But unfair stereotypes aside, let’s assume that you can dress yourself and have a basic understanding of hygiene. Great! You’re ready to go to the Convention. Now read on to learn how to make it worth that hefty entrance fee AND your time.

Most of the following guidelines are directed towards those people who are artists and writers looking to get published in the Independent circuit. I don’t know anything about how to get a job inking Spiderman, but I’m sure several guides are out there. Also, independent companies who are tabling at the conventions will probably find some helpful information as well.

Take your portfolio to a portfolio review (or leave it in the car)!

First and foremost, before you even walk into the convention center, you HAVE to have a comic done. While it doesn’t have to be your Mona Lisa, it has to be something you’re proud of. It doesn’t have to be a 24 page comic, it doesn’t have to be professionally printed, it just has to be DONE. Your colleagues and the publishers don’t want to see something that’s half done, rough pencils, or your portfolio. That’s not to say that they won’t look at it and say something nice. If you’re lucky, they may even give you some constructive criticism. But it’s doubtful they’re going to give you a job or a book deal.

If you’re a writer, leave your script at home, too. Make friends with an artist and get them to draw something. (See Tod’s “How to Break Into Mini-Comics” for some great advice on this matter.) Of course you have artist friends, because you are a comic enthusiast and have no doubt surrounded yourself with other comic enthusiasts. One of them is sitting at home right now, wishing they had a writer to give them something to draw.

Personally, I also like to see something that’s current. If you show me something you did in High School, and I can tell that you have been to at least one reunion since, I’m going to wonder what you’ve been doing since then.

The bottom line is that publishers and comic book companies want to see that you have the initiative to follow through with a project. This is going to show them that you are a professional.

You ARE a Professional, Right?

Let’s take a minute to talk about being professional. Everything you do or say is part of the ever-important first impression you’re about to make, so let’s make it count. Professional companies have a Marketing Department – but since you’re the C.E.O., the treasurer, the secretary and probably the investor in your project, that means you’re the marketing department, too. Put down that Community College class schedule, here’s Marketing for Comic Books 101 (in 5 easy steps.)

1. Choose an effective and memorable name that gives an idea of the comics you create and doesn’t include any controversial words. This goes for your comic book title AND your company name.

Chances are, you’re past this step already. You already have a name, a logo (you knew THAT much about marketing) and a website. Here’s hoping that it’s not www.zombiemonkeysfromhell.com, because these names A.) Tell me very little about your comics, and B.) tend to get mixed up with all of the OTHER companies that put zombies or monkeys in their names.

Since I didn’t come up with it, (Tod did, or if you want to be technical, Mister David Bowie did) I can brag about what an awesome name “Young American Comics” is: It has the word Comics in it, and is fairly descriptive of what we do. We also get a lot of traffic from people googling “American comics” which is always a plus. But most importantly, it sounds very professional, rolls off of the tongue and is fairly easy to remember.

When you’re visiting people at the conventions, you want them to remember you by time they get home. When you factor in all of the white noise, the thousands of people that THEY see, and the general exhaustion that comes with any comic convention, you don’t want them to get home and think, “Now, um.. what was it? www.hellishmonkeyeatingzombies.com??

2. Come up with a one or two sentence description of your company and/or each of your books and memorize it.

“Young American Comics is a small independent comic book publisher. We do a lot of experimental and group projects as well as punk rock autobiographical comics and superhero parodies.”

This doesn’t mention everything we do, but it is short enough for us to memorize and reinforces enough points that we can grab most people when they come up to the table. This also applies for comic books:

“The Mighty Offenders is an off-beat superhero parody about four guys who work at the mall during the day and have really lame super powers at night.”

“Snakepit is a daily autobiographical comic about a punk rock guy who lives in Austin, Texas.”

The beauty of these sentences is that you can easily and quickly gauge someone’s opinion of the book and see if you captured their interest or not. If they are interested,, they’ll probably take a look at the book or ask you a question about it. If not, you can move on, or tell them about something else.

3. Choose a hand full of people to talk to at the con, and know who you’re talking to.

When we’re at the cons, the people who really grab my attention are not the ones who are walking to each table, clumsily handing each person a business card, regardless of whether the person at the table is a comic publisher, a creator or a guy selling bootleg DVD’s.

However, if someone comes up to the table, knows who we are, buys something and then gives me their information, I’m going to be much more interested in them. I know that they know what we’re about, and have personally sought us out. Already I feel like I have something in common with this person, and am much more likely to look at what they’re giving me.

