:: Inexpensive 11x17 Scanner ::

Believe it. $199.99 will get you an 11x17 scanner that is great for scanning line art and greyscale and not toooooo bad on the color. Obviously its absolutly fantastic for the price. I've owned my Mustek ScanExpress A3 scanner for about three years now and have had no major issues. I scan in my line art at 450dpi and reduce the bitmap file to standard size at 600dpi. That's what Mark Chiarello suggests in DC Comics Guide to Coloring which is in the reading list above. I realize that $200 isn't super easy to come by for all you indi-creators out there, but it sure beats spending $2,000 on the next model up.

You can't beat it for the price. I haven't seen any other scanners that are 11x17 for this price. If you see one, please post it in my comments and provide links. It just is really unnecessary to spend hours scanning, cropping, rotating and fusing two scans from an 8.5"x11" scanner. I did that for a little while, but its just too time consuming. You could be drawing with your time, not wasting it.

Apparently the software doesn't run on OSX, but a fellow (E.J. Su) on digitalwebbing.com posted this link for a program that will run it.

I've been running it on my PC and it works fine. I used to run it on my OS9, but got sick of rebooting my OSX just to scan. I'll do a scanning tutorial at some point, covering lineart.

Templates! Who Needs'em and Why do I Need Them!

Welcome to TEMPLATES, J-style. I see a big problem that no one seems to be trying to fix. If you work for DC, Marvel or any other large company, odds are they are going to give you boards* to work on. This is assuming your are working in the typical pencil and ink comic medium/media. There is a reason. Comics are making them money. They can't sit back and let each individual artist decide how they are going to tackle each book. They need to stream-line the process. Let's face it, we all do comics because we love them, but money has to be made. Working in indis, I've encountered numerous artists that seem to have never heard of boards. Guys, get with the program. If you don't like using boards, you should at least take the time to use proper dimensions on your prefered paper. Now, it is your choice if you want to do comics part-time or if you want to make a living. There are jus certain things you'll have to accept if this is you choice, however, that is a different topic all together, so let's talk about templates.

We'll be talking about the standard comic book size that I use when I print through Quebecor*. A comic book page is 6.625" x 10.25. That measurement signifies the edge of a non-bleed book. If you were to create artwork for a non-bleed book you would need to make sure your art is no where near that edge. If you were to get to close to that edge, you risk registration problems and possible clipping issues.

Bleed books require artwork that reaches outside the trim area*. In this case, you want your artwork to fall off the page and outside of the trim area thus creating the illusion that the art is bleeding off the page. Currently I don't allow my artwork to bleed off the page. I do use it to have my black borders bleed off as if the panels were drawn on black paper. When I become more comfortable with the process I may decide to venture into that area, but if you are a newbie to comic creation I suggest you follow my lead and learn the basics first.

I have created two templates to get you started. The first are similar to artboards you might purchase from Blueline or Eon. It is a PDF containing an 11x17 page area with guides marking bleed, trim and copysafe areas. I have also color coded them for clarity. This will allow you to print onto any type of paper you choose and use it for standard comic book drawing. Be sure to print it at 100%. You should be able to take it to your local copy store and request it printed as 30% blue on a color copier. Some places won't let you use your own paper, but I suggest you give it a try.

I like to use the 11x17 template printed at 100% on my light table. I place my favorite paper over the template and trace away.

I have also enclosed a standard comic sized page with guides. Why you ask? This will give you an idea of what size your final page will be. You can see exactly how much will be cut off on the bleed and what size typical gutter guides are in the final product. Maybe you will decide they are too large for you. You can even sketch on it to see how you want to do layout and then work up the larger scale drawings on your final board. In any event, I find these two templates very valuable.

When you use these guides and create every page in a project within the same structure it makes life easier for the scanner, letterer and colorist. It may not help some of them in the production aspect, but it won't hold things up in the production line if they already have matching templates in their respective software, not to mention how much faster the scans will go. Who wants to scan each page differently and then have to mess around with each one in photoshop to get them the same size?

Now that you have these templates, you can create your artwork in an organized and professional manner. Below are a few terms from my ranting and raving and also some suggestions for stock.

