Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like Dave Roman, because if there is, we’ll knock your lamps out. The Nickelodeon magazine editor and cartoonist is back with a guide to being a freelancer that might just be the best advice you will ever read:

What kind of illustrator are you?
For any one assignment there are thousands of artists that could potentially be hired. Why should an editor or art director hire you? You need to figure out what makes your art unique. Because when there are a thousand artists who would all like the same gig, often just being good isn’t enough. You have to have a distinctive voice. It’s not about whether you can draw a bowl of fruit, it’s about how bad-ass, or realistic, or cute you can draw that fruit and convince people that no one has ever drawn it that way before. This sometimes gets confused with “the hot style,” but really it comes down to making art that lots of people find appealing and want to see more of. Figure out what your strengths are and what adjectives people use to describe the way you draw. Is it elegant, surreal, old-fashioned, cute, edgy, hip, classy, pretty, dynamic, dramatic, soft, hard, or all of the above? You may not want to categorize yourself, but to a certain extent you will need to if you want to focus yourself and find the places that will actually hire you.

Much more sense in the link. Bookmark and print out and learn the rules, like “Don’t be a jerk.”

For all the writer/artist types out there, this might be a cool diversion.

A website devoted to pencils of all shapes, sizes and colors.

If you’re a striking writer, stock up on writing utensils while you have the chance.

Posted by Mark Coale

From this week’s Permanent Damage:

Ultimately there’s no publisher in America today predicated on the idea of letting talented creators go their own way, because no publisher has a coherent plan for capitalizing on that, and that goes for both indie and mainstream. So, really, it falls to creators themselves. Which means there’s “selling out” and there’s “selling out.” To work in as many venues as possible, and to do the most impactful work there to open more opportunities to do the comics you think should be done instead of what publishers and editors should be done, to take the opportunities presented to you and do your best with them and to pry open new opportunities even when it sometimes means accommodating other expectations to get what you want, that’s an okay kind of selling out. It’s only trouble if accommodating other expectations at your own expense becomes habitual and reflexive. Wanting to write “popular material” in the absence of good ideas for that material, that’s not such a great way of selling out.

The Post That Wouldn’t Die continues to captivate the blogosphere, and many of my private conversations. My mom called to say she enjoyed it, which was nice. Eddie Campbell, ties it in with a larger thesis of conservatism breeding homogeniety in comics.

Frank Santoro author of STOREYVILLE, pipes up independently, and I would be overjoyed if his comments were substitued for mine, because he says what I was trying to say in a paragraph:

I feel like I need to be careful here because I’m not saying that I don’t like the new crafty, abstract work that was in evidence this year — I’m simply taking note that there is something new going on. And I like it. The work is beautiful. I do, however, lament the absence of strong characters in this new trend. Whether the comic is well-executed or dashed off what I notice is there isn’t much of a story or any real characters to identify with. There’s no distance, no mediator between the artist’s intention and the reader’s comprehension. I know I’m over-generalizing here. But it’s sort of like abstract painting, which I love, but often leaves me wanting more. Yet the work is usually so visually stunning that one has to hope that the craft and narrative elements will start to balance out. And, ultimately, I hold out much more hope for this approach to making alt comics than the rehashing of every Clowes, Ware, or Tomine story of the last 15 years.

I don’t mean to taint Santoro as an ally — he just happened to notice the same thing I’ve been noticing.

Of course for every person who shares the same concerns, there are the continuing grossly unhelpful over-generalizarions such as the reduction of my argument to “Chris Ware hates storytelling comics” . The worst offender is undoubtedly this guy who, shamefully, actually thinks he agrees with me . No you don’t, and just go away.

Independently, The Comics Journal crowd goes on for 14 pages over Craig Yoe’s yearly lament that “the kids can’t draw.” The Golden Age of comics truly was Roy Crane, and Craig and I probably agree on that.

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It seems that the US version of the cult British sitcom THE IT CROWD has been canned. Perhaps all for the best. This gives IT CROWD (and FATHER TED) creator Graham Linehan the chance to give his advice on how to make the show more palatable to the US audience. It’s MUST reading.

