News!!! Rex is coming and I have review copies.
Current mood: anxious
Category: Art and Photography
Updates haven't been very frequent around here lately. Sorry about that.
Well that all changes on Monday.
Our printer sent word that Rex shipped out from Eastern Canada on Tuesday and that I could expect a pallet soon. 2400 books in 34 boxes.
New things on the horizon:
4 weeks of Rex contests coming up where we'll give away 3 books every week.
More blogs on creating comics.
Creator interviews…and they'll be quick and to the point.
A new webcomic starts and an old webcomic returns.
And a BIG announcement that I've been keeping to myself since February. I think I'll let that one out later in the month.
Review copies of Rex
Fiona managed to squeeze Danijel Zezelj's Rex 150mb PDF down to 8mb. I'll send review copies of Rex to any Comic / book stores, Pop Culture review sites & Comic sites and blogs.
If you're interested, message me here with your email address, mailing address (if you want me to follow it up with an actual book) and a link to the website or blog.
Can you recommend me an mp3 player?
Category: Music
Hey guys,
Totally off topic, but I find myself in need of a new mp3 player. I had a tiny Sony 2-gig ATRAC stick which is useless to me now as you can only load music from Sony's music site with it now. It won't convert my mp3's.
Got any particular models of iPods or other brands that you swear by? I listen to A LOT of music and audio-books but don't need video.
Thanks in advance for the help.
-Jay
***UPDATE*** Thanks again for all of your suggestions. I just ended up buying a Creative Zen at lunchtime - 4 gigs for 99 bucks. Something to hold me over until I'm ready to commit to something INSANE.
Here's some vids you've probably never seen featuring Danijel's artwork.
Splinter Title Sequence
Design and animation by Jamieson Fry, illustrations by Danijel Zezelj.
Danijel's artwork was taken and used in the motion graphics intro sequence from Michael D. Olmos' film Splinter. The combination of images and music gives me goosebumps. Truly amazing. I caught this on DVD a few months ago. Nice gritty little crime flick. Michael's dad Edward James Olmos (Colonel Adama) appears in the film as well.
The Shop of Wild Dreams
Here's a second vid featuring Danijel doing a live painting session during an improvised oerformance by Jessica Lurie (sax) Andrew Drury (drums) Danilo Gallo (bass) Alfonso Santimone (piano). Gallery D406, Modena, Italy, Oct. 2006.
Danijel also now has a Facebook page (not profile) which will be updated regularly.
***Please note this is not a talent search for Op Wound. This is strictly done as a service to our creative friends on Myspace***
This is for ARTISTS LOOKING FOR WRITERS to hook up with to make mind-blowingly cool comics. You're an artist who is ready to take on the world of comics but you need to find a good wordsmith to write you some kickass scripts. Writers have another blog posted HERE with their bios listed for you to search out.
"Artist" can also include colorists and letterers as I don't plan to get anymore specific than that.
If you don't have any artwork posted anywhere, I wouldn't bother posting a bio below as you'll probably be wasting people's time if they can't access your art right away.
NAME:
LOCATION:
MAIN LANGUAGE:
LINK TO your online portfolio or perhaps you have galleries on your myspace page. This is where you let everyone know where to find your art.
ONE IMAGE can be placed in your comment.
FAV GENRES to work in
Posting your email is optional but people could just message you directly here on Myspace. Good luck to everyone. Here's hoping you find a creative partner. -Jay Subscribe to this blog HERE
***Please note this is not a talent search for Op Wound. This is strictly done as a service to all of our creative friends on Myspace***
It's a new year and convention season is upon us. I know a bunch of people have hooked up on this page before so as a service to our friends we'll do this again. You've got a hot script but nobody to draw it? You're working on a graphic novel or looking to start a webcomic? Post your details below.
I'm going to break this up into two separate blogs. Artists will get their own section in a different blog. Hopefully some creators can hook up and make some awesome comics for the rest of us to enjoy.
