Insomnia Pitch and Portfolio Review FAQ

BICS 2009 is less than one week away. To say we are excited is something of an understatement, and one of the highlights of any show for us is the chance to talk to creators about new pitches or portfolios.

Knowing from experience how awful it is, unless you have superhuman confidence (or at least the ability to fake it!), to have to walk up to a publisher's table at a busy con, especially if it is your first time, and try and start a conversation you can steer around to "do you want to hear my pitch / see my portfolio" I thought I would dedicate this last post before the show to try and make it a bit easier for people to do just that.

Thanks to our creators who suggested a lot of these topics as being things they would have liked to know when they were starting out or approaching a new publisher for the first time.

Our full submission guidelines, details of our publishing model, and how our contracts work can be found over on the website, but hopefully this FAQ will cover things that are show specific.

Q: Can I submit as a "lone creator" or do I need to have a finished product or a full team ready to go?

A: You can submit as a "lone creator" in any discipline. We will put teams together, we consider that a key part of our role as publisher.

Writers need to make a submission for a creator owned book, we do not commission writers as freelancers that we assign to books.

Artists (including pencillers, colourists and inkers) and letterers, you need to let us know what kinds of project you are interested in working on in terms of subject matter, artist role, and length.

We also accept "team submissions" of course.

Q: Is there a certain way / time to approach you and start the conversation?

A: Apart from the the helpful answer provided by one of our writers (Christopher Barker) ,when asked about this, who said:

"I found that, when approaching Nic at a convention, moving quietly and approaching from the side is your best bet. Her eye-sight is based on movement and sudden actions tend to startle her. Bring some sugar and gently stroke her nose... wait that aint right! :/"

the short answer is no, there is no "proper way" to do it. There is no secret password or special handshake. There will be at least one of the Insomnia team on the stand at all times during the time the con is open (see list at the end for names).

Just tell whoever you speak to what it is you have come to talk about or show us, and if they are not the right person then they will either find the one of us you want, call us for you, or let you know when to come back.

Remember that finding new talent is one of the key reasons we come to shows, so we WANT to talk to you.

As it happens I did first talk to Christopher at BICS 2008.

I have set the times of 4-5.30pm on the Saturday and 11 - 1 on Sunday when I (Nic Wilkinson) am guaranteed to be on the stand to look at pitches and portfolios.

I need to go to Bryan Talbot's Grandville talk more than anything else in the world right now - so don't expect to find me anywhere but listening to the master in rapt attention from 2.30-3.30 on the Saturday!

However, if you do walk up to the stand at other times and I am there then I will be more than happy to talk to you. I'll be easy to identify, on the stand if you are looking for me in particular. I'm the only female one on the Insomnia team, I have very long blonde hair, and I'll be dressed all in black.


Q: Is it better to wait until after "show hours" and come and make a pitch in the bar?

The answer to this one is by all means come up, introduce yourself and let us know you have a story to pitch or art to show us (if you know who were are without the stand backdrop as a clue). We'll be pleased to meet you, and it's good to put faces to names, but mostly we'll ask you to drop by the stand the next day for a proper chat about your work.

The bars tend to be incredibly noisy, for one, with lots of people coming by and interrupting (and god forbid that anyone should spill drink on an art portfolio!). Unlike certain other events where is there is one central bar because the con is in a hotel, there is no bar in the city you could guarantee finding everyone.

Q: How can I be sure you won't steal my ideas?

A: Well, the short and flippant answer is that you either trust a publisher, based on what you have heard about them, or you don't.

I could say "trust me", but everyone will say that, right?

We could put up NDAs for us to sign for all creators, but that is not practical.

So, here is my case for why you can trust us, in particular, and it mainly comes down to our committment to all our books being creator owned:

1) We don't have on-going characters in long running series that have writers assigned to arcs. This means we couldn't take your idea for "character X" and just let someone else write it.

2) As our books are all creator owned we don't "commission" books (the closest we come to this is our "By Invitation" focal point series, but the stories still have to be submitted by the writers we invite) so we cannot take the core of your idea and just change something cosmetic like the location it is set in and say to someone "write me a story like this...but put it in space and with robots not vampires".

3) As our contracts are essentially "licences to exploit" (I won't go into the specifics of what that means here) it basically means we do not own the intellectual properties as publisher, the rights stay with the creator, so there would be no direct advantage to us in "stealing the idea" - even if both the above points did not apply.

4) All our Contracts have a clause where the creator must state that the rights for the idea belong only to them. This is a statement made in law, on a witnessed contract, so if it were proven not to be the case it would be a very serious matter.

5) All submissions that we do not sign are deleted so there is no danger of old files hanging around and being seen by anyone who would have no business getting hold of them in any way.

Of course, it must be said, that there is such a thing as "parallel evolution" and sometimes we do get submissions for stories which are very similar as the idea has occured to multiple people who have never met.


Q: Do I need to do any specific preparation or send you anything beforehand?

A: It's not necessary, but for writers in particular it can be useful to have done so, and you can email us at submissions@insomniapublications.com if you would like to.

I will be making sure I check the submission box every hour or so between now and Friday am.

