Bloggy-blogging

Kids Comics: still a struggle but worth the fight

The general consensus among mainstream comic book publishers is that comics aimed at kids, or all-ages comics, don’t sell. And sadly, they’re usually right.

Take for example the apparent cancellation of the endlessly charming Thor: The Mighty Avenger by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee. Even an impending big Hollywood movie of Thor couldn’t generate enough interest to sustain the series past eight issues. Why? Maybe it’s because there are also about four other comics starring Thor or some Thor-like character and who can keep them straight? Maybe it’s because too many comic book stores cater to their established audience base of young-ish to older adults who aren’t interested in an all-ages comic book no matter how much praise and acclaim it gets.

So kids comics are doomed, right?

Not quite. Fortunately a growing number of comics stores actually do have enough business savvy to diversify their customer base. In support of this, Diamond Comics, the primary distributor for comics shops, has been amping up their KidsComics.com website, now with a handy-dandy order form kids and parents can print out to make sure their local store orders what they want.

And more effectively, and unlike ten or more years ago, there are now other ways for comics to find their audience. As examples, walk into a book store and see how long it takes you to stumble over a display of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Granted, they technically aren’t comic books (or graphic novels), but often not far from away are copies of Bone by Jeff Smith, Owly by Andy Runton, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz adaptation by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young, The Muppet Show Comic Book by Langridge himself, and lots more. And they’ve all been selling very well. Yes even the Twilight graphic novel adaptation by Young Kim. And tons of manga too, plenty of it age appropriate (see Manga4Kids for recommendations – I’ve still got a lot to learn myself). The School Library Journal has a great blog to help find Good Comics For Kids.

There are also great web-comics for kids online. Two of my favorites are the whimsical Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl and the delightfully absurd Axe Cop by Ethan Nicolle and Malachai Nicolle (age 5!). LunchboxFunnies.com is a good place to start, although they sadly haven’t updated for several months now. Hopefully it’s just temporary. There have been a few sites attempting to track age appropriate web-comics but sadly most are over a year old now, basically ancient artifacts in internet time.

Plenty of the above mentioned comics have been released as digital comics on mobile devices and online through services like ComiXology. Although they have yet to parse out kids comics to make shopping easier, they do have age ratings, which helps a great deal. Much of Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener is recommended for kids 9 and up, and it is regularly among the most downloaded.

So kids comics do sell. You just have to know how to get them to kids.

What does a nightmare sound like?

I was very intent on creating a specific musical soundtrack for the video that posted yesterday, Pants: A Nightmare. So, as a little behind-the-scenes exclusive, I’ve posted the music I wrote and recorded for the sketch video. It’s at my Acoustic Roundtable profile which I nearly forgot existed. I’ve posted the final music that was used in the video as well as an earlier demo-type version.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, although I’m constantly frustrated by the limitations of my musical abilities. Even so, the overall effect, and several specific moments, achieved what I was going for. So I’ll consider this a success, and keep learning.

I actually thought about putting this up on iTunes to sell, but I doubt I could get away with charging 99 cents for a 40-second atonal instrumental.

For those that care about this kind of thing: I used GarageBand to record this. There are three tracks of guitars (2 with some kind of distortion effect). These were recorded live with my nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, a pretty clean, folkie sounding instrument, so I was pretty happy with how dirty and electric-ish I could get these. There’s a vocal track with the ambient vocals effect – I think I did just one take, maybe two. The rest are instruments imitated by GarageBand that I played with my keyboard or mouse – two horn parts (high and low) and strings.

What do you think? Ever have a nightmare sound like this?

Pants: A Nightmare

Magic Meathands sketch comedy video #3!

This one has a whole lot of me in it. I wrote it, I co-directed it (with fellow Meathand Kevin Callahan who was a great help in breaking this sucker down so we had a super-efficient shoot), I starred in it, I wrote the music (or as I like to call it, sonic enhancement), I edited it. So there’s me all over. But it would simply not exist at all without the Magic Meathands. The fantastic camera work is by Wendy J.N. Lee (she also provided invaluable technical consulting). I absolutely love the freaky taunting by Shane Boroomand, Lara Sterling, Travis McElroy, Kevin Callahan and Mary Benedict. And of course Nikki Turner as Mom. Getting her costuming to work was way harder than I expected but it came out way better than I expected so it was way worth it. Way.

I hope you enjoy it. If so, please comment, give it thumbs up at YouTube, favorite it, forward it on, and all those other things people do on the Interwebs.

Check back next week for the fourth and final video from our first batch of videos.

And there’s more to come! Yesterday, we shot another batch, and again one of them is written by me. So it’s off to the land of editing with me once again. You’ll probably start seeing the second wave in December or January.

Archives:
Magic Meathands Video #2: Fun and Games
Magic Meathands Video #1: Eddie the Enforcer

A Week of Anniversaries

A week of anniversaries comes to a close. In reverse order:

Thursday, November 11: 13 years ago, Nahleen took the train in from Fitchburg to visit me in Boston. While at the frigid City Hall Plaza, we agreed that maybe we LIKE liked each other and should, like, totally go out. Somehow time passed and now we agree that maybe we LOVE love each other.

