Posts Tagged ‘matt wagner’
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Since this is my last blog before Halloween I thought it would be fun to take a jaunt down the old, haunted Memory Lane starting with an illustration I did of a baby Bela Lugosi for a project as a student at the Philadelphia College of Art.
Thirty years ago, when Bill Cucinotta and I were still hacking away with friends at our student newspaper, DUCKWORK, Matt Wagner had joined our little band of ducks. The DUCKWORK staff had that year, by proxy, become the Arts Council of the college and it became our job to coordinate the 1981 Annual PCA Halloween Ball.
Matt accepted the responsibility of designing the poster for the event which we screen printed with black ink on white paper and added a touch of red by hand. The original prints were roughly 14×18 inches and were posted around campus for all to see.
I came across the preliminary sketches that Matt had made in one of my sketchbooks, and since I am lucky enough to have the poster as well I thought it would be a nice Halloween treat to share.
The following October, DUCKWORK would be gone, but as Comico, Bill and I, along with partners Phil and Dennis LaSorda would publish our first comic book, Comico Primer #1. Matt Wagner would introduce his popular Grendel character in issue #2 and the rest is history.
Time sure flies when your making comics. Three decades later we’re still at it, bringing our readers great comics right here on the internet with CO2 Comics. We do sure miss the smell of paper though so stay tuned for another treat that will be announced sooooooooooooooooooon!
OH, and have a Happy Halloween!
Making Comics Because I Want To
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Bela Lugosi, comico, Comico Primer, comico the comic book company, comico the comic company, Comics, Dennis Lasorda, duckwork, Grendel, Halloween, Halloween Treat, matt wagner, PCA, PCA Halloween Ball, phil lasorda, Philadelphia College of Art, University of the Arts, Webcomics, Weekly Update
Posted in CO2 Comics, Creationism, Encouraging Comics, Making History, The Comic Company | No Comments »
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
AZ #2
I recently had an opportunity to reread and old blog post by Tom Spurgeon on his site The Comics Reporter. In the blog post Tom takes a look at one of our old Comico publications, AZ by our late partner Phil LaSorda. Tom questions the cultural impact that such an obviously crude attempt at making comics may or should have on the market and the medium.
Now I along with my current publishing partner Bill Cucinotta who was also a partner back in those early Comico days may be biased but we also have a unique perspective just by having been there. We know, retrospectively, that the work we did in those days was seminal at best and was often criticized as being crap. It is easy to look back and be embarrassed by our rudimentary attempts to both create and publish comics. The irony, I suppose, is that as rudimentary as that material was, we are both still very proud of it for many reasons, so much so that we published it all again, right here on CO2 Comics.
Slaughterman #1
Skrog #1
SLAUGHTERMAN and SKROG may not have had many more redeeming qualities than AZ but they were all cornerstone publications that established a foundation that Comico, one of the most influential independent publishers of the eighties, was built on. For this reason alone, despite their critical ineptness, yes, they had, and continue to have cultural impact.
I remember a scathing review by Cat Yronwode in the Comics Buyers Guide that questioned, “who gave us the right to publish such crap?” My fiery response was that we all have the right to publish what we want to in America and that, crap or not, it will be the market that decides the success of the product. I wish I had those CBG articles today.
One thing we did well at Comico, in those early days, was to learn from our mistakes. It did not take long or us to realize our success would come from publishing others. It was, however, our relationships that we had developed hanging in artist alleys at comic conventions, and our ability to relate to young and maturing talent that allowed us the opportunity to work with the likes of Matt Wagner, Bill Willingham, Sam Kieth, Chuck Dixon, Judith Hunt, Neil Vokes, Rich Rankin, Reggie Byers and many many others.
We also published a new talent showcase called Primer where we published the earliest work of many other budding artists who were not quite ready for the Big Two.
Comico Primer #1-6
To me the biggest impact that Comico had on the comics industry, was that it gave evidence that if a handful of guys with apparently limited talent and experience could build a company that at one time was ranked #3 behind Marvel and DC in monthly sales, then maybe, just maybe, anybody can.
