you’re drawing two opposite objects that must work together, show the perspective of the head, & delivers huge amount of acting content.

Solution: Learned a lot about eye acting with the Brigadier General in The Front. When you only have eyes (& body language) to show the emotion, they eyes are your primary vehicle. Also learned a lot from drawing manga eyes in terms of perspective uses.

Blocking

Difficult because you can get lost in the data of acting and illustration work. Easy to overlook the basics.

Solution: Working with Mark on Galactic League of Marshals & Cosmic Adventures of Gena Kranz. Also developed exercise with students which wound up teaching me to look at my shots from a shape/depth standpoint.

Mark’s:

Capturing “celebrity” likeness

Difficult because everyone knows what they look like.

Solution: Filling up several sketch books with drawings from tabloid magazines and learning how to focus on specific features.

Drawing women

Difficult because you can’t fudge a woman’s body like you can a dude. Every line counts.

Solution: Life drawing, learn the component shapes, how they move different from a man’s (the hips, waist, legs in particular) as stylized in comics.

Staying on model

Difficult because you have to draw the same thing the same way repeatedly.

Solution: The key here is that it must appear to be the same. One way I’ve found a bit of latitude with staying on model, is creating several distinct features on each character. Instead of having a guy with subtle features I eggagerate. For instance, John Oxbow has a v in his hairline and overly hooked nose, that way I only need to focus on getting a few things right over and over.

Understanding Perspective

Difficult because you can’t fake it and have it look right.

Solution: Tracing photographs to find vanishing points instead of starting with a horizon line and placing your vanishing points. That helped me understand where in space an object is and how the fundamentals of perspective work easier than reading tutorials.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 121 – The Big Inspiration/Motivation

Jerzy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:40:29 +0000

Is inspiration a magical thing that only happens in a place of pristine isolation, capriciously visiting you in your studio only when it sees fit? Of course not! This week we’re joined by Kevin Cross to discuss the techniques we’ve developed over the years to make inspiration part of our daily lives.

Some of the techniques/tools we mention during our discussion:

Reading
Keeping a sketch journal/Moleskine
Photographing anything that seems interesting

We close out the discussion with some thoughts on keeping ourselves motivated, inspired by a voicemail sent to us by Jim Lujan.

Some of the motivational items we discuss during our discussion:

Art Buddies
Great Works
Personal Progression
Author Essays

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 7

Jerzy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:20:53 +0000

We’re back with another installment of the Your Comic From The Ground Up series, and this time it’s all about digitizing, toning, and coloring! As with previous episodes, we begin with a theoretical discussion on this stage of the process, followed by some practical strategies to make your comic a reality.

Theory

Considerations when choosing between coloring and toning your comic:

Thematic Tones

Determine the level of vibrancy/sophistication in your story’s tone

A wider range of colors lends to a more energetic, bombastic storytelling style
Limited color palettes lend to a more sophisticated or subdued storytelling style
Greyscale color palette leaves more opportunities for the illustration itself to deliver tonal data (can be bombastic OR subdued, but linework/layout/blocking/moment choice delivers more of this data)

Rendering Style

Regardless of color palette, the style of rending affects story tone and clarity

Don’t compete with your line style (ex. over render colors on highly detailed line style)
Choose a rendering style that contributes to the tone of the work
Flat colors/tones
Painterly
Gradient
Mechanical Tones/Ben Day Dots

Delivery Mechanism(s)

Will it be digital only, or will you print it, too?

In digital distribution, color is virtually free (though you have to worry about audience monitor calibration)
Color is expensive in print, and you have to learn a little more about file prep

Time

Choosing between color and b&w and which rendering style you land on will affect the time required to complete a page!

It’s okay to choose a rendering style with this as your top concern–the rest of your production values/style will adjust to fit

A few thoughts on Digital vs. Analog coloring/rendering

Pros for digital

Easy to edit/redo

Easy to store

Easy to prep for printing

No tools to clean

Cons for digital

More tricky to make it look analog (if that’s what you want)

Software/hardware is expensive

Storage solutions get expensive

Pros for analog

Immediacy of completed work

Original artwork to display/sell

Cheap to store

Cons for analog

Tool maintenance

Tools may be hard to find

Digitizing may be trickier, depending on image size

Practical

Digitizing and Cleanup:

Scanning

Scan line art @ 600dpi grayscale (no sharpening or filters–raw scan)
Open in Photoshop
Image>Adjustments>Levels (input levels set to 129, 1.00, 131)
Image>Adjustments>Threshold (set slider around 128)
Use Pencil tool to clean up lineart (fixing inking errors, filling in blacks)
SAVE THIS VERSION IN A FOLDER CALLED “INKS”
If grayscale or color, reduce file size to 300 dpi If pure B&W, leave at 600 dpi
SAVE THIS VERSION IN A FOLDER CALLED “COLORS” OR “TONES”

Flats Prep

Once line art is cleaned up, duplicate the layer and call the copy below “flats”
Isolating lineart on its own layer (tutorial here)
Using Cocoapotrace to turn lineart into vector art
Hide line art layer and use Bpelt plugin
Finish cleaning up flats (using magic wand & lasso tools w “Anti Alias” OFF)
Duplicate flats layer and name it “colors” or “tones”

Coloring/Toning

Lasso Tool
Quick Mask
Creating a color/tone Swatch Palette
Color holds
Using layers to create color harmonies

Analog Coloring/Toning

Preferred Brushes
Paper
Using Mechanical Tones

Assignment for this episode:

One chapter of comic cleaned up and toned/colored.

For more on the subjects covered in this episode, check out these past Art & Story podcasts:

A&S 105-The Big Tone

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 120 – The Big Potpourri VI

Jerzy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:30:34 +0000

We tackle two Storrior-provided topics this week with the help of our pal Kevin Cross:

First up, at which size should we draw our pages? We break our discussion into the following realms of concern:

Artistic advantages/disadvantages of drawing big/small
Technical advantages/disadvantages of drawing big/small

After that we address a question posed to us by Stef of Sarah Zero:

Personality-what do we think about in our personal and professional dealings online? We divide our discussion into the following concerns:

Attitude
Social Networking
Peer & client relations
Approachability
Congeniality

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 119 – The Big Dynamism

Jerzy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:33:42 +0000

Inspired by some recent sketches we’ve been working on at the Go! Go! Illustration sketch blog, we tackle the subject of dynamism in comics storytelling. That is to say, how to achieve a sense of movement in our images despite their static nature.

We break our discussion into the following realms of concern:

Construction

Finding the “moments between the keyframes” (as opposed to How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way’s chart)
Turning shoulders in opposition to the waist
Spread/fan fingers
Remember the spine as key to acting/action
Strong, but off-balance poses
Contrast (Either with color or b/w) creates a through line on the page. Can lead the eye, but also emphasizes impact.
Exaggeration. Not only in poses, but in body construction. Look at a figure drawn by Mort Drucker, then one by John Buscema.

Lines

Smooth
Short/Brisk
Jagged

Framing/Viewing Angle

Worm’s Eye View
Tilted viewing angle
Constructing your shots. Bending reality to make a more dramatic shot. Similar to German Expressionist Film’s use of shadow.

Special Effects

Subjective imagery behind the character (burst lines, psychedelic montage describe the emotions dynamically)
Panel border effects (Jagged, rhomboid, round, etc)
Size relationships (big=emphatic)

UPDATE: We’re joined for a special addendum to this episode by Luis Escobar. He was kind enough to lend a few more points to the discussion in an effort to clarify some of Jerzy’s earlier points in the episode.