Wednesday, November 10: Four years ago, my friend Yvis very audibly mistook my wedding ceremony for his surprise birthday party. In front of everyone. It was awkward. And hilarious. (OK, it was planned.)

Tuesday, November 9: 11 years ago, Nahleen and I left New England for Los Angeles! Our journey continues…

Have a great weekend, everybody! (And don’t forget this is happening Saturday night.)

Comics Can Be Anything: The Cookbook Edition

I say it a lot because it’s true. Comics can be anything. Public perception of comic books has significantly improved just in the last 10 years, but for the Average Joe & Jane, comics are still just superheroes and/or funny animals – kids stuff.

Well sure, they can be that. But superheroes and funny animals are two genres, like romantic comedy and political thriller are to books and movies. Comic books as a form can be about anything. And there are hundreds of examples out there to support this argument. (Comics can be romantic comedies and political thrillers, too.)

Here’s the latest example that has me excited: A comic book cookbook! Or a graphic novel cookbook. Or as the artist calls it, a cartoon cookbook. That last one has the best ring to it but isn’t entirely accurate. (I’m sure I’ll get around to my post about comic books vs. cartoons vs caricatures vs illustrated books at some point).

However you describe it, it may be the first of it’s kind. (There is a popular manga genre about food but I don’t think any of those are actual manga cookbooks. Let me know in the comments section, if I’m wrong.)

The Dirt Candy Cookbook (working title) written by chef and New York City-based Dirt Candy restaurant owner Amanda Cohen and drawn by Ryan Dunlavey is scheduled for a Summer 2012 release from Random House/Clarkson Potter.

Dunlavey has a knack for these kinds of projects where he injects a fun appealing energy to information, so I’m thrilled to see him get this kind of gig. He’s probably best known for Action Philosophers with writer Fred Van Lente, where the two ripped through the lives and schools of thought of some of the world’s most brilliant minds. The two also teamed up for a similarly frenetic yet informed look at the history of comic books with Comic Book Comics. What? Comics can be used to teach us about history and philosophy?

Why, it’s as if comics can be anything!

Motion Comics: Not Comics, Barely Motion

Since my dismissive comment about motion comics, I’ve received tons and tons of hate mail. OK, perhaps I exaggerate. Perhaps I made that up completely. In reality, not one person living or dead made a single comment about it. So either everybody was so enraged, they couldn’t focus enough to write a response, or everybody silently agreed. Or more likely, most people have never even heard of motion comics, never mind knowing enough to form an opinion.

If you are in that last group, you’ll be able to catch up pretty quickly because motion comics are still in their infancy. Put simply, motion comics are adaptations of comic books and graphic novels that use computers to animate the original comic artwork (or recreations), and then replaces the written word with voice actors, music and sound effects. Put way simply, it’s a mini-cartoon based on a comic.

While stylistically more slick, they are basically the old Marvel Comics cartoons from the ’60s.

But they’re not without their fans. The appeal and idea of motion comics is that it brings to life your favorite comics. It’s typically very faithful in look and story because they’re pulling straight from the original comics.

The downside is that the animation is really limited because they’re trying to animate static images that were only ever meant to represent movement, not actually depict movement.

My main problem with them is that they really aren’t comics at all. The comic book industry and art form has been stuck with inaccurate terms for decades upon decades. Comic books aren’t necessarily comical; they more resemble magazines than actual books. Graphic novels aren’t necessarily graphic in content but do use graphic design and imagery; they don’t have be a long narrative like novels. So I suppose adding one more misnomer to the pile shouldn’t matter.

But it’s worth noting: motion comics are not comic books. They do not use the language of comics. They use the language of motion pictures (film, animation, etc.).

This past weekend at King Con in Brooklyn, Act-I-Vate founder and writer/artist Dean Haspiel debuted his attempt at a motion comic with Billy Dogma in “Sex Planet” [warning: adult content, so I won’t embed it here]. His goal seemed to be to include more of the language of comics while pulling back some on the animation. That’s a direction that interests me more than the above example but the finished product is mixed. The voice acting is lacking (Haspiel himself provides the voice of Billy Dogma) and there’s a weird timing issue with having finished read the text and waiting for the actors to catch up, but there are some cute visual gags that have well-timed reveals. See The Beat for more on this.

Clearly motion comics are just getting started. So, “To Be Continued…”

Fun and Games

Magic Meathands video #2!

I acted in this and I also edited it. Wendy Lee did the fancy hand-held camera work.

Also featuring Mary Benedict (writer/director), Nikki Turner and Travis McElroy, also of the Magic Meathands.

This was a lot of fun to be in. My mission: yell and be angry. Bonus points if you can name all of the real games Mary used to create the fictional Calcatron. (I love that name. Sounds like Megatron’s forgotten step-brother.)

Oh and if I ever invite you to game night, I promise it’s not like this. No, really, it’s not!

Archives:
Magic Meathands Video #1: Eddie the Enforcer

The Drive Home

A little actor/improviser shop talk for you, in preparation for tonight’s show.

Reminder to self: Thinking of funnier/cleverer/betterer things I should’ve said on the drive home from a show or shoot is a waste of time.

