George Of The Wastes @the-full-grohac - Tumblr Blog

We’re going to be at Boston Comic Con this weekend!!!

Ananth and I are gonna be at Boston Comic Con at table #C-812!! We’ll have regular and special editions of Lucky Penny, copies of CUTTINGS, charms and prints including one for Barbarous, and copies of my and Jess Fink’s Stucky zine!!!

We’ll be hanging out with our buddies Tessa Stone and the hooligans from Atomic Robo. Come and visit us!!

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swegener

Get Yo’self Some Comics!

Okay, so Atomic Robo and the Temple of Od #1 will go on sale later this month. But the way print comics work is a little goofy. Unless your name is Marvel or DC, there’s no guarantee your comics will show up in any given shop!

But there’s something you can do about that: PRE-ORDER!

Just head to your local shop and ask them to pre-order Atomic Robo and the Temple of Od #1 for you. There’s two versions of each issue in this series. They’re the same except for the cover, so go with whatever makes sense for you.

If you don’t have a local comic shop, you can also pre-order either version online. We suggest Midtown Comics, but there’s tons of choices out there.

The first issue goes on sale August 24th, but the Final Order Cut-Off for it is August 8th. This means retailers can adjust their pre-orders for this issue until that date. After that? You’re outta luck!

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aidosaur

✨ Barbarous update!!! A mysterious character has appeared! ✨

Or start from the beginning here!

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ananthhirsh

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED Ananth Hirsh, Tessa Stone, Sarah Stone

Hey guys! Is This What You Wanted is a new comic from us, the people who are making it! I just posted the splash over on Johnny Wander! Beginning next week we’ll be running the first chapter, and then it’ll migrate over to it’s own website! I’ve worked with Tessa previously on BUZZ! You can find more of Tessa’s work at Not Drunk Enough. Sarah Stone has worked on a huge range of things, including Transformers: Windblade and a ton of other work you can find at the comic shop!

whoatess

I’m SO STOKED to announce this! It’s been an honor to work with Ananth Hirsh again after BUZZ! and we’ve been having this in the works for a while! And of course working with Sarah Stone is always a blast. I hope it’s something you guys can enjoy and thank you so much as always for all the support you’ve ever given me on all my projects! You guys always make me speechless.

<3! Next week I’ll be able to FINALLY drop some of the character sketches that I did for this comic, and I’m stoked. The characters are so much fun! Have a great weekend!!

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onethousandandoneknights

The 1001 KNIGHTS ANTHOLOGY KICKSTARTER is LIVE !!!

1001 Knights is a massive 3-volume anthology project focusing on creating people-positive characters with feminist overtones. Over the course of 3 volumes, 250+ artists explore themes about what it means to be a knight and what makes for a strong character through illustration, comics, poetry, and prose. The artists involved have worked long and hard to create meaningful art that will uplift and inspire readers. 1,001 knights will be represented between all 3 volumes, including fictional characters and the contributing artists. In order to make this the coolest and most epic anthology we can dream of, we need your help! All money raised will go towards making the book and compensating the participating artists. 1001 Knights is created & curated by Annie Stoll & Kevin Jay Stanton.

✦✰✠⚔ KICKSTARTER LINK | ALL ARTISTS LINK ⚔✠✰✦

Rise a knight & help us spread the word so we can make this anthology a reality!

swegener

Because ten free volumes of Atomic Robo wasn’t enough, we now bring you Real Science Adventures the webcomic!

Be sure to visit the Tesladyne Company Store and check out our RSA prints and the dead-tree version of the books.

#queue #atomic robo #tesladyne #dr. dinosaur #robots #tesla #comics #webcomics

onipress

Check out this interview with LUCKY PENNY artist @aidosaur! Yuko talks about her favorite artists, her studio environment, what tools she likes to draw with, and gives advice to beginning artists!

LUCKY PENNY by @ananthhirsh and @aidosaur goes on sale March 9th!

aidosaur

I was interviewed by PREVIEWSworld!! :D

#queue #comics #graphic novels #webcomics #art

alexdecampi

Some thoughts on Tokyopop and the comic business in general

Gather round. Tokyopop are doing portfolio reviews at this year’s SDCC and as a creator who managed to complete two series with them before they went bankrupt* previously, I have some things to say about this. Should you, young aspiring creator, go and have your portfolio reviewed by them? Should you enter a Rising Stars of Manga contest, if they run them again? I can’t honestly tell you. That’s your decision to make, based on a whole bunch of factors specific to you that are none of my damn business.

