webcomics and queer issues, somehow related?

The Longform Monologues is a little project where every Friday I give a slew of questions over to creators of longform comics, an oft overlooked sub-genre in webcomics. With this, I hope to gain some insight into not just their process, but the science behind what makes a longform comic successful and great, as well as a smattering of good business sense and lots of other little gems!

–

Today on our plate we’ve got the creators of one of my favorite comics evar, Goodbye Chains! Alice is the writer and Tracy is the artist. What a team they make!

Firstly, can you give a brief summary of your comic(s)?

Alice: Goodbye Chains is the story of a would-be Marxist revolutionary from a wealthy family of Irish immigrants, and his new friend, an amoral bank robber and all-around cad. They live, they laugh, they learn, and people die. It’s very educational!

How often do you update, and how many pages at a time? Why?

Tracy: When I first began to draw GC, the updates were very sporadic. It was difficult to get a good work ethic going. About last year, I was pretty good at finishing 2~3 pages a week, but usually a day late. For the past few weeks, I’ve been very good at finishing the pages days early.

For the writing portion, what is your process? What about the drawing portion?

A: Haha, I don’t remember–it was such a long time ago! I know that a computer was involved.

T: I first draw a rough draft. I send it to Alice to look over if the layout is alright. Next I go into roughing it, and if I’m weary about something I’ll send that to her as well to help me. Then I’ll clean up the pencils and Alice gives it one more look over before I ink. Once it’s completely inked, she checks it over, and I fix anything she points out. She’s very important to my page process, they’d be so much worse without her suggestions.

How far ahead is your story written, and do you have a planned ending?

A: The story is totally written, and has been for a few years now. The only thing that changes from the script is the dialogue; sometimes I tweak it so that it matches Tracy’s art more closely, or in order to reveal new things about the characters that I don’t think are quite coming across in the original script. Colin in the comic has a much sharper tongue than he has in the original script :D.

Sometimes I wish I’d changed the ending, but Tracy always talks me out of it. She’s really good that way.

What tools do you use to produce your work?

T: From start to finish I do it all in Manga Studio EX 4 and use the Wacom Cintiq 20WSX.

What are your methods for generating ideas for your stories and the artwork?

T: I work together with Alice for illustrations, she has the great ideas and I draw it out for her. I actually prefer this method, as I hate doing stand-alone illustrations.

A: Most of the stories I’ve done are in genres I don’t particularly enjoy–I’m not a big fan of Westerns, to be honest. Maybe this is my way of making a genre piece that I’d enjoy? It sounds like something I’d do!

How long does it take to do a page, from start to finish?

T: For most of my 2 1/2 years, it’d take a day and a half. Just recently I proved to myself I can get it done before bed, though that means staying up late longer!

Can you give some insight into how you handle the pacing of your comic (how many panels per page, etc.)?

A: I once read a piece of comic writing advice, I think from Alan Moore, that said every page should have a mini-cliffhanger at the bottom so you would want to keep turning the page. I basically try to do that when I write, and cram the rest of the less interesting panels in between those story beats. Unfortunately for Tracy, this means that she sometimes has to cram 8 and 9 panels on a page XD.

How do you decide on the layout of your panels, what to emphasize, etc.?

T: I’m very technical about it. I take into consideration reading flow and for that to work I have to pay attention what the eye reads first in words or pictures. Timing is important to me, so I’m careful which panels go in a row/column. This usually dictates the POV of the panel.

A: I usually let her handle it, because she’s great at pacing and layout :D. Sometimes I have interesting ideas that are up to her to interpret–the scene where Banquo is riding over the map is one of those. It’s almost always her though.

Do you actively try to make sure every single update you make satisfies the reader in some way? Why or why not?

A: We don’t, because GC is meant to be collected and read as a book rather than on a page by page basis. Unfortunately that makes it a less satisfying experience as you follow it, but we’re really more concerned with the book as a whole piece of art, rather than an individual page. It probably would have been possible for me to rewrite it so it was a better webcomic, but that’s not the comic I was making, if that makes sense.