If we have seen an initial email about your idea or a sample of script, when you come to talk to us we can ask you intelligent questions about it, and make the best use of your time when we get to meet face to face rather than just using that time to tell us the outline idea.

By being able to jump straight to this point you we both get a lot more out of the chat. If we like the idea then we are bound to ask you to send more detail on it anyway.

Q: Will I get a decision on the day?

A: It's very, very, unlikely.

If you are an artist then we will be able to tell you whether we think we could have work for you now or in the future. If we think we have a book that would work with your art style and we are looking to sign up an artist to the creative team right now we will still need to send you a script to look at to see what you really think of the story as written, not just as we describe it to you, ask you to do some characters sketches or test pages specific to the book, and we will need to show your samples and sketches to the writer who may not be there on the day.

If you are a writer who we are talking to for the first time about your idea we will be able to tell you if we think the concept sounds like something of interest to us, but we will need to review your pitch document, and no doubt come back to you with questions.

In both cases the work will likely need to be reviewed by other members of the Insomnia Team as well as the individual you speak to as part of our submissions process .

Having said all that it does sometimes happen (and it has with a couple of books, but always when we have already seen a pitch and been in conversation by email, so it was really more of finalising a contract offer), but even so it is still more likely to be at the end of the weekend once the team have had a chance to chat, rather than in the first conversation.

Q: If I am very nervous / don't like pitching face to face / am very short of time and need to catch my train home / feel I express myself better on paper etc can I just leave a pitch package with you?

Yes you can.

This sounds obvious, but make sure it has your name and email contact details clearly marked on it.

Q: What format should I bring my work in?

A: It doesn't really matter as we will not refuse to look at something because it is not in the "right format" or on the "right media".

A great story to illustrate this comes from the last Bristol Con where I met the incredibly talented Jennie Gyllblad, who is now working on the Graphic Novel Butterflies and Moths. She wasn't even intending to show a portfolio that day, but talent will out. I wrote up the full story a few months back when we signed her.

Having said that, the team that does the submissions reviewing is split between London and Scotland so putting it on a CD or DVD so we can all get an electronic copy of the files is probably easiest. If you do bring a disc please can you write your name and contact email on the disc itself as well as the documents inside, just in case there is any problem with opening anything? Technology is not always our friend!

Of course paper submissions can be scanned in by us for sharing after the show, so don't worry if you need to bring a paper submission.

For artists - if you are bringing a portfolio of orginal work then please could you bring some copies that you can leave with us.

Don't leave precious originals with us, as we are unfortunately not able to return submissions.


Q: Do you have a "House Style" I should be aware of?

A: Not at all.

We do not have an "Insomnia Style" for writing or artwork, in fact we are always on the look out for creators who want to use the medium in new and innovative ways.

In terms of art we do colour, black and white and greyscale books, so there is no need to think that if you don't work in a "mainstream style" that we would not be interested. In fact we are likely to be more interested if you don't.

Q: How long should my pitch be?

A: This is one of those "how long is a piece of string?" questions really. It's related to the "do you need me to give you the 2 line Idiot Pitch" question that has come up a lot as well.

This might be quite an involved answer - so stay with me:

Firstly, I always say - "tell me all you think I need to know to understand your story, your skills, and to make a decision".

Many publishers do have very "on rails" instructions for how you should pitch. It has been suggested to me in the past that we do this, but I think all this achieves is to exclude creators and stories that the specified pitch format does not suit.

For me, my way does mean (hopefully) that I learn quite a lot about your creative style and working style (which is important when putting team together) through the pitch itself as well - and like any other first impression you are trying to make with anything make sure it presents you in the light you want to be viewed.

Secondly, as regards the "idiot / high concept / elevator pitch" as it is variously called I think this is one of those "editor preference" things.

There are pros and cons. Of course a short snappy pitch may catch an editor's attention and get you into a conversation, but the danger is the X meets Y format as a shorthand description carries the danger of making your work sound derivative or generic.

I have said to people in the past- by all means sum it up if for me like that if you want to, but if I have a positive reaction the first thing you will have to do is be prepared to go into a deeper level of detail based on the questions that will follow in quick sucession. Me, for example, I am likely to ask you about themes and character development and interaction, providing I like the idea of the basic plot. Without getting all "russian formalist" about it - the "what happens" is just the starting point for me

Bascially, though, being able to devise a snappy "elevator pitch" tells me you are very good at devising snappy elevator pitches. That might tell me you would be a great marketing or advertising copywriter, or even that you have the ability to think up great ideas for books - but won't tell me anything about your ability to write comics.

Another reason I like to get as much detail as possible is that some stories that sound superficially similar can in fact be very different in terms of execution, and you don't want to be turned down because "X meets Y" sounds too much the same at that level as something we already have signed, or is out there already.

No publisher is going to sign a book before they have seen some of your actual script writing, anyway, so really all of this is about "selling the concept" to get to that stage.

Q: Does it matter if I don't have previously published work to show you?

A: No.

We will need to get an idea of your style, whether writer or artist, but it is your talent that is important to us.

The fact that your work may not have been published in the past may be more to do with timing, marketing climate (eg What's hot!), what else a publisher had on, how full publication schedules were, that you are just starting out etc and we are aware of all of that.