I did not have a terrible time at Tokyopop. I got paid. Both my series made it to completion (although with Kat & Mouse, I had to call a rights-reversion clause on them to get them to cough up book 4). My editors were fantastic. (The Tokyopop editors generally were – and don’t take my word for it, many of them went on to great things elsewere. Just off the top of my head, Mark Paniccia’s currently heading the X-Office at Marvel; Paul Morrissey runs Jet City at Amazon; Tim Beedle is at DC; and Erin Stein has her own YA/MG imprint at one of the big four prose publishers.)

The editors were never the issue. Stu Levy was. The contracts were abominable too, but I’ll get to those in a sec. First, Stu, aka DJ Milky, aka Tokyopop’s founder. Stu was a fabulous entrepreneur, but terrible at running a business. Tokyopop was full of great ideas and almost none of them were followed through with any rigor or consistency. Each was shuffled off incongruously to gather dust in a corner when the next big idea came through.

The first great idea was simple enough: bring over the best Japanese manga to the US. The market exploded! Suddenly, there were stories for girls, and all ages, and all the folks that even then (pre Hunger Games, kids. Hell, it was pre Twilight!) prose publishers were kinda ignoring… not even touching what mainstream comics had for girls, which was precisely fuck all. (Want a laugh? Image-google “Mark Millar Trouble”. That was Marvel’s reaction to the Manga boom.)

But then, the good manga started getting expensive. And along came Viz and Dark Horse and others, bidding up licence costs. Fantastic! Let’s develop original English manga and have manga contests and publish US writers and artists! And several well-known, star creators of today (Becky Cloonan, Sophie Campbell, Amy Reeder, Felipe Smith) had early work published by Tokyopop.

And that would have been great, if they had really focused on growing that line, and continuing to curate a great quality list of Japanese and Korean licenced books. But… no. Audio plays! Shorter, young-reader manga (like my Kat & Mouse, they launched four short middle grade manga then totally forgot about them. One was by JM DeMatteis, if I recall right, so at least I was in good company.) Manga chapter books – another line thrown at the wall and instantly forgotten. Movie deals in negotiation! A syndicated newspaper deal! MERCHANDISING!

At this point, Stu was a star! But the manga boom had begun to bust. Partially it was due to a creeping attitude at Tokyopop, in the managerial positions, of disdain towards their readers. Heck, those kids would read any old crap we can licence from Japan or Korea! Why bother with expensive licences? Let’s just shovel cheap stuff at them! Meanwhile, the OEL books were not selling, because they had zero marketing support and were tainted by association with the far lower quality of licenced books Tokyopop was importing at the time. Plus, otaku wanted Japanese. OEL was a big culture change in otakuland, and even many OEL creators weren’t buying or reading other OEL books. Plus, many of these creators were young and finding it much harder than they expected to draw an entire 180-page book at twenty five dollars a page (yep) and were blowing through deadlines, which also didn’t help. (We’re getting to contracts, I promise).

Thus, while Tokyopop was apparently at its most successful to the outside world, with manga sections in bookstores that were a dozen feet long, and Wired running a hilariously ill-timed Stu Levy cover, the company was actually in freefall. The company failed because 1) management, consciously or not, looked down on their teenage customers and did not respect them as intelligent, discerning readers; and 2) rather than doing one or two things really well, it did 25 things in half-assed, terrible ways. Those manga sections were 12 feet long because of the giant piles of crap being shoveled at audiences who were too damn smart to buy them any more.

Then (and partially due to that), the bookstore chain Borders hit the skids, everyone’s cash flow hit the floor for like six months and started to dig, and Tokyopop cancelled OEL books left right and centre, and also stopped paying creators. Oh, all our OEL books except Sophie’s are on Comixology but has anyone gotten a statement from Tokyopop about those digital sales? Anyone? Hello? Bueller?

Do we think Stu has learned anything in the intervening years? Is this a kinder, gentler, smarter Tokyopop? Has he paid any of the back money the company owes to creators, or given them their rights back? Remember, Stu is a wonderful ideas guy. I am quite sure New Tokyopop will be an automatic Buzzword Bingo win: creator-friendly; crowdfunded; multi-platform; digital-first, blah blah blah.

Also remember: Stu is a terrible implementations guy. Every new idea for him is The One, the green light, the concept that will take his company stratospheric, will re-make his name and fortune. It’s almost blessedly childlike, except for the way he discards the old ideas and old people, who failed him, who didn’t work, and whose fault all this clearly is.

And now a word about contracts and pay. I’m not going to discuss the specifics of the Tokyopop contracts, but I am gong to teach you the three R’s of freelance contracts: rights, royalties, and reversions. Note: I am not a lawyer, and none of this should be construed as legal advice.

