PLEASE Repost, retweet, spread this as far and as fast as you can. Our friend Carl Jansson needs some help, and we haven't got much time. Info below. direct link to the specific page and donation info is at the bottom. Thank you all!



 

Check out this nifty page by Jill Thompson from Beasts of Burden #3.

It's the opening page of the issue.

The cat is The Orphan, the dog is Pugs. The paw belongs to Miranda, an apprentice Wise Dog.

DOUBLE SHOT

So, the idea is to post a new piece of artwork every day until San Diego Comic Con. "16 Pieces in 16 Days." I will have prints of all the new artwork at Comic Con.

You can check out each day's image on my work blog: http://karlchristiankrumpholz.blogspot.com/

Anyway, here's the thirteenth images. This is from the Cabaret series I'm working on.

Click on the image for a larger view.

"Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels." - Bertolt Brecht

For Bertolt Brecht's bio, go HERE

'Brecht' Ink/Digital Color, July '09



"I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music. " - Kurt Weill

For Kurt Weill's bio, go HERE

'Weill' Ink/Digital Color, July '09

So it's my birthday on tuesday 21st. I'll be spending it in Norway with the lovely Sarah and mind-of-a-viking good friend Bard and his (probably) better half. Nice to spend a birthday somewhere different, i never do parties or stuff like that so pining for the fjords will do me good.
I thought getting older would bother me but it's done so in a less obvious way. It's not depressed me, just made me realise I've wasted a lot of time so far and I should really be making more of what I've got. A renewed sense of my own stupid mortality if you like. I'll confess I've reached one of those points in my career where I question what it is I'm trying to achieve and why it's always SO difficult to get anywhere with anyone, I love what I do and fully believe in it but right now I seem to be unendingly pushed about, ignored, ripped off and insulted by those I'm trying to do it for. It comes with the territory I suppose, but I'm sure every artist reaches that point where they think 'dammit, it should be working out by NOW'.
Meh, thats the sound of a man audibly ageing on his blog right there, so i'll stop bitching. frustrations aside, life's pretty good and as I learned, i should be making the most of it. So I'm going to insert cream horns into every hole i've got, and hold my breath till tuesday. See what I can plan to make and do for another year of life.

jx

ps. fumblog's been a bit lacking lately, so lets put some fun stuff back up. today's post is the first of many HOEBEN strips that'll be turning up over the coming weeks. I love this little fucker.

Alright, answering questions time. Hopefully these will turn out to be halfway interesting, and I don't bore you all to death. Remember: These responses are based on my experiences, so other people might have had different ones. I can only relate what's happened to me.

---

nenimo asked: I'm curious about how you go about putting together a pitch for a comic. Little bits of information like what do you include or anything specific to exclude. Are your pitches tailored on the publisher? or do you make it so you'll go ahead with the idea regardless?

(Aside: I'm going to be talking about my experiences pitching to SLG, but just so you know, they have closed down their submissions for a few months. So don't send them anything until after October 1.)

Making the pitch always seems to be the million dollar question. This has been said many many times before by people far more seasoned than I am, but it's really important to follow the submission guidelines of whatever publisher you intend to pitch to. And that's what I did when I sent Zombies Calling in to SLG. I went to the 'submissions' section of their website, wrote down everything that was written there, and went off and made a pitch. (And hey! Here's a helpful website that has links to every comic publisher's submission guidelines! Man, aren't you guys lucky?) My pitch included the first 15 pages* of Zombies Calling, 3 pages of character sketches of the main characters (you can see the pitch comic and character sketches on the ZC website), a clear, concise outline of the story I wanted to tell (SUPER IMPORTANT! Publishers want to know you have a finished story in mind), and a casually-toned but professionally produced (no typos, spell checked) cover letter to SLG telling them who I was, and that I had a comic I wanted them to publish. SLG was the only publisher I sent Zombies Calling to. I don't really recommend that, but I had done a lot of research into what publishers took unsolicited submissions, and they were the only ones I thought would be interested in a graphic novel about university students and zombies.