T: Alice is also my editor, and it’s very rare to turn in a page and not have to do corrections. (lol)

How do you feel about splash pages and full-page establishing shots? Do you think they can potentially hurt a comic?

T: For a webcomic, yeah. “Webcomic time” is very tough for a long-form comic. We notice readers seem to read a little too much on a single page, whereas if it were in a book, you’d find the answers on the next page in a second.

A: No, I don’t think so at all–they’re a crucial part of effective pacing, especially in more Eastern styles of comicking. I could see where it would be detrimental to building an audience, but even webcomics can make use of them if they’re doled out judiciously.

Do you have a buffer? Why or why not? If so, how big is it?

T: Not currently, I was always so slow and working on several other projects. But once I wrap up my anthology next month I plan to build one! Now I finish a page days ahead.

How large is your audience, currently?

A: It’s hard to get a really accurate estimate of this, because different counters produce different results. We know there are at least a few thousand Goodbye Chains fans out there, though, and we’re thrilled to have each and every one :D.

How do you promote your comic(s)?

T: We’ve advertised at Project Wonderful, but I think our “Being a Friend” offer has done much more. How it works is if a reader emails us a link of them recommending GC, we send them a 3 page minicomic to thank them for spread the word.

Why have you chosen to post your comic(s) on the web as opposed to another method (such as straight to print, through a publisher, etc.)?

A: A Western is a difficult comic to sell in the current cultural climate, and an offbeat Western about Communists (one entirely lacking in horror elements) is even harder to get a publisher to take a chance on. We’re posting GC on the web to build up enough of an audience for an eventual print version, though we would still prefer to go through a publisher rather than going the self-publishing route. At least on the Internet, people will give something a chance.

Do you make an income through your work? If so, what draws the most revenue (such as ads, merchandise, etc.)?

T: We’ve just begun our donation drive at the start of January, offering different tiers of color comics to thank them for donating. PW money at this moment just funds our PW bids.

Do you think that longform webcomics are more difficult to tackle than gag-a-days? Why or why not?

T: I think comic strips are more difficult! But for long-form, the concept is similar: each page should forward some part of the plot or character development.

A: Well, I disagree, for several reasons. First, it’s much easier to tell if you like a gag comic right away or not, while it can take quite a while to decide how you feel about a longer comic–and a lot of potential readers may not be willing to put in the effort for something they might not enjoy. Second, gag comics lend themselves very, very well to the culture of the Web, while longform comics rarely do. If you find, say, a Penny Arcade strip that you like, you can share that single strip very easily with other people in a way that will have meaning to them; so long as they have some familiarity with the game that’s being mocked in that strip, they’ve “gotten it”. If you put a single page or a panel from a longform comic in a blog post or in a signature on a forum, the lack of context makes it much more difficult for people to understand that comic. Of course, single installments of longform comic aren’t usually suitable for a “done in one” image anyway–in our case, the only single pages that ever get posted anywhere are from Colin’s wacky laudanum dream, because it’s pretty easy to understand the comedy in floating Karl Marx heads.

If you could do something different when you first began your comic, what would it be?

T: I really wish I made design sheets. It’s amazing how I forget character details page by page.

A: I wish I’d been a better writer, but there’s not a lot you can do about that XD.

Any advice for newcomers to the longform comic arena? Useful resources or links?

T: Just keep working. Maybe some days you’ll slip, but just keep it up! Don’t write to what you feel comfortable to draw, get outside your comfort zone.

A: Don’t start out on your magnum opus–get your feet wet writing something small first. Odds are, you’ll learn a lot from doing that short story that will make your longer pieces better. And you probably won’t burn out so easily!

-

Thanks you guys! :D

{ 1 comment }

The Longform Monologues is a little project where every Friday I give a slew of questions over to creators of longform comics, an oft overlooked sub-genre in webcomics. With this, I hope to gain some insight into not just their process, but the science behind what makes a longform comic successful and great, as well as a smattering of good business sense and lots of other little gems!

–

I apologize for the lateness of this interview! But here we are!

Today I am posting my interview with Marooned’s creator, Tom Dell’Aringa! His comic appears to be a little closer to “gag-a-day” on the webcomic scale, but he still qualifies as longform and I think he’s quite successful at it!

