With the wrinkles in the Distro site ironed out, The Underground machine is back and chugging away! So I'd like to take a couple of minutes to go over the second judges review of The Underground #0. So without further adieu ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Sam Johnson...
"The story here is a little confusing in places, but the art's strong and the story sets things up ok enough. The cover's not great, particularly as a first issue: We're not familiar with who the characters are that are at threat. A more 'introductory'-feeling cover would have worked better as a hook-in. For future issues, you should make the logo colouring very distinct from the background colours, as well.
As I've stated before the bugs-at-war concept doesn't appeal to me personally...but making the hero flawed and vulnerable in the way you have is a good way to humanize things a little.
It's not for me, but I know the book found a strong following in the previous rounds voting, and I wish you all the best with it."
Whew. Well...not everyone's going to be a fan, and I've always respected your criticism Sam. I hope I can address some of the concerns here, I'd also like to think I can benefit from some of your points here and in future. The story transition suffered a little for one main reason. As I've stated before, I'm an artist and writing sometimes hits the back burner for me. So in this round I focused deeper on the story and enlisted the help of my friend Chris Walker. While I feel this had a positive impact on the story we were left with two points of jitter where the two writing styles didn't mesh seamlessly. I should have reworked the original three pages from round three. I hope this is what you mean with the story, if it isn't I would love to have some more specific feedback for future improvement.
The cover? I've got mixed feelings on the cover to be honest. As a design, I dig the concept. I feel that it begs a few questions....what are these creatures? What happened to the one on the ground? What are they so afraid of? But the colours are wrong, and that's a fact. I had another cover in mind initially with more blue in the background. This I think would have worked well. But then I changed the cover and didn't think of the problem till the very end. Oops. I wonder what sort of ways I could change the colouring of the logo and still maintain the earthy concept? Any thoughts on that from anyone would be awesome.
Again, I can't hope to win everyone, I am glad though that the art is satisfying, and the twists with the main hero work for you. Thanks again for you input, I really do hope to hear from you soon.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The Round Four Judgement pt.1
So I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss what the judges had to say about The Underground #0. It has been a long hard battle for me and my buggy friends, but what the judges have said so far has enabled this book to succeed in the fashion which it has already in this competition. So today we'll start with the first judge to post...Mr. Roger Foucault.
"I am really impressed by these segmented arthropods and the staging approach to the entire entry. Very visually appealling work here, and the scripting kept me reading easily and with intense yearning to read more panel to panel, and page to page.
The brief introduction of the humans on page 14, and their insignificance in the story despite their massive presence, was also a nice touch.
Good use of effects here and there as well, I can see this as a made-for-tv-cartoon series, it has that much marketable appeal.
This subterranean world has my audience and appreciation. Very well done."
And to that I say...wow! Thank you Roger. Those are some pretty big words, and appreciated praises. As far as the scripting is concerned, with the help of my good friend Chris Walker, I've started to look at each page, and each panel on a larger scale. Constantly asking myself what the bigger picture is, I find myself pushing for different ways to convey the story to the audience. This is a very thick and rich world I've created, but I am guilty of not always demonstrating its depth properly. I'm happy to see that the extra time given to storyboarding, and plot development has paid off in some extent.
Also, as I push myself for new ways to tell the story, I am constantly finding new ways to visually represent it. Much of the digital work is self-taught, so admittedly I am learning page by page. Once again, I'm happy that these little experiments have been welcomed as admirable artistic touches.
Lastly, I may be biased, but I would have to agree with you as to the marketable appeal of the book. In fact, when laying out the book, I find myself visually it as though it were a movie. This helps me carry the reader better through my myriad of thoughts, and inspirations. Who knows, maybe it is only a matter of time before kids are watching Cyrus, and the Zealots Elite on Saturday mornings, just as so many of us were glued to the Ninja Turtles. Only time will tell.
As always Roger, your criticism and insight means the world to me, and I hope it can continue through future endeavours.
If you want to find out more about what we're talking about, head over to the Dimestore, and pick up your copy of The Underground #0!