So important fact #1: I did my homework on the publisher I wanted to work with. Important fact #2: I also was very clear in outlining story I wanted to do, and happened to luck into wanting to do it in a format that SLG was already leaning towards: I pitched ZC as a graphic novel, not a comic. I did this because I don't like floppies, and even though I knew SLG mostly as a publisher of floppies (I purchased their trades), I didn't want to do a floppy comic. Fortunately for me, SLG seemed to want to move towards the graphic novel format, something I didn't know at the time. Which brings us to important fact #3: DUMB LUCK. There is a lot about the pitch process that's out of your control, and sometimes you can do everything perfectly, follow submission guidelines to the T, and it just doesn't end up working out, for whatever reason. This sucks, of course, and I've no idea how to cope with it. I am very bad at letting things go and accepting that they are beyond my control, but if you're one of those people who can do this, I suggest you apply it to the pitch process. You'll certainly be a lot less crazy.

Anyway. Other things: I keep hearing conflicting reports about this, but I don't see the harm in putting it in, so I say do it. I talked briefly about my online comics in my cover letter, mostly to try and communicate to SLG that I had been doing comics on my own for a while, and I was interested in the art form, not just the glory of being published. I feel that there's so many options for self publishing (and free self publishing, online publishing) for young comic folk today, I find it strange when someone right off the bat starts pitching to a publisher. Wouldn't you want to spend time developing your craft first? I don't know if SLG took that into consideration, but it was important to me.

Little tip: Get your pitch printed nicely! Don't print at 72dip, use at least 300. I think making sure a pitch is nicely turned out is half the battle.

As for "anything specific to exclude" in the pitch, I think it's important to be realistic with your first pitch. Again, this has been said by people far more important than I am, but it's not a good idea to pitch something super complicated and long right off the bat. Try and think of being in comics for the long haul. You're trying to develop your skills and do the best comic you can, with the skills you currently have. You also have years and years to try and get that one special project published (we're not athletes, with a 10 year window to be a professional. We're artists, and we can draw into our 80s), so try and think of that début comic as something to build on. Start with a small, simple, one off idea and try and get that published. If it happens, you can go from there.

Anyway, I hope that was helpful. I know I was very confused about the pitch process, and was fortunate enough to have a few people offer me advice, which I am very grateful for. Hopefully I can do the same for others. Good luck!

*This is way too many pages, as I think SLG asks for 4-6 pages, but I wanted to present that first ZC joke, the one with the nachos.

Still technically Friday, and NormalityRestored dot com has been fully updated. Fully updated means that the bastian of regular Firday stories and entries of interest along with the featured weekly comic are now available for your viewings. Go now through the digital meta-verse and stop by the site to indulge in these things. Thank you.


I love you all,

--Aleister

http://scottsaavedra.blogspot.com/2009/07/web-comic-project-day-17.html

Today has seen some nice improvements in page loads both here at "Now, What?" and at Java Town. Once again, I placed some Project Wonderful ads without much of a plan (a bad thing) but it seemed to work out in the end. I was running two different ads. One, seen on Day 16's post, that asks, "Can you make money making web comics?" and the other, very similar ad, that asks, "Will I make money making web comics?" Old school ad response thinking suggests that the word "you" is effective because it pulls the viewer in (self-interest trumps everything else I guess) and the numbers so far bare this out. The "Will I" ad running at Goats didn't do as well as the "Can You" ad over at the Belfry WebComics Index. The "Can You" ad running at Wapsi Square hasn't been active for long yet but is on a busy page and maybe getting lost in the clutter (I count 14 ads on one page). Here are the numbers as of about 5 p.m. PST:



I also ran this at Drawn! for several hours:


It was a dud (and a relatively expensive one at that). It's an attractive ad, it just has all the wrong components and doesn't prompt a response. A side note: when I asked my son, who was sitting at his laptop, to bring up the Drawn! page so he could see my ad on a mutually enjoyed blog I discovered the kid runs AdBlocker (et tu, boy?).

