Another Kickstarter Post

I've tried over and over again to put together a post about Kickstarter and my current thoughts on the site/system but it's just not coming together. But I do have the conclusion straight (I think) and it's this: If you don't like a Kickstarter project for whatever reason (the person behind it is wealthy, you're worried that the end result won't meet expectations, you think they are asking for too much money, they're including their own salary in the funding, they didn't give out enough of a breakdown of where the money is going, or whatever else) then don't fund it. Yes, there are some issues with funding on Kickstarter and people are free to have their own set of rules for what they will or won't fund but stop thinking your rules are to be set in stone for everyone or your opinion should be adopted by everyone.

And yes, I see the irony that this could be seen as me pushing my own "rule(s)"on others but at least I'm saying you're free to feel that way.

Fan Expo Canada 2012

I'm really doing a horrible job keeping this blog going. But in an attempt to at least keep it on life support, here's my Fan Expo Canada 2012 report.

Going in to this year's Fan Expo Canada I didn't really have a must see/do thing. In the past there were certain celebrity or comic creators that were my top priority. This year, I was planning to meet Alan Tudyk but not doing so wouldn't ruin the weekend for me. And so the sketching duels and artist alley became my priority. And unfortunately I couldn't get a decent shot of the sketches with my phone unless I was in the front row. I also didn't win any of the sketches this year and they were pretty awesome. So let's get to the breakdown, detail by detail.

Thursday was mostly a shopping day for me along with saying hello to Caanan Grall. A friend had asked me to look for some "Captain Action" stuff for him but I failed on that quest. But for myself, I picked up "You, Me, and Zombie" by Agnes Garbowska and she did this great Hulk watercolour inside:

Then got this Hulk commission from Adam Warren (of Empowered fame):

And then finished the day off attending the Esad Ribic vs Tony Moore sketching duel. They did the Joker and the banter was funny (and very crude, this one was not for the kids).

Friday started off with a duel between Bob Layton and Adi Granov. Bob definitely dominated the discussion during this duel. They decided to do several quick sketches and then end with Iron Man. They were all pretty awesome. When I discovered that Alan Tudyk was there on Friday (I thought the program only had him listed for Saturday and Sunday) I decided to skip the 2:00 duel and grab his autograph. Then I headed to the all-Canadian duel between Yanick Paquette, Jay Fabok, and Kaare Andrews (Francis Manapul had to cancel) where they drew the Hulk. Yanick's trash talking was a definite highlight but the art was all pretty stunning as well.

Saturday started off with getting Stan Lee's autograph (I had bought a ticket for a friend that was coming down for the weekend but when he couldn't make it, I decided to take advantage of it myself). The line ups on Saturday were crazy so most of my day was spent at the sketching duel room. It was David Finch vs Tony Daniel (Greg Capullo declined to draw and decided to take the microphone, taking some questions and telling stories from his youth that I probably shouldn't repeat), Jill Thompson vs Sara Richard vs Agnes Garbowska vs Chrissie Zullo (Becky Cloonan could not make it, too bad for me as I wanted a commission from her), and Ron Garney vs Dale Eaglesham vs Dale Keown. All were lots of fun. Here we have Finch's Catwoman:

 And Tony Daniel's:

For Sunday, it was the Frank Quitely vs J. Scott Campbell duel, picking up my last commission for the weekend from Bob Layton:

Then the Amanda Conner vs Darwyn Cooke duel. This was another entertaining duel with Darwyn showing up late resulting in his funny line insulting Game of Thrones fans (the suggestion Amanda settled on was a mashup of a Game of Thrones character with Squirrel Girl). In the end we had Amanda's mashup:

 And Darwyn Cooke's Wonder Woman (with Squirrel):

The last duel of the weekend was Carlos Pacheco vs Ed McGuinness. Again, it was a lot of fun as both artists powered through several sketches but Carlos definitely dominated the discussion as Ed was clearly exhausted at this point of the Expo.

And I was pretty exhausted myself. Guess I just don't have the energy I used to. But it was a lot of fun thanks to all the artists who really seemed to be having a good time with it. I keep hearing that sketching duels aren't a regular convention thing and I think that's too bad, they're usually very entertaining. Though we were pretty lucky this year with some great artist match ups and some very good personalities hosting (or whatever it's called to do the microphone thing).

So that was it for Fan Expo Canada. It was a great time and I'm already eager to see what happens next year.

Comic-Con

I know I'm a bit late with this but here's some thoughts I had on this year's Comic-Con. First up, watching the news from it and seeing all the pictures really gets me eager for Fan Expo to get started, even if Fan Expo really can't compare. There were a few comic tidbits from the show that I was interested in, I don't really remember being interested in the comic announcements of previous years. Most of the Marvel/DC stuff just went in one ear and other the other ("Oh, more Avengers vs X-Men stuff/fallout? Yippee!", "More sneak peeks at Before Watchmen stuff? Yay!") though I am curious what Dale Keown will be doing with Marvel, I figure it has to be just covers. I will be picking up the A-Babies vs X-Babies because I'm funny that way. And I'm probably going to pick up the Red She-Hulk series (once she takes over for the Red Hulk in his book), Matt Fraction really made her more interesting to me in the Defenders book. Image announced a fair amount of books though. It's interesting to see some new creators going their way.

