Boy Comics #120 - work in progress

[Crimebuster]

One of my dreams is to someday publish Boy Comics #120.

 

I know, some people dream of being rich and famous, I dream of reviving a forgotten comic book series that ended 58 years ago. What can I say. Crimebuster is one of my favorite characters and since Boy Comics and Crimebuster are in the public domain it's actually feasible. It's just a matter of having the time, energy and - most importantly - the money. Time and energy I can supply. The money...

 

Over the last few weeks I've been messing around a little bit, looking at the cost of artists and printing and that sort of thing. It's a pretty decent chunk of change to hire an artist to draw a full length comic book. And obviously, the better they are, the more they are going to cost.

 

Unfortunately, I have certain standards for art, especially if I am going to be paying for it. Even more importantly, since I am going to be writing the story, that art is representing my work. No matter how great my story is, if the art isn't good, the whole thing is going to be poop. I don't want to be known as the guy who wrote the poop.

 

Still, the idea of publishing Boy Comics #120 is something I can't really shake. I have a little money socked away from my tax returns and instead of buying some expensive back issue to look at, I keep thinking it would be so much cooler to publish my own comic instead.

 

So... still not sure what I am going to do. Every so often I get the bug to just draw it myself. I haven't drawn anything in probably 15 years, but I was thinking about buying a tablet. I wasn't sure, though, if I could get used to looking up at the screen while I drew instead of down at the paper. So I thought, well, let me mess around a little in photoshop and see if I could get used to that.

 

Anyway, I ended up with a doodle that's far from great. But I unexpectedly kind of enjoyed making it as well. Drawing it myself would sure save me a lot of money, but more importantly it would save me a ton of headaches in trying to find the right artist and, you know, also be an editor that has to worry about art corrections if I don't like how my words are being translated. All that stuff just seems like a giant pain in the butt to deal with. Plus, even if my art isn't very good - which it isn't - I think I know how to tell a story in comic form, which is the main thing.

 

Not sure what to do. Any of you guys have any experience creating or self-publishing comics?

 

See more journals by Crimebuster

[itonarely]

I must admit that I am intrigued by your entire idea/dream.

 

Also, I recently purchased a tablet and while my first attempt at using it was very frustrating I gave it a second try using just a bit more patience and found that it is reasonably easy to use (and can be quite a lot of fun). Two months ago I told my son to give the tablet a try and I haven't seen it since (and he too is doing some really cool things with it).

 

I cannot imagine all of the work it takes to create a comic book but it does sound like a really cool idea. Good luck and keep us posted.

[mzhammer]

You should look into kickstarter.com - just a thought...

[Crimebuster]

Kickstarter is something I have considered. I've done a fair amount of research on it. I think it's a possibility. But there are certain things slowing my roll at the moment. In order to run a successful kickstarter campaign, there's a lot of stuff you need to do - things like sending out daily updates, using social media to spread the word, coming up with and satisfying different goals and stretch goals. Putting together websites and promo videos and whatnot.

 

I mean, it's possible to have a successful Kickstarter campaign without all that stuff, but your chances go down significantly. And it's a lot of work. Worse, it's a lot of administrative work rather than creative work, so it's just the kind of work I want to avoid - the same kind of work I don't want to get into when it comes to hiring and managing an artist as well. In movie terms, I'm a pretty good writer but not much of a producer. And kickstarting a comic is a lot of production.

 

Still, it's certainly a possibility. I'm not sure how much demand there is for such a ridiculously niche product, but on the other hand, I'm not looking for a lot of money. Let's say I were to Kickstart for $2000 (which would be on the low side). Just as an example, if I made the lowest level contribution $10 for a signed copy of Boy Comics #120, I would need 200 contributors at that level to hit my goal. I can maybe count on 15-20 friends and family members pitching in just because they feel guilty. That leaves another 180 people to find. Are there enough Golden Age fans on the CGC forums to drive that over the course of a month? Plus other comic fans I know on other forums? I dunno. Maybe.

