What A Show!

WOW! The Phoenix Comicon turned out way better than I had expected. From the energy in the air to the good vibes on the vendor floor. I had a great time this year and rathe than going on and on about things I'm gonna let the pictures do most of my talking.(after all a picture is worth a 1000 words).

Love seeing convention booty pictures. 

I love them even more when they have things I created in them.

Bily Foster, Myself and Eric Mengel. 

Bily has been a huge supporter of Eric and myself for years. 

He has gotten our faces in front of many people,

 who might never even know who we are.

My beautiful wife helping at the table while I had some panels.

Tony Stephens and I on the Heroes with Disablilties panel. 

I met Tony a couple of years ago, he is a great man that has 

dreams of making comics that include character with 

disabilities. I cannot wait to read what he comes up with.

I think this is the 5th time Eric Mengel and I have given our 

DIY Comic talk. The room was packed again this year and we talk 

one on one with many of the attendees at our booths throughout 

the weekend. I cannot wait to read the comics that many of these 

people are planning on creating.

Eric Mengel and myself ready to take on the world, or at least the comic world.

That time that Bleeding Cool interviewed me. 

- --I would love to shout out all of the people at the show that I interacted with, but I'm sure I would forget someone and feel very bad about it. So know that every conversation from the smallest "Hey nice seeing you" to the longest "story of my life" conversation meant a lot to me. I learned more at this convention as a person than I had at any convention I have ever attended.

- -- Oh yeah and I still have some Space Monstas - Space Mummy figures left. Hit up my online store if you want one. Each figure comes with a limited edition Space Monstas mini-comic.

- -- Comic of the Week - hmm -- Moon Knight #3. This series is really trying something different, at least that is how I feel. I cannot wait to read the whole storyline again once it is finished.

- -- As for now I'm working hard to complete Cousin Harold 10 in time for the San Diego Comic Con. I will be tabling in the small press area this year. Plus we are prepping a special edition of the Comics Never Stop newspaper for SDCC. More on these things next week. I gotta get to the drawing board (or computer in my case) and start drawing. These comics are not going to draw themselves.

Take Care, 

-denny

Crunch Time

It's CRUNCH TIME out here in the west valley. Usually I have everything ready for the Phoenix Comicon at the beginning of May. Well this year life has gotten in the way, so I have a lot to do between now and June 2nd.

- -- The most important thing is to finish the Space Monstas story. I have 6 pages done, but still need to complete 6 pages. I think I got this, I mean I have done 8 and 16 page stories in less than 24 hours multiple times. I'm just trying for a little higher level than I have done in the past. So while I work on those pages, you can check out the first 3 pages here.

Not sure if I will have a version of this book for sale or if it will only be available with the purchase of a Space Mummy toy of the Space Monstas T-shirt. I want to do a silk screen cover for the sale version, but who knows if I will have time.

- -- I have to finish 2 Cousin Harold pages this week. This is so that I can take next week off for the convention. I think I got this easily, but with the 6 pages of Space Monstas it might be a little more challenging.

- -- I have 20 toys to paint. The plan is to complete one painting process each day. I should be able to get this done, however those 6 Space Monstas pages might get in the way.

- -- I have already copies the DIY COMIC panel handouts. Hopefully Eric Mengel will get them assembled so I can trim them next week. (The DIY COMIC presentation is Friday June 3rd from 3-4pm in North 121C at the Phoenix Comicon.)

- -- Really I'm in pretty good shape. Except for those 6 Space Monstas pages. I can do this.

- -- Comic of the Week, Fantastic Four #98 by Lee & Kirby. I love those old book. My family lets me pick out one for my birthday and father's day each year. Hopefully my kids will get good jobs and left me purchase more expensive ones when they grow up. I hope to one day own the whole Lee & Kirby run in comic form.

- -- I will be at Artist Ally #1424 for this years Phoenix Comicon.

Okay that is about it, I got to get those Space Monstas pages done. (Can you tell there really is only one thing that I'm worried about?)

Take Care,

-denny!

DIY COMIC - Paper Choices

There is a ton of paper out there to choose from!

This is a quick little guide of the paper choices I have 

made and why. I will also include some of my experimental 

choices, including thoughts on some future choices.

When making mini-comic you have 2 different 

paper choices to make -

Cover Paper Stock and Interior Paper Stock. 

as well as 2 common sizes to choose from 

8 1/2 x 11 (letter) and 8 1/2 x 14 (legal).

I tend to use legal paper more often because it makes 

the books a little wider and I think that makes them look

closer to the size of actual comics. (The books also

fit nicely in a comic bag/board at this size.)

