Comic Creators Free Talk

[enchantedsleeper]

Seijaku_Ishida

CC isn't so much 'enough of a comics community for me' as I've found it elsewhere in places like fantasycomicportal, the nano comm, or even twitter.

True, I kind of overlooked non-Gaia comics communities in that respect xD

Nano.... MangO?

[Madcap_Bekkers]

enchantedsleeper

IronSpike

For a guild to be worth joining, it would have to have a purpose. Most Gaia guilds don't seem to have a purpose other than "Oh, you like (x)? me too!"

XD I think that's kinda why the entire Guilds feature was created. But okay, what kind of thing would you consider to be a good enough purpose?

A lurker chimes in! Perhaps, since guru threads are against CC rules, something of that kind? Most of the posts I've seen on CC over the years are "critique my comic plz" type threads from beginners, and then it becomes clear from the resulting critiques that there are some experienced folks hanging out in the shadows. I've always kinda wanted to see all those people get together and have a "this is how we do it" post. I can see why that would be undesirable as a post in CC, but as a purpose for a guild it could work.

Although it sounds like most of the serious people are pretty busy lately, so chances are something like that would shrivel up pretty quick without the right amount of watering.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

enchantedsleeper

Seijaku_Ishida

CC isn't so much 'enough of a comics community for me' as I've found it elsewhere in places like fantasycomicportal, the nano comm, or even twitter.

True, I kind of overlooked non-Gaia comics communities in that respect xD

Nano.... MangO?

Yeah. I met a good deal of awesome people on LJ and keep in contact with them directly.

[enchantedsleeper]

That's cool ^^

[Kyousouka]

I've been AWOL too, since CC hasn't been very useful to me and everybody else disappeared too.

Guilds are too inconvenient, which is why I don't bother with them. If I join a Gaia guild, I'd probably bookmark it instead of Gaia and sue that as my home base, never venturing anywhere else on Gaia.


I never got what the rules meant by "guru threads." Can someone enlighten me?

[Kupocake]

Kyousouka

I've been AWOL too, since CC hasn't been very useful to me and everybody else disappeared too.

Guilds are too inconvenient, which is why I don't bother with them. If I join a Gaia guild, I'd probably bookmark it instead of Gaia and sue that as my home base, never venturing anywhere else on Gaia.


I never got what the rules meant by "guru threads." Can someone enlighten me?

It's where someone sets up a thread and people come to them for advice, as opposed to a bunch of threads that say "critique/help please." I never really understood why they aren't allowed either.

[Jovian Temple]

I'd imagine it's probably for the same reason that you're not supposed to ask people to give you titles or suggestions for what should happen and stuff like that: liability. The potential exists that, if Person A asks for (say) help with the plot and Person B obliges, then Person A's project blows up and gets published for big money (or any money, even), Person B then can make the case that he helped and is therefore is entitled to a percentage of the earnings. The ensuing legal battle between Person A and Person B would surely drag Gaia front and center of the case.

Sorry for the belabored example, but I'm sure it's happened before, if not on Gaia then elsewhere. It's just a matter of Gaia (as a corporation or business entity) protecting itself and its creator community, I believe.

[enchantedsleeper]

Shouting Fox

Couldn't that happen even if it was done the other way around, though? If Person A were the one to set up the thread and Person B came to them to give critique, they could still claim entitlement to a percentage of the profit from that.

[jillythefoo]

I do feel kinda sad that there hasn't been any really good/active webcomic forums as of late. Here is it like you all said and drunkduck has been dead for a while.

Does anyone know of some good webcomic forums to hang out at?

[Jovian Temple]

enchantedsleeper

Couldn't that happen even if it was done the other way around, though? If Person A were the one to set up the thread and Person B came to them to give critique, they could still claim entitlement to a percentage of the profit from that.

Well, I think therein lies the difference between feeling out the audience and outright asking for help. If you were to ask someone more boned up on the topic, I'm sure he or she could give you a more in depth analysis, but I'll give my layman's understanding of it.

It's like when a movie is released to certain theaters and the audience is asked to give an opinion on it. I think there was a movie that actually changed its ending based on the overwhelming negative response it received from such a release. In that situation, the people telling the production company that the ending sucked is just them giving an opinion. Yes, it helps guide the overall production of the movie, but their contribution to the film is not the same as re-writing the ending for the company.

Now, in the case of The Death of Robin, DC had already produced two potential endings: ending one, Jason lives; ending two, Jason dies. They let the audience pick from two potential endings that they already written, and the audience contribution of dialing one number or another is minimal.

