How are you doing, comic-wise?

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:25 pm

JSConner800 wrote:Do you guys have any experience hiring artists or writers?

MichaelYakutis might be the best person to ask about that. Aren't you doing that thing with the Demon Archives guy, though? I wonder what he has to say about it.

JSConner800 · Post by **JSConner800** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:39 pm

LibertyCabbage wrote:MichaelYakutis might be the best person to ask about that. Aren't you doing that thing with the Demon Archives guy, though? I wonder what he has to say about it.

I've been asking around the Webcomic Underdogs forum (which Michael runs) and they've given me some great advice over there. I recommend it to anyone here who hasn't checked that place out. Not that I don't love our tightly knit community here, but it's also nice to step into a forum with more than five regular users on it every once in awhile

There are a lot of experienced comic authors over there, and I'm in the process of putting together a work-for-hire contract based on their suggestions.

I've actually just started writing my second story for Dan Sharp, so I asked him about it as well. He basically told me to write up a job offer and post it in the Webcomic Underdogs forum and on their Facebook page. He also suggested Deviantart, which may be where he finds his artists since the Demon Archives has been around before the WU. He didn't specify how he goes about it, but he seems to think our offer will get a fair amount of responses that way. He's hired about 3 or 4 different artists for his latest chapter alone, so if I run into any problems putting together my job offer he'll probably be the person to go to.

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:10 am

JSConner800 wrote:
LibertyCabbage wrote:MichaelYakutis might be the best person to ask about that. Aren't you doing that thing with the Demon Archives guy, though? I wonder what he has to say about it.
I've been asking around the Webcomic Underdogs forum (which Michael runs) and they've given me some great advice over there. I recommend it to anyone here who hasn't checked that place out. Not that I don't love our tightly knit community here, but it's also nice to step into a forum with more than five regular users on it every once in awhile There are a lot of experienced comic authors over there, and I'm in the process of putting together a work-for-hire contract based on their suggestions.

I've actually just started writing my second story for Dan Sharp, so I asked him about it as well. He basically told me to write up a job offer and post it in the Webcomic Underdogs forum and on their Facebook page. He also suggested Deviantart, which may be where he finds his artists since the Demon Archives has been around before the WU. He didn't specify how he goes about it, but he seems to think our offer will get a fair amount of responses that way. He's hired about 3 or 4 different artists for his latest chapter alone, so if I run into any problems putting together my job offer he'll probably be the person to go to.

You want someone to work on a for hire contract for you for free? That doesn't seem terribly fair.

JSConner800 · Post by **JSConner800** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 11:41 am

Bustertheclown wrote:You want someone to work on a for hire contract for you for free? That doesn't seem terribly fair.

In my last post I said we were willing to pay a decent amount. We've agreed to pool our money and we can comfortably go up to $30 per page. I don't know for sure if that's a decent amount or not for the particular job we need, but that's the best we can do considering the fact that our comic is almost completely unknown and without a source of revenue.

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:00 pm

You're essentially looking for an inker, right? $30 a page is certainly better than a kick to the crotch. Just the fact that you're willing to pay anything puts you above most, and posting something like this on dA is definitely going to yield you some bites. Just remember that deviantART is full of the young and eager, but not necessarily the experienced and professional. Your project should prove to be a good opportunity for someone looking for some experience, exposure, and a bit of pocket money. May they also be reliable. I wish you guys luck.

VeryCuddlyCornpone · Post by **VeryCuddlyCornpone** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:51 pm

Seconding Buster's wishes!! Good for you guys for putting together money like that. Hopefully you will find someone who is beneficial to you

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:26 am

With the end of my baseball seasons I can now focus on comics for the majority of the fall/winter/spring.

With that said behold roughs of the next two pages of Sack of Oranges!

http://concombremelon.tumblr.com/post/9 ... k-but-just

Cope · Post by **Cope** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:43 pm

So I just found out that there's another webcomic called Atavism now. A lawsuit for unpaid royalties is pending.

(This person's Atavism is much better drawn than my Atavism.)

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:44 am

Cope wrote:So I just found out that there's another webcomic called Atavism now. A lawsuit for unpaid royalties is pending.

(This person's Atavism is much better drawn than my Atavism.)

Oh, yeah, that reminds me that I saw a Freakboy book when I was at the library recently.

Terotrous · Post by **Terotrous** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:15 am

LibertyCabbage wrote:
Cope wrote:So I just found out that there's another webcomic called Atavism now. A lawsuit for unpaid royalties is pending.

(This person's Atavism is much better drawn than my Atavism.)
Oh, yeah, that reminds me that I saw a Freakboy book when I was at the library recently.

There's also like a million things called "What Lies Beyond". I don't even appear on the first 3 pages of Google.

IVstudios · Post by **IVstudios** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:19 am

Cope wrote:So I just found out that there's another webcomic called Atavism now. A lawsuit for unpaid royalties is pending.

(This person's Atavism is much better drawn than my Atavism.)

Ah, that brings me back to the good old days when that crazy person sent me a "cease and desist" letter because he also had a comic called World Warp. Those were the days.