Links mentioned in this episode:

And here are some books mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 118 – The Big iPad

Jerzy — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:09:52 +0000

We jump off of the excitement over today’s news about the new Apple product to have a discussion about what this new device means for the independent creator/publisher, and what it could mean for publishing in general.

For the sake of framing the discussion, we feel obliged to point out that we’re operating on the following premises:

Apple will probably sell a lot of these devices
The later iterations of the device will be cheaper and more powerful
Apple will eventually open up the iBook store to allow all publishers to sell ebooks through their store

We talk about the three ways this device presents independent publishers for getting their content to readers and further develop “super fans”:

Webcomics presented through the Safari browser, perfectly suited to page-style comics
The iBook store, with EPUB format books
Putting one’s content into an App

Links mentioned in this episode:

nemu*nemu, a webcomic by Scott Yoshinaga and Audra Furuichi
This Week in Media podcast
The Go! Go! Illustration sketchblog
A video of Jerzy doing a daily sketch
Kevin Cross
Sara Turner

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 117 – The Big Ka-Blam

Jerzy — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:37:34 +0000

It’s a special live recording this week with Barry Gregory and Thomas Florimonte of Ka-Blam Digital Printing, IndyPlanet, and ComicsMonkey!

We start with an overview of their print on demand services, how IndyPlanet works as an online fulfillment service, and what they hope to achieve with their latest endeavor, the ComicsMonkey distribution service.

Throughout our conversation we explore how important the independent publisher and POD will be in the changing landscape of publishing, some general advice on how to avail one’s self of their products and services, and we even take some calls from listeners.

Links mentioned in this episode:

To read a transcript of the chat client from this or any episode of Art & Story Alive, and to hear from all of the great listeners who couldn’t make it into the audio, check out this Talkshoe Transcript Generator, and type in the Show ID 49181. Jenni Gregory was in the chat throughout the episode answering many questions that did not make it into the discussion, so it’s worth a read!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 116 – The Big UP! Fair

Jerzy — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:00:45 +0000

We’re joined by Kevin Cross and Sara Turner to formally announce the first annual UP! Fair to be held in Lexington, Kentucky this November 19-20! We spend an hour or so discussing our vision for the event, the philosophy behind it, and how you can get involved.

If you are an independent cartoonist, we think you’ll get something out of this event, and we hope you’ll help spread the word! You can follow the UP! Fair on Twitter for updates.

Links mentioned this episode:

Kevin Cross’ appearance on the Process Diary and Chris Oatley’s ArtCast
The Kids Read Comics convention
Art & Story 110 – The Big Book Fair
Art & Story 45 – The Big Chicago

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 6

Jerzy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:56:53 +0000

We’re back with another installment of the Your Comic From The Ground Up series, and this time it’s all about the inks! As with previous episodes, we begin with a theoretical discussion on this stage of the process, followed by some practical strategies to make your comic a reality.

Why use ink at all?
Though inking techniques were developed in order to make art reproducable using old technologies, the types of lines discovered by the past generations of cartoonists have contributed much to the language of comics. Lines communicate tone, emotion, and action–crucial story data in your comic.

When mindfully investigating how to best communicate your ideas through your comic, a careful meditation on how ink lines work will provide you with an even wider array of options and tools to make your story everything you want it to be.

Theory

3 Basic Considerations of Lines
Line Value
Line Style
Line Clarity
Line Value

The variation of line widths that comprise your shapes–tends to give your illustrations a more “subjective” feel
Heavy Lines

Around curves
Around “heavy” objects
Around objects closer to the viewer

Thinner Lines

Around longer, straighter shapes
Around “lighter” objects
Around distant objects

Fixed-Width Lines–tend to feel “objective”

Used for inanimate objects
To create an image without an explicit “feeling”–even people

Line Style

The kinds of lines you use will contribute to the tone of the work

“Contour” style
Heavy blacks and/or texture
Brush style (both clean and dry)
Mechanical style (Rapidographs or Microns)

Line Clarity

The combination of line styles you use will also contribute to the tone of the work–in this way, you can consider the various line styles as “primary” components of your overall style that can be combined into “secondary” components (yes, I know it’s McCloudian to say that!)

“Contour” style
Heavy blacks
Brush style (both clean and dry)
Mechanical style (Rapidographs or Microns)

Choosing your Inking Method

Pros and Cons when Determining Inking Method:
Pencil “Inks”
Analog Inks
Digital Inks

Pencil “Inks”

Pros

Don’t have to learn another tool
One less step in the process

Cons

Line value is more laborious to achieve
Might have to use “fixativ” to prevent smudging
Can sometimes look “lifeless”

Analog Inks

Pros

Line value is easier to achieve
Wide variety of effects available to use on the page
Finished artwork ready to sell
Happy accidents

Cons

Many tools to choose from
Learning a good inking tool takes years
Certain tools are expensive or difficult to find
Permanent–difficult to fix mistakes

Digital Inks

Pros

Easy to fix mistakes–Control-Z
Using layers means you can throw out entire swaths of work if you don’t like it
Simple to adjust entire segments of artwork
No storage of final artwork

Cons

No final artwork
You can fall into the “infinite noodling” afforded by Control-Z
Software/graphics tablets can be expensive

Practical

Inking Tools

Brush
Brush pen
Crow Quill
Rapidographs
Microns
Higgins’ Black Magic

Inking Assist Tools

Paper towel or tissues
Glass of water
Scrap sheet of bristol for tool warm up
French curves (beveled edge)
Triangles (beveled edge)

Procedure

Warming up with the inorganic elements
Working on a flat surface vs. an angled surface
Printing out your pencils in “blue line” in case you screw up

Assignment for this episode:

One chapter of inks completed
If lettering by hand, ink word balloons and sfx as well

For a lot more on the subjects covered in this episode, check out these past Art & Story podcasts:

And here are some links to art supplies mentioned in this episode:

Find even more on the Dick Blick website!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

Follow Mark and Jerzy on Twitter!

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Art & Story 115 – The Big Resolution

Jerzy — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:02:41 +0000

We close out the year with Sara Turner of Cricket Press and Make Like a Tree Comics for a discussion on what most of us are thinking about this time of year–resolutions. We begin with talking about categorizing our resolutions and “Designing a Narrative” for our projects throughout the year. As we discuss our specific goals for 2010 we highlight lessons learned from 2009, as well as why it’s important to recognize one’s achievements. We close our talk with some casual futurism wonderings about ways to incorporate various emerging technologies into our independent businesses in the coming years.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Sara’s recent appearances on the Big Illustration Party Time podcasts, episodes 41 and 42
nemu*nemu, by Audra Furuichi and Scott Yoshinaga

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 114 – The Big Xmas Special

Jerzy — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:43:30 +0000

It’s true, you know. It’s that special time of year, and Mark has decked the halls for the first annual Art & Story Xmas Special! Our musical numbers are punctuated by a series of visits from some very special guests, ready to spread holiday cheer with some great illustration and cartooning content.

Guests include:

Sara Turner, who stops by to share some advice on managing to-do lists.

Krishna Sadasivam, who gives us some schooling in focus and goals for 2010.

Gerimi Burleigh, who enlightens us about the paradoxical nature of being a cartoonist.

Jim Lujan & Ted Seko, who both share holiday greetings.

Shawn Robare, who reminds us to expect the unexpected when designing a project.

And Kevin Cross, who extolls the virtue of maintaining a personal project.