 

I went ahead and bought myself a tablet. It might turn out to just be an expensive paperweight, but I found one that comes with Manga Studio Debut installed, which is the basic level program for comic creation. It has stuff like page and panel layouts and word balloons and lettering fonts.

 

A lot of the pros use Manga Studio EX, the professional version, but I figure this one will do the job enough to let me know if I want to take it to the next level. And since it comes installed, I'm saving myself some money. I did try something similar about 8 years ago, but never got very far. Since then, though, tablet technology has improved a lot and I am a lot more familiar with using art programs, so I am hoping it works out better this time. We'll see.

[Crimebuster]

Still waiting for my tablet. In the meantime I've been screwing around with Gimp (the poor man's photoshop) more to try and learn how to use it a little better (even though it's not quite the same as Manga Studio, which I will actually be drawing with). There are still some bits I haven't yet figured out, but I'm learning, anyway.

 

One thing that really has struck me is just how easy it is to copy other people's work now. When I was first learnign how to draw, like most people, I would copy work. But in those days, that meant I'd have a comic book open beside me as I drew on a piece of paper, trying to emulate the lines.

 

Now, you can just take a scan, put a transparency over it and then trace anything. it's kind of ridiculous. And a slippery slope. Understanding how this very basic tool works really opens my eyes to some of the stuff I am seeing in modern comics. It also makes me appreciate more all the people who bag on Greg Land, because honestly, that's not drawing. It's just being good at photoshop. Anybody good at photoshop could easily do exactly the same thing as Greg Land.

 

I'm not currently planning on copying any comic book work - no panel swipes for me, I think - but I think this will definitely help a mediocre to poor artist like me put together stuff that's at least readable. One of the main things I have problems with is perspective, so using photo references for backgrounds and to establish perspective is going to be a huge help. I think difficulty is going to be making those bits mesh artistically with the stuff I am doing freehand, as even in the couple of short experiments I have done I can see that the traced stuff just looks fundamentally different.

 

But it's encouraging. The digital tools available are going to make comic creating a lot easier than it was when I used to mess around with 11x17 pages and blue pencils 20 years ago.

[Hibou]

"The digital tools available are going to make comic creating a lot easier than it was when I used to mess around with 11x17 pages and blue pencils 20 years ago."

 

So true...

 

I still prefer the pencil to board but having those tools available to fine tune certain aspects is a real time saver!

 

It's the 'finding the time' part that's difficult now.

[Crimebuster]

Still working on this, though I'm actually in the pre-work phase, as my tablet wasn't shipped out until today. So I have a couple more days before it arrives and I can start figuring out if this is feasible for me to try and draw myself.

 

I have been doing some more planning, though. I've been doing thumbnails. In the distant past when I did this sort of thing, I would just sketch out a few quick panels and done. Now that I'm working digitally, I'm doing bigger thumbnails on my computer, some of which incorporate reference photos so I have a better idea what I'll be drawing. And I'm also finding that getting the layouts right from a storytelling point of view is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be; I suspect when I was younger and was doing really fast thumbnails that I just didn't have any idea what I was doing.

 

I'm also running into a kind of funny problem. Though my reading tastes tend towards Bronze and Copper Age books, I am finding that my writing style is much more modern. You know, no thought balloons, very few caption boxes, letting the art tell the story. Which is great in theory, except I suck as an artist! This is precisely why some Golden Age books read so clunky, with the text often duplicating the art; because writers had no idea whether the artist assigned to their story would be good enough as an artist to tell the story through their art, the writers would make sure everything is in the text. Since I know for a fact my artist sucks, I really should be changing up my writing style to accommodate that, but I just don't want to. So we'll see how this pans out.

 

I am planning on trying to mitigate some of that by adopting a more cartoony art style. One of my biggest failings as an artist is faces and facial expressions. I just am not good and rendering detailed facial work. However, with a more cartoony style, I think I can get the expressions right, or at least closer. Which is important since my story has a lot of talking in it.