This is for WRITERS LOOKING FOR ARTISTS. In the comments section below list:
NAME:
LOCATION:
MAIN LANGUAGE:
LINK TO published works or your personal website or any writing that you have floating around the web.
BRIEF one sentence description of your idea and the main genres that you work in. DON'T give out anymore info than that. Nobody wants to get sued for allegedly stealing your ideas.
FORMAT: Graphic novel, miniseries, webcomic – How large of a project is this? Do you have sample pages ready that you could show to potential artists?
Posting your email is optional but people could just message you directly on Myspace.
LAUNCHING INTO OBLIVION PART 4: Contest winner + odds n’ ends
Current mood: focused
Category: Art and Photography
Congrats to Jordy of the United Kingdom for winning the art. Thanks to everyone for joining. You gave me a lot of reading material. I was checking through our blog subscribers the other day. Awesome bunch of people. Over a thousand of you now.
First Rex order came in from Diamond Distribution.
About 700 books are pre-sold already through the comic stores. We aren't setting any sales records but you guys helped out a lot. Thanks a million to everyone who ordered. Book is due in stores in a month. I'm printing 3000 books and shipping a couple of thousand back to me in Vancouver. I'll make sure to take photos so you can see what 2000 graphic novellas look like.
By May I'll have 4 or 5 different ways for you to get our books and merch as I realize a hell of a lot of you don't live near or frequent your local comic shop. We'll have an online store up here in Canada that will ship worldwide, we'll have another online hook up in the States as well. We're working on Amazon. It's all a learning process but we're getting there. We're opening as many channels as possible.
Out of the Gutter 4.
My favorite sleazy literature anthology, Out of the Gutter, just released a new volume. It's a magazine that comes out in book form at 200 pages. Any niche writing journal that survives 4 issues must be doing something right.
And for writers who dabble in crime and depraved fiction, they take submissions. Here's their website. You can also friend them here on myspace.
This volume comes with MY personal endorsement.
Badass webcomic discovery.
I love finding cool new comics to read. This one found me. Literally. They had taken out an ad on our webcomic site. The comic is called Generator Project and it can be read over at Fifth Empire Media. It's crazy good. The artwork reminds me of a cross between 2000AD Simon Bisley, Ash Wood and Bill Sienkiewicz. It just grabbed me immediately.
The artist Simon Andrews and I started emailing back and forth. I though he was British due to the nature of the art and he thought I was American due to the hardcore gunplay in our comics. Turns out we both live in Vancouver, Canada. Weird. We're going out for beers this Saturday.
Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks again for stopping by. -Jay
WIN OUR PROFILE PICTURE ART THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 11th
Current mood: adventurous
So 2008 is 25% over, how have you been?
Went to the movies this weekend. This wasn’t the piece of crap I was expecting it to be.
In fact it was alright. 3 out of 5 stars. The marketing made it look like another Turistas or Hostel. It really wasn’t that at all. I wouldn’t advise you to rush out and see it but rent it when it comes out on DVD if you’re not too squeamish.
We’re about 5-6 weeks off from the release of our first book, Rex so why not celebrate and give away some more art?
CONTEST
Here’s a chance at another version of a previous prize from last year.
It’s a drawing of my main character Starkweather from Battles. It’s 17 inches tall and 11 inches wide (42.5cm x 27.5cm), India ink on acid-free paper.
THE RULES
Just leave a comment on this blog, that’s it.
You’re only allowed to post once. I read every comment so I’ll know.
Private messages or comments on the front page don’t count; it has to be on this blog.
You have to leave a comment before 11.59pm PST on Thursday, April 10th. I’ll add up the number of comments and use a random number generator to select the winner.
This contest is open to ANYONE in the world. If I have to pay shipping to South Africa or New Zealand, that’s MY problem.
BONUS (but not mandatory) What have you accomplished so far this year and are you getting closer to reaching your goals?
Winner will be announced in Friday’s blog. Good luck and have a good week.