*BOARDS - the bristol board 11x17 paper with pre-printed non-repro-blue markings usually provided by the company you are working for. Also available at your local comic shops or Blue Line Pro.com. I like the Strathmore Blue Line for good inks. Read each carefully and maybe I'll have a 'Board Article" with more suggestions. UPDATE: Here's some other boards which have had good reviews, Proboards

*QUEBECOR - A large printing company in Canada. I use them with my company SUMM Publications. Marvel, DC and Image use them as well. I'm pretty sure that is an accurate statement, but if I am incorrect, please let me know in my 'comments section.'

*TRIM AREA - Say goodbye to anything within .125" of any side of a standard sized comic page. This only pertains to bleed book art which is originally 6.875" x 10.50" and cut down to 6.625" x 10.25"

I'm not a writer, so please bare with me if my words are terrible.

:: Introduction and Reading List ::

Okay, let me get this blog started. I'm not creating this blog because I am an expert in the field of comic book creating, however I feel I'm rather advanced. View any of my published works so far: Ill Conceived, A Day in the Psychosis of David Price, Catching Lucifer's Lunch (coming soon) and Sinn Fien (also coming soon). Most of these books are through my own company SUMM Publications. I am a partner with my brother in this endeavor (SUMM) and I hope to have his assistance on this site in regards to writhing, assuming I get into the more creative aspects of comic creation.

First I want to start with understanding how a comic book is put together. I have found working with a many different 'green' editors, artists and creators that many people don't do their reading before deciding they are going to self publish. It's not something you want to just jump into. I've been in that situation and I hope to help people out with advice I've learned from my failures. So! To start, let me just recommend some of my favorite books. This is where learned most of my publication knowledge, as well as asking many of my design friends for help.

No particular order here.

Panel Discussions by Durwin S. Talon
ISBN 1-893905-14-4
This is a must have. You need to buy this one. If you don't believe me, go to Borders and thumb through it. It's many fantastic artists from ever media in comics talking about pacing, writing, drawings, panel layout and more.

Digital Prepress for Comic Books by Kevin Tinsly
ISBN 0-9675423-0-8
This is a great stepping stone to learn many facets of the comic book process. Some of the information is outdated, but it gives you a general overview of the assembly of a book.

Perspective for Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea
ISBN 0-8230-0567-4
Wonderful sequential art style explanations of simple and complex perspective information.

The DC Comics Guide to Penciling Comics by Klaus Janson
ISBN 0-8230-1028-7
Just a general good book on penciling. Take it or leave it. There are many books out there on penciling.

The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering by Mark Chiarello and Todd Klein
ISBN 0-8230-1030-9
I guess I left it upstairs. I love this book. Great help with colors. If you don't understand comic colors, this is the book to get. Todd Klein does a fantastic job in the lettering section. There's just no sense in spending hours trouble-shooting if you can just read this book in an hour and use it as reference later.

Understanding Comics
My brother has this right now and I"ll try and get you the ISBN, but it is a must read.

Understanding Comics II
Need I say more?

Now that you've got a partial book list year, go out to you local comic shop, library or Borders/Barnes&Nobel/Waldenbooks and check them out. Read them and start to understand comics. Granted, you may not get much from this Blog if you read them all, but I'll give you an idea of what's in them I guess.

You may be sitting there thinking to yourself, "I plan I writing/editing my book and I'll let the artists deal with that stuff," Yeah.... well good luck with that. One huge problem I see working in this industry is that not many people have a basic understanding of each facet of putting a book together.

Why is that a problem?
Communication is key for a production line to work. Creating a comic is a production line. Writer-pencils-inks-colors/letters. Now that's just the standard. People work in different ways. But if you don't start out your production line with the whole book in mind, you're going to run into issues.

And that is why I have decided to start my next entry with, "Templates! Who Needs'em and Why do I Need Them!"

:: Creating Comic Books ::

I decided it would be a good idea to create a separate blog to discuss differnent aspects of comic book production. I get a lot of questions from indi-comic creators about how they should tackle their projects. Now, I have my own ways of dealing with other artists and my production line, so don't assume this is the only way to get your book together. This is just my own views and you'll need to go through to process to figure out what's right for you. There are, however, many constants in the production of a comic that most likely won't change.