 

Cartoony is not a bad thing at all; I am looking at the work of people like Darwyn Cooke, Bruce Timm and Michael Avon Oeming. Or even Alex Toth, Harry Lucey and Dan DeCarlo. Stylized but sharp. Francesco Francavilla on Afterlife with Archie is pretty much my ideal art style for what I am trying to do. I can't come close to the work of any of those guys, but if I can do the same sort of thing conceptually, with simple linework and strong design, I will be very happy.

 

I'm also planning on doing my art in black and white, for both aesthetic and practical reasons. Aesthetically, the story I am doing is a noir inspired crime drama, so black and white makes sense. And on a practical level, I have no clue how to color anything remotely well, so it's not even really an option to do it in color anyway.

 

Black and white also turns out to be a lot cheaper to publish, which I will get into in my next update.

[Crimebuster]

Besides digital art tools, the other major thing that has changed in the past decade when it comes to publishing comics is the rise and availability of on demand printing. Back in the day, it was a serious undertaking to consider publishing an indie comic, what with the need to lay everything out, find a printer, yadda yadda yadda.

 

Now, though, it can be as simple as uploading your files to an on demand printer. I've been doing a little research on the options for printing comic books, and while there are a lot of options, the one I keep coming back to is a company called Ka-Blam!

 

Ka-Blam! is an on demand publishing company that was created specifically for printing indie comics. As a result, all of their services are tailored towards comic creators. For example, through them you can publish comics with your own blank covers, which are printed with a special heavy stock, art board quality cover designed for sketching.

 

And since its on demand, the cost is more or less up to you. With old school printing, you often have to order in bulk to make it worth the printer's time - so, you know, 500 or 1000 copies minimum. With Ka-Blam! or other on demand publishers, you can put in an order of 100 copies or something and not break the bank.

 

Of course, this method is more expensive on a per unit basis, so if you were publishing something that you wanted thousands of copies of, it's probably not the best option. But for someone like me, a newb doing a project just about nobody in the world will pay money for, the prospect of printing up a couple hundred copies on demand simply by uploading my files to their template is a huge, huge relief both mentally and financially.

 

I've just ordered a copy of their sampler, which runs $2 and which has pages showing how art looks in black and white and in color and on different paper stock and all that sort of thing so you can get an idea before you put in an order whether or not it's right for you. I'm very curious to see what their black and white stuff looks like in terms of gradients in shading. If I can do a bunch of different, subtle shades of gray and have them reproduced properly on the printed page, it will make a big, big difference in terms of what I can do with the art.

 

Right now, if I do end up going forward and doing this project, I am leaning towards a total print run of 200-250 copies.

 

Just as a breakdown of what that would cost: Ka-Zam offers a discount if you include an advertisement for Ka-Blam either inside the comic or on the back cover. I don't really want their ad on the back cover, just because I think it would be a little weird, so I am leaning towards the inside back cover. But I am still thinking about it.

 

Let's say I did go with inside back cover, with 24 interior pages in black and white, with normal stock for the cover, the cost would be $1.87 per issue. So for 200 copies, that would be $374.

 

That doesn't include shipping. If I put the ad on the back cover instead of the inside of the back cover, the price per unit drops down to $1.67, so I would save 20 cents on every copy. Which is a significant difference that gets more significant the more copies you print. At 200 copies, my savings compared to inside back cover would be $40, for a total cost of $334.

 

That's all pre-shipping. I'm not sure what the cost of shipping 200 comics would be, but probably not cheap. Still, it doesn't seem that bad to me!

 

And one thing I have been seeing some people do is basically use Kickstarter as a pre-order system. So let's say I'm going to be printing these up, right? I could go on Kickstarter and say, okay, copies of Boy Comics #120 are going to be available for pre-order by pledging $8, which also includes the cost of shipping. If I get "pre-orders" for just 50 copies at that rate, boom, I just paid for printing the whole run.

 

 

Oh, and the most enticing about all of this by far? Making my own Boy Comics sketch blanks. Seriously, think about it: How cool would that be, to have Boy Comics blanks to take with me to shows and get my favorite pros to not only sketch Crimebuster, but do it as the cover to my own comic?! That's pretty much to die for, man. It's honestly almost reason enough to do the entire project.