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 113 – The Big Ego

Jerzy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:00:59 +0000

This week we answer an email from Storrior Ross Hardy:

Ego (The Big Ego?) Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of ego in the comics industry (and I suppose in art in general). I’d love to hear your thoughts on egoism in comics in art, your own struggles with ego, etc. Maybe some advice for budding comics artists about avoiding getting sucked into egoism.

At the risk of treading the territory usually reserved for motivational speakers, Mark and I do our best to share some of our own experiences dealing with ego and where the balance lies (at least for us). We break our discussion into three sections, covering the following topics:

Problem #1 – Lack of Ego
How we can easily talk ourselves out of taking on a project

This isn’t my best stuff
Someone else already did it, and did it well, so who am I to try?
He/She is way more famous/successful than I’ll ever be
Everyone will call me out as a fraud when they see my work or read my writings

Problem #2 – Too much Ego
How we can find ourselves resting on our laurels and no longer creating and innovating

There are a LOT of talented creators out there besides you
You can always learn from someone else
Don’t buy into your own hype
There are far better ways to achieve celebrity than making comics

Solution – It’s Self-Esteem, not Ego
We should be proud of the work we do, but our pride should reside in the work, not ourselves.

Doing good work makes you feel better about yourself, so do the best work that you can, and don’t compare or compete with anyone else
It’s fun to compete, but in a spirit of play
It’s never too late, and you have time to improve
Fake it ‘til you make it

For more listening on these sorts of topics (from sources far more qualified to talk about them!):

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 112 – The Big Good Guy

Jerzy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:12:25 +0000

We’re following up a discussion started in Art & Story 82 -The Big Bad Guy, with a mammoth discussion on some broad archetypes on the other side of the line!

We tried to chart these archetypes on a continuum, but we soon discovered that it was nearly impossible. Unlike villains, even the most simplistically written good guys are difficult to peg on a chart between fun and serious stories.

With that, we leap into our conversation about the following types of good guys (and gals!):

The Smiling Good Guy
What you see is what you get. No baggage, just a sincere desire to do good. They cannot be flummoxed, which aggravates the villains that much more. Often the “Keepers of the peace”.

Examples:

Justice/Compassion
Operates out of a sense of inequality or injustice in the world, and takes action to rectify that. Tends to be a bit more “serious” or “intense” than the smiling good guy.

Examples:

Ideal/Restorative
The least “realistic” of the good guys. These heroes represent the highest ideals of their respective culture, and thus act as a yard stick to measure ourselves by. In stories, they tend to be characters who restore or redeem the world through their actions. They can also be perceived as “preachy” when handled by certain authors.

Examples:

Redemption
Good guys who fall from grace and later redeem themselves through their actions in the story. One of the more popular kinds of characters, these good guys teach us that we each have the power to be a good guy, no matter what came before.

Examples:

Reluctant/Coming of Age
The good guy who doesn’t feel that he/she is up to the challenge placed before them, yet discovers that they are capable of great things.

Examples:

Leave Me Alone
The capable good guy who just wants to lead a simple life. Events in the story pull him or her back in to reluctantly fix a problem in the story. They resist throughout the first two acts, but by the end they are terrifying to evildoers.

Examples:

Stinker
A sub-category of Leave Me Alone and Reluctant/Coming of Age, this good guy makes things rough for the rest of the characters with their obnoxious personality during down-times, yet are great to have during a crisis.

Examples:

Spiritual
The good guy who finds inner strength through a “higher power”. Not magic necessarily–more of a deeper understanding of the larger ideas of being a good guy.

Examples:

Revenge
The good guy who is after justice, but it’s a personal fight as well. The Anti-Hero fits under this description, as the Revenge character’s actions often fall outside of “heroic” or “noble” definitions.

Examples:

Everyman vs Faceless Horde
The normal person faced against the overwhelming power of the bureaucracy, or the millions. Often the protagonist used in darker stories.

Examples:

Dual Nature
The walking contradiction, often used in various iterations of Star Trek. This character lives and operates in a world with a certain system of values, while also maintaining an aspect of their character that is utterly at odds with the people around him or her. This character is not usually at ease with him or herself.

Examples:

Leader
A good guy with a lot of baggage but an unflinching dedication to do good. These characters have to make the most difficult decisions in Western stories, often putting the welfare of the greater good before their own happiness. Some of them have to compromise their principles in order to serve that greater good, which might easily swing them over to villainy.

Examples:

We close out our discussion with some comments from Zach BoSteel, who offers up a few more categories worth consideration.

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 5

Jerzy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:34:08 +0000

We’re back with another installment of the Your Comic From The Ground Up series, and this time it’s a full-on discussion on deciding what lettering tools to choose, followed by some talk about penciling.

As with previous episodes, we begin with a theoretical discussion on this stage of the process, followed by some practical strategies to make your comic a reality.

Theory

Determining Analog or Digital Lettering

Considerations when Determining Lettering Style:

Aesthetic Cohesion
Regardless of method, the lettering should look like it belongs in the work:

Balloons and letters should match your line style
A freehand line style may call for a freehand balloon
A cleaner, draftsman-like line style will allow more “computerized” balloons

Clarity
Word balloons are the first narrative guide in your story:

Use word ballon placement to guide the reader’s eye
Choose a lettering style that is easy to read

Expression
It’s a fine line when using text effects to achieve sound:

Bold and italicized words lend to a rhythm in your word balloons, but can easily be overdone
Avoid using different fonts for different character “voices” unless using it for effect
A little difference in size goes a long way–avoid changing font sizes too often

Hand-drawn vs Computer
Pros for hand-drawn:

Easier to match to your artistic style
Irregularity of letters lends a more personal touch
Fully integrated into the final art for resale
“Easier” to plan on the page how much room you have for balloons
Easier to create irregular effects like “singsong” dialogue
Don’t have to know programs like Photoshop or Illustrator to hand letter

Cons for hand-drawn:

Takes a lot more time
More effort to create bold and italicized effects
Difficult to fix errors

Pros for computer:

Easy to edit spelling errors and balloon placement
Easier to create bold and italicized effects
Many fonts to choose from – Don’t need neat lettering
Clearer lettering than hand-drawn (most of the time)

Cons for computer:

Easy to pick a crummy font or aesthetically mismatched balloons
Some technical knowledge needed to create irregular effects
Need programs like Photoshop or Illustrator
Somewhat tedious to edit balloons to match them aesthetically
Easier to miscalculate space for word balloons

Penciling
3 Concerns of Penciling: Form, Fluidity, & Line = PLAUSIBILITY

Form and structure
Anatomy
Regardless of cartooning style, you want your characters and props to stay relatively “on model”. Consistency is key to developing a plausible world and story.

Draftsmanship
Does your story depend on a lot of visual information about a location? Are you intentionally avoiding drawing difficult 3-point perspective shots, or are they unnecessary to your narrative? Either way, a knowledge of perspective goes a long way.

Fluidity
Gesture
Do your characters’ poses effectively communicate the emotion/action of the moments?

Acting
Are you getting the acting moment you need for the emotional content of the story?

Movement
Are you using a through-line to effectively convey the movement of your characters?

Line
Loose vs tight pencils
Are you pencilling for the inks, or are you inking the pencils?
Type of line
How are the types of lines you use contributing to the story’s aesthetics? Do they contribute to the mood, tone, or overall feeling of the moments?

Practical

Penciling

This assumes you’re looking to achieve somewhat of a “classic” comics style. You can use any illustration tools to make a comic, but these are the ones we like to use.