REVERSIONS is the most common way creators get screwed out of their stuff. It’s where DC got Alan Moore, and it’s why many of us Tokyopop creators never got our books back even though Tokyopop went bankrupt. What’s reversion? It means when and under what circumstances does ownership of your book and/or the right to publish it or make films out of it go back to you, the person that created it. (But Alex! I only sign CREATOR-OWNED contracts – shush, child, and keep reading.)

The two most common reversion clauses in contracts say you will get the rights back when 1) the book goes out of print (ask Alan Moore how that worked out for him) and/or 2) if the rightsholder goes bankrupt. The out of print clause is actually the preferable one, but it has to be worded in a very specific way to keep companies from indulging in the sort of jiggery-pokery DC did with Watchmen, keeping it deliberately in print to retain rights, even at a loss. Also, “in print” is a meaningless statement in an increasingly digital era. How does anything go out of print? Instead, look to phrase the reversion clause so that if sales of the book drop below 1,000 units per year, the rights revert to you.. You can also use a dollar amount rather than a unit amount. Your lawyer will have an opinion on this.

You absolutely do NOT want the bankruptcy option bcause that’s how Tokyopop kept rights (and Platinum Studios, and everyone else in the Comics Dipshits Hall of Shame). Lemme ‘splain: your company is about to go bankrupt and creditors are circling. You have a bunch of stuff that’s not worth much money (office furniture, old computers) and then you have these comic book IPs that you spent a lot of money on, and you’re convinced you will get a movie deal with at any moment. So you call up a friend or relative and sell them all the ownership in all this IP for a fiver. Then, later on, you buy them back off him for $100. Totally legal! Dudes: by the time a creative company actually hits bankruptcy, all the IP assets are always already out the door. And the contract you have (the shitty, shitty contract) stays intact and transfers to the new owner.

Meanwhile, Stu wants creators to pay back the full amount of advances and editorial costs to get rights back (or at least that’s what he told me with Kat & Mouse) BUT my IP was not part of the Tokyopop bankruptcy (none of the OEL was, to my knowledge) which means he already wrote down all those costs when he shuffled the assets around in the traditional game of pre-bankruptcy monte.

That, folks, is why reversion-on-bankruptcy clauses are a surefire way of kissing your work goodbye for-fucking-ever. Also, more insight into Stu!

RIGHTS. There are all sorts of rights, and this is where I want to pat the head of children who talk to me about how they only do creator-owned and ask them who holds the foreign translation rights for their books, or TV/Film, or merchandising. Folks: if you got no money up front and the company took foreign rights (especially without royalty, see below), all of publishing in perpetuity (except for reversion on bankruptcy, oh yeah), and 50% or more of film, you do not have a very good creator-owned deal.

But, you kow, that can be okay. We all sign at least two bad deals in this business, and it’s often the first two. The people that will take you straight out of art school (or off tumblr) and give you pennies to draw your comic are the people who will screw you. In some ways you have to put out the book with folks like that so you can use it to get gigs at the companies that won’t screw you.

(But they still try it. LORD how they try it. I had a guy from an upstart publisher tell me cold last week that NO publisher EVER offered advances for creator owned work, and the best I could hope for was no advance and giving up half of film. He said it with such conviction that if I was a newbie, I’d be inclined to believe it. But I have four creator owned series on the go and they all have advances, so I know this guy was just trying to be an exploitative asshat.)

Whoops, went on a bit of a tangent there. The usual-ish indie ontract takes 50% of publishing profit, and they try to take foreign translation rights (eg the right to negotiate/sell them) – this is not such a big deal; unless you have an agent the publisher will probably do a better job than you… but make sure you also get a similar split of profits as you do for domestic publishing.

And now to film, the great white hope of the crappy publisher. Should you give up a % of film? Again, this comes down to personal preference and your own circumstances. I’m hardline, and will never give up any of film, so there are only certain publishers I’ll work for. And I still get advances.

The problem is, as a n00b, your book probably isn’t going to sell more than about 2,000 copies, which means that it hasn’t even reached the circa 4-4.5k breakeven of a book with no advance at all. So that’s why publishers do that “take 50% of film” thing. Nobody’s ever going to make any money on your book – not you, not them – but somebody might get rich if yours is the successful sprout at the IP farm. Like I said, the early deals are the bad deals, and your untested ability to sell books is partially why.

Try to negotiate. Be polite. Be aware that they may say “it’s my way or the highway”, and that self publishing is a lot less fun than some of its boosters make it out to be. (But then Greg Pak’s just had to create an entire pre-order system for his next creator-owned book, because comics distribution and marketing is THAT broken. So be aware that even if you’re published, you’re still self-publishing in a way.)

