New page of DOG BOY by Steve Lafler now available.
DOG BOY DOGGIE STYLE Update
Click Here to read this comic NOW!
Read the 3 Part STEVE LAFLER INTERVIEW
posted on The Comics Journal
NOW AVAILABLE,Purchase a copy of the EL VOCHO
graphic novel, now on sale
At LULU Here.
New page of Eaten By Planet 29
by Kevin Atkinson, now available.
EATEN BY PLANET 29 Update
Click here to read this comic NOW!
New page of
The Heavy Adventures of CAPTAIN OBESE
by Don Lomax is now available.
CAPTAIN OBESE Update
Click here to read this comic NOW!
Monkey & Bird…a Love Story by Joe Williams and Tina Garceau is AVAILABLE NOW!!!
The highlight of my week was receiving a copy of Joe Williams and Tina Garceau’s printed mini comic, Monkey and Bird, in the mail. Snail mail, that is.
Back in August we featured a couple of posts by Señor Williams that outlined his experience personally making the mini comic. He peppered his posts with so many juicy details that almost anyone could go out and make one themselves.
I’ve known Joe and his lovely wife Tina for years, we go all the way back to our college days at PCA and I am well aware of both of their incredible attention to detail and quality not to mention their brilliance as designers yet I still did not expect to be so taken by what a gem their mini comic turned out to be.
Holding Monkey and Bird in my hand as a mini comic was a defining moment for me especially after having published it as a web comic here at CO2 Comics for the last two years. Maybe my reaction is a reflection of my long history of publishing on paper or just evidence of a generational preference for things printed on paper, but I liked it. A lot!
The web affords us comic creators so many options to be able to present our labors of love to a potentially vast audience with minimal expenses compared to the printed product. Everything about making comics for the internet is so much more convenient and spontaneous that it has given us the opportunity as creators and readers to be able to witness the biggest creative explosion of the medium in its history. All those virtues, however, in my jaded eyes, do not supersede the experience of reading comics in print. I will always have a warm place in my heart for the tangible paper package.
mathmanauts
Mimeograph machine
It has always been clear to me that a comic is never complete until it is in front of an audience. The reader’s experience is a much a part of the final execution of the comic as any step taken in the creative process along the way. Because I have always felt so strongly about this I began publishing my own comics almost as early as I began creating them. My first published comics were printed on a mimeograph machine. My audience had as much fun smelling them as they did reading them. I slowly graduated to photocopiers and small offset presses before finally dealing with large, commercial, four-color presses to make Comico comics.
Comico Covers
As I sit here holding Joe and Tina’s 32 page (including covers), full color, 4 x 5.5 inch, landscaped pamphlet that is hand folded and saddle stitched with a good old-fashioned Swingline stapler I can’t imagine what my comic producing experience would have been like if I would have had these production capabilities available to me back in the seventies. I would have traded tracing mimeo stencils and hand cranking purple inked copies for full-color pages spat out of an ink jet or laser printer in a heartbeat!
I did not have an opportunity to go to SPX this weekend but my fond memories of past shows include my amazement of the array of unique and creative packaging techniques that are always displayed. Monkey and Bird would have fit right in! Today’s community of independent comic artists and publishers take full advantage of the technology available to make comics that deliver an experience well beyond panel-to-panel sequential art.
Many people are pondering what is to become of the familiar pamphlet style comic that has been a fixture in the industry for over seventy years. Most believe that digital content will force it into extinction in the not too distant future, watching the sun set on a beloved package.
When I look at my little copy of Monkey and Bird, or think about what I witness at shows like SPX, APE, MOCCA, PACC and Stumptown, I see a different horizon, the shimmering rays of a new day cast by the lights of endless creative opportunity that will offer comics in print and digitally in infinite shapes and sizes. Each format, unique to its creator and not limited by the constraints of a few publishers or a single distributor.
I remember the first glimpse I ever had of this expanding possibility. In 1980 I was mesmerized by the first issue of Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman‘s anthology comic magazine RAW. The full color view out the window of a man committing suicide had been pasted on to the black and white cover of the tabloid sized periodical publication that featured an insane amount of groundbreaking comic art between its pages. The simple collage of the cover alone was enough to have numbed my creative mind for decades, especially in regards to packaging.
RAW
That, to me, was the beginning. Now, the art of making comics has firmly expanded from mastery of designing a page to the mastery of designing the whole package wether in print, on the web, or digitally for a specific device. The day where packaging that requires an entire production team is passing. The comic artist, if they choose, now has the ability to have complete control over the reading experience of the audience if they want it.
As a publisher, like CO2 Comics, today’s technology gives us the opportunity to open new doors of creative discussion with the artists that makes making comics more exciting than ever before. We plan to enjoy every minute of it!
Making Comics Because I Want To
Gerry Giovinco
New page of EL VOCHO by Steve Lafler now available.
EL VOCHO Update
Click here to read this comic NOW!
Read the 3 Part STEVE LAFLER INTERVIEW
posted on The Comics Journal
Purchase a copy of the
EL VOCHO graphic novel,
Now On Sale
At LULU Here.
New page of DOG BOY by Steve Lafler now available.