Q: Is there anything you aren't looking for:

A: This is tricky as there are no real hard and fast rules, but in general:

• We are not looking for on-going series
  
  
• Our graphic novels are a minimum of 90 pages and a maximum of 180, so not comic sized "one shots" and not thousand page epics.
  
  
• We aren't looking to develop an "Insomnia Universe" so you cannot pitch stories that involve characters from other Insomnia books. The creators own the rights to those characters, not us.
  
  
• A graphic novel can be written such that it has scope for sequels, but volume one will need to be a complete and satisfying story in its own right. Sequels are usually signed based on the reception of the first book, but we do sometimes sign multi-volume stories. If you pitch a multi-volume book, though, we will need a synopsis for the full thing. We aren't looking for open ended maxi series.
  
  
• In terms of content we are unlikely to sign the following: straight ahead Superhero books, autobiography (historical biographies may be suitable for Vigil though), romance, light comedy or slapstick, big space opera, illustrated novels.
  

However - if we saw a pitch outside of our usual territory we may consider it if it is has something really different to say.

Q: Who will be on the stand?

A: From Insomnia there will be (at various times):

1) Crawford Coutts, MD and publisher
2) Nic Wilkinson, Creative Director
3) Alasdair Duncan, Sales Manager
4) Martin Conaghan, Vigil Editor (and writer of Burke and Hare)

There will also be a lot of our creators around, sketching, signing and happy to talk about their work, and how they came to be signed by Insomnia, including:

• Cy Dethan (writer: Cancertown, Indifference Engine, The Ragged Man)
• Stephen Downey (artist: Cancertown)
• Will Pickering (artist: Burke and Hare)
• Michiru Morikawa (artist: Buskers)
• Jeymes Samuel (story: Buskers)
• Simon Wyatt (writer / artist Unbelievable)
• Richard McAuliffe (writer: Damaged Goods, Snow)
• Valia Kapadai (artist: Snow)
• Peter Forbes (writer: Oz Fall of the Scarecrow King)
• Andrew Croskery (writer: Kronos City)
• Alex Willmore (artist: Kronos City)
• Lauren Ann Sharp (colourist: Kronos City, Quarantine)
• Luke Foster (writer: Dream Solver)
• Chris Wildgoose (artist: Dream Solver)
• Kev Crossley (artist: Sidhe)
• Stephen Aryan (writer: Empyre)
• Steven Deighan (writer: Gravemaker)
• Adam R Grose (artist: Conway)
• Christopher Barker (wrtier: Shiver)
  
• Chris Lynch (writer: The Fictionalists)
• Richmond Clements (writer: Pinkerton)
• Martin Hayes (writer: Crowley: Wandering the Waste)
  

WIth several more to confirm.

Of course I won't be able to give anything to stop the butterflies, or the shakes, or your mouth going dry, or the ability to stop your tongue suddenly developing a mind of its own - but hopefully at least people will know that we know that's what they're going through - and to be honest, your work SHOULD mean enough to you that it is nerve-wracking to offer it up.

See you at the weekend!

Countdown BICS-2 Weeks

So much news - so little time!

Secure all personal belongings and keep your arms inside the car at all times...

Burke and Hare: Reaching the Heart

Here we go then, with the last of the pin-up previews. This week we have Hugh Parker, Gary Erskine and Frank Quitely:

Hugh Parker

Gary Erksine

Frank Quitely

Layer Zero:Choices ebook sampler

Just in time for BICS we now have the Layer Zero: Choices sampler up as an ebook.

Take a look inside for a preview of each story, the pin ups and creator biographies.

Snow Job

Valia Kapadia has been getting in the mood for some desire and depravity, ready for BICS. Hang on, that didn't come out right!

What I meant to say is that she has been creating some amazing concept pieces as part of her style experiments for Snow.




Go on, admit it, you're already a little bit frightened, and even worse, a little bit temped.


Roy Huteson: Artist Double Header!

Not, in fact, a rare example of the two headed comics creator, but Roy Huteson, who is the first artist we have to be working on both a Vigil book and an Original Graphic Novel at the same time - and we snapped him up for both books in the same week.

Having been doing dark and stunning work on Daemon Seeds (the prequel to Daemon by Alasdair Duncan) for Layer Zero: Survival we are delighted to have him on board for the full book.

Alasdair said:

"Roy has the ability to put a highly detailed and realistic drawing right next to an impressionistic almost abstract piece of artwork and make it work as a whole. His biro doodles alone are worthy of display and his style has given me as a writer so much more freedom with the story."

Daemon Seeds

And then later in the week Roy sent us his bleak, inspiring, tinged-with-madness character concept sketches for how he would approach Crowley: Wandering the Waste. As soon as Martin Conaghan (editor), Martin Hayes (writer) and I clapped eyes on them we knew we had to have him.

Crowley: Wandering The Waste

Taking Over The Airwaves: Insomnia Podcastpalooza!

You've read about them, you've seen the pictures, and now thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can also hear their actual voices!

