Posts Tagged ‘comico the comic company’

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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 »

Finders Keepers

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

It’s a sad truth that the term Finders Keepers is still a law of the land in the comic book industry, especially when it comes to original art. I thought that this had changed during the 80′s when creators had fought long and hard to insure that their work was returned to them. By then we had already watched too many old timers find their work for sale in dealer rooms at conventions around the country.

Those old guys who had given us the Golden and Silver age of comics created their comics for companies that bought it as “work for hire.” The artists handed in their work and never saw it again until it would come to market selling for grand prices valued far greater than what they had originally been paid to do the work. Those creators watched the dealers make big money while they struggled to pay healthcare bills because comic companies offered no benefit packages. They never saw royalties either and cringed every time the publishers made big deals with their characters while they looked for ways to feed their families.

One of the primary goals of the independent publishers of the 80′s was to change this situation. Indy publishers proudly proclaimed the comics they published as “creator owned” and struck deals with comic creators that included royalties, copyright ownership, and returned artwork so the creators could bolster their income by selling the works in the growing, secondary, collector market. Soon even the major publishers began doing the same, even creating benefit packages that included healthcare!

As one of the publishers of Comico the Comic Company, a brief juggernaut in the industry during the mid-eighties that paved many roads for future indy publishers before its demise, I was proud to have been on the forefront of such a great movement that seemingly impacted the future of the industry forever. Now as a publisher of CO2 comics those same principals of creator’s rights remain the highest priority to myself and Bill Cucinotta who has partnered with me in both publishing ventures.

It is a matter of history that Comico had a very tragic ending from a stellar run as one of the great independents of its time. What is a dirty secret is that Comico was often a very hostile work environment where the threat of verbal, mental and physical abuses were real and frequent. It was this caustic atmosphere that destroyed the relationships in the partnership and drove first Bill and eventually myself to leave Comico. We have both taken great pains to remain focused on positive accomplishments of our experience when we blog about Comico here on the CO2 Comics site, especially since we know that we do have a lot to feel proud about.

When it became news late last year that huge archives of old Comico production material which vaguely stated it included original art of which little was shown was for sale on ebay, Bill and I made sure to be clear that we had no involvement in the auction and to state that we felt any original art should have been returned to the creators as was always the policy when we were part of Comico. Personally and regretfully, the emotional scars of my Comico experience ran too deep for me to take a more proactive role in retrieving the material and insuring that if there was original art it would be returned to its rightful owners.

This week I was contacted by Rick Funk owner of Collector Haven Comics who purchased the archives which includes a number of original pieces of art and plans to inventory it and sell it on ebay. The auctions have already begun.

I know that Rick is only doing what dealers do, hunt and acquire treasured collectibles then capitalize on them. Maybe I’m too idealistic but I had hoped that somehow the “Ruins of Comico” would not result in a creator who trusted Comico with their creation finding their work lining the pockets of somebody else when they never had the opportunity to sell it themselves.

Rick claims to have “Saved the Comico Production Art,” possibly from rotting, lost in some storage facility outside of Norristown, PA but the
principals that Comico were founded on and recognized for are so totally disregarded in this situation that it is hard for me to consider any of that original art “saved.” Rather it is damned to resurrect demons of a bygone era that we had all hoped would never be seen again.

The following is correspondence between Rick and myself. I believe it is very civil on both sides yet clear as to what I would like to see done with the material:

Greetings Gerry,

First and foremost I want to state that Justice Machine, Elementals and Mage were the Comico titles that I followed. so yes I was a Comico fan.

I have read all your comments about the ebay auction that appeared in the last part of 2010 from Coyote storage.

I have researched the history of that ebay listing and I am aware that a couple of art dealers expressed an interest in it, and it attracted a
couple of phone calls too. However when faced with the fact that this accumulation of material that seemed to have once belonged to Phil, was not the original line art and was a large volume of production material, they all passed on it.

I did not.

To be honest we purchased it with the intention of bringing it to market.

We have had experience handling large amounts of material before. In 2000 we purchased the back stock of Passiac Books, one of the original comics dealers from the 60s and we also had a hand in bringing the Jack Adler art collection to market.