Tools

Blue line
Graphite
Digital process
Lightbox process
Bristol vs. “plain” paper

Tightness

Penciling for yourself
Penciling for others
Line/production values

Procedure

1st stage blocking
2nd stage blocking
Final pencils
Using a lightbox vs doing all the art on one page

Assignment for this episode:

One to two pages of pencils with an ink test, to see how tightly you need to pencil
If lettering by hand, pencil word balloons and sfx as well
If lettering digitally, begin importing your pencils and creating word balloons and SFX

For a lot more on the subjects covered in this episode, check out these past Art & Story podcasts:

And here are some recommended reads mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 111 – The Big Thankful

Jerzy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:06:23 +0000

We take the beginning of the holiday season in the USA as a cue for this week’s show topic. We’re joined by Kevin Cross of Big Illustration Party Time and Sara Turner of Cricket Press and the Straight No Chaser podcast for a discussion on what we’re thankful for in regards to our beloved art form. Whether it’s technological improvements in production and distribution, changes in reader demographics, or the rising popularity of “boutique” mini-comics, we’re in a much better place now than we were 15 years ago.

Some of the topics discussed:

Digital technology (Photoshop, Illustrator)
Print on demand publishing (Ka-Blam)
The proliferation of multiple comics genres
Manga
“Boutique” mini-comics
The next generation of cartoonists
Art buddies via the internet
Libraries
Social media (Twitter, Facebook)

Some newsy-type links relative to this week’s hosts/topic:

New items in the Cricket Press store
Kevin’s Monkey Mod mini-comic is on sale
The Switch Runners pre-order sale is still accepting orders
The Front: Rebirth is now available in a new format at a lower price

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 110 – The Big Book Fair

Jerzy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:09:00 +0000

Comics are not what comic book conventions say they are.
-Dan Mishkin

On the weekend of November 13-15 I tabled and led workshops at the Miami Book Fair, as a road crew member of Kids’ Comic Con. As some of you may have already heard on an episode of Art & Story Extreme, I had a pretty good time there, and in almost every respect the show was a success. But rather than give a blow-by-blow account of my adventure in Miami, Mark and I sit down to do a comparison of our experiences at comic conventions with my recent experience at the Book Fair. The verdict? If you are an independent cartoonist with a niche comic property, art fairs and book fairs are definitely something worth investigating.

We break the discussion into the following categories for comparison:

Audience size, type, & what they are there for
How the exhibitors are treated by the organizers
Types of attending cartoonists
Venue-indoors vs. outdoors
Types of activities-panel discussions vs. workshops
Booth space

Links to people mentioned in this episode:

And don’t forget to check out Jim Lujan’s new cartoon, Day of the Unicorn, featuring some Art & Story cameos!

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 4

Jerzy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:18:20 +0000

It’s another installment of the Your Comic From The Ground Up series, and this time we give an hour and change over to a discussion on editing! Time to put away the Art Mullet and get brutally honest and analytical about what’s working with what you’ve done so far and what is not.

As with previous episodes, we begin with a theoretical discussion on this stage of the process, followed by some practical strategies to make your comic a reality.

Theory

Considerations when editing the Thumbnails:
The 3 Big Qualities, Clarity/Flow/Aesthetics
& The 3 Big Concerns, Story/Moment/Page

Clarity

Clarity of Story: Break out your theme (remember your theme from pt 1?) and re-examine your story to see if it clearly reflects the theme.

Are the characters’ motivations clear?
Are the characters’ actions logical and reflective of the theme?
Does the climax (see pt 2) express your theme in a physical or emotional way (or both)?
Any threads in the story that you didn’t resolve by the end?

Clarity of Moment – Evaluate each and every moment choice in your story and ask what it is essentially “about”. What is the 1 important thing you need to communicate in that panel, and did you pick the moment to effectively communicate that?

Types of considerations when evaluating the “important” moment:

Acting moment (character story data)
Information moment (objective story data)
Aesthetic moment (tonal/style story data)

Clarity of Page – Do the panels and overall composition “read” smoothly? Do you have a visually interesting composition on the overall page that doesn’t work against the information (see previous 3 points) that you want to convey?

Flow

Flow of Story – Have you chosen a pacing style that communicates the tone and energy level you intended?
Lots of scene breaks indicate a fast, high-energy story
Less scene breaks, longer scenes indicate a slower, more contemplative story

Flow of Moment – Do the images in your panel (all elements, including word balloons) interact in a way to guide the reader’s eye in the intended direction?

Flow of Page: Do the images in your panels interact with the surrounding images in a logical manner? Does the end point of one panel lead you to the beginning point of the next?
Cacophony or ambiguity may be what you want as well, but in most cases the reader should know where to “go” next.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics of Story – Have you chosen a visual style to best communicate the tone and feel of the theme/story? Is your story dark and brooding, or light and airy? If so, how does the art style you’ve come up with lend to that?

Aesthetics of Moment – Do the images in your panel (all elements, including word balloons) create a visually interesting or pleasing moment? Can you tweak the arrangement of elements (blocking) or the illustrative details to make it more interesting or pleasing?

Aesthetics of Page – Does the page look like a visually interesting or pleasing piece on its own? When looking at facing pages, do they lead into one another or complement one another?

Practical

Editing

Let 2 Kinds Of People Read Your Thumbnails

People who know you and are familiar with comics storytelling (Art Buddies–even better!)
What they have to offer you:

They’ll consider your voice and intent
They’ll evaluate the clarity of information and tone
They’ll best evaluate your perspective, anatomy, acting moments
They’ll best evaluate whether or not your aesthetic choices contribute to the tone/story data

People who know you and are unfamiliar with comics storytelling

What they have to offer you:

They’ll best evaluate the clarity of story and of each page–but won’t necessarily be able to tell you WHY they feel what they feel!
A good way to get a spell- and grammar-check

What kinds of things change when you edit?

New scenes
Sometimes you’ll need to add scenes to clarify certain points or reinforce certain thematic elements in your story.

Delete scenes
You may have to cut entire sequences that don’t have anything to do with the story.

New Page Layouts
You may find a more interesting or visually pleasing way to construct a page even after final thumbs–or else you may have to change a layout to make the information more clear.

Move Scenes Around
You may decide to insert a scene in the middle of a longer scene, or switch two scenes in a sequence altogether.

Making The Changes

Tape pages within document or overtop deleted pages
If loose leaf, draw new pages in margins, insert new scenes between pages

Assignment for this episode:

Finish all of your thumbnails
Complete your style tests & evaluate how much was done digitally or analog–we’re going to determine our lettering tool choices and talk about penciling next time.

For more helpful information about topics covered in this episode, check out these past episodes:

Another great resource mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 109 – The Big Potpourri V

Jerzy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:06:07 +0000

Mark and I take a breather from the Your Comic From The Ground Up series to answer a few Storrior emails and voicemails this week. It’s a bit of a laid-back episode, featuring the return of some tributaries and laughs, but not at the expense of good ol’ Art & Story content.

We play a voicemail from Gerimi Burleigh, who gets us going for a bit about Sloppy Drawing and the usefulness of dry-erase boards and/or chalkboards as a brainstorming tool, but also as a means to loosen up as an illustrator.