• Richmond Clements on Small Press Big Mouth
  
  
• Stephen Downey and Andrew Croskery on the Sunnyside podcast

And next week will see Cy Dethan interviewed by Comic Book Outsiders

New Signing: Terminus

We are very pleased to announce that we have signed a second book by Michael "Quarantine" Moreci last week.

"In an imagined 2033, advances in genetics have allowed a person’s physical and mental health to be known from birth. Those who are a danger to society—the poor, terminally ill for being a drain on healthcare economy, or those deemed prone to criminal tendencies—are removed, housed in government-operated facilities.

For some, on the surface, it’s a better world, until a government agent is murdered—the first murder in nine years—and the façade begins to slowly peel away."

Terminus is a sci-fi noir described by Michael as "Blade Runner meets The Constant Gardener mixed with A Clockwork Orange."

You can read more about the genesis of the story over on his blog.

Michael was at the Windy City Con this last weekend getting the word out about Insomnia.

Not only did he give up time - but it was his first wedding anniversary. However he is keen to point out that he is not a bad person, or a bad husband. His wife was gone most of the day as well at work and being the best judge at a pie contest ever :)

Huge thanks to him for that.

Small Press Expo

If you are going to be in the Maryland area on Saturday the 26th September then you'll be able to check out some Insomnia previews, enter the competition to win one of our new books, and find out some more about us by stopping by Mickey Farineau's stand at the Small Press Expo.

Mickey got in touch with us to see if he could do anything to help with promotion at the show after hearing me on Comic Racks a couple of weeks back.

It was an incredibly generous offer, and right out of the blue. Things like that are what makes it so great to be part of the indy comics world, and they restore your faith in human nature.

Thanks Mickey!

Fallen Heroes Special Edition

We will have a limited number of copies of the Fallen Heroes Special Sketch Edition for sale from the stand at BICS.


This edition will contain a section called Lost Passages which are scenes that never made it to the final version of the book and Barry's reasons for why they were left out (including his original opening chapter).

There will also be a section of the book called Fallen Heroes Sketchbook where comic book artists (some of whom have worked for Marvel and DC) have given their interpretation of some of characters from the book.

Sketches are provided by:

Emma Vieceli, Scott ‘Atomic Robo’ Wegna, Andie Tong, Leigh ‘2000ad’ Gallagher, Steve Sims, Gary Seaward, Jimmy Bott and Michael Schwartz

If you cannot make the show, or want to be sure of having a copy, then you can pre-order the book directly over on Barry Nugent's own site.

I wish I could share the things we've been talking about for the comic adaptation recently as I'm so excited about how it is taking shape - but they are not quite ready to go outside on their own yet!

And Finally...

Happy Insomnia birthday to me! Yes, today is one year to the day that I joined Insomnia on the management side as Creative Director.

The year has flown by, and it has been a wild wild ride. It's a wonderful time to be involved with comis right now.

Thanks to everyone, especially all the creators, for showing me such a great time.

Next week I'll putting up a Ptiching and Portfolio Review FAQ to help those of you coming to see the Insomnia Crew at BICS and try to make the whole experience as painless as we can.

If anyone has any particular questions they'd like covered drop me a line and let me know.

Countdown: BICS-3 Weeks

BICS is truly is the "ninja of comics conventions". It always seems really far away all summer and suddenly it is upon you! I was saying this very thing to Kev Crossley (more on him in a bit) earlier today, who finds that the show has managed to sneak up on him while he was distracted by being frantically busy.

Still, we know how to deal with ninjas here at Insomina Towers, oh dear me yes, so despite all the smoke bombs and throwing stars that it tries to hurl in at the last minute we will prevail.

I've hyper-extended it now, haven't I?

Ahem.

Right then, on to business.

New Vigil Signing

The Insomnia family has grown again. Our newest addition (I typed edtion there first of all, comics are taking over my brain!) is probably already known to you as one of the team behind Future Quake Press and the co-organiser of Hi-Ex, The Highlands International Comics Expo.

Sounds like he is a perfect candidate for Insomia already! Who needs sleep when there are comics!

Did you guess who it is yet?

It's Richmond Clements and he will be writing the "incredible but true" life story of Allen Pinkerton who founded the famous wild west Pinkerton Detective Agency.

In the course of his life Pinkerton was also a spy, campaigned for suffrage, fought in the US Civil War (having emigrated from Glasgow where he was born) helped escaped slaves to freedom, was involved in suppressing a revolution in Cuba, solved a series of train robberies and guarded Abraham Lincoln on his way to his inauguration!

He also laid the foundations for what became the FBI

Makes you feel quite lazy by comparison!

It's going to be a really cinematic story, especially in the way Richmond plans to present it, and it just screamed "SIGN ME NOW" when we saw the submission.

The day after the book was signed, in a triumph of timing made possible only by major plantary alignment, Richmond was interviewed for the podcast Small Press, Big Mouth by "honorary insomniac" Stacey Wittle and Lee Grice. I will post a link to the episode when it goes live.

If you're hungry for more of Richmond's work in the meantime, he has a two part series called Turning Tiger being publisher soon by Renegade Arts Entertainment

Wicked Witches of The West and East

Not content with moving house, going on holiday to Amsterdam and becoming a father all in the space of two weeks Barry McGowan has just turned in the first pictures of the Wicked Witches for Oz: Fall Of The Scarecrow King.