[Crimebuster]

Well, I got my tablet in yesterday. Spent some time working on what may turn out to be the cover for #120. There's a pretty steep learning curve - not with the tablet, but with using Manga Studio. Even with my familiarity with Gimp, Manga Studio has enough quirks that it's basically like learning a whole new system; they aren't as similar as I had hoped.

 

Still, I am plugging away. One thing I am surprised at is there doesn't seem to be a specific system in Manga Studio for designing logos. I'll probably end up just putting together a temporary logo for the time being, as I don't want to use the classic Boy Comics logo - it's just too large, and it looks off when it is reduced in size.

 

Once I get all the linework done I will post a look at my progress.

[Crimebuster]

So, I finished the initial linework on my cover figures.

 

They still need some work. Crimebuster's right hand has a serious case of hot dog finger. Also, while his face is drawn okay, it just doesn't quite look like Crimebuster to me, so I am going to need to do some work on it to get it just right. I'd also like to have a more urgent expression on his face, if I can pull that off.

 

I'd also kind of like a slightly different expression on the female character as well, but given that faces are my weak point, particularly female faces, I'm going to go with "close enough" I think. You can see I went with a Dan DeCarlo inspired Archie-style face for her. Crimebuster's face is going to be a little cartoonier as well once I redraw it; he needs slightly larger and more expressive eyes and a slightly rounder jawline.

 

I uses photo references for both figures, which I think is fairly obvious. Interestingly, it took a lot longer to draw from a photo reference than to just do it freestyle, so learning how to actually draw would save me a lot of time. I think the figures will gain some personality once I start inking it - another thing I am not particularly good at.

 

I've also been screwing around with some logo stuff. I think I've come up with a design I like for this, though it leaves some things to still be figured out. The big blank space in the bottom left corner being the main one. I could fill it with more text, such as the title of the story, in a different color. Or I could put a second image in that area. Or even leave it blank. I'm not quite sure yet.

 

I'm also still thinking over the background. I have a basic concept for it, but I'm worried it might be too busy.

 

I've learned a lot so far in the last couple days about how Manga Studios works. I'm already considering just upgrading from 4 Debut to 5 Pro, as it's not really that expensive and there are a lot more tools to work with. On the other hand, I'm still barely starting to figure out the tools I already have. I've read that Manga Studios is excellent for inking, so I'm interested to see how that goes, as that's the next step for me - inking the figures and adding textures, of which there are hundreds.

 

Here's my first early prototype for the cover of Boy Comics #120:

 

[rjpb]

Looks like a good start, and a style compatible with the GA Crimebuster stories. It will be a lot of work, but as this is clearly a labor love, I've no doubt you will find great joy as well as frustration in doing the art yourself. Even if it takes you a couple of years to finish it, the process will not only be gratifying but an education as well.

[vaillant]

That’s a challenging idea, but I would not try to draw it in a cartoony style.

You can keep it simple, but still tru to learn to work on expressions: they are the most important thing in a narration, no matter what one thinks.

 

The best advice is to copy, and copy, and copy an artist you like, which has a great style but not so coded to be too personal (for example, Mignola would not be suitable, Charles Biro is).

 

I would never draw directly on screen. I do that for lettering and graphic design, but to draw properly it has to be in pencil for me. You can study a way to finish and "ink" with computer aided means, anyway. Expression was a great software, but I don’t recall if it‘s still on sale (they made it Windows only when they shut off the Mac version).

[Crimebuster]

Looks like a good start, and a style compatible with the GA Crimebuster stories. It will be a lot of work, but as this is clearly a labor love, I've no doubt you will find great joy as well as frustration in doing the art yourself. Even if it takes you a couple of years to finish it, the process will not only be gratifying but an education as well.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully it won't take me quite that long to finish it, especially since I've realized the story is too long for one issue, so it's going to have to be a two-parter.

 

 

 

 

It's definitely been an education already. I have these ideas about tweaking my style to do this and that, but when I actually start drawing... well, my style is my style I guess. It's particulary evident in shading/inking, where I really want to go with bold blacks, but my actual style is billions of tiny hatch marks. It just doesn't look right when I try to put in blocks of ink.