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/content343.html
"I am really impressed by these segmented arthropods and the staging approach to the entire entry. Very visually appealling work here, and the scripting kept me reading easily and with intense yearning to read more panel to panel, and page to page.
The brief introduction of the humans on page 14, and their insignificance in the story despite their massive presence, was also a nice touch.
Good use of effects here and there as well, I can see this as a made-for-tv-cartoon series, it has that much marketable appeal.
This subterranean world has my audience and appreciation. Very well done."
And to that I say...wow! Thank you Roger. Those are some pretty big words, and appreciated praises. As far as the scripting is concerned, with the help of my good friend Chris Walker, I've started to look at each page, and each panel on a larger scale. Constantly asking myself what the bigger picture is, I find myself pushing for different ways to convey the story to the audience. This is a very thick and rich world I've created, but I am guilty of not always demonstrating its depth properly. I'm happy to see that the extra time given to storyboarding, and plot development has paid off in some extent.
Also, as I push myself for new ways to tell the story, I am constantly finding new ways to visually represent it. Much of the digital work is self-taught, so admittedly I am learning page by page. Once again, I'm happy that these little experiments have been welcomed as admirable artistic touches.
Lastly, I may be biased, but I would have to agree with you as to the marketable appeal of the book. In fact, when laying out the book, I find myself visually it as though it were a movie. This helps me carry the reader better through my myriad of thoughts, and inspirations. Who knows, maybe it is only a matter of time before kids are watching Cyrus, and the Zealots Elite on Saturday mornings, just as so many of us were glued to the Ninja Turtles. Only time will tell.
As always Roger, your criticism and insight means the world to me, and I hope it can continue through future endeavours.
If you want to find out more about what we're talking about, head over to the Dimestore, and pick up your copy of The Underground #0!
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/content343.html
Monday, August 3, 2009
Small Press Idol Round 4!!
Voting in Round 4
So here it is the Grand Finale! This is the round where every entrance gets its well deserved chance to shine. It is going to be a tough round with some very tough competition, but you can make a difference. Voting in Round 4 is carried out in the manner of selling our books, it's all about promoting, spreading the word, and getting our masterpiece into the hands of a wider audience. Each project will have a score which is representative of three factors. 1) Number of people buying or ordering books 2) Number of copies of the book sold. 3) Number of PDF's which are downloaded. These numbers will be added together and averaged out for a 'score' and the highest score wins.
Wanna help? Starting now you can download the PDF of the Underground #0. Go to the following link...
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/content343.html
Click on The Underground cover, and follow the steps to checkout. The PDF (downloadable immediately) costs $2.00 US. The paper copy (shipped in September) costs $3.50 US. The site accepts credit card, and Paypal.
If you can't use one of those options, contact me and I can order them on your behalf. I'll just need your shipping info, I'll be placing all of my orders at the end of August.
Border City Comics will also be taking part taking preorders and such.
Thanks as always to everyone, please contact me if you have any questions. It all comes down to this!!
So here it is the Grand Finale! This is the round where every entrance gets its well deserved chance to shine. It is going to be a tough round with some very tough competition, but you can make a difference. Voting in Round 4 is carried out in the manner of selling our books, it's all about promoting, spreading the word, and getting our masterpiece into the hands of a wider audience. Each project will have a score which is representative of three factors. 1) Number of people buying or ordering books 2) Number of copies of the book sold. 3) Number of PDF's which are downloaded. These numbers will be added together and averaged out for a 'score' and the highest score wins.
Wanna help? Starting now you can download the PDF of the Underground #0. Go to the following link...
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/content343.html
Click on The Underground cover, and follow the steps to checkout. The PDF (downloadable immediately) costs $2.00 US. The paper copy (shipped in September) costs $3.50 US. The site accepts credit card, and Paypal.
If you can't use one of those options, contact me and I can order them on your behalf. I'll just need your shipping info, I'll be placing all of my orders at the end of August.
Border City Comics will also be taking part taking preorders and such.
Thanks as always to everyone, please contact me if you have any questions. It all comes down to this!!
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