Tag: industry

House of Odd Art

Posted on3 Comments

The last part of Odd Thomas 3 has finally been approved, and I can now work towards finishing the book! 40 pages left to ink before the end!

I realise I haven’t posted some art up for a while, so this week I’m posting up page 24 of “House of Odd”, the third Odd Thomas book. To give people an idea of how the art is adapted from the script, and the progression of the art from pencils to the final pages, I’ve put it here in stages.

The first stage is ofcourse the script, which in this case is written by someone else (with me acting as the illustrator only). This may be a good example of how to write a script.

 

PAGE 24

PANEL 1: Having turned away, Nedra walks into the house. Odd and Stormy follow behind her

STORMY: So, Ms. Nolan . . . Ozzie said you think this house is haunted?

NEDRA: These spirits are as spoiled rotten as any movie star.

 

PANEL 2: Reverse angle from the last panel, so we can see the characters walking towards the camera. In the background, behind them, the front door is now shut.

NEDRA: They think it’s all about them, them, them.

 

PANEL 3: Odd cocks his head to one side, eyes rolling a bit in frustration and bemusement. Nedra is blissfully unaware of this as she continues to lead them deeper into the mansion.

NEDRA: But it’s really my production.

NEDRA: I told Ozzie that I had no need for amateur ghostbusters like you.

 

PANEL 4: Stormy’s gaze narrows.

STORMY: Amateurs?

NEDRA: No offense.  I’ve called in the professionals!

 

Next up, are the pencils. You may have noticed that I didn’t follow what was laid out in the panels in the script. This is because I feel that an illustrator’s job in comics is to tell the story as best as it can be told, and if that means not following the script, then so be it.

This isn’t uncommon in comics, since a fair number of artists will have been in situations when they can’t follow a script – mostly because what is described in the panels can’t be depicted in pictorial form. If it happens, it’s not because writers aren’t respected, but because writers aren’t always visual people, and don’t always know if what they’re describing in a panel can actually be drawn.

House of Odd - page 24 - Pencils

 

 

The inks are next. This part is straight-forward. I use a combination of dip pens (The Zebra G-pen and nikko pen) and Sakura microns to do my inking, and it’s worked for me fine. I find that the look of the art changes depending on the tools you use, but for Odd Thomas, I’ve always stuck with this style of art. Different kinds of stories call for different kinds of art, and Odd Thomas requires art that isn’t stylised or takes artistic lliberties. It’s not that kind of story.

House of Odd - page 24 - Inks

 

 

Finally, the tones and dialogue. The tones are done by the wonderful Dee DuPuy, and she uses a program called Deleter ComicWorks, which I then later open up in Photoshop to add the words. And thus, the page is finished and ready for print.

House of Odd - page 24 - Tones

 

Workshops in Istabul, Turkey in November 2010!

Posted on4 Comments

Hi all, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great Xmas and New Year! As for me, I made it onto an interesting list with the Courier Mail. 2011 looks to be an interesting year!

Here’s the post I’ve been meaning to do about my week-long trip to Istanbul, Turkey last November. I had to do all this work for Odd Thomas 3 first, and now that I’ve done it, I can finally say that the trip was fantastic and the hospitality of the Turks was wonderful.

I was in Istanbul from the 31st October to the 8th November, as a guest of the Turkish International Book Fair (which I visited to do a workshop on the 7th). I was brought there by publisher Tudem, who published the Turkish version of “The Dreaming”, called “Okuldaki Sir”, which translates to “The Secret of the Schools” (The name change is customary for Turkish versions of international works). The series was quite a success in Turkey (which is why they flew me over there), and I even made it into the biggest-selling newspaper! Other than that, most of the time there was spent doing workshops at schools and museums, with a bit of time leftover for sight-seeing. Oh yes, plus a lot of great Turkish food!

While I’ll talk a bit about Turkish schools, sadly I didn’t manage to take any photoes there. All my snap-happy moments were on the sight-seeing trip, which involved me (and my kind shepherd/guide Arden) making a bee-line for the closest tourist-friendly mosque. Like the New Mosque, also known as the Mosque of the Valide Sultan, located right next to the Spice Markets:

 

The New Mosque
The New Mosque from the outside, during evening prayers. For some reason, the New Mosque allows tourists at prayer time, whereas other mosques do not.

 

Prayers at the New Mosque

 

Prayers at the New Mosque
Not that there were that many people at evening prayers anyway.

 

Turkey is predominantly a Muslim country (with some Armenian Christians and Jews mixed in), so it has calls to prayer five times a day. However, apart from the mosques and some architectural differences, it looks much like any other European city. I lived near Taksim Square, one of Istanbul’s city centres, and the place is full of Starbucks, designer shops and thriving clubs and restuarants. The Turks (especially the guys) are red-blooded folks who like to drink, eat and have a good time. I guess nothing much has changed from the day of the Ottoman Empire, where Turkey ruled much of the Middle East as one big Islamic Empire. Some of the fruits of that Empire can be seen at the Topkapi Palace, one of many palaces in Istanbul.

 

Topkapi Palace

 

 

Topkapi Palace 2
I wish I took better pictures of the Topkapi Palace.

 

Blue Mosque 1

 

Blue Mosque 2

 

 

Red Church
…And the massive Cathedral opposite it (which sadly was closed on the day I was there).

 

 

Ottoman Architecture
And a pic of Ottoman architecture. This looked European to my eyes, but apparently it’s old Ottoman.

 

What has changed is that modern Turkey is a strictly secular country, something that Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, enshrined in the nation’s constitution. Ataturk was a military man whose legacy lives on in the Turkish Army, who takes it upon themselves to initiate a coup if the civilian leaders of the country gets any funny ideas. The last time that happened was many years ago, but while no one wants a military dictatorship, no one wants Sharia law either. Just before I flew to Istanbul, I read an article in the Gulf Times discussing the impropriety of the Turkish Prime Minister’s wife wearing a hijab to the reception of a state function. Much consternation and suspicion abounded. Were Turkish liberties being challenged? Considering you can walk down a street in Istanbul and not see a single woman wearing a hijab, you can imagine the alarm over this seemingly innocuous gesture.

 

 

 

Spice Market 3

 

 

Grand Bazaar 2

 

Grand Bazaar 3

 

But the best and most important part of the trip were meeting the students at the (expensive) private schools. Turkish private schools, oddly enough, were mostly run by large Turkish corporations, and many have K-12 classes on the same campus. It was mighty strange seeing 17 year-olds on the same campus as 6 year-olds. I imagine the children go straight onto university, and the brightest ones are head-hunted by the corporations sponsoring their education. Thus the education standards are all very high, and nearly all of the older students speak very good English. I had my translator Abdul and Kemal with me, and sometimes they weren’t needed because the children had no trouble understanding my English at all.

The students ranged from kids who knew what manga was, and many who didn’t, but then all of the older students I spoke to knew what “One Piece” and “Naruto” was. I did a series of drawing workshops with them, and they were all talented and enthusiastic (some exceptionally so), and I can imagine a few future Turkish manga artists emerging from there. The savviness of the older kids especially surprised me – since they are fluent in English, they probably read a lot of manga from English manga sites, which is why they seem so up-to-date with the latest releases. I also sold quite a few books of “The Dreaming”, and doodled a little dog in most of them as well (Tudem’s logo is a dog’s head, and I drew the body on it).

 

 

Turka Cola
I’d wanted to buy some Mecca cola, but couldn’t find any. But I found Turka cola instead! Apparently Mecca cola isn’t distributed in Turkey.

 

All in all, I had a fun time in Istanbul, and wouldn’t hesitate to go back for another visit. The city is so big, so cultured, and with so much to explore, that it would be a pity if I didn’t get to go again. Next time, I would definitely spend more than a week there. In closing, I drew a picture of Jeanie and Amber from “The Dreaming”, taking inspiration from a Harem book I bought at the Topaki Palace.

 

 

Thanks
Thanks for Tudem for inviting me to Istanbul, and many thanks to Arden for showing me around!


#1 New York Times bestseller!

Posted on3 Comments

A whole bunch of stuff to announce this month, thanks to Halloween. I’m currently working on “Odd Thomas” vol3, and at the end of this month, I’m heading off to Turkey for the Turkish International Book Fair, due to the Turkish version of “The Dreaming”. It’s going to be a fun trip and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the sights of Istanbul, as well as visiting some of the schools there for workshops and talks.

Then, onto the two Halloween-themed books I have that’s already out:

 

Odd Is On Our SideThe Dreaming - Omnibus

 

The first book is the next Odd Thomas book, “Odd Is On Our Side”, which came out the 5th October and is #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list! Does that mean I can now use NYT #1 bestselling as a tagline? Fame by association. Conversely, when the first book “In Odd We Trust” came out, the NYT graphic novel list didn’t even yet exist.

 

#1 NYT Bestseller

 

Also, “The Dreaming: Perfect Collection”, which is all three volumes of “The Dreaming” series (plus a short story) combined into one big brick of a book. “The Dreaming” series was what got me the Odd Thomas job, so if you want to see what the fuss is about, then the “Perfect Collection” is a good investment.

 
 

More about “Odd Is On Our Side”
“Odd Thomas” is a series of books by the best-selling suspense author Dean Koontz, and centers around a psychic fry book who sees dead people. Odd is one of Dean’s most popular characters, thus prompting a few graphic novel prequels (with a few more in the works). The books are a mix of action, mystery and humour, and are suitable for all ages.

I’ve got to thank Dean Koontz for his wonderful characters, and Fred Van Lente for being such a fantastic script writer. This was my first time drawing to someone else’s script (second time was “Boy’s Book of Positive Quotations”), and you can’t ask for a better script than the one Fred penned. I also want to thank my toner Dee DuPuy, who is a way better toner than myself. And ofcourse my editor Betsy, agent Judy and Del Rey for making this book happen.

 

Panel from In Odd We Trust

From the first page of "Odd Is On Our Side", where Odd sits outside his house


 
 

More about “The Dreaming: Perfect Collection”
“The Dreaming” is a 3-volume horror-mystery series set in the Australian bush, about a series of student disappearances in a remote private boarding school. The series ran from 2004-2007, and this 2010 omnibus is a collection of all three volumes (plus a short story) into a single book. The series is suitable for teens aged 13 and up, and there’s no objectionable material in it (not even any gore).

You can read more about this series at my site. A movie’s in the works too.

 

Panel from "The Dreaming" Omnibus

From the short story, Millie's nephew.

BentoComics.com – A New Online-Publishing Model?

Posted on

Hi all, long time no update. I’ve finished the 2nd Odd Thomas book (due this Halloween), and have several projects in the works, but right now I’d like to show you all a website my friends and I have been working on for the past few years. Heck, from all the hype about ebooks and the iPad these past few months, I might even presume to call it a new business-model for book publishing.

The site is called Bento Comics, and there’s a write-up here on Robot6, with a encouraging comment by well-known superhero writer Kurt Busiek (wow). “Bento” is the Japanese word for a mix-and-match lunchbox, and that’s exactly what our site does. Read on.

 

—————————-

 

What is BentoComics.com?

BentoComics.com is a Print-On-Demand site. What “print-on-demand” means is that YOU, the buyer, gets to choose a book you want online, print one (or more) copies at a book printing company, then have the books mailed to you.

Instead of having to go to the bookstore to buy your books (or at online bookstores like Amazon.com), you can get both printing and mailing done online. So in summary:

 

  • Read comics on the site for free
  • Collect these comics into your own personalised book,
  • Print a single (or more) copy of your book, and have it
  • Delivered to your doorstep

 

BentoComics.com piggybacks off Lulu.com, a printing company that specialises in self-publishing. The technology to print a single book at a low cost already exists, and Lulu.com takes it up a notch by printing your one (or two or whatever) copies, and mailing it directly to you.

 

 

How much does it cost? Is it expensive?

It’s actually quite cheap. It’s approximately USD$13 for a 170-page book, personalised by you, plus an additional US$4 for shipping (USD$8 for international). Both Lulu and Bento Comics make a profit off this pricing model. Lulu accepts both Paypal and credit cards as payment.