Surrender Dorothy indeed...





Liam Sharp on Kev Crossley

Despite all indications to the contrary this is not a piece of slash fic about two of the most incredibly talented artists in the UK.

It is, in fact, notice that Liam has taken the time to write a fantastic foreword for In Extremis: The Art of Kev Crossley and here is a little taster of what he has to say about our Kev:

"Oh beware the Crossley, ye artists of light and fancy! Beware the cunning hell-spat maestro and his nibs of flame! With wit and talent not born of this world he’ll carve an empire through the legions of lesser mortal artist-kind and assume a dark and rocky throne. You mark my words."

I'll put up the full thing nearer the time, but for now, you mark his words!

We're hoping Kev will be able to get to BICS to pitch his tent on the Insomnia stand - but first we are waiting to see if he can make it past the ninjas!

I'll be putting up a list of creators who'll be on the stand probably next week.

Burke and Hare Pin Up Countdown

The Burke and Hare countdown continues this week with Lynsey Hutchison, Dave Hill, Alex Ronald and Dave Alexander.

Lynsey Hutchison

Dave Hill

Alex Ronald

Dave Alexander

Martin, the Vigil editor, will be on the Insomnia stand at BICS to talk about his own work on Burke and Hare, about the other Vigil books we have in production, and ready to talk to anyone who may have a Vigil Pitch.

Until next week - beware of the Ninjas!

Countdown: BICS-4 weeks

Here we are at BICS-4 weeks, more on this below, but first over to Crawford Coutts for the low down on what happened at the MILK launch and exhibition opening:

MILK Delivery

On Thursday night, MILK, the graphic novel and the exhibition, were launched at the Fine Art Library, located within Edinburgh’'s Central Library.

Around 50 people (significantly over capacity!) attended the hour-and-a-half long event – including a large number of the Edinburgh and Glasgow comic creators, numerous family members and former co-workers of Stref and some longer-distance folk who’d travelled up from London just for the launch.

Many other Insomnia creators came to see the event, reporters from the local Newspapers and even a Film Producer. Thankfully, we purchased more wine to cater for the large number of people! It was incredible to see such a brilliant turn-out and Stevie seemed delighted to see so many familiar faces that he’'d not seen for many years!

Piles of signed copies of the book rapidly disappeared and we received an endless stream of compliments about the art, production and print quality. I don’t know if this was the alcohol talking, but the enthusiasm and excitement about the book and exhibition was extraordinary!

We also had copies of Cages and Cancertown on sale at the event along with previews of other titles currently in development.

We received lots of interest from the Directors of the Libraries and the Edinburgh Art council in the hope we can work together more in the future, provisionally continuing the MILK exhibition to other libraries and looking at future Insomnia exhibitions and running similar workshops and events to the pilot scheme we’ve been running at the Essex Libraries.

After all the wine was consumed, many books were signed and sold, Winker Watson’s final outing original pages had found new homes, our first exhibition and book launch came to a close.

“To the Pub!”

A saying that is customary after these sorts of events, or so I'’m told.… We headed across the road to The Villager where some great networking took place, and lots more alcohol was disposed of.

Thank you very much to everyone who attended the launch, I am very grateful for your support and your interest in what we’re producing.

I'’m very grateful to the library staff who were extremely helpful with the organization of the exhibition, preparation and running of the launch. I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Also a big thanks to my better half, Audrey, who ran the “bar”, with the help of our good friend’s Corrie and Richard, who ran the signing table and till for the whole evening.

And finally, thank you to Victoria Wine for the loan of their wine glasses –the event would not have looked quite so sophisticated with plastic cups!

The MILK Exhibition continues until the end of September and the remaining copies of the limited edition signed copies of the book are now available from Amazon and all good book stores.

• Details of the Exhibition
• Details of the Book
  
• Buy MILK from amazon
  

BICS 2009 Update: Convention Special Offers

As usual we will be doing a number of convention specials on new and existing books.

This year the offers will be:

• 3 for £20 on all standard edition books
• Any special edition + one standard edition for £20

Standard Editions Con Prices

• Burke and Hare (RRP £12.99) Con Price £10
• Cancertown (RRP 14.99) Con Price £10
• Cages (RRP 10.99) Con Price £8
• Layer Zero Choices (RRP £9.99) Con Price £7

Special Editions Con Prices

• Buskers (RRP £14.99) Con Price £12
• MILK (RRP £19.99) Con Price £15

You can pre-order to collect on the day, or to be sent out by post (paid by cheque or paypal) so long as you order by 3rd October.

MILK and Buskers special editions are limited to 100 copies.

To reserve for pickup or to pre-order and for payment details you can email me at nichola[at]insomniapublications.com

Soon I'll be posting a list of our creators who will be at the show.

Burke and Hare Gallery Preview One

Looking forward as we all are to BICS 2009 we will be counting down to the big day by showing previews of the pin-up gallery from Burke and Hare as we gear up for the launch.