This turned out to be about 2500 lbs of material that we are just now starting to inventory and list on ebay.

More of the story will come to light with the upcoming publication of a Comics Buyers Guide article. In comic book culture Comico is a signicant contribution made by you.

I personally wanted to close the loop on the internet story for you, in regards to the original ebay auction.

Here is the arrival of the collection at our store, Collector Haven in Mesa Arizona.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.206168106069592.54106.119884131364657

Sincerely,

Rick Funk
Collector Haven Comics

PS: I read your articles about the color production process, however I have a couple of questions about that process and how some of these production pieces fit into that.

Rick,

I appreciate that you wanted to “close the loop,” for me and I know that you made a significant investment acquiring the material but I still have personal and professional issues with the fact that much of the material should not have been available for sale in the first place by anyone other than the actual owners of the individual pieces, the creators.

The images of the early inventory that you have sent me clearly show original art that in my opinion belongs to the creators of the works. I saw three pieces that were actually mine.

Phil’s or Dennis’ possession of the works, at any time, is in question to me since it should have been returned to the creators immediately after its publication which was the long standing policy of Comico.

Also, as I mentioned in my blog, I would have expected that Andrew Rev would have taken possession of the production proofs when he bought Comico. I would have expected them to have been part of the deal.

Phil’s passing does not make the situation any different besides I am sure that his brother, Dennis, would have been quick to take charge of his estate, especially if he felt it had value.

Regardless of how Coyote came into possession of the material, the right thing would be for at least the original art to be returned to the creators. I know I would like mine returned.

You and Collector Haven have a unique opportunity to do something that publishers like Marvel and other dealers who have sold art that they acquired from publishers like Dell and Gold Key have historically declined to do. Do the right thing and help place those works where they should have been a long time ago, back in the hands of the creators to which they belong.

I think that as another option, if you worked closely with The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund or the Heroes Initiative and used this material to help raise funds for these great organizations in the name of the creators you may either be able to negotiate your investment back or at least write it off.

Regardless of how you might proceed in righting this situation the benefit would be a huge Good Will return to you and your company for setting a remarkable example that I believe would be applauded tremendously throughout the industry.

I will be happy to help you do this I any way I can and I will be your biggest supporter for championing the rights of the creators without whom we would not have a comics industry to feed off of.

I will not, however, be able to help you in any way to sell and profit from these works and I will remain a vocal supporter that they should be returned to their rightful owners.

I hope you understand that as a publisher of Comico and now CO2 Comics, I and my partner Bill Cucinotta have always placed the rights of the creators as our highest priority. It is against everything we have stood for our entire careers in the industry not to take a stand on this issue.

I hope you appreciate our position and will work with us to make an important and valiant statement.

Very Sincerely,

Gerry Giovinco
CO2 Comics

COMICO Original Painted Art And Black Line Overlay

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U.D.I.C. 1 page 6

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U.D.I.C. Ad

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COMICO ORIGINAL PAINTED ARTWORK Grendel Page

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U.D.I.C.Page 23

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STAR BLAZERS 4 Original Black Line Artwork

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Trouble With Girls Ad

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ELEMENTALS Blue Demon Original Pencil Art

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COMICO CHARACTER ORIGINAL ART Frog Prince Dr Danger

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COMICO CHARACTER ORIGINAL ART Vesuvious Red Dragon

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COMICO COMMANDER CHAOS Original Pencil Art

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Elementals Cmdr Cord

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ELEMENTALS Demon Original Art Character Design Page

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ELEMENTALS Kid Chaos Original Art Character Design

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ELEMENTALS Leviathan Original Art Character Design Page

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ELEMENTALS Monolith Original Art Character Design Page

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ELEMENTALS Morningstar Original Art Character Design

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ELEMENTALS Morningstar Original Art Design and Notes

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ELEMENTALS Oblivion Original Art Character Design Page

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ELEMENTALS Vortex Original Art Character Design

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RATMAN Comico Original Art Character Design Page

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Monolith Pencil Art

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Vortex Pencils

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JUMPSTART SKY SCRAPER Comico Original Character Art

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JUMPSTART Comico Original Character Art Design Page

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GHOST GIRL Comico Original Art Character Design Page

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MICROMAN Comico Original Art Character Design Page

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Posted in CO2 Comics, Making History | 8 Comments »

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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Posted in The Comic Company | 7 Comments »

The Comic Company: In The Black

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Anyone who has been reading this blog over the last couple of months knows that it is intended to be a trip down memory lane focusing on the accomplishments of Comico the Comic Company and its relevance to the comics industry both then and now.