LAUNCHING INTO OBLIVION PART 3: DOWN TO THE WIRE
Current mood: stoked
Category: Art and Photography
I’ll start out this week by sending you on a few scouting missions. First off you need to read the essay, 1000 True Fans over at The Technium. It’s an excellent piece on the nature of how you’ll need to build and structure your readership and fan base to survive the brave new world.
And next is the intro chapter to Chris Anderson’s new book Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. It’s waiting for you at Wired.com. Chris Anderson is the author ofThe Long Tail. Another worthy read.
These essays will help you get into the right mindset about how you’re going to slowly grow your audience by giving away the farm upfront and making your cash on the backend.
The last 3 pages of Rex went up online tonight. It’s been a fun ride. We’ve been putting up pages since October. The page views exploded over the past 6 weeks. All 70 pages are available to read now. Now we anxiously await the numbers from Diamond. We’ll overprint by quite a bit. I have to send out a lot of review copies.
Rex Sampler
The 4600 8-page Samplers hit comic stores last week. A little close to the wire. I would have loved to have hsd those done 3 weeks sooner but it was not to be. The glossy paper is the same stock that we’ll be using for the actual graphic novella. From seeing the final product I can’t recommend Lebonfon highly enough. They’ve been awesome to work with.
Maybe if you ask your comic shop owner nicely they’ll show it to you…if they haven’t already thrown it into recycling. It made me realize how much I missed seeing black and white comics printed on glossy paper. And that’s why I got into this in the first place.
LAUNCHING INTO OBLIVION – Part 2 – Marketing Blitz
Current mood: anxious
Category: Art and Photography
By Jason Thibault
All links in blue.
New website.
Optimumwound.com is taking form. We almost killed ourselves making it work with Word Press but we’re getting there. Some sections are active with new additions being made every day. My formatting is a little wonky but I have big plans for that place. We’re getting there.
8-page Rex sampler
I had 5000 8-page samplers for Rex printed up at Lebonfon Printing (in QuebecCanada) this week. They’re shipping out as part of the Diamond dateline weekly package that goes out to their 4600 store accounts. Unfortunately they’ll be ending up in shops at the end of the month rather than the beginning. It was a gamble but I felt that I needed to have something in hard copy circulating out there amongst the vendors who do all of the purchasing. A $9.95 cover price is a bit of a risk for storeowners to take on an unproven newbie publisher.
I think we’ll launch with good numbers in May and that we’ll do even better numbers once the book is actually out and a few hundred review copies can be mailed out to magazines and media outlets. Then we’ll do a re-launch in June / July. It’s why I wanted to go books (graphic novels) as opposed to singles. I can think about the long term rather than 30-day shelf lives. Still it’s important to make a strong push come release week. Jay at Diamond did a lot for us by writing an amazing review for Rex for the March Previews catalog and getting it listed as a Staff Pick.
Webcomic advertising
I did some heavy advertising for the Rex webcomic over the past 2 days using the Project Wonderful banner system on some like-minded sites like thezombiehunters.com, Marlith.com and postnukecomic.com. We managed to pull over a few thousand people that way. I also took a rather pricey ($40/day) ad over the entire onlinecomics.net network. And Warren Ellis’ White Chapel forum run by Avatar sent over even more traffic.
In total Rex managed to garner over 50,000 page views in the last 4 days. That is f@king awesome.
Facebook Page
Facebook, which I have a love / hate relationship with has launched some new applications. Most of my local (Vancouver) friends migrated over there last year. You can now start a Page as opposed to a profile. FB profiles are private whereas the "pages" are public. So now Optimum Wound has aFacebook Page. It’s a tiny community (so far) and it will never replace our presence on Myspace but I felt it was important to experiment with it.
Press Releases and Knowing Thy Place.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around writing press releases. I started out last year by going to this helpful articleHow to Write a Great Press Release. I still need A LOT of practice.
I wrote one up, made a few classic errors and emailed it off to a lot of comic news sites. Only 4 picked it up. I’m not sure how many mistakes I made. Bad formatting, sending attachments, too lengthy or reading too much like an advertisement. Don’t know.