As far as I can make out, even the oddest US mainstream sitcom–’Seinfeld’, say– is rooted in the real world. Mainstream American audiences aren’t used to characters who can cling to ceilings, or sit calmly playing computer games while a fire is raging beside them…all that crap that makes me laugh. I’m not saying they’re incapable of handling this kind of humour, I’m just saying that if you really intend to do this kind of nutty show, you can’t just grab the scripts and slap a few American actors on it. You need to rethink the whole thing, so that people who haven’t seen, say, ‘Blackadder’ about a thousand times, don’t get turned off by all the silly.

Net Gertler reports:

It will be a while before we have the most complete figures on attendance at the event sites, but all told 24 Hour Comics Day 2007 was about as large as the record-setting 24 Hour Comics Day 2006. Despite last-minute event cancellations, there were 80-some 24 Hour Comics Day events in 18 countries, with an estimate of more than 1200 cartoonists taking part. Not all of them completed the challenge to create a 24 page comic book in 24 hours - but what good’s a challenge where everyone succeeds?

Hundreds of cartoonists did reach the 24 page goal. We cannot make a precise estimates until some more page counts come in, but it’s clear that more than 10,000 pages of art were created at these events. Of course, additional stories were created by folks celebrating the holiday at home rather than at an event site.

Several factors kept the event from continuing its significant year-to-year growth. Participation at individual events were limited by severe weather, including snow in some locations and the 65 mile per hour winds around the Jorg’s Coffee event location in Fontana California, which blew out the power repeatedly during the night. Colds run rampant in some communities, understandably discouraging involvement in round-the-clock activities. Perhaps most significant is that this was the first year with no 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights book planned; some event hosts saw the chance for inclusion in that Eisner Award-nominated anthology series as vital bait for bringing in participants.

This holiday has grown impressively in the four years of its existence, and may be hitting the limit of what can be achieved by the strengths of About Comics, the one-man company that founded 24 Hour Comics Day and built it to this point. There are clearly a lot of opportunities left for growth; consider, for example, that in all of New York State there was only one official 24 Hour Comics Day event with space for just 8 cartoonists (although that event, at the Manhattan branch of Jim Hanley’s Universe, was quite an affair, with guest-appearances by 24 hour comics inventor Scott McCloud and by Neal Adams). Contrast that with individual events elsewhere that had as many as 70 people, and its clear that there are enough willing cartoonists out there for many more venues. There is also still much that could be done to better publicize the event and build interest in the cartooning community. As such, About Comics is very interested in hearing from groups that may want to take over the organization of the event, to grow it while maintaining its spirit.

Still, that’s a small matter compared to what has happened this weekend. Please head over to the 24 Hour Comics Day blog to see plenty of pictures, videos, and descriptions at what went on at event sites around the globe. The blog’s sidebar has links to the blogs of individual 24 Hour Comics Day sites and participants, as well as links to some of the 24 hour comics drawn this weekend.

<a href=”http://24hourcomics.com/”>THE IDEA:</a>

On October 20th, 2007, cartoonists around the world will face the 24 hour comics challenge. To help these cartoonists, some comic book stores, educational institutions, libraries, businesses, and comics clubs will host special 24 Hour Comics Day events. They’ll provide cartoonists with a space to work, access to food and drink, and camaraderie.

Meanwhile the 24 Hour Comic  Day Blog is covering all the action…and there is a lot of it.  Check in frequently to hear the goings on around the world — if comics have a worldwide holiday, this is it.

I’m as sick of you-know-what as you are, but thoughtful responses keep rolling in that deserve some link love:

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Whoa! What the heck! Based on the level of opprobrium aimed at me in the last few days, you’d think I’d come up with a plan for health care or something. Instead, I just posted some ideas and hoped for debate. Well, I got it! I guess the internet works after all.

