A Crying Shame - Layout Critique

I've finished the lining and colouring of A Crying Shame, and have taken the chance to lay out the pages in the correct layout to see how the pages look side by side as they will when being read. I am really really happy with the way they look. The flow feels natural and slow. I still feel quite aware that the comic itself is quite short, and know that I struggle to stretch out dialog and let the pictures tell more of the story, but I am much happier with this layout than earlier versions which were more condensed and word heavy.

I'm looking forward to seeing it fully lettered, which I will work on next, and re-evaluate again at that stage that the flow still works, and the pacing matches the story.

Comic Progress - Update

 

Now that my pre-orders are live, and the target has been met I am focusing solely on getting my comics finished. My target for finishing outlines/the bulk of the drawing was the end of this week, I will hopefully hit that for A Crying Shame but then need to focus on A Walk to a Waterfall. My print deadline is June 9, which I am tentatively hopeful I will hit. However, I need give myself some leeway, and have contacted my printer for their turnaround to make sure I take that into consideration.

Self-Publishing - Launching Pre-Orders!!

 On Thursday May 18th I set comics live for pre-orders! I made a few graphics to promote this specifically for Instagram Stories, Instagram Grid and Twitter! Below are screen caps of the posts:

I have previous experience in selling things online, and that really helped me feel confident in setting this all going. I set myself a target I hoped to reach, similar to what I would have done on a crowd funding campaign, something that would allow me to cover the costs of my initial print run of 50 of each comic, and I achieved this within the first few days of the pre-orders being live! I can now go ahead and finish the comics knowing that I can easily pay for the initial print run, which cover all pre-orders, as well as leaving spares for my upcoming comic markets and some stock for comic stores!

Self-Publishing - Dissemination - Stockiest Research

I contacted OK Comics and Travelling Man, two local comic shops to discuss their approach to stocking small press/self-published work. Below are the responses:

Travelling Man

"Most of the time it is Sale or Return but sometimes Wholesale, depending on how many we order to be honest, it really varies. We mostly wait for people to get in touch with us but again, sometimes we seek out and contact creators. Quantity wise, usually 2 or 4 copies per shop, but it really can vary! I've attached our guidelines too!" 

Mama, who runs the small press for Travelling Man, also added their guidelines for me which detailed the ins and outs of getting paid and it was really useful.

OK Comics

"We used to purchase small press on sale or return but this was hard to manage, buying at a discounted rate (usually between 40/50%, we usually discuss this with the creator and find a price that works for us both) and letting them tick over works better for us. We also find that this gets us more excited to stock and sell the comic!

We tend to order a small amount to start with and gage customer response before ordering more,

Hope this helps!

All the best,

Danielle"

Leeds Zine Library - Dissemination

After visiting Leeds Library a month or so ago,  I contacted the Art Librarian, Emma Hayton, to discuss the potential of revamping their Zine Library. The Library currently is tucked away in a corridor, and visually isn't the most appealing; although the library itself has some really great pieces in it. It felt like with a few changes and some time dedicated to it it could be something really special. 

Today I had an initial meeting with Emma, pitched my ideas and it wet really well. They already have plans to move the collection to a more accessible space within the Art Library, and we discussed some furniture options from other zine libraries that I have come across during my MA research. 

We also discussed having an official re-launch party, and building a donation drive into that where creators can donate copies of their work to replenish the shelves. 

The outcome was that I will become an official volunteer at the library, and work on the zine library long term. We have more meetings booked in, and in the mean time I'm going to work on some rebranding.

A Walk to a Waterfall - Cover Redesign

I've stepped away from A Walk to a Waterfall for a while whilst I focus on A Crying Shame. It's been interesting to come back to it now with the additional knowledge I have built whilst working on my second project. It's made me realise there are a lot of things I really like about this first project, I still really like the script and the general aesthetic I have set for the book (the colours, and textures etc); I realise that the cover didn't quite fit with that style, so I've done back, using the same basis but taken out the figure and scaled back the colours to greys and pinks. I really love how it looks, and think it reflects the stories overall feeling much better.

