I had this thought. It seems that everyone is worked up about copyright infringement and illegal downloading, and I get that. It's their intellectual property and they deserve to be paid for it and I certainly wouldn't argue against that position. But for myself, and certainly because I don't have a lot of intellectual property out there to be pirated, I think that it would be better if, on the internet, the electronic versions should be free. So that's the direction I'm moving with my creator-owned stuff.

Anything I create will be free to view and/or store on your hard drive. If you make money off something I've created, then of course I would want a cut of that, but by and large, I'll make some money off the print edition. The way I could see it working - my model if you will - would be to offer it free as a web edition, and monetize that with prints, t-shirts, stickers, etc. Then, upon sufficient material being available, I'll collect it and offer a download version (say for $ .99) and a print edition, maybe in chapters (or "issues") followed by a hardcover collection (with lots of extras) and finally a soft cover graphic novel. Maybe eventually an "Absolute" edition (of course I think DC Comics might have that term trademarked...) if the material warrants it. Well, that's the dream, anyway, right?

Why give it away for free? Well, to help grow an audience, first and foremost. I also believe that if people aren't willing to pay for your product, they wouldn't be your customers anyway. The comics nerds out there who support their local comic shops and publishers want that tactile sensation of holding the book in their hands, and the pride of displaying the collected edition on the bookshelf. So that won't go away. And the ones who spent $400+ on their iPad aren't going to have a problem spending a buck or two on digital comics. So there's that.

Anyway, I have a couple of concepts kicking around that I'm dying to try this on... I just have to draw them now! Oh well, it'll get done...

I liked this so much that I stole it from my Wonderealm fan page (where I had written it on Facebook):

Process is always something that fascinates me. So ok, you wanna draw comics - how do you do it? For me, it starts with a great idea. Maybe a writer is out there and we get into contact and he sends me something that I can really sink my teeth into, or maybe I think of something I want to draw. What comes next? I mean these things don't just magically appear, do they? No, now I have some words on a page, and a blank piece of paper in front of me.

The next thing I usually do is grab a sketchbook and start doodling. Very rough, I just start imagining what each panel will look like, where the character is situated, what they are wearing... just mapping out each panel. I don't even know how big the panels are at this point, or where they sit on the page - I just want the overall scene. Kind of a 360 view, maybe I start sussing out the angle of the shot. You know, bird's eye, worms, etc. Is the camera going to be tilted, how close or far away - this comes next. When i have a good understanding of where I'm going with a page, then I can really start doing the research that I need to make the page real.

So, I hit the internets - I look for clothing reference, characters (usually based on actors, just for a sense of who they are - no tracing!), vehicles, locations, equipment, you name it. I want to see what it looks like in real life, so I can have a starting point t put it down on paper. I also take photos of myself in difficult poses, perhaps with a light source, so I don't have to make that up when I hit the page.

So now the hard part is done, I can start drawing. I'll lay out the panels on the page, to see where everything fits, adjusting the flow to the page, hitting the right beats - a big action splash might take up most of the page, or a long vertical panel on the right if someone is looking up at a building, or falling out of a plane, etc. Then I go to all the sketches and photo ref and start putting it down on paper - my drawing table is usually pretty cluttered at this point with rulers and pictures and sketches. But this is the fun part, and all the work will hopefully pay off in something that people will enjoy looking at.

Maybe I should try to work up a video for this... anyway, hopefully this brought some insight into what I do. If you have any thoughts or questions, please, feel free to share! Let's get the conversation going!

This is an in-joke around my place and recently I was given a shirt with this message on it. Which inspired me to come up with this t-shirt design:



If you want, I'll make you one!

So the iPad, is by all accounts, a pretty swanky comics reader-machine. It may have other uses, I don't know. I just like it for the comics. The point is, you can pretty well buy anything that you can buy at the comic store via the iPad, and apparently it looks pretty damn sweet. Of course, all this talk of downloading comics apps has retailers sounding the death-knell of the industry, and causing people to wonder what all this means for the medium.

Ok, so here is my thought. The way my feeble brain understands this iPad thing, is that now you have a new mode of delivery. The old modes (singles, trades) are still there, and will continue to be there as long as there is a market. Of course, there will continue to be a market for some time, given that there seems to be a huge faction who "just can't get into reading comics on a screen." They crave the tactile sensation of the paper in their hands. I get that. One reason (besides not having found the right tech, yet) that I like to draw on paper, has to do with the tactile element. That's completely cool. But as for reading comics, I have no problem reading some comics on a screen. So, obviously, some people WILL switch. But others will buy both (I just HAVE to have Parker: The Hunter in print, but I'm happy to read digital versions of my favourite superheroes) and still others, who would have NEVER walked into a comic book store will buy them on their iPad - to me that's win-win.

Of course, I may be clearly drunk and on drugs. UDECIDE!

Just finished these. Can you tell what's going on?