Posts Tagged ‘comic books’

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The Art of Delivering Comics

Monday, December 5th, 2011

I have said many times that I do not regard a comic complete until it is in the hands of the reader. I say his because I believe that the presentation of the material is itself a critical element that impacts the readers appreciation of the work. Most of my career in comics has been on the side of producing the final package wether it be in print or digital format. Bill Cucinotta and I take as much pride here at CO2 Comics in packaging other creator’s comics for final presentation as we do writing and drawing our own material. This was also true when we were partners publishing comics under the Comico label back in the 1980′s.

Last week I wrote about accessibility, primarily focusing on characters remaining accessible to their audience after decades of continuity that might obscure their fundamental characteristics that make them unique and even iconic. To many, however the concept of accessibility as it relates to comics refers more to the availability of product or more precisely, the delivery of the product.

Ever since the rise of the Direct Market, beginning in the late 1970′s, it seems that  the accessibility of the comic book to the general public, or more accurately the casual comic book reader, has diminished with the relative extinction of traditional mass market outlets that drove the sales in the Golden and Silver Ages of comics.

Overlooked however is the fact that comics do exist outside of both of these markets and are thriving.  Comics may be more accessible to readers now than ever before. Comics are offered in such a tremendous array of packaging and subject matter that surely there is something for everybody and comics as a medium is poised to be recognized for its ability to have universal appeal.

I am going to attempt a breakdown of venues through which comics are currently being enjoyed. some are traditional formats others are new and still others are vehicles of marketing or use of comics as a form of communication. This includes strips, panels, short form and long form presentations. Please, if I miss any don’t hesitate to to send along your suggestions.

Newspapers – strips and panels – newstand distribution, subscription

Magazines -  strips and panels – newstand  and mass market distribution, subscription, internet sales

Comic Books – long format – Direct Market, Bookstores, subscription, internet sales

Graphic Novels – long format – Direct Market, Bookstores, internet sales

Small Press – Boutique format – Direct Market, internet sales, conventions

Web comics- Any format goes including infinite canvas – usually free on internet, some by subscription, some get collected into print packages.

Digital – comics collections on disc or via subscription on web sites.

Cell phone apps- comics downloaded to cell phone

e-reader apps – comics downloaded to e-readers like i-Pad, Kindle Fire, BN Nook

Print on Demand- Comics available as books printed to order from POD producers like LULU.

Zines – usually produced as fan publications, printed at home and mailed or distributed as PDFs via e-mail

Tracts – small religious pamphlets done as comics usually handed out freely by true believers.

Educational -comics used to illustrate a point, often seen in textbooks or educational magazines. The military uses comics to educate.

Institutional- I’ve seen comics used to describe museums and historic landmarks to name a few.

Premium -  This includes everything from free comics in Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum to comics in cereal boxes.

Instructional- Comics are used all the time to show instructions from everything to setting up a computer to flight safety on airplanes.

Promotional-comics used to advertise a product in ad form or catalogue form. I’ve seen promotional comics on comics on place mats in restaurants.

Journalistic- comics journalism has come a long way and can be found as panels or strips in newspapers to magazines and on the web.

I know that there is plenty more out there, I’d love to see samples of comics used in unusual formats, it always fascinates me so please share links or upload pictures to our facebook page.

Comics are everywhere. They are so ingrained in our culture that idioms like word balloons, panels, page layouts, effect splashes, production techniques and genre references are so common place they are easily taken for granted.

It is time for comic creators to lose the sensibility that they are purveyors of a fringe medium whose target audience is a focus group of geek culture and recognize that comics as a medium is one of power through its ability to communicate effectively to the masses in a simple, cost efficient manner. This cultural repositioning of the medium will be necessary for creators to establish their value to a market that will witness an ever increasing demand for this wonderfully versatile medium.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco


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Posted in CO2 Comics, Creationism, Encouraging Comics, Making History, The Comic Company | No Comments »

Bang for the Buck

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Lately I’ve been sifting through the concept of the value of comics. What is a comic worth? What am I willing to pay to read a comic book, either in print or digitally and more importantly, what should I expect readers of comics that I publish to want to pay?

The question is a hotbed for discussion but for now I’m just going to float some thoughts.

Peanuts

The comics that originally hooked me on the medium I did not pay for. I read comics in the newspaper and though that paper which my parents bought was probably fifteen cents an issue back then, to me the comics were free. I read Peanuts comics that had been reprinted in pocket sized paperback books that were given to me by my uncle who got them second hand as returns, more free stuff. I read comic books as part of my experience going to the barber, sure someone coughed up the twelve cents that each comic cost somewhere along the line, but I read them for free then left them there for the next kid that would come in to get a buzz cut.

By the time I was actually carrying real change in my pocket, I already knew that I liked comics and when a quarter was burning a hole in my pocket It was a good bet that I would spend it on baseball cards, candy, or a comic book. All three items had a social value that could not be measured in terms of coinage. These were things that were shared with friends.

“You give me some Skittles and I’ll give you some Good & Plenty.”

“I’ll trade you my double of Mike Schmidt for your double of Johnny Bench.”

“You can read my copy of Captain America while I read your copy of Bat Man.”

While the candy was eaten, leaving little evidence other than tooth decay and an obesity epidemic, baseball cards and comic books had a way of accumulating and representing some type of feel-good value, either as fond memories of friendships or quiet escapes to fantastic worlds of celebrated heroes.

For some of us, the tattered piles of well read comics and hand flipped cards became collections and a desire to preserve the treasured artifacts generated something new – inflated value driven by speculation and scarcity.

Ironically, as the collector market grew, the cover prices rose and the traditional newsstand market shrunk into oblivion, alienating the casual reader that had long been the bread and butter of the comics industry.