As regular readers may note, I have been away for the last few days so have not been able to keep up with the lively debate here and elsewhere. For the record, I had most of the ideas for the Best American Comics 2007 post (I wouldn’t be brazen enough to call it an essay) when I first read BAC 2007 two months ago but never had time to put it on paper until now, and obviously still haven’t had the time. For those who accused it of being rambling and vague, well it was because it was a BLOG post meant to inspire debate, not (unfortunately) an essay that I worked on for months and months. In hindsight, perhaps I should have given it a few days to mature, but I felt it was better to get it out before I left for SPX and was seduced by the charm and sincerity of the kids and forgave everything. It definitely could have used some tightening up, but I do stand by what I said.

That said, here are some responses to the responses, and before anyone gets upset or brings out a water cannon THESE ARE RANDOM RESPONSES WRITTEN IN MORE OR LESS REAL TIME AND NOT A TIGHTLY THOUGHT OUT ESSAY. You got that?

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As part of my duties as co-editor at PW Comics Week I edit our occasional “Loudmouth” feature, which is, more or less, our editorial page. Opinions, the more opinionated the better. Funny thing. Everytime I ask for topics potential contributors would like to write about, the one that comes up over and over is talking about all those crappy autobio comics. I actually already assigned that one, to A. David Lewis, very early on, ’cause he asked first, and it got a bit of comment going on the blogosphere. Lewis actually backed off pretty quickly, for the usual reason: he didn’t want to hurt any feelings by naming names.

Understandable. But then WHY does this topic keep coming up? It was also the topic of a recent Tim Hodler/Noah Berlatsky blogument in which the Hatfield-McCoy dichotomy of “your either for us or agin us!” was raised. The superhero people are always picking on the arty types, and the artoonists are always picking on the long underwear types. Praising one seems to be damning the other. Talk about polarizing. This makes the US Senate look like one happy family.

But is that really the problem? I don’t think so. The problem is that both sides are squeezing out the middle ground. I’ve covered the hegemony of the superhero pretty well here at the Beat, so as I head off to SPX, one of my very most favorite shows of the year, to hobnob with snotty indie cartooners, perhaps it is time to look at the other side: the hegemony of the shoe gazer. And there exists no finer exhibit to document this than The Best American Comics 2007.

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§ Over the weekend, Tom thought a LOT about webcomics.

§ CBR interviews Eric Reynods about MOME not too long ago:

When you started “Mome,” you had something different from the typical alternative comics anthology in mind, correct?

Before “Mome” started, what I see as the dominant anthology that’s out there, at least in the terms as what I perceive as being the best work, was “Kramers Ergot,” and “NON” when Jordan Crane was doing that. A few other things here and there, but I guess that “Kramers” has become the big one. And I totally love it. I think that there has been some perception that “Mome” was at odds with “Kramers.” I never intended that to be the case, although I did intend for it to be very different. I simply wanted it to be more accessible. Some people may take that for better or worse because “accessibility” is going to imply a little bit more conservatism than you’d find with “Kramers.”

§ We usually avoid linkblogging to the outrageous statements of John Byrne, because that would be a daily website, but this takedown of CAPTAIN CARROT link which is going around is too funny not to share.

CAPTAIN CARROT was a virtual textbook of How to Get It Wrong. The internal logic was constantly skewed. What would prompt anyone to coin the term “pig iron” in a world inhabited, at least in part, by intelligent pigs? Wouldn’t that be an awful “racist” slur? What would an “alley cat” be in a world with intelligent cats? And, seriously, can we imagine a “real” superhero called, say, Captain Hamburger?

The book had all the earmarks of a “parody” — but, of course, it was a “parallel universe”, not a parody!! — done by civilians. By people who do not “get” the language of superhero comics. Appalling, when you consider who actually created it.

And let us never forget the solemn pronouncement from The Powers That Were, lo these many years ago —- “CRISIS is going to get rid of all the parallel Earths — except the one inhabited by Captain Carrot!”

§ Jeff Smith, pull your pants up.

