Posts Tagged ‘comico the comic company’
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!
Tags: alternative independent publishers, Bill Willingham, Chemical Color Plate, CMYK, color guide, color separations, colorists, comic books, comico, comico the comic company, DC Comics, Eclipse Comics, Elementals, flat-color, Lou Brooks, Murphy Anderson, Newsprint, Pop Art, pop culture, Roy Lichtenstein, rubylith, superhero, Visual Concepts Inc, web offset presses, World Color Press
Posted in The Comic Company | 32 Comments »
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!
Tags: Americomics, Bill Black, Bill Willingham, Captain Canuck, Chuck Dixon, Comely Comix, comic books, comico, comico the comic company, Comics, Elementals, Evangeline, First Comics, flat-color, Fluorographics, Fluorographics Services Kit, George Freeman, Gray-Line System, Insight Studios, Judith Hunt, Macross, Mage, Marc Hemple, Mark Wheatly, Mars, matt wagner, Newsprint, Philadelphia College of Art, processed color, Sleepeck, superhero comics, Webcomics
Posted in The Comic Company | 4 Comments »
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
Tags: Alexander Calder, Amazing Heroes, Bill Cucinotta, Charles Dixon, CO2 Comics, comico, Comico Blimp, Comico Mobile, comico the comic company, Comics, Comics Buyers Guide, Comics Interview, David Anthony Kraft, David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview, DC, Digital Comics, Evangeline, Fat Jack's Comic Crypt, Gerry Giovinco, Judith Hunt, Mage, Marvel, matt wagner, phil lasorda, Philadelphia, The Comics Journal, Webcomics
Posted in The Comic Company | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Comico was always intended to be launched in an anthology format. The first planned publication was Comico Presents which was to feature Phil LaSorda’s AZ, Vince Argondezzi’s Mr. Justice and my own Slaughterman.
Unpublished Cover
By the spring of 1982, however, the dynamics of the original group had changed.
Vince Argondezzi was moving on and Bill Cucinotta had joined our ranks bringing with him his creation, Skrog. Other talented comic artists, Matt Wagner and the very young Andrew Murphy, lurked in the wings.
It occurred to me that the anthology format had greater potential for us than we had originally planned. Rather than be merely a vehicle to introduce our own feature characters into the Direct Market, the format gave us a venue to feature the works of the many undiscovered talents that we were becoming acquainted with on the convention circuit.
I saw this publication as the foundation for which all future projects would emerge. It was the first coat of paint on which we could embellish illustrious careers as comic creators. This anthology would be our Primer.
PRIMER #1, Cover pencils by Andrew Murphy. inks Gerry Giovinco
Surprisingly, I do not remember it being difficult to sell the concept and especially the name, Primer, to Phil and Bill. We all knew that, in a market with titles full of Action, Adventure, and other Epic names, Primer was as dynamic sounding as white bread but to us it perfectly described the product and what we expected to accomplish with it.
PRIMER #2, Cover by Matt Wagner, 1st appearance of GRENDEL
We had hoped that by naming our comic book Primer, readers would expect something different, that the product would lay a foundation for what was to come and, most importantly, it would ignite an interest in our budding comic company. Primer would survive six issues and be our longest running black-and-white title. It did launch Comico and prime the industry for a unique independent company that blazed trails in creative and production quality, pioneered licensing for alternative publishers, championed creator’s rights and gave Marvel and DC a serious run for their money.
PRIMER #3, Cover by Jim Dever, featuring an early William Messner-Loebs story
The impact of Primer is still felt in the comics industry today.
- PRIMER #4, Cover by Barb Ramata, first of three to be edited by Matt Wagner
The ACT-I-VATE PRIMER
I can tell you that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Bill and I were both caught blushing when IDW announced that it would be publishing The ACT-I-VATE Primer.
ACT-I-VATE has been among our greatest inspirations while developing CO2 Comics. The presumption that our Primer may have had any influence on Dean Haspiel and friends was quite humbling to us (Guys, don’t tell us if it didn’t, it might ruin the moment!). Marvel’s Marvelman Classic Primer and Alan Moore’s Americas Best Comics Primer also find use of the Primer name which I like to believe would have never been used when associated with comics before the advent of the Comico Primer.