Bill Cucinotta and I were both founding partners of Comico, giving us both a unique authority on the subject. Though I get the credit line at the bottom of the page, these words wouldn’t get to you without Bill’s diligence and tireless effort to design and post the blog along with all of the other chores as he maintains the entire CO2 Comics site on a daily basis.

We are both dedicated to bringing our audience great quality comics and remembering the history that brought us here. Not just the history of our experience publishing Comico comics, but the history of the industry that inspires us to be part of it.

We know that our readers appreciate the notes on history too. It is reflected the traffic to the site and the comments made on the threads. Thanks for your enthusiastic support!

In 1987 Comico took a trip down memory lane with the publication of Comico BLACK BOOK our fifth-anniversary special.

Comico Black Book cover

Creative Black Book 1986

When I conceived BLACK BOOK I readily admit that I was a candidate for the Swipe File. A year earlier I had the opportunity to provide comic book lettering to go along with parody images of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for the 1986 edition THE CREATIVE BLACK BOOK (www.blackbook.com) which is a huge creative directory for people in the creative industry.

My good friend Angela Corbo, who had grown up in my neighborhood and attended PCA briefly with Bill and myself, was working in the production department of the THE CREATIVE BLACK BOOK. When it was decided that their theme required comic lettering, I was her first call.

My lettering on the Creative Black Book 1986, Click for larger image

Gerry Giovinco Black Book photo

I had lettered all of Comico’s early black-and-white books; Primer, Az, Grendel, Skrog and Slaughterman. This was a great opportunity to work on such a prestigious project and I jumped at the chance.

With the publication of that work behind me, the name BLACK BOOK stuck in my head. I couldn’t help but attach it to another directory, that of a historical chronology of the first five years of Comico.

The Comico BLACK BOOK was published in comic book format and featured our trademark, wrap-around cover design. It read more like a catalog of our entire inventory with a historical time-line that ran the bottom of each page highlighting moments of achievement and publication dates.

My favorite page was the centerfold that listed the names of the impressive 155 creators that had worked with us those first five years.

Comico Black Book Spread, Click for larger image

The Comico BLACK BOOK became the chronicle of my own history at Comico. Shortly after its publication it became impossible for me to continue working at Comico for personal and professional reasons. My name remained in the publishing credits but it was clearly time for me to move on.

The book also signaled a turning point. Comico began its downward spiral. It was a company that had risen from nothing to an independent powerhouse, challenging Marvel and DC all the way into the mass market only to become a bankrupt shell of itself that would be sold into obscurity.

This is a story that has been repeated over and over by other great comic companies of the era and continues today. In its wake is a trail of incredible comics and incredible comics history. There are lessons to be learned. Observations that need to be noted. Mistakes that should not be repeated.

Comics Interview Premier Edition

This is why we are so excited to be publishing David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection. We know that it is the most transparent window into the mind-set of the comics industry at a time when creators discovered that they had some control in the future of comics.

Comics Interview Standard Edition

It is shocking how issues that shaped the industry then are relevant to issues that are shaping the industry today.

A whole new generation of comic creators needs to be aware of the insights of those who pioneered creator rights, independent publishing, the graphic novel, and the marketing and merchandising of comic franchises that are household names today.

I recently read an obituary for the Sony Walkman and it sited how Apple tapped into the elements of personal entertainment that were provided by the Walkman when it made music personal. Apple embellished upon those elements to create the success of the iPod. Apple looked back to move forward.