I believe we created an opportunity for creators to get bold enough to publish their own work or feel more confident when presenting it to others. We all did it as artists, looked at other work that we considered weak and say, “hey, I’m at least as good as this, if this can be published than so can mine.”
Gerry Giovinco, Bill Cucinotta & Phil LaSorda
We may have been naive or overconfident when we launched Comico but we had one mantra that we held to that was first spoken by Phil, “We don’t want to look back years from now and regret that we didn’t try when we had the chance.” To us, the fear of failure was never as great as the fear of never having the opportunity to make comics professionally. To do what we loved.
Today the internet is the greatest thing for young comic artists and for the entire medium. Anyone can publish on the web and, yes, there is a ton of incredible crap out there but more people than ever are taking a shot making comics and we fans of the medium are the winners because tremendous comic talent that may have never tried before is now offering our eyes a feast of variety that has never existed in comics.
So to answer Tom Spurgeon’s quote: “The question that many of us near comics ask — if only to each other — is if the art form can survive without the occasional cycling back to cruder efforts like this one, unpretentious material devoid of any hope for life or riches beyond its publication schedule that helped revitalize the art form four or five times during a low ebb.”
No! The art form, or more accurately the medium of comics or any medium for that matter, cannot survive without a cycle that includes cruder efforts. No crude efforts would imply no young talent and with no young talent to revitalize a medium, that medium will die a death of eventual mediocrity.
To paraphrase McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, “When you’re green you grow. When you’re ripe you rot.”
So, be brave and create! Express yourself as well as you know how and be willing to show the world. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Never stop growing. But when you do someone new will begin making their own mistakes and we will all have the pleasure of witnessing their adventure.
Holy crap, it’s the circle of life, comics style.
Making Comics Because I Want To
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Az, Bill Cucinotta, Bill Willingham, Cat Yronwode, CBG, Chuck Dixon, circle of life, CO2 Comics, comico, Comico Primer, comico the comic book company, comico the comic company, Comics Buyers Guide, DC, Independent Publishers, Judith Hunt, Marvel, matt wagner, McDonalds, Neil Vokes, phil lasorda, Primer, Ray Kroc, Reggie Byers, Rich Rankin, Sam Kieth, Skrog, Slaughterman, The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon
Posted in CO2 Comics, Creationism, Making History, The Comic Company | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 15th, 2011
Howard The Duck button
Waaaaagh!!! What can I say? Ever since I first laid eyes on a Howard the Duck comic book I was smitten with ducks. I’m not sure why, but I think that what Steve Gerber did with the character opened my eyes to what could be done with comics beyond superheroes. It helped a lot that some of my favorite artists had drawn the character. Val Mayerick, Frank Brunner, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema and Michael Golden always left me wanting more and the iconic image by Bernie Wrightson on that campaign pin just sealed the deal!
howard wearing pants
Later when Gerber launched his creator’s rights battle with Marvel and when Disney challenged Marvel over trademark infringement, causing Howard to be forced to wear pants so as not to look like Donald Duck, Howard the Duck and ducks in general became a symbol to me of some sort of rebellious, creative attitude.
When I was in high school at Bishop Kenrick where I first met Phil Lasorda and Vince Argondezzi, my original partners in Comico the Comic Company, it was tradition to use acronyms to represent our party when we ran for office. When I ran for school president, the name of my party was, of course, D.U.C.K., Demonstrating Unity in the Community of Kenrick. I copied that Wrightson pin and made it school colors of green and gold. I even had a mascot that crashed a student assembly in a duck costume! I lost… but the power of the duck stuck with me.
My fancy for ducks followed me to the Philadelphia College of Art now called University of the Arts where it did not take me long to establish a group of rogue comic artists called Ducks that strove to publish a small newspaper called DUCKWORK. The thinly veiled connection to the school was a central courtyard that had two Peking Ducks inhabiting it and a bag lady that “quacked” as she walked in the area by our school earning her the name Duck Lady.
I wrote about DUCKWORK In a previous blog and in an effort not to be redundant I invite you to check it out for the full scoop here.
Duck SuspenseStories
It dawns on me now that those six issues of DUCKWORK probably have some redeeming collectible value for their role as a precursor to the founding and publishing of Comico comics , CO2 Comics and for representing some of the earliest published works of the widely acclaimed Matt Wagner which can be seen here shown for historical purposes, of course.
