Scissor by Kim Jacinto

Black Wraith - by Dave Flora

Quick, everyone, here they come!

I think this is it, people.

This morning Mark Waid tweeted a link about how he is working on a truly digital comic.

Now this is nothing new, there are some incredible creators out there who have been playing with landscape comic telling for years, who have been playing with digital "reading" for a while, and who have been trailblazing with releases onto reading devices since the battle of the tablets began.

It is, however, one of the first times that someone who has made their name in print comics, someone who has been a success in that field, has mentioned the problems of rising costs and lowering profits as the reason behind them making the move to digital.

Traditionally new creators have used the money saving, near-to-free method of digital publishing to start their lives as comic book creators. The idea was always to make their way "up", to maybe become a "real" print creator somewhere down the line.

Along with Mark Waid's announcement is the recent Million Dollar webcomic reprint, both things which point towards a known fact which has remained hidden from a lot of people - it is possible to build a pretty good following by putting out a webcomic.

So could this be the start of more and more "creators" moving to the digital release method? Graphicly are certainly making it easier for people to have greater control over how they release their work.

Personally, the model I'm looking to adopt is to release comics online with regularity, to offer print and digital versions once available (using a POD service, and also using this to produce physical copies for conventioning), with Trade's also being produced down the line.

There is the idea of creating something specific to the web format, something to make into a digital specific comic down the line. Hopefully more and more people will be doing the same now, too.

Sneak Peek, Intranauts cover

Here's a sneak at David Brame's inks for the Intranaut issue one cover:

Intranauts is a sci-fi conspiracy adventure, written by Josh Gorfain, with art by David Brame.

Coming Summer 2012 from Monkey Pipe Studios.

ETA: Here's a mock up by Josh for a possible cover design:

Comics in front of eyes, comics into hands

I'm closing down the Omnitarium website.

It's served it's purpose, and now sits like an infrequently visited gravestone of a distant relative. You didn't hate them, but you were not as close as you might have been.

Heavy handed metaphors aside, the site has run it's course, and I am going to slowly change it over to a new and improved Monkey Pipe Studios website.

Something clean and crisp.

I hope to use the new site as a catch-all home for all the titles coming out from our stable in the coming years - The Hero Code, Omnitarium, Department O, Intranauts and The Black Wraith.

Five titles.

Ideally I'll be able to post a page a week from each series, on subsequent days of the week, so a regular run of updates throughout the week.

I really do think that, as a new creator, it is very important to walk before I run, to put the work out into the world, and let it find it's fan base - comics in front of eyes.

This is all going to take some time, which I am starved of at the best of times, so it will be a slow process. But I'm a patient man, and the longer it takes, the more pages I'll have in the bank.

Once an issue is completed, I would then make a single issue of it available to purchase.

Once a story is completed, I would make a trade available.

I'm a big fan of the digest sized trades of Omnitarium which I recently had printed through the excellent ICGeeks. Slightly smaller than standard comic books, there is something pretty tidy about them.

Comics into hands.

Couple of questions:

1. Should I revisit the Omnitarium series and have it coloured for this new launch?
2. What do people think of the Monkey Pipe Studios logo?

Thanks, all... keep watching the skies!

A change might come... demographics, piracy and other stuff

A recent announcement that story doesn't really matter for flag-pole movies comes at a strange time.

For the first time, studios are seeing bigger box-office revenue being generated outside of the US market. The need to create for a smaller, less localised demographic is changing.

Story might not matter for flag-pole movies, but flag-pole movies matter less and less to studios and viewers alike.

Could this also result in a change with comics?

Comic books move to wide-screen story telling to increase the scope of the page, but limit the scope of the story, has hopefully had it's day.

Can we move to a time where the less "flag-pole" books are the real revenue generators? Probably not for a long time, but they can be for the creators. More reach is now afford to creators, and the means of keeping production costs down seem to increase every day.

Hopefully we will see a new dawn in creative story telling come to the fore in the coming years.



Following on from recent announcements of the pro's of piracy from the likes of Neil Gaiman and Paulo Coehlo, and the recent announcement that movie piracy didn't adversely effect box office, I've been trying to think of a term which I think sums up the big problem here.

There is a tipping point, wherein brand recognition and reach/availability means that piracy can and does lead to in increase in sales from those who might not have bought your work before.

However, there is a bottom end, inverse to this, where in the cost of production isn't offset enough by the loss of revenue through lost sales caused by piracy.

If you imagine an hourglass shape, the pinch of which is the point where the brand recognition of a product is cancelled out by the lost sales through piracy (that is a zero effect), then anything above that can lead to a return from regained sales through piracy, underneath a loss of revenue.

Most lesser known creators with smaller catalogues, less reach are going to find themselves below the pinch - any lost sale having a bigger effect, increasing as the reach shrinks.

I still think there is a way of using piracy to the creators advantage, but for now the greatest thing we can still do is to make our work as readily and easily available as possible.



Following on from the internet-wide dislike of the treatment of Gary Friedrich, I made the mistake of reading some comments on a couple of comic-news websites.

I was really angry at the dismissiveness of some of the "fans" out there - some attacking Gary's character, saying he deserves everything he gets.

Fans need to grow up, to stop siding with the corporations that care so little about their precious comic book heroes. The people who created those characters, who crafter the stories that you claim to so love, are not the people who work for corporations, or for the grand-daddy lobby group, the lawyers.

Lets see how good the comics are when the creators leave.

I really would love for some union for the comic book folk out there, but sadly think this will never happen.

It would be marvelous, in my opinion, if the smaller independent creators boycotted Artist Alleys for the rest of the year. Pulled funding away from those people so that they couldn't attract the big names on our dime.

What if we all stood up and said "sorry, but I can't do your artist alley for $100-300 this year, because I have no idea what might happen to me if some kid comes up and asks me to sketch Spider-Man for him... I can't take that risk".

Sadly won't happen though.

I think a change is coming, where publishers won't have us over a barrel so much, where retailers won't dismiss us as sub-par, desperate to stay in bed with the big boys. Where fans actually respect the creators.

It will take time... but hopefully it will come.

Help Gary Friedrich

In order to help Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich (see early post) I'd like to point you to the following - http://www.steveniles.com/gary.html - a donation service set up by Steven Niles.

If you were thinking of buying one of my comics at the store linked in this website's pages, please donate the money to help Gary instead.

If I do make any sales during February, I will donate the profits to help Gary.

If I don't make any sales, I'll be making another donation at the end of the month.

Thank you all, please help by spreading the word.