- PRIMER #5, Cover by Will Brown, featuring Sam Kieth’s Max the Hare
How-to Comic Primers pepper the internet and we at CO2 Comics have tapped the old Comico Primer for our own World Wide Web purposes.
PRIMER #6, Cover by Judith Hunt, the introduction of Chuck Dixon and Judith Hunt's Evangeline. Assistant editor CO2 Comics contributor Reggie Byers.
My Slaughterman, Bill Cucinotta’s Skrog, Andrew Murphy’s Victor, and Rich Rankin and Neil Vokes’ Gauntlet, features that all ran in Primer, are now featured right here on CO2 Comics.
They have all helped us launch this new and exciting web comics collective. CO2 Comics contributor Bill Anderson also graced the pages of Primer. Primer alumni, Matt Wagner, Sam Kieth, William Messner-Loebs, and Chuck Dixon have had stellar careers as comic creators. Their earliest published works can be found in those seemingly innocuous six issues of Primer making a few of them quite valuable as collectibles.
Other talents that were featured in Primer: Phil LaSorda, Vince Argondezzi, Jim Alderman, Rick McCollum, Bill Bryan, Jim Dever, Larry Nadolsky, Francis Mao, Barb and Bernie Armata, Ron Kasman, Will Brown, Chris Windle, Ajay Mclaughlin, Mark Lantz, Michael Lail, Grass Green, Judith Hunt and Al Wiesner. Primer was, unfortunately, discontinued along with the rest of the black-and-white line when Comico made its transition to color in 1984.
Pain
Works that were planned to be published in Primer that I am sorry we missed out on were Pain by Bill Cucinotta, Panda Khan by Dave Garcia and a little pre-turtle story by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
I have quite a few interesting stories that I can share about experiences publishing Primer that will have to wait for another time.
Next week I will pick things up a bit with a look at one of my favorite “Pie in the Sky” ideas from the early days of The Comic Company.
Making comics because I want to!
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: ACT-I-VATE, ACT-I-VATE Primer, Ajay Mclaughlin, Al Wiesner, Alan Moore, Alan Moore's Americas Best Comics Primer, Andrew Murphy, Az, Barb and Bernie Armata, Bill Anderson, Bill Bryan, Bill Cucinotta, Chris Windle, Chuck Dixon, CO2 Comics, Comic Primers, comico, Comico Presents, Comico Primer, comico the comic company, Comics, DC, Dean Haspiel, Direct Market, Francis Mao, Gerry Giovinco, Grass Green, Jim Alderman, Jim Dever, Judith Hunt, Kevin Eastman, Larry Nadolsky, Mark Lantz, Marvel, Marvelman, Marvelman Classic Primer, Michael Lail, Mr. Justice, Neil Vokes, Pain, Panda Khan, Peter Laird, phil lasorda, Primer, Rich Rankin, Rick McCullom, Ron Kasman, Sam Kieth, Skrog, Slaughterman, Victor, Vince Argondezzi, Webcomics, Weekly Update, Will Brown, William Messner-Loebs
Posted in The Comic Company | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Business Card Side 1
When we finally became serious about publishing comic books under the Comico imprint we realized that we were going to have to actually sell our comics and generate substantial revenue.
Business card Side 2
We had always sold our handmade, photocopied comics directly to the customer and were never really in a situation where we actually had to profit from the comics we made.
The issues of DUCKWORK that were produced were distributed freely on campus at PCA, supported by student council and meager funds generated by advertisements that we solicited.
Comico, however, was a real business and we had to get our comics sold to as many readers as possible in order to stay alive.
In the old days that meant Newsstand Distribution and its dreaded return policy, but in the early 1980′s the Direct Comic Market was young and growing. It offered an opportunity for an upstart company like Comico to solicit to retailers through several distributors.
Product was solicited three months in advance. The orders gave publishers a solid idea of what their print run needed to be and there were no returns to fret about. This made it easy to borrow money since you could show actual sales ahead of time. It also let you know if you should pack your bags and quit before you absorbed the expenses of production and printing.