Firstly, can you give a brief summary of your comic(s)?

Marooned is about Captain John, an egocentric space pilot and his sidekick robot, Asimov, who get stranded on Mars. They don’t exactly get along. When Asimov informs John they are out of both fuel and food, things look pretty bleak. But Ugo, a friendly Martian, brings them to an underground city where the last of the Martians are attempting to survive. There the mysteries of the Red Planet only deepen, and John begins to learn a great many things. Including the fact that he wasn’t the first human on Mars.

Marooned is a space opera with doses of humor. “A Space Opera in the Wrong Key.”

How often do you update, and how many pages at a time? Why?

Twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. Once a week is not sufficient to really build an audience, unless you are dumping a lot of pages on that day. (And some comics use that strategy.) My updates are the size of a Sunday comic, basically, sized at 13″ x 8.25″. I’ll generally draw anywhere from 4-6 panels. Sometimes I play around and do vertical, bigger panels or do more smaller ones, like 7-8.

The two updates are probably the same amount of content as 4 daily updates would be. But I need a bigger strip than a daily size to tell my story. The way I write, it doesn’t fit into 4-5 panel chunks, and it’s really because I’m working with a larger story, not gags, even though humor plays a part.

I don’t really pace the strips for the web. In some ways it’s not meant to be read in chunks twice a week. But this is the medium, so you try to have a payoff each update. But the story reads much better when you sit down with the book.

For the writing portion, what is your process? For the drawing portion?

My writing is a mix of planning and spontaneity. I use Google docs to keep my stories organized. I have one working document that lays out the “big picture” of the story I’m currently working with. It’s not really an outline, but rather the main points of the story. Who is involved, what is happening, where it’s going and where it will end. So I know where I’m going and I know the main points I need to hit. Within that structure, I’m free to kind of roam from point to point and make things as fun and exciting as I want.

A lot of fun writing fits into the strip to strip process. For example, I knew that John would get sick and end up meeting the Dark Ones (another Martian race.) But the trip to that place he made with Ugo was written strip by strip, the details weren’t worked out beforehand.

I draw my strip traditionally on 300 series smooth Bristol. I use a Col-Erase blue pencil and then ink with Staedtler inking pens. I really enjoy the actual drawing on paper portion. Although I’ve done some digital tablet work, it’s not something I can do whole strips with at this point – nor do I want to. I’m just not skilled enough with it.

From there I scan into Photoshop, covert the line art and color digitally. At this point I do use the tablet for corrections and to draw certain things, but it’s usually pretty minor. If there is something I am not sure I will screw up inking traditionally, I often leave it for the tablet. I then put in the text and bubbles and export the finished piece.

How far ahead is your story written, and do you have a planned ending?

Depends on the story arc. When I started, I had nothing – and that’s a bad way to work. When I struck up a friendship with Steve Ogden, he was a lot of help getting me organized and helping me think about my story. We’ve had some story meetings that were extremely helpful for me, and he continues to be a sounding board for Marooned. In fact we just went over the next major portion of the story.

For my last major story, where John got sick and met the Dark Ones and Lian Fisher, I had a 3500 word document that was my road map, like I described above. I knew what all the major touchpoints were, what the character motivations and changes were, and I knew how it would end. To me it’s extremely important that you know where you are going, or you’re going to have a lot of trouble, and your writing is going to suffer.

What tools do you use to produce your work?

Google Docs for writing, Photoshop, Bamboo tablet, smooth Bristol board, pencil and inking pens.

What are your methods for generating ideas for your stories and the artwork?

For stories, I simply do a lot of thinking about the strip. In the shower, while driving, laying in bed – whatever. I mull ideas over in my head and I do some writing on my lunch break. Then as I said earlier, I use my buddy Steve as a sounding board, we may talk on the phone or bounce emails back and forth. When I have what I like, I put that all down in a Google doc. I keep all my ideas and I keep them organized. I work and rework those documents until I am happy with them.

