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the primordium: A high octane science fiction based detective comic book created by Christopher Hill and illustrated by British painter John Watson and Malaysian Tim Lai.The following is a weekly blog describing our path on creating this project. The path is incomplete. Join with us as we work towards publication. You want to create your own comic book? Hopefully our cautionary tale will help.
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Tonight’s installment… “What was I thinking?”
It is so easy to say I WANT TO WRITE MY OWN COMIC BOOK. Simple. I am sure there are a bunch of people each day who say that. It is a completely different animal to actually do it. Armed with some nice advice and suggestions I began to formulate the plan. First up…story.
The Story
Why was story first? Because the nicest art can not hide a bad thought. A good story will provide the will to purchase the next issue, the interest to become involved with the characters. Without a good story you just have pretty pictures.
I am not sure how other writers come up with stories. Mike, a friend of mine who writes in TV and used to do stand up comedy carries a notebook around and writes down anything he thinks is funny or a story idea. Not sure how he organizes all of those random thoughts but it seemed to work for him.
For this part Mike is my role model, so I went down to Office Max and purchased one of those five subject notebooks. I splurged on the real fancy one with the covered spiral, nice. It also had flaps to keep reference material for each subject, an added benefit. I decided to have five subject because there were multiple things that I started to write. An idea for a kids tv show, a Marvel universe piece, a graphic novel idea and a creator controlled piece. Within a few days the creator controlled piece dominated.
Quickly, I had multiple issues outlined and the overall ark processed. In my research someone recommended that you start with the ending and work backward. Great suggestion. That really helped the process. I also read “Writing for Comics with Peter David” by Peter David, during this time. I have read some other blogs that take shots at some of the “how to” books, never understood that. I will read anything that I can get my hands on if it will help me improve. A writer must evolve and the only way to do that is to study and to write. I have had the benefit of writing in other mediums but I will always know, no matter what I accomplish in this business, that I need to know more.
Anyway, once I had an outline I began to flesh it out in script form. I write in full script because it works for me. Everyone has a way and style. For me, I like to visualize every panel and every movement. Of course, you also need input from the artist but they are executing your vision so you better be able to describe it. When the script was ready I sent it over to John Watson.
He liked it and we both decided to create our own book. Getting John on board was the first major milestone. I have the utmost confidence in my marketing skills and resources. This will be seen by publishers, this will get published somewhere if by nothing else than sheer force of will (and spending my own money if I had to). But we needed more than that. Anyone can just buy their way in but my financial resources would never be enough for the book to have sustainability. Plus, I never want to get in because of money or influence. If I am to be a creator and writer then I need to get there by my own creativity and skill set.
Of course, having an accomplished professional with name recognition on board doesn’t hurt. Watson has produced some amazing covers for Marvel and DC not to mention the great Triple-A covers. When we started talking about this he said he wanted to do some sequentials. His exclusive with Marvel came up this summer so we were ready to start the process.
But there was a snag. He still had to feed his family. Doing your own creator controlled work means that you make no money until about three months after the first book hits the racks. Even then you may not make a whole lot. He could not commit to more than seven or so pages a month. I knew this going in and made sure to write the stories with this in mind. Continuity is important so I wanted to make sure that John’s pages made sense in the over all context of the story. So I made John’s pages flashback pages. Throughout the story when John’s art comes up it will detail an event in the far or recent past. The background of those pages will also be sepia to promote the aged difference in the timeline.
With all that I still needed another artist. Where to look? Thankfully I had a few resources in the other artists I worked with on the two Triple-A projects. Mario Gully’s style would have really fit but he was jammed up with Marvel work. Robert Atkins (artist on the first story) was just signed for the new GI Joe re-launch at IDW. Plus, neither was looking for a non guaranteed payday.
Side bar – The way creator controlled pieces work is that the product is delivered in its final form to the publisher. This means if there are any non-printing production costs it is on you. You pay for a writer, a penciler an inker (if desired) a colorist (if you are submitting for color work) and the letterer. You make money after the publisher has taken their cut. The percentage is what was worked out in your agreement (seems like most deals are different). Of course, if you are an established pro the rules are out the window. Not being one, the rules are strictly in place.
It always comes down to money. I am not in a position to have any guaranteed money on the project. Until we start making some money on the book we are bare bones. I needed someone who needed the exposure and the chance to be published more than they needed a payday. I don’t want to speak for them but I would think that Mario and Robert have reached the tipping point on that scale. They need cash more than they need to break in to the business. They are already a part of it.
So where do you find these wanting, publishing starved but amazingly talented artists? I had no idea…but I was about to learn.
Next Time…The Artists
Labels: christopher, Comic Book Publishing, hill, john, lai, primordium, tim, watson
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