Thirty-two page comics that were once a dime and offered, often, more than one complete story now sell for upwards to four bucks for a fraction of a story that will take a dozen issues to complete. Buying comic books is no longer a casual, impulsive, social practice. It is a commitment, a speculative purchase that requires the added investment of archival storage products such as mylar sleeves, acid free boards, long boxes and an accounting system. It takes a special person to be this motivated. Comic books are no longer for everyone.

Enter the graphic novel. Comics in a real book with a perfect bound cover that is card stock or even hard back! The complete run of a story arc fits between the covers that may contain a dozen issues or more of previously published material for a reasonable book price. A story that may have cost thirty-six to forty-eight dollars in pamphlet format can now be had for less than twenty bucks and looks fine on a bookshelf with no need to box or preserve in plastic. Better yet, I can find it in the library and read it for free. Boy, suddenly as a casual reader I’m reading comics again!

What’s that? Comics are all over the internet? For Free? Web comics…WOW!  More comics than I know what to do with featuring every type of genre imaginable. Some OK, some lousy, some great! I can build a library just by bookmarking the sites I like and return to my favorites every day, every week, once a month. Occasionally I’ll find a new gem and share the link with my friends on Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, you name it. “Hey I’m really digging that CO2 Comics site-www.co2comics.com!”

I can read comics on my phone? On a tablet? I need what? An App? Then I can download the comics I want for how much? $1.99?  $.99? Free?  OK, I’ll try a free one. That’s pretty cool let me share it with my friends. Hmmm. What kind of device do they use? Is this app compatible with their platform? I can’t share my download?

Wait a minute. I can read a lot of web comics on my phone and tablet and I can share from those devices. I’m cool. Web comics rule.

I know I’m getting a lot of comic creators steamed right now talking about all this free stuff but I’ve realized something. None of us pay for the comics we read. Nope. We pay for the distribution of the comic! We pay for how the art is put in front of our eyes. We pay for the books, the paper,the shipping,  the app provider, you name it. The retailer, the distributor, the publisher all get a cut. Yeah I know that the creator made some money off the comic but let’s be honest, they got paid as little as negotiably possible for the right to distribute the comic in a particular format, then the publisher gave them their art back. We don’t pay more for a comic because a better artist drew it.  We pay more for it because it is on better paper. If more books sell then the creator, if they get royalties, gets more money. The great creators may get paid more in advance because publishers know in advance that the book will reach more readers because that creator’s name is on the cover.

The value of the comic is determined by how many eyes look at it. Search the internet. The value of the content of any website is determined by how many people see it. That’s how television and radio work too. What do you think those Nielson Ratings are for?  So let’s be real. What would you look at first, something you had to pay for or something that was free? Be honest!

The goal of the comics industry should be to get comics in front of as many people as possible. The more people that read the product the more the value of the intellectual property increases. How? More circulation equals more advertising dollars, more merchandising, more licensing, more demand for more.

Marvel and DC accomplished this a long time ago. Their characters reached the tipping point decades ago when they became icons of our culture. Their comic books could disappear off the face of the Earth and people would still recognize their logos, know their mythology and by more stuff that relate to them because even without the comic books, the planet is plastered with film, television, and merchandise featuring the characters.

Disney understood this when they paid four billion dollars for Marvel. Disney is not in the business of publishing comics, they do not even publish their own iconic characters.  Disney is in the business of putting characters in front of as many eyes as possible and keeping them there. They have done this successfully since 1928 recreating value with each new generation by introducing them to the same product that their great grandparents enjoyed as children. Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi, Pinocchio, you name it. Disney took a concept, made it great, made it once, and built an empire.

Marvel and DC can sell their comics for four bucks, if they only reach thirty thousand readers, who cares? They’ve already won the war. The small publisher trying to compete with them cannot succeed at a comparable price point. Small publishers trying to keep their price “respectable,” with a few rare exceptions, will never reach the wider audience especially without the merchandising machine behind them and the big competition knows this. They also know that as creators and small businesses, we have to eat and busting our butts making comics for peanuts will not put food on our families tables. Bye-Bye small competition.

Call it an obsession, a passion, maybe even a disease but some of us just have an inexplicable need to make comics. It’s what we love. It’s how we express ourselves creatively. It would be great if we could all actually make money doing it. We at CO2 Comics have put our faith in the web comic format, for us it is the best and most cost effective way to reach our growing audience.  It is a slow arduous task, building an audience from scratch but it takes faith, perseverance and commitment. Most of the creators that feature work here on CO2 Comics support themselves by other means, you know, real jobs, including Bill and myself. We create time to make our comics available to our readers often sacrificing time with family or a good nights sleep.

Our comics are delivered to you free of charge. Enjoy them, share them and please come back and do it again. We will continue to provide great comics here and the larger our audience gets the greater the value will be of each comic on this site. Your patronage by simply reading and sharing will generate advertising revenue, spawn the development of printed product so you have the opportunity to adorn your book shelves with your favorite stories if you wish.  Your interest in characters found here will generate merchandise featuring them and promote interest in potential licensees. You, our readers, have the power to make this venture a success without spending a dime to read the comics published here.

This web comic business model is a simple yet dynamic one that has been around now for about a decade. CO2 Comics is just one of hundreds of sites that have already changed the face of comics forever. There is more diversity, more options, more creative opportunity to make comics than ever before. It is an exciting time to be a comic artist and a comic fan and who wouldn’t want to see it continue? As a reader this is your opportunity to make a difference in the success of the comics medium. Simply by sharing your favorite sites with friends you become a distributor of sorts, rewarded with a continued stream of amazing comic content.