None of the mainstream places like comicon.com/pulse, newsarama.com or comicbookresources.com posted it. I’m not sure what their policies are or if their email filters blocked it or if it was just plain unnewsworthy. I’m sure their inboxes get filled with hundreds of missives each week. I do know that newsarama.com was happy to take my advertising dollars last summer. For two months in a row.
…but some of the smaller sites came to the rescue. Some of them are growing at such a rate that they’re becoming the new dogs in town. I have to take the time to publicly thank Broken Frontier, Chuck @ Comic Related, Matt @ Comics Bulletin and Brad @ The Comic Collective for helping us get the word out there. We are extremely grateful for that. And I’ll return the favor once I get our link section running at our homepage.
So you see I’m gradually laying out a marketing blueprint for a new comic and a new company. I haven’t done everything perfectly the first time out and at the end of this 10-week cycle we’ll examine what went right and wrong. It’s always an uphill battle and you don’t sleep much but I’m having a lot of fun. Next week I’ll go over even more aspects of marketing. And try to include a few photos.
We’re moving out of the dead-zone for theatre-going and into the spring thaw. Seems to be some good choices heading into cinemas this month for genre films.
City of Men
City of God was one of my top 3 favorite films of 2002. Five years later comes a sequel of sorts. City of Men (Cidade dos Homens) is from the same producers but Fernando Meirelles didn’t direct it. I’m definitely giving it a shot. In Portuguese (Brazillian) with English subs. In selected cities.
Doomsday
From watching the trailer this doesn’t quite look like how I was expecting it to. But Neil Marshall is one of my favorite genre directors. I’ve worn out my copy of Dog Soldiers and The Descent was great. Plus he’s working on the horror western, "Sacriledge" next. But in the meantime if Rhona Mitra is kicking post-apocalyptic ass this weekend then I’ll be there.
Funny Games
I haven’t seen the original Funny Games (Austria, 1997) but this US remake is directed by Michael Haneke as well. I’ve heard that they’re both quite nasty. Not sure if this is a theatre outing for me or a "wait-for-DVD" situation.
And FINALLY, someone’s going to finance the Dutch zombie-nazi flick, Worse Case Scenario. Here’s one of the promos they filmed a couple of years ago to raise funding.
Super creepy. Here’s hoping that they pull it off…and sooner rather than later.
LAUNCHING INTO OBLIVION AND CARVING A NICHE: Part 1 of 10
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Art and Photography
By Jason Thibault
For the next 10 weeks I'm going to detail our process behind launching a comic or graphic novel into today's rapidly changing marketplace. We have a book (Rex) coming out in 9 weeks and I'm going to take you step by step up to that point. I'm not going to talk much about the writing and drawing process in this series but I will cover all of the things that have to get done before a book hits the stands.
I got back into comics quite heavily in 1992 when Image was exploding and the independents were thriving. Brian Bendis and David Mack were still at Caliber Comics, Jim Lee released comics that had a big "i" in the upper left corner, Todd M. still drew Spawn and self publishing was starting to take off as a movement. The top selling comic books clocked in the millions of units. That all came to an end in the mid to late nineties. The bubble burst, publishers and stores folded and a new era was ushered in.
During this time I was tucked away in my apartment re-teaching myself how to draw after a 5-year hiatus. I bought a drafting table, and a lot of art supplies. I experimented with different pencil leads, dipping pens, technical pens and every kind of India Ink under the sun. I amassed a huge volume of art books, trying to unlock every secret that I could. I read Wizard, Hero, The Comics Journal and any publication where an artist or writer would dish out the goods on making comic books.
I was determined to enter this industry one way or another. Back in the day I could picture myself at DC Comics. Either Vertigo or their mainstream side. Didn't matter. That seemed to be where all of the action was. It was the place where all the wilder more experimental artists seemed to have made a home. But I didn't want it bad enough. I didn't send out many submission packages and I stopped going to conventions.