DOG BOY DOGGIE STYLE Update
Click Here to read this comic NOW!
Read the 3 Part STEVE LAFLER INTERVIEW
posted on The Comics Journal
NOW AVAILABLE,Purchase a copy of the EL VOCHO
graphic novel, now on sale
At LULU Here.
New page of Eaten By Planet 29
by Kevin Atkinson, now available.
EATEN BY PLANET 29 Update
Click here to read this comic NOW!
New page of
The Heavy Adventures of CAPTAIN OBESE
by Don Lomax is now available.
CAPTAIN OBESE Update
Click here to read this comic NOW!
Remember learning penmanship in grade school? I used to get a kick out of the tool that the teachers used to draw lines on the chalkboard, it was a series of wire clamps mounted on a strip of wood. Each clamp held a piece of chalk and when the tool was drawn across the chalkboard several parallel lines were produced that then the teacher could demonstrate proper penmanship on. Music teachers also loved this chalk line tool for creating staff lines on the chalkboard.
Folks that do lettering for comics have a similar tool called the Ames Lettering Guide. Most lettering in comics done today is created using fonts on a computer so there is little concern about type not being ruled properly but those traditionalists that still like to letter by hand have a best friend in their Ames Lettering Guide.
Ames Lettering Guide
This handy little tool fits in the palm of your hand and is made of durable plastic that will last a lifetime. My Ames Lettering Guide is over thirty years old and is still going strong. There is and adjustable wheel in the center of the tool that has rows of tiny holes in it. This wheel can be turned to adjust the distance between each line that will be drawn when you put a pencil in the holes and drag the tool across the edge of a t-square. Move your pencil down into the next hole in the tool and drag again and repeat. Eventually you will have a series of parallel lines similar to the ones drawn by your grade school teacher.
Chris Kalnick, my pal, former ROBOTECH inker and creator of NON and DEPTH CHARGE both featured here at CO2 Comics recently sent me this video of the Ames Lettering Guide being demonstrated. A comic letterer will rule guide lines wherever lettering is expected on the comic page. The lines are drawn very lightly as they are merely guides and will be eventually erased. Some letterers prefer to rule these lines with a non-repro blue pencil. After the lines are drawn the letters are penciled or roughed in. The final lettering will then be done in india ink.
I’ve attached the instructions that accompanies the guide. They explain how to use the tool in detail. You will note that you can accommodate for type size and leading simply by skipping holes.
I’ve attached the instructions that accompanies the guide. They explain how to use the tool in detail. You will note that you can accommodate for type size and leading simply by skipping holes.
For some letterers the size of the letters they plan to create can be very personal. I suggest that, once you determine the size you prefer, you either mark the wheel so that it can always be returned to that mark or tape the wheel in place so it will not be accidentally moved. My experience has been that the Ames Lettering Guide always attracts the attention of curious visitors who might be in my studio and is almost always played with. People just love turning that wheel as they try to figure out what the dinky contraption does. Maybe I’m a crank, but I taped mine in place because I got tired of having to reset the little bugger.
The Ames Lettering Guide is a more versatile tool than you may expect by first glance. Because the wheel is housed in what it is essentially a small straight edge with one side at a 90 degree angle and the other side a 68 degree angle it can also be used to draw vertical lines as well as angled lines to assist the letterer in keeping letters uniform wether they are intended to be vertical or italic.
The three straight edges of the tool can also be used to conveniently draw small strait lines on the comic page which makes it a great when drawing lines on buildings and machinery. Even the circular shape of the wheel can be used as a guide for drawing curves that may match its particular arc.
I have also found that the guide can be used to make circles by placing a push pin in one hole and a pencil in another. The pin anchors the center point of the circle and as you wind the pencil in the guide around the pin you will complete perfect circles every time. You can make concentric circles simply by moving the pencil to holes closer to the pin. This is a great option especially when a compass or a circle template is not readily available.
Using the Ames Lettering Guide to make circles.
I have just one more favorite use for my Ames Lettering Guide and that is as a burnisher. Back in the day when Zip-A-Tone was the best way to achieve half tones and when a print mechanical was made of photostats mounted with a waxer, I would lay a piece of tracing or bond paper over the work and burnish with my guide . The smooth, roughly three inch edge covered more ground than most burnishers and the short hand-held size offered just the right leverage for applying minimal but firm pressure to the delicate materials being bonded. Boy, talk about ancient history, but it still seems like yesterday!
Using the Ames Lettering Guide as a Burnisher
The Secrets of Professional Cartooning by Ken Muse
You can probably tell that my Ames Lettering Guide and I are best buddies. Hey, we go back a long way, but who wouldn’t like a simple little tool that could do so much work and make a job so much simpler without ever complaining.
As a last side note I know that some folks are just too cheap to part with three bucks to pick up one of these handy gizmos or just can’t find one anywhere even though they are easily found on the internet. Maybe yours is lost and you are up against a deadline. I found this alternative in Ken Muse’s classic book The Secrets of Professional Cartooning.
From The Secrets of Professional Cartooning by Ken Muse
However you like to line your page is your preference. The important thing is that you enjoy making your comics your way. I know I do and that is where I draw the line.
Making Comics Because I Want To
Gerry Giovinco
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