Here is the older version for reference:

 

Emma Carlisle - Professional Casestudy

Emma Carlisle is an illustrator and children's picture book maker, Emma has also lectured illustration.n. Her practise has evolved over the years, and it has been really interesting to see her authentically follow her own interests and see her style progress and change. She has children's books that are published, she also publishers her own sketchbook work and run an art based Patreon. This biggest part of Emma's career that I am drawn to is the Patreon she runs; it's a community of artists of varying levels, and Emma prints her own teaching experience into this community with regular digital workshops, drawing sessions and lessons. She shares really interesting ways to approach a sketchbook and how to improve your work in a way that works for the individual.

Accessed May 4

 

Self Publishing Dissemination - Reviews- Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier is a magazine-style website which focuses on comics, particularly small press and self-published work. They do a lot of comics reviews, promotion and news features on that subject. I plan to send my comics here for review to help with promotion when they are ready. Before that, I wanted to look into their process for requesting reviews, and found that they have a really in depth page that answers the question 'How do I get coverage for my self-published comic?'

Below is some key points which I found useful:

"For review requests, digital or hard copies. If you want to send hard copies to a particular staff member, please contact us for details. Due to the international whereabouts of our staff, we don’t list a public mailing address. Since we receive multiple review requests daily, we cannot cover all requests. We do, however, share requests that fit within our coverage area across the team and cover as much material as possible."

How to pitch that e-mail request:

So to sum up. This is what we always suggest when e-mailing Broken Frontier for small press coverage.
(i) A couple of short sentences about the comic’s style, themes, subject matter and why it may be of interest to the reviewer given previous coverage.
(ii) A couple of sample pages.
(iii) A link to your site/store.

Always offer a choice of physical or digital copy for review if possible"

Comic Promo Pages

 

End of Year Show - Display Planning

For my End of Year show display I want to make something eye-catching to use to highlight my work. I've mocked up an idea which will be made from wood and painted; with two brackets at the bottom to help it stand, which can be taken off for easier storage. I wanted to make something that has multiple uses so I will use this in place of a pop up banner at comics markets and fairs. 

I've assumed 3ft, but this depends on the brackets to make sure its sturdy enough... changes are it'll be smaller

I have booked a chat with the wood-work technician to talk through the specifics and get an intro to the woodwork machines I'll need to make it; which should hopefully be fairly simple!

Self-Publishing - Setting Up Pre-Order

I have gone and set up a pre-order store page for my two comics. It took a while to set up as I had to ensure postage and package was all correct, and write out descriptions, but now the page is set to go! I plan to make it live in a week or so, when I've really got more pages complete and feel more comfortable about fulfilment. As well as having more images to share to help me promote it.

I have used the inbuilt store option on my already existing website, purely for ease, it does up the subscription cost to £25 a month (including domain and hosting), which means I've added on an extra 50p per comic to go towards that. At markets and in-person I'll be selling each comic for £6.

The delivery time for the pre-order is set for August; I need to get everything printed by July 1st (my first comics fair), so I do feel reasonably confident I can meet that date.

My initial aim is to order 50 of each comic, dependent on how well the pre-orders go, which means I'll have extra stock to sell at the two comic markets I have lined up.

I will put together some graphics to help me promote the pre-order too, which I will use on my social media.

Self-Publishing - Pre-Orders & Crowdfunding Research

I researched out to the comics community via twitter to ask for advice on the pros and cons of crowdfunding V's a self-ran presale, here are some responses I received:

The consensus seems to be that a crowd funder (eg Kickstarter) is a great way to promote your work, its transparent about the costs of the project and how much you're looking to raise, it also allows me to send updates to everyone much easier than a self-led pre-sale. I still don't know if this is the route I will go down for this project (purely based on time restraints), but it's interesting to know for future reference.

Below is a slide from James Lawrences lecture on crowdfunding, specifically on working out the costings:

Discussed the maths (costings) with some other comic creators, and it made me realise how complicated this could be, I was advised that it can be time consuming too to promote and make it worth while.

An option that was given to me was setting a page up on my website as a pre-sale, with a link directly to paypal, to keep it really simple and manageable, with little pressure to hit a target in a certain time scale etc.

I think for my first two comics I will go down the pre-sale route, and for further projects (or even reprintings), where I have more time, I will go down the crowd funding route.

Creating my Own Font - Final Version

Based on the research I've created the below font. Below are two pages as example of the font being used. It still feels really like my own hand-writing, but a lot clearer and legible, and of course, much quicker to type out than hand letter. 