I think that if Image plays their cards right, and with a bunch of creators talking more and more about doing creator owned stuff, they might start giving Marvel and/or DC a real run for their money in terms of unit sales and money. The "Big Two" may not be Marvel and DC in a couple years. Though Marvel or DC could try to counter this with their own creator owned stuff (DC could make Vertigo more creator owner friendly), but who knows.

But the big news for me was Neil Gaiman returning to Sandman next year. I was going to start a Sandman re-read in the fall (once the final book gets reprinted), maybe I'll hold off so I can finish the re-read right when this volume 0 comes out in 2013.


All in all, it looked like a pretty decent Comic-Con for comic news.


Now I have to get back to reading Locke and Key volume 5.

No excuses... Okay, some excuses

I knew it had been a while since I last posted here but I didn't realize just how long it's been. I guess I use Twitter so much to post my random thoughts that I haven't bothered to collect them in a longer blog post. And with other stuff going on in my life, I guess this blog just got brushed aside. But here's a few tidbits of what's going on.

I went to the Ottawa Comic Con (it's first year) and it was a fun time. Really well organized for its first year. Sure, it had some issues but they usually got resolved pretty quickly. I saw some people complaining about the large crowds and long lines but what's a con to do? I was able to meet Richard Starkings, Neal Adams, Adam Baldwin, and Brent Spiner. All were really great and friendly. Richard Starkings even remembered this humble blog and he let me know that Hip Flask: Ouroboros is still in the works and hopefully we can expect an announcement soon.

My "to read" pile of comics has grown pretty huge. Some of the books I've read recently (or am reading):
Wonder Woman Volume 1 - I didn't really feel it was a novel story (it was okay, it just didn't knock me over) but the writing and art was strong enough to make this book interesting. I had thought I was only going to buy the first volume but it's hooked me enough to buy the second.

Comic Book Comics Volume 1 - I started reading this when it was coming out in individual issues and then somewhere along the way I just stopped getting them. I'm not sure what happened. So I picked up the trade. It's a great visual telling of the history of comics.

DMZ Volume 12 - A solid conclusion to this series. I wasn't sure about where this book was going in earlier volumes but this wraps it all up very well.

Astro City Volume 1 - I don't know why it took me this long to check out this series. It's superheroes done really Really well.

Incredible Hulk Volume 1 - I'm trying to give this book the benefit of the doubt. I actually sort of liked the Banner/Hulk dynamic here, it was different. The art was all over the place though and really bad at times. And how Hulk and Banner were separated wasn't the strongest part of the story, I thought that was pretty lame.

And now I'm off to read Jim Henson's Tale of Sand. Archaia really is knocking it out of the park recently. Their Jim Henson books are amazing.

That's it for now, hopefully it won't be so long until my next update. I have all these comic rants built up as well as Bluenoser updates yet I never get around to posting about them. Anyways, take care.

Turning 75

Well, the Bluenoser hits 75 pages tomorrow. And since Drunkduck (or "The Duck Webcomics") does milestones in 25's I guess I should celebrate this as a milestone. Here's the page unlettered:

When I first started the Bluenoser I really didn't know where I was going to go with it. I decided pretty early on to keep it to short, 5 or so page, stories to keep things moving. As it went on the page count kept going up and the stories kept coming. Eventually a story idea came to me that I decided was important enough to introduce somewhere around the 100 page mark and that I should build to it. Now I just have to get the next 20 or so pages done. :-)

But it hasn't all been smooth sailing. There have been plenty of real life issues, friends and relatives with health emergencies, loss of my job, and my usual down on myself attitude. I've definitely had times where it's been a struggle to push through (like now for instance) but if you followed along during my Divine Leap days you'll know that's nothing new.

Anyways, it's 3 more days of work and then it's time to do some job hunting... And getting some more Bluenoser pages done.

More Random Ramblings

Well, it's been a pretty crazy last few weeks. I was given notice at work (March 30th is my last day) so I've been dealing with paperwork and transferring my work over to others as well as looking for a new job. But I've also been burying myself in working on the Bluenoser (possibly a little too much considering) and the 75th page of that will be up next Wednesday. Although comic convention season is about to get going so I have something to look forward to there. I'm eager to see how the first Ottawa Comiccon goes where I'm hoping to meet Patrick Stewart and Richard Starkings. I've been a fan of Elephantmen for a while now (even had some quotes from my reviews on their website) so I've always hoped he would drop by Fan Expo Canada but coming to Ottawa is even better. I'm also looking forward to making it to Fan Expo Canada again this year as well. I'll get another chance at Patrick Stewart (if I miss him here in Ottawa) but I always look forward to seeing the artist alley friends I've made (Caanan Grall, Andy Belanger, etc). But all that is a long way off, first, it's job hunting.