So, if you want more BANG for the buck, now is your chance. Support the little guys that are braving the turbulent tides of technology to reinvent the comic market and support free content simply by reading and sharing what you enjoy. You have the power and you know what Stan says comes with that…

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco


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Posted in Creationism, Encouraging Comics | 3 Comments »

The Big Bang is Coming

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Did you ever wonder what it would feel like to stare through the lens of the Hubble Telescope at the farthest reaches of space and actually witness the the dawning moments  of the Universe? Imagine turning it around to be able to stare into the future. Why not? That light is moving a lot faster than we are and it must be going somewhere.

This week I got a glimpse of the future while reading the good old fashioned newspaper. That alone will tell you that I am deeply mired in the comforts of the past. Newspapers, magazines, books and comic books are all all things I enjoy for their tactile qualities, tradition and collectibility. I’m so drawn to  the printed page that I became a publisher at a young age and have always enjoyed every aspect of publishing. Even deadlines offer an adrenaline rush that can get me past the tension of a tight schedule.

It is clear, however, that the printed page is the next dinosaur, soon to be extinct with the exception of collections preserved for curiosity in museums called libraries that will be reserved only for those that are interested in viewing the books as artifacts of the human culture in the last millennium.

We have all seen it coming. It has been a discussion that has reached a fever pitch since the iPad came on the scene last year, but there has always been a sentiment that print would not, could not, go away. That’s what I wanted to believe, until I read this syndicated article by Andres Oppenheimer on the Commentary page of my local paper and of course it is easily accessible online through it’s original source the Miami Herald.

The caption that caught my attention was beneath an illustration of a young student at a computer and it read, “South Korea plans to ban all school paper textbooks and replace them with electronic tablets by 2014.”

Mr. Oppenheimer’s article was mostly focused on how much more advanced the South Korean students were compared to the rest of the world, ranked number 2 behind Shanghai China in reading comprehension. U.S. was lagging at 17th, Spain 33rd and the highest ranking Latin American Country, Chile at 44th. He continues to wonder if it is their study habits or their use of technology that supports their educational advancements.

I was focused on the concept of banning all school paper textbooks and replacing them with tablets in the next three years.

The extinction of books is no longer a matter of “will it happen?”  “When will it happen and how soon?” is the question that we need to aim our Hubble at. The Big Bang for print is happening NOW.

The comic book industry is like the fictitious planet Krypton, poised for a cataclysmic eruption of the medium’s entire cultural history to date. We need to jettison our survivor. Who or what will be our Kal-El? My guess is that that answer will be in the form of some type of digital distribution network. My fear will be that it may manifest as some Phantom Zone monopoly.

The distribution network needs to have the wisdom of Jor-El with a keen sense of preservation of the total knowledge base of the medium. This network will flourish from its own Fortress of Solitude which will manifest itself ironically not from being solitary but from being social as digital social networking will be a significant tool in our success of hardwiring the infrastructure and distribution of the knowledge and content base.

This September the comic book industry will be subject to the New 52 from DC, Diamond’s new Digital Distribution package, and a  Marvel New Retailer Incentive. The Superpowers are looking ahead but are they focused on self preservation or the preservation of the medium and the entire comic market?

The answer is the same as it has been since 1939. Show them the money.

The rest of the industry needs to survive too.

There are more comic creators today than there has ever been in history. We have learned to make great comics on our own and we have found new ways to put them in front of readers around the world. Digital distribution will be just as important to every comic creator as it is to Marvel and DC. It is time that we develop a focus so we do not, as individuals or small publishers, get lost in the shadows of the monoliths.

As a group, independent creators have so much more to offer than what we have come to expect as the usual. It is time that this group defines its own market and its own distribution and utilizes its power in numbers.

Comics as a medium and an industry will be better for it.

Let’s not end up shattered like Krypton because we chose to ignore the obvious. Comic books may be on the verge of extinction but there is still a bright future for the art of making comics. That light is moving fast and it must be going somewhere.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco


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Posted in CO2 Comics, Creationism, Encouraging Comics, Making History, The Comic Company | 2 Comments »

Baseball Cards, Slurpee Cups and Comic Books

Monday, June 20th, 2011

It has been popular lately to reminisce about personal early comic book reading experiences. We all remember the moment that our imagination was permanently captured by the medium and, of course, the experience is unique for everyone. Don Lomax who’s CAPTAIN OBESE comic is a feature here at CO2 Comics recently talked about his early comic reading experiences and how they influenced his comic creating in this interview.


As for my own experience, comic strips were my first introduction to sequential art. I remember, when I was a very young child, anxiously looking forward to the Sunday paper each week so I could sprawl out on the floor and be mesmerized by the colorful pictures that seemingly came to life on the expansive sheets of paper. I couldn’t read but I had a good sense for what was going on especially in the action comics I was drawn to like Buck Rogers, Prince Valiant, Popeye, Alley Oop and Dick Tracy.

Buck Rogers, Prince Valient, Popeye, Alley Oop, Dick Tracy.

Silly Putty made reading the comics more tactile as I was fond of capturing the images on the rubbery clay and distorting them with seemingly limitless possibilities.  This was probably how I conjured the first notion that I could exercise my creative urges with comics.  A long weekend afternoon of rolling gleefully on sheets of newspaper  would leave me fully smudged with cheap ink, my toddler’s clothes permeated with the musty odor of newsprint and my imagination broadened with the endless creative potential that was  exhibited in those color drenched comics.

My local newspaper, the Norristown TIMES HERALD had a weekly supplement for children, it was a four-page, black-and-white,  pull-out called TINY TURTLE that was mostly a cartoony activity sheet that encouraged children to color, draw, do puzzles, read and learn. It featured a monthly calender and was always specific to the season. This came in the Saturday edition of the paper ensuring that my childhood weekends were fairly occupied by my local press.