Most comic conventions put their guest list on their web page, so take a peek beforehand, and pick out a few that you think would really like your stuff. Visit their websites and see what’s going on with them before the con. When you arrive, pick up one of the new books (come on, spend $2.00! It’s a business expense!) and mention something you’ve read on their web site.

Although different publishers and creators have different policies on trading books, “You want to trade?” should never be the first words out of your mouth, especially if you’re trying to make professional contacts. Even if your intentions are good, it just looks like you’re trying to score free stuff. They may offer to hook you up once you give them your book, but don’t ASK for a trade. Remember, we’re trying to be professional.

THEN you can tell them about your stuff.

4. Leave them with something to remember you by. If that is a business card, spend a little money and get good ones! No more printing them at home!

You absolutely have to give them something. First of all, it should be your book. Be prepared to give a few away to free. You’re only targeting a few favorite publishers, remember, so it’s not going to break the bank. Have several titles under your belt? Pick a favorite, or the one that thinks shows off your talents the best. Or pull the “I’m totally assuming you’ve already heard of me” trick and offer them “the NEW ISSUE of Evil Weasel Robots.”

Next, if you talk with them about business at all, offer a business card.

GET YOUR BUSINESS CARDS PROFESSIONALLY PRINTED SOMEWHERE. YES YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM. DO NOT PRINT THEM ON YOUR INK JET PRINTER, AND CERTAINLY DO NOT GIVE OUT PHOTOCOPIED STRIPS OF YOUR WEB ADDRESS.

This will most likely be how this person remembers you, and you want to look professional. So you have to get them professionally printed.

If you are a comic book company, your card might look something like this:

Click here for the full sized image.

If you are a comic book creator, your card might look more like this:

Click here for the full sized image.

You’re bound to have some artistic or design sense, so make yours you. They don’t have to LOOK just like these, as long as you stick to the basics. It’s important to have all of this information, and that the card, well, looks like a business card.

Outside of business cards, why not make a lasting impression by giving them something to remember you by? Shameless self-promotion aside, one inch buttons work particularly well for this and you can get 100 of the little suckers for $25.

5. Follow up.

Just like in the dating world, if you had a good meeting with someone, you have to follow up. Some time during the next week, drop the person you talked to a quick email, telling them that you enjoyed talking to them, and that you enjoyed the book that you bought from them.

Follow these simple guidelines and you will be regarded as a professional in the industry, even if your comic is the first one you’ve ever made. Remember, first impressions are important, so make yours count. And don’t forget to smile!

Hand Written Text

Unless you have immaculate handwriting, you’ve spent long hard years practicing your printing and you can flawlessly write in all caps without a wavering baseline, I recommend doing your text electronically. Yes, there is a warmth and naturalness to hand written text. Yes, it is immensely flexible to fit the mood and personality of your characters. However, handwritten text is often hard to read, which can be very distracing. Even if you think your handwriting is easy to read, after scanning, resizing, squeezing it into balloons and printing your text can become entirely illegible.

There ARE exceptions to this and you, as the artist, must make the choice based on what looks best for your comic. Look at the following example of Snakepit. The hand drawn text fits with the style of the comic. The same comic with electronic text seems awkward and out of place.

On the converse, here is a sample of The Mighty Offenders with the original electronic text and then again with handwritten text. Which looks better?

The only way to improve your lettering skills is years and years of dedication and practice. But considering how easy it is to add electronic text to your comics, why not spend that time actually making comics?

Electronic Text

Electronic text IS easy, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a learning curve. Doing your text in a design program will not instantly solve all of your problems. In fact, it opens up a whole new set of problems: If you are unfamiliar with the design programs it is tempting to leave the presets and defaults as is and just start typing away. Both electronic and hand-written text have conventions within the comics medium that, while based on outdated reasons, still affect the way your story is read and perceived. Do you have to follow these rules? Of course not. But they are important things to consider, if you want to produce professional-quality comics.

USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS FOR YOUR DIALOGUE is the accepted industry standard. This is held over from the days of low quality printing presses. The cheap paper stock caused the ink to spread, reducing lowercase letters into illegible blobs. Periods also got lost in the mix which is why so much Golden Age dialogue ended in !!!

Thankfully, printing presses have gotten better. Characters no longer need to exclaim everything!!! The ALL CAPS convention, however, remains the standard.

Choosing A Font

There are many FREE downloadable fonts available online, for Mac and PC platforms. Check out Blambot for a fine selection. Even though you are not using your own hand-writing, choose a font that looks like Hand Lettering. Here are some great examples. Notice how each one gives a different “feel” to the same drawing:

Click here for the full-sized image.