 

Self-Publishing - Lettering - Research

 I reached out to the comics community via twitter to ask for advice on lettering, specifically why a lot of comics are in capitals and for examples of any that where not in capitals, so I can analyse what would work best for my work, I want a balance between handwritten and professional.

Some observations:

• The fonts seem to be quite thin
• Lower case lettering varies in high often, meaning the line spacing needs to be larger.
• Most speech-bubbles seem to be centrally aligned

Professional Casestudy - Lizzy Stewart

 Lizzy Stewart is an illustrator and author, she also teaches illustration! The reason I am drawn to Lizzy and her practise is that she has a really great portfolio with a mixture of interesting projects within it. She doesn't seem to be bound to one type of output, but has a really distinct style in her illustration. 

Her online shop is full of illustrations, zines and graphic novels and her online presents feels really natural. She has been published by small press, and large press, and self published too. Lizzy was the artist in resident at Edinburgh Book Festival 2022, she made a zine as part of her trip which I absolutely love. You can read it here.

Its really interesting to see someone have to much range in their work (in terms of projects) but still feel extremely true to her style and visual language. The exact thing I want for my own practise.

Accessed May 4

Creating my own Font - Research & Creation

I followed this tutorial to create my own font: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WV9IL528tM

Below is my first attempt at the outputs. I wanted the font to be my own handwriting and overall I am pretty happy with, there are a few issues that I will go back in to fix to make it all a little more consistent, specifically focusing on the capitals as most comics seem to be lettered solely in capitals.

The process was really simple, and will make it a lot easier (and quicker!) to letter my comics.

A Crying Shame - Adding to the page

I want to keep the artwork simple for A Crying Shame minimal colour and line, but I also do want to ensure the pages feel full, with depth and emotion. 

I decided to experiment with adding heavy black to the pages, with details in white/negative space. Below is a side by side comparison of Page 2 with and without the black, and below Page 3 with the black. When the lettering is added I feel the heavy black will add to the tone and overall feel of the page. The comparison between the light and dark will also aid with the stories sense of hope.

I will now go through and sketch, then fully ink every page based on the dummy book I have just finalised, once the pages are inked I'll go back and add in the black as above. 

 

SLCZF Successful Application - Dissemination

In February I put in an application to be part of South London Comic & Zine Fair, a one day event held in Norwood Junction, previous events have always been London (specifically South London) creators and publishers and this year is the first they've opened it up to anyone.

SLCZF describes itself as "focusing on self & micro publishing", which feels like the perfect fit for where I see my practise laying. The one day event is on July 16, and with Mac-Pow, the Macclesfield Comic Art Fair, on July 1st, I now have some hard deadlines to get my comics to print. 

 

Readying Artwork for Print - Research

Before I got two far in both of my current projects I researched to ensure that when it is time to, my artwork is already print ready. I sometimes find that I botch my work together, and I want this process to by much smoother.

The printer I requested a quote from previously is a specialist comic printer in the UK, and has some really helpful resources on his website which covers everything you need to get ready for print, including discussions on bleeds and templates to work towards: https://comicprintinguk.com/process-getting-your-comic-printed/ 

Below is the template applied to my work showing bleed (black area) and safe area for my artwork (outside of the blue area).

A Crying Shame - New Dummybook

 I have been drawing my pages for A Crying Shame and it felt like there is scope for me to add more narrative detail, my whole driving force currently is to be more vulnerable in my work. I'm also consciously writing in my own house, to convey my experiences in a more authentic way.

With this i mind, I have gone back into my script and reworked a few areas, and added in more pages briefly touching on my therapy journey, as well as some personal revelations.

The whole thing now comes in at 18 pages of narratives and illustration, which feels more substation.

Below is example dummy page scans. I used the new script to roughly map out panels.

Tillie Walden - Page Study

Alone In Space is a collection of Tillie Waldens work through out her career, including some work from when she was around 16, through college and into her first webcomic and printed comics. It's really interesting to see her style progress and grow, and the consistencies that remain within her work. She has always had quite a minimal approach towards colour, with heavy use of black ink. The heavy black really brings depth to her work, which often has a emotionally heavy narrative. This is something I'd really like to built into my work.