In more recent news: Inhumation is now on Comic Chameleon! They are currently accepting submissions for new comics, so if any of you guys haven't already submitted your comics I highly recommend you check it out.

RobboAKAscooby · Post by **RobboAKAscooby** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:15 pm

Oh hey I got a new page up last night...yay!...

And I have the next few pages laid out sorta kinda so I might be able to keep going for a while.

It's rather embarrassing, considering how simple/basic/lame my stuff is, that I keep dropping off schedule.

VeryCuddlyCornpone · Post by **VeryCuddlyCornpone** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:40 pm

RobboAKAscooby wrote:Oh hey I got a new page up last night...yay!...

And I have the next few pages laid out sorta kinda so I might be able to keep going for a while.

It's rather embarrassing, considering how simple/basic/lame my stuff is, that I keep dropping off schedule.

congrats schreub!! i know the feeling though

i talk to people whose pages take 20+ hours PER PAGE to complete who manage to update more than I do, and really each page only takes me anywhere between 5-8 hours depending on its complexity but I just don't have the focus or attention span or something anymore to update as much as I realistically could. Like I could literally update probably every weekday or at least 3xweek if I didn't get sidetracked by other hobbies or depressed.

I wanted ot have this scene up by sept 1, now I'm hoping to have it kind of done by my birthday next sunday

it really should not take me that long. Like let's say that all the rest of the pages will take me an hour a piece to color. That's only 11 hours, generously. Like that's easily doable in the free time I have outside of work and shit. But I'm so dumb and bad at continuing working that I wouldn't bet any money on it happening.

I've been plugging along today, though. The markers are going down fast it seems and the colored pencils are more of a pain but really not as bad as I think they are I'm sure. I think I'm doing better because I had work yesterday and will again tomorrow so having my time get divided up by actual obligations makes it easier for some reason to get comic things done.

But this is all still really pathetic and bad and lame and making me grumpy

Cope · Post by **Cope** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 5:57 pm

Making comics is a lot harder than it looks.

RobboAKAscooby · Post by **RobboAKAscooby** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:27 am

Well the momentum seems to be holding (knock wood), next page is inked and I have allllll day to get it coloured and posted.

So anyway I'm wondering do any of y'all use social media to promote your comic/whatever? I've been using instagram for a while now to post preview/work-in-progress/sketch stuff but I have less followers than a piece of burnt toast.

IVstudios · Post by **IVstudios** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:43 am

Facebook is of course the standard. You can create a page specifically for your comic and post stuff there. Twitter is also a good way to keep in touch with people and see what other comic artist are up to.

For me though, Tumblr has probably been the best in terms of both driving traffic to my site and getting my work spread around. You sometimes need to pander a bit by posting the occasional drawing of something popular to get attention though.

JSConner800 · Post by **JSConner800** » Fri Sep 19, 2014 1:33 pm

Well, as far as I know, there aren't any other works of fiction called Steel Salvation, comic or otherwise. There is, however, a Christian metal sculpture artist with a half-finished website called Steel Salvation, and there's a free online shoot-em-up called Steel Salvation as well, so we do have some Google competition

VeryCuddlyCornpone wrote:i talk to people whose pages take 20+ hours PER PAGE to complete who manage to update more than I do, and really each page only takes me anywhere between 5-8 hours depending on its complexity but I just don't have the focus or attention span or something anymore to update as much as I realistically could. Like I could literally update probably every weekday or at least 3xweek if I didn't get sidetracked by other hobbies or depressed.

20+ hours seems like an unrealistic amount of time for a single comic page. Have you seen the results? I'm curious, since I'd expect either something of mind-blowing quality or, more likely, their methods are just needlessly slow and complicated. On average, it seems like most artists take about 8-10 hours per page, and that seems a lot more feasible if you want any kind of a consistent updating schedule. I think you're taking the right amount of time on each page, but life can get the best of any of us. It's just a matter of improving your focus at this point, which is hard enough to do with all the distractions modern America provides, and it gets even harder with depression in the mix. Hopefully you can find a way to shut out those distractions

And in other news, I just posted our job offer and am simultaneously excited/nervous. I've never hired anyone before. So many possibilities out there, and it's up to us to find the right one. I appreciate the feedback, and if this goes well, it'll be thanks to the support of my CG peeps.

JSConner800 · Post by **JSConner800** » Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:53 pm

So, uh, holy shit. I only posted our job offer on the Webcomic Underdogs forum this afternoon and I've already got two exciting replies. I haven't even hit up deviantart yet. I am all hype right now

Humbug · Post by **Humbug** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 2:30 am

JSConner800 wrote:20+ hours seems like an unrealistic amount of time for a single comic page. Have you seen the results?

I spend about 12-16 hours on a page, it also depends on how many panels there are as well. So close enuf?

RobboAKAscooby · Post by **RobboAKAscooby** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 2:46 am

JSConner800 wrote:So, uh, holy shit. I only posted our job offer on the Webcomic Underdogs forum this afternoon and I've already got two exciting replies. I haven't even hit up deviantart yet. I am all hype right now

<aussie voice>
noice
</aussie voice>

Good luck dude!

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