Cartoonist Matthew Bernier sends is a testimonial on where to get the best brushes:

The best brushes in the world are made by a nice lady in England
Every person who has ever used a brush to do very precise ink drawing has wanted to magically imbue the brush with the ability to feel real human pain, so that they could take out their frustration on it by snapping it in half. For those of us who have fallen in love with the kind of performance and quality of line only costly kolinsky brushes can provide, life is nothing but expense and inconvenience. We try cheaper brushes, but they lack the sharp point and snap to make those beautiful lines we’re so addicted to. The outrageous expense of the kolinsky brushes isn’t their only problem, but it’s the biggest, and there seems no way around it.

At list price, even a small #2 size brush will run you over 20 dollars. A #4 will cost you nearly double that. There are discount sites where you could purchase the same brushes online, for half the price. But anyone who’s done that knows it isn’t that easy. Buying brushes without testing them first is like unprotected sex with a pool of mostly high-risk partners- you WILL get a bad one, and you WILL regret it. Winsor and Newton and Raphael are generally agreed to make the best kolinsky brushes commercially available. This is almost true- they make the best brushes in the world- EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. The rest of them are worse to use than a cheaper, less springy, less pointy brush. At least a cheap nylon brush won’t splay. We’ve all had the experience of going around a very precise, delicate curve, and as we’re coming around the bend, and the brush is bent with tension, a stray hair sticks out it’s hand and draws another spidery line right next to our line. Or worse, the splayed hair acts like the second point of a pen nib, and suddenly the brush starts drawing a thick, wet line twice as wide as we wanted. It’s confidence destroying. And about nine out of ten expensive kolinsky brushes does this. So you can’t order them- you need to go to a store, where you must pay the full price, and try the brushes out. Often, they are out of good ones, so you must return, perhaps four or five times, until you find a good one. It’s so expensive and time consuming that I’ve seen it drive artists to use markers out of sheer frustration.

Well, there’s a nice lady from England named Rosemary who’s come to save us all. For the last 25 years, she’s made brushes by hand and sold them by mail order, directly from her house, to artists. She makes all kinds of brushes, for oil paint, acrylic, watercolor- and she makes Kolinsky brushes with such beautiful razor points you’ll be scared to cut yourself on them. And she sells them for way less money. How much less? I bought four #2 size brushes and one #4 from her, and with shipping from England included, it came to $36.37- less than the list price of a single #3 brush. Every one of them has a perfect point. And if she sent me one that didn’t, she would gladly replace it, or refund my money in full. Even though it cost me an extra couple bucks, I called her in England to Order, because I wanted to actually speak with her. She picked up her home phone after 2 rings, greeting me with a bright, almost musical English accent. She took my information and my order, and she’d processed it less than ten minutes after I got off the phone with her.

Her website is www.rosemaryandco.com. Everyone who inks with a brush should give this woman their business. Her website has a downloadable online catalogue with 4 styles of kolinsky brush suitable for inking with. And she’ll even make you a custom brush if you like. For instance, she can make you a brush with a triangular handle, if you have arthritis. (the price goes up on custom jobs, of course.)

I don’t think there are a lot of people left who still make brushes by hand this well, let alone who sell them directly to you for 1/4th the cost. Take advantage of this lady’s amazing talent while you can.

Jesse Hamm reproduces Winsor Mccay’s response to a Clare Briggs questionnaire on how to be a cartoonist:

Much much more in link.

Caleb Monroe has put together a page of online resources for would-be (and be) comics writers. Looks like an impressive amount of work went into it. Sample topics:

WRITING FOR COMICS (GENERAL):

The Craft - Alan Moore interviewed by Daniel Whiston
Writing Comics (part 1, part 2 and part 3) by Warren Ellis
Advice on Writing Comics and Breaking In by Brian K. Vaughan
Writing for comics by Kurt Busiek
Writing Comics - Warren Ellis interviewed by Neil Kleid
Writing comics by Mike Baron
Writer’s Style Guide by Christopher Priest
No Golden Biscuits (Breaking In) by Chuck Dixon
Comics Writing Fundamentals by Jennifer de Guzman
Script Writing by Alan Moore and Jeph Loeb
How 2 Rite Gud by Andy Mangels and Jonathan Clements
Comics Storytelling Tips That Work by John Freeman
Writing for Comics by Anina Bennett
Writing for Comic Books by Joe Edkin
Writing Comic Books by Barry Lyga

Bookmark it now — this is a treasure trove of information.