First out we have Stuart Beel, Stephen Daly and Nulsh:

By Stuart Beel
(and PJ Holden)

By Stephen Daly

By Nulsh

You can meet Martin and Will at the Insomnia stand at BICS 2009

New Artist Signing

Today (just in time for blog news update) we signed up an artist I have been wanting to work with for some time, and waiting for the right project to come along.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Valia Kapadai.

Valia's work has already been in an Insomnia book, Layer Zero Choices, and she keeps up an incredible workrate with links to projects she is working on seeming to pop up every other day!

Valia will be working on Snow by Richard McAuliffe. We only had to see one page of sketches to know how perfect she would be for the story, nailing the look, mood and personality of the character right from the off.



More on this, and some previews very soon.

Valia and Richard will both be at BICS 2009, and we will have some limited stocks of Valia's mini comic on the stand as well.

Sharing the Love

Three loves to share this week:

• Michael Moreci has a prose noir short story Blurred Lines over on A Twist of Noir. You can also read more about the background on his blog.
  
  
• Adam R Grose has an ebook preview of Phoenix: A Warrior's Tale out for your reading pleasure. The book will be released through Clown Press on 13th of October. Described as an "an ‘onomatopoeia’ sequential graphic art novella , and illustrated by Tony Suleri it is something very different and well worth a look.
  
  
• The ever busy Geek Syndicate also have an ebook out, and this one includes sound and video! If you only know them from the podcast take a look and see what else they get up to, and find out more about the other parts of the expanding Geeky Syndicate Network.
  

And finally...

In our news snippets this week:

• You can catch me interviewed on Comic Racks this week. The Racks ladies Iz and Stace are both all kinds of awesome and made me really welcome.
  
  
• We are going to be at the London MCM Expo the 24th and 25th October, in the Comics Village section. More on this very soon.
  
  
• The Insomnia APA is taking shape nicely and is up at almost 70 pages now.
  

Phew - well, back to preparing for the events - we want to show you all a good time!

Buskers: First Look

This week we have a 15 page preview of Buskers to read to whet your appetite for the launch at BICS 2009 in a few short weeks.

The special signed limited convention edition that will be available from the Insomnia stand at BICS comes with a CD featuring music by the Bullitts.

If you are coming to the show and want to reserve one, then email us and let us know.

MILK Exhibition and Launch Party

The MILK exhibition in the at the Fine Art Library in Edinburgh starts this week and runs through the whole of September.

There will be the opportunity to buy some of the original artwork during the course of the show, although, of course, you won't be able to take it home until the exhibition has ended.

The gallery is open open 10-8 Mon- Thurs, 10-5 Fridays and 9-1 on Sat.

You can order the special edition hardback from amazon now!

News Round Up

Quite a few little snippets this week:

• Head over to Andrew Croskery's blog if you want to hear the real story of how Kronos city came about. Or if you want to see an artists impression of how colourist Lauren Anne Sharp thought it happened have a look at her page first.
  
  Kronos City is developing at a blistering pace. Here is a first look at a mysterious and dynamic page from chapter two.
  
  

• Jennie Gyllblad is back from her trip to Sweden and cracking on with Butterflies and Moths. Have a look at her blog to see her work in progress, a really expressive speedpaint and a splash page where you can even recognise the picture on the bathroom wall! What's more impressive is that Jennie's work is all real hand painted watercolours, so no "undo" button there.
  
  
• Cancertown artist Stephen Downey was pleased to find, to his complete surpise some Cancertown sketches from Northern Irish artist Darren Reynolds on his blog.
  
  Stephen says: "I love his interpretations and really hope to see them in person if he brings them along to the next Belfast comics creators meetup. I only really know Darren's art through his blog, but I love his style and really want to see more."
  
  
• Our podcasting friends from the Geek Syndicate Network (Including Insomnia writer Richard McAuliffe) are going to be featured in an upcoming prog of the Judge Dredd Megazine talking about their shows. It will be Rich and co-host Flint on "Everything Comes Back To 2000AD", Barry Nugent on "Geek Syndicate", Iz McAuliffe on "Comic Racks" and Jimmy Aquino on "Comic News Insider". They are not sure which prog number exactly yet, but it should be out in October / November.

That's all for this week, I'm off to enjoy the bank holiday and think about what the Disney take over of Marvel means for the industry!

All Aboard for Kronos City

The last week has been incredibly busy with 3 new books to get to press, and a trip to Birmingham to launch the first ever comics/quilting crossover (more on that later).

But we are not the only ones working hard. The first chapter of Kronos City (and much of the second) is now complete and in celebration of that fact we have put the first 16 pages up as a free ebook preview.

Writer: Andrew Croskery
Pencils: Alex Willmore
Colours: Lauren Anne Sharp
Letters: Jim Campbell

And here is what they have to say about seeing it all come together as a book for the first time:

Andrew says:

"I’ve really been enjoying writing Kronos City. It started off as one short story inspired by a throwaway comment from my housemate and then snowballed into a big story as it absorbed a couple of other ideas and characters and it’s been great being able to bounce ideas around the Kronos City team and have it all come together.