Duck Throat
Duck Wish
Raiders Of The Lost Duck
Rollerduck
This peek at the credits and a dedication to Wally Wood who had passed away just prior to that particular issues publication in 1981 shows our devotion comics and to the comic legend.
Duckwork dedication to Wally Wood
It also offers evidence of our lousy typewriter and some Ducks that went pro, Myself, Bill Cucinotta former Comico Partner and partner here at CO2 Comics, Dave Johnson of ROBOTECH fame, Matt Wagner, Joe Williams CO2 Comics contributor and missing, somehow, is another ROBOTECH vet and ELEMENTALS penciller, Mike Leeke.
Punk Duck 1
Ducks were infectious too. Not only did the DUCKWORK crew quickly assimilate to drawing the feathered fowl, I recently discovered this incredible project by Martha Erlebacher, an anatomy teacher at PCA when we were students there.
Could it be remotely possible that our parodies of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Hatch of Venus
and Marcell Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase published in DUCKWORK somehow influenced one of our world class teachers? We may never know the answer to that but I think CO2 Comics contributer and another former ROBOTECH vet, Reggie Buyers was tipping his hand when he sent me this fax of Jam Quacky in 1991.
Jam Quacky
Jam Quacky #1
Outside of DUCKWORK I had a propensity to parody superheroes as ducks and could often be found at comic conventions drawing Bat Duck, Spider-Duck, Silver Surf Duck, X-Ducks, Red Sonduck, you name it. The ducks were my gimmick, I guess, and littered my sketchbooks. They certainly helped me attract attention in those early days and develop lasting relationships with talented comic artists that helped to build Comico and CO2 Comics.
Bat Duck
Silver Surf Duck
Sonja Duck
I still love drawing those ducks so don’t be surprised if you start seeing them pop up here at CO2 Comics or on ebay. Hey, commissions aren’t out of the question either! If you have a passion to see your favorite character parodied as a duck just drop me a line at gerry@co2comics.com.
Making Comics Because I Want To “QUACK!“
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Bat Duck, Bernie Wrightson, Bill Cucinotta, Bishop Kenrick, Botticelli's Birth of Venus, comico, comico the comic company, D.U.C.K., Dave Johnson, Disney, Donald Duck, Duchamp's Nude Descending, Duck Lady, duckwork, Elementals, Frank Brunner, Gene Colan, Howard the Duck, Jam Quacky, Joe Williams, Martha Erlebacher, Marvel, matt wagner, Michael Golden, Mike Leeke, PCA, phil lasorda, Philadelphia College of Art, Red Sonduck, Reggie Buyers, Robotech, Sal Buscema, Silver Surf Duck, Spider-Duck, Steve Gerber, University of the Arts, Val Mayerick, Vince Argondezzi, Wally Wood, X-Ducks
Posted in CO2 Comics, Creationism, The Comic Company | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Will Eisner’s CONTRACT WITH GOD, published in 1978 is most often noted as the first graphic novel mostly because it was the first to declare the name.
The term graphic novel has come to be associated with any collection of comic works that is perfect bound though many would be more aptly distinguished simply as trade paperbacks.
Eisner’s graphic novel itself was actually a collection of four stories rather than one long story generally associated with the word novel.
The first “graphic novel” that I remember reading was Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson’s adaption of the movie ALIEN published by Heavy Metal in 1979. Titled ALIEN: The Illustrated Story this 64 page, full-color, perfect bound package was a riveting masterpiece of comic art that sold for only $3.95!
I am always surprised that this book is overlooked when the topic of graphic novels is discussed. For me personally, it was a benchmark. I had read trade paperback collections of comics from pocket sized collections of Charles Schultz’s PEANUTS, to Burne Hogarth’s TARZAN of the APES and all of Stan Lee’s Origin books but the ALIEN book, more than any other, spoke to me about format.
It was my first look at what the future of comics could be.
When we began publishing comics as Comico in 1982 we started from the ground up with black-and-white comic books that looked more like fanzines and quickly grew to publish a line of full-color comics that rivaled anything in the market at the time.