The upshot of all the ad activity is that someone, seeing one of the ads or otherwise stumbling onto this blog, twittered his find and my page views and unique visitor hits really spiked (the numbers weren't spectacular but the increase was very dramatic). I'll have the hard numbers up on the data page as soon as I can.

News for Web Cartoonists: I got this info today (from Mr. Dan V.) and I'm passing it on:

Here’s a special announcement from the Cartoon Art Museum for those of
you who write or draw webcomics:

Thanks for your interest in the Cartoon Art Museum’s upcoming Monsters
of Webcomics exhibition. As you may have heard, the exhibition
features the artwork of ten notable webcartoonists, and their art will
be displayed in our traditional “frames-on-walls” format.

In addition to the framed artwork, I’m including a “Virtual Gallery,”
which is a fancy way of saying that we’ll have a computer monitor in
the gallery for showcasing webcomics in their native on-screen
environment.

For your work to be considered for this gallery (and also for possible
inclusion in future webcomics exhibitions at the Cartoon Art Museum),
here’s what I’ll need from you:

1. Please send me three (3) samples/pages/strips of your comic in jpg
format at 72-300dpi. The comic should be viewable on a standard
computer monitor without any scrolling, since we’ll be displaying the
comics in a “slideshow” format. If you work in full, comic-sized
pages, you may need to reduce the size of your comic slightly or
divide your page into two or three sections.

2. Please include your name, the name of your comic, and your website
(URL) with your comic. We will need this information when we format
your art for our slideshow.

3. Content of the comics that you submit should be “PG-13” or tamer.
The more graphic the content, the less likely we’ll be able to include
it in the exhibition.

4. Send your submissions to andrewfarago@gmail.com by July 31. Feel
free to pass this information along to any friends who might be
interested.

5. “Monsters of Webcomics” is in need of a logo. If you’re
interested in submitting a design, you can send those to me at
gallery@cartoonart.org I was thinking of something in the “Monsters
of Rock”/heavy metal vein, but I’m open to other ideas.

6. If everything goes according to schedule, I’ll be able to notify
all of the artists chosen for the Virtual Gallery around August 2. At
that point, we’ll start our pre-opening media blitz, and ask the
participating artists to tell all of their friends, fans, family and
anyone who will listen to visit the Cartoon Art Museum in San
Francisco to see the exhibition in person. We’ll also make
banners/buttons available so that you can link directly to the Cartoon
Art Museum’s website from your own.

Thanks again! Again, please send your comic art to
andrewfarago@gmail.com; logo submissions and questions about the
exhibition can be directed to me at gallery@cartoonart.org

Best,

Andrew Farago
--
Curator/Gallery Manager
Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Originally Posted on Normality Restored dot com (NR):

Yes, for anyone who's interested, there will be an actual comic for this week. Unfortunately, schedules and stars have not aligned properly yet to make it reality at this exact mintue. But soon[ish].

One of the reasons that this is so is because I've been bogged down with the insane and awful prospect of having to move, yet again. April December and I have only been in our place for what is less than 3 months right now, and because we're not fucking assholes, have agreed to try and help our landlords in their urgent need to sell the house we live in, in order for said landlords to not get sucked completely into financial ruin. We have found another place, not in Mount Washington but in Pasadena. The new house is awesome in an entirely different way than our current one. Sadly, we're still waiting for our landlords to pay-up the money they owe us (and is due no later than today) which will be needed for the move by our target date of Aug 1st... we'll see if they come through. In my head it could go either way, and I'm so tired of fighting with them, that I'm really hoping they don't fuck up.