For artwork, I have pictures in my head based on the script of what I want to see. I think more in terms of animation poses than comics in some ways, because I studied a lot of animation – more than I studied comics probably. I try and make my staging dynamic and interesting. I’ll often do very rough thumbnails of my strip before I dive in an pencil. Because my time is so limited, I cannot spend a lot of time on different art ideas. I work rough quickly, get an idea, and go for it.

How long does it take to do a page, from start to finish?

Including writing the script, in a range of 2.5 – 5 hours.

Can you give some insight into how you handle the pacing of your comic (how many panels per page, etc.)?

My format allows me to do different setups. I can do 3 vertical panels, 4 widescreen panels, 6 squarish panels and any combination thereof. I need that flexibility because I am always mixing story and humor. I’m trying to both hit a story beat and mix in humor. You want to make every strip count as they bleed out, but you want the thing as a whole to read properly. It’s a very delicate balancing act. I do think of the story as a whole, and I try not to put things in that would be a momentary thing but wouldn’t fit the story. So I won’t put in a gag because I think it’s funny if it isn’t in character. I won’t put in some pop culture reference.

So I’m trying to hit two marks – make each update count, but let it move right for the full story too.

How do you decide on the layout of your panels, what to emphasize, etc.?

I’m concentrating on staging and flow. I want each panel staged so that it’s both interesting and visually accentuates the story. Facial expressions should match emotions, body language and the overall composition of each panel – I’m trying to get that right. But each panel has to live with the others as a whole. Wil Eisner was the master of tying things together, so I’ve tried to study some of his work. But I just try and tell a good visual story to match the narrative.

Do you actively try to make sure every single update you make satisfies the reader in some way? Why or why not?

I believe that this is crucial to the success of the strip. You can’t leave a reader disappointed. You want them coming back. It’s quite a challenge, especially on a day where you might have some exposition or you are moving the plot along somehow. Even on those days, I do my utmost to have some kind of payoff. Sometimes that is where a joke is most useful.

Your regular readers won’t so much be affected by an updated that doesn’t shine. But the problem is if someone comes along and this is the first thing they see, you want them to be impressed. You want them to want more. It’s clearly the hardest thing to do in long form comics, because that type of mentality is really a gag-a-day mentality. So for me, humor helps with that. But you can also use drama or anxiety or any other plot device. That’s another reason why my strips are longer. It gives me enough room and time to make the strips count.

How do you feel about splash pages and full-page establishing shots? Do you think they can potentially hurt a comic?

I don’t do them myself, but Tom Siddell does chapter pages on Gunnerkrigg Court to good effect. I suppose it depends on how passionate your audience is, and how often you update. If you are updating 3-5x a week, then one post like that doesn’t really matter. If you update once a week, that’s real risky.

Part of me thinks that if a new reader stops by and they are put off by that, well maybe they aren’t the type for long form stories then. I think people who like long form stories understand why an artist might do those things.

Establishing shots that are a full page – I often wonder though – is that really necessary? If it is then by all means go for it. But you should really, really make sure that it’s something you have to do. You can still have some story in an establishing shot.

Eddie Pittman has just begun his beautiful comic “Red’s Planet.” In his prologue, he does an establishing page where this old man is driving down the road in a pickup with his dog. Instead of just having that, though – which is pretty enough on its own – he adds in the radio voice. It gives the page atmosphere and the story life. He could have left that out, and had the old man and the dog. But it’s so much better with the radio. In my mind, that is how you do it.

Do you have a buffer? Why or why not? If so, how big is it?

Ha! Only weaklings use buffers! Seriously, usually no. I would love to have that security. But I do this in my spare time, and short of taking a lot of time off from the strip, there is no way to build one. Right now I have the extremely rare occasion of being one strip ahead because I took a couple weeks off at Christmas. But it won’t last.

Beside that, I like to kind of be in the moment with my strip. On the couple times that I have had a couple strip buffer, I’ve wanted to just post it all at once! And once I got 3 strips ahead and realized I made a mistake, and had to trash 2 of them. Right now I just work best strip to strip.

How large is your audience, currently?

I have somewhere around 1,200 -1,300 readers. I’m pretty happy with that number. About a year ago I think it was around 3-400.

How do you promote your comic(s)?

