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SSC Draw Off - Batman with a Birthday Cake

These are the 10 minute sketches from the "Draw Off" we hold at each SSC meeting. Everyone in attendance participates (artists. . . and. . . ahem, writers too). It's usually a lot of fun and we always celebrate the contest with a frosty beverage. . .

I choose the last one, Faith's 'Batman bursting out of a cake', as my favorite. What did you think of each? Not bad for 10 minutes, eh?

PeeGee in Little League (by Yale Stewart)

One member of SSC (me) is a huge Power Girl fan. I just came across this brilliant sequence on a CBR Forums Power Girl thread. Little League is by Yale Stewart. (Click on each strip to magnify.)

 

Thomas Jane is BACK as the Punisher!!!

It's a "fan film" but this was just too cool not to share. (Be warned graphic violence, but no nudity, follows.)

Tabling for the First Time

Convention season is well underway at our first one of the year is just over two months away!  That means we've got our noses to the grindstones finishing up books, promo materials, and so on in time for the show!
As you may already know, SCC debuted two of it's titles at SPX 2011.  It was the first convention any of  us had tabled at and boy, was it a blast (and one hell of a learning experience)!

With that in mind, here are a few podcasts and articles I like to use to gear up before a show and decide how I want to approach the who she-bang!

Success? It's All in the Preparation!
Robin Dempsey of the Webcomic Alliance recounts her preparations for her appearance at the 2012 Denver Comic Con.

Tabling at Your First Convention
If you're looking to jump into the independent comicing world and are not already following ComixTribe, get on that.

Comic Convention Advice
Webcomic Marketing provides a good checklist of things to do from months before the show to clean up after it.

3 Costly Mistakes That Sabotage Sales in Artist Alley
Paper Wings Podcast brings you some tips on how to approach sales at a show and not get your heart broken by unreasonable goals.

The Big Convention Field Guide
Though now defunct, the archive at Art & Story still has tons of relevant, thought-provoking information for the aspiring (or professional) cartoonist.

Absolute Con-Sense
Ok, this one isn't a freebie like the rest of the list.  It's a workshop from Lean Into Art featuring Tyler James  hosted by Jerzy Drozd.  I have had the pleasure of meeting both of them in person and this workshop has provided some of the best advice surrounding tabling.  Worth your time if you have the money to spare!

What tips and resources do you have regarding conventions?  Have you ever gotten advice that didn't pan out?

This isn't about 'me'

I've gotten into a habit of listening to the Art & Story podcasts. They have me thinking like crazy, have my hands itching to work on Elementalists (despite having two comic projects which MUST GET DONE right now), and have me making weird faces at my desk as I intermittently laugh or scowl.

One of the topics Jerzy brings up several times (forgive me if he's adapted his thoughts since then. I'm only up to 15 out of 200 old podcasts…) is this idea that, "Oh, I feel bad because my work in undervalued, but then I think, 'I'm doing this for myself! I'm happy with that!' And I push past it!".

That's not a quote, by the way. It's a summary. But I finally realized why, despite my feelings of empathy towards this sentiment (I finally broke out of a clinical depression that clung onto me for half this year…), that I feel a little agitated each time this topic comes up (and it comes up a LOT). Saying that 'it's okay, I'm doing this for myself', would be FINE if you were working in a medium that you get the personal satisfaction from.

I sit at a grinding arbor and work on a gemstone for the full course of a day, and whip my face and go, "look at this SWEET cabochon!" My husband pats me on the head and goes, "that's nice, honey." And it is, because I now have a little beautiful stone I can do ANYTHING with. And it's MINE. But a little gemstone, or a table, or a skirt or a CAKE is different, and her's why: they are CONSUMABLE OBJECTS. They are not a STORY.

A story is made to be given or told or SHOWN to another human being. If you toss aside the dialogue between you and the reader, then you're fundamentally tossed away something important. And I know I used to do this, and I think my acknowledgment of this has actually made me a BETTER artist over time. We should cherish even the person who reads for two seconds and says, "okay," because THEY READ. The comic exists to be read, to be seen. If you live to just look at it yourself, you've fundamentally failed.

A desire for others to find enjoyment and meaning from what you've created isn't vain or silly or NEEDY, it's just the NATURE of what you've made. To shirk that off to try and make yourself feel better for a failure to connect runs the risk of making that gap wider in the future.

The art style itself was created for this purpose. We don't do harsh lines and simplified styles for no reason: these were adapted over to time to work hand in hand with reproduction technologies available. The first 'mass produced' comics were woodblocks, and then combinations of metal etchings with variable type machinery, and later lithography and printing presses. The point was alway the same: to show 'art and writing stories' to as many people as POSSIBLE.

I'm sure Jerzy and Mark understand this because they both create amazing, inviting comics of their own, but I felt the need to reply to their understatement.

/ end soapbox

Me: "Man, I feel the need to make lots of links back to them as apology for me ranting against them…"

AlmightyM: "lol! You're not ranting against them.  You're offering and alternate view!"

Me:  *nods* Though, I feel like it's almost more of a footnote than an alternate view.

an addendum...

an addition

an asterisk

all these a-words, wow

AlmightyM:  lol!

Me:  an aside... and, to boot, all these synonyms are ALITERATIVE  hehe

/end silly after thoughts

Photos from the SCC Archives

Every once in a while we do 'non-comic book' related stuff here at SSC. This is a snapshot from a Nats baseball game (the Washington Nationals played the Philadelphia Phillies) we went to in the not too distant past. I think we were celebrating something. . .

All-in-all we had a grand ol' time! (Can't you tell? Everyone IS smiling.)

Everyone should see this. . .

The 2011-2012 ARC Salon winners have been announced. 

Please take a look (here)!

Suck on this (aka SSC Reviews)

   Superman vs. the Elite is the most recent of the excellent series of DC Animated features released on DVD.  I haven't (yet) read the story that served as its basis "What's so funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way" so I can't say how close the storyline to the animated feature is to the original comic story. Nonetheless it addresses a lot of the things we hear about Superman.  Why just lock villains up for them to escape and hurt more people when you could easily take them out.  Superman is a boring character, he's just a big blue boy scout.  I have said all these things and more, I daresay most comic book readers have.  The last time I really cared about Superman was when they killed him.  This story showed that good, ole Kal-El still has a little twinkle in his eye and a bit of a dark side.  The right writer/story can put a fresh spin on a character we all thought of as dated and one-note. 

   The story echoes both the Authority and Kingdom Come, where a new group of heroes, the Elite come on the scene and dont hold to the same code as Superman, they kill people, they get involved in political situations, they have vices, etc.  Much like the Authority they travel in a huge, living, possibly sentient ship that travels through dimensions.  Like the authority they also put the world on notice, they dont care about political structures, if you are doing evil they are coming for you.  The immediate popularity of this new, no holds barred group causes Superman to question his way of doing things.  I wont spoil things but suffice it to say once the Elite and Superman come to realize their differences and no amount of talking is going to sway the others point of view, it gets real physical, real quick.  The battle that takes place made my jaw drop and ask if I was really seeing what I saw. 

   I dont want to spoil the details since I highly recommend you go see this DVD now, NOW!! what are you still reading this for, GO! 

   Also like most DC Animated features this one includes a preview of the next feature coming up.  I dont want to spoil that suprise either but I am AMPED to see it. It comes out in two parts so I have my money set aside right now.
   Questions, Comments, Think this review sucks?  Let me know what you think.