[Crimebuster]

That’s a challenging idea, but I would not try to draw it in a cartoony style.

You can keep it simple, but still tru to learn to work on expressions: they are the most important thing in a narration, no matter what one thinks.

 

The best advice is to copy, and copy, and copy an artist you like, which has a great style but not so coded to be too personal (for example, Mignola would not be suitable, Charles Biro is).

 

I would never draw directly on screen. I do that for lettering and graphic design, but to draw properly it has to be in pencil for me. You can study a way to finish and "ink" with computer aided means, anyway. Expression was a great software, but I don’t recall if it‘s still on sale (they made it Windows only when they shut off the Mac version).

 

I agree expressions are the most important thing, especially since Crimebuster stories usually have a lot of talking, but I think going cartoonier makes it easier to have expressive faces and characters. We'll see how it turns out, though. I'm definitely looking at people like Kevin Maguire to try and understand how he does expressions so well.

[Crimebuster]

I didn't have a chance to work on this much today, but I did a little. Here's the updated cover in progress:

 

 

So, I added shading to the female figure here.

 

Figuring out the inking for this drawing has been a bit tricky. The light source is obviously the lantern in her right hand. This makes shading her fairly easy; most of her is being hit straight on with light, so there's not much shadow to worry about. Only her back is really in shadow, plus her elbow and her lower left leg.

 

Crimebuster, on the other hand...

 

So, the lantern is obviously behind Crimebuster. This presents a bit of an issue, though, because this would cast him entirely in shadow other than a rim of light along his right arm and right leg. He is kind of turned a little towards her though, as she seems to be tugging slightly on his arm, so I think I can get away with having some light cast on his chest. I want to have his left arm and leg just about entirely in shadow, though, but I'm not sure if that entirely make sense. I think the lantern hitting CB's chest but leaving his arm in shadow makes sense? But I'm not entirely sure.

 

Anyway, I will worry about him tomorrow I guess.

 

 

 

Another thing I am trying to figure out is the girl's shorts. These are supposed to be plaid Bermuda shorts. But I'm not quite sure how I want to do the plain part. I could add the bold black lines and the smaller lines as well - basically hand draw the plaid pattern. This would be weird if this image was going to be black and white like the rest of the comic, but since it's the cover it's going to be in color. So whatever I do is going to be augmented by a dark brown. On the other hand, instead of drawing the plaid I could either fill the shorts with a pre-made pattern - which I don't think would look quite right but might be okay once the color is added - or I could just skip the pattern entirely and let the color do all the work.

 

I've noticed in recent years that the colorist seems to be assuming a lot of the role of the inker. Colorists add all sorts of shading and such in the coloring process. I was struck watching the Day in the Life of Frank Quietly video that was in Comics general the other day by the fact that he did no inking at all on the page he was drawing; the coloring did all the work instead. Obviously that won't help me with the interior since I am doing it in black and white, but it's something to keep in mind for the cover.

 

 

And speaking of color, as you can see, I also added more text to the logo area as well. I'm fairly happy with this, except that for some reason, when I add any color to the text, the text becomes pixellated. I don't know why. This is the same font at basically the same size as the Boy Comics logo, but making it blue caused it to become pixellated, while the black is basically smooth.

 

This isn't a big deal at this stage, but obviously I need to figure it out before this goes to press. Right now I am at a loss why this happens or how to smooth out the text.

 

I am also considering adding a little more text, under the Elder Sign bit, that would say "FALL 2014" as well as "FOUR DOLLARS." I'd squeeze the Elder Sign text up a little to make room and I'm thinking a peach color for it. But I'm on the fence; I kind of like it the way it is and don't want it to get too busy.

 

Tomorrow, time permitting, I am going to try to ink/shade Crimebuster. Task #2 if I still have time is to redraw his face and right hand. And then if I am still going, I will start working on the background. I think I might have it mostly figured out, but there are some more coloring/lighting issues I need to figure out still.

 

[Hibou]

I'm really enjoying this and your work so far looks VERY good!