Some fonts are specially made for digital web comics, while others are best suited for printing. All of the text blocks are set as 8pt with 8.5 pt leading, but notice that these values vary slightly between fonts. Print out test pages to find out what works best for your font.
*downloaded from Blambot.

Leading

Leading is the space in between your lines of text. In the days of the printing press, actual strips of lead were used to leave space between lines. The higher the leading the further apart your lines of text will be. Standard comic book text leading is very tight and close together. The tighter your leading is, the smaller your text blocks will be. (Which means more of your wonderful artwork can be seen!) Loose leading lets a lot of white space show through, which, unless used for a specific effect, makes your text look airy and distracting.

Font Size

Your design program will probably default to 12 point type. (Points are a unit of size in the font world. The number of points tells you how big or small your text will be on the page. 6pt type for fine print, to 2000pt type for billboards.) Comic Book lettering is usually 7-9pt type, with leading being .5 greater than your font size (for example, 8pt type with 8.5pt leading.) Again, this lets plenty of your artwork show through while still being perfectly legible. If you find yourself using large text to cover up dull spots in your comic, you might want to re-evaluate your artwork.Filling The Baloon

Now that you have your text, font, font size, and leading all worked out, it’s time to get your text into the balloons. For general conversation between characters you should use an oval or a rounded corner rectangle with a one point stroke. Most of the time, the text should be centered and arranged in a diamond shape.

Take care not to crowd the text to the edge of the balloon, but also don’t give it TOO MUCH breathing room.

Practice until you find a balance that you like, and remember, the most important thing is that your balloons are consistant!

Large Blocks of Text

Before anything else, consider editing extremely large blocks of text. If you can’t pare down your text, then spread it out over two or more panels. The MAXIMUM any single text balloon should hold is 30-40 word, or two to three sentences. In most cases, blocks of text bigger than that can be daunting to the reader and look ugly on a page.

Use your balloons as punctuation, they signify a breath or a pause in conversation. They also dictate how your reader’s eye moves around the page.

Here is a great example of using word balloons to direct the reader’s eye from Brian Michael Bendis’s Comic “Jinx”. The combination of angled panels and the arching line of word balloons not only tells the reader which panel to look at next, but also leaves no doubt of which order the word balloons go in.

Click here for the full-sized image.

Balloon Conventions

There are certain conventions and “standards” that you just can’t get around. As comic readers, we are taught that certain lines indicate specific things, and this is extremely true when it comes to word balloons. Disregarding these rules will confuse your readers and make your dialogue hard to interpret.

Click here for the full-sized image.

While there are definitely variations and work-arounds, these are the standards. Use them to control your dialogue simply and efficiently. Other examples include text within square brackets to indicate translated text, and jagged balloons for the person on the other end of a telephone conversation.

Putting Them on the Page

The placement of your word bubbles will direct the reader’s eye in which way to read the page. There is one steadfast rule that can NOT be broken: On the Western Hemisphere, we read from top to bottom, from left to right. Your reader will ALWAYS read the top-left-most word bubble before any other bubble. Don’t make your readers “guess” which order to read the dialogue. Always make it clear by placing your word balloons carefully.

In the example below, I wrestled for a long time trying to get the balloons in the second and third panels to read correctly. It always seemed awkward to me to read UP in the “But every conceivable reality!” bubble.

Perhaps this would have been a better solution:

Hopefully these guidelines have given you some ideas on how to make your comics even better. This tutorial only skims the surface, but if you’d like to learn more about word bubbles or any other aspect of making great comics, the following books are all highly recommended:

• Graphic Storytelling by Will Eisner
• Comics & Sequential Art by Will Eisner
• Digital Pre-Press for Comic Books by Kevin Tinsley
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Here are some ways to get yourself over the hump from concept to comic and get started with your very first Mini-Comic. Sure, it may not be the 50,000 print run, full-sized, full-color, glossy stock ongoing series from Marvel that you truly deserve… but everyone has to start somewhere.

Pare Down Your Idea

Chances are, the reason you’re reading this is because you have an idea that you’ve been sitting on that you can’t wait to turn into a comic. The more you sit on it, the more awesome it gets. You have long reaching story arcs, dramatic character interaction and a rotating cast of thousands that just beg to be released on paper, but sitting down to draw panel one, page one of your on-going series seems a little daunting. That’s because it’s gotten too big for itself and is collapsing under its own weight.

The solution? Trim it back… not just a little, but A LOT! Pick two or three of your favorite characters and write them into a short, stand-alone scene or incident. Don’t worry if it’s “not part of your continuity” or that you haven’t told the origin story yet. Just plunk them into a situation with a definitive BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END. Leave out cliffhangers and references to the bigger picture and just concentrate on this singular story.