Gerry Giovinco after open heart surgery

Collections of Charles Schulz’ PEANUTS were my first recollection of enjoying comics bound by covers. My uncle would bring the pocket book size collections over to amuse me while I recovered from open heart surgery. I was nine years old and I would read them front to back before ever putting them down. They were the best distraction from my physical ailments and proof that laughter was, in fact, the best medicine. Nothing was funnier to me than the exploits of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang and I would torture my family by reading the gags aloud and describing the pictures. Somehow the jokes were never as funny when I retold them but my own sides still split with laughter upon each retelling.

I was an avid reader in grade school and gravitated toward adventure and mystery stories. I remember enjoying series books like The BOBBSEY TWINS, The HARDY BOYS and TOM SWIFT. During this time I remember Big Little Books capturing my attention as well.  Big Little Books were chock full of illustrations on every other page and I found myself just as drawn to the images as I was toward the words.

Trips to the barber shop were where I first encountered comic books. I remember there being two magazine racks in the back of the shop, one for the men and the other for the boys. The men’s rack was chock full of PLAYBOY magazines and the best way to get a glimpse of their voluptuous subject matter was to spend as much time as possible by the other precariously close rack that contained comic books.

Though the comics were at that point a precocious end to a means, I would spend a lot of time thumbing through them and I soon discovered that there was a difference between the Marvel and DC comics. The DC comics at the time had a lot of short stories in them and I found that I could enjoy them more because I could get a full story while I waited. The Marvel comics always left me hanging and though I found the images and story more dynamic, I would always be left disappointed, not knowing how the story ended.

As I became a little more independent I would make frequent trips to the local 7-11 convenience store that could be reached through a network of shortcuts through neighbors’ yards. The mission was always the same, milk and bread for Mom, baseball cards and Slurpees for me and my brothers.

The Slurpee cups at the time had images of baseball players on them and my brothers and I were avid collectors, especially hunting for cups of our beloved Phillies.  We were always on the prowl for cups featuring our heroes Steve Carlton, Greg Luzinski, Larry Bowa and Mike Schmidt. Inevitably we had stacks of those baseball cups featuring stars from every team in MLB. This went on for a couple of seasons then one day everything changed. The Slurpee cups featured something different… Marvel characters!

Captain America 167

I had already been picking at comics and had, despite my earlier convictions about Marvel comics, recently been enamored with issue #167 of CAPTAIN AMERICA and the FALCON by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema. I remember rushing home and reading it beneath a peach tree in my back yard on a particularly balmy fall day, I then spent  the afternoon recreating the cover while sitting at the dining room table.

Captain America Slurpee Cup

The Slurpee cup completist in me along with the Marvel story arcs  fueled my need to collect the comics and soon I was a master at knowing the delivery dates of the magazines of every convenience and drug store in my immediate area. I started collecting only CAPTAIN AMERICA then titles that featured CAPTAIN AMERICA soon I found Cap crossing over into title after title and before I knew it I was hooked on the whole Marvel Universe.

In the process I was collecting those Slurpee cups too and found that I loved to copy the classic images off the cups. I probably learned more about drawing the human figure from those images on the cups than any single other resource at the time.

By the time I got to high school my fate was sealed. I knew I wanted to make comics when I grew up and that became the focus of my education until I left college to co-found COMICO the Comic Company.

Making Comics Becuse I Want To

Gerry Giovinco


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Posted in CO2 Comics, Encouraging Comics, Making History, The Comic Company | 4 Comments »

Transformers

Monday, April 4th, 2011

“Making Comics Because I Want To,” has been my sign off slogan on this blog for months now and my own personal mantra since I was a youngster. It was always my dream to be a cartoonist/comics artist but somewhere in my life’s history the idea of making comics changed. Just drawing comics was no longer enough. The act of making comics included publishing them. I could not consider the work complete until it found its way into the hands of the reader.

Bill Cucinotta who has been my partner publishing comics both with Comico and CO2 Comics chides me on a regular basis when I lament not having drawn comics as much as I would have liked in my career always deferring to my publisher self. He continually reminds me that our role in making comics is just as noble. We provide the vehicle that completes the work providing a duty that many creators either have no interest or experience in and we do it well.

Over the years we have experienced a number of transformations as publishers. Originally we were self-publishers creating black and white newsprint comic books featuring our own characters. We quickly transitioned into full color and began publishing other creators whose work we respected and valued. Graphic novels were a natural evolution, Comico published several.

The WORLD Of GINGER FOX Read it on CO2 Comics

The World of Ginger Fox by Mike Baron and Mitch O’Connell which is about to complete its serialized run right here on CO2 Comics is an example of our commitment to quality and diversity. Eventually we set our sites on the internet and began publishing comics on the web. Co2 Comics has flourished, presenting an array of over 800 pages of comic material from notable creators without losing our appreciation or interest for print.

COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection Volume 1

Our first print project as CO2 Comics ironically was not a comic book but a book about comics. David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW The Complete Collection Volume 1 was our departure from publishing actual comics and a big departure it was, 640 pages of text and images culled from Dave’s magazine. We produced paperback and hardback editions and explored the virtues of POD publishing.

We had crossed over as publishers. Little did we know that soon we would be morphing from CO2 Comics to CO2 Publications where we would add a new imprint, CO2 Books to our shingle with the publication of our first literary project that has nothing to do with comics.

This spring we will publish George Richard Phillip Zimmerman, Jr.’s For the Convenience of the Government, a memoir of a veteran discharged from the United States Navy for being Gay.

This is an important book to us that we knew we had to publish. It is a book about something that we as comics publishers are all too familiar with, heroes. In this case the heroes are the fine men and women of the military that risk their lives for our freedoms as Americans.

