Radiant Comics

Comic book covers might become important again. That’s my observation for the week. In the olden days comic book covers used to be really important for a comic book. They are what often sold the comic. Editors and artists sweated out what the cover should look like. It was the first thing a potential buyer saw and it had to pull the buyer in, make him look at the comic, want to have it, and then buy it. That’s a big job for cover so it was an important job. Sometime in the late 1990s that job importance went away. Probably because of the internet but it might have started earlier than that.

It might have started to happen when comic book companies began using future covers as advertising. I can remember, sometime in the 1980s, when publishers began running a small version of next issue’s cover at the end of any given issue. You got to see the artwork a month in advance. They would also run a couple of other comic’s covers with it. So if you read all three comics being promoted you might see all three of next month’s covers three times. By the time next month’s issue rolled around you’d already be familiar with the cover image. It was no big deal.

Another thing that chipped away at a comic book cover’s importance was the Previews catalogue. This is the book from which comic book stores and comic book fans can see what’s coming out in a couple of months and order what they want. It was in the mid 1990s when comic book distribution was whittled down to one company that Previews really gained in importance. Publishers often had to get covers done long before the comic was finished to have something to show in Previews. This is one of the factors that lead to generic pin-up shot comic book covers. The cover had to be done before the story was finalized so a shot of Spider-Man swinging on his web will do just fine.

The other part of the Previews equation was that a lot of comic book buyers would be deciding months in advance what comic they were ordering/buying. It didn’t matter if the cover was good or bad. Previews had in it information about who was writing and drawing the comic plus and guest stars or special events that might be happening. There were no surprises to be found on a comic book cover because all the information was out there already.

I think it was at this point that editors and artists stopped sweating so much about the cover. It was no longer one of the main things that sold a comic book. Also generic covers could be used for different purposes. A generic shot of Spider-Man swinging through the city could be used on a T-Shirt, jacket, poster, ad, stationary, playground ball, or whatever else they could think of to stick it on. Generic artwork became more valuable to a publisher than a good comic book cover. So comic book covers became generic.

Of course the internet speeded up this whole process. Now almost every bit of information is available long before a comic comes out. Every website about comics posts images of upcoming comic book covers. I would guess that almost nobody buys a comic book these days based on it having an good cover that piques their interest. There are still some artists that specialize in making comic book covers and they do a good job of it but I don’t know how much of a difference having one of those big name artists doing the cover makes in impulse sales. This summer I bought a Batman book that I don’t usually buy just because I liked the cover but that doesn’t happen too often.

So why do I think comic book covers can be important again? E-Mail of all things. Y’see I recently got an iPad. With that, of course, I got all the comic book publisher’s apps so that I could check out what they had to offer in the way of digital comics. I’m an old folky who doesn’t really like digital comics but I’m also a gadget geek who likes to keep up with the latest stuff. None of the apps made the covers very important. They were mostly small thumbnail images that you clicked on the see more info about the comics. Nothing special.

The publishers’s comic reading apps are all free and they offer free samples but as is par for the course they want you to sign in with an e-mail address so they can keep track of your stuff and try to sell you things. Nothing new there. It was later on in the week that I got an E-mail from Marvel advertising the first issue of the Defenders. The E-mail had a little copy and a big image of the cover. Rather than the thumbnails or small images of covers I was uses to on the web this one was big and had some impact. I actually thought is was cool to see such a nice reproduction of the cover. When the next week’s E-mail came I was actually interested to see what cover they would show me. That’s pretty unusual for me to care about advertising e-mails and it got me thinking about comic book covers.

The major flaw with my hope that comic book covers could become important again is that both covers they showed me weren’t very good. I’ve always said that it takes three things to make a good comic book cover: good design, good drawing, and it must tell a story. The “Must tell a story” part is what makes comic book covers unique and used to give them their cache in our society. Even if a person had no interest in comic books a comic book cover could very well amuse them. That counts for something.

