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.

 

Comic Printing - Research

 I already have a good relationship with a comic printing company: CPUK. As I now have two comics in the works, and know the sizes and page count, I wanted to get an accurate quote for printing so that I can look into the viability of sales, and potentially start to think about doing a pre-sale.

Rich, from CPUK suggested the GSM for pages and cover. 

Specifications:

A5 Comic

12pp inc cover

Cover: 170GSM Silk + matt lam outer

Text: 115GSM Uncoated

4/4 colour throughout

Saddle Stitched

x50 = £81 printing cost - £1.62 each, would look to sell for £6.50 (this is x 4 and rounded up of the base cost)

x100 = £118 printing cost- £1.18 each, would look to sell for £5 (again x 4 of the page post and rounded up)

I want to look at similar sized self-published work to see if this is in the right perimeters, however £5 seems like a really nice figure to be selling a small comic at. 

Critique - Digital Process

At this stage in my work I wanted to come back and review my digital illustration process, as it it something that is relatively new to me, it feel important to keep track of my outputs, and weigh up the pros and cons of this decision.

Firstly, I have no doubt that working digitally is the best way for me to (currently) create comic work. The process is much quicker, I'm able to be consistent in my pages that I don't feel I am quite able to achieve with pen and pencil yet.

I can feel my digital work becoming more authentic and second nature to me, though I know there is much to improve, my original sticking-point with moving to digital was losing the textures and movement and I feel like I am slowly overcoming that the more I practise. 

However, I don't feel like thumb-nailing or dummy books will ever be anything other than hand drawn, the looseness and freedom to be messy with pencil on paper, and the inability to overcorrect work (Erasing and redrawing line after line, digitally) has led to some really great discoveries in movement that I have transferred over to the final digital pieces.

I find it difficult to see my work as professional in a digital sense, not something that people will hand on their call or take seriously as an "artist",  whilst I am enjoying my work, and see many benefits to it.

I am also really aware that I am not using my sketchbooks anywhere near as often, and I want to get back into the habit of that. I want to improve my traditional practise, and so I am going to set time aside to fill my sketchbook pages, attend life drawing classes and generally draw more.

A Walk to a Waterfall - Process Update

I have been slowly working on the behind the scenes parts of A Walk to a Waterfall ready for 705, making small adjustments as I have researched narrative structure and picture code, to improve the script and visuals. For example, I have adapted the script to fit the "Circular Narrative" technique; the story starts in a train station platform, and will end on one.

I'm working with a skewed drawing style as a visual metaphor for my mental health at the time, I will also be building in more colour as the arc comes to a more positive end.

I am really aware that I don't want to go 'over the top' with the amount of techniques that I am choosing to put into this piece, as I do not want the story and message to become muddy. However, as a short book, I want to ensure there is enough depth for people to pick up on something new on the second or third reading.

I finished two pages to use in the pitch pack and add to my website.