Alex, Lauren and Jim are doing a great job at the art and lettering. That first page is awe-inspiring and they’ve really made the characters and the city itself come alive.

My scripts can be pretty lengthy as my mind starts to spew details into the scene descriptions, and Alex and Lauren are amazing at capturing all the little background touches. There are some scenes coming up that I’m really exited to see how they come across on paper, particularly when the city gets hit by a time storm, and the poor wee pigeons get turned into skeletons and eggs.

Seeing the final coloured lettered pages has been truly staggering, with Lauren’s colours adding a great sense of atmosphere and Jim’s European style lettering fits really well with the art. And there’s a real buzz telling people I’m writing a graphic novel, so thank you Insomnia for that. This has just upped the excitement quotient by a large degree!!"

Alex says:

"Working on Andrew's script has been great fun so far! The world Andrew has created is surely an exciting and original one. When Lauren and I first read the script we were blown away by the diverse and original world of Kronos City and it's bizarre residents. Andrew's scripts are so insanely detailed that sometimes trying too fit everything into a frame can seem daunting but once that's been achieved it becomes apparent that all these small details make the city and characters really come alive!

Kronos City is the first graphic novel Lauren and I have worked on and it's been a real learning experience, I'm continually picking up on little ways to improve as I go along. It's also really useful that Lauren and I share a house as it makes the whole process a lot quicker and easier than if I had to send off my inked pages. Which is nice. Working on Kronos City is a real joy! Despite working on a number of other illustration jobs it's always Kronos City that I'm excited to drop everything and get stuck into! Cheers Insomnia!"

Lauren says:

"My favourite thing about Kronos City has to be the water. Working digitally makes life so much easier, especially with the 'edit-undo' function. However there's something so free and spontaneous about working traditionally in watercolour, so when it comes to the scenes viewed in the Kronos Water, it's fab. And luckily for me there is more of that to come!

I love being a colourist! Even when I find my role being compared to the activities of 3 year olds (sigh). Every day I see Alex painstakingly studying the correct angles and figures to get everything perfect. Colouring is such a relaxing thing for me. So thanks Insomnia for giving me a stress free job that I actually enjoy!"


Bad Rain Hits Birmingham

This weekend saw the unveiling of Bad Rain, the immense "double page bedspread" from Cancertown by the award winning maverick quilter and textile artist Ferret.



The finished piece is 90" by 70" (that is about 15 times the size of the original art, and half as long as me again!) so to see it for real was nothing short of incredible. People's mouth's were literally dropping open as they came around the corner in the gallery where it was hanging.

It makes the Badmouths at the front of the piece actual size, which is somehow very upsetting!

Seeing the scene done in fabric, scale aside, adds other interesting dimensions to the art. The tension of the thread against the different fabrics, and the fact that it is hanging up, cause slight ripples and fluctuations in the surface, which in turn cast different little shadows depending on the angle of viewing. This, combined with actual physical texture, really brings out the nasty, mutable, "everything's alive" quality of the Cancertown locations.

The reactions of the quilters at the show (The Festival of Quilts - think of it as the San Diego Comic Con equivalent for textile artists) were incredibly positive. We really had no idea how this kind of thing would be received by the traditional quilting world. It was not only the handful of existing comics readers who happened to be there who were into the work, either, and we found ourselves discussing magic realist horror noir with fascinated elderly ladies who had never read a comic (although they might now!) as much as the younger textile and fashion students who were around.

As always the fascinating conversations you find yourself in at art based event were wonderful, but I did particularly enjoy getting chatting to an American visitor about "needle based art" and the really quite short distance between textile art and tattooing (prompted by the fact that Ferret had some pieces done on leather and skins and also a huge quilted piece of the dragon from her own tattoo).

The Forbidden Planet blog has already suggested a Mega City One piece, and Tank Girl was also proposed by a visitor to the show. Ferret is keen on doing more comics based work, so keep an eye on her blog. If you're an artist or publisher interested in working with her, drop me a line and I can put you in touch.

We had copies of the book with us to show the origin of Bad Rain and not only did sales go into double figures, but 2 visitors had even seen Cy was going to be there and had brought along their own copies to be signed - which was not really what we expected at a quilting convention!

At dinner on the Saturday night I found myself sitting next to an incredible lady by the name of Jennie Bowker. Now, not being familar with the names of quilters I did not know that this was as if I was sitting next to the Alan Moore of this medium! In addition to doing great and very thought provoking work in fabrics, she is an amazing photographer, and, as it turns out a reader of graphic novels - so we had a great time talking about the power of comics and the expansion of the art form. She also taught me a great psychological experiment to do with drawing a cartoon face :)

Ferret will be updating her blog over the coming days with other work that was on display at the show including her dragon, the amazing Phoenix Rising and the nude portraits for which she very well known.

We are hoping to be able to get Bad Rain on show at BICS - watch this space.

Crawford Coutts Under The Spotlight

This week Crawford was interviewed by Bob Heske for his column Indie Creator on Invest Comics.

Find out about the past, the future and what comics he thinks would save us in the face of an alien invasion.

Sharing The Love

A message from Barry Nugent of The Geek Syndicate

Geek Syndicate meets Jonathan Ross!