Also to add to the growing pile of too-much-going-on, San Diego International Comic Con. Or, how it is locally known: Nerd Prom (also, as SDCC for short). Because of the sudden need to move (again. 10 months before we were even considering it) April December and I were not sure that we would be able to attend. However, for this, I do have good news! Although our original plans of full, four-day attendance are still sunk, we will be there on Sat and Sun it looks like, which will allow us to see a lot of people we don't get to see very often, and be at a con again. I apparently (without previous knowledge, except thanks to Drew Rausch) been listed on the SLG signing schedule. I will still be signing at SLG as far as I know, likely on Sat, possibly on Sun, for The Cemeterians. I will post an update when I know the details for that. Otherwise, we will hopefully be talking to the folks who are set to publish my next Graphic Novel (tentative/working/project-only-and-will-likely-change title: Dorothy) as well as some other great folks in the industry.

Nerd Prom is upon us, much faster than we could imagine, and there is still much to do. With that, I must away myself to said things.

SLG booth (#1815, right next to the DC Compound). Current times listed on the SLG site, and blogs are probably not accurate for me right now. Will list updated times as I discover them.

I love you all,

 

PS

Will update later as I said when I have details for Nerd Prom, SLG signing, and when the comic for this week is uploaded. 

The Humboldt Squid have invaded San Diego, and so will I. Tens of thousands of me, each with razor-sharp tentacles and a Slave Girl Leia outfit.

You can find at least one of me (the one WITHOUT the fearsome tentacles or golden bikini) encamped at the SLG booth (#1815, right next to the DC Compound) at the following times:

THURSDAY: 2:30 - 4:00
FRIDAY: 5:30 - 7:00
SATURDAY: 11:00 - 12:30, 2:00 - 3:30
SUNDAY: 10:00 - 11:00

That first one on Saturday has me sat right next to Jhonen, a particularly horrific curse detailed in great and terrible detail here: http://www.questionsleep.com/mindspill/?p=1003 I figure I'll haul off and slug every person in line like that guy next to Robin Hood in Time Bandits.

(INSERT YOUTUBE CLIP HERE!)

Will the NEW PRINTS be available? INDEED THEY WILL.

See you in Squid Hell!

I've been racking my brains lately, trying to come up with some interesting comic/art related things to blog about, and sadly I've been failing miserably. So I thought maybe I'd ask and see if you, lovely blog readers, had any questions about my experiences so far in the comic and animation industry. I can't claim to be any sort of expert on what happens, and so far I think my experiences have been atypical (I've never done anything like a portfolio review, which seems to be the go-to for breaking into comics), but they might be worth something to someone somewhere (I'm aiming high).

Anyway, if someone has a question or two, fire it this way. If it's super interesting, I might provide some kind of coherent answer. Special!
Possible topics: working in comics, working in animation, going to animation college, living on a minuscule budget ... actually, don't ask about that, because the answer is basic and boring: STARVE. :P

http://scottsaavedra.blogspot.com/2009/07/web-comic-project-day-16.html

It's not a recent post but it seems a pretty good one: a nice "how-to" for making web comics written by Unityflow at ComixTalk. Solid advice, nicely organized.

Spent Project time today and yesterday drawing and thinking a lot about flash versus non-flash presentation. I'm leaning toward completely retooling how I present Java Town. As much as I really like the flash-based method it finally occurred to me that going against the flow right now is probably a waste of time and energy. It's only a matter of time before e-readers of some type will be ready to present comics and I think preparing for that future instead of working against current web-based standards (such as they are) is probably not a bad thing to do.



Update: What a bunch of weasels. (via TPM)

Double Shot

So, the idea is to post a new piece of artwork every day until San Diego Comic Con. "16 Pieces in 16 Days." I will have prints of all the new artwork at Comic Con.

You can check out each day's image on my work blog: http://karlchristiankrumpholz.blogspot.com/

Anyway, here's are images number twelve. This is from the new Jazz series I'm working on. This will likely appear in SLG's 'Jazz' Gallery show in San Jose, CA in August '09.

Click on the image for a larger view.

"I guess, you know, if I didn't make it with the piano, I guess I would've been the biggest bum." - Thelonious Monk

For Thelonious Monk's bio, go HERE

'Monk' Ink/Digital Color, July '09



"If you can't play the blues... you might as well hang it up." - Dexter Gordon

For Dexter Gordon's bio, go HERE

'Gordon' Ink/Digital Color, July '09

Glister: The Haunted Teapot has lots of extras including:
Activities: make your own Glister biscuits with the recipe and design your own haunted teapot.
+ the short strips, "A Day in the Life of Philippa Veil" and "What Mr. Wilkes did Next". Oh, and the insides
are printed in a tasteful shades of dark red.