After that we go on a bit of a long discussion on tools, based on an email we received from Shadowing Tronix. We talk about and evaluate the following art tools:

Rolling Rulers
Ruling Pens
French Curves
Clickable Erasers
Compasses
Flexible Curves
Lightboxes
Pencils – Mechanical vs. Wood
Triangles
T-Squares

If the tools we talk about sound like they might be useful, you can purchase some of them with the links below, and we get a bit of Amazon kickback for it! Yet another way to support the show.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Switch Runners Artist Edition Preorder Sale is Go!
New items in our Zazzle store
Jerzy will be appearing November 13-15 at the Miami Book Fair
Mark has his Metal Cards Set for sale
We’ll both be tabling at the Detroit Urban Craft Fair November 21
Josh Kemble’s recent page illustration process video
Cocoapotrace, a handy vectorizing tool recommended to us by Dave Anderson and Roger Langridge

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Big Art & Story Party Time – Episode 6

Jerzy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:36:21 +0000

It’s another crossover event between Art & Story and Big Illustration Party Time! In this second part of our recap of Mark’s and Kevin’s experience at the 2009 Alternative Press Expo, we do our best to have a discussion about lessons learned from this and past conventions, knitting together a strategy guide for those Storriors who plan on tabling at shows in the near future.

Some of the topics covered:

Networking
Keeping costs low
Perceived value of items on the table
Effective self-promotion
The value of booth babes

Be sure to check out the first part of this discussion over on the Big Illustration Party Time website: Big Art & Story Party Time – Episode 5! You won’t be sorry.

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 3

Jerzy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:56:13 +0000

It’s time for part 3 of our series Your Comic From The Ground Up! This week we focus on finalizing our thumbnails, with a special emphasis on dialogue, acting moments, and moment choices. We’re not concerned with illustrative beauty yet–our main focus is on communicating your story visually.

As with previous episodes, we begin with a theoretical discussion on this stage of the process, followed by some practical strategies to make your comic a reality.

Theory

Thumbnailing
Choosing Your Moment
Moment compression – Finding the “perfect” that essentially summarizes the flow of moments in your story. This is primarily achieved through imagining the scenes and finding the moments that stick with you, but you can also consider the following criteria in designing your narrative visually:
Consider your subject -

Is the focus of the shot best placed on your subject (character)?
How do things change when you have your subject off panel?
When is it appropriate to have more than one subject in the panel?

Consider your shot Objectively or Subjectively-

Wide shots often allow for more clarity (objective)
Tight shots often increase reader participation in character’s emotions (subjective)

How does the panel on the left feel different than the panel on the right?

Consider your acting moments-

Remember that comics affords us the opportunity to show a ton of story data visually, including emotions that defy a succinct explanation. See A&S 108 – The Big Acting
Is this a moment where a character can tell more story through expression, gesture, pose?

Consider your shot aesthetically-

How can you arrange elements to coexist in a visually pleasing manner?
How can you find shots in your story to put your reader’s eye in interesting places?
How can you create a visual flow on your page that a reader will find easy to read, while still retaining a sophisticated amount of story data?

Consider your use of Word Balloons-

How do your word balloons contribute to the visual flow of your images?
Do the balloons lead the eye to the interesting or notable points in your narrative?
See A&S 95 – The Big Balloon II

Looking for moments that can be told best through comics -

Ambiguous layouts (examples from The Front, The Origin of Jared)
Defying traditional reading directionality (example from Switch Runners)
Multi-moment panels (examples from Equalizers of the Divide, The Galactic League of Marshals)
Layout composition & harmonies (example from PPV)
For more on this subject, see our two-part series The Big Visual Narrative Pt 1 & Pt 2

You can use the rules of art to defy traditional reading directions!

Hashing out the Story Some More
Dialogue Does It Best When It Does It Twice
Think of what essentially needs to be communicated in your moment, and ask yourself how your character can express that information as only they can. Dialogue should both propel the narrative forward as well as tell the reader how your characters are different.

*This is where the character personality interaction chart is so useful, at least at first!

Comics Gives You More Words For Your Money!
You can, within limits, fit considerably more dialogue in a comics moment than what would fit in a screen narrative. This is most likely due to the elastic nature of time in a comic–the static moment represents a compressed flow of moments in the narrative, so readers don’t notice when you push the dialogue just a little beyond the realistic point.

Speaking The Lines Out Loud Doesn’t ALWAYS Work
Some dialogue choices just look and read better in text than they do in a live performance. Even though your character is “speaking” in the reader’s mind, it’s often through a fuzzy representation of their voice.
Also, we cartoonists act ON THE PAGE, and as cartooning exaggerates and distends realistic acting, so too can comics dialogue. So unless you have some screen/stage acting skills, don’t rely only on speaking lines out loud.

Practical

Thumbnailing, Part 2 (second draft)
Collect your random sketches and first round of thumbs and re-investigate the story.
Look at each page through the lens of the above criteria, and ask yourself if each sketched page uses the criteria to best communicate what your moments are about (the theme, remember?).

Take some letter-sized sheets and staple them in the middle. Re-thumbnail the pages, editing as you go, one page per half of letter-sized paper.

Don’t be precious about the illustration, but at this point you should be taking care to loosely sketch your settings, locations, and roughing out the fancy perspective shots and acting moments.

Tool Selection
As you begin establishing the world and visual rhythms of your story, you can break up the process of building your story to do some more style studies by trying out various tools. Check out the works of cartoonists you admire and find out what tools they use and what kinds of tones they’re able to achieve with those tools.

You can take some key moments from your thumbnails and try them out with different tools to see how those moments feel different.

Promotional Shots
Now that you have your characters finalized and your story is well underway, you can get double-duty out of tool/style tests by creating some promotional shots of your characters/story (desktops, posters, banners, etc). It’ll be a great way to help psychologically prepare yourself for the work you’re committing to, as well as a way to start the real gruntwork of your book with a bunch of work ready to show off.

Assignment for this episode:

Have at least one chapter of your story in final thumbnails
Have a handful (2-20) style tests complete, and at least a third of them fully rendered

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Big Art & Story Party Time – Episode 4

Jerzy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:34:24 +0000

The second crossover between Art & Story and Big Illustration Party Time continues with this second part of our discussion on, as Mark put it:

“Films do it in the can (Cannes), comics do it in the panel”.

In other words, what storytelling advantages does comics have over screen media?

This section of the discussion focuses mostly on the cartooning aspects of comics making (line usage, flexibility of style, and image compression). In the first part, Big Art & Story Time Episode 3, we focused more on things like page turns, composition, and panel usage.

Follow Jerzy, Mark, Josh, and Kevin on Twitter!

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 2

Jerzy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:39:03 +0000

Our multi-part series of Your Comic From The Ground Up continues this week on Art & Story. This time it’s all about finding the climax and how it reflects the theme of your story, world building, and beginning work on your thumbnails!

Like before, we open with some theoretical discussion followed by some practical techniques.

Theory

World Building (establishing your story’s logic)
How can your location be a character in your story?

Designing a “real” world
Designing a “fantasy” world
Mixing and matching elements when designing props and settings
Questioning the obvious in terms of architectural shapes

Hashing Out The Story

Find your climax and work backwards
Identify your character’s crisis

Thumbnailing

This is the level of detail found in my first round of thumbnails

Feeling out the moments visually
Sloppy drawing, not necessarily in sequence
Visual rhythms, finding the “beats” on your pages

Thinking About Format
Good for web & print:

Square
Horizontal (approx 10.5″W x 7.5″H)
Strip

Not so good for web, but good for print:

Vertical (approx 7.5″W x 10.5″H)

When I get to my second round of thumbnails, I add more detail and dialogue.

Practical

Building a Reference Library

Google/Flickr image search
Photograph locations yourself
Magazines & catalogues – Great for costume ideas and poses
Google Sketchup

Thumbnails

Work on a letter-sized piece of loose paper, measuring out 4 pages of story per sheet
Draw loosely in whatever writing utensil handy
Don’t work too much on dialogue, just focus on the visual rhythms and story flow

Building a Theme Library
Compile a library of music, films, or TV shows to have going on in the background while you work on your sketches, style studies, and/or thumbnails. These media should be reflective of the tone or “feel” of the story you’re working on. This isn’t to rip ideas off from others–it’s to help massage your brain into the state it is in when those stories speak to you.

Links mentioned this episode:

Closing Doors

John Oxbow: Man Out of Time

Mulligan’s Run

Equalizers of the Divide

The Front

Assignment for this episode:

Begin a reference library (physical or digital)
Begin thumbnailing your story (4-up to a letter-sized sheet, keep it loose)
As you work on your thumbnails, re-examine your character designs and relationship charts to see if anything needs revision

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 108 – The Big Acting

Jerzy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:29:57 +0000

It’s a wombo-sized 2-hour episode where we discuss acting in comics with friend of the show, cartoonist Kim Holm!

An example of the acting found in Kim's work.

We break our discussion into a theoretical segment followed by some practical strategies for finding the acting style most appropriate to your comic.

Theory

Show, Don’t Tell
In any storytelling medium, especially the visual ones, we have the ability to make an audience believe in the world we are constructing. That believability will be more sustained if we deliver emotion, tone, and other story data through the visuals. Don’t tell us that a character is angry, make us say that he/she is angry.

Thoughtful Acting Delivers Story Tone
More emphatic acting leads to a more “theatric” style of storytelling. Naturalistic or subtle acting leads to a more sophisticated or complex tone of story. Subdued acting can be used to create a sense of irony.

Types of Acting

Naturalistic – Acting to describe sophisticated & complex emotions.
Examples: Kevin Maguire, Goseki Kojima

Cartoon – Loud, exuberant acting usually used for comedic or theatrical effect.
Examples: Manga, Aragones, Will Eisner

Subdued – Less acting, puts more story responsibility on words. Creates a sense of irony.
Examples: Giffen, Daniel Clowes, Jason, Chris Ware

Practical

How to get the acting we want in our stories

Gesture
Facial Expression
Body Language
Type of Line
Artistic Effects (Use of color, stroke, iconic imagery)
Worldly Effects (Light-sourcing, using shadows, obstructing the view)

Questions of interest:

How do we decide what style of acting a story requires?
When can we break the style?
When can “not showing” be more effective than showing?
How do you build a “library” of emotional expressions, and charicatures?

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story – Your Comic From The Ground Up, Pt 1

Jerzy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:04:29 +0000

With this episode we begin a multi-part series called Your Comic From The Ground Up, through which we hope to more formally document all of the cartooning strategies we’ve used thus far when developing our comics from concept to completion.

In this first part we concern ourselves with previsualization–starting from scratch. We break our discussion into a section on the theoretical concerns, followed by a section on practical techniques.

Theory

Beginning with a character or characters:

Aspiration & Terror as character motivations
Finding surprises within characters
Discovering whether or not the character(s) will achieve their goals
Character and story themes
Sensible endings

Beginning with a concept:

Meaning/themes
The twist
Merging genres
Tonal exploration

Practical

Character-based
development strategies:

Collecting actors
Gesture studies
Ink studies/style studies
Turnaround/full character design
The one-sentence description

Concept-based development strategies:

Visualize key scenes
Rough outline

Links mentioned this episode:

Closing Doors

Say It In Slugs

John Oxbow: Man Out of Time

Mulligan’s Run

Equalizers of the Divide

Switch Runners

The Front

Items/books mentioned in this episode:

Assignment for this episode:
Complete 50-100 pages of random sketches:

Character designs
One-sentence descriptions of your characters
A character relationship chart (this is how character A feels about character B, this is how character B feels about character A, etc)
“Big moments” in your story
Exploration of your story’s theme
Your story’s chapters outlined in one-paragraph descriptions

The Art & Story Theme is written and performed by
Mike Gilmore & Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisors.

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Art & Story 107 – The Big Implicit/Explicit Story

Jerzy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:37:29 +0000

This week Mark and I delve into a nerdy conversation about the differences between stories whose content is comprised of implicit and explicit story data. We evaluate the differences under the following criteria:

	Implicit	Explicit
Character	Rich, Developed, Contradictions	Vibrant, Distinct, Consistent
Plot Development	Slow	Quick
Theme Devlopment	Complex, Many	Straightforward, Fewer
Focus (Thematic & Character)	Varied	Direct
Composition & Delivery	Serialized	Episodic

We take these criteria and attempt to chart some well-known stories along a line between implicit and explicit stories. We’ve even got a handy graphic to assist in the discussion!

Click the image for a larger version of the chart.

And please note, this is diagrammatic thinking, which means we use broad generalizations in our discussion as a means to meditate on the topic. You may disagree with where we placed these stories, or even the criteria by which we judged them. If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

We also read a few emails from Ros Archer and Viro Indovina, who were kind enough to share some book recommendations:

Other newsy-type links:

We’ve released The Lone Cartoonist anthem for download and distribution
Mark’s new book WAR is available for pre-order, featuring a special Artist’s Edition

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Art & Story 106 – The Big Catharsis

Jerzy — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:19:47 +0000

This week we explore some of the more negative aspects of being a cartoonist/freelance illustrator. Mark and I have an open conversation about being frazzled, losing our focus, and riding the wild mood swings that seem to be part and parcel of our chosen careers. This is less of an advice-giving episode; our goal is to let you listen in on one of our various studio conversations as we try to talk ourselves back to the desk.

We answer a voicemail from Zach Bosteel, who asks us about writing women characters and provides us with some great book/link recommendations.

After that we play a voicemail from Gerimi Burleigh, who offers some great advice on starting up a freelance career while still in college.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Art & Story Alive! Episode 81
Big Illustration Party Time
Sean Gordon Murphy
The Colodin Project
Sara Turner’s File 49
The Replacements
Switch Runners
Art & Story 46 – The Big Commentary: Switch Runners

Book recommendation this week:

Other newsy-type links:

We’ve released The Lone Cartoonist anthem for download and distribution
Jerzy’s 1995 mini-comic series The Black Hole Equation, has been put online–here’s why
Mark posted some pages from his upcoming book, WAR

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Art & Story 105 – The Big Tone

Jerzy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:55:31 +0000

This week Mark and I explore how a cartoonist’s style contributes to the tone of their work. We’re specifically talking about the visual style as a vehicle of storytelling in terms of use of line, use of color, and use of composition and character design/pose.

We break down some broad categories of frequently-used tones, but these are by no means a definitive or complete list:

Dynamism

Artists mentioned: Jack Kirby, Walt Simonson, Jerry Ordway, Bruce Timm
Characterized by

Clarity
Boldness
Variety of line weight
Dramatic Black Spotting

Sophistication

Artists mentioned: Charles Burns, R. Crumb, Seth, Craig Thompson, Chris Ware
Characterized by

Use of feathering
Graphical style
Smooth lines
Rigidity of poses
Texture
Fixed-width linework

Cheerfulness

Artists mentioned: Carl Barks, Curt Swan, Jerry Ordway, Bruce Timm, Craig McCraken
Characterized by

Contour line
Simplification of form
Smoother lines
Varying line weight

Depravity

Artists mentioned: Bill Sienkiewicz, R. Crumb, Berni Wrightson, Eddie Campbell
Characterized by

Impressionistic detail
Savage lines

We examined each grouping through the following questions:

What are they doing with lines?
What are they doing with color?
What are they doing with composition/pose?