COVER STOCK - For the cover I try to use a card stock paper. 

Currently I've been using a 67lb Bristol for my self made 

mini-comics. This paper comes in quite a few color choices, 

so that I do not have to repeat colors very often. However

because I print my book on legal size paper my choices 

are a little more limited.

When I print my color covers, I send my work off

to be printed elsewhere, and I have it printed on 

 a 100lb Bright White Opaque paper.

I believe the choice of a heavier card stock paper makes 

your book feel sturdier in the hand of your fans, 

which adds a little more value to your product.

INTERIOR STOCK - For the interior of the book I use normal 

copy paper, which is a 20lb paper (24/67lb in this case.)

There are also many color choices for the interior paper, 

so DO NOT USE WHITE PAPER! I tend to use a Cream Color

or a color that matches the cover for my interiors,

When I send my work off to be printed in color, I still 

choose a 20lb paper. I know sometimes the printer will 

suggest a thicker paper for color, but I have not had an

 issue with the 20lb paper yet.

But remember DO NOT USE WHITE PAPER!

Why should you not use White Paper? Because it looks

like common copy paper, so with just that change that to 

a different color (I prefer Cream) you will increase 

the value of your book.

EXPERIMENTAL PAPER - I have tried many different papers

 and will continue to experiment on future products. 

One of my favorite experiments was using a brown paper 

that I purchased at a local packing/mail store. I was trying

 to find the paper that grocery bags are made out of and 

this was the closes that I could find. I used this paper for 

a cover, my goal was to make a brown bag type edition. 

The main issue with the paper was that it was very thin and 

could not be ran through a copy machine, so I had to use my 

ink jet printer (which still ate every 3rd-4th piece.)

In the future I have plans to use a Black Paper for a cover,

but you cannot print on it, so I thought I would use spray

paint/stencils to make the cover (or perhaps screen 

printing? or maybe even some rubber stamps?) 

I'm thinking this might be perfect for a 

Jenny Spookawski mini-comic.

I would also like to use Rag Paper, which is the paper 

that money is printed on. I thought that this might give the

 book an interesting feel. Still not sure what project

to use this on?

Currently I'm printing my color pages through Moxi Copy

and I purchase my paper locally at Paper Plus.

DIY COMIC - The Comic Handout (11x17)

Supplies - For this project I used Domtar Colors 11x 17 - 20lb Smooth Goldenrod paper for this project a 500 sheet ream ran about $15 (that means each page cost $0.03) So if you can keep your photocopying price point down this is a very cost effective way to supply your costumers with a sample of your work.

I used one sheet of paper to make each book. Not really going into the layout and designing of the book at this point. I'm also assuming that you can have your work photocopied (either yourself or at a local shop.) So lets get started.

You have a stack of freshly photocopy comics. How do you assemble them so that they look like a book you had professionally printed? (Some of this is done in the copying/design phase making sure the pages are straight and the layouts are neat.)

Step 1 -  Date Stamping is not necessary but I always get compliments on it. I use this as a way for me to tell when the book was made and can be used to tell the difference between first and later printings.

Step 2 - Cutting the Paper is essential since I want my work to look like a book. When I did the layouts  I made sure that everything was in the right place and all I needed to do is cut the paper down the center turning 1 piece of paper into 2 and more importantly a 4 page book into 8 pages.

Step 3 - Folding the Paper can be done a number of ways. I prefer to fold each piece one at a time. This strategy gives the book a flatter look at the end. Make sure you are folding the right way, I have found it a good idea to fold one of each page and assemble a book to make sure I'm doing everything right.

Step 4 - Assembling the Book should be quick and simple. However make sure you assemble the pages in the right order (and do not forget any.)

Step 5 - Stapling the Book can be done with a number of different staples. If your books are a few pages, you can use a long reach stapler (I originally used a Bostitch 12" Long Reach Stapler) or if you are stapling more pages, a booklet stapler (in the video I'm using a Bostitch 2Booklet Stapler.) I have found that books longer than 16 pages are a little harder to line up with the long reach staplers so I changed to the book stapler and now use it for everything.

Step 6 - Trimming the Book helps make your book look more professional. Usually I trim the top, bottom and the leaf side. However for this project I did not trim the leaf side since it was a lower page count and the pages appeared to have already lined up nicely. A tip, trim from the leaf side to the spine, this tends to give a better cut.

Step 7 - The Finished Book is a thing of beauty. If done right your product will be able to stand toe to toe with professionally printed material and no one will be able to tell that you made it at home on your pitch table.

Happy Comic Book Making,

-denny!