Be very wary, last of all, of publishers with film production sister companies. Remember the whole “sell the IP to your buddy for a fiver” thing we discussed up in bankruptcy reversion? Yyyup. We all sorta cheer for our fellow creators when they get optioned, but the dirty truth is that can be a check for $1-5,000 on promises of a big tomorrow that will never come. I’m not saying all publisher/production companies are like this, but I would be DAMN sure to get an entertainment lawyer with a strong knowledge of current option ranges in to fight my corner if I was in that sort of situation.

Oh god, and never agree to a shopping agreement, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. In general, just remember anybody with a cellphone can call themselves a producer, and you don’t want some dipshit giving you $500 then clumsily using your name and your book as his greasy calling-card all over Tinseltown. They have to pay, friends. If they’re serious and they’re worthwhile, they can pay. They need you more than you need them.

ROYALTIES. At last. This is mainly a work-for-hire issue as if you are going creator-owned you are talking % ownership and profits… though some foreign rights deals are % royalty thing. Folks, let me be very clear here: when things are not going well for you, and no rain has fallen in your career for some time, it is the unexpected royalty check from new German hardback edition of your brief stint on CAPTAIN PATRIOT or MERCENARY VENGEANCE GUY that will pay your grocery bill. If you are doing work for hire (and there are many great reasons to do it – from a childhood love of the characters, to wanting to work with fun people, to boosting your fanbase for your creator-owned work) for the love of Chthulhu, GET ROYALTIES.

Yes Virginia, there are work for hire contracts out there where all you get is a check and a peck on the cheek. Dassit. And I’m talking major properties that kids are dyyyying to work on. The kind where young artists at cons tell me they’d draw a variant cover FOR FREE (Seriously, stop it with that. Get paid, for everything, or you’ll never make it in this industry.) Your story comes out in trade? No more money. It comes out in French? Still no more money. It becomes a beloved classic of the comics medium like Dark Knight? No more money. They’ll send you these gorgeous hardback editions of your stuff, and you’ll look at it, and there will be no check. (Sometimes they don’t even send you the book.) And again, we all have rent to pay. We’ve all taken that one and done gig because $1500 now was really quite necessary. All I’m saying is, it isn’t a good idea to make your career out of that.

As you navigate the difficult path of being a comics pro, you will be faced with almost Faustian bargains on a regular basis throughout your time in the industry. As I say, we’ve all signed bad deals. We’ve all taken quick-hit gigs under not the best of terms for a rapid check. Just beware of getting into situations where you are paid almost nothing and much is taken from you. Be especially wary of companies with no, or with poor track records. Every few years, a company pops up that is going to be the next big thing, and then it explodes, usually messily, in a fury of unpaid invoices and missing art. But we can be thankful that the world is a very different place than when Tokyopop was in its heyday – we all still read manga, but it’s only a small selection of good stuff that is brought over, rather than mountains of dreck. There are a lot more options for young creators with a variety of styles to get into comics now – such as the open submissions at small but well-respected houses like Oni. There are several genuinely good indie publishers out there, with honest management and fair contracts. And you have much more ability to simply do it by yourself without a publisher, from Kickstarter to Comixology Submit.

So, should you show your portfolio to Stu Levy at San Diego?

My answer is, why would you need to?

lackadaisycats

Important considerations about publisher contracts here.

jaimonster-deactivated20221118

And now, Let me share with you something that happened just recently and that proves that @tokyopop is perhaps either badly burned, doing bad business or both among others. Make your own judgement: A few weeks ago, Vice published a neat little article about how Tokyopop was back and ready to start launching their POP app [to grab indie comics and publish them in-app, claiming that their rights will stay 100% with them and just use their comics for promotional use]. Almost immediately, a lot of mistrust made apparent in the comic community. You can read my two favorites on ComicAlliance and DailyDot that explain this a lot better. I came across this news in a horrified fashion after reading a tumblr post. I found the VICE article as just providing one side of the story, since no where in it mentions the abusive contract, copyright and property holds that OTHER ARTISTS have shared. If you sum 1+1 you will get a general idea of whats happening: TokyoPop was back, and still looking to make content based on indie talent. No one has seen the POP contract, so I might be wrong, but until someone shows evidence, all I know is how TokyoPop is still with its old tricks. I made my comment easily viewable when I read the VICE article via Twitter, here is my reply from all the other comments that where sent via Twitter and in the article comments:

And I stand by it 100%. I know Amy Reeder from my college years and I know her side of the story. It was a personal story she told to a bunch of young artists back then and that I, as a foreigner, made it clear: always seek legal help with contracts. ANYWAYS… A few days later, TokyoPop replied back and seemed VERY easy for them to target a SINGLE person, me, for some reason:

