Here’s some information about timing your tweets for optimum performance.
According to The SocialMediaGuide.com, a good time to tweet isThe content you are trying to access is only available to members.
We’ve discussed Wibiya several times in the past year or so, so I wanted to be sure to pass along some news to any of you who have decided to start using it.
Wibiya is being acquired by Conduit.
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The guys discuss the anxiety this lifestyle can generate down the road. Later on, Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead and Invincible shows up!
Today’s post was generously contributed by Adam Casalino of The Wizard of Quippley.
Having an extensive collection of images is invaluable for an artist. Whether you need to know how to draw a convincing background for a panel, or you just have to brush up on your anatomy, having the appropriate images at hand saves time and headaches. In the past we were forced to scour magazines, newspapers, and even textbooks to find what we needed. The term “morgue” was used to describe our flat folders filled with these cut-outs. It was a messy, tedious and sometimes dispiriting endeavor. That’s all over. With Google Images we merely have to type in a few key words and were inundated with more pictures we could hope to examine.
Now with the various smartphones and tablets available, we have even greater tools at our disposal for collecting and managing reference images. There are several apps I employ when collecting and organizing my images. The sheer myriad of apps on the App Store means that for each I mention, there is probably an alternative with similar uses (or lower price). These are the ones, though, I’ve used and find particularly effective. Those of you with iPhones may also find that these apps work on it as well.
The core app you will need is called “Stash Pro” ($3.99, although there is a free version). This is an image/file management app. You can import photos and video from iPad’s default Photos App, plus download directly into Stash’s library from an in-app browser. Why is this app useful? Well, you can sort all your photos into separate folders or tag them with keywords (something you cannot do in the default iPad app). This is an invaluable feature and will save you time, once you have collected several hundred images. Just simply type a keyword into the search box and every appropriate image will be filtered. File types are also automatically sorted (Images, Video, Documents).
“Okay, that’s great,” you may be thinking, “What else?” How about “Photoshop Express”? This free app by Adobe is particularly snappy on iPad (ie, it loads very fast) and can handle a variety of photo manipulation tasks. I often find I found just the right picture, but the dang dog is facing the wrong way! I export the photo from Stash Pro into iPad’s default Photos app. There it can be opened from Photoshop Express where I can quickly flip the image. I can save it back into the Photos app, or just use the reference then and there.
With these two tools your iPad will no longer be used simply to play Angry Birds on a larger screen. I can now convince your wife it is a valuable part of your comic creating process.
For those of you asking, yes I’ve messed around with a few drawing apps on the iPad. While they’re just not ready for prime time yet, I’ve found ArtStudio ($2.99) and SketchBook Pro ($4.99) particularly useful. They aren’t great, and to my knowledge, you have little control over your dpi and such, but they’re a start. Maybe one day we’ll have an art-creating app as robust as GarageBand.
DropBox is also extremely useful for quickly transferring those reference images on your hard drive to your iPad.
Notes: Please understand I am endorsing using images as reference, not incorporating someone else’s photo into your artwork.
Also, the large file capacity of the iPad and other devices means you can carry thousands of images with you.
It’s June. Comic Con International is only weeks away. Many of your readers are out of school and enjoying summer. And maybe your own kids are, too. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get cracking.
If you’re using Adobe InDesign to lay out your book, there’s a little function under the File menu that you should be aware of. It’s called PreFlight.
Selecting Preflight gives you a detailed rundown of the condition of your document from a pre-press point of view. It helps you spot font problems, potential color-mode errors (like RGB images), and more. Here’s the top-level report from Evil Inc Annual Report Vol. 6:
Fonts: 12 Fonts Used; 0 Missing, 0 Embedded, 0 Incomplete, 0 ProtectedLinks and Images: 531 Links Found; 0 Modified, 0 MissingImages: 0 Embedded, 0 use RGB color spaceColors and Inks: 4 Process Inks; 0 Spot InksCMS is ON
It can even help you track down errant RGB files. Just click on the pertinent area on the left of the dialogue box to get an expanded run-down. For example, below, I clicked on Links and Images:
The main dialogue box now gives a complete break down of all of the image files used in the document, grouped by color mode, file type, etc.