Around 2002 after a big move out to the west coast (Vancouver, Canada) from Montreal, Quebec I decided I had to shit or get off the pot. A lot of time had passed since I became obsessed with the comics biz and I didn't want the dream to start fading away. I started drawing again more than I ever had. I screwed up the courage to email Tim Bradstreet, John Van Fleet, Danijel Zezelj and Jordan Raskin asking them questions. I even ended up talking to Jordan on the phone at one point.
And Danijel sent me a huge hardcover Italian Edition of Rex. I didn't write to Danijel again for five years.
Mosquito edition of Rex, France
More years passed, I built up a large group of people to photograph as reference for artwork in my comic Battles, made a lot of friends because of that and started Optimum Wound Comics shortly after with my old friend Rich. In 2005 Sean Fidler and I traveled back to Montreal to hook up with Rich for the Fantasia film fest and distributed 2000 copies of our first Op Wound Sampler. We didn't know what we were doing but it sure seemed like a good idea at the time.
A meeting of the minds back in 2005, Montreal, when we all felt 100 years younger.
I built up Op Wound online by launching Rich's comic Memento Mori at webcomicsnation.com and then finally started my comic Battles Without Living Witnesses. Didn't get too far with that one, but that's another story for a different day.
I contacted Danijel again in the spring of 2007. I felt ready to tackle Rex. Felt I'd learned from a lot of mistakes made over the years. To be a little cheeky I replied to his last email from 2002. I proposed that we release Rex. He was hesitant at first. He prefers to work on new material. He asked me how serious I was. I sent him back a 3-page email outlining my plan. I was serious.
He grabbed the original artwork from Croatia in May of last year and ended up mailing it all out to me in June.
So far this has been all about me me me. But I just want you to see where I'm coming from. In the following nine weeks I'm going to pile on a lot of useful info, links and approaches to comics that may not have occurred to you.
You don't need to be penciling Aquaman every month to have a viable future in comics. It's not going to be easy but nothing worthwhile ever is. Come back next week and I'll start dishing out the good stuff. The 21st century is a beautiful place for writers and artists.
-Jay
If you like what you've seen and want to subscribe to the blog, click on the link below that says "Subscribe." ALL ARE WELCOME!
Build Your Own Comic Empire - Keeping Track of it all.
Current mood: anxious
Category: Art and Photography
By Jason Thibault All links in blue
I meant to finish this one up a while ago. This is the last in the series of BYCE blogs for a while. I'm going try something different after this. Starting Thursday I'm going to begin running a 10-part, 10-week series on launching a comic into today's crowded marketplace. It'll be a case study that unfolds in real time with a lot of useful tricks for you to test out as we get ready to ship Danijel's Rex graphic novel in May. Should be fun and informative.
This last blog will be a list of resourceful news sites and blogs that you can track on a weekly (or daily basis) to get a handle on the comings and goings of the comic industry worldwide.
I use four main sites to keep up to date on the industry. Keep in mind that the first two sites will lead you to thousands of other places around the web while the second set of sites keep you on their pages for columns and interviews.
Journalista, Dirk Deppey's newsblog on the Comics Journal website is updated 5 times a week and is probably more widely read then the print magazine itself. It's an often exhaustive look at the ENTIRE comics industry. He usually breaks the daily updates into sections such as literary comics, pop comics, manga, comic strips, editorial comics, minicomics, cartooning, comics press and culture. You won't always agree with his opinions, but there aren't many other places that cover such a wide expanse of comicdom.
The Comics Reporter: is Tom Spurgeon's daily newsblog and he covers almost as wide a variety of topics as Journalista does. He updates 7 times a week and often includes interviews on the weekends as well as a pile of reviews in the middle of the week. Tom's been writing about comics for various publications for 25 years. He knows his stuff and is not afraid to call bullshit on items that rub him wrong.
NEWSARAMA: This is more of a pop culture mainstream comic site that heavily skews towards DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image but will veer off into left field and cover the indies as well. I come to Newsarama mostly for the interviews as they can be quite in-depth. blog@newsarama, the blog portion of the site covers a wider variety of topics. Newsarama can be a really fun place some days and they don't take themselves too seriously. It's one of my daily stops on the internet.