This is interesting to read, because in the middle of their anime/manga/japan news feed, they took some time to address me… My response that followed was simply asking for an explanation to the offense. Because, clearly, if anyone was happy to work with TokyoPop and was still holding rights to their characters/story/assets they could back them up, right? My comment on twitter hit some fans, editors [you can read her articles here BTW] and Artists, making them voice their opinion on the matter. And finally, Tokyopop gave me an answer that was not really what I expected from a company trying to make a comeback:

If anything, that last tweet from “Michelle“ sounds anything but nice. But thats open to interpretation. The point is that if Tokyopop is making a comeback, and is treating a seemingly NO ONE like this, what can we expect them from this company who not just is still holding rights to indie comic creators and on top defends this with the small fact that Indie creators had to literally pry from their cold, dead hands the rights to their earlier works? What impression this leaves? I stand by my first tweet: Tokyopop is still doing bad practices in the business, and I alert to Young Creators to avoid this platform. Its easier to self-publish and kickstart a small print of your ideas, rather than let a company that has in the past, preyed on the young talent. As of Jan 2nd, there has been no real explanation to that last tweet, which makes me, to be honest, a little uncertain of where the PR wants to go on Tokyopop.

#queue #tokyopop #pop #indie comics #webcomics #comics market

astronomicalwonders

SpaceX Lands the Faclon9 First Stage - A revolution in Rocket Science and Engineering

Today, at 8:33, Spacex made history. They landed the first stage of their Falcon9 rocket after having it successfully deploy a second stage into low earth orbit.

The Video is here:

Unlike other rocket companies, Spacex in not making small hops - they did that 2 years ago with their grasshopper rocket. In fact, this is how they tested the initial avionics systems that would be able to land the rocket in a stable position autonomously. Here is some footage:

Unlike the companies that makes these hops, Spacex has to use this stage to help get payloads into low earth orbit… and then recover it! This is incredibly difficult and requires an advanced retro-trusting maneuver that has never been successful - until now! The diagram below shows this trusting maneuver, which happens shortly after the second stage has decoupled and ignited.

Spacex claims that this is similar to trowing a pencil over the Empire State Building, then having it flip perfectly, then have it fall into a shoebox… easy enough right?

Only, in real life SpaceX isn’t shooting a pencil… they are shooting a rocket! This is the pad that the now famous falcon9 rocket landed on:

Now you might ask, why does this matter? This means space will become cheaper! We can already build satellites that are less than $10,000, as a matter of fact I’m building a small satellite with a team right now! As it currently stands, space travel is too expensive for creative people to take risks. Now, thanks to SpaceX, we may be mining or visiting asteroids, visiting the moon, visiting mars, or doing something crazier - and we may be doing this very soon! The Falcon9 rocket costs $54 million to build but only $200,000 to refuel… let’s put this in perspective… That’s the same amount that it costs to refuel a Boeing 747 (which is the airplane that consumers use to fly around the world). This means that space travel could be as cheap as air travel very soon! Way to go SpaceX!

If you want to watch the full launch and landing video check it out here (this may be moved in the future): http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Credit: SpaceX

nevver

Yes please, Chocolate singles

#queue #for ananth

doublefine

We’re making Psychonauts 2! But we need your help! Back us here: www.fig.co

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papertownsy

andrewmaclean-deactivated202006

I drew a cover for IDW’s Atomic Robo. Colors by Mike Spicer

Atomic Robo is created by superduo Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener.

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johnnystorm0

Top Selling comiXology submit Titles 11/6

November is off to a great start as Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener’s (@swegener) latest issue of Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire, now featuring GIANT robots, leads the way with two spots on this week’s @comixology Submit Top Selling List. Not to be outdone Fresh Romance, the modern take on the romance comic anthology from @gimpnelly & @rosypress, occupies a whopping THREE spots on this weeks list. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Fresh Romance it features romance stories from Marguerite Bennett, Kate Leth and Sarah Vaughn with artwork from Arielle Jovellanos, Sarah Winifred Searle and Trungles. It’s never too late to check it out!

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire #3 from Tesladyne

Fresh Romance #6 from @rosypress

Captain Canuck (2015-) #5 from @captaincanuckinc

Lady Mechanika: The Tablet of Destinies #6 from Joe Benitez

Fresh Romance #5 from @rosypress

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire #2 from Tesladyne

ExMortis #1 from 451 Media Group

Lady Mechanika #1 from Joe Benitez

Abbadon from Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray

Fresh Romance #3 from @rosypress

Top Selling Submit Titles

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