Even though I didn’t think the comic book covers were good I was excited to see them full sized and in my inbox. I think that’s a successful way to present a comic book cover: large, by itself, and with a little bit of type for presenting information. Give the image a chance to do what it’s supposed to do. Sell me the book. I think that if the covers were interesting I would have bought the comic when I was at the comic shop. I did, at least, track “The Defenders” down and look at it that week.

I think that if editors and artists start thinking again about what makes a good comic book cover and presents those covers full size in digital form then a cover can once again start to take on its task of selling a comic book. It’ll work on me.

I’m bored with everything in life so I guess that means it’s time for another TV round-up. The new TV season is well under way and I’ve checked out some new shows as well as watched some old ones. Yeah, that’s everybody’s TV watching in a nutshell but sometimes it’s good to state the obvious. So what new shows have I checked out?

First there is “New Girl”. This show has grown on me a bit. At first I didn’t like it much. I mean, seriously, we were supposed to believe that Zooey Deschanel was such a weirdo that guys don’t like her? It was too distracting that the writers expected up to believe that. It made the whole show unfunny. But then, around the Thanksgiving episode, they acknowledged that Zooey is actually hot and guys would find her attractive no matter how quirky her character is. Things got funnier after that and the show is now okay. Not great but okay. That’s a start.

“2 Broke Girls” is the other sitcom I’ve checked out a handful of episodes of. It’s very sitcom-y. Poor girl and ex-rich girl live in hipster infested Williamsburg Brooklyn, work as waitresses, and teach each other lessons about life. There are plenty of wacky side characters too. Plus it’s loud. I don’t know if they’re shouting all the time, have the laugh track turned up, or it’s just me but everything on this show seems loud. I find that annoying sometimes. But overall the show is okay. They telegraph a lot of the jokes but it can also be funny. Though I do find myself laughing at how stupid it is sometimes. Much like “New Girl” it has reached a level of competency and now can either level off into mediocrity or get better and become good. We’ll see.

I’ve also watched “Terra Nova”. This one ended up going on my “Have on in the background” list. I like it but not enough to give my full attention to. I’ll put it on while I’m doing other things or want to have something on to distract me a little bit but not suck me in. The show is about people traveling back in time and living with dinosaurs. I find it a little nostalgic as it reminds me of family oriented sci-fi TV shows from the 70s and 80s. Most of those shows were awful but they were the only sci-fi stuff on TV. “Terra Nova” is semi-awful but somehow comforting. Every criticism you’ve heard about it is true but I still like to have it on as I draw.

I just started watching “Grimm” too. It’s a police procedural mixed with a monster of the week show. So far it’s okay. There is some sort of meta-story going on but so far they haven’t gone too much into it. I’m a bit tired of meta-stories so I’m glad we haven’t seen much of it yet. The show is just a few episodes old so it hasn’t had much time to distinguish itself so I’ll have to wait and see if it gets good or not.

And some of my returning favorites are:

”It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”- The gang is back and getting into all sorts of stupid situations. That sentence can be used to describe any season of the show but it’s true. This show is consistently crazy and funny and this season is no different. I always look forward to watching new episodes. Other shows aspire to be this funny.

”The Walking Dead” – I read the comic and I watch the TV show. I like the comic better but the show has been good. It’s not really about fighting zombies, like most zombie movies, but about survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Zombies are sudden death but it’s the surviving humans who are as much a problem as anything. A solid show.

“The Big Bang Theory” – Another funny season. I’ve liked all the female cast members they’ve added over the years and now there is quite an ensemble of comic players to have stories about. Nothing earth-shattering but a good, dependable, funny sitcom.

“How I Met Your Mother” – Another solid sitcom where the real stars are the supporting cast. The lead character is the least interesting one in the bunch but he still does a decent job. Neil Patrick Harris steals the show as he has since the beginning but the other supporting players are also funny. Once again, a sitcom where I kind of know what to expect but those expectations involve some laughs.