Comic Book Resources was the first comics site that became a weekly fixture for me many years ago. They built up their site on the strength of their weekly columnists and their huge messageboard community. They still have the best columnists on the net for comics discussion. Steven Grant's Permanent Damage is posted every Wednesday and is a can't miss weekly read. And starting the week off with Rich Johnston's gossip column Lying in the Gutters is always good fun. But Todd Allen's Comic Book Publishing Follies is probably my favorite column on CBR. There's usually a new one every two weeks.
There is a horde of comic book new sites on the web. If you have a limited amount of time and need to cover a lot of territory quickly, the above four places will do the trick nicely. Journalista and The Comics Reporter will link you to so many other places that after a few weeks of perusal, you'll have your own list of places you like to visit for news and info.
Other places I visit on occasion that have very worthwhile content:
Occasional Superheroine by Valerie D'Orazio The Beat: Publisher Weekly's news blog on comics culture run by Heidi MacDonald Pulse is another good site for "News, Insight & Opinion" run by Jennifer Contino. ICV2 follows comics, anime, movies, toys etc… They compile a lot of data on the monthly sales charts for comics and graphic novels.
Come back on Thursday if you like for the start of a 10-part blog on launching a comic into today's confusing and ever-changing marketplace.
-Jay
Currently
reading
:
Small Giants
By
Bo Burlingham
Release date: 27 March, 2007
VALENTINE’S CONTEST: WIN SOME ORIGINAL ART THIS SUNDAY
Current mood: loved
Category: Art and Photography
Sorry we've been out of touch for the last month. Let us make that up to you. Here's a contest for the "Broken Hearts Club".
I'm heading down to Seattle this weekend to work on the future of Op Wound. More on that next week. When I get back on Sunday night, I'll be giving away the art you see below.
Here's a drawing of my main character Starkweather from Battles to warm your wounded soul. It's 11 inches tall and 17 inches wide (27.5cm x 42.5cm), India ink and red acrylic ink on acid-free paper.
THE RULES
Just leave a comment on this blog, that's it.
You're only allowed to post once. I read every comment so I'll know.
Private messages or comments on the front page don't count; it has to be on this blog.
You have to leave a comment before 11.59pm PST on Sunday, Feb 17th. I'll add up the number of comments and use a random number generator to select the winner.
This contest is open to ANYONE in the world. If I have to pay shipping to South Africa or New Zealand, that's MY problem.
BONUS(but not mandatory) tell us a story about the last time that you had your heart crushed. What did you learn from that?
Happy Valentine's (or not).
-Jay
Subscribing to this blog HERE will bring you violent iconic imagery during pagan holidays.
DID YOU SEE CLOVERFIELD OR THERE WILL BE BLOOD?
Current mood: imaginative
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
It's an extremely rare weekend in January that I'll hit two movies in the theatre. And yet there I was venturing out on both Friday and Saturday. So the good and the bad.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
It's been 3 days and I'm still thinking about this film. It's a very powerful and affecting character study. Even at almost 3 hours long I don't feel it dragged. It has a timeless quality to it, this could have been made in 1968. It's awesome to see a classic American film come along nowadays. Especially in the movie graveyard of January.
Daniel Day Lewis (who is in virtually every scene) burns up the screen.
CLOVERFIELD
Seven of us went to see this and I don't think any of us left impressed. Judging by the 40+ million that this took in, a lot of you saw it as well. It was a brilliant concept and yes the six odd minutes of creature footage were very cool. This seems like it would have played a lot better as a 12-minute short film that we could pass along to each other on YouTube.
I'm big fan of monster flicks and this one did not win me over. For my money, I'll take The Mist and The Host over this any day of the week.
So did you hit the theatre this past weekend? What's the verdict?
-Jay
Currently
listening
:
Sundowning
By
This Is Hell
Release date: 16 May, 2006
anxious
focused
adventurous
energetic
loved
imaginative