Here’s a table of costs:

 

  • a 32 page book will cost $7.78
  • a 64 page book will cost $9.06
  • a 100 page book will cost $10.50
  • a 150 page book will cost $12.50
  • a 200 page book will cost $14.50
  • a 300 page book will cost $18.50
  • a 400 page book will cost $22.50
  • a 500 page book will cost $26.50
  • a 600 page book will cost $30.50
  • a 740 page book will cost $36.10

 

Once you register at BentoComics.com and Lulu.com, you can start compiling and ordering your books. Once you place an order, it’ll take 3-5 days to print, and then it’ll be delivered to you. I live in Sydney, Australia and it took 1 week for me to order and receive the book – not saying this short delivery time is guaranteed, but that’s my experience.

 

 

Are there e-books available?

Yes, I made e-books for all my stories. Right now I only have 1 story, called Ten Years Ago Today on BentoComics.com, but I have a total of 8 other stories chosen from queeniechan.com that I want to make available for print/download, and I’ll be putting up a story every weekend for the next 2 months. You can download the e-book for that here – it’s a link on the right-hand side of the page, where I say “e-book available in .epub”. Feedback welcome.

The e-book is DRM-free, and in ePub format, which means it’s readable on all PCs and e-readers EXCEPT the Kindle. I want to charge USD$0.99 for the e-book (like iTunes), but right now the system isn’t yet in place, so you can download it for free.

If you have only a PC or Mac, and no e-reader of any kind, you can still read e-books on your PC. Here’s 2 programs you can download: The Adobe Acrobat eReader, and the Barnes and Noble eReader. They’re both not that great at reading JPEG files, but they will do for the time being.

 

—————————-

 

Why Print-On-Demand books? Isn’t e-books the Way of the Future?

E-books will undoubtedly be huge, but to think that they’ll completely replace paper books is as wrong as the idea of the “paperless office” circa 1997. Books, as media, are different to music and movies.

The idea of a “book” has been around for as long as writing has, whether it’s papyrus scrolls, clay tablets or animal skins. Conversely, what we understand to be “music” and “movies” refer specifically to storage mediums – technological devices that can store and retrieve experiences for playback. This is a strictly 20th Century invention. Unlike books, music and movies have always been intangible experiences. So when people go on about the “feel” and “texture” of a book, and “curling up with a book in bed”, they’re talking about something REAL, and for some people, something irreplaceable.

But then Bento Comics isn’t about whether e-books or paper books are better.

It’s About Giving Readers a CHOICE

There’s no reason why e-books and paper books can’t co-exist together. I can think of many books on my bookshelf that I love, and can’t live without the paper version of (I’d like the e-book version too). Conversely, I can think of many books on the same shelf that I merely like, and given the choice would have just bought the cheaper e-book version. Certainly, whether I want an e-book version, or a paper book version of something (or both) – should be up to ME to decide?

So, what Bento Comics is about, is content as both service and product, as opposed to the old idea, of just content as product. Content refers to what the consumer is buying – a Beatles song, a crime thriller novel, a vampire movie. Pre-Internet, it was about packaging the content in a particular way (which the consumer DOESN’T get to choose), and then sending the 12-track CD, 700-page thriller with a red, black and blue cover, and a 2-DVD-pack-with-extras to the appropriate distribution channels. I see that as “content as product”.

Content as service, as you may imagine, is about not just about the delivery channel (I buy my books at Kinokuniya, sometimes Amazon.com), but about the FORM the product comes in. Maybe I’ll buy THIS book as a normal paper book, and buy this other book in e-book format. Maybe today I’ll buy a book online and get it mailed to me, while tomorrow I get some other book when I go by Kinokuniya. Providing the customer with all these formats and choices, is in itself, a SERVICE (At least that’s how I see it).

If you want to find out more, I suggest going to the About Page, or better yet, making an account at Bento Comics and testing the system out yourself. We’ve tested it and it works as it’s supposed to, and we’re all interested in feedback.