Kevin and Zander have collaborated on a number of comic books. This wouldn’t be unusual, except that they’ve developed an intensive style of collaboration, where each works on every stage of the comics, from conception to layouts (thumbnails), to pencils, to inks. Like French authors (who famously use a similar system) Dupuy & Berberian, they’ve evolved a consistent combined style where you really can’t tell where one’s work ends and the other begins.
Upon Twitter’s initial release I am absolutely baffled to the rationale behind its creation. Who needs this? Why are people compelled to share with the world, every inch of meaningless minutia that befalls them?
If you read last week’s post, you know that my goal for THIS week was to have created a website, connected it to my domain, and made a game plan for content. Haha. Well I can’t say I didn’t learn anything…
We’re Matt and Jessica’s interns, 21-year-old tenderfoots, and we’re embarking on a summer-long study of social media for cartoonists… not just how to use it, but how to use it effectively to launch or boost a career. Each week we’ll share our progress, our theories, and our discoveries in navigating the vast sea of this World Wide Web.
In December of 2006, I had a very interesting email exchange with Jim Valentino, one of the original partners, who served as the company’s publisher from 1999 to 2004. Valentino is the owner of Shadowline, one of the primary Image studios, the author of ShadowHawk, and one of the original Image partners. He has deep roots in self-publishing and independent comics that have clearly influenced his attitude towards publishing at Image.
I feel very strongly that I have a responsibility, in fact, to young artists trying to break into the business. So, when I am putting together an anthology, I now make a point of including someone whose work hasn’t been published before (or, at least, not in any kind of significant way). It’s a karma thing.
What this book does, strikingly well, is it teaches you how to be a webcartoonist. From website design issues specific to comics, to personal branding, to dealing with fans (and making more of them) to preparing for conventions (checklists!) right down to setting up a shipping station for your merch, this is by far the most comprehensive, reasonable, serious guide to being a self-publisher that I’ve seen.
A student of mine tipped me off to great advice from @piaguerra, the artist responsible for Y: the Last Man. I hadn’t been following her, but @bielero thought her advice so good, he’d compiled it into a document, which he passed on to me (and then, of course, I followed her).
