Tagged: Image Comics

MICHAEL DAVIS: Art School Confidential

MICHAEL DAVIS: Art School Confidential

The one thing you can count on in the comics business is people want to get in. By this I mean there are a zillion people who want to make comics their lifework. To some “comic books’ is a silly way to make a buck. Well forget them. Tell them to have a ham sandwich and shut up. I’m talking to all the young creators who want to make this their careers. I know a bit about this and if you allow me I would like to share some of what I know with you.

The first step on the road to comic immortality is education. I want to talk to the young artists out there. I will let my good friend Mike Baron in a guest column talk about becoming a comic book writer (Mike, please write a guest column for me!).

There are a lot of young artists who think it’s smart to simply copy Image Comics from the nineties and that will give them the art background they need. It won’t. By the way, Image does great books and Jim Valentino has a fantastic nose for good content. I’m sure that Jim would agree that the books Image is doing today are vastly different from the ones they were doing when they revolutionized the comics industry in the nineties. There are a great many young artists who think that copying Todd McFarlane or Rob Lefield will give them the tools they need to be the next Todd McFarlane or Rob Lefield – again, it won’t.

There are no sure fire ways to break into the comic industry as an artist. The industry is filled with self-taught artists-some of these self taught creators are superstars. However, most people can’t simply draw themselves into the field. For the majority of you I think a good art school is a great first step, the first step you will need to establish your own way in a very competitive comics business. How do you choose a good art school?

Very carefully.

An art school should not just teach you art, it should equip you to navigate the business. You want a school that will deal with you as an aspiring professional and not just an artist. A lot of schools don’t do that. Some of the best schools have working professionals teaching there. You would think that will be a great place to go right?

NOT necessarily.

Some instructors will share with you every single thing they know. Some won’t. Why won’t they? Because you will be their competition in a very short time. Because they will someday fear you.

Oh. Nobody told you that?

Look, the professional art school is a business. Before I go on let me be clear: I’m not talking about teachers in fine art curricula. Those teachers teach students who want to make art for art’s sake. Those students want to bring their vision to people for no other reason than to make their personal statements. I’m talking about teachers of Illustration, Cartooning, Animation, Graphic Design or any commercial art course. Chances are if your teachers are working professionals they will not share with you all their contacts or their knowledge. Or to put it another way, if you were an rookie on The New York Mets and your position was center field, do you really think the veteran who held that position would tell you all he knew?

(more…)

Jimmy Palmiotti speaks to ComicMix!

Jimmy Palmiotti speaks to ComicMix!

This time we talk about ComicMix a bit (!!!) and troll for some comments and we offer the lowdown on Marvel’s special Captain America convention edition (???), connect the music of Coheed & Cambria to Image Comics (Star Wars meets the Matrix?), uncover one of DC’s best kept secrets (no snitching!), we hear from writer/artist Jimmy Palmiotti and do a little kung fu jive and sing together for world peace – all in 10 exciting minutes.

All you’ve got to do is press the button:

R2D2 handles your mail

Yahoo News has blown the pants off the USPS’ latest promotional gimmick, as it teams with Lucasfilm on March 28th, the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie, to remake some mailboxes in a familiar image.

About 400 mailboxes in 200 cities across the country will be wrapped in a special covering to make them look something like the droid R2D2 (judge for yourself at right).

The post office isn’t saying which ones, but they have a somewhat tepid teaser about the event.

The pants references above?  If you’ve never played Star Wars Pants, you’re really missing something.  Let’s hope it’s not those trousers, or I’d find your lack of pants disturbing.

(And if you didn’t catch the Annie Leibovitz photos from the Star Wars edition of Vanity Fair two years ago, they’re making the rounds again… love the group shot!)

More on Sinful Comics

More on Sinful Comics

Not to pile on poor little pornographers, but I think, if this image is any indication, that Sinful Comics is going to be hearing from Marvel’s lawyers too. And Sony’s. And probably the lawyers for Jessica Alba and Ioan Gruffudd.

And the hell of it is, the artist is pretty talented and could probably find work in the regular comics industry.

Nancy Drew draws

When you think of famous fictional females and hear "teen sleuth," I’ll bet only one name comes to mind. Well, other than Veronica Mars.

Did you know that Nancy Drew stories are now being published in graphic novel format?  NY-based company Papercutz is serving the teen and tween markets in a big way, and it’s about to get bigger.

Papercutz, whose Nancy Drew #1: The Demon of River Heights won the Benjamin Franklin Award last year from PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, also puts out young adult graphic novels featuring those other teen mystery-solvers The Hardy Boys, as well as Zorro and a really adorable-looking "teenage Charlie’s Angels" book called Totally Spies.  But it’s Drew that’s going to draw this summer, as Warner Bros. will be releasing a Nancy Drew movie this June 15 starring Emma Roberts, the star of Nickelodeon’s hit show Unfabulous.  And ICv2 reports that WB will be using the graphic novels to promote the movie.  The GNs will be given out as prizes in on-air radio promotions, and will also be available as the "Gift With Purchase" during the movie’s mall tour in major markets.

Papercutz is also seeking artists to help draw their graphic novels, particularly those "versed in the manga style."  Nancy Drew is currently drawn by Sho (Sei) Murase, a woman of Japanese and Korean descent who grew up in Spain, then moved to Canada and now lives in California — a real multicultural phenom!  She’s also the author of Sei, Death and Legend published by Image Comics and is currently also working on the graphic novel series ME2 for Tokyopop.

Unscrewed! auctions to benefit exploited creators

Unscrewed! auctions to benefit exploited creators

Unscrewed!, the organization created by comics creators, fans, and retailers to combat illegal and unethical practices by a would-be publisher, today announced a benefit auction to provide relief to the artists and writers exploited by that company. Since its inception in January, Unscrewed! has grown quickly, amassing support from top name talents in the comic book industry, as well as many who are just begining their careers. Full reports of all Unscrewed! activities can be found at the website: www.unscrewedcomic.com

(more…)

Nat Turner done deal

Kyle Baker is bursting with pride upon the completion of his latest work. Quoth he on his blog, "It took longer than I expected, but it’s only THE MOST IMPORTANT GRAPHIC NOVEL OF ALL TIME BY THE GREATEST CARTOONIST EVER! Yeah, I said it. What! We’ll be putting together some preview pages and interactive e-goodies with our new publisher, Image Comics, over the next weeks in order to prepare humanity to withstand my wonders!"

Not that he has an opinion or anything. Of course, in Baker’s case it’s well justified.

Mike Gold: The Editor Babbles

Mike GoldWelcome to ComicMix — well, phase one of ComicMix.

This is the part where I’m supposed to explain who and what we are. In order to do so, I’m going to have to do something I rarely do and generally avoid: I’m going to speak seriously.

I’d like to say "welcome to the 21st Century," but I’m seven years late and not quite that pretentious. So I’ll get down to the details. Phase one of ComicMix is a community based around news, information, opinion and blogging, covering the entire range of the comic art medium and those elements in the broader media that we all tend to enjoy. We add this because, contrary to old-time fan thinking, we do not live in a vacuum.

We post the news continuously, we post our columns daily, we post our information and background stuff incessantly, we post our all-new podcasts thrice-weekly (starting Tuesday, February 13th; as they used to say in Pogo, "Friday the 13th falls on a Tuesday this month"), and we run our blogs continuously and irrepressibly.

(more…)