Check out these books by the cartoonists we’ve mentioned throughout this week’s show:

Links mentioned in this episode:

Eric Talbot’s influence on Jerzy’s work
Thomas James’ Escape From Illustration Island Podcast is now updating!
New episode of the Saturday Supercast is up, featuring part two of our discussion of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Season One!

And thanks to Jim Lujan for the voicemail this week!

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Art & Story 104 – The Big Renaissance

Jerzy — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:17:57 +0000

We’re celebrating our two-year anniversary with an interview with two excellent examples of the kinds of renaissance creators we independent cartoonists should be!

Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal are actors, writers, producers, and voice actors who never stop working.

In addition to recently completing pre-production work on an independent film, they’ve also just finished work on a book about voice acting called Voice-Over Voice Actor, What it’s Like Behind the Mic (featuring comic strips and illustrations by me!).

Tara and Yuri spend some time with us to discuss the challenges of managing a collaborative project, why it’s important to always be working on something, their process of writing, and how they find and develop characters with their voices. Tons of great food for thought for any independent creator out there.

If you enjoyed listening to the discussion this week, be sure to check out their book!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Voice-Over Voice Actor, What it’s Like Behind the Mic – Now available for pre-order!
Tumbling After, Tara and Yuri’s independent film
Tara Platt’s website
Yuri Lowenthal’s website

Other newsy-type links this week:

More items in the Art & Story Zazzle store! Storriors mugs now on sale!
A reminder to check out items in Mark’s store. We practice what we preach, so if you enjoy our show, you’ll probably enjoy his comics!
Thomas James’ Escape From Illustration Island podcast launches this week!
Mark appeared on the last two episodes of Big Illustration Party Time (eps 29 & 30)

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Art & Story 103 – The Big Escape

Jerzy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:01:20 +0000

This week we have a special co-host for a continuation of our recent discussions on building communities and connecting with other artists. Thomas James of the upcoming Escape From Illustration Island podcast talks with us about how he plans to use his website and podcast to invite fellow cartoonists, illustrators, and animators to join him in amassing as many great resources for artists as possible. In this way he hopes to create a hub for cartoonists to gather around and get to know one another, and maybe even remove the negative connotations surrounding the word “networking”.

At the top of the episode we respond to a voicemail sent by Gerimi Burleigh, who shares some thoughts explored in Art & Story Alive! #78–namely, the future of digital distribution of comics in regards to the rumored Apple Mediapad.

Other newsy-type links mentioned in this episode:

Mark appeared on the last two episodes of Big Illustration Party Time (eps 29 & 30)
New items in our Zazzle store! Bumper stickers and more mugs!
A wrap-up of Mark’s trip to Portland can be found in some recent episodes of Art & Story Extreme!!

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Art & Story 102 – The Big Call-In II

Jerzy — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:39:23 +0000

Due to a snafu with our original recording of A&S 102 (check out our AudioBoo on that for more info), we had to be creative in making this week’s episode happen. We took the opportunity to do our first late-night live show since A&S episode 5, and we’re joined by a stellar group of cartoonists to discuss the topic of Finding Inroads to Art Communities, or Finding Your Art Buddy.

Guests this episode include:

	Chris Oatley is an artist, writer, and aspiring director who lives in Los Angeles, California, works in the entertainment industry, and his goal is to inspire you with his excellent ArtCast.
	Matt Munn is the creator of Zed Reckoning, one of the most awesome horror/action comics on the internet.
	Ryan Dow is a regular on our weekly live show, Art & Story Alive! He’s also the cartoonist behind Introspective Comics.
	Kevin Cross is one half of the Big Illustration Party Time podcast, but he also works as a freelance illustrator when he’s not preparing to launch his new webcomic Monkey Mod! He joins Shawn Robare and myself as a co-host on the Saturday Supercast!
	Javier Hernandez is the host of the Javiland podcast, but he’s also known for his work as a cartoonist on El Muerto, Demolition Dove, and his upcoming Man Swamp from Xomix Comix!
	Jim Lujan is the creator of many wonderfully strange animated cartoons. He also produces the Fakesplosion podcast!

We recorded this episode live through Talkshoe, which means that a bunch of terrific cartoonists were in the chat client sharing their thoughts. You can read a transcript of the chat by going to the Talkshoe Transcript Generator and entering show ID 49181.

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Art & Story 101 – The Big Workout

Jerzy — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:27:52 +0000

This week’s topic was inspired by an email we received recently from Carl Mefferd, who asked for our thoughts on how we stay focused and motivated to keep making comics. While it’s a topic broached before in past shows (and on Art & Story Alive!), it’s always worthwhile to revisit these subjects to see if we’ve developed any new strategies, or if old ones have ceased being useful to us.

We organize our thoughts under an analogy of a workout regimen. Those who are much healthier than either Mark or I suggest a combination of endurance and strength training to stay in shape. We discuss the following strategies to stay in shape artistically, while trying to find the analogs for them in the world of physical fitness:

Getting over the fear of sucking
Just get through it
Sloppy drawing
Doodling without previsualization
Procedure & not over-working an illustration
Art Buddies

In addition to an exercise routine, most people agree that good nutrition is important. Of course we have our creative-types analogs in the following strategies:

Intellectual comfort food
Keeping the Analytic Eye opened

Links mentioned in this episode:

We’re also pleased to play a voicemail by Juan Navarro, who shares a few book recommendations with us:

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Art & Story 100 – The Big ‘Un

Jerzy — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:37:20 +0000

We’re joined by our biggest roundtable yet to help celebrate reaching our 100th episode! No special topic this time–more of a general discussion about why we love the comics medium so much, from our various points of view.

Here’s our lineup of special guests:

	Shawn Robare is the man behind Branded in the 80s, a blog that remembers what it’s like to be a kid! He is also one of the co-hosts of the recently relaunched Saturday Supercast, a podcast about the cartoons of the 60s, 70s, and 80s!
	Krishna Sadasivam is the cartoonist behind PC Weenies, a comic for tech nerds and the people who love/tolerate them, and Uncubed, his autobiographical comic. He is also the co-host of our weekly live show, Art & Story Alive!
	Kevin Cross is one half of the Big Illustration Party Time podcast, but he also works as a freelance illustrator when he’s not preparing to launch his new webcomic Monkey Mod! He joins Shawn Robare and myself as a co-host on the Saturday Supercast!
	Joshua Kemble is the other half of the Big Illustration Party Time podcast, and he also works as a freelance illustrator and is a Xeric Award-winning cartoonist!
	Diana Nock is the cartoonist repsonsible for The Intrepid Girlbot, Imaginary Friends Forever, and many more comics found on her Jinxville site!
	Javier Hernandez is the host of the Javiland podcast, but he’s also known for his work as a cartoonist on El Muerto, Demolition Dove, and his upcoming Man Swamp from Xomix Comix!
	Jim Lujan is the creator of many wonderfully strange animated cartoons. He also produces the Fakesplosion podcast!
	Last but not least, we have Gerimi Burleigh, who recently completed his graphic novel, Eye of the Gods. He currently is working on some new comics which will no doubt be available on his Optic House website soon.

Our deepest thanks to all of these folks who took time out of their busy schedules to rap with us for a while. We certainly had fun during the recording.

And we certainly thank you for downloading and listening!

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Art & Story 99 – The Big Wood

Jerzy — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:03:52 +0000

This week we spotlight Wally Wood’s famous “22 Panels That Always Work”

We discuss several of the panels in this image and discuss how they have affected our storytelling, why and how we think they work, and how we’ve used them in our own comics.