With the introduction of e-readers and the iPad comics will become more personal and interactive than ever just as music did. It is time for the comics industry to move forward and we all know it. Just remember to look back. Note the successes and failures. Don’t become a statistic.

When David Anthony Kraft was publishing COMICS INTERVIEW he had a keen sense for how the industry worked. He listened to the people he talked to. He saw the writing on the wall and was able to make a controlled decision to end COMICS INTERVIEW at a nice round number and at the top of its game. DAK controlled the destiny of his creation at a time when the market was in free-fall.

Because of his foresight, we now have the opportunity to enjoy COMICS INTERVIEW as a completed work, not something that was extinguished in its prime like Comico and a long list of other comics publishers.

We believe that David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection is an important work that belongs in the library of every comic creator, educator and library for all of the reasons I mentioned. Take the opportunity to see for yourself.

We think you’ll agree.

Making comics because I want to.

Gerry Giovinco

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The Comic Company:
True Colors – Part 5 (Finally!)

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

ROBOTECH is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and mourning the loss of of its producer and biggest cheerleader, Carl Macek.

Robotech/Macross #1 cover, Comico 1984

ROBOTECH was a big reason for the success of Comico in its heyday and is a blog all unto itself but before ROBOTECH became the successful franchise that it still is we published a comic book based on ROBOTECH’s original source material, the very popular Anime series MACROSS.

We were big fans of Anime having grown up watching classics like 8Th-Man, Gigantor, Astro Boy, Prince Planet, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, and Kimba the White Lion. We wanted to maintain the luster and integrity of the original.

Classic Anime

Our vision was to produce the pages using images taken from the actual video. When this proved to be an impossible option we decided that we would create the pages using a technique similar to that of genuine animation cels.

Line Art

Carl Macek’s wife Svea Stauch provided the pencils. Phil LaSorda and I inked all of the main characters which included all of the aircraft, spaceships and robots. The inks were done on a separate overlay that was later lettered then photographed as a positive transparency. This was an important layer of the final art since it would hold the black line separate from all the color work just as we would in the grey-line and blue-line systems that I have written about in earlier True Color blogs.

Matt

The backgrounds were all transfered to a different layer and painted much like the backgrounds in an animation cel.

Cel

Between the line art and the background paintings was a layer of clear acetate. All three layers were aligned to each other with registration marks. The clear film was then attached to the back of the line art and painted from behind with animation cel paint mimicking the flat look of cel production. After it dried, the layer was then removed from the line art layer and then attached over the more heavily rendered, painted backgrounds.

Printed

The two color layers would be separated by the color separator as one piece then the black line layer would be added. This all created the dimensional effect that the original animation cels had while preventing the black line from suffering from registration problems in the print process.

Macross 6 Line Art & Matt

This system, though it produced the intended results, was painstaking and required a small army of extra hands to chip in to get the work finished. Macross #1 would be the only time we used this technique. When Macross became ROBOTECH with issue #2 it was clear that the only way we would be able to produce a ROBOTECH issue every 2 weeks, which was our intended schedule, was to use flat color.

Macross 6 Cel & Prod

Our experimentation with all of the various techniques for producing color for comics proved that we respected the individual requirements of each property that we published. We were never content to produce a line of cookie-cutter comics.

Macross 6 Mount & Print

I like to think that our readers appreciated this and that the creators who worked with us understood that our priority was the integrity of their work. This provided us with the opportunity to work with many talented comic creators and made it easier for us to attract other licensed properties.

Today, nearly all color for comics is produced digitally. One thing I have discovered about creating comics digitally is that every creator has their own special technique to achieve a desired result. There is no real right or wrong way to produce quality comics.

That’s good for us at CO2 Comics because we love to experiment and we love to tap into our own experiences from the good old days. Our priority is still the integrity of the work and it will always be regardless if we are producing comics for the internet , digital readers or print.

In the next few days we will be announcing our first print project from CO2 Comics. It is big, bold and beautiful and has required a fair amount of experimenting to produce the product that we have been hoping for.

I promise this one will have people talking for years.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco.

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The Comic Company: Anticipation

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

What a powerful motivator anticipation is.