The most important thing to do is to make the best comic you can – that’s promotion #1. Aside from that, I’ve done all the posting in forums and gotten reviews and so forth. Those things have limited effectiveness. One of the best things has been advertising on Project Wonderful. 50% of my readers have come from those ads. I spend around $5 once a week, sometimes twice a week.

While that works, it confines you to a kind of closed group of internet webcomic followers. The trick is to get outside that group. That’s really what we all want. I think it’s very important to network with other artists. That has helped me get exposed to other people. It’s how I met Steve Ogden and together we ended up starting Wishtales.com, a small publishing studio to get our stories out. Our hope is to appeal to people beyond this closed internet webcomic bubble.

So we’re doing our first con this year, SPACE in Ohio. Cons offer you exposure to a whole new group of people, non-webcomic readers and just people of a different sort, as well as the opportunity to meet some of your own readers. And again, it’s a networking opportunity. It will be a good learning experience for me.

It seems there is no one secret. Everyone finds success in their own way.

Why have you chosen to post your comic(s) on the web as opposed to another method (such as straight to print, through a publisher, etc.)?

The main reason is that it allows you to expose your comic to an audience easily and cheaply, and it’s easy. You can spend years making pitches to publishers and never output anything. Meanwhile, people are out there creating and getting read. Things have changed and the old ways of doing things aren’t necessarily the way to go anymore.

In the last 18 months, I started my comic, got myself a decent small following and published my first book on my own, selling over 50 copies, all the while improving as an artist. Where would I be now if I had spent that time shopping around one or two ideas that were rejected? Marooned isn’t the type of thing publishers would buy. But there is an audience out there for it, and I’m proving that.

So I can have success on my own terms, I can enjoy it and I can still keep the day job to support the family. I would like to grow it into something more, and I hope to. But there’s no rush, and I can handle it any way I choose.

Do you make an income through your work? If so, what draws the most revenue (such as ads, merchandise, etc.)?

Right now the strip is costing me money. Not a lot, but hosting and art supplies add up. My little ad buys aren’t much, but it’s money out the window. The dollar or two I make on ads on my site goes back into ad buys.

My book actually made a very modest profit, thanks to the Artist Editions. That’s encouraging, that even with a Print On Demand book, where my cost on it was very high, I still came out ahead. Right now the book was by far the thing that brought in the most money. Merchandise seems to be the main way to generate income that counts. I don’t have enough fans yet to garner any real ad revenue.

Do you think that longform webcomics are more difficult to tackle than gag-a-days? Why or why not?

They’re different. Any comedy writer will tell you it’s tough to keep coming up with jokes that are funny. Being funny is not easy. And you have to do it day in and day out. With longform, you have to continually write a compelling story. In my case, I have both. In some ways that helps – it’s nice to have humor to help out. In some ways it’s tougher – people expect the humor now, and I can’t lose that in the storytelling. So both have their unique challenges. I wouldn’t say one or the other was more difficult.

If you could do something different when you first began your comic, what would it be?

I would have had a plan! I would have had my story document written. I started on a lark, really. I had 12 strips written and when I got to the end of those, I didn’t really know what to do. And boy does it show. My transition from a gag strip to a story-driven strip was rough. But it was all new to me, and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t even have my characters very well designed.

In short, you need to be prepared. And with all the resources out there right now – there’s so much even compared to a couple years ago when I started – there’s no reason not to be ready when you launch.

Any advice for newcomers to the longform comic arena? Useful resources or links?

You should know how to write. Study writing and read good writers. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a child, so I am very familiar with storytelling. And I’ve read the subject in which I write – Science Fiction – ever since then, so I’m familiar with my subject. Read the best authors in your field. Listen to podcasts of screenwriters, listen to commentaries on good movies by the director (for example Brad Bird on The Incredibles is a good one). Find out what makes great stories.

Orson Scott Card has a great book called How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, I highly recommend it for anyone in those genres. And if you can find one, it helps to have a trusted friend to bounce ideas back and forth. And you by all accounts must be able to take criticism, respond to it and become a better writer. For some people, that’s their biggest challenge.

-

Thanks Major Tom! ;) Tune in next Friday for another interview!

~ growly beast

{ 1 comment }