This shorter comic will give you a chance to interact with the characters and make sure things work before you dive into your 60 issue continuum. It also gives you a chance to FINISH something, which is a point that a lot of aspiring comic book artists never get to.

Don’t Get Hung Up on Equipment

Who cares which pen your favorite comic artist uses or what coffee your favorite writer drinks before penning Ultramazing Spider-Man #824? Rapidograph or Crayola, Loose leaf or Bristol Board. You have pens. You have paper. Get to work!

If you have access to a computer and scanner and some snazzy software you can work bigger and shrink it down onto your pages later, but there is nothing wrong with a little cutting and pasting (you know.. with an X-acto blade and a gluestick!)

It’s rarely the equipment’s fault if you are getting frustrated with how your pages are turning out. Take a step back and promise yourself to do better in the next panel. Try to keep moving forward as much as possible and resist going back and reworking nitpicking panels until you can’t stand the sight of your comic any longer. The goal is to finish. If you hate your finished product, put it in a drawer for a week and then take a fresh look at your masterpiece. Chances are, you’ll be satisfied with it.

Team Up! (Or Don’t!)

Are you a writer without any artistic talent? Can you draw but not write? Do you have good ideas but no talent in either of the above categories? Don’t let that stop you. The most sincere and enjoyable comics are the ones by people who love the medium and don’t let any perceived limitations keep them from telling their stories.

However, there are lots of opportunities for teaming up with others to make your ideas a reality. Teaming up with an artist or writer can give you a fresh perspective on your story and can keep you motivated since now it’s no longer a solo project. The downside is that the only person you can ever truly rely on is yourself and it’s easy to get frustrated with the project if you find yourself getting delayed by someone else dragging their feet.

So where do you find these people? Ask around at your local comic book shop for already existing groups of artists and writers. Many groups get together once a week or once a month to sit and draw and talk about comics. If your town doesn’t have one, start one! Or try the Internet. Message boards are a great way to find other people with similar interests.

Putting It All Together

So, you’ve written an 8 page vignette starring your characters and teamed up with an artist friend who brought your creations to life. Now what do you do?

It’s time to get it laid out into a suitable form for printing or copying. All “saddle-stiched” (folded and stapled) comics must have a page count in a multiple of four. There’s just no other way. It’s easy to figure out which pages go back to back in an 8 page book (just fold two pieces of paper in half and number them, then unfold and voila!) but what if you have a bigger document? Draw the following diagram with the half of the number of squares of your TOTAL PAGE COUNT. (An 8 page book would have 4 squares… a 20 page book would have 10 squares.) Now, draw a line down their center and in the TOP RIGHT BOX label “PAGE 1.” Drop to the second row and in the left box label “PAGE 2.” Continue in this way until you reach the bottom and then work your way back up filling in the blank pages consecutively. The “center-spread” of your book will be the bottom-most square. (This will be pages 4-5 in an 8 page book and pages 10-11 in a 20 page book.) The cover and back cover of your book will be the top-most squares.

Check your work by adding up any two numbers that are side by side. They should always equal your page count + 1. (For instance, in an 8 page book all the rows should add up to “9” and in a 20 page book they will add up to “21”). It may sound confusing but this is the way it’s done, whether at the cutting counter at Kinko’s or in a design program like Quark or InDesign.

So now what? If you want to work digitally, lay out (copy and paste) page 1 and page 8 side by side on one 8.5 x 11 page. Be sure to leave at least .25″ margins (borders) around all sides of your page, and at least .5″ in between the two pages. Repeat for each page. Every other page should have the higher number on the left and the lower number on the right. (Check your folded pieces of paper again if that seems confusing.)

Now your book is ready to be printed. Take it on disc to kinkos, and they will do the rest. If you plan to work from hardcopies, work the same way, except actually paste down your originals onto pieces of 8.5″ x 11″ paper. Then take it to Kinkos and copy away! You can either give it to them to copy, or ask them to help you do it on the self-service machines.

Mass Production

Of course I don’t condone stealing copies from your place of employment or figuring out ways to rip off Kinko’s but that’s one way to do it. Otherwise, it’s time to open up your wallet — or go a little deeper in debt on your credit card– and make some copies. You’re looking at about $0.08 a copy at Kinko’s, so your 8 page book is now going to cost you $0.32 a piece. Even though this is your FIRST mini comic, it’s never too early to start thinking about cost. There are printing houses who look out for the little guy with the small print run (Dimestore press for instance) but let’s just resign ourselves to Kinko’s this one time. For 100 copies of your 8 page book, you’re looking at $32.00 plus tax. If you want a snazzy pastel or bright colored paper for the cover, it’s a little more. Color covers can make a book sell, but expect to pay at least $1.00 more — per book. Printing them at home is still pretty expensive when you consider how much a printer cartridge costs.