 

I'm a sucker for lanterns but I think you could do some nice things with the lighting on this piece... I love the sense of drama you've invoked!

 

I like the typography!

[vaillant]

The typographic lettering is good, but I think you should have left out the blue part with the title of the story you added later on. Composition benefits from space, and this way there is no room left – I think the story title could be in a separate blurb or zone, and smaller.

 

As for the drawings – I have no idea: I used to draw myself but shading is one of the toughest things to learn: you should try to define it in pencil, way before inking.

I also think the girl looks a bit too much cartoony compared to CB.

[Crimebuster]

As for the drawings – I have no idea: I used to draw myself but shading is one of the toughest things to learn: you should try to define it in pencil, way before inking.

I also think the girl looks a bit too much cartoony compared to CB.

 

I agree, she looks cartoonier than CB - that's why I am going to make him more cartoony!

 

It's interesting, his face doesn't really have any more detail than her does. It is, however, slightly less round, which makes it look less cartoony. I think the big thing though is his hair, which looks much more realistic than hers at the moment.

 

 

The typographic lettering is good, but I think you should have left out the blue part with the title of the story you added later on. Composition benefits from space, and this way there is no room left – I think the story title could be in a separate blurb or zone, and smaller.

 

True, this uses up quite a bit of room. But I tend to like bold design, particularly when it comes to text. I'm taking my cue here from books like East of West or Black Science that have a lot of blank areas that are part of the design in order to emphasize the logos.

 

I would certainly have more room for the image if I did a traditional cover design instead. If I moved the Boy Comics logo to the top, I could still put the number underneath it and end up with all the space the story title occupies as useable real estate for the image instead. The big number would still be fine; the design would look more like Astro City than East of West that way.

 

I have also considered going the other way, going further with the design elements instead. But I don't want to get into Manhattan Projects territory.

 

Still, for now I'll probably leave it as is. I don't really need the extra space. The background I am going to add isn't a detailed environment, it's more a symbolic accent, like Warlord #67 or Captain America #111. I'm sure at some point I'll play around with the design elements more though.

 

Keep the suggestions and feedback coming!

[Crimebuster]

I spent about 3 hours inking Crimebuster today. I also made some tweaks to the female figure - added in a little bit of shading on the back side of her upper right arm and under her left collar, plus I added some subtle texture to her socks and a faint plaid pattern to her shorts that I think will look okay once color is added.

 

Basically it was a lot of trial and error. I'm okay with the results, though, so that's the important thing. It's not entirely done, but that's because I still have to redraw Crimebuster's face and right hand. Then I can start figuring out the background. As I mentioned in my last post, it's going to be a design accent rather than a rendered environment. I'm just trying to figure out how big to make it and where to position it. I'm also still figuring out how to do it so it enhances the figures instead of distracts from them - I think a lot of that will come down to the coloring, because in black and white, it's going to be a little bit of a mess of linework.

 

Hopefully I'll have an updated version with the new elements tomorrow.

[Crimebuster]

Okay, I'm just about done with my initial version of the cover.

 

I redrew Crimebuster's right hand, this time using a photo reference so it didn't look like a diseased starfish. And by "photo reference," I mean I took a photo of my hand in the correct position and then digitally traced it. Greg Land, eat your heart out.

 

I also tweaked Crimebuster's face. I tried to completely redraw it and just could not get it right, but I realized some minor tweaks to the original would probably do the job. I made his jawline rounder and his eyes bigger, and gave him a couple little worry lines at his brow. I also added a dimple and gave him a lip line as well. I studied Joe Kubert's version of Crimebuster, as it was the most adult looking, and he pretty much alwaysgave CB cheek dimples and a lip underline. If it's good enough for Kubert, it's good enough for me. On the other hand, he almost never showed CB's eye's at all - only in a couple panels where CB's eyes got wide. Otherwise they were just little black dots or lines.

 

I made the C bigger on Crimebuster's jersey. Kubert liked to draw a fat C so, again...

 

I finished inking and shading everything in. I also added texture to CB's pants.

 

Here it is without the background: