Making Minis With Lauren Barnett

So far in my comics-making career, I have completed 3 and a half minis (I say half because one is a very teeny mini). I have to give credit to Tom Spurgeon for his great instructions which I followed while making my first mini (Pancakes). If you’re just getting started, I would definitely recommend looking through his instructions, they are simple and helpful and make it that much easier to just f-ing DO IT.

I really think that one of the hardest parts about making something like this is, well, first of all, just doing it, but second of all, putting your work out there for other people to see. It is really hard (at least it was for me) the first time because you are doing something totally on your own volition with your own hands, from start to finish and just hoping that someone other than your mother will find some merit in it.

When I make my minis, I really enjoy feedback. Some people may not want this, but I think it is really important. It is even better if the feedback comes from total strangers. This was big to me, especially when I made my first one, because I wanted to see if my work could stand on its own in someone’s eyes who had never met me or known anything about me other than what they were holding in their hands.

My personal philosophy is to get as many people to read your stuff as possible. Good reviews are awesome and can really bolster your confidence to make another book. Bad reviews suck…at first. Every time I get a review that says I have no business holding a pen or stapling paper together I get mad and sad and destroy my computer and everything in my apartment. Just kidding. That would be expensive.

But seriously, it does hurt, but it’s easier once you remember that this person just took the time to sit down and read something that you made, and even if they hated it and think you are a stupid, navel-gazing chump, you got their full attention for a little bit of time. And I have to say, the very concept of self-made mini comics getting reviews of ANY kind, that's pretty awesome. When you think about it, when else can you really do something, create something, and NO ONE can stop you from drawing, saying, printing, whatever you want? You don’t have a publisher asking you to change the drawing on page three because they think it’s awful or to change a dialogue because it doesn’t make sense that the cat is all of a sudden talking. This is what I think is SO SO SO amazing about mini comics. You can truly find your own voice through drawings and words and you have no one to convince but yourself.

If I could say one thing about making minis it is this: make one. Oh, also, don’t stop yourself from trying everything you think of just because you think it might be weird or out there or unconventional or super conventional. And also, read Tom Spurgeon’s directions. And also, copies are expensive, be prepared. And also, get a long-armed stapler if you can, they are awesome. So I retract the first part of the first sentence in this paragraph and would like to change it to: “If I could say five things about mini comics…”

In closing, please make a mini comic, even if you just plan to keep it in your pillowcase and read it over and over to laugh at your own jokes like a crazy person when no one is home. Or if you’re not in that sort of mood, buy some of mine. Just kidding! (Haha! Not really, go buy one.)

Ok, bye!

Lauren Barnett is a comic artist, illustrator and graphic designer living and working in Brooklyn NY. She has self-published three mini comics (I'd Sure Like Some F@*#ing Pancakes, A Story About Fish, and Secret Weirdo and soon Was That Supposed to be Funny?). Her minis have been reviewed by The Comics Journal, Poopsheet Foundation, Midnight Fiction, Optical Sloth, Write Club, and others.

She also has a daily comics blog with mostly one-cell gags at melikesyou.blogspot.com. She has shown her work at The Life Café Salon in Bushwick, Brooklyn; Phoebe’s in Williamsburg and will have a show at Gimme Coffee in Brooklyn in October 2010.

Her work has been published in the L Magazine's Comix issue (2008) and she has work on Top Shelf's website. She will have a half table at this year’s MoCCA festival in April, so stop by and say hi!!

Oh, and PS: you can purchase her minis at her Etsy shop or at the fine retail shops listed on her blog!

Living With Your Comics Fan

by Stacey Barlow Hills

Are you the loved one of a fanboy/girl? Do you share your home with any number of items representing the multi-verses of DC, Marvel, Image, etc? Are Stan Lee, Alan Moore and Bruce Timm part of everyday conversations? Are you concerned that you possess knowledge enough that the previous three sentences make sense to you?

If so, you’re not alone, and you’re in luck. After nearly 10 years of marriage to a man who is both fan and artist, I’m here to tell you that your relationship can survive AND thrive with comics. It just takes a few simple steps on your part…

• Everything in its place. Action figures, collectibles, lithographs, the library of graphic novels and the dozens of comics boxes all need a home if you are to survive in yours. Give them space, but not everything needs to be visible. In our house for example, graphic novels are on the bookshelves as long as they aren’t too graphic for our five-year-old to flip through. The rest go into the office where she’s not allowed. Living in an apartment? Be creative in your decorating. Frame the lithograph, or put a piece of wood or glass on those comics boxes and throw a big piece of fabric over the entire thing – coffee table. Too much stuff? That’s why self storage exists.

• Choose your battles. If your fan is excited about watching “Crisis on Two Earths” and you are ambivalent about your evening TV plans – defer. If you are convinced that the latest web viewer is not innovative and your loved one swears that it is – let it go (trust me on this one). Save your energy for things that matter, like whether or not to name your child after his/her favorite comic book character and whether the nursery will be decorated with DC or Marvel characters.

• The more you know. Most of us have been learning our entire lives. The square root of 25? How to ride the subway? Parts of speech, directions on a DVD player, we are constantly adding terms to our vocab in order to function in our world. Make this one of those things. It’s like learning a whole new language, and just like learning a language, your horizons expand with new knowledge. Did you know that Aquaman is more than someone who talks to fish? He’s awesome – check it out.

• Find a niche. To be honest, I never thought there was anything in comics that would interest me. Still, the diversity of storytelling, art and character is overwhelming. There is, quite literally, something for everyone. The key is to find just a couple of things that you like. I’m not a fan of fantasy, and I’d rather watch my superheroes or buy the trade paperback than read issue by issue. My husband doesn’t agree, and that’s ok. Comics are art, and art is subjective.

Above all, if you truly care for your fan, just love and respect him/her. If they love it, try to love it too. My husband’s passion for comics makes him who he is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Hang in there everyone!

***

Stacey Barlow Hills is the wife of super talented Doug Hills, who's work you can find at PNH Comics where they have their manga webcomic CHIBI CHEERLEADERS FROM OUTER SPACE.

Articles

INDIE CLUB:
Nathan Schreiber's POWER OUT review by Timothy Mucci
Josh Jenkins' PLAN B review by Kurt Christenson
Write Club's MoCCA review by Timothy Mucci
3 Coolest Things I Found at MoCCA by Johnny Gatts
Discovering the Voice by Jayme Roxann Wright
Emily Wernet's MOONLIGHTING review by Kurt Christenson
KGB Bar Live Comics Reading Review - Fall '10 by Kurt Christenson













GIRLS CLUB:
Living With Your Comics Fan by Stacey Barlow Hills
Making Minis With Lauren Barnett
Breaking Into Comics As A Female by Jayme Roxann Wright
Writer Spotlight: SmartGrrrl aka Michelle Weiner
Learning to Love Comics by Christina Oppold
Top 5 Feminists in Comics by Josh Jenkins













The Process by Peter Hammarberg
Colleen Harris - Poet
Joe Iadanza - Folk Musician
Dr. Joseph Suglia - Author/Scriptwriter
Mallory C. Hodgkin - Artist













HOW I F@#%ED UP by Josh Jenkins
A Comic Script Is Not A Movie Script
Pay Your Artist
Don't Get Your Artist Off DeviantArt
Get An Editor













FIVE CHOICE BOOKS OF SMALL PRESS EXPO by Max Evry
Book 1: Woman King
Book 2: Food/Fall
Book 3: Secret Science Alliance
Book 4: Motro
Book 5: Boxcar Joe

We Are Write Club! Kurt Christenson: a decade creating

Hey there Write Clubbers!

With all the new readers/listeners out there in internet-ville I figured I'd take this opportunity to say hello, welcome, and tell you all a bit about ourselves.

My name is Kurt Christenson and I formed Write Club earlier this year with my life-long partner in geekery Tim Mucci, who took me to my first comic book store nearly twenty years ago. After the economy went bad and I was laid off, he wanted to podcast and I wanted to talk about comics. So we got together in his apartment about 8 months ago and decided to start recording ourselves as we made sense of the comic book industry.

A lot had changed since I last read comics regularly, so we needed a format to dissect all these changes and examine them, work out the best way to strike if we were to take our comic careers to the next level. There's nothing like taking a break from the thing you love for awhile to make you re-appreciate everything you first fell in love with about it.

I made the decision to start writing comics on New Years Day 2001 after being a longtime reader of Warren Ellis' Come In Alone articles on ComicBookResources. I wrote a few scripts for myself and then hit up Digital Webbing and found a new comic book company called JJAMS that was looking for a writer for a series of one-shots. I wrote three 28 page one-shots, NightDreamer, The Night, and Maracas, all based on generic superhero tropes that I added my own spin on. They came out great and I got paid $50 a script. Then I start a four issue mini-series, Texas Rangers, which I only completed 3 issues of when the company folded due to mismanagement of funds. Shame, as the artwork for the books looked great.

Feeling invigorated by the quick success (I got paid to write within the first 3 months of deciding to write) I went back to Digital Webbing, and wrote a series in 5 page segments for the anthology they started publishing at that time Digital Webbing Presents. I found an artist and my modern day Kung Fu Master vs SuperVillains story took shape, but it never saw print in the end, so I lost the artist's interest and was back at square one. So I wrote a bunch of new scripts as I prepared to start hitting up comic book conventions to network.

My first con as a budding professional was WizardWorld Philly 2001. I sped all the way from Long Island to Philly in order to make it there for the first workshop of the con. At 12:30 that Friday I ran into Buddy Scalera's Networking For Comic Creators panel. Here he broke everyone up into groups depending on what you wanted to work on. The superhero group lined one entire wall, while the crime, horror, and my little group, action/adventure, were placed here and there. That's when I met Chris Chua.

We all flipped through the artists' portfolios as writers told their ideas. As I saw each insane drawing after drawing in Chua's portfolio I was blown away. This kid was amazing. It ended with a full color shot of the Hulk eating his own leg. He was too good, I was just a novice, juat a beginner, I wasn;t good enough to work with him, although the other artists in the group had a long way to go before they were ready to do some serious sequential work.


So I left without giving him my packet of scripts. In fact, I utterly failed. I got intimidated and ran away from what it was I was here to do in the first place; find an artist and create comics. I felt bad for myself the whole day at the con but that night I was determined to find Chua the next day and give him my scripts. So I went back the next day, and while looking around I stumbled across Grant Morrison standing in the middle of DC Comics' booth. Now, Grant Morrison is not only my favorite comic book creator, the writer of my all time favorite comic series, The Invisibles (which he was just wrapping up at this time), he's also my personal lord and savior. I had him sign my Invisibles #1 and his prose book Lovely Biscuits (just to prove that I was an elite superfan) and got my picture with him.

That's when, reeling and stumbling away, high on Grant's ethereal being, I ran into Chris Chua. I ran right over and talked to him for a bit, seemed we had a good amount of similar interests as far as action movies went, and so I gave him my scripts. A month later we began working on a new take on my modern kung fu vs superpowers story. We made it in the future, more of a Mad Max/Road Warrior desolation mixed with old school super kung fu. A few months later Samurai Jack debuted on Cartoon Network and we knew we were on to something.
And so Legend of Liquid Fury was born; our scarred, young kung fu warrior, Wulong, his wise, father figure Master Tze, his brothers, mighty Mao, and stealthy Jian, his childhood love and Tze's daughter, Wei-Lin, the evil General Zhao and his powered minions, mountainous Yama, electric Raiko, and fiery Kaego, were all born through my words and Chris' ink and white-out. Over the years we developed a 200+ black and white graphic novel about revenge and coming back home too late, being unable to make right the mistakes of youth.

We released three versions of the first act through DreamWeaver Press. The first two were full sized and we printed 100 copies of each. These were mostly given out to any and all professionals we could talk to at comic conventions. We debuted the first issue at the National in NYC and gave the first copy to Joe Kelly who read it and loved it. So much so, that when San Diego rolled around he invited us to sit at his ManOfAction table (with Joe Casey, Steven Seagle, and Duncan Rouleau) right next to Richard Starking's Comicraft/Active Images table. We even had a meeting with Starkings at that con to talk about Active Images publishing Liquid Fury.

But it wouldn't be. Just as the art was finished, Active Images stopped publishing work. However they were nice enough to create our own font for us based on Chua's handwriting and wished us luck. As we finished up Liquid Fury we did see our work published in an anthology out of Brooklyn called Reflux. I still have the copy of Previews that solicited the issue in which our first story appeared. Also at the same time we met a bunch of other artists that were hitting up the same cons as us and we joined forces, forming TenTonStudios.com, which is just about reaching it's 5th anniversary this month.

At this point I sort of had a mid-life crisis (at age 27), quit my job, ended a 7 year relationship, and moved to NYC. I needed to live a life of adventure for awhile, and so I did. I moved to the Lower East Side, went to Colombia and L.A., got a tattoo, climbed a mountain, and went to a million events and open bars. At this time I was in the middle of writing a novel, that read more like a collection of short stories, essays, journal writing, called The Tower of Brahma based on a screenplay I started in college. I knew there was 64 chapters, based on the I-Ching, that I'd have to write before it was over. And as I finish up the last three chapters you can read a new chapter every Monday as I near the end.

I became burnt out, on life, on writing, on creating anything after that. I gave up on reading comics, on the idea of creating them, and as a last ditch effort to move forward I decided to go back to school. Fall 2007 I enrolled in classes at New School University and began the process to get my Bachelor's Degree. Finally. I read the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid and wrote papers on them. I saw all sorts of classic films and broke them down, saw what made them work. I took a class in superheroes and what that means in today's world. And as I prepared my final project for that class, a 20+ page paper on the Return of Barry Allen storyline and the Flash legacy (just as Flash: Rebirth was about to be released) I rediscovered my love for comics books and it reawakened my desire to be part of that world, to leave my mark on the history of comic books, just as comics have left their impact on me.

So I helped fellow TenTonner Doug Hills write and letter a comic for his daughter where she teams up with Spider-Man and the Flash. Here was my chance to write a fun adventure, an all-ages romp with two of the best superheroes in all of comicbookdom. Once I got past the intimidation factor of not only writing two of my favorite characters but also a real kid, I found the true joy of piecing a comic together bit by bit; first imagining the scenes, seeing the art Doug created, then dropping text on it and making the characters come alive.


As Tim and I recorded each episode, then began writing articles for the blog, I began to see the comic industry much clearer. I knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life. I heart comics. I slept on top of them for 4 years. I know them through and through and can out geek almost any person I meet who's "into comics". This truly was my destiny. So I finally got over myself and decided to start from scratch and re-letter Liquid Fury (I lost nearly 50 pages while backing it up last Xmas), as I prepare a new digital comic with my good buddy and Write Club supporter from day one, Reilly Brown, and now I'm addicted. I'm writing scripts constantly, and every other waking moment is spent reading comics to catch up on continuity or to write reviews or watching cartoons/movies for inspiration for new ideas. As the New Year approaches, the ninth year since I first decided to write comics, I hope to end this decade long adventure with a slew of my work published finally.

This is what Write Club means to me, unbridled creativity and a means to keep me on track, to maintain the motivation to keep writing, even on those days when I just want to lay in bed all day long, or go out to the bar for a drink. First comes writing, then comes life. And the more I do this, the more the writing becomes the real fun, the joy of creating superseding all else. I'd like to invite all of you reading this to be a part of Write Club in whatever way you'd like. What is it that you've always wanted to do, wanted to create? How can Write Club help you make that come true?

We're here for you, you weary traveler of the lonely path that is beset before the creative individual. We want to help.

We Are Write Club.

K

You can keep up to date with the progress of LEGEND OF LIQUID FURY on my new blog where you'll get to see some behind the scenes stuff, sketches, "lost" pages, and more.

"What's the deal with..." Motion Comics

Okay, so we know what Mobile Comics are: sequential art on your phone/eReader; static images of scanned in comic book pages with transitions between panels. Basically still a comic book, just in a digital format.

Motion comics, however, have more in common with cartoons/animation, and in their own way, are more enjoyable to watch, but a lot of creators question whether something that moves, speaks, and has music (thereby requiring no reading) is still a comic book at all.

I'm not going to get into that debate here. No, I just want to evaluate what is out there and available in this new electronic comic format/medium. I'll try and keep it chronological for the sake of witnessing the development of the technology and see who did what first.

I Am Legend. Watchmen. Batman. Obviously with Warner Brothers backing DC Comics (now more than ever as part of DC Entertainment) they were an obvious forerunner to Motion Comics.

I recall first seeing original Motion Comics promoting the movie 'I Am Legend' and upon searching could only find these two: I Am Legend: Isolation & I Am Legend: Awakening. The art is good and it's entertaining, I particularly like the jail story in Isolation, but they didn't do much with it past when the movie premiered. Although I have just learned they are on the DVD as extras, and as one reviewer said, they're good pilots for sequels without Will Smith.

Then the un-makeable, comic book, anti-superhero epic Watchmen was to be released, and Warner Brothers decided to put out the story as Motion Comic Webisodes. The good thing is there's a whole site based around the project, which is available on iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, as well as a DVD release. I watched the first episode on the Black Freighter/Under the Hood extra DVD that was released after the movie, and it was pretty faithful and well done. The only complaint I can drum up is that it's treated as an audio-book with one guy doing all the voices, even for the ladies.

I watched previews of Batman: Black and White, Batman Adventures: Mad Love, and Batgirl Year One last night on my iPod touch. I've only read the Batgirl Year One in print and I really loved that story, seeing it in action is really amazing. It's available here on Amazon Video on Demand and iTunes. The other Batman stories seem cool as well, but I'm not the biggest Batman fan. Batman: Black and White is available here on iTunes and Amazon Video on Demand.

Here's a link to Time Warner's info on their webcomics/motion comics.

They've also released Superman Red Son on iTunes and I've watched some snippets of the webisodes/chapters of the stories, but I'm hearing some bad things, technical and story editing-wise, about these so it seems that Warner Brothers has some work to do to learn how to properly market and put out their stories. It does show, however, that they know which high profile comics/graphic novels to push (not hard to figure out if you look at sales, I suppose). Here's a little snippet from YouTube.



SyFy Channel has been airing the Street Fighter & Voltron (both originally published in print comic form by Devil's Due Press) Motion Comics as part of their Ani-Monday lineup (Monday night at Midnight) both of which have been released on DVD earlier in 2009 by Eagle One Media.

There isn't a lot of animation here and unless you're a huge fan of either one I don't think you'll be that entertained by it. I enjoy it as I am a huge Ken fan, and the art is really cool (in that post-modern American manga sort of way), the voices, sfx, and music are fine, but in the end it's Street Fighter and Voltron. So there you go.

To buy these on DVD (and many other motion comic DVDs, including CrossGen Comics [whatever happened to them?]) click here Eagle One Media.

Then we come to Stan Lee, who will never give up putting something out there, and so his company POW! Entertainment teamed up with Disney to produce TimeJumper which is available on iTunes. Below is the sneak peek of episode one, and it looks good, but generic-- much like most of what Stan Lee has put out in the past few years (*cough* Striperella *cough*).



And apprently Striperella is its own iPod/iPhone mobile comic, and you really need to watch this video.



This brings me to Marvel. They offered Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD for $1 for two weeks, before bumping the price up to $2, which is still half of what a print comic costs these days. And in a cool marketing move, they released this comic as a motion comic first, then published in print a month later. The big deal here is that this is an in-continuity story that's released in digital format before it's put into it's regular print format.



The Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic trailer; the art and animation seem really cool, advanced way beyond what's come before it (in some respects), and kind of worth a buck or two. The good thing is they're keeping the releases of their motion comics coming out every two weeks, with Spider-Woman leading up to the launch of Astonishing X-Men, which with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday on the writing and art respectively, and it being the X-Men and all, this is definitely their most mass media/comic fanboy friendly project.



This, to me, looks awesome. I know some other comic fans that disagree with me, but I definitely enjoy the extra level of detail that went into animating this. It may be even closer to animation/cartoons than some of the other motion comics above, but that's what I love. It retains the same art and storytelling as the original comics, and then adds in extra drama with the voices, music, and animated action.

Marvel knew they'd have to go the extra mile to pimp out this badboy, so here's a clip from Marvel.com of the premiere of Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic on October 28, 2009, held in Union Square. I've heard mixed (a little on the bad side) reviews of this event, but I think it was mostly due to the weather. There was a signing with Chris Claremont, Dan Slott, Neal Adams, Frank Tieri, Paolo Rivera, Jacob Chabot, and my boy, Reilly "Big Time" Brown. Watch the merriment upon Reilly's face as he sketches and chats with fans!



They really wanted to sell this to not just comic fans, but also to the video game, music video, anime loving crowd, and so, released this music video on the G4 Channel.



All in all, a pretty decent media push from Marvel and a great digital product to go along with it. Marvel even held an animating contest through a website called Aniboom looking for motion comic animators. They've narrowed the contest down to five finalists which they have posted for your viewing pleasure here.

They seem pretty interesting, and you really get a sense of how motion comics can be directed really well, or really poorly. If you look on Aniboom's website you'll see some of the less than stellar results which I think is just as interesting as the well done ones.

Here's a few more articles on Marvel's Motion Comics and Motion Comics in general:

Newsarama

Marvel's Motion Comic Spider-Woman at Newsarama

Inside Warner Brothers Digital Comics

iPhone Saves Small Press?

Kindle 2, iPods, and Comics Future

ComicBookResources

Motion Comics: Graphic Novels in the Digital Age

Now, if we follow this trend, imagining that iPod-ish technology will catch on and never go away, digital floppies (or singles, issues, etc.) should be the standard comic book weekly Wednesday and then collected trades, hardcovers, omnibuses to be released regularly in print AND digital. The only problem is that the print weekly comics can never fully go away, as that was always the fun of going to a comic store. Buying these things online is a novelty, but I still hunger for a physical storefront. But maybe tomorrow's generation won't mind a world without stores.

All this makes me wonder one thing: when are we going to see Sam Keith's MTV produced The Maxx series on DVD?! (Which really did this whole thing 13 years ago.)

K