Keeping with our new feature in the Underdog Facebook Group, we held another Self Promo Sunday last weekend allowing folks to share their url with the community. Yet again, it was a huge success! The idea behind this is to give everyone the chance to plug their link in an fun yet organized manner. On the first Sunday of each month a special thread is opened up in the Facebook group where people can post their link, but in order to do so they have to answer 3 questions. The thread is then taken down after 24 hours so it doesn’t keep getting bumped up in the group. We then copy the content into a blog post so nothing is lost.
If you would like to participate in next month’s Self Promo Sunday, simply join the Underdog Facebook group! read more»
This week’s edition of #TalkingComics spotlights the ever lovely Lisa Nguyen and her slice of life comic, In Love & Justice! With all the other different projects she’s got going on, I was curious how she found time to keep everything updated and organized! read more»
Last Sunday on Facebook, the Comic Underdogs kicked off a new and exciting monthly activity – Shameless Self Promotion Sundays! The idea behind this being, with such a robust community, it’s difficult to find everyone’s origin stories and the comics they’re attached to (especially if they’ve been an Underdog for a while). To give everyone a chance to see what everyone else is working on while avoiding the ever-destructive self-promo spam, every first Sunday of the Month, the Underdog facebook page will open up a discussion post for creators. read more»
With the exciting launch of Making Comics 3.0 and our awesome merge with the Comic Underdogs, I wanted to kick this new era of comic-making greatness off with a #TalkingComics interview spotlighting one of the pillars of the Comic Underdog community – artist and writer behind the webcomic Piece of Me, the hilarious Lukas Draxl. read more»
When trying to promote my own webcomics, I noticed a huge lack of quality when it came to Facebook groups dedicated to comic creation. Each group’s wall was flooded with self-promotional posts. I observed that when everyone is elbowing each other, trying to be seen in a sea of thumbnails, no one stands out. What’s worse is that little to no conversation is encouraged or initiated. Needless to say, after religiously checking my comic’s analytics every night, I often found that my Facebook promo efforts were often in vain – few (if any) page views, rarely a comment, and a no feedback. Not exactly the front page of Reddit, right?
Earlier this year, Making Comics Worldwide’s CEO, Patrick Yurick, embarked upon an emotionally draining, carpal-tunnel inducing quest: to take on the 24 Hour Comic Day Challenge. To call the challenge grueling would be something of an understatement (it’s literally an entire day and night spent doing nothing but scripting, then sketching, then inking a brand new comic). But, after twenty-four hours of ink, sweat, and tears (and dubstep, apparently), he emerged victorious, a 24 page comic under his belt and an experience that made for a very interesting, introspective chat.
One of the things I enjoy most about writing is how varied the form can become, both technically as well as thematically, while still telling the same story. I spoke with Brent Weeks (The Night Angel Trilogy, The Lightbringer Series) about crossing that line and adapting an already well established novel into a graphic novel with his book, The Way of Shadows (Weeks, Brandon, Macdonald). As a newcomer into the comic-creationverse (that’s definitely a thing now), Brent had quite a bit to say about the experience of collaboration and what went into the process of adaptation. read more»
[Tweet “…comics are about story, art, and innovation.”]
When I committed to creating a comic, I knew that publishing with one of the big companies anytime soon was not a reality. I was introduced to web comics as a serious avenue at Comic Con New Orleans 2010. I’ve since created two web comics. Comics have been in my life as long as I can remember. For me, comics are about story, art, and innovation. I rarely bought for the sake of collecting. Coming to terms with that, I had no problem with the web comic medium.
Missed the first installment of this article series? Read it here.
The majority of independent employers/collaborators who are seeking comic book artists do not know the first thing about making a comic. Some do, but most don’t. They don’t understand that a single page of professional quality art can easily take days to produce, and are sometimes produced by multiple people. A lot of people seem to think that they are doing you a favor by offering to allow you to work on their comic, and as a result they don’t have to pay fair wages. They seem to think that all you have to do is sit down at your drawing table (or screen), snap your fingers, and a masterpiece will materialize before your eyes. To these people I say – DO 5 MINUTES OF BASIC RESEARCH! Producing well-drawn comic art is no easy feat, and those of us who do it for a living have been practicing nearly our entire lives to refine our skills. Artists have to eat and pay bills like everyone else, so we deserve to be paid for our work. Just because it’s a creative field does not mean we work for free. Our skills are a trade just like any other. Would you ask a plumber to spend all day working on your toilet only to offer them $10 once it’s fixed? I seriously hope not.
[Tweet “”…a single page of professional quality art can easily take days to produce.” @MichaelYakutis”]
Welcome to the Making Comics Underdog community! Our mission is to help you get connected to a vibrant and supportive community of makers so that your comic project can be the best it can be.