There is no doubt that these people are heroes that deserve our respect and admiration. They deserve their dignity. For too long many of these fine men and women have been denied just that, because of their sexual orientation and nothing else. This would not be accepted in our private sector and it should especially be unacceptable in our military.

For the Convenience of the Government is just one veteran’s story of how this injustice affected his life. It is our hope that the publication of this story will enlighten the American people to a grave injustice directed at so many gay people who merely wanted to proudly serve their country.

Our publication of this book is about showing support to these men and women and anybody else who is persecuted for any reason whether it be race, religion, color or sexual orientation. This support is paid forward when you read the book and share it with your friends to establish a consensus that effects change.

Support for a project like this has to begin somewhere. We and the author chose to enlist the power of Kickstarter to aid in the mission of launching this book as quickly as possible and to promote it to the vast group of people around the world that are sympathetic to this type of indignity.


Kickstarter is all about supporting a project that touches you. We invite you to please check out the project which will fully inform you about the details of the book and familiarize you with the author, George Richard Phillip Zimmerman, Jr. who states his case eloquently in a short video. As with all projects on Kickstarter, your support will be rewarded with fine offerings.

We expect to have For the Convenience of the Government available for sale by this Memorial Day Weekend. You can follow all of the updates regarding this book on www.fortheconvenienceofthegovernment.com or on facebook by joining the group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php? or liking the page: http://www.facebook.com/4.the.Convenience

Co2 Comics will always continue to publish great comics. We thank you for all the great support you have given us as we approach the second anniversary of our own launch in 2009 and we are looking forward to plenty of great excitement in the coming months as our transformation as publishers continues.

Making Comics (and Books) Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco

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Posted in CO2 Comics, Making History, The Comic Company | 1 Comment »

Reinvention: The Stepchild of Necessity

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

The Comics industry is all too familiar with having to reinvent itself in an effort to survive changing times.

Comics made the jump from newspapers to comic books addressing a new publishing trend in the late thirties.

The forties watched Superman be reinvented over and over as a whole genre of superheroes was created.

The comic book industry rescued itself from oblivion in the fifties by adopting the Comics Code Authority to placate the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency though it placed a stranglehold on much of what made comics interesting and exciting at that time.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee reinvented the superhero genre in the sixties making it viable and relevant to a new generation of readers.

Phil Seuling

The Direct Market pioneered by Phil Seuling in the seventies gave comics the opportunity to be liberated from the Comic Code Authority.

The eighties gave rise to alternative, independent publishers and the concept of creators rights.

Manga

The nineties showed the vulnerability of the Direct Market and the power of Manga in the US market.

The new millennium ushered in the the development of new formats in the wake of Manga’s popularity and the graphic novel matured as a format that began to dominate the market.

The “oughts” also ushered in an entirely new venue for comics in the internet and web comics came on the scene.

Now, as we enter the eighth decade of comic history since the invention of the comic book, (I know I am rounding it off by a few years, we’ll throw a party in 2014 to make up for it) we all have to figure out what to make of the advent of digital comics.

For the first time in history, comics have total access to a global market direct from the hands of creators free from censorship, and the burden of high production costs.

Digital comics, whether they are posted on the web, offered as a downloadable files or banked on a cloud can be read on devices as small as the palm of your hand or as large as the biggest television monitor you can imagine.

Digital spells freedom for creators and freedom of choice for readers. Digital offers a free world of possibility. Now how do we handle all of that potential. More importantly, how do we handle that four letter word: F-R-E-E.

We all love to have the freedom to create as we please but face it, we all need to make a buck, especially in these terrible economic times.

My suggestion is that now is not the time to get greedy. As much as we as creators want to get what we deserve, consumers are looking for the best deal possible.

I for one, as a consumer, will look at all the free content I can get before spending a dime on digital content. I will look at every free website and I know that there is a ton of great stuff that would take me years to read. Just look at the hundreds of pages of dynamite material right here at CO2 Comics. Hey, I’m in all my glory because guess what…it’s FREE! FREE! FREE!

Now, on the outside chance that I’m an unusual cheapskate, tightwad I have to wonder how the folks selling digital content for prices that resemble regular comic prices are making out.

I’ve seen the reports that brag sales of digital content for mobile devices that are ten times that of last year and I have to be impressed but what does that really mean? First I have to remember that this technology is only about a year old. How many downloads did they sell that first year? Ten times what?

Captain Visual's big Book of Balloon Art

Since July my first book for the iPad Captain Visual’s Big Book of Balloon Art, which as an e-book sells for $11.99 as opposed to a $24.95 book in print, has increased in sales by 1500%! That is an incredible increase especially in a ridiculously slow market. I bet you want to run out and see what all the fuss is about don’t you?

Well I’m happy to brag about those numbers all day but the truth is I sold one e-book in July. Go ahead, do the math. That’s right. I’ve sold 15 copies in the last six months. At the same time my print copy has sold only six times as many copies as I sold in July but that is six times three at more than twice the price.

You can see how a positive spin can influence a consumer and even a producer interested in digital content.

Publishers will often compare the success of digital content to the slacking sales of a hardback edition but neglect to tell you how the paperback is outselling both.

Digital content is a new toy for the comics industry. Don’t rush in ill informed. Don’t tie up your digital distribution rights based on clouded numbers. Don’t become a statistic in a digital bookstore with an app provider that promises you a gateway to an exciting new market that is yet to be defined.

Don’t throw away your freedoms yet.

My opinion is that digital content should be considered disposable content and should be priced accordingly.

I can’t see selling a digital comic for more than the price of a can of soda or a candy bar. I want to be ravenous about what I want to read regarding comics. I want to read as much as I can and I am not excited about storing the content the way I am excited about collecting a comic book. Sell me the comic for 99¢ or a subscription of 12 for $10 and I’ll be happy.