However, that same company doesn't allow for submissions. I have a feeling that this is partially an issue of liability, but partially an issue of "we don't want to deal with your s**t." In the former, it's possible that a budding artist may have drawn a little ten-page script wherein a fight with Bane leaves Batman with his back broken. Neither the script nor budding artist are accepted, but later down the road, the very same thing happens to Batman. If it were known that submissions were accepted and read, that would leave DC liable for the budding artist to say that the company read his submission and stole the idea. By telling their audience the exact opposite-- that submissions are discarded upon arrival-- it reduces the liability they have, although probably not to a healthy 0%. (At any rate, DC would have the lawyers to back up their position, flood any Johnny Everycomicfan with paperwork, extend the length of the trial, and so on-- so it'd essentially be pointless to try.)

And to get back to the original analogy, if Person A asks for a critique and Person B says the ending sucks, that lets Person A know that the end needs work, but the work would (ideally) be his alone. If Person A asks for a critique and Person B tells him the plot should be changed in specific ways, and then Person A makes the changes of the sort Person B says, I believe he may be somewhat liable for a claim that he owes Person B a percentage, but not entirely because Person B gave Person A more than what he originally asked for. The last possibility is that Person A outright asks for help, Person B offers his opinion on what changes ought to me made, and when Person A makes those changes, Person B can say that those changes were his idea and he's entitled to money from the production.

[-2o]

I wanted to pop in to ask a question that I wasn't sure warranted it's own thread, and lo and behold, you guys are already discussing something akin to the nature of what I was going to discuss, ask, etc.

I'm having a really difficult time with my comic. I mean, yes there is basic life stuff like being on new medication that's screwing my health and general well being screwed to hell, but part of it is that I'm not really sure where to go from here. The comic creators subforum is pretty good for some things like straight up critique for an idea/ already existing pages, etc etc, but I feel like we don't have as many discussible topics anymore.

So my question is, how the hell to you stay on top of everything? From updates, to background consistency to colors, i'm beginning to lose my goddamn mind every time I have some stupid ******** detail disappear on a page. I suspect that it's not magic, but I think I "big pictured" my way into a freaking nightmare.

Also, if anyone here uses faber castell markers, am I crazy or is there some grade A bullshit going on with how fast they are drying out? Did I just get a crappy fluke pack?

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Faber Castell makes decent pens but their markers are pretty s**t, in my opinion. They dry out pretty quickly in general.

Anyway, I find maintaining a schedule has a lot to do with setting aside the time to do it. Just schedule a time in your week, maybe a little every day, to work on your comic and just your comic.

[Kupocake]

I did an insane amount of pre-planning before I even thumbed my first page, so that probably is what's keeping me from going crazy, for now. The complete screenplay, a list of motifs, color scripts, conceptual art, room plans, character turnarounds, tons of reference/inspiration, even character bios of extremely minor characters: they all have helped keeping things consistent. One thing that's missing from my pre-planning is thumbnails of all 300+ pages. I figured my sensitivity to page composition would get better as it goes on, so I'm only doing thumbs by chapter when the time comes.

It's a hassle to do them all, but the more time you spend pre-planning, the smoother the ride when you're comicking.

I agree with a schedule, when you know that your pages release on a certain day, you will make sure that your pages are done by then. I personally decided to premiere my comic closer to class finals because I actually have a buffer built for that. XP

[Catanaition N. D.]

Kupocake

I did an insane amount of pre-planning before I even thumbed my first page, so that probably is what's keeping me from going crazy, for now. The complete screenplay, a list of motifs, color scripts, conceptual art, room plans, character turnarounds, tons of reference/inspiration, even character bios of extremely minor characters: they all have helped keeping things consistent. One thing that's missing from my pre-planning is thumbnails of all 300+ pages. I figured my sensitivity to page composition would get better as it goes on, so I'm only doing thumbs by chapter when the time comes.

It's a hassle to do them all, but the more time you spend pre-planning, the smoother the ride when you're comicking.

I agree with a schedule, when you know that your pages release on a certain day, you will make sure that your pages are done by then. I personally decided to premiere my comic closer to class finals because I actually have a buffer built for that. XP

Ugh agreed so hard on pre-planning. I'm at the point of finally thumbnailing my first chapter.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Here's an interesting conversation between an artist and Christopher Hart I found on Twitter. Thought a few people might enjoy it!