Along the way we published a number of graphic novels, two featuring Matt Wagner’s GRENDEL, Harmony Gold’s ROBOTECH, Doug Wildey’s RIO, Mike Baron and Mitch O’Connell’s The World of GINGER FOX, and Harlan Ellison and Ken Steacy’s NIGHT and the ENEMY.
Comico Graphic Novels
Before them all was an unusual graphic novel collection called MAGEBOOK. What made this book unique was that it was NOT a reprint of the first four issues of Matt Wagner’s critically acclaimed comic MAGE.
In 1984 it was apparent that there was a new trend in comics. The miniseries was becoming popular with titles like CAMELOT 3000 and WATCHMEN. It was inevitable that these would be collected and re-published as graphic novels after the initial run.
Matt had informed us early on that MAGE, likewise, would be a limited series. The idea of collecting it in graphic novel format as well became a goal.
Then we were presented with a production issue. In an effort to minimize unit costs, our comics were being gang-printed and though MAGE was a critical success it sold in smaller numbers than most of our other books, resulting in an overstock of the title to be stored.
There, warehoused on a skid, was the opening chapter of what would become our first published graphic novel.
After the first issue we began not binding the interiors of the books, storing the excess signatures for future use. After four issues of MAGE had been published we collected the signatures and the overstock of the first issue and had them neatly bound in a graphic novel format producing MAGEBOOK for merely the cost of the cover and the binding.
Magebook 1
MAGEBOOK was a collection of the original print-run of the first for issues; ads, letter pages and all. Due to its success, we repeated the process for the second volume which has notably larger size dimensions than the first volume because of the availability of trim area that was lost on the first volume due to the first issue of MAGE having been previously trimmed and bound as a comic book.
Magebook 2
These two volumes of MAGEBOOK were probably the only graphic novels ever produced this way! If anyone has any knowledge of others I would love to know about them.
MAGE was later licensed to Starblaze Graphics who repackaged it into a beautiful glossy three volume set that was released in paperback and deluxe, sleeved, Hard Cover editions.
Bill Cucinotta and I still like the idea of repackaging material that we enjoy.
co2comics.com
While we are determined to seek out exciting new features by talented comic creators to post here on CO2 Comics, there are a number of features found here that are digital repackages of previously published material which we are proud to introduce to a new audience on the internet.
David Anthony Kraft's COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection Vol 1
We have also made it our mission to repackage a very important part of comics history. David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection will be a eleven volume set and is, without doubt, “The Greatest Collection of Interviews in the History of Comic Books.”
The first volume available in Hard Cover and Paperback is ON SALE NOW and can be found at www.comicsinterview.com.
Hurry and get your copy in time for Christmas!
Making comics because I want to
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: ALIEN, ALIEN: The Illustrated Story, Archie Goodwin, Bill Cucinotta, Burne Hogarth, Burne Hogarth's TARZAN of the APES, CAMELOT 3000, Charles Schultz, Charles Schultz's PEANUTS, comico, COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection, CONTRACT WITH GOD, David Anthony Kraft, David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview, David Anthony Kraft's COMICS INTERVIEW The Complete Collection, Doug Wildey, Doug Wildey's RIO, fanzines, Graphic Novel, Grendel, Harlan Ellison, Harlan Ellison and Ken Steacy's NIGHT and the ENEMY, Harmony Gold, Harmony Gold's ROBOTECH, Heavy Metal, Ken Steacy, Mage, MAGEBOOK, matt wagner, Matt Wagner's Grendel, Matt Wagner's MAGE, Mike Baron, Mike Baron and Mitch O'Connell's The World of GINGER FOX, Mitch O'Connell, NIGHT and the ENEMY, paperback collections, PEANUTS, Rio, Robotech, Stan Lee, Stan Lee's ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS, Starblaze Graphics, TARZAN of the APES, The Greatest Collection of Interviews in the History of Comic Books, The World Of Ginger Fox, trade paperbacks, Walt Simonson, WATCHMEN, Will Eisner, Will Eisner's CONTRACT WITH GOD
Posted in The Comic Company | 9 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 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, August 3rd, 2010
Enter at your own risk
An ominous, orange glow cast its pall across South Philadelphia in the spring of 1981. It was a sign plastered with fluorescent tempera paint on a thirteenth floor window of the ARCO Building on Broad and Spruce streets, home of most of the classes taught at PCA, Philadelphia College of Art which is now known as the University of the Arts, one of the most respected art colleges in the country.