This is our time to reach a wider audience than we could have ever imagined. We want the world to see our comics. Our intellectual property. A hundred thousand people might be willing to spend a buck on a digital comic like they do on music but raise the price and you will see those numbers fall dramatically. Would you rather sell a hundred thousand e-comics at a dollar or one thousand e-comics at two or three dollars?

Be willing to wholesale your comics and you will find a greater audience. If you don’t believe me look at the Walmarts of the world. They find their success in selling large quantities at the lowest possible price and they are making dinosaurs out of their competition.

Marvel and DC will continue to dictate the market and control the IP of the comic world if everyone is enticed to follow their lead into overpriced content. The market for independent comic publishers will always remain constricted if we continue to price our product where only the hardcore fan is willing to pay for it.

Reach the masses by selling to their pocket change and you will have a property that everyone wants and is eventually willing to pay top dollar for.

At CO2 Comics our comics are free as I mentioned earlier. They are free because we want you to read them and we have faith that you will respect the properties and want to support the creators by buying their works or services that are or may be available for sale.

We expect that if you enjoy the material you will share it with your friends offering greater exposure for the creators and their property. You look all smart, cultured and influential and we reach more readers. Win! Win!

We also know that if you can get the work for free right here you are less likely to download from some torrent site where the creators have no control or benefit at all from the piracy of their works. Thank You!

This decade will be less about reinventing comics as it is about reinventing how comics get to the consumer. We plan to reach as many of you as possible. In the process we will make great comics that will generate revenue in creative ways for the creators.

What do we want from you? Just some respect and your willingness to spread the word. I think it’s a great deal. Don’t you?

Enjoy the next decade! We plan to!

Making comics because I want to.

Gerry Giovinco

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The Comic Company: Licensed to Thrill

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

A number of comic book companies today fill their product line-ups with licensed properties. IDW, Boom, Darkhorse and Ape are among the most significant publishers outside of Marvel and DC who have found value in acquiring licensed properties from other media outlets.

The idea is simple and is a marketing tool used by scores of merchandising companies in nearly every industry. Find an intellectual property with high visibility. Purchase the rights to make an exclusive product featuring the property. Benefit from the sales generated by the customer recognition of the popular property.

Badda Boom, Badda Bing!

Licensing and merchandising is nothing new. Saint Paul built Christianity on its basic premises by marketing the popular teachings of Jesus as a new religious product.

“Merry Christmas,” two thousand and ten years later!

Comic books have used it since the beginnings of the industry. The first comic books featured licensed syndicated newspapers comics that were reprinted in color.

It shouldn’t have been a big deal in 1983 when Comico licensed the rights from Harmony Gold to publish the English adaption of the popular Japanese animated series MACROSS. But it was and it became an even bigger deal that put Comico on the map as a major player in the comic industry.

Robotech/Macross #1 cover, Comico 1984

At the time, and please correct me if I’m wrong, Comico was the first independent comic company to enter into a licensing deal other than one that was of a creator owned property. Only Marvel and DC had a lock on that side of the market and, to the best of my knowledge, no one else was even considering it.

Comico’s deal was innocent enough. It was built on the enthusiasm of Carl Macek for his project that he was working on with Harmony Gold and the Comico crew’s collective interest in Anime. Comico enthusiastically became the first American licensee of MACROSS.

At the same time DC acquired the rights from Revell to publish ROBOTECH, based on a line of toys designed around assorted transforming robot molds that Revell had purchased from a toy company in Japan. When the first issue was published by DC it was clear that a number of the robots in ROBOTECH were from the MACROSS series and many of the other robots were from other series that Harmony Gold also held the rights to.

Needless to say there was lot of wrangling going on but Carl Macek and Harmony Gold held the trump card. They had an entire animated series that could be adapted to TV in the American market. As Stan Lee would say, “‘Nuff said!”

Revell and Harmony Gold worked together to build the ROBOTECH franchise that took America by storm. Harmony Gold proved their honor by awarding Comico the rights to the comic book resting it from DC since we had the original deal for the actual story.

Comico's 1st Color Books

Comico had already established its ability to produce quality product with its first color offerings, MAGE, EVANGELINE, ELEMENTALS and MACROSS. Our production and success of the ROBOTECH comics helped the marketing team behind ROBOTECH to attract more licensees and before long the ROBOTECH logo was everywhere.

Others took notice and soon we were being contacted others, most notably Hannah Barbera who was looking for a publisher for Thundarr the Barbarian. Our interest, however, was in one of their long dormant properties, Jonny Quest.

Jonny had been off their radar for so long that the people we were dealing with thought that it was a Filmation property and were surprised to discover it in their own archives.

Jonny Quest was a huge success for Comico and other properties were soon to follow. Space Ghost, Gumby, and Starblazers were all big hits. We also set our sights on Max Headroom and though we did initially acquire the property and began marketing it, creative differences arose between the editorial staff, creative team and the owners of the property, Chrysalis Records. Max Headroom never became a Comico comic book.

Other comic companies picked up where Comico left off, finding success in licensed properties. Others found even greater success in licensing their own properties following in the insanely successful footsteps of Eastman and Laird’s nearly immortal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Now, more than ever before, with the advent of digital content and the internet, we have to closely examine what is the true value of the comics that we make. Is it the comics themselves or is it the intellectual property they are derived from?

We all would love to make money selling our comics and I can tell you from experience that you certainly can but folks, the real money is in the properties themselves.

Disney and Warner Brothers both know this and are in the process of redefining the IP of Marvel and DC for success in the long haul while producers throughout Hollywood are rummaging through comic properties regularly looking for the next Mutant Turtle.