Via Brigid comes the tale of Takeshi Miyazawa, an American manga-style artist who moved to Japan to follow his dream after being published in the US by Marvel. He had his big day showing his portfolio at Kodansha, the DC/Random House of Japan and the results were…sobering:

The editor flipped through my print-outs while I sat there totally blanking. I didn’t know what he was gonna say and he was expressionless throughout his viewing so there weren’t any hints for me either. Anyway, he put down the pitch and came straight out with that it wasn’t good enough. There were problems with both art and story but I’ll just focus on the art since that’s what I’m most concerned with.

One of the major points was that it didn’t have enough “manga-isms” to it. By that, he meant, more light-hearted touches like those wacky faces and more humourous touches that many people associate with manga backhome. I studiously avoided any of that stuff and it seems it came around to bite me in the ass. Also, not enough movement in the images. [snip]

He suggested maybe entering a seasonal contest for new talent his magazine had since I was at that level or assisting an established artist to pick up certain techniques I was lacking. Other than that, he couldn’t really do anything for me. I asked a few questions and we talked about some of the story elements afterwards but that was pretty much the bulk of our conversation. The entire interview lasted about 45 minutes.

Oh snap! One recalls — as Miyazawa does — that Paul Pope drew hundreds of pages for Kodansha before being told he didn’t cut the wasabi. None of it has ever seen print.

The Japanese manga publishing world is notoriously hard to break into if you’re not actually Japanese, apparently. We don’t mean that in a snarky, racist way — growing up in a dramatically different culture means there are things you just don’t get. Whereas kids who just learn to draw by copying seem to be the wave of the future. It’s an interesting situation. We don’t recall off-hand if foreign manga-ka are any luckier at smaller publishers, or any any “OGM/OEL” has made it in Japan. We seem to recall that Tokyopop’s PRINCESS AI was published over there, but our memory is a little spotty these days.

Miyazawa vows to keep on trying, and we wish him luck. That was a tough day for any artist.

Comic Sans from Genre Creative and Vimeo.
Via Unbeige

Super colorist Steve Hamaker posts the first in a series of video tutorials on his coloring techniques. viagra 30sec0.03 level xanax forcovetous all tramadol aboutday viagra 1100 tramadolxanax .25 withdrawal mgviagra ligne achat enmg 100 tramadol 800ct Map

The Engine, the how to message board, is going away soon, and with it a treasure house of knowledge, in between the pictures of girls in their underwear. Caleb Monroe’s post onhow to pitch and make submissions to editors deserves to be archived in full:

1.) The Pitch by Warren Ellis
2.) Creating Comics Step-By-Step: The Pitch by Steven Grant

As for etiquette:
Proposal Etiquette by Dan Wickline with various editors
Getting Your Submission Read by various editors
On her blog, SLG editor Jennifer DeGuzman does a series where she goes through their submission slushpile and points out people’s mistakes.
Top 10 Tips for Comic Book Writers (pertains especially to preparing a proposal) by Image Shadowline editor Kris Simon.

“The Rule of Four Ps” when submitting by C.B. Cebulski

In fact, if anyone ever asks us how to break into comics again, we’re just going to cut and paste this again and again and again.

Extra: Justin Jordan’s list of archived posts. Get it quick.

Eddie Campbell has been looking at logos:

I got around my complete lack of confidence by cutting a couple of letters out of a magazine and sticking another incongrous one in between. The whole cover was quite simple and tasteful. Phill Elliott did the hand separated colours. I never attempted that, and thank goodness I probably won’t ever have to now. Much later I tried the cut-out thing again and this time coupled it with the blobby technique (see yesterday) for the Bacchus logo. Actually, the original was a baroque horror, with a pictorial element and a Kleenex smear all thrown into the mix. By the time Evans hacked it down to size and spread it out a bit it was much sweeter. That single cut out letter gives the thing an unearned air of authority.

He talks about the FROM HELL logo here.