Publishers just had to convince the distributors that their product was worth the time to solicit. This generally meant that if one distributor would take a chance on your product the others had to as well so they would not have to explain to their retailers why the guy down the street has a particular title and they don’t.
Our first comic book was a black and white comic titled Primer #1. Historically the reviews on the comic have sucked but it was our first product and at the time we were very proud of our work.
PRIMER #1
Today, I believe that it is highly underrated as a collectible since so few were made and it is significant for having launched a company that discovered many great talents, produced great product and established a business model that other great Independent publishers would follow.
Back in 1982 we had to find someone to solicit Primer #1 before it was even complete. We had very little to show except photocopies of of pencils and a proposed cover.
We wanted to make a great first impression so we put our efforts into a nice presentation package and focused on our business card because we thought it would be the one thing the distributers might keep in their rolodex (who still has one of those dinosaurs?)
The original Comico logo was designed by Phil LaSorda and was as unique as it was cumbersome but it lent itself well to the unusual business card that I would design around it.
The logo was designed to bracket the corner of the covers of our comics and it only survived the black and white comics that we originally published. It repeated the name Comico twice, hinged by a shared letter “C” that would eventually provide the basis for several other designs that would represent the future color line.
The card I designed was also hinged, die cut and folded so the Comico logo would read on both sides. When it opened our information was displayed inside. It was black and white, innovative and elegant, just the impression we wanted to create for our line.
The card could stand on a desk where others could only lay and it encouraged the holder to manipulate and study it. Let’s just say it was hard not to notice and easy to remember.
Above all, it was a conversation piece which came in handy when we did follow-up calls to the distributors. In those days, when you made the call, you spoke to the head guy, himself: Steve Geppi, Bud Plant, Milton Griepp, Walter Wang, and so on.
All of these guys were friendly, and were more than happy to offer advice and honest criticisms of the product. There was a lot of criticism and we listened and learned.
Just when it looked like we were going to have to go back to the drawing board with Primer #1 we got our first order. I’ll never forget the moment. I was away from the studio for a rare weekend trip when Phil called to tell me that Bud Plant had ordered one hundred books. You would have thought that I won the lottery!
Bill Cucinotta taking initial PRIMER 1 orders
That week Phil, Bill Cucinotta and I worked the phones to let every distributor know that Bud Plant had given us an order. As we expected they all followed suit, not to be outdone.
We sold less than two thousand books but it was enough to cover the printing costs and generate enough interest for Primer #2 which enjoys it’s place in comics history for the first appearance of Matt Wagner’s Grendel.
PRIMER #2
Today the card of CO2 Comics is simple. It bears our logo and a lone piece of contact information, co2comics.com. Follow that link and everything you need to know about CO2 Comics is at your fingertips!
We hope we still know how to make a great first impression.
Making comics because I want to,
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Bill Cucinotta, Bud Plant, Business Card, CO2 Comics, Comic Distributors, Comic Publishers, comico, Comico Logo, Comico Primer, Comico Primer #1, Comico Primer #2, comico the comic book company, comico the comic company, Direct Comic Market, duckwork, Gerry Giovinco, Grendel, matt wagner, Milton Griepp, Newsstand Distribution, PCA, phil lasorda, Rolodex, Steve Geppi, Walter Wang
Posted in The Comic Company | 11 Comments »
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Looking back, I guess it took a lot of guts for three kids from Norristown to decide that we wanted to start a comic book company especially considering that we were all still attending college and had no money except for what little we made working part-time jobs.
I struggled to meet class deadlines at the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA now UArts) and labored on weekends at places like 7-11, K-Mart, and Pizza Hut just to have spending money. The dream of making comics preoccupied my mind at every job I held. The evidence is a comic that I made while working as a cook at Pizza Hut in the winter of 1980.
Read Pizza man And Pizza Woman
The Norristown Pizza Hut Presents…Pizza Man & Pizza Woman was the first comic that I had published by anyone other than myself. It appeared on the last page of the company’s nationally distributed, monthly, twelve-page, 8.5 x 11″ newsletter Pizza Hut News Brief. This was a format that I would adapt later when publishing DUCKWORK at PCA with CO2 Comic’s own, Bill Cucinotta and the rest of the self-proclaimed DUCKS.
