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Archive for ‘August 18th, 2008’
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Hi, Folks!
We’re a couple months into running this new “Johnny Saturn” site, and I feel really positive about how things are panning out. There’s still work to be done on the site, and still some new digital products to roll out, but overall I think we’ve aimed this bus in right direction. Hmmn… Maybe I should have said “plotted this boat on the right course,” or “piloted this plane on the right heading,” or some such. Somewhere there is a great analogy, just waiting for this moment, yet I didn’t think of it.
Over on Comix Talk, Tim Demeter has a trio of articles about the future of Webcomics and the difficulties of long-form webcomics. Tim’s a really smart guy, and his answer is to package webcomics for easy reading on handheld devices like iPhones and cell phones and the like. This may be a big component of webcomics future, but I’m undecided. I’ve never loaded a comic onto an iPod, and I haven’t bought any of the cool gadgets like iPhones, so I don’t really have a feel for this yet. Maybe this is the future, and I need to see the writing on the wall before I get into it, and maybe it’s not.
When I first heard about webcomics, it was Stan Lee’s webisodes that drew me in. I only watched a couple of these, because they were more akin to crude animation than comics. Later, when the webcomic revolution hit, most creators and fans settled on good, old fashioned static comic pages. No animated elements, no soundtrack, no voiceovers. The static comic strip let comics do what they were good at, and yet still allowed for digital delivery.
I passionately love cartooning, as you can probably tell, but I also take it seriously. Delivering pages on schedule feels to me like Benita and I have our own television show, and the show must go on! The fact that people read what we write and look at our pictures makes it seem all so worthwhile! We are storytellers, first and foremost, and being able to share our tales is at the very heart of what we do.
So, Thanks! Scott.
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Posted by basicallybenita
The weekend was as busy as I thought it would be, but what a fun kind of busy!
Gen Con was VERY crowded and most of it seemed to be rooms and rooms of gaming tables. These we ignored. What Scott and I wanted to see was the Exhibition Hall and how they had it set up. We had heard rumors, but we wanted to see for ourselves before deciding whether or not to rent a table at future events here.
The rumors we heard were true. Comic book sellers were scattered in among the dealers area and Artists Alley was specifically for those who sold art and art only. It was set up like a small gallery – not at all what we are interested in doing. For us to be among the dealers with any comic book that might be of interest to gamers would cost us $600 for the table – twice what it costs for a table in Artists Alley at Wizard World Chicago, and that is high enough. Also, what we produce and sell would be of very little interest to those who attend Gen Con. It’s a gamers’ marketplace and superhero comics would garner barely a glance.
That being said, both Scott and I wore our Johnny Saturn T-shirts (making us walking billboards for our comic) and we got a lot of attention for them – more than we had expected. In fact, the T-shirt caused one game retailer to ask us about our comic, whereby we pulled a graphic novel out of my bag and handed it to him. He glanced through it, asked a couple of questions, then asked “How much?” Yes-siree-Bob, we sold a graphic novel to someone trying to sell us a roll-playing game. Those T-shirts just keep paying for themselves!!!
Saturday night, we went to a local artist’s house where we met several other local artists, ate a wonderful supper of grilled chicken and fresh, garden grown vegetables, then gathered together in the living room for a night of figure drawing. The model, Marla, is not only one of the best models in the City, but one of the sweetest people you’d ever want to meet. I sat to one side and spun on the merino wool and enjoyed the creative ambience and conversation. We left about 11:00 and got to bed at about midnight.
Sunday, we drove to a small, wide spot-in-the-road called Millersburg, close to Paoli, Indiana, where we met for the Wininger Family Reunion. Lots of food, great music with Larry Wininger, Troy Qualkinbush, my Dad (Clinton Crowder) and Branden Crowder playing Bluegrass and old Gospel music for us after a huge meal. All of this under a huge beech tree on top of a ridge in southern Indiana. The weather could not have been more pleasant.
I brought out my spinning wheel, and a lot of my relatives had to come over and check out what I was doing and ask tons of questions. I guarantee they went home having learned something. Also, Scott took out his sketchbook and began sketching people and the beech tree, and before we knew it, younger cousins of mine had hunted out paper and pencils and were following his example, all the while keeping an eye on what Scott was drawing. It was good for the parents to hear that one could make a living at art, even if the way is a bit rough going. One cousin in particular borrowed his grandmother’s video camera, video taped me spinning for several minutes, then parked himself behind Scott and videotaped him drawing. He was one of those who found paper and pencil and drew while listening to the music. I noticed he stuck pretty close to Scott the rest of the afternoon.
Then, on the way home last night, we stopped at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub and met with the Indy Webcomics Guild. There was a lot of networking, note sharing and ideas being shunted back and forth in a near cacophony of voices. I sat, listened, knitted on a sock, and, occasionally put my two-cents worth in, but for the most part let those around me talk. It broke up about 9:00 with the younger crowd going on to listen to some music somewhere and Scott and I going home.
I am proud of Scott and me. It has been a long road toward our socializing more and the whole comic book thing has really brought Scott out of his shell. We enjoyed it so much, we will be doing more of it, but I am a tired lady this morning as I head back to the work week. An educational weekend, to be sure, but we did have lots of fun. I managed to nearly fill another 8 oz bobbin (honestly, that’s what these Lendrum Woolie-Winder bobbins hold with the finess that this merino wants to spin) and I got quite a bit of knitting done on my sock. Not bad for someone who spent nearly 6 hours driving yesterday and most of Saturday walking around a convention.
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