Regular readers, and people who know The Beat know how much we adore legendary animator Floyd Norman. Many were the times during our Disney days when Norman would stand in our office and deliver a succinct but pithy truth that has stood with us to this day. Luckily readers can enjoy the Norman point of view in his columns at Jim Hill Media, and today he pens a great one which explains that sometimes the true test of a true visionary is accepting something that you don’t agree with:

Maybe Walt Disney wasn’t the first “control freak” in history, but he was certainly worthy of that dubious title. Every story idea, art style and casting choice in a motion picture had to go through Walt first. When you worked for Walt Disney you either became Walt Disney or you went somewhere else. Your story ideas had to be acceptable to Walt. Your art styling had to match Disney’s artistic sensibility. The studio was the perfect reflection of its founder.

Knowing these things, would it surprise you to know that the Old Maestro actually encouraged dissension in the ranks? Would you be shocked to know Walt Disney allowed his artists and writers to pursue their own vision even though it might be in total opposition to the accepted Disney style?

To be sure, Walt Disney was an enigma. On one hand, he wanted things done his way, and he was not tolerant of opposition. Having said that, how does one explain the latitude he often gave those who traveled a different path? Some might say he was only giving those “radicals” enough rope to hang themselves so he could be done with them. Such was not the case. The Old Maestro may have ultimately rejected their ideas, but he was perfectly willing to allow those ideas to be pursued.

Don’t take our word for it, read the whole thing, with pictures.

Above: Ward Kimball, a maverick if ever there was one.

“Editors at conventions are usually tired and/or drunk.”
–Ricardo González Llarena in a thread on how to pitch to editors at cons. (The short answer: don’t.)

Man when he said he was going to be blogging he wasn’t kidding, as in this analysis of the HEAVY METAL logo:

I like the heavy, easily readable letters, and I think the design of “HEAVY,” having it sinking into the word “METAL” below is a brilliant example of a logo that expresses what it says. This doesn’t always work, but here it’s perfect. The logo is distinctive, original, and could probably be read at a great distance, helpful on a newsstand.

and this: How to: finding Faber-Castell TG1 pens.

Master letterer Todd Klein has a brand-new website that includes his commentary on logos and lettering, galleries, photos, how-tos and much else. Bookmark!

In the topics at right I have some basic How To information, much of which is also covered in the book. But I’m hoping this site will offer a place to answer further questions and expand on these topics. If you have questions, or would like more information about how to create your own lettering, logos or comics design work, email them to me using the CONTACT tab at the top of this page. I’ll address as many as I can on my blog in the NEWS section of the site first, then add them to the topics here as appropriate.

Press Release (Found at the TCJ board)

The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is proud to announce its approval from the State of Vermont Department of Education Board to award Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Degrees. Based on recommendations from the Vermont Higher Education Council during their June meeting, the State Board approved CCS for Degree-Granting Authority and a Certificate of Approval to offer one-year certificates in cartooning and summer educator courses.

“This is a landmark decision from the State,” says CCS board member and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Arts Council, Peggy Kannenstine. “What NYU’s Film School is for film or Iowa’s Writing Workshop is for writing, The Center for Cartoon Studies is for comics. Beyond its educational impact, CCS is a fine example of the creative economy at work: helping revitalize a depressed downtown with the economic lift from students, faculty, and tourism. Its contributions to the State and Industry are impressive and quantifiable. It’s appropriate and important to recognize CCS’s quality and the high level of instruction with the terminal degree and certificates.”

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Matt Madden and Tom Hart have a cartoon challenge as the reënact “The Five Obstructions.”

Tom has been doing a daily strip for New York and Boston’s Metro newspaper for a while now and has been looking for ways to keep it interesting and lively for himself and his readers, so the movie inspired him to ask me–we’ve actively shared an interest in Oubapo and experimentation in general for years–to come up with some constraints for his strip.

We have decided to make the dialogue public: my constraints, his creative process, my reaction to his results, etc. You can read his introduction here and my first constraint here. Be sure to keep checking his blog over the next week or two, it should be interesting.