“Burn Notice” – This show seems to destroy itself at the end of every season and then rebuild itself at the beginning the next season. I like the show episode to episode but I’ve almost lost track of what the meta-story is. I thought the lead character finally got back at the guys who burned him but there always seems to be some organization behind the organization he defeats. I still enjoy the show even if I’ve lost track of who the mysterious bad guys are.

“Castle”, “Bones”, and “The Mentalist” I’d describe about the same way. They continue to be breezy, entertaining, fun, police procedurals. You get some comedy, drama, and character development all while solving a murder case. I think I’ve grown a little less interested in “Bones” but I have no explanation for why. All three are pleasant diversions.

“Community” – Continues to be one of the most imaginative comedies on TV. It puts it’s diverse cast into all sorts of weird situations and references all sorts of pop culture stuff in funny and creative ways. It doesn’t think just mentioning something about Star Wars is a joke about Star Wars like so many other shows. This and ”It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” are my two go-to comedies that I look forward to each week.

“Dexter” – A consistently good show but I think I liked last season better. Of course the reason I liked last season better was because Julia Stiles was in it and she’s easy on the eyes. That’s no real reason for one season being better than another so you might like this one better than that one. Either way “Dexter” continues to be good and I’ll continue to watch it.

“Fringe” and “Supernatural” both continue to be good. “Fringe” managed to reinvent its parallel world storyline this season in an interesting way and I’m continually impressed at how “Supernatural” manages to come up with new and different world threatening meta-stories after they’ve saved the world time after time. Both also do the “Monster of the Week” thing well with “Fringe” being the more sci-fi brain powered show while “Supernatural” depends more on ass-kicking.

“The Office” has been a bit of a disappointment. I think it lost its footing last season and had never really regained it. It’s not terrible or anything but I think the characters are less defined and less funny. I’ve still been watching it but I don’t look forward to it as I used to.

And by the way I never watch live TV anymore. Everything is recorded and time-shifted. I’m one of the people advertisers hate and the feeling is mutual. So what have you been watching?

I’ve got a few phrases or concepts of my own that I use all the time to describe certain situations I find myself in over and over. One that I was contemplating tonight has to do with comic books and what I call “The Brooklyn Bridge Effect”. The part that has to do with comic books involves the now standard decision of comic book readers everywhere of whether to buy a comic book in the monthly format or wait until the publisher collects a bunch of the issues in a collected book format.

It’s no small choice to a comic book reader because each way has its benefits and its pitfalls. First of all I like monthly comics. I like going to the comic shop, picking up my regular books, looking over the racks for new comics, and chatting with other collectors. It’s fun. Talking with friends or acquaintances who are reading the same comics as me is one of the good things about monthly comics. We’re all at the same part of the story and we’re all waiting to read what comes next. It’s like a book club where no one can read ahead so everyone is at the same point in the book.

I also like the periodical nature of monthly comics. Waiting for the next issue to come out is part of the fun. At least if the writer makes it part of the fun. Almost all comics used to end with a sort of cliffhanger to try and get everyone to show up next month. Often the cliffhanger was a “Too be continued” interruption in the story but sometimes it was just a “Next Issue” blurb that gave a hint of the next story. Either way if the issue was satisfying I’d be back next month.

These days a lot of that monthly comic book story telling has gone away. Writers are “Writing for the collection”. They know the issues are going to be bound into one volume so they treat that one volume as the thing rather than the monthly issues. This can have the effect of making the monthly issues less interesting to read on a month to month basis. Stories no longer have cliffhangers and instead just stop abruptly. It can be disconcerting. Sometimes things stop so suddenly that I think that a page must be missing. The writer wants the story to read in the collection without the interruption of a monthly demanded ending but that can make the monthly reading of the comic disjointed and unsatisfying. I think a writer can, and some do, strike a nice balance between the monthly and collected read, they’re not necessarily at cross purposes, but a lot of writers find it easier to ignore the monthly reader. I find that can put me off. If the writer doesn’t care about the monthly reader why should I care to buy the monthly comic?

