Going Places

 

Many readers want to find an escape from their everyday world through your comic.  Its part of the fantasy.  Don't shy away from creating amazing back grounds, profound panoramic panels, and beautiful open splash pages used as the establishing point.  Make it a habit of drawing and including back grounds and establishing points throughout your story.

The open establishing shot, as the picture on the top of this blog.  It conveys a strong opening message and welcomes the reader to your adventure.  The establishing shot is usually a panel displaying the current setting or location of the story.  There should be one every time you change locations in your story.  This will help the reader understand that they have traveled elsewhere in the story.    

 Establishing shots can be full page splash page, two page spread, a panoramic scene panel, or a regular panel size; it all depends on the effect you're going for.  Take your time and think about the impact that you want that specific panel to have on your audience one they reach it.  Give it a high amount of detail.  You want the reader to be left mesmerized as they look at all there is to see.

Use references.  Look at scenes similar to what you're planning.  There is a lot to consider.  Perspective and point of view are among the first that come to mind, but think about the mood, the color scheme, even the items and architecture.  Do your due diligence when it comes to designing the space for the scene.  Be creative.

 

Basic story foundation

Beautiful artwork by Greg Tocchini

What is a comic book without the story element?  Nothing but a picture book.  If you plan to create comics you should understand at least the basic premise of a story.  Without getting too deep into it here are the basic parts of a basic story and what they contain:

The beginning is exactly that, t
he beginning.  It is used to introduce an idea, situation, characters, and the setting.  Take your time to give some details of the people in your story.  show their interest or involvement.  Produce a question for your audience. Ask them what they think about a particular topic.  Show them that something is going to happen.  Welcome your reader to your world.  Make them feel part of the story.

Beautiful artwork by Greg Tocchini

The middle is the part you use to develop the elements and characters you introduced at the beginning.  Here is where your story brews.  Start leading your audience towards the main conflict or problem.  Whatever happens here should lead to your main conflict.  You can have a few minor conflicts where your heroes succeed or fail, but they all have to lead to this main conflict.  Great stories use elements such as foreshadowing and plot devices to hint towards the main conflict or the resolution of it.

The main conflict should be a turning point.  It should be grand and exciting.  Don't cop out on this part of the story.  Really put everything on the line.  People love excitement and risk.  Readers want to learn or imagine how your characters were able to resolve the conflict, how Super guy and Mega dude foiled Dr. Devastation's plans.  Make it creative and dynamic.  Do your due diligence on the resolution you choose for the problem at hand because your readers will challenge it, be assured of it.

The end should answer almost every question that the reader might have unless you plan to leave it as a cliff hanger, as in mot continual comic series.  But at least answer the main questions in your current story so your reader doesn't accuse you of leaving plot holes in your comic book.

There are many different story structures but this is the basic one used in many comic books so learn it and build from it.        

Meet & Greet (Updated Date changed)

Attention!  Date has been changed to the following week due to Supercon!

 

Calling All Comic Book Artists/Writers Near Miramar

July 8th

 

6:00pm

 

Panera Bread on Miramar and Dykes  

Come and join your fellow artists for a simple meet and greet.  Get to know the different artists near you and their work.  Many of us know each other from several Facebook comic pages or we've run into each other at numerous conventions, but what I'm proposing is a simple meet & greet where we can bring and share our comic book art in a relaxed environment.  Bring your sketch books and enjoy some coffee with other artists.

No admission fees or booth fees.

Some where relaxed to draw and eat.

Miami is experiencing a fluctuation in creativity.  As art districts begin to pop up in many places it would seem a great time to cultivate this culture up in Broward.  There are great comic book stores in the area and a good amount of talent to work with.  Sharing our creativity in person, explaining our techniques, and stories will inspire all of us in creating better art.

Stay tuned on your Facebook page New Miami Comics for the event.


Hope to meet a lot of creative talent out here!

Deafening Diversity: What This Means for Indie Publishers

 

Racial diversity in comics has long since been a rather controversial topic.  Apparently since the golden age of comics diversity in main characters has been quite absent from the medium.  It wasn't until the silver age that black characters took on main roles.  One of the first mainstream characters was the Black Panther in 1966.  Latino or Hispanic followed after with the exception a few characters like El Zorro.  Now in modern day comics we find a much more diverse characters throughout the larger publishers, which is great.  But now as all the large publishers fight to take on as much diversity as possible how does that affect the smaller indie publishers?

Traditionally indie publishers acted as the leaders in pushing the limits.  Many publishers were even labeled as "underground"  just solely on the topics of genre's they produced.  Typically indie publishers has a very wide range of topics to chose from that made them so different from the larger publishers, who were also constrained by their sponsors.  This was the upper hand advantage that indie publishers could go to in order to compete.  But as the views of society broaden and become more liberal so too has the range in which the larger publishers operate.  Hence the issue of diversity which was a few years ago a playground for the smaller publishers and still a field of land mines for the larger companies, now has overrun the world of comics.  And even though I'm glad that diversity has gone as far as it has with comics, it also worries me because of the fear that the larger publishers will begin pushing it to extremes.  

How so?  Well just look into the latest controversies over the choice of actors playing ethnic roles and the out cries claiming white washing in Hollywood.  For those who are not familiar with the term, its when white Anglo actors take on a role associated with a character of a specific culture or race.

 
But that isn't the question that I'm really posting here.  It comes down to what do indie publishers do when the larger companies take over their niche'?  Now that they are claiming in full force the diversity market what now?  The indies proposed the question of diversity in comics and the larger publishers answered it.  The smaller comic creators can continue to write diverse comics but eventually Marvel and DC will swallow the market for that niche', leaving many companies searching for a new market.  It doesn't mean that smaller publisher will stop writing about diversity in comic, but it will mean that they will need more than that to compete in the highly competitive market of comics.