The Internet is the comic creator’s opportunity to develop and establish rights to a property while reaching an audience that is global. Protect your assets, invest your skills and let the best properties sell themselves. This is the greatest time ever to be a comic creator. Take advantage of it!

Hey, I know the economy sucks and the market is in tremendous flux but guess what? That is exactly how it was when Mickey and Superman showed up both borne on the backs of failure and surrounded by the Great Depression. Their strength was the brilliance of their property which still shines today.

Comic properties can have tremendous economic power and there is plenty of proof. Don’t be discouraged if you are a creator or a fan. The future for comics is bright.

David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection Vol 1

CO2 Comics is going into 2011 as optimistic as anybody! The content of our site is growing steadily and our readership is expanding rapidly. We have published our first book, David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection Volume 1 and have new products on the horizon.

But our biggest achievement is the honor That Bill and I have of posting the great comics that have been trusted to our site by creators that we love and respect so that all of our valued readers can enjoy them.

Thank you everyone for this opportunity to do what we enjoy most.

Making comics because I want to.

Gerry Giovinco

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The Gutter – Turkey Day

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

OMG it is already Thanksgiving!

Where does the year go? 2011 is right around the corner and soon we will all be looking back examining this past year that has seen a lot of dramatic shifts in the comics industry.

Most folks think of Thanksgiving as Turkey Day, a chance for the whole family to gather and give thanks while feasting on the juicy bird packed with stuffing and served with a harvest banquet reminiscent a of a meal shared between the Pilgrims and Native Americans.

Believe it or not, turkeys and comics have a close connection for me. I actually think about it often when I peer out my window here in a very rural area of the the South Jersey Pinelands where I live. Besides being on the constant lookout for the Jersey Devil, and dodging deer that prance in my headlights, I experience wild turkey by the dozens as they flock through my yard on a daily basis.

The site of them always conjures back the memory of a giant print of an Arnold Roth illustration that was on display promoting a show of his work at the Philadelphia College of Art. He was an alumnus there, and it as were my Comico and CO2 Comics partner Bill Cucinotta and I attended college during the early 1980′s.

John "Bondo" Rondeau settles in front of a huge print that we had "aquired" from a show at PCA that featured a famous cartoonist alumnus, Anrnold Roth, who ironically had been expelled from the school when he was a student.

Bill and I were also instrumental in publishing a student newspaper, DUCKWORK, at PCA and managed to appropriate the photostat print that was mounted on foamcore after the show was over. We displayed it in proudly in the DUCKWORK office until it later migrated to the Comico Studio in Norristown where, unfortunately, it has since been lost.

Duckwork Covers 1 & 2

The image depicted two contrasting iconographies of America in passing. On one side was a valiant looking Madame Liberty with a stoic Bald Eagle by her heal. The other side depicted a more humble and much less arrogant interpretation of Americana, a haggard, pipe smoking, frump of a woman content in her baseness, accompanied by a lowly turkey.

Ben Franklin actually preferred the turkey over the bald eagle as the national symbol.

“For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage…”

(http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html)

That turkey, as presented by Mr. Roth and described by Mr. Franklin, came to symbolize comics for me.

Colorful and defiant, native and common, comics find their strength of power in their ability to access the masses and deliver the purest presentation of the message of a sole creator simply using words and pictures.

Underestimated by other media, artists and literati, comics open a unique dialog between to the common folk and the creator who respectfully wishes to communicate directly to them.

As the year quickly comes to a close I am thankful to be reminded by the humble turkey why comics are so important to me. The gobbler primes me for all the comic related resolutions I have in mind for the New Year.

I still, however, have a lot of expectations left for 2010. With the Christmas season upon us, we at CO2 Comics are anticipating that many of you will deem our first print publication, David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection Volume 1, a top pick on your list to Santa.

David Anthony Kraft's COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection Vol 1

We were surprised to discover that the beautiful Hard Cover edition of CI ranked #3 in Lulu’s Comics and Graphic Novel category this week!

David Anthony Kraft is still drooling over the book himself, exclaiming on facebook, “Knocked out by COMICS INTERVIEW HARDCOVER! Getting up from ground — it’s that good! Lays open flat, like a bible. Can’t BELIEVE how great it is!”

Of course, DAK is biased as are we but we have been thrilled and thankful for the generous response and collective appreciation of the book from people who have had the opportunity to hold one in their hands.

A quick reminder that the Premier editions of both the Hard Cover and the Paperback featuring the Platinum version of the classic, original COMICS INTERVIEW logo will be available only until midnight of New Year’s Eve 2010. So, if you are a collector and want to guarantee that you have this limited edition in your library, act soon!

Comics Interview Premier Edition

One last note regarding COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection. Lulu has been offering generous discounts of up to 20% off for books available on their site. These limited time offers are well worth benefitting from and we will do our best to keep you informed here on the blog and on the CO2 Comics facebook page.

Become a fan of the page and you will be sure to receive these promo updates and be the first to know what is going on here at CO2 Comics.

While we are on the subject of Christmas lists make sure you stop by and check out our newly released DEATH FATIGUE t-shirt line. If you are tired of watching your favorite heroes die the temporary super-death get your very own DEATH FATIGUE swag now!

Captain Obese

I hope that you all have had a chance to check out our latest addition to CO2 Comics, Don Lomax’s The Heavy Adventures of CAPTAIN OBESE. Don’s comic feature is sure to make a large impression on you and make you hungry for more.

Don’t worry! CO2 Comics won’t disappoint you! There will be at least one more big content announcement before 2010 becomes just another space odyssey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Making comics because I like turkey,

Gerry Giovinco

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Posted in The Gutter | 3 Comments »

Death Fatigue

Thursday, November 18th, 2010


Death Fatigue (dth f-tg) n. Physical or mental weariness resulting from the repeated need of comic publishers and editors to kill popular superheroes in an effort to boost sales.