Some of the panels highlighted:

Big Head
Extreme Closeup
Back of Head/Part of Head
Profile
Open Panel
Small Fig
Down Shot
L-Shape
White Ben Day BG and Silhouette
Three Stage
Contrast

Some of our comics mentioned using these techniques:

Hitomi & The Girl Commandos Part 5, Page 1 (Contrast)
The Front Part 3, Page 39 (Contrast)
The Replacements, Book Three, Page 23 (Small Fig)
Curse of the Pharaohs, Page 04 (Silhouette)
Curse of the Pharaohs, Page 23 (Silhouette w/rim lighting)
John Oxbow, Man Out of Time (Profile)

For more about Wally Wood’s witticisms and his work, check out the following books:

More newsy-type links:

The Art & Story coffee mug is now on sale! Only $15!
Krishna’s Rebootus Maximus is still up for pre-order!
Art & Story Alive! And Art & Story Extreme!! both celebrate anniversaries this week!
I recently led a test of the Ustream service, which I hope to use again in the near future

Special appearance by Brian Turner of Cricket Press! Thanks for the testimonial, Brian!

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Art & Story 98 – The Big Book Recommendation

Jerzy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:37:11 +0000

I’m sure most of you out there have a cherished book in your library that you discovered by way of a friend’s recommendation. This week we share some of the cherished reads/listens/watches from our media libraries in that same spirit. These aren’t resources like “how to” books–instead we spotlight some of the books that electrified and inspired us as storytellers. The kind of book that changes the way you think about your craft.

Jerzy’s Picks:

Thomas Carlyle On Heroes, Hero-Worship And The Heroic In History
The Power of Myth, with Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers
The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis
(also available in audio on iTunes, which I highly recommend)
The Romantic Manifesto, by Ayn Rand

Mark’s Picks:

The Twilight Zone – Season 1 (The Definitive Edition)
The Twilight Zone Companion
The Outer Limits Original Series Complete Box Set
Also available on Hulu.com, totally free!
Star Trek The Original Series – The Complete First Season
Also available on YouTube, totally free!
Superman – The Movie (Four-Disc Special Edition)
The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue (A Contract With God, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue)
Eisner/Miller
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

And the surprise book recommendation that I couldn’t remember the name of during the recording:

Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

Other newsy links of note:

Krishna Sadasivam’s PC Weenies Rebootus Maximus is up for pre-order! Get a copy for a tech-savvy, non-comics reader today!
The Saturday Supercast has returned, hosted by Kevin Cross, Shawn Robare, and yours truly! Our first new ep is an exploration of the 1980s cartoon series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero!
We’ve added a page to the site detailing what we plan to spend donation dollars on in order to improve the podcast.
New video on our Vimeo site, showing what a recording of an A&S Extreme!! episode looks like.

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Art & Story 97 – The Big Storrie

Jerzy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:07:56 +0000

Paul Storrie and Jerzy face off!

We have our second-ever in-studio guest this week, as we’re joined by Paul Storrie, a comics writer whose work has been published by DC Comics, Marvel, IDW, and more. Paul stopped by to share some of his thoughts on making comics from a writer’s perspective, some of the more theoretical/philosophical aspects of writing, and some advice/strategies for exploring a writing career in comics.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Chuck Dixon’s website, where you can find samples of full comics scripts
Big Illustration Party Time, the definitive freelance illustration podcast, now with more audio quality
Krishna Sadasivam’s PC Weenies Book is still up for pre-order
The new Art & Story video podcast, featuring an inking tutorial
Art & Story Extreme!!

Also, we must thank Jim Lujan, Gerimi Burleigh, Thomas James, and Kevin Cross for the wonderful testimonials submitted for A&S Extreme!! Thanks a million, guys!

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Art & Story 96 – The Big Money

Jerzy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:14:46 +0000

It’s all about the bills this week as we answer a question from Stef of Sarah Zero–namely, how do we make money doing what we’re doing? And what does all this nerding out over comics process junk have to do with making the monies?

It may surprise none of you to hear that we believe that delving deeply into the process of comics making figures in largely to making a living as a cartoonist. We break down our strategies for survival into the following categories and sub-categories, explaining at every point how our love of comics has made us more marketable to clients:

Freelancing

Comics
Illustration
Storyboards
Character Design
Logo Design

Teaching

Illustration
Storytelling

Links related to this episode’s topic:

Art & Storrior Gerimi links to this interesting talk about comics economics with Jeph Loeb
Optimum Wound’s 23 Ways for a Comic Artist to Survive and Thrive in any Economy
Big Illustration Party Time – the definitive podcast for those seeking a freelance career
Webcomics Weekly – A great podcast for those who want to know more about the business end of comics

Other Newsy-links:

The BIPT Art Auction is still going! Bid early, bid often!
Krishna Sadasivam’s first book is available for preorder! Get 2 of them!
Art & Story now has a video podcast site!
Still looking for voicemails with testimonials for A&S Extreme!!

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Art & Story 95 – The Big Balloon II

Jerzy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:38:35 +0000

This week we try to answer an email from Storrior Jose Gonzalez, specifically about some tricky word balloon uses he plans on trying in one of his comics.

We take the opportunity to revisit a topic we haven’t formally explored since episode 08–namely the role and function of word balloons in a comics narrative. We broke our discussion into the following areas of concern:

Definitions

Word Balloons
Thought Balloons
Caption Boxes

Marmalade Bear and Yuki Bear, as played by Dick and Torpedo Black

Theoretical

Balloon shape
Distance between the text and the outside of the balloon
Tails & Trunks
Fonts/hand lettering
Color

Practical

Allowing space in the illustrations for balloons
Using Adobe Illustrator to letter our comics

We’ve also created a video podcast to show some of our Illustrator techniques, as supplementary material for this episode!

Other examples mentioned in this episode:

The Front, Part 5, pg 14, where Dick and Torpedo Black use puppets to taunt Thirsty
Curse of the Pharaohs, pg 1
Switch Runners, pg 4
Diana Nock’s Imaginary Friends Forever, pg 3
Mulligan’s Run, pg 8
John Oxbow, Man Out of Time, pg 4
Echoes From Asteroid X, pg 5
Mark’s Bionic Man tribute comic

Other links mentioned:

Krishna Sadasivam’s Rebootus Maximus is now available for pre-order!
Art & Story Extreme!! is updating Mondays through Thursdays!
Mark and I were guests on Big Illustration Party Time, episode 23!

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Art & Story 94 – The Big Chelsea

Jerzy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:09:41 +0000

The first Kids Read Comics convention is over, and we’re back with our full report of the event. We’re joined by Sara Turner for a blow-by-blow retelling of the event along with our commentary and analysis.

Overall, we agree that the event was a great success. While there were a few minor setbacks and conundrums that faced both the artists as well as the organizers, the positive outcomes easily outweighed any frustrations.

More links to check out for Kids Read Comics coverage:

Art & Story Extreme!! episodes Equestrian!!, Elbow!!, Kids!!, and Yayus!!, where Mark, Sara, and I wrapped up our experience on a day-by-day basis
Art & Story Alive! episode 70, where Mark, Krishna, Ryan Dow, and I did an informal discussion about the event
Kids Read Comics podcast episode 03, featuring a recording of one of the panel discussions from the event
Photos of the event on our Flickr page

Also, we’ve added a new Thankcast to our site, featuring a discussion with Sara Turner about our top 3 film influences on our work. Contribute any amount via the buttons on the upper left of the website to get access to it. And thanks for your support!

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