Issues like RGB files, spot inks and broken fonts are immediately flagged for you at the Summary level.
It’s a very useful tool that even very experienced designers sometimes overlook completely.
The year was 1997, and I was working a deadline shift in the graphics department of the Akron Beacon Journal. My nighttime co-worker Dennis, an old-school comics guy with significant connections to comic-book, comic-strip and political-cartoon creators, was looking at some prototype strips for something that would one day become “Greystone Inn.”
He didn’t like the main character, a gargoyle. He didn’t like the character; didn’t think it looked like a gargoyle; didn’t think people would relate to a gargoyle. He, very gently, asked me: “This gargoyle… are you sure…?”
My response could be best described as indignant. After all, wasn’t the comics page crammed with enough talking cats and talking dogs?! A gargoyle is different! What if Berke Breathed had shied away from using a penguin due to this same logic? And of course it looked like a gargoyle. And besides, I’d refer to him as such and people would just understand that that is what a gargoyle looked like in my universe. And of course they would relate to him. How could they not?! He’s a classic archetype. What’s not to love about this goddammed gargoyle?!?
And besides… the common rules didn’t apply to me. Heck, I broke the rules… on purpose! I was a visionary… a renegade! Goddammit, I was special. My mother even said so!
My diatribe lasted for a good twenty minutes.
I addressed his advice from every angle but one — what if he was right?
He smiled. He was a father of three. This was a well-practiced smile:
“Enjoy obscurity.”
Two words. Gently said.
“I’ll show him,” I said to myself. Me and my gargoyle. We’ll show ’em all.
In 2000, I launched my comic-strip-about-a-comic-strip-starring-a-gargoyle. And in 2005, after four-and-a-half years of trying to get traction with it, I brought it to a close — using what little momentum I had built to launch Evil Inc, which eclipsed Greystone’s traffic in less than a year.
I’ve discussed this before, but I really wish I would have had the creative maturity to listen to intelligent advice back then. The time I spent on Greystone was well-spent, mind you, but I always wonder if I wouldn’t be a little further along today if I had started smarter back then.
And part of that would have included listening to good advice when it was offered.
Nope. Not me. Not then.
I’d get my back up against the wall and insist that I was right I was right I was right. And if you didn’t agree, then clearly you were missing my genius. I was just that confident.
Confidence is an integral part of creativity. You can’t do what we do without confidence. At some point you say: “This is worth sharing” and you foist it upon the world daring the world to frown back at you. Without that confidence, you fade away.
Part of creative excellence is the ability to temper that confidence with humility. Without that, you’ll never be able to take advantage of some key moments in your development as an artist.
Fibers.com is a print-on-demand company specializing in T-shirts and apparel. They use a heat-transfer printing system and sell their shirts at a 10-15% commission rate.
Interested Webcomics.com members can partner with Fibers.com at a special 20% commission rate.
To sign up, visit http://www.fibers.com/sell and then click apply. Make sure to enter the secret code “webcomics” in the description and they will convert your account to a seller account and set you up with the 20% commission.
As an added bonus, Webcomics.com members will be able to provide their readers with special custom coupons to offer their readers.
Fibers.com is focusing on T-shirts and other apparel currently, but has plans to expand into posters, framed prints, skateboards, and other non-clothing items. They also discussed adding features for being able to customize your store and have it on your own domain if you want.
Last part of a weeklong Q&A with Scott Kurtz.
If you could recommend one con to be a creator’s first con, what would you suggest?
Something local. Even if it’s shitty at first. Just to understand logistics. Then once you get an idea of what it takes to set up somewhere start branching out to cons that are a drive away. Do this before you fly anywhere.
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Part Three of a weeklong Q&A with Scott Kurtz.
Lolbat has a broken base, even though it’s my favorite part of the strip currently; how did you handle the backlash on Facebook when he first appeared?
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