The problem I have with my decision to wait and buy a collection of a comics is that often by the time the collection comes out I’ve forgotten about it. Let’s say I see a comic book that interests me a little. Do I pay three or four dollars to try an issue out or do I wait for a collection of it months in the future that collects five or six issues of it for twenty to thirty dollars? The price is usually about the same per issue but the collected version has no ads and, though I like comic books a lot, is usually a nicely bound book with extra behind the scenes stuff thrown in. As an object the collection is usually a better value than the monthly comics.

If I buy that issue to try it out, like it, but find it’s “Written for the collection” I’m better off just waiting for the collection. Then, of course, buying that one issue has driven up the overall price I’ve spent for the collection. So often if I see a monthly comic that interests me I won’t buy it. I’d rather wait for the collection so I have a better chance to get a whole story in case the comic is “Written for the collection” and not sampling the monthly keeps costs down as a collection is cheaper than a collection plus a sampled issue. The problem with this whole approach is that often I never see the collected version as it comes out months later and even if I do I it might not strike up my interest anymore. Sometimes the whole collection or monthlies make it a pain to try new comics.

So where does the Brooklyn Bridge fit in to all of this? Well, as you approach the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side on the FDR drive you’ll come to the right hand exit lane. Being that it’s NYC that lane can get backed up. So what people do then is drive as far as they can in the regular lane and then cut into the line of traffic waiting in the exit lane. So this is your choice when trying to go over the Brooklyn Bridge. You can be one of the assholes who breaks the rules and cuts the line or you can be one of the suckers who waits patiently in line. You’re a sucker or an asshole. There is no other choice so pick one.

This choice comes into play when buying comics. You see the monthly comics subsidize the collections. If comics had to survive on just the sales of collections they’d go out of business. The business model is to make profit on the monthlies which means all the work is paid for by the time the collections come out so they can be sold at a lower price than they otherwise would be because a lot of the overhead is covered.

Now there are people who only buy collections. They’ll tell you this as if they’re bragging. I can see why they’re only buying collections because the “Writing for the collection” approach encourages this but they’re also the assholes benefiting from the loyalty of monthly comic readers whom they often distain. Or at least they distain monthly comic reading.

So there is the choice I face when deciding which comics format I want to read. I can be the sucker who pays for monthly comics even though writers don’t care about servicing their monthly readers anymore and knowing that the money I spend will allow some other reader to brag to me about how little money he was able to get the collected version for on Amazon or I can be that asshole who waits for the collected version with the extras with smug superiority.

That’s my choice: sucker or asshole. That’s the Brooklyn Bridge Effect. Comic publishers have got to come up with a better way.

As the day started out this morning I was tired. It was one of those days where I didn’t think I was going to get much done but ended up working all day on stuff. It started slowly as Sunday mornings tend to do. I went for a bike ride at about 8:30 in the morning. When I ride on a weekday I wait until after nine so that traffic dies down a bit but on the weekends I like to ride a little earlier. Though I often work on my art on the weekends I don’t always like to start at my usual weekday 8AM start time. I’ll putter around for a bit first or maybe read or straighten things up. On weekdays I like to get things started and well under way before my bike ride but on weekends I’m in such a hurry to get things going. Half an hour less less of a hurry at least.

Yesterday I worked on some drawings for the new comic “Message Tee” that I’ve been working on for a while now. It’s a gag comic where the gag consists of odd people with odd messages on their T-shirts. A simple concept but one I found hard to execute. It turns out that it’s really boring to draw people doing nothing but standing around in T-Shirts. Sure if someone were paying me money to do it that would be no problem but this is my own project. I have to find it interesting to do or no one will find it interesting to look at. I’ve been working on the comic for over a year. I’ve used three different drawing approaches, two different coloring approaches, a Photoshop filter recipe, and a couple of inkings approaches and now I’m finally close to having something finished.