And now that you know where my life is currently at, let's get to some other ramblings.

Digital comics. Yeah, we're going there again. We have a new iPad, "HD" comics, Marvel/Mark Waid pushing some new digital ideas, etc, etc. Some people are still fighting it but I think that's a lost cause. Waid in particular has been getting a lot of grief from some comic shops that are upset with his digital push. I understand where that's coming from, it's their livelihood. But as callous as this sounds it's also Mark Waid's livelihood. To continue avoiding the digital world or treating it as an afterthought just doesn't make sense anymore. As a comic buyer I have a lot of friends who work at comic shops and I don't want to see them hurt by this but at the same time I want comics in general to thrive. We need to stop fighting the future and figure out a way to navigate it together.

The other thing that's on my mind is the trend of artists wanting to move away from doing commissions of characters they don't own (or owned by Marvel/DC in particular) at conventions. It's not a lot of artists mind you, or at least not to my knowledge, but there are some. They have several reasons, whether it's a recent legal decision or just personal preference or whatever else and I think I see their side of things. Though I will be disappointed not to be able to get a Hulk sketch from them I can't really fault them for it. Even if the companies say they aren't going after anyone who does it the facts show they could at some point down the road (if they change their mind, if you happen to tick them off, if you're too successful, if you happen to cross the imaginary "line" of what's okay, etc) and that can be rather scary.

Anyhow, I guess it's time for me to get back to looking through job postings. Have a good one!

The Latest Marvel Event

My opinion of Marvel's upcoming event seems to change on a daily, if not hourly, basis. A few (as in quite a few) random and rambling thoughts:

• Yes, it is too early to judge it. I haven't read it (and probably won't anyways) so judging a story before it's done is rather unfair and shows some closed mindedness.
• However, it's yet another "event". I was definitely hit with "event fatigue" or whatever you wanted to call it, I was just tired of getting hit with where everyone's involved and everything is a tie in.
• Having said that, if you were looking to get kids or some non-comic readers excited about an event it seems logical to be able to say "It's Avengers vs X-Men". It's really a "nuff said" event as you might be mildly curious about what causes it but at the end of the day a lot of people just want to see these guys slug it out, it's just really simple and sell-able to a wide audience. Superhero comics have always had that "who would win between" element to them, as a Hulk reader I've had more than my fair share of books where it was "Hulk vs someone". Yeah, we've seen fights like this before (Secret Wars or so many others) and we'll see it again. It's just one of those things you have to expect with superhero comics. If you aren't in to them just wait, it's not like the next 10 years of Marvel comics will be this story. Next year it'll be something else entirely.
• Let's face it, no matter how much you love a character/writer/company/whatever they will inevitably write something (or in the character's case something will be written with them in it) that just doesn't appeal to you. It's the old "You can't please everybody all the time" thing. Some stories may be more miss than hit but that's life and that's art.
• "It's just comics." I've often hated that expression as I see it at belittling to the medium but I have to admit, life will go on and so will the characters/stories. We'll have the comic enthusiasts going around in stereotypical fashion saying "worst idea ever" (yes, I have been one of them and will be again and again) and there's nothing wrong with having that opinion but life is full of disappointments. And no matter what you think of it there will be those who think it's better than sliced bread. Who's right? I say that's a trick question. It's art. It's comics. It's opinions.
• So let's go negative. So let's be critical of the books before they come out. Let's play into that stereotype. Does it help the medium? I think having a calm, rational discussion of possible "event fatigue" or of the story (after it's out) can be helpful but I don't think we're ever going to see that on the Internet. Once you go to absolutes or judging without reading I think you are turning off potential readers who would help the industry as a whole.
• That reminds me of comic clerks who are critical of certain books and those who buy them. I've had clerks mock me, insulting me for reading Hulk comics, a "one-dimensional character" in their opinion. Really? Is this how you're trying to sell your merchandise? By all means, you have every right to your opinion but don't be so dismissive of others.
• Will I buy these books? I'm 99% certain I won't. Having the Hulk playing a part does get my attention and I may give in and check out an issue or two if he's front and center. And will I be critical of another "event" or for some other reason? Perhaps. Will I admit that my opinion is my own and doesn't necessarily reflect the true quality of the story (especially because, again, I probably won't even read it) and everyone else may disagree with me? Absolutely.
• So will it be good? Will it be a good story? Will it sell? Will it get new readers in or send old readers out the door? Only time and history will tell I suppose, and even then I may disagree with that.
• Will life go on? I sure hope so. It's just comics after all.

