new images for JV #2

This is right that i would have another image to post here since it's been a time since my last one. The page that you are looking at is that of page #11 of issue 2 of Johnny Vega- Man of the Future.
I felt that i should leave out a couple of images as I work on the book. I realized that if keep posting images all the time I would really have to make a comic book then would I?
After talking to Jason of NEO-Trash Comix, I realized that johnny might do better as a collected work than that of individual issues. Though I again I realized that if I do that I might have to re work the previous issue so it is along the same style as the last one I am currently working on.
This sounds a little George Lucas unfortunately but I think that in the case of Johnny, it might be a good idea.
Again consistency.

Marketing of comic books

It’s not just enough to have a good looking product that people get excited about or the creator (like yours truly) getting excited about his or her work and that excitement being infectious like the andromeda Strain but knowing where different styles of work are going to work and sell.
You may have noticed that anybody can draw and create a comic book but most people don’t know any better. If you draw superhero books you don’t sell them at a Anime event.
That just never works.
And independent comic shows like Stumptown do better with black and white than they do with color.
I guess what I am trying to say is this know your show that you want to sell at.
If your company does both kinds of books, great. It shows to people over a period of time that you and your is very flexible to different interests.
And of course free stuff never hurts anyone.
If you are smart enough and have the finances to do it have a friend take a hand full of mini comics and walk around an event handing out these freebies to people who haven’t seen or know where your table is at.
I saw this happen while I was in Seattle this year. These guy had these black and white Kinko copies that were slapped together and selling them to vendors while sitting at their tables.
Unfortunately, I don’t like this kind of sales tactic. If it weren’t hard enough to make a sale to the passer by what makes a person think that I am going to pony up cash to buy your book? A bad way of doing it. If it were free on the other hand, you might have a chance.
And one thing I think is people like minis. They take up a small amount of space in a person’s collection. It is definitely a novelty, but it does perk up peoples interest.

New Work begins

Well as it turned out Seattle was a pretty good show but as always with a new venture things never quite go according to plan. This show was no different. Lots of people but not a lot of sales. That's ok though, made a lot of cool contacts and the my visibility is definitely being noticed. That's a good thing as far as I am concerned. That's tells the big guys that I am not going anywhere but to the top and they better start watching out for me and Vega!

How to Gage A Show

Well Stunmptown Comic Fest is now past you have to as a vendor wonder "how do you gage a successful show?". Well years ago if you had asked me I would have said that if you make the money back on your project and the cost of your table then you were heading in the right direction.
But now a couple of years in the business I realized that maybe that isn’t all and really if you think about that is very short sighted as well.
I sit back as I drink my coffee think of all the people who did stop by and picked up the business cards that I think I only have five of left. And the email list that grew like crazy and finally the REAL professionals that stopped by the table. The comments that most people wouldn’t have really heard because they were to excited by the fact that so and so is talking to me.
Long conversations with these people make me hopeful that artistic community will be soon joining has much to offer me and I hope that I can add a little spark to them.
I think I, we, had a VERY successful time. Now on to Seattle and unknown territory.

The Woes of Printing - part 2

Today is one of those days when you wonder whether or not you made the right choice. And of course that statement is in reference to my digital printer back in Florida. Show has fallen in the valley in springtime and gives this moment great reflection.
I still really like the product that they put together but I think that if I were to plan far enough in advance have everything edited before I send off the burned CD of books and paying up front, (including shipping and handling I could still work with these guys.
But is the effort really worth it?
That's the question.
The Shows for both Stumptown and the Emerald City ComiCon will still go on but will the company? Lack of response to any question to reassure a vendor that “your books are on their way” is a bad way to run a business.
Hopefully for their part they get their act together and get this mess figured out.

The Process of Making Comix

Well so true so true. I had simplified the process of making comics but today I had really broke down the process of making comic books with one notable exception, the initial spark for the story. That one is as hard as asking why there is air. It is one of the most common questions that any artist has been asked sitting behind a table.
But it is not the easiest to answer. How to make is a slightly better question.
At http://blackbox13.deviantart.com/ I went ahead and placed a number of images of how I make Johnny Vega, Man of the Future.
It’s a 13 step process but I am sure that there is a couple steps that I am missing. So please don’t hold me to this process just yet.
But I believe this closer than most other artist are willing to share with others.
I’m not afraid, ask away.
Isn’t that why we are all here?

The Process of Illustrating

The images that are being shown here are those of the third issue of Johnny Vega, Man of the Future. It is placed as a three step process which is really a very simplified way of showing how these pages are put together. Currently I am trying to adapt a method of illustrating without the usage of a solid black eclipse line around the figure or anything else. The idea comes from watching Samurai Jack for the last couple years and the collected DVD sets.
Disney had been pioneering this method for animation for years. It makes the animation sequences look and feel seamless. And ultimately that is what I am wanting Johnny Vega to be. A CGI animated feature. And I said it here first, so mark my words when he gets popular.
The first image is the actual hand drawn image of what I thought the cover should look like and be representative of what was going to happen in the story. I scanned it in and then re scaled it to fit a comic book templet that I have already made in CS2.
The second image is actually the finished (or nearly finished) cover for issue three superimposed over the pencil sketch. to see how close I follow the initial image. I think that most artist try to stay as close to the original idea as possible because if you rework and redraw an image over and over again you loss the flavor of the piece you’re working on.
The third image is more the finish product that will show up on issue three.
And there you have it. I’ll break it down to other parts down the road.