When I think of our motto here at CO2 Comics, “Making Comics Because We Want To,” it dawns on me that it is the anticipation of the finished product that excites me the most and stimulates my desire to create comics.

I find that anticipation exists through the entire creative process and is later passed on to the reader. I even thrive on the anticipation of the reader’s reaction to the final work.

A single idea can initiate the anticipation process. The conception of a character or a story line launches the desire to create a comic that allows the character or story to come alive.

Comico Covers

Whether the comic is created by a single person or a production team, the anticipation of the finished product is not complete until the comic is published and enjoyed.

The reader is in a state of anticipation through the whole story. Word-to-word, panel-to-panel, the reader anticipates the development, climax and resolution of the comic’s story.

Satisfied readers continue the anticipation process by immediately desiring the next issue.

When Bill Cucinotta and I were publishers of Comico comics in the 1980′s every new product and innovation was approached with great anticipation on our part.

Primer #1

We couldn’t wait to see our first comic, Primer #1, in print. I remember the excitement of the day it was first delivered in boxes to our studio. It was a proud moment for us but it was only the beginning.

At the time, we were not prepared to anticipate Comico’s future accomplishments like color comics, graphic novels, licensing deals, and the relationships we built with creators and readers.

CO2 Comics has given us a new reason to be in a state of anticipation. Every week we deliver new content to new readers and the popularity of our site is continually growing.

Very soon we will be announcing CO2 Comics’ first print project and the thrill of the anticipation is KILLING us!

Coming Soon

This project will be the single, biggest print project that we have ever attempted. It has been in the works for nearly thirty years and we promise that it will be both huge and historic.

Our anticipation is, that if you love comics as much as we do, you will love what we have in store for you.

So, please, anticipate a big announcement soon, and don’t worry. You will be able to get your copy in plenty of time for Christmas… if you can wait that long.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco

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The Comic Company: True Colors Part 4

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

The last blog that I wrote about the flat color guides in True Colors Part 3 was very well received and prompted inquiry about how the colorist used the guides that I posted.

The color guides were just as important of a tool to the colorist as they were to the color separator and were intended to eliminate any doubt about the colors being used on a page.

Comico Color Chart by Gerry Giovinco

The colorist would be given black-and-white photocopies of the original art reduced to 80% of the original which was a bit larger than the final print size but made it easier to fit in the codes. These pages would be painted in using water color, Doctor Martin Dyes, designer markers or whatever else would lay in a color field.

Traditional flat color usually just filled areas that were trapped with black line art with one particular color. The color in this area was coded to match the color chart, say YR3B2 (100% yellow, 50% magenta and 25% cyan which would produce a medium brown color)

The code was what the separator was concerned with. The area could be colored red but if the code said green that is how it appeared in print. The colors primarily defined the area to be filled with color. Most colorists did attempt to keep the colors consistent with the code but if a mistake was made only the code needed to be fixed, the area did not need to be repainted.

Though most colorists were meticulous about their application and finished pages were usually beautiful, they were always peppered with code. This made them look less like the work of art that they were.

It was possible to be rather sloppy when applying colors since, as I described earlier, the main purpose was to identify the area to be filled and apply the final code. This was usually the situation when color, which was the last step in the creative process, was being rushed to meet a deadline that had already been jeopardized by either the writer, penciler, inker or letterer.

Color guide that I did for Next Man #4

Regardless of the quality of the application, if the codes and fields were appropriately identified, the final print job would look fine.

How the colors appeared in print.

As the broader range of colors became available colorists were better able to model areas with different values of color to created shaded or tinted areas.

Minimal example of how a seam might show when two percentages butt together.

Generally colorists attempted to alter values on just one of the layers of color and avoided butting percentages of the same color in a single field to prevent a seam from appearing in the finished work.The addition of the 10% and 20% black made it especially easier to shade colors.

When it was necessary to show a gradient, usually in a larger field, it was possible to note the area to be graded. This was usually found on covers of the traditional flat colored books. By the 80′s the gradients were popping up in the interiors due to the better production values available.

