March 2020 Making Comics HRM Newsletter!
Welcome back to the newsletter. As I write this we are just a few days into March, and as a great poet once observed, the years keep coming and they don't stop coming. Let's take his advice and hit the ground running:
THE IMPORTANT-SHIT-RIGHT-UP-FRONT SECTION
The next meetup at Radstorm is Saturday, March 14th from 1 to 3 PM.
I may have created a new fundraising event for both our publishing fund and Radstorm, called Pancakes and Panels. It will be Saturday, March 21st from 10 AM to 12 PM. More on that in a bit.
The deadline for contributions to Proxima #3 is April 9th. If you are submitting something with colour or that requires some special treatment, please give me a heads up.
If you want to table at DCAF, go fill out this form before May 11th. Remember, you can also put your stuff on the group table at DCAF, assuming we get one. We may also get one at Geequinox, but that is TBD as of this writing.
GIVE US YOUR LINKS
Have you been to our new website lately? Of course you have, you signed up for this newsletter there. But here's the thing - I want to add you - yes, you! - to the list of HRM cartoonists! So please send me a message with your name and website address and whatever social media addresses you want listed there - the template for the page can hold up to six social media links per person, so if you have a behance account, or deviantart, or livejournal or linkedin or whatever, let me know, yo.
I think maybe we are no longer in the important shit section of the newsletter, so
WHAT'S NEW?
As mentioned earlier, I introduced the idea of a joint fundraiser between the making comics meetup and Radstorm at a recent Radstorm fundraising meeting. The next thing I knew, I had halfway planned a pancake breakfast for March 21st! Then this past weekend, I blacked out and when I woke this poster had appeared on my screen and tattooed on my back:
Our share of the proceeds will go to the group's publishing fund, which in turn will be used for printing copies of our group zine as well as a general fund for group members who want assistance with publishing.
I'll be doing the cooking and generally running the thing, but a few extra hands would be welcome. If you are interested in helping out on the day, I could use assistance with the following key areas:
1) door/taking tickets
2) merch table
3) coffee and tea
Whether you can make it or not, if you would like us to put your comics on the merch table for people to buy, either bring them to the meetup on the 14th or make other arrangements to get them to me.
I also plan on giving away some door prizes; if you want to donate something you think would make a cool door prize, let me know.
Finally, there is an as yet open ended component to the event, which is the question of special guests to talk on a panel during the second hour. As of yet I have no confirmed guests so we may wind up just hanging out and making comics, but we'll see what happens. If you are interested in being on a panel or you know someone who is, again, hit me up.
DISTRO ALL MONSTERS
Another thing that I would like to do in the next little while is create a new comics-oriented distro for our group and anyone else who wants to use it. For those who don't know what I mean, a distro usually refers to things like a zine distro - a very small distributor who acts as a go-between for zine creators and retailers or the public.
What all that means is, I would like (if people are interested) to take on an inventory of comics created by group members and then give local shops and mail order customers a chance to order whatever quantities of local comics they might like. We could probably even come up with some neat bundles or little bonus incentives.
Anyway, if you are interested in participating in such a thing, let me know and when you do, give me a list of the publications you would want included, and some basic information like your cover price, number of pages, color or b/w, that sort of thing.
I THOUGHT THERE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE COMICS UP IN THIS
Hey, there would be but no one has sent me any. If you want to share something you're working on with the group, either a finished piece or something in progress, send it in!
COOL COOL BUT WHAT IF I WANTED SOME COMICS MAKING TIPS
Gah, fine, here's your tips already.
First up, writing tips from Gail Simone!
Don't know if it is a tip exactly but certainly an interesting blog post about contracts:
How to Read a Contract | Work Made For Hire
OK, folks, let’s talk about reading contracts. This contract example was emailed to me the other day; no doubt you’ve seen it on other comics news sites. I don’t know either of the parties and have…
Many of this month's tips are just pulled from my old tumblr of comics making tips, but this one in particular bears repeating:
The Worldbuilding Blog of Magera Gordon — Why people like your doodles better than your...
Learn from your doodles rather than resent them I frequently see artists complain that their finished works got less attention than mere sketches, doodles and other smaller or less serious work. Which...
We talked a bit at the last meetup about Clip Studio Paint and I recommended the custom brushes by this guy, Ray Frenden. I recommend his blog too, he has done dozens of reviews of digital art making tools.
FRENDEN
Vis dev artist. Maker of digital art tools.
I recommend this book all the time to people, it is an essential resource for those who want to make and price and sell art in a variety of markets. But! The Graphic Artists Guild has gotten with the times and created an e-book from their Pricing and Ethical Guidelines book.
And speaking of essential books, do you have the How to Think When You Draw! books by the Etherington Brothers? They are pretty great and I highly recommend you follow their Twitter or Insta for tips. But you can also download an abridged version of their books, aimed at kids but full of useful tips for all. It's free for everyone here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S7QPBa_xySuudj3capI4yzG2KajfuD48/viewBy the time you read this I will hopefully have updated the Resources page on our new website with all of the above, but we can always use more, so if you have a favourite tip, video, blog post or something else, let me know and I will add it.
THAT'S IT
Thanks for reading this, and coming to the meetups if you are able to, helping with the fundraiser if you are able to, and submitting to this newsletter and Proxima if you are able to. I hope to see you at the March meetups and to see your comics in my inbox soon.
// Scott Marshall, chief pancake flipper
HRM Making Comics Meetup