I mention inking approaches because that was what I was doing today. When it comes to inking, which is finishing a drawing started in pencil with ink, I’m a brush guy. Some people are brush people and some people are pen people. Most inkers use some of both but one is primary. For me the brush is primary. I like it as a tool and I can do more with it than a pen. I think with a brush better than with a pen. So how come when I was faced this morning with pulling out my brush and inking the Message Tee drawings I made yesterday it filled me with disinterest? I don’t know why but as I was scanning in the drawings to print them out in blue line for inking I was not looking forward to inking them.

I consider the prepping of the drawing that I do before I ink them to be busy work. It’s easy, takes no thinking, and I’ve done it many times before. It’s one of those jobs that I have to start just so I can finish. It’s neither enjoyable nor painful. When I lack motivation to do anything else I can often get this busy work done. So that’s what I was doing after my bike ride. Busy work. Scanning. Printing. No thinking involved.

It was only after that busy work was over that I had to decide if I wanted to ink any of the drawings today. The thought of it bored me but I wanted to work on something for a little while. So I decided to do things a little differently. I grabbed a marker. I do a lot of drawing with my various black markers but it’s all preliminary drawing. I like to do my basic visual thinking in ink and a marker is a really good tool for that. I can draw out ideas without worrying about fixing things and prettying the drawing up as I do when I draw in pencil. The lack of an eraser is actually helpful. It frees the mind from caring about mistakes that, at this point, are inconsequential.

I have a lot of different types of black markers. Thick ones, thin ones, brush markers, and any other type I can find. I like to find new ones and try them out. Yet still marker is generally not a finished medium to me. Ink is. So when I want to make a finished ink drawing I put away the markers and grab my brush and a bottle of India ink. Except today I didn’t want to do that. Maybe it was because I knew exactly how things would turn out if I used my usual tools and that bored me. So I grabbed a favorite marker and began using that to ink with. It ended up being fun.

As I said before I just wanted to get started on something. The one secret I know for getting things done is to start something. It doesn’t matter what just get going. Don’t wait for inspiration, don’t wait until you feel like it, don’t wait until the perfect moment; just start something. Whatever it is. I’ve had some of my best creative days when I didn’t feel like getting started but I did anyway. Today was a day like that. Maybe not one of my best creative days ever but I got a lot of stuff done when I didn’t think I would be able to.

After I picked up a marker and started inking I got on a roll. I was doing things differently but they were going along smoothly and coming out nicely. After all a marker isn’t a new tool for me I was just using it in a slightly different way. I inked one Message Tee figure and then another and another. I ended up working all day and finishing what I though would take me a couple of days to plough through in four or five hours. I almost couldn’t stop. It was fun.

So what do I take from this day? First off just get started. Nothing ever gets finished if it doesn’t first get started. If I’ve got a motto it’s probably something along those lines. You gotta show up or nothing will get done. And secondly I’d say to change things up every now and again. It doesn’t have to be radical. You don’t have to cut all your hair off for a moment of dramatic change. Use things in a different way. Grab your second favorite tool and see what you can do differently with it. If you just keep things going there’s a chance something good will happen.

So I finally did it. I spent my money on an iPad. I wanted to get one back in the Spring when the iPad 2 was released but due to the short supply of iPads back then I couldn’t get my hands on one. For some reason I didn’t want to pre-order one and get it three weeks later. I wanted to walk into the store, hand them my cash, and walk out with an iPad. Since I couldn’t do that I decided to replace my six year old laptop before buying an iPad. So I had to wait and save up some more money.

It’s a weird thing. I prefer to save my money until I have enough to buy something with cash rather than use credit but often after I’ve saved the money I don’t want to spend it. It takes me a long time to save up enough money for a laptop or an iPad so I seem to grow attached to the money. Even though the object is what I’m saving the money to buy somehow the object becomes less important when I have the money to buy it. Not always but sometimes. It’s probably that whole money equals power thing. Even on a small scale having the money to buy something you want can give you a sense of power. Actually having the thing is less powerful. The human mind is mysterious.