At Murphy Anderson’s Visual Concepts, Murphy Jr. would apply an airbrushed fill to the films to match the specs of the gradient. Murphy was a master at this and made many a Comico product look fabulous.

Acid washed denim effect created by Murphy Anderson, Jr.

There was something special about that era when every person along the production route had a hand in the final output of the printed product.

The collaboration and the camaraderie that was developed has long been replaced by the digital file.

More production history to follow next week plus BIG news from CO2 Comics is coming so Stay Tuned!
(Don’t say you weren’t warned…)

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco

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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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The Comic Company:
True Colors – Part 2

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

The Gray-Line System that I described in last week’s blog helped us to achieve a look that we had always hoped for our comics when we first considered evolving to color.

The fact that most of the alternative independent publishers were taking advantage of the ability to print processed full-color images on the better, whiter paper was not our inspiration or motivation at Comico.

Captain Canuck by Comely Comix

Long before we had even printed our first book we had already fallen in love with how the color appeared in Captain Canuck comics published by Comely Comix and illustrated by George Freeman. The soft processed color printed on newsprint had a quality that was unique compared to the limited 65-color palette of traditional flat-color comic books.

We were not interested in the slick color of the glossy new comics and we definitely did not care for the glare that shown off the pages of the glossy paper stock.

Mage By Matt Wagner

 

Our preference for the more muted color production was evidenced in the fist two issues of Matt Wagner’s Mage.

Matt, who had attended college with Bill and me at the Philadelphia College of Art, had been involved in many discussions concerning how we all thought color in comics should look. We were all on the same page when we made the decision to print Mage on a high-grade newsprint. Mage was a more urban setting and was supported by the grittier look of the newsprint. Besides, we wanted it to look like Captain Canuck.

Evangeline by Chuck Dixon & Judith Hunt

 

Chuck Dixon and Judith Hunt’s Evangeline was a different story. We could see how the finer line quality and more delicate colors would be better served on a whiter stock and though we were reluctant to go to a fully bleached stock we upgraded to a Mando stock which had a creamy quality to it and did not suffer from the glare issue that the more machined paper stocks offered.

Our early color books were printed in Florida at the same press that was printing Bill Black’s Americomics line but we quickly switched over to Sleepeck in Dixon, IL so that we would have more centralized shipping and warehousing of our runs. Once at Sleepeck we decided that our standard comic line, including Mage, would all be printed on the Mando stock.

Wheatly & Hemple's Mars

Around this time we were also introduced to a new coloring system. Mark Wheatly from Insight Studios was producing Mars with Marc Hemple for First Comics. He had told me about a guideline system he was using that employed the use of chemicals from a Fluorographics Services kit. A brief description of how the system works can be seen here.

This system was very similar to the gray-line system in that you had to produce a positive transparency of the line art. The grey line required a negative to produce the grey guide-line on the layer to be painted. The Fluorographics system let you use the film positive to create the non-repo blue guide which eliminated an extra step and expense. You could coat any paper stock you wanted with the chemicals allowing you to paint much more naturally than on the polymer based photo paper of the gray-line.

Blue-Line instruction from The Illustrator's Bible By Rob Howard

Note that though the color was considered non-repo blue this was only effective when shooting in black-and-white. The blue line did appear in the color separations for full-color.

Initially we would coat a paper stock with the sensitizer, place the film positive on top then cover it with a plate of glass to keep it flat then take it outside to expose it to the sun then run in and develop the image. It didn’t take too many rainy days to convince us to purchase a UV sun lamp so that we could do all of this inside and avoid blowing deadlines.

The only problem with this system was that the paper stock was less stable than the photo paper and would shrink when the paint dried, often distorting the registration.

Matt solved the problem by using pre-stretched watercolor blocks of paper that were sealed on all four sides keeping the top layer “stretched” until it was dried and removed. Matt would buy large enough paper so that four pages could be exposed at once. He usually had two blocks set up so that while one block dried, he could be working on the other.

This new blue-line system was a home run but it was not going to help us with our next two projects.