Room with a view
The letters that read “DUCKWORK” could be seen as far south as Veterans Stadium where the Phillies had won the World Series just months before and marched past PCA in their triumphant parade that rocked the City of Brotherly Love.
Behind the window was the office of a motley group of art students banded together to publish a “student” newspaper by the same name.
John "Bondo" Rondeau settles in front of a huge print that we had "aquired" from a show at PCA that featured a famous cartoonist alumnus, Anrnold Roth, who ironically had been expelled from the school when he was a student.
DUCKWORK, though tacitly supported by the school, was never a school newspaper. It was a publication commandeered by an assembly of comic art enthusiasts led by myself that defiantly produced comics in an educational environment that, at the time, considered the medium to be kitsch and derivative.
DUCKWORK Covers 1 & 2, Cover #1 illustrated by Bill "Fostex" Foster, #2 by Gerry Giovinco with inks by Bill Anderson
Our pseudo-fraternity proclaimed each of us as DUCKS and, as a proud rogue clan, we wreaked havoc on the school with our publication and our mischievous pranks some of which might have us arrested if done today.
Bill Bryan who is now at CBR Woodworking where thay make incredible furniture for offices and corporate spaces among other things. http://www.cbrwoodworking.com/index.html
Evan Nurse was a Jr. Duck who attended a cartooning class on weekends at PCA for young students. Evan's senior prank at Sharon hill H.S. was to join the girls Lacross team. They let him play but they made him wear the kilt. He is now an AV instructor at an area High School.
PCA had very little sense of community at the time. Because of this, our little group managed to control Student Council and Arts Council giving us the opportunity to allocate funds and office space for our ventures. The DUCKS ruled!
DUCKWORK Covers 3 & 4, both illustrated by Gerry Giovinco
DUCKWORK quickly became a magnet for cartoonists especially after it became known that I was attempting to start a comic book company named Comico with two friends of mine from high school, Phil LaSorda and Vince Argondezzi.
DUCKWORK Covers 5 & 6, #5 illustrated by Bill "Cooch" Cucinotta, #6 by Matt wagner
Bill Cucinotta, my partner here at CO2 Comics, knew of me and Comico from Creation Conventions and was enthusiastically involved with DUCKWORK from the start.
Nick-named Cooch, his loyalty and ability to get the job done whenever needed along with his knowledge of the direct market derived from his experience working retail at Fat Jack’s Comic Crypt, Philly’s premier comic shop made him invaluable. It would later make him the most logical choice to fill the void left by Vince Argondezzi’s abrupt departure from Comico’s initial partnership well before our first book Comico Primer would be published.
Edwin Arocho is now a fine artist and musician living in San Juan, Puerto Rico
The list of colorful guys and gals that frequented DUCKWORK’s office is peppered with talented artists that went on to creative careers. I’ve included photos of several DUCKS. It is easy to see that besides comics, we were seemingly, also influenced by the movie Animal House!
Danny "Hank" Lange followed his dream and actually learned to play that guitar. He recently did a sound track for an award winning film. Check Dan out here: http://www.myspace.com/buskersblues
The fall of 1981 brought a new landscape to PCA. Two older buildings across the street had been purchased by the school and turned into dorms. One of these dorms would quickly become a DUCKWORK annex and be dubbed the SWAMP. The SWAMP was home to new DUCKS, Matt Wagner, Mike Leeke, and Dave Johnson, three guys that each would later play a role in the accomplishments of Comico.
Joe Cursio was another Jr. Duck who hung out at DUCKWORK and is now living
DUCKWORK was populated by students that lived on campus and commuters who often crashed at the office or the SWAMP. SEPTA strikes were usually great bonding experiences for the commuters of which I was one.
Joe "Zig" Zigler rarely showed up with clothes on... Joe is a fun pal that we've managed to lose touch with. Joe, if you are out there, drop us a line!