Death Fatigue is a syndrome that is gripping the readers of fine comic books all across the nation. Is there no end to the carnage that is being brought upon our favorite heroes by the editorial staffs of the biggest publishers in the comic industry.

Apparently no hero is safe from the onslaught of pure creative genius that is so unique and riveting that it has happened to nearly every major superhero at least once in his or her career. The stronger and more powerful a hero is the greater the odds are that that character will die at the hands of the most despicable, powerful and omnipotent adversary, the editor.

It is not  the super-villains that pose the greatest threat but the publishers that bring us the stories. How many times must Superman die to rise from the ashes? Jesus did it once and changed the course of human history! Superman is making a career of it has been followed by many a costume clad hero with a Christ complex.

Just in recent memory, Batman, Captain America and now Spider-man have made their journey to the Pearly Gates only to be turned away to fight another day. Enough already!

This stuff is laughable in soap operas. What makes it any less inane in comic books? These death events are nothing more than protracted cliff-hangers like the ones in old serial films.

“Is this the end of our hero?”
“Will our hero never ride again?”
“Stay tuned for the stunning conclusion!”

We all know what happens next. Our hero survives; bigger, stronger, wiser and a lot more profitable to his publisher.

If the publishers would put half as much energy into developing new and exciting properties as they put into figuring out how to kill and resurrect the old standards the readers might actually have something worth looking forward to.

If you are sick and tired of all this mindless slaughter then you are probably suffering from the same chronic Death Fatigue that I have.

The cure?

If you enjoy comics, broaden your horizon. Investigate other genres of the form. Experiment with titles from independent publishers. Check out exciting new comics on the web.

Do not mourn.

The death of your favorite character is symptomatic of a character that has enjoyed such a tremendously popular career and has been placed in almost every other possible scenario that exploring death is the only other option.

Your hero is in a better place…Market Repositioning.

You have the opportunity to impact that market repositioning by your response to the death of your hero. Let the publishers know what you think.
Now is your chance to be vocal, visible and influential.

You can start by showing your Death Fatigue and let the publishers know that you know this is all about the money.

Death Fatigue. It’s not fatal but it is fashionable!

Show your Death Fatigue today!

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The Comic Company:
True Colors – Part 3

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Lou Brooks Drug Store

Color in comic books had a specific look for fifty years prior to the 1980′s. Flat color was the norm and part of the charm of the comic books that I grew up reading. There was just something about that limited palette and those pronounced dots that seemed to define the medium as much as the words and pictures that they illuminated. Others agreed and focused on this idiom when referencing comic art in pop culture.

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein and Lou Brooks are two artists that took full advantage of exploring the idiosyncrasies of comic book color establishing themselves as masters of Pop Art.

Lou Brooks Disgrace Me

The production process that produced the color in comics was intended to print color on highly absorbent newsprint with rubber plates on web offset presses at the World Color Press plant in Sparta, IL. Color separations were done by Chemical Color Plate in Bridgeport, CT. The colors were made by combinations of three percentages, 25%, 50% and 100% of each of the primary colors; blue (cyan), red (magenta) and yellow to be printed with the black line art. CMYK refers to these four colors used in printing.

A layer would be produced for each percentage of each color making nine layers of film that would be compressed to form three negatives, each containing the three percentages for its corresponding color. There was one more film for the black plate which would print the line art. The printing plates would be burned from these final four films.

Colorists used a guide provided by Chemical Color Plate to assist them in making their own color guides for each page that the separators would interpret into films.

Chemical Color Chart

By the 1980′s the alternative independent publishers that began peppering the comic market were using better, whiter paper and were able to produce better color. Many comics were printing with processed or full-color using the coloring techniques that I’ve described in my earlier blogs on this subject. Some publishers were still attracted to the notion of flat color but realized that they were being limited by the old color guide.

The 64 colors with the course dot grid intended for newsprint produced harsh, garish colors on the brighter paper stock. A new color percentage of 70% was added for each color producing 124 different colors as shown by this color guide produced by Eclipse Comics in 1983 and again engraved by Chemical Color Plate. The line screen also changed from 60 to 120 lines per inch making the dots less noticeable on the printed page.

Eclipse Color Chart side 1

Eclipse Color Chart side 2

Murphy Anderson

By the time Comico was ready to make our transition to color there was a new color separator in town. Renowned comic illustrator Murphy Anderson had entered the field with his own company, Murphy Anderson Visual Concepts Inc. that he operated with his son, Murphy Jr.

Murphy had a different scheme for producing colors. By making a minor shift in the color percentages and adding two shades of black Murphy could stretch the color palette to 372 colors! The new formula was 20%, 50%, 70% and 100% of each of the primary colors plus an addition of 10% and 20% of black to every color on the palette.

Elementals 2

Our first color books had been produced using processed color techniques and we were very happy with the results but our next project, Bill Willingham’s Elementals was a clear superhero comic and we wanted it to look like one. We all felt flat color was the way to go and we only had one choice when it came to choosing a separator. Murphy Anderson’s company was already doing most of DC’s prestige work and had proven his incredible quality. Murphy is also one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and proved it with his patience bringing us up to speed on his technique.

In 1987 I designed a color chart that had long been missing from the process. It soon became a staple in every production department in the industry. I would imagine that it would have been the last of the color charts for comics since not long after the computer took over most of the color chores as we know them today.

Comico Color Chart - Click for larger view

I might like to mention that this complex looking piece was not done on a computer. It was done the old fashion way by creating a mechanical with typesetting, tech pens, x-acto knives, photostats and a good old waxer. Of course the color separations were done by hand as well.

To be continued…

Gerry Giovinco

Making comics because I want to!

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