Phil LaSorda, Vince Argondezzi and I were all dreamers, but at the time we never believed that we could not do what we had set out to do once we had read Don Rico’s How to Start a Comic Book Empire in Free Enterprise magazine.
We considered our biggest asset to be ourselves since we knew that we would create the art for our own publications, saving us a lot of money.
Our biggest asset, however, turned out to be our own naiveté. To every person who scoffed and told us we could not do it, we had only one answer. Why not? Honestly, because we didn’t know any better.
Phil Lasorda & Vince Argondezzi at Creation Conventions
The summer of 1980 was spent developing product for the new company that we would call Comico the Comic Company. My recollection is that Vince first dubbed it The Comic Company. Phil suggested that we shorten it to ComiCo to which I responded that we should pronounce it Comeeco to sound like Mego and Coleco which were popular toy companies at the time.
Gerry Giovinco At Creation Conventions
We each had our own characters to work on. Phil had Az, Vince had Mr. Justice and I had Slaughterman. We planned to feature them in one magazine titled Comico Presents.
That summer Vince illustrated the cover of Comico Presents that would never be published other than as a flyer to promote our new company.
The Comico cover that never was © TM Respective Owners
The Comico Portfolio cover
We each made color illustrations of our character that we would have produced as 8×10″ color glossies and inserted in a hand-made card stock envelope that we simply called the Comico Portfolio. This is officially Comico’s first publication.
AZ from the Comico Portfolio © TM Phil Lasorda
MR JUSTICE from the Comico Portfolio © TM Vince Argondezzi
SLAUGHTERMAN from the Comico Portfolio © TM Gerry Giovinco
Finally, we printed up Comico t-shirts and prepared to exhibit at the Philadelphia Creation Convention were I had made inroads with my Thing costume at previous shows.
Gary Berman and Adam Malin, the producers of the Creation Conventions, were very gracious in giving us an opportunity to display our work. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for being the first to believe in us.
We had gone public with Comico. There was no turning back…
Gerry Giovinco
Next week: DUCKWORK!
Meanwhile you can check out another DUCKWORK retrospective by Joe Williams HERE!
Tags: 7-11, Adam Malin, Az, Bill Cucinotta, Coleco, comic book company, comico, Comico Portfolio, Comico Presents, comico the comic company, Creation Convention, Don Rico, duckwork, Free Enterprise magazine, Gary Berman, Gerry Giovinco, How to Start a Comic Book Empire, K-Mart, Mego, Mr. Justice, PCA, phil lasorda, Philadelphia College of Art, Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut News Brief, Pizza Man & Pizza Woman, Slaughterman, The Comic Company, Thing costume, UArts, Vince Argondezzi
Posted in The Comic Company | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
I became obsessed with making comics when I was in high school during the late 1970′s. I wasn’t content with just drawing them, however. The process of making comics was not complete for me until the comics I had drawn were read by an audience.
I would make comics and print them on an old mimeograph machine then distribute them around school, usually selling each copy for a nickel. I always considered my calling to be that of a cartoonist but in reality I was a born comics publisher.
CARTOONING THE HEAD AND FIGURE By Jack Hamm
I read a lot of comics and I read a lot of books about comics and their history. I read books on how to draw and how to draw cartoons. My favorite books were two by Jack Hamm. Drawing the Head and Figure and Cartooning the Head and Figure published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1963 and 1967 respectively. These books are so great they are still published today by Perigee Books. Get them if you can.
I considered myself self-taught and I was constantly on the prowl for more material to learn from. Unfortunately, there were no books that I found that actually taught how to make comics.
THE COMPLETE BOOK OF CARTOONING By John Adkins Richardson
In 1977 Prentice-Hall published The Complete Book of Cartooning by John Adkins Richardson. My world had changed. The secrets to making comics were out of the bag and brilliantly collected in just over 250 pages of lavishly illustrated, intelligently composed and detailed instructions. More important to me was that this book paid specific attention to creating comics for reproduction.