This is fairly common among performers. I’ve done it plenty of times. I hear others talking about doing it themselves. It can feel like constructive analysis, and to a point it might be helpful for the future. But it’s very easy to get carried away and the truth of it is that it comes from a place of insecurity. Because this only happens when I feel like I wasn’t good enough.

Let me be clear, I’m not advocating blind self-congratulations devoid of the reality of how a show or shoot actually went. It’s important and helpful to look at choices made and see how they effected performances.

But when a funnier line pops into your head on the drive home, and your mind plays over and over how you should’ve said that line instead of what you actually said, that doesn’t really serve any purpose beyond heading to crazy town. For improvisation, when every show is completely different and the odds of the exact same situation presenting itself again is incredibly small, it’s basically a useless activity.

For example: OK, the next time I’m playing Hannibal Lecter who has to babysit a monkey’s carrot garden, when the baby carrots scream for more ice cream, I will say “I’ll make carrot cake out of you!” because it references that earlier scene about the carrot cake maker. Huh? That scene is never ever going to happen again! Why am I wasting my time dissecting it line by line? Unless I’m going to adapt it into something scripted like a sketch or short film, re-writing or punching up dialogue to something so temporary doesn’t help me become a stronger performer.

So how to shut off the loop in my head? Instead I focus on slightly broader questions. Was I listening? Was I open to the first opportunity to explore something potentially funny or interesting? Did I make strong choices? How were my characters? When did the laughs happen? Was I able to heighten or at least repeat what I was doing when laughs happened? This line of thinking is much more constructive as long as I answer honestly for myself.

If that doesn’t work, turn on the radio real loud and sing along even louder as a weird character with a strange but very specific voice – but make sure you get the words exactly right. Maybe you’ll find a new character you can use, and it breaks you out of that cyclical thinking. And maybe you’ll make the person in the next car laugh.

Let me know if you have any tricks for this. I’d love to hear them.

Print Comics: Still Awesome

My post on Monday about innovative experiments with digital comics doesn’t mean I don’t love me some dead tree comics. Print still has a lot to offer but digital means that the physical version has to step it up and offer more. Fortunately there are some good examples out there.

As a counter-point to the Johnny Cash digital graphic novel with soundtrack, there is BB Wolf and the Three L.P.’s by JD Arnold and Richard Koslowski from Top Shelf Productions. It can be purchased with a 7-song CD, BB Wolf and the Howlers: The Lost Recordings. The graphic novel spins 1920s race tension with the Three Little Pigs fairy tale. The CD brings the music of the titular blues singing main character to life, which is a very cool way to eliminate the guess work of what the music of a fictional character from a silent medium sounds like. You can also get the limited edition BB Wolf Box Set, which includes the graphic novel, the CD and a wooden box with laser engraved art on the cover and 2 shot glasses for that authentic hard-drinking blues effect.

Creating such an experience that goes beyond the pages is a compelling way to make it still matter to have print and physical product. But it doesn’t have to be about creating ancillary material. Savvy creators and publishers can find ways to have their published material be an aesthetic extension of the world they have created.

Fantagraphics Books has always excelled at this. C. Tyler‘s You’ll Never Know, both Book I: A Good and Decent Man and the new release Book II: Collateral Damage, are designed to look like scrap books or photo albums, inside and out. A visually powerful choice that is incredibly appropriate since the story centers on a woman trying to piece together her reticent father’s wartime past.

Last year, DC Comics published Wednesday Comics, an anthology of superhero and adventure stories printed on large broadsheet newsprint that folded out to 14″ x 20″ pages, approximately double the size of modern comic book pages. Reminiscent of the old Sunday comics pages from the first half of the 1900’s, it was a kick to see Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman and other characters in this retro format that pre-dated nearly all of them.

There are a lot of other good examples. Some publishers, like Archaia Entertainment and Drawn & Quarterly, just have consistently great design sense in their print publications. Tumor, by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon, started its life as a digital graphic novel on the Amazon Kindle, but has ended up being a great looking physical product. Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library books (and really any of his books) are always intricately stunning.

So sure, digital comics are the future. But that doesn’t automatically mean print comics have to be relegated to the past. There are still new and creative ways to make an appealing print comic book or graphic novel. As the ratio of print to digital finds its level ground, it will be up to creators and publishers to make products in both realms that are compelling and worth a reader’s investment.

Eddie the Enforcer

New sketch comedy video with me!

I provided the voice-over and also appear in this mock commercial written and directed by fellow Magic Meathands performer Shane Boroomand.

Also featured are Kevin Callahan, Nikki Turner, and Mary Benedict.

I recorded most of the voice-over in one take with memories of all of those awful “as seen on TV” ads that seemed to infest daytime and late late night. I don’t know, maybe they still do.

Anyway, this is the first of a new series of sketch comedy videos that the Magic Meathands have produced and are producing. I hope you enjoy! We’ve had a blast making them! To make sure you don’t miss any of them, subscribe to either my YouTube page (for ones with me) or the Magic Meathands YouTube page.

Don’t forget: The Magic Meathands are performing at the Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica this Friday!