Next, fold and staple your comic. You’ll want to do this yourself, since Kinkos will again charge you — per book — for this service. You can fold more than one comic at a time and use the bottom of a clean dry beer bottle to get a nice clean folded edge. (You’ve got a few of those sitting around, right?) Separate the individual books and staple them at the spine. Regular desktop staplers don’t really do the job (unless you’re making micro-comics) so you’ll have to dig up a long-arm or booklet stapler. Kinko’s sometimes has one handy (but they might look at you funny if you ask) or you can buy one from Staples or OfficeMax for under $30. If that’ll break the bank, consider asking a friend to go in on it with you, or borrow one from someone. DO NOT skip this step! If your comic is not stapled, it can fall apart, which means that your contact information might get separated from your work. Alternately, it just seems unprofessional.

Distribution

Now that you’ve made your first mini comic, it’s time to give it away. “What?” You say, “I just spent $32.00 at Kinko’s plus $30.00 on a friggin’ long arm stapler!” I don’t care. Give it away. Pass it out to your friends and ask them for feedback. (You DID remember to put your contact information on the inside of it didn’t you?) If there is a comic convention nearby that you can attend, do so and pass it out to any and every comic artists that you manage to track down. Some (though not all) creators may trade you for a copy of their book so you might end up with a sizable pile of loot by the end of the day. Even if they aren’t willing to trade, give them a copy anyway and don’t be afraid to ask their opinion/advice. (Just be sure not to hog up all their time or interfere with their paying customers.) The important thing is to make sure that SOMEONE is seeing it, because you’ve just spent all this time making it, and all of that time is wasted if your masterpiece is just sitting at your house!

If your first mini turns out great, do a few more, and then register for a table at your local comic convention. A word to the wise — as soon as you’re on the other side of the table, STOP giving your comics away! Even if you intend to give them away, put a price on your comic. $1.00 is good for most comics starting out. If your comic is longer, or you’ve paid for color covers, go ahead and charge $2.00. Don’t feel guilty about charging for your work. The people who are looking at your stuff haven’t read this tutorial yet, and they DON’T have their own mini-comic.

Why a mini comic?

Publishing mini comics is an excellent way to cheaply and effectively get your work into the hands of other people. Sure you could save up all your money… slave away on your Mutant-Space-Cowboy-Vampire comic and blow your whole load on 5,000 copies (for probably cheaper PER ISSUE than copying it on your own). But what if nobody is into Mutant-Space-Cowboy-Vampires? You are out a lot of money and your apartment is furnished with 4,900 dusty copies of your book.

Minis are also a good way to see if you have the chops to keep up with the demands of making comics. And they are excellent to hand to potential employers in the comics field, if your goal is to work for another company instead of continuing on your own. A completed mini comic shows that you can complete and convey a story through sequential art, and that is no small task. Even if it is a “mini” showing a completed project like this tells potential employers more than a portfolio full of pin-ups and out of sequence pages.

When all is said and done, whether you want to make it big or not, making mini comics is a great way of making comics for the sake of making comics! Fame and glory aside, mini comics are an affordable way to make comics with a smaller initial investment of time or money.

Why NOT a mini comic?

Personally, I like the look, size and feel of mini-comics. Unfortunately, there is a stigma throughout the comic book industry about these “ashcans,” the smaller, bastard cousins of “real” comics. Many shops will not stock them, Diamond won’t distribute them, collectors won’t covet them, but people WILL READ THEM. You will not get rich nor make a living nor rarely even BREAK EVEN making mini comics, but you can test what works and what doesn’t. The cost per book is sometimes HIGHER than printing a larger print run of full sized books, but the initial capital investment is less, thus you can experiment with your comics to see what your readers respond to BEFORE blowing your entire bank account or maxing out your credit card on a single issue flop.

The only thing that’s holding you back is you. Just do it. Don’t sweat it. If it doesn’t come out as well as you hoped, make your next issue better. Keep drawing. Keep writing. If making comics is what you love and it’s what you want to do, there’s no one stopping you. And when you have your first comic finished… send me a copy. If you’ve remembered to include your contact information I’ll try (but can’t promise) to tell you what I think.

Keep fighting the good fight!