It's been a while...

I guess I just haven't had much to blog about lately. Plus, does anyone even blog any more? I won't go in to the personal/work stuff, it's all rather depressing. So let's stick to comics and other fun stuff.

With all the stuff going on it's been rather tough to find time for the Bluenoser so I'm down to one page per week but I'm keeping up with that at least. Here's a preview of this week's page:

As you can see I still have a ways to go on this page. My original plan for this book was to keep it going with short (5-6 page) stories but then I decided to do a "major" story once I got close to the 100th page so it's been about getting stories out that build to that one. Okay, that may not have made as much sense as it did in my head. Sorry, I'm rather tired at the moment. I guess the "move" to its own page was a little unnecessary as well as DrunkDuck has been somewhat stable and what few readers I have seem to stick to there. But oh well, it's good to have a mirror up just in case.

In terms of what I've been reading lately, I just finished the Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor. I was actually rather disappointed in it. Perhaps it's just my dislike of the Governor or something else (which I don't want to say/spoil) but I just didn't enjoy it as much as the comic. I've also finished off some comics like Kill Shakespeare volume 2 (really interesting idea and well executed), Walking Dead volume 15 (despite parts of this story seeming to drag on I'm still hooked on it for some reason), and Sweet Tooth volume 3 (while reading this book I wasn't sure I'd buy volume 4 but by the time I got to the end I was eager to see what happens next). I've also started reading "Hark! AVagrant" and I'll probably be starting Jack of Fables volume 9 shortly. I have a lot of books on my "to be read" pile so I'm hoping to tackle some during the holiday week (between Christmas and New Year's).

So back to the drawing board (or the Cintiq sitting on my dining room table at least).

It's that time of year

Yes, it's that time of year. And no, I'm not talking about Christmas. It's the time of year when people start listing the top books of the year. Okay, maybe it's a bit early but Publishers Weekly has already got the ball rolling. Of those books I've read Habibi and most of Zahra's Paradise. I've added some of the others to my "might pick up" pile. And that's how I often work. Obviously I pick up some books throughout the year but I really enjoy seeing the "best of" lists and finding new treasures I might have overlooked or didn't hear of throughout the year. So if you see any such lists that you think I may have missed or have your own suggestions let me know. Webcomic suggestions are of course welcome as well.

I'll probably be doing up my own list of this year's highlights but it won't be until December.

Another check in

I'm really falling behind on the whole blogging thing aren't I. But then again, does anyone really blog anymore? :)

So what's new? That crap I mentioned in my last post that's been going on in my life continues. In some ways I'd like to talk about it yet it just doesn't feel right to ramble on about these things in a blog post. So instead I'll ramble about comics.

It looks like the big companies are moving more and more towards the digital world. DC has already gone same day and Marvel is moving more and more of their books to that. Heck, one smaller company dropped monthlies entirely (selling digital and eventual print collections). I still haven't fully went that way in terms of reading though. I don't buy monthlies but I wait for the TPBs. A few reasons:
- Price. As much as I want to support the creators of these books I just can't see paying the same price to read it digitally (which should be cheaper to produce/distribute and results in me not actually owning anything) as I would to own a physical copy.
- Reading experience. This one is slightly on me as I don't own an iPad but even trying it on a friend's I still preferred the print versions. Part of this is that artists still draw for the printed page, using story telling techniques that don't always translate 100%.
- Decompression. I still find that when I read an individual issue of so many books that at the end I feel somewhat cheated, that there was no closure and I only got a small chunk of the story. It almost feels like I've been left mid-sentence and have to wait a month (or longer) for it to finish. Then when the next issue comes out I still don't feel that closure. I don't feel that way (as much) reading the TPBs. And if I'm waiting for the TPBs anyways (which tend to be cheaper than the individual issues and I find too long to sit in front of a computer reading) then why go digital?

But that's all just me. I also wonder about webcomics and where they fit in. With the iPad apps and various viewers coming out and such is the idea of free webcomics going to continue? Or are they just going to be that stepping stone of getting people to notice you and then dropped when you get that first paying gig. So often I see that and it makes me less interested in webcomics because I feel "Why bother getting involved in the story if the creator is actually looking to drop it for a paying gig?" Are webcomics irrelevant now that we have the iPad/iPhone/laptops with comic viewing software where we can buy stuff?

Though my view on webcomics may also be slightly tainted with the DrunkDuck things going on. WOWIO seems to have put work on it aside until they start making some money and the site could really use the work right now after the relaunch. And the annual DrunkDuck awards finalists got nominated. I'll admit, I had some hopes to maybe get recognized but I knew it was a long shot. So maybe there's a bit of sour grapes but my first reaction was "How did X get nominated in category Y?" I have to recognize it was a popularity contest and books I don't think are that great are popular. And people who read those books were quick to nominate them as much as they could (like a book being nominated in both "black and white" and "color" comic or in every genre, some people just put one book in every category) so I just have to shrug it off but that mentality of not caring does bug me. I can see why some people decided to leave but on the other hand is any site really going to be better? Leaving one site because you aren't one of the "cool kids" just doesn't seem all that productive. I think it happens on every site, there's that inner clique and if you aren't in it then you're on your own and if you are then you'll generally go no farther than that.