One commuting DUCK who recently has emerged on the web-pages of CO2 Comics with his wife and former PCA alumnus, Tina Garceau, is Joe Williams who has recently posted several great flashbacks about DUCKWORK on his blog at www.willceau.com.
You can read Joe’s 5 part DUCKWORK retrospective here.
By the time the spring semester had ended in 1982, a total of six issues of DUCKWORK had been published.
It was the end of my junior year at PCA. Phil Lasorda’s older brother Dennis had just purchased a duplex in Norristown for his Physical Therapy practice. He had offered us the opportunity to run Comico out of the half he was not using.
It was time for this DUCK to sink or swim. I left PCA to pursue a dream. Cooch came along as well. Without its leaders DUCKWORK quicky faded away but Comico was about to become official.
When it came time to take the big leap of faith, Vince chose not to commit and Bill took his seat at the drums. Phil, Cooch and I were now the standing partners of Comico as we began to solicit our first publication.
Matt Wagner was a prolific contributer to DUCKWORK and continued to contribute as Comico took off. Matt’s feature Grendel first appeared in Comico Primer #2 and went on to become an iconic character in comics. Comico also published Matt’s Mage the Hero Discovered.
Matt Wagner, The Comic Artist Discovered.
Mike Leeke was significant as an artist on ROBOTECH and later went on to pencil Bill Willingham’s popular ELEMENTALS.
Mike’s contributation to CO2 Comics. The Amazing Liberteens, can be seen Here.
Mike Leeke, who would later become the penciler extraordinare of ROBOTECH and ELEMENTALS is just thrilled that he can hide all of his mechanical pencils and rapidograph pens in his tremendous fro!
Dave Johnson was also a penciler on the ROBOTECH series.
Dave Johnson, former denizen of the SWAMP and penciler on ROBOTECH The Next Generation for Comico.
Joe Williams along with his wife Tina Garceau creates Monkey and Bird which is featured here on CO2 Comics.
Joe Williams is now a featured artist here on CO2 Comics with his wife Tina
Bill and I have ironically redeveloped our webs. We’ve gone from DUCKWORK to Web Comics with a long history in between.
Bill "Cooch" Cucinotta reclines on a cardboard 3-D project that was retired to the hall in front of the DUCKWORK office
Ouch! Gerry Giovinco, is another Duck trapped in a world he never made!
NOTE: In 1984, two years after the DUCKWORK crew had disbanded at PCA, Jim Carrey makes his Hollywood debut in an NBC television series titled “The Duck Factory” about a quirky group of animators trying to keep their studio alive. Kinda makes you wonder…
Tags: Animal House, Bill Cucinotta, Bill Willingham, City of Brotherly Love, CO2 Comics, comico, Comico Primer, Cooch, Creation Conventions, Dave Johnson, Dennis Lasorda, Direct Market, DUCKS, duckwork, Elementals, Fat Jack's Comic Crypt, Grendel, Hollywood, Jim Carrey, Joe Williams, Mage, Mage the Hero Discovered, matt wagner, Mike Leeke, Monkey and Bird, NBC, NBC television, Norristown, PCA, phil lasorda, Philadelphia College of Art, Phillies, Robotech, SEPTA, South Philadelphia, The Duck Factory, Tina Garceau, University of the Arts, Veterans Stadium, Vince Argondezzi, Web Comics, willceau, World Series
Posted in The Comic Company | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
This week the comic industry is bracing itself for the forty-first installment of the San Diego Comic-Con International. The San Diego show is by far the preeminent comic book convention in the world and has been for decades.
In the early 1980′s, when we first started to attend as Comico, International was not yet tagged onto the name. Even then it was the biggest and best Comic Convention though in those days 4,000 attendees was an exciting number, nothing compared to the audience that piles in today.
1st five Comico Covers
1983 was our first year attending with a booth and we were quick to realize how easy it was to get lost in the vast auditorium of vendors, publishers and artists. Comico was a small black-and-white publisher at the time featuring five titles: Az by Phil LaSorda, Grendel by Matt Wagner, Slaughterman by myself, Skrog by Bill Cucinotta and our new-talent anthology, Comico Primer. We had our sites set on publishing color books and had begun to promote our intentions.