The publisher in me was percolating.
Though the production information in this book is completely outdated today, all of the other content is a must read for anyone interested in creating comics. Copies can be found online. Trust me, if you have not read it, it belongs in your library!
I tell my children to constantly be aware of and use all resources to achieve the most success. When I was coming up there was no internet with a seemingly infinite knowledge base as there is today. I had to search for information in strange and unusual places. Sometimes the knowledge found me.
FREE ENTERPRISE Magazine
In the summer of 1979, the year I graduated high school, I opened my mailbox and found a magazine that had been placed there by my next door neighbor. It was an old copy of Free Enterprise “The Magazine That Makes You Money” originally published in April 1978. The cover featured Poster King Ted Trikilis who had cashed in by selling the famous Farrah Fawcett poster.
HOW TO START A COMIC BOOK EMPIRE By Don Rico
Inside, however, was my gold-mine. A comic feature titled How to Start a Comic Book Empire by Don Rico who had received an Inkpot award in 1976 at the still young San Diego Comic Con.
The comic adventure of Captain Free Enterprise chronicled the hero showing an aspiring entrepreneur how to publish comics detailing how to buy art, manage expenses, sell advertising, print and distribute product.
BIG BOOM IN ADULT COMICS By Len Andrews
Following the comic were two articles, Big Boom in Adult Comics by Len Andrews and Best Buys in Comic Collectibles by Cara Greenberg. Both gave a stunning outsiders view of the early days of the Direct Market.
BEST BUYS IN COMIC COLLECTIBLES by Cara Greenberg
All three features are posted here for historic reference.
The Publishing Monkey in me was bouncing off the walls!
I quickly called two of my friends who were also aspiring comic creators, Vince Argondezzi and Phil LaSorda. Both of them had graduated the year before. We got together and laid out a plan. We had a distinct advantage over the business model that Captain Free Enterprise described. We would create our own art, eliminating half of the expenses he outlined.
Comico the Comic Company was conceived.
I spent the rest of that summer cavorting around comic conventions in my Thing costume as seen in the wildly popular film that we posted here on CO2 Comics. Those conventions represented a lot of networking, education and maturing. Comico was a solid idea that would require a lot of nurturing, planning, and development especially since the three original partners were all now enrolled in separate colleges.
Notice in the Captain Free Enterprise story he is seen flying into the San Diego Comic-Con International were many of you are this week 32 years later! While you are out there, look for CO2 Comics contributors Raine Szramski and Mitch O’Connell, also keep an eye out for all CO2 Comics updates.
Captain Enterprise descends on The San Diego Comic Con
Making comics because we want to!
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Best Buys in Comic Collectibles, Big Boom in Adult Comics, Captain Free Enterprise, Cara Greenberg, Cartooning the Head and Figure, CO2 Comics, comico, comico the comic company, Comics, comics publisher, Direct Market, Don Rico, Drawing the Head and Figure, Farrah Fawcett, Farrah Fawcett poster, Free Enterprise, Free Enterprise The Magazine That Makes You Money, Grosset & Dunlap, how to publish comics, How to Start a Comic Book Empire, Inkpot award, Jack Hamm, John Adkins Richardson, Len Andrews, Mitch O'Connell, Perigee Books, phil lasorda, Prentice-Hall, Raine Szramski, San Diego Comic Con, San Diego Comic-Con International, Ted Trikilis, The Complete Book of Cartooning, Thing, Vince Argondezzi
Posted in The Comic Company | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Creation Conventions produced by Gary Berman and Adam Malin from 1971 till today were where I first discovered a sense of community in comics that has hooked me for life.
Thing costume by Gerry Giovinco
I made my first mark in comics not as a comic creator but as a costume designer. In the summer of 1979 my costume creation of The Everlovin’ Blue Eyed Thing, Ben Grimm himself, impressed everyone who saw it. I was soon a popular guy at the Creation shows.
I think that I had made the biggest impression on Bob Schreck who was working for Creation at the time. He was generally the first guy you would see as you came through the door. Always friendly and welcoming, Bob loved my Thing costume. He would call me and have me do promo spots on the local Philadelphia “Dancing on Air” television show to promote upcoming Creation Conventions.