So anyways, back to work for me. Hope everyone's having a better day than me and that I didn't bring you down too much. :)

Checking in

Yeah, I've been pretty quiet on here lately and I guess I should apologize for that. There's a lot going on in my life that has me down and I've been trying to avoid going all negative and ranty here. I think the web already has enough of that.

So trying to stay positive by touching on a few of the books I've read lately. I'm up to date on DMZ and Scalped. Still enjoying both books (Scalped more so) but I do think knowing both books will be coming to an end does help. For some reason as much as I'm enjoying them I do feel they both need to come to some closure at some point (fairly soon). Atomic Robo volume 5 was great, as usual. Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme was pretty amazing but I didn't realize going in that this was just the first book so I guess I'll have to wait for the next one. I also had a Nathan Fillion filled weekend by re-reading the Serenity books (recently released as two hardcovers) and the Castle graphic novel (seen on last night's episode).

In terms of new books I decided to check out the first two volumes of iZombie. I wasn't sure what to expect from it and a few issues in I wasn't really blown away but by the end of the first volume I was intrigued enough to really want to read the second volume. I'm still slightly on the fence with the series but I'll be picking up volume 3 when it comes out.

I meant to read Habibi on the weekend but it got put aside for some lighter reading. It's currently on the top of my "to read" list. And at some point I plan on doing a Sandman re-read. I borrowed them through my first reading so I'm picking up the new editions that are coming out (I'm a little obsessive compulsive and I'd kind of like a consistent set and not a mix of various editions). So that plan may get put aside until they all have been re-released.

So that's it for me at the moment. And I'm open to suggestions on other books to read.

New Readers

I'm probably the last person to be bringing up DC's 52 reboot as I'm not reading them (other than Justice League) and I'm not going to be a new DC reader, I'm just not interested. But I've been reading plenty of comments on them from new and old readers and among the compliments and complaints there are a few things I'm picking out (whether they're true or not). One, the books don't seem to be all that new reader friendly. If it's not Superman or Batman then new readers have no idea who these characters are and the reboot books don't seem to be origins or introductions to the characters. They are the start of a new story but readers without the history may be feeling lost right from the start. And there doesn't seem to be any closure within the issues (with maybe a couple exceptions). This can be jarring to new comic readers who are expecting a contained story. I think they expect like a TV show or movie that there will be some sort of contained story in the issue even if it is part of an ongoing larger story.

So I think about when friends ask me about getting into comics and what to read, my first reaction is usually "well what would you be interested in reading?" Are they in to horror, westerns, sci fi, romance, or do they really want to give superhero stuff a try? And then I go to books/stories/characters I feel they can get into easily and this is usually not Marvel or DC. Unless they say "I saw Thor and really want to read Thor comics" I just don't go there. I find any character who has a story going back to the 1960's can be a little daunting. I usually go with ones where they can go into a comic shop, bookstore, or Amazon and grab a TPB or two and figure out if the story is for them. So I go with Invincible, Elephantmen, Atomic Robo, Walking Dead, Chew, Sandman, Fables,... And it's easy to direct them to volume 1. Where do you direct someone for Marvel or DC characters? The "essential" volumes? More recent TPBs? More recent "relaunches" of the character (if they have one)? I'm just never sure.

It has me thinking, would DC's reboot have been better served by having single issues or even initial TPBs that contained full stories that actually introduced the characters (either through origins or just self contained stories that at least told you who they are). Would it benefit DC (or even Marvel) to put out such books? A confined "All you need to know about Spider-Man/Thor/Captain America/Superman/Batman" comic (either single issue, TPB, or digital comic they can get from their sites. And I'm not talking those 2-3 pagers that don't really give you any actual story. Because as it is I'm still directing any potential new readers elsewhere.

But that may just be me.

Two page spreads

One thing I'm curious about is how the two page spreads (specifically those in the Justice League books by Jim Lee) look on the iPad and iPhone. It can't be that great a reading experience. I'd say two page spreads are more for the benefit of print versions. But here's the thing, they really aren't (in most cases).

Now this is just my opinion of course and there are exceptions (I seem to recall some great two page spreads in MiracleMan, Sandman, Return of the Dapper Men, etc) but I found in those exceptions they fit the story more. They gave us a large view while moving the story forward. In Justice League 1 you have a double page spread of Batman jumping out of the way of gunshots from helicopters, is that really worthy of a two page spread? In issue 2 it seems (I've only seen the unlettered preview) you have Batman and Superman squaring off in a two page spread. Yes, it shows off some pretty artwork but does it really tell the story effectively or is it just trying to cover up a lack of substance with some eye candy?