Colorful AD-spirations by Matt Wagner and Andrew Murphy
When we had decided to attend the convention our first priority was to make sure that we presented ourselves as professionally as possible. We had a number of sales representatives from display companies stop by the studio and pitch their product. Most of them were very expensive and very boring. I made a point out of examining each display meticulously, focusing on how each was built and what features best suited our needs. My conclusion was that I needed to build the booth myself because it was the only way that we could afford the type of booth that we wanted. I designed and constructed a booth display out of foam core that was quite impressive. It was covered with vinyl graphics that I applied with a tacking iron. It came complete with plexiglass pockets that displayed our books and had overhead lighting built in. The whole thing folded flat and we transported it in an oversized portfolio.
Rich Rankin and Matt Wagner at Comico Studios christening the newly constructed Comico Booth
The design and construction skills that I had developed as a model and costume builder along with the 3-D and sculpture training that I had acquired while attending the Philadelphia College of Art proved to come in handy when it came to selling comic books.
Mage-or Hijinks with Rich Rankin and Matt Wagner in front of the Comico Booth
The booth, which would last us for the next three years, gave us an air of professionalism that we had not yet been awarded by our peers. When fans approached our booth we looked as impressive as Marvel, DC and all of the other major players at the time. Our books then were a bit crude but we were slowly building our reputation on grit, perseverance, creativity and ingenuity.
We left San Diego that year proud of the inroads we had made. We had proven that we could be part of the landscape of industry and we had done well networking with fans, distributors, retailers, artists and other publishers.
When we returned to San Diego in 1984 there was a lot more at stake. Our decision to go to color had been realized but not as we had initially planned. The five titles that we had touted the year before were gone. Our commitment to color forced us to recognize that if we were to succeed we needed to send better work to the presses. The new lineup included Elementals by Bill Willingham, Evangeline by Charles Dixon and Judith Hunt, and Mage by Matt Wagner.
Comico's 1st Color Books
We knew that it was going to take much more than a fancy booth to make sure that our product would be noticed by the attending crowd of comics enthusiasts.
We had come back from San Diego the previous year with a huge pile of brochures, flyers, buttons business card, postcards and photocopied samples of art, most of which had been picked up at the entrance of the convention hall. It was easy to lose even the most lavishly produced piece of promotional material in this wild collection of potential paper cuts.
How was Comico going to separate itself and its promotional material from this knot of collateral material?
Stepping outside the box is a long used cliche but one I have always adhered to, especially when it comes to promoting a product. Ironically, it was the box that was the solution for our marketing approach for Comic-Con that year. The box was the vessel for the usual and the mundane. Once outside of it, all I saw was valuable marketing real estate on the box, itself!
We needed a vessel of our own that everybody else’s promotional material would go into.
I went to S. Walter Packaging in Philadelphia and researched bags and found a plastic one that was reinforced, strong enough to carry a lot of paper goods, and printable on both sides. I designed a catchy slogan that featured our logo in two colors and incorporated an ad that we were running in our books. Finally, I plastered the thing with black-and-white go-go checks that made it pop across the room.
Comico Convention Bag Front
As expected, we were the only company that had a bag that was capable of holding all of the goodies that anyone could pick up at registration and around convention hall. The bag was not only popular it was in demand. When bags ran out at registration a line formed at our table. Nearly every attendee carried a Comico bag that year and it was nearly impossible to not see our logo anywhere at the convention center or in the streets of downtown San Diego.
Comico Convention Bag Back
Our success at San Diego Comic-Con that year was clearly “In the Bag!”
Gerry Giovinco
Tags: Az, Bill Cucinotta, Bill Willingham, Charles Dixon, comic book convention, Comic Con, Comic Convention, comico, Comico Bag, Comico Primer, DC, Elementals, Evangeline, Gerry Giovinco, Grendel, Judith Hunt, Mage, Marvel, matt wagner, new-talent anthology, phil lasorda, Philadelphia, Philadelphia College of Art, S. Walter Packaging, San Diego, San Diego Comic-Con International, Skrog, Slaughterman
Posted in The Comic Company | 3 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 »