Elementals & Macross Covers

We knew that when we signed on to publish Bill Willingham’s Elementals that we were going to want it to be more like traditional flat-color superhero comics. Down the line would also be a little project called Macross that would press all of our expectations for color in comics. We still had a lot to learn.

To be continued…

Gerry Giovinco

Making comics because I want to!

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The Comic Company:
Marketing Comics on Mobile Devices Since 1984

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

“Location, location, location!” This is the mantra of of real estate investors worldwide and was a dilemma we faced as we planned a promotion strategy for our first full-color comic book publications, Matt Wagner’s Mage and Judith Hunt and Charles Dixon’s Evangeline.

 

Our first 2 color publications

 

Comico had proven itself as an aggressive marketer of its black-and-white line by advertising in all of the major fan magazines at the time. Bill Cucinotta made sure that full-page ads were regularly seen in the Comics Buyers Guide, Amazing Heroes, The Comics Journal, and David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview.

 

 

Our decision to begin publishing in color raised the bar significantly. We could no longer survive if our titles sold just a few thousand copies each. We knew that publishing in color would automatically cause our sales figures to rise dramatically but we had to sell around 30,000 of each title to see black ink on our ledger sheets.

30,000 seems like a good number when looking at the monthly sales figures of comics today but in 1984 when Marvel and DC were still selling comics for 75¢ we could not compete with a $3-4 cover price. At $1.50, our profit margin was a lot slimmer than it is for books in the current market.

We had great faith in the product and rightfully so. Creators of each comic have gone on to become industry giants but at the time they were all virtual unknowns.

We felt that in order to succeed we needed to promote our product at the point of purchase; in the comic shops themselves.

Bill, who had worked many years in retail at Fat Jack’s Comic Crypt in Philadelphia, knew first-hand how valuable the real estate was in comic shops which were usually quite small.

When he, Phil LaSorda, and I discussed the possibility of posters in the stores to promote our comics the question was, “Where would the retailers hang them if they hung them at all?”

Retail walls were usually covered, floor-to-ceiling, by shelves displaying hundreds of new comics. Valuable older comics in mylar bags were displayed on walls also.

If a poster were to go up on any of the limited wall space that might be left, you could bet that it would be reserved for a Marvel or DC product.

We talked about post cards and rack cards but agreed that counter space and rack space was as much a premium as wall space in the tiny comic shops.

Hell, the only space left was the ceiling and how would we convince retailers to staple our poster on their ceiling?

Inspiration from above

Maybe it was from years of kite flying, model rocketry, and hanging plastic airplanes in my room. Maybe it was from marveling at Alexander Calder’s masterpieces in art school. The idea of creating a mobile that the retailers could hang from a single tack or hook soon gave rise.

We would command a virgin, uncharted territory smack in the center of the ceiling in virtually every comic shop. We would boldly go where no man had gone before!

 

Mobile Ad

 

The Comico Mobile, which was promoted as “The First in a series of Promotional Mobiles,” was a simple elegant design though it would be the first and only one of the intended series. It was a cardboard disc that was 18 inches in diameter printed in full color on both sides, Mage on one side, Evangeline on the other. At the top was drilled a tiny hole from which it could be hung.

There was a limited number of 100 that were signed and numbered by the creators and the rest were sent to distributors where retailers would place an order to get theirs for free with their shipment of Comico comics. Just in case they missed the offer we ran ads in the trades to make sure no one was left out.

The Comico line of color comics was off the ground. The proof was on the ceiling!

 

A Comico Mobile still hangs in my studio today right next to my inspiration for the Comico Blimp, a toy airship hanging from a string.

 

CO2 Mobile Command Centre

 

On the wall behind my desk, however, is a new banner proclaiming CO2 Comics, our exciting new foray into the digital world of comics.

Today’s digital environment adds a completely different meaning when speaking the term “mobile.” Computers and mobile devices like smart phones, iPads, and e-readers are quickly changing the landscape of all publishing including comics.

CO2 Comics will give Bill and I the chance to pioneer again but we will still look back to the term “Location, location, location,” only this time we will be looking for a good Wi-Fi connection.

Making comics because I want to

Gerry Giovinco

　

　

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