Hulk Meets Thing cast photo
Bob and his friend, Larry Ruggiero, wanted to make a fan film starring their buddy, Kevin Van Wagner as the Incredible Hulk and they wanted me and my Thing costume to be his co-star.
On the set of Hulk Meets Thing
The Incredible Hulk Meets the Everlovin’ Blue Eyed Thing was filmed in Long Island, NY and completed in 1982.
Hulk Meets Thing movie Poster by legendary artist Joe Sinnott
The short film became a staple at the Creation shows, featured in the movie room with such classics as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Phantom of Paradise and Plan 9 from Outerspace.
The relationship that I developed with the people at Creation during this time enabled me to negotiate table space in the artist alley at the shows. This is where Comico was first introduced.
Bob Schreck eventually became part of the Comico family and later moved on to be a mainstay as an editor in the comics industry.
The great illustration that was made for the film was created by the legendary Joe Sinnott.
Enjoy the film that is posted here.
Gerry Giovinco
What a revoltin' development!
Tags: Adam Malin, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Ben Grimm, Bob Schreck, comic creator, comico, Comico Comics, comico the comic company, costume designer, Creation Conventions, Dancing on Air, Everlovin' Blue Eyed Thing, Gary Berman, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Joe Sinnott, Kevin Van Wagner, Larry Ruggiero, Phantom of Paradise, Philadelphia, Plan 9 from Outerspace, The Incredible Hulk Meets the Everlovin' Blue Eyed Thing, Thing
Posted in The Comic Company | 7 Comments »
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
The Fourth of July. Independence Day. The birthday of America. A time to appreciate the rich history of our country. A history that makes us uniquely American. History is what makes us who we are, biologically, emotionally, intellectually, and creatively. The choices we make about our future are tempered by lessons learned from accomplishments, mistakes, tragedies, losses, and victories. We can never truly control our destiny but history is our only guide for navigating the unknown future.
CO2 Comics Homepage
The Fourth of July. Independents Day. The birthday of CO2 Comics. We are one year old and we appreciate every minute of it. For us, it is a celebration of the moment in time when we first, publicly revealed our web site http://www.co2comics.com/. It is the celebration of the culmination of years of dreaming, experimenting, hypothesizing, observing and anguishing over history. The history of comics. Our place in the history of comics. How we will use that history to navigate and pioneer the future of comics at this, the Dawn of the Digital Age.
Comico Covers
Mike Sterling reminded us a few weeks ago on his blog Progressive Ruin , that Bill Cucinotta and I had stood at the brink of a new age in comics before as publishers of Comico. We are proud that we had charged in with the likes of Pacific, Eclipse, Warp, Aardvark-Vaneheim, Capital, First and others laying the foundation for what would become The Independent Age.
Top: Bill Cucinotta, Vince Argondezzi, Phil Lasorda, Gerry Giovinco Bottom: Aaron Keaton, Andrew Murphy
Like our forefathers who fought valiantly to establish the ideals and conventions of freedom that make America what it is today, the early Independents left a trail of casualties while they set standards for creator rights, compensation, quality, format and innovative marketing in the fledgeling Direct Market. Comico, a briefly shining star in the industry, unfortunately, is among those ruins but its legacy should be remembered as should the lessons learned from all the pioneers in comics, wether they be the innovators of cave drawings, nineteenth century French publications, Gold, Silver or Bronze Age Comics, Undergrounds, Independents, and now, Digital.
Understand the past before challenging the future.
DAK
This is a lesson I learned from David Anthony Kraft one evening overlooking Georgia from his home perched high on Screamer Mountain during the mid 1980′s. The long time Marvel editor and writer and publisher of Comics Interview had a unique perspective of the history of comics because he had the opportunity to work and speak with legends that had created comics from the dawn of the industry. He appreciated my enthusiasm for change but emphasized understanding the reasoning for why comics had been made the same way for forty years.
Don’t fix what’s not broke? No. Understand the past before challenging the future.