And aside from that, it keeps me wondering about making comics for print and digital yet again. The talk about going digital seems to gloss over what this means for some artists. Many artists don't look at making comics as a panel by panel thing, for them the whole page (and all its panels) fits together as a work of art. So you'll have panels blending into one another, overlapping (in art or dialogue), and other little "tricks" that require you to see the full page at once to get the full reading experience. Currently, tablets and smartphones are smaller than printed pages and often lose detail when pages are shrunk down to fit them (especially the phones). Computer monitors are usually better (though they have to be sufficiently large enough). I guess the assumption is that either artists will have to stop doing stuff that works better in print or that technology will eventually find an answer or that the majority of comic readers (especially those going to digital) won't care.

I tend to go with the last option for the most part, I don't think there's that many readers who actually care about this stuff. It's too bad in a way as I find it nice to see artists who know how to really tell the story effectively through their art but I accept that I can be in the minority and that there's a larger audience who just want their glossed over pretty pictures. I guess it's like all other forms of entertainment (TV, movies, books, etc) where what I might consider high quality doesn't always bring in the money and the audience wants their sex/violence/explosions/"reality" TV/"leave your brain at the door popcorn blockbuster"/glittery vampire with abs/whatever else sells. And who am I to say what is right or wrong for them to like/spend their money on.

Though I also know of some artists who are considering these things and being pulled in many directions. So hopefully they can find a balance or a solution and that technology continues to expand the possibilities for them.

Fan Expo Canada 2011

Another Fan Expo Canada has come and gone. I had been looking forward to it all summer so I'm glad it came but it's also a sign that summer is coming to an end and that sort of sucks. But anyways, the organization this year was so much better than last. There were a few hiccups on the first day and with the photos but what con won't have at least a few things when you're dealing with so many people, some of whom can be the cause of the problems (seriously, it's your choice to stand in line at 10:30 for something that doesn't open until 2:00, giving the organizers crap about having to wait in line until 2 just doesn't help things). But here are some of the highlights of my visit to Fan Expo Canada.

In terms of photos, I didn't really take too many, that's more my brother's thing. But there are a few I tweeted along the way and they can be found on yfrog.

Thursday:
We got in shortly after 2:00 and I made a beeline to Jeff Smith's table. I had originally hoped to pick up a TPB or something small to get signed but when I saw the 20th Anniversary Bone box set I couldn't resist. Then it was mainly just wandering around, picking up a mini-painting and a copy of "F**k You, Box" from Katie Cook and prints from Christopher Uminga, and getting an idea of the layout of the Expo. It definitely felt more roomy but the best part was the sizable food court areas (and the "Premium lounge" for those of us with the Premium tickets). It was actually at the food court that I got the chance to meet Alex Zalben. And of course I went to the sketching duel between Shane Davis, Mark Brooks, and Clay Moore which was great (all the sketching duels were great, though the "Women in Comics" one was my favourite).

Friday:
Friday was a bit busier for me. After signing up for a commission from Jill Thompson I went to the Tony Daniel/Marko Djurdjevic sketching duel where I won a Tony Daniel sketch. Then I headed back to talk to Jill while she worked away. Then there was the Tony Moore/Billl Sienkiewicz duel where they drew a zombie-Hulk. It wasn't my suggestion but it was funny because I had told people before the Expo that I would have liked a zombie-Hulk commission from Moore. Unfortunately I didn't win because the final pieces were awesome. And then there was the "Women in Comics" sketching duel (which I like to think I helped "sponsor" by donating some bristol board to some of the artists) where I won a "Penny from Inspector Gadget" sketch from Katie. And somewhere in there I think I picked up my commission from Caanan (Hulk/Spidey) and signed up for She-Hulk drawing from Ryan Stegman.

Saturday:
My main mission for Saturday was Eliza Dushku. I got in line right away and she showed up shortly after the show opened. She was incredibly nice and interactive with her fans (at least what I saw/experienced). So I was able to make it to the Steve Epting/Alex Maleev duel where I won the Dr Doom drawing in my Twitter photos (though it doesn't do it justice). There's a story about how I won but I won't go into that. But I was starting to make a name for myself with the organizers of the duels as this was my third win of the Expo (neither Brent or I had won in all the duels we had attended the last two years). The Eliza photo op was a bit of a mess with the Tom Felton line going on at the same time but again, she was incredibly nice. Then another sketching duel (Dale Eaglesham, Dale Keown, and Jimmy Cheung drawing Wolverine) where I didn't win. But Brent made a friend in the Lee Majors line and in ended up being Kelly Sue DeConnick. I had hoped to meet up with a friend who was dressed as "Death" (from Neil Gaiman's "Sandman") but unfortunately it didn't happen (part of that may have been due to the fact that I couldn't get any sort of signal on my iPhone for most of the day, it was a pretty common complaint that we could see a signal but couldn't do anything).

