Living With Insanity

Okay, first up, Michael and I are working on a new DnD style fantasy series and we need a colourist. You can see a sample page and details on how to apply through the link. Remember, I do get a few thousand hits a day, so you will get some popularity right away.

On to the rant. Winter is making its way here. The temperature is going down, the windows are shut, the heater is on, and I’m sitting at my PC, browsing the internet, rugged up in warm clothes, wrapping myself with a thick woollen blanket and drinking hot chocolate. Life is awesome.

But being on the internet gives me inspiration to do great things. Well, maybe not great, but possibly interesting. I’ve been reading on Wikipedia and other places about movie making, like the story of how Kevin Smith maxed out a few credit cards, emptied his college fund and sold half his comic book collection to fund Clerks. And it only cost $270,000 or something. It just goes to show you that you don’t need a lot of cash to put something good together.

I’m currently working on a screenplay for a comedy movie. It’s about these two teenage boys who are abandoned by their parents, who go live in another state and start a new family. The eldest is fifteen, youngest is 13. The pair immediately realise they can do whatever the hell they want and decide to go nuts. Sounds like a cheesy Hollywood flick, but I also want to explore the effects on the kids when they realise their parents are never coming back and show the consequences for holding parties that wreck their home, only to realise they have to clean it up.

Problem is, I have a few things missing: The equipment required to make a movie, a cast to star in it, and money to get it off the ground. It’s the same reason I haven’t been able to get a spectacular team assembled for a comic to submit to a company, I just cannot afford the start up costs. No one will foot the bill and Kickstarter will only allow people to submit projects if they have a US bank account and address.

Oh well, at least Gemini Storm and Living With Insanity are going strong and are done by two excellent artists. And I’m thankful for that.

EDIT: Oh, and would you mind boosting our status at onlinecomics.net? It’s a pretty good site for keeping track of your favourite comics, some of which will tell you when they update so you won’t miss any. And I want LWI to be at the top. Just comment, add to favourites or click on the avatar so you can see the comic and we get the hits recorded.

Hope all is well.

~ David

Man I suck at this blogging thing. Well, at least I’m better than some writers since I remember I have one.

Okay, Gemini Storm update. I’ve managed to bring down the price of issue one so if you didn’t want to get it because of the price, then here you go. You can also get some other comics at indyplanet, a lot of them look good. And issue two is well on its way, just got the inks for page eleven, so we’re half done. Harrison is posting them on his deviantArt so you can check them out there.

And now for a report on my first Free Comic Book Day. I’ve been aware of this event for years now, but because it was on a Saturday and I was a broke student, I tended to give it a miss since getting to the comic shops required taking a bus and train to the city. And it was only a small discount off of titles and some free samplers. What was the point?

I am a God damn idiot. FCBD was awesome!

I first went to the place where I normally get my TPBs since I knew they usually have sales then. Turns out they were going all out. The staff were all dressed up as characters from comic books and there was even a life-sized Dalek wandering around.

I had a twenty minute chat with a girl dressed up like Harley Quinn about brightest day and a guy dressed like Darth Vader joined in to give his opinion, before the whole thing devolved into a discussion on who would win in a fight: Deadpool or Wolverine (Deadpool seemed to be everyone’s main pick). I have never gotten a chance to geek out like that ever.

And the shelves were empty. Holy crap I have never seen that before. They weren’t completely empty, but the guy stocking them could barely keep up with everyone grabbing all the stuff they could. Half the manga section was gone and people were accpeting what was left with glee. And I still got six new books.

The atmosphere, the nerdy discussions, the cosplay, the little kid getting a photo of him hugging R2-D2… I have never felt more in place.

Well, I went to the local comic shop, who I’m still mad at for rejecting aussie authors because I would have loved to do a signing (Yeah, I’m an egotist) wondering how they could top that. They didn’t try, they just sold their comics at a discount and let everyone have two free comics per person. And yet, I loved the atmosphere there too. There were the nerdy discussions and people racing to get the latest issue of Batman.

Unfortunately, it was the middle of the afternoon and the place didn’t have much that I wanted, but I still picked up the first volume of Red Robin (Was good) and got the War of Superman #0 and Bongo Free for All (Simpsons) which I enjoyed. But it was so weird seeing the place so packed. They even had a bouncer and had to tell people to wait outside for a few minutes before they could come in. This from a place that’s normally lucky to have ten people in at a time (Most of the time it’s usually me and two or three people, sometimes just me).

There was another, little comic shop that was packed too. They weren’t involved in FCBD, but it was still so nice to see a place that’s normally empty full as well (I think the guy knows me now because he usually stocks the series I buy from the store when I come in).

All in all, one of the best days I’ve ever had. I am so going again next year. And I am going to spend weeks saving my cash so I can get the good deals and I will wake up early so I can get the stores just before opening so I can get what I want.

This must be what a convention feels like. I should probably go to one of those too.

Anyway, enough of my gushing and wishing that there could be more than one of these days a year so I can have more than one reminder I’m not the only comic nerd in Australia. Seriously, they should have another 20% off sale to get that level of people in (Though I guess people mostly come for the free stuff).