This has been a historic year for comics. The Digital Age is blossoming. What it will be like in full bloom can only be imagined. We know that CO2 Comics will be part of it. We have seen the power of the internet. We know the potential of the downloadable content. We do not underestimate the value of the printed product. We know and respect the power of the medium of comics.
Our first year as CO2 Comics started humbly last Fourth of July weekend with just a few pages of comic art by Bill and me, an introduction and the basic structure and design elements that remain intact today. During our maiden year we have had the pleasure of being able to post the work of over twenty creators, many of which were friends with strong ties to our Comico days. We have accumulated nearly 600 pages of comic art about ten times the amount of work that had been published by Comico in its first year.
CO2 Comics Year One
The audience has been bountiful. CO2 Comics has received nearly two million hits in its first year! In 1982, when Comico began publishing, it was inconceivable to reach an audience like that. Our sales figures of the two Primers that we published in our first year were just a few thousand copies, combined.
We know that as Comico grew into a significant publishing house, CO2 Comics, likewise, will make a major impact in the comics community.
Why? Because history repeats itself.
We also know that we as publishers are older and wiser. We have a proven history of learning from our mistakes, exploring unique options, and pressing the envelope. We also know from failure. We know that Comico, for all of its successes, became a casualty, but it laid a foundation for a future. We are living in that future now and looking into the next horizon.
CO2 Comics considers our first year a beta year. In many ways it was a campaign that developed a life of its own. This next year will be even more exciting. New product will appear on the site, new comics by new creators. Digital, downloads will be developed for e-reading devices, and we will release our first products in print.
A key theme that will prevail throughout will be history. We are excited about comic history and our first print product will have tremendous historic value for the entire comic community. I would love to tell you about it right now, but it’s a surprise! Actually, it has been a tremendous amount of work, a true labor of love, and so important to Bill and I that we will announce it only when it is 100% ready to fly.
Until then we will keep the subject of history alive in our blog with a new weekly feature, The Comic Company, that explores some of the innovations we tackled in our early years of Comico. Inspired by the Progressive Ruin blog, and the interest that was generated by it, we will look at the highlights of the Dawn of the Independents and our involvement in an exciting time in comics history.
Making comics because we want to!
Making history because we just can’t help it.
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Aardvark-Vaneheim, Bill Cucinotta, Capital Comics, CO2 Comics, comico, Comico Comics, comico the comic company, comics history, Comics Interview, Creator Rights, David Anthony Kraft, Dawn of the Digital Age, Direct Market, Eclipse Comics, First Comics, Gerry Giovinco, Marvel, Mike Sterling, Pacific Comics, Progressive Ruin, The Comic Company, The Independent Age, Warp Graphics
Posted in CO2 Comics, Making History, The Comic Company | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Trailblazing, Canadian comic artist, Bernie Mireault is currently wrapping up production on his first graphic novel.
To Get Her
TO GET HER is a book length work that features characters well known to fans of his signature work, The JAM.
Gordon Kirby, his girlfriend, Janet and Gordon’s dog, Harvey move into a new direction as the cast takes on the greatest oppressor of all, the daily routine of real life.
Gordon Janet & Harvey
Though soon to be published in print format, Bernie Mireault has offered a sneak peek in the form of an excerpt presented on CO2 Comics where his short stories CABLE, ISAAC vs. ELI, OF The SPHERES and the animated comic, The JAM LIVES have been popular features.
Bernie Mireault on CO2 COMICS
The 24 page, preview of TO GET HER will be posted in the form of weekly updates and will be sure to keep fans informed of publication dates and details of the soon to be completed graphic novel.
Bernie’s work on The JAM, which had been published by Comico, Slave Labor Graphics and Caliber, had been nominated for both Harvey and Eisner awards, as has his work on Matt Wagner’s Grendel.
Tags: BEM WORK, Bernie Mireault, Cable, Caliber Comics, CO2 Comics, comico, comico the comic company, Eisner Award, Gordon Kirby, Grendel, Harvey Award, Isaac vs Eli, matt wagner, Matt Wagner's Grendel, Of The Spheres, Slave Labor Graphics, The JAM, The JAM Demo, The Jam Lives, To Get Her
Posted in The Gutter | No Comments »