Sunday:
I figured Sunday was going to be pretty quiet for me and for the most part it was, though the floor seemed pretty busy for at least the afternoon. Of course I went to yet another sketching duel. Yeah, I'm a sucker for those. I think it's too bad that other cons don't do them (yet again this year some artists didn't really know what to expect when they signed up for them) but I also realize not all artists are gung ho for fitting them into their schedule and taking time away from their paid commissions. Brent and I got to talk to Kelly Sue and Matt Fraction for a bit and I picked up a few more prints (from Tony Moore and Caanan in particular).

We had made a few friends who came up from New York and were now stranded in Toronto so we tried our best to suggest things to do or make sure they could at least make it back to their hotels (one was left stranded by their Toronto based friend at the Expo). I hope they've all made their way home safely by now.

So overall, yeah, I had a blast. I'm pretty sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff from this post. It all seems so chaotic and a blur now. Maybe I should take more pictures to help me remember everything.

Wikinomics

I finally finished reading "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" a few days back, I had been reading it off and on for quite a while now. I won't go into a full review but I do think it's an important book to read. The times are changing whether some people like it or not and it's important to understand what's working and what isn't. I don't agree with everything in the book, some of their opinions and conclusions just don't work for me or seem to overlook things I'm curious about, but that's just my opinion.

The stuff in this book is more directly related to my job than my interest in comics (and the comics industry) but I think there are also parts that are important for everyone, including the comic industry, to learn from. The web is just one game changer and with every new technology things are changing. Trying to stick to old business models just isn't going to work in the long run.

I don't really have the business mind to see exactly where things are going, I think anyone who does say they are certain about how things will be in the future is deluded or trying to sell you something (or both). But I do know things are and will be changing. Okay, maybe I'm a little deluded too but at least I'm not trying to sell you something.

I could ramble on and on about all this stuff, last weekend a friend and I talked about it for hours (less about the company side though and more about the regular workers) but I don't think that would be to anyone's benefit (I'm guessing only one or two people will get this far in the rambling).

As an aside, I'm a little disappointed that I'm not seeing the unknown people trying to organize panels at Fan Expo. I think creating a panel with something unique could be good advertising for the webcomic/self publishing crowd. There are a few panels by people who have been successful at getting their own stuff out there ("Killing Shakespeare") or are people who have had at least some level of mainstream success (Ty Templeton, Cameron Stewart,...) but I'd actually like a more discussion-based panel with people who haven't yet. The last two years have had that (some with the people above before they were successful) but I just don't see it this year. Perhaps I'm missing something, perhaps there's just no demand for it (why talk to someone who hasn't made it when you can go to a panel to listen to someone who has), or maybe everyone's just too busy to do something like that. Either way, I'm just not seeing it. So I'll probably be spending much of my time at the sketching duels.

Panels

A couple weeks back (or whenever it came out) I decided to pick up Fear Itself #5 just because I wanted to see the Hulk and Thing versus Thor fight. Okay, and maybe I just wanted to read a single comic again, it's been a while. But after reading it I was pretty disappointed. The book just didn't seem to have much substance to it, either in that fight or the other stuff going on. And after thinking about it for a while I think one of the problems was what I felt was ineffective use of space.

I think too many panels were too large. I know I sound like your typical "in my day" comic fan but you look back at some of the artistic masters from the past they use small panels to display action and on one page you got a whole sequence and that made it feel intense. Here you have a full page only showing a small part of a sequence. It looks pretty but to me, it's boring to read and doesn't really engage me as a reader.

One thing I've taken from my webcomics is to make every page count and get in as much as possible. Partly it's the typical webcomic updating (one page at a time so you want that page to count) and partly it's that when I tried the large panel after large panel people spent less time and were less engaged in reading it. And that's how I felt here. With large panel after large panel I just breezed through it. Not to mention that when you do try to keep the panel size down it's more jarring when you do go to the larger one, a trick you can use to shock the reader. Large panel after large panel just becomes boring.

This also makes me think of the iPod/iPad stuff. People talk about how when they read comics on them and go panel from panel it can adjust the size of the panel to fit the screen (enlarging small panels). I think that's wrong. Now you could say that artists have to compensate for it and make sure their panels fit well but I think it takes away some of the storytelling control the creators have. If you really want your comic to be viewable on the iPad in that way then perhaps you have to find some balance. To be honest, I have too many thoughts going on in my head and I could ramble about this one forever but I don't want to take over this rambling with another, I just wanted to put it out there.

Now I'm just an amateur webcomic guy so obviously I know less about making comics than your average (or pretty much any) professional. And this is all just my opinion, others are free (and apparently do) disagree. But it's how I feel.