Another reason I was less than quick to buy the iPad this Fall was that I lost my vision for what I wanted to do with the thing. As a creative tool that is. I had some ideas last Spring but now I’m not sure what they all were. I remember being intrigued by the idea of video on the iPad. Not watching but shooting and editing it. That’s a pretty neat idea. You can shoot video on the iPad and with iMovie you can edit it too. I imagined that I could leave in the morning for one of my trips to Bryant Park and have some sort of finished video piece before I get home. That sounds cool and maybe one day I’ll be able to pull it off.

I had some other ideas for how to used the iPad creatively but I can’t remember them. Oh well, I’ll have to think them up again. I do want to be able to use the iPad as a portfolio of sorts for my artwork but that’s an obvious idea and not really using it as a creative force. I’ve been messing around with how to present my work on the iPad and I think I’m going to have to make PDF books out of my stuff. Right now I have a bunch of my art set up as individual photos. I tried that out right away and it works but when I eventually transfer my lifelong collection of snapshots and photographs onto the iPad my artwork will get a bit lost in the shuffle and harder to find. I think it’ll be easier to find in the iPad’s PDF book section. It’ll take some time to set it all up so I’m not sure yet.

I like navigating around the photos and artwork with my fingers. It’s something that just plain works. Pinch and spread your fingers to zoom in and out and flip your fingers left or right to see the previous or next piece. It’s easy and intuitive plus it’s very satisfying. It gives me a real sense of control and interaction with what I’m looking at. We all like to “See” things with our hands so the iPad works really well in scratching that itch. It’s kind of amazing that way.

One thing you have to realize before buying an iPad is that not only is it expensive but it’s more expensive than you think because of all the stuff you’ll want to buy to accompany it. I bought a lot. First of all the “Smart Cover” that Apple makes that magnetically attaches itself to the machine, covers the screen when not in use, and can be used as a stand costs $40. It’s really neat and I wanted one but forty bucks is a steep price. It seems to be more like a $20 item but there isn’t another thing like it so forty bucks it is.

Almost everything else that I wanted with the iPad was in the $30 price range. I never bothered with an iPod dock since an iPod is small and easy enough to lay down on my desk but I shelled out thirty bucks for an iPad dock. I want the iPad standing rather than lying down. I also bought the camera connector so I could transfer photos from my camera’s SD card right to the iPad. That was it for my in store purchases. The iPad plus another $100 dollars for three things. But that wasn’t the end.

When I got home I, of course, wanted to buy some iPad apps. Most apps are cheap but buy a bunch of them and they add up. I think I dropped about $35 on apps during the first week. One of the apps was SketchBook Pro. Being an artist that one was a must since it’s for drawing on the iPad. After buying that app I went online and bought a $20 stylus so that I didn’t have to draw with my finger. That’s fairly cheap for a stylus of this sort and someday I may get a better one but that’s it for now.

Since I bought the Smart Cover I didn’t want to buy any kind of portfolio/hard cover for the thing. Those cases make the iPad twice its size and since I’m the only one using mine it really doesn’t need the type of protection a family iPad would. But I did want a bag to carry the iPad in. Having had to carry lots of art and camera supplies in the past I like bags to carry stuff in. I’m always looking for a new bag but I’m usually disappointed. They’re always too big, too small, don’t have enough pockets, are made of the wrong material, or are badly structured. I’m picky.

Luckily my cousin recently got an iPad and had a bag with it that I liked. And it was cheap. Twenty dollars. A Kensington iPad sling bag. It wasn’t ideal since I don’t like the black plastic fabric that it and most cheap bags are made out of but it’s a good size. It fit’s the iPad snugly and has room for a medium sized sketchbook and a pocket camera. Plus it has an outside pocket for a phone, pens, or whatever. The bag is a little ugly but it’s more functional than others I’ve seen.

So it was an extra $100 dollars at the store and another $75 once I got the thing home. With an iPad starting at $500 that’s a significant chunk of change more. Not that anyone has to buy any of those extras but most want to. That’s why you have to add it all up before hand when getting one of these. They can be more expensive than you think.