Glister: The House Hunt has extras including:
Activities: make a Glister stand-up
+ a short illustrated story "Chilblain Hall and the Sunday Painters"
and "Philippa Veil's Postcards.
The insides are printed in tasteful shades of dark blue.

new stuff here:
http://www.glisterbook.blogspot.com

********************************************************
I'm going to be at the Birmingham comic thingy October 3-4th
and Thought Bubble in Leeds November 21st

OUT NOW:

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
64 pages
out from 6th July
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
80 pages
out from 6th July
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

Glister: The Faerie Host
January 4th 2010

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

Here's where you'll find me — I'm also printing up a limited run of ACTION, OHIO stickers for lucky consumers... protect your favorite graphic novel, longbox, mylar-bagged or slabbed comic with this limited edition ACTION, OHIO "With Great Fiction Comes Great Responsibility" sticker! Swing by one of my signings and grab one while you can.

Only Friday is different, but here's my current signing schedule for Comic-Con.  SLG's booth is #1815, next to DC Comics.

THURS  4:00-5:30
FRI  4:00-5:30
SAT  2:00-3:30
SUN  2:00-3:30

Jill Thompson and I were recently interviewed by Comic Book Resources about the Beasts of Burden series, and you can read the results here. The interview includes a six-page preview of Beasts of Burden #1. There's also a link to the first short story Jill and I did with the characters several years back, in case you haven't read it yet.

Thanks to Shaun Manning and CBR for helping us spread the word on the project.

Please enjoy.

So I guess I should do what other people are doing and post information about where you can find Eric and myself during the week long madness that is San Diego ComicCon.

We will be doing a daily signing session at the SLG booth. That's the awesome booth right next to the DC Comics booth. Hard to miss.

Thursday 1:00-2:30
Friday 11:30 - 1:00
Saturday 5:00-7:00
Sunday 11:00-12:30

Additionally, Eric and I will be participating in two panels:

Friday:

4:30-5:30 - Spotlight on Landry Walker and Eric Jones— The creative team behind SLG Publishing's Little Gloomy series and the recent Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade for DC Comics discuss all of their work, past and present, including the upcoming run on Batman: The Brave and the Bold series. Landry Walker and Eric Jones discuss the pitfalls of working on all-ages books as well as developing their own properties for animation. Room 3

Sunday:

1:30-2:30 Comics and Graphic Novels for All Ages- It’s true! There’s a wealth of great comic books series and graphic novels out there for comics-loving kids of all ages-so much so, that Comic-Con presents its second big panel of the day on the topic! Moderator Randy Duncan (co-chair of the Comics Arts Conference) talks with Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Eric Jones and Landry Walker (Supergirl, Little Gloomy), Jeff Smith (Bone), and Alexis Fajardo (Kid Beowulf) about comics for everyone!
Room 3

...

Yup. That's where we will be. Come see us. Discuss things with us. If you attend, I will whisper to you the one true secret to successfully gaining employment into the comics industry. Maybe.

And don't forget, we will have limited edition signed prints. First come first serve.


 
We will also have a variety of comics on hand to sell and to sign. Trade paperback collections of Tron: The Ghost in the Machine and The Super Scary Monster Show. Not to mention an assortment of issues of Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade.

Spend!

i'm a big fan of Austen, and a bigger fan of tentacles.

these people have hit publishing gold.

I will be signing at the SLG booth the following days and times:


Friday, July 24th - 4:00 - 5:30

Saturday, July 25th - 2:00 - 3:30

Sunday - 2:00 - 3:30

I hope to see some of you there.

And for good measure, here is a random photo of me playing with a dinosaur. His jaw moved, I think I was about to feed him those vitamins.