Yeah, I’ll shut up now.

Hope you all had a great Free Comic Book Day as well and I hope next year I’ll be able to give you guys something.

Until next time, take care.

~ David

Okay, I suck for not posting this up sooner. I posted it on all the forums I frequent, plus it’s on twitter and facebook, and yet not here, the place that matters.

I’ve been keeping something secret from you guys, because I was waiting until it was ready. Maybe I should have made it available for pre-order, but too late now. Anyway, I have another comic and this one is available for print.

Gemini Storm.

I am super freaking excited because now I am finally a published author. I have a printed comic book available for sale! YAY ME! I’m awesome!

But, now for the part that concerns you. Please either buy the comic or, if you’d prefer, head on down to your local comic shop and tell them to head over to comicsmonkey and order the comic through there. Hell, you could do both.

Special Offer.

If you can get a store to stock Gemini Storm and that place sells ten copies, you will receive a free copy signed by myself and the artist, Harrison, plus he will also throw in a sketch. If you already bought issue one, you can have a free copy of issue two, which we are working on right now, when it comes out.

Also, if you personally buy thirty copies, I buy you a present. Anything under $100, it’s yours.

So please buy and/or tell people you know about Gemini Storm. It would be a great help and would make me love you forever.

~ David

Okay, first off, for those of you not aware, you can now post comments without signing up. I’m hoping this time the spam bots won’t plague the site. If all goes well, any reader will be able to tell us whatever they want.

Right, onto the blog. Today I wanted to talk about webcomics.com and their new subscription policy.

As some of you may or may not know, the site went up a while back as a way for Scott Kurtz and friends (Or as they call themselves, the Halfpixel crew) to share tips and techniques with other webcomic developers, as well as other people submitting articles on making strips, website maintennance and promotion.There are a couple hundred articles on the site, and it seems to be doing well.

So it was decided it would only be accessed by being paid for.

Yes, these wants people to pay $30 a year for articles other people have written, for free, which they will not be paid for. The only compensation any of us will get is that we are allowed to say that we don’t want our articles to be put on the site. We don’t get a share of the profits, we don’t get a small fee for our efforts and I personally think that’s a little wrong. Sure, I wrote six articles and there are about 200, meaning anything I get would be miniscule, plus what I wrote probably won’t be looked at much, but it’s like a magazine. The editors pay every contributor, no matter how many people read the articles and no matter how much money the magazine makes, because people are still paying for it.

And in this case, the profit margin is going to be wide. What costs do they have? The website. So they need to pay for the domain and hosting. If about four people subscribe, then they have enough. More than that? They’re making money. Where is this going? They say they’re going to be making improvements, but what are they? As far as I know, this money is just going to be used to fatten up their wallets, so it makes me a little weary.

And honestly, even if I knew what they were doing, I don’t think I would sign up. Sure, it’s only $2.50 a month, but webcomics.com hasn’t taught me much. I mean, sure, once in a while they gave me something useful, but the rest of it was about conventions, which I can’t attend, merchandise, which I can’t make a profit from until i get more readers, things I can’t afford or tips and techniques I already knew.

And then there’s the fact that, well, I only like one comic from the half pixel people. Aside from PvP, the comics just bore me and don’t really have much appeal. It’s the same reason why I haven’t bought How to Make Webcomics. How am I supposed to take advice from the guys who can’t get me to read their comic and buy their shirts?

But, Scott did link me, which I think is a fair payment, because I could always use some readers, so I’m not going to be demanding any money. I would like another link though, but I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get anything else out of this.

Anyway, you guys sign up if you want to, but I don’t think I’ll be going near webcomics.com for a while.

Until next time, take care.

~ David

So, it’s finally been year. Holy shit, that went by fast.

Looking back, I think we’ve had a pretty good start. The comic has its own site, a first for me. We get thousands of hits daily. We got linked by some of my favourite comics (One of which broke the site, but that’s not Scott’s fault. That’s Dreamhost’s fault for not getting back to me). And best of all, it’s being drawn by one of the greatest people to collaborate with. Seriously, Paul is not only a great artist, but also the most reliable guy I’ve worked with.

As for what will come next? I’m not sure. More readers, hopefully. I’m looking into the comicpress code and I might be able to come with a customised layout one of these days. Maybe some merchandise, but at the moment I don’t think we have enough people who would buy anything. There’s a thing with webcomics that at most, 1% of the readership will buy your stuff, so for us that’s between 10 and 30 people. Plus, you have places like Cafepress that make you charge $20 which they keep. But, I am always working to get our numbers up on the low budget I have, plus we seem to be climbing all the time, so who knows, by this time next year we might be bigger than Penny Arcade (hah)

Anyway, it’s been a fun year, lots of new experiences for me and I still love doing this. Hopefully, you guys love it as well. 2009 has been a great year, so let’s hope 2010 is even better. Not just for me, but for you guys as well.

Take care.

~ David