Hosting Part 2

I sort of knew going in that the hardest part of setting up hosting my own comic wasn't going to be on the technological side (though technology and I don't always see eye to eye, partly due to my own stupidity at times), it was going to be what comes after. Promotion.

I've never really gone too far out of my way to promote my webcomics. I mention them here and there (often in a derogatory way, which is a big problem) but I don't really sell it. There's a lot going on but it mostly boils down to a lack of confidence. It took me a while just to post something on DrunkDuck and then I let the community aspect of that site bring in a few readers (some stayed, most didn't). With my own hosting, the community thing just isn't the same. I can link to my comic or site when I comment on other people's sites (even that feels awkward to me) and I can try to talk about it a bit more (on here or with friends) but I just haven't been able to put out a full on blitz.

Maybe one day I'll get over it. On the plus side, I'm not looking to make a career out of it or anything but it would be nice to have some readers to make the work worthwhile. And for now, I do have my DrunkDuck readers.

Hosting

I've thought about it, I've talked about it, and now I've finally got off my butt and did it. With all the issues going on with DrunkDuck I felt I had to do something with my webcomics and I felt moving over to another site might be a temporary solution but eventually I'd still be relying on someone else hosting. I'll still use DrunkDuck as a mirror though.

After some internal debating about domains I decided to finally set up darrellferguson.com for hosting. So I've started with the Bluenoser. I haven't been able to figure out how to post more than one page per day with ComicPress so it's quite a few pages behind where I am on DrunkDuck but I'll be posting a page per day on there until I get caught up, then it'll be Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I do plan on customizing the look and making it more pleasant to the eye at some point as well.

Eventually I plan on getting Divine Leap up there as well though I plan on doing that as one bulk thing.

Sketches

I doodle from time to time but I very rarely sit down just to sketch stuff. Even when I do I tend to not be that loose with it and I hardly ever post it or let anyone see it. So I was thinking that I've been concentrating on drawing Bluenoser stuff so much that I needed a break. So I decided to do some quick and loose and out there sketches (or as loose/out there as I get).

Follow Up to the Post Comic Con Post

So DC Comics has said they've heard the complaints about not hiring enough women and there will be a next batch of relaunch books that will correct some of these issues. I think that's a first good step and I'm glad they're listening but we'll see how it plays out. Some of the responses I've read on various sites reporting this news aren't very encouraging. One theme that comes up is "Well, the girls got what they wanted so they better buy the books now." I'm struggling not to ramble on about how wrong this statement is on many levels and how it reflects a part of the comics community that is very ugly. I hope for those creators working on these books that they succeed, but if they don't it's not a sign women can't produce quality books that can sell. I think the women creating webcomics, self-publishing, and working with other publishers have proven they can.

But now to ramble about other stuff. I wanted to point out Caanan's comment to that post and respond/comment on a few things he says.

- I think I would have liked a hard reboot as well. And for me, it's not necessarily about changing the characters like Superman but just cleaning up the mess that is Superman's history. No need to make him a bad-ass vigilante (and I don't believe his book should be "dark") or anything like that, just more accessible. But yeah, their current audience would be really upset by that.

- As for crossovers and the events, they seem to be the biggest seller of the big two and I've been told by a few people that they do bring in some new readers (I know a few people who came back to comics during Civil War). But sales have been declining and people don't seem to be as interested in them since then (I haven't heard much of Fear Itself or Flashpoint really bringing in new readers). But again I agree with Caanan, if I want to read the Hulk I want to pick up the Hulk series. I was reading the Incredible Hulks: Chaos War TPB last night and it was a little frustrating at times. An issue would end and you'd get "If you want to know what happens next pick up..." Now yes, if I was doing the single issues thing then yes, I could have picked up that issue (or two) but I don't really care enough about Herc and the others that were involved in that storyline. I don't really have anything against telling stories that involve more than one character, but I think maybe those stories should be self contained in their own titles. If they come up with a cool Hulk/Hercules story, create a title "Hulk and Hercules: Chaos War" and tell it there. This may also brings up continuity and such but at this point, I'm ready to give up on continuity to a certain level.

- And yes, the house style is a bad idea in my opinion. I think getting Jim Lee to redesign most of the characters and forcing artists to fit into his vision was wrong. I hate to bring up Marvel but if you look at their books you don't get that house style. You get a variety of artists who are allowed to adapt their style to books they want to do. You may get the "photo realistic" guys out there (whether I like it or not), you'll get the more surreal or abstract artists, you'll get the dark and gritty artists, the cartoony guys, the traditional artists, etc, etc. and they get to do what they love, create visually interesting art more on their own terms (with possible exceptions or tweaking).

And that last point may be one thing that hurts the female creators coming in. Allowing them to come in and tell interesting Batman or Superman stories in their own way could be great. Forcing them to take on a C-level character in a DC/Jim Lee style may be doomed to fail.