In this special episode join Dave and Barry as they chat with celebrity geek and comics fan Jonathan Ross.

During the interview Jonathan tells the lads where his love for all things geek ,especially comics, started. He also reveals why he would never own a comics shop again.

Jonathan explains why is unable to attend comic conventions as much as he would like.

There's some talk about the adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick Ass that Jonathan's wife, Jane, is working on as well his view on comic to film adaptations.

Jonathan has his feet firmly placed in the Marvel comics camp. He explains why and shares some of his favourite creations. He also tells a very interesting story about his encounter with Steve Dikto.

The guys discuss with Jonathan why he decided to write his own comic. He reveals the title and gives us a few details on the project.

Enjoy!

So now I have lots of emails to read having been away for 4 days - and I know one of them contains the music files for the CD for the special edition of Buskers. More on that next time.

Until next week

Introducing Melanie Cook: Queen of Colours

Mel Cook was the first ever artist signed by Insomnia, for the cult teen sci-fi book Cages, described by horror master Ben Templesmith, no less, as "Lovely...lovely and disturbing".

Mel's soft, illustration style artwork set against the very adult issues of identity, power and freedom at the centre of the story, bring a haunting poignancy to the events of the book and, as good art should, add a deeper emotional complexity to the questions explored.

Appealing equally to readers of classic thought-provoking sci-fi and watchers of high concept anime the book was a fantastic first launch for Insomnia and was described as “Mother of a compelling read.” by Comics News.

It was this ability to bring out the psychological and emotional aspects of a script that made Mel the perfect choice for her next Insomia project, Cancertown, where the place is in many ways as much a character as the people that inhabit it. Bryan Talbot, in his foreword to the book, picks out the "atmospheric colouring" for a particular mention - and that is a man who knows his colour work.

Of course we weren't about to let Mel escape once Cancertown was done, and she is currently colouring Average Joe (by Thomas Romeo and Kelvin Chan) and has just begun work on The Indifference Engine (by Cy Dethan and Rob Carey).

And here it is, the very first peek at a panel from The Indifference Engine itself:


Then it will be back to Cancertown for Mel next year for Volume 2: Blasphemous Tumours.

And finally, at the risk of making her blush, it needs to be said how much Mel has also brought to the Insomnia family behind the scenes. Although incredibly busy with her books for us, work for other publishers, and projects in a whole variety of other media Mel has always been happy to take the time to offer help and advice to newer artists . She is pretty perfect, really, and a demon on Rockband, so I hear.

So, buckle your seatbelts for a trip inside the head of the talented Miss Melanie Cook...

Q:Tell us a bit about your artistic background (self taught, art education, experience etc) and how you got into working in comics.

A:I've always loved drawing and being creative. I was passionate about my art studies throughout highschool, but never managed to take my formal art education any further. Most of what I have learned post- highschool has been thanks to the bevy of wonderful resources available in print and online these days. That said, I also couldn't be where I was without the time spent studying cinematography and lighting at film school. It was actually thanks to film school that I first began working in comics. Cages writer Xander Bennett had seen the storyboarding I was doing for my cinematography projects and invited me to work on a comic pitch with him. I took him up on the offer and the rest was history.

Average Joe

Q:What does the job of a colourist involve?

A: At its most essential, the job of colourist involves working with colour and tone to create an atmosphere and mood that parallels the narrative. Practically speaking, this usually requires a fair amount of collaboration with the writer and artist, as well as a thorough breakdown of the script and some trial and error exploring various styles and techniques.

Q:How /where does a colourist fit into the team and what does the colouring bring to the finished pages and how do you accomplish this?

A:The colourist joins the production line once the pencils have been prepped for printing, either via traditional inking, digital inking, or a digital darkening of the pencils in a program like Photoshop. The colourist then works traditionally, or digitally in Photoshop or Painter, to build upon the guidelines established by the artist/inker.

Q:What is the process for colouring a page in technical terms, how long does it take, what tools or programs do you use?

A:When I first receive a page, I open it up in Photoshop to make sure it's saved in the right resolution and page size for printing. For comics printed in the US, those specs would be 6.875" by 10.438", and for the UK, 6.537” by 9.883”, both at 300dpi. If I'm working on an uninked page, my next step is to then clear up any pencil smudges or unwanted marks that might have been accidentally picked up by the scanner, and then digitally ink it if necessary. I find this process works best if I'm operating in grayscale mode, where I use a combination of Levels and manual selecting-cutting to eradicate unwanted lines. If inking is also required, I darken the pencil lines as best I can and fill solid areas of black with a simple lasso-select and fill technique.

Once the linework is ready and secure on its own channel, and the colourspace has been set up, it's time to start with the Flatting. I would liken Flatting to laying down the foundations for your soon-to-be coloured page. It basically involves manually selecting the different parts of the artwork and filling them with their solid base colours. Though an essential part of the process, it can be rather tedious and time-consuming and take between half an hour to an hour and a half or more depending on how detailed and busy the page is.



After the flats are in place it's finally time to commence colouring. The actual colouring of the page, where you go in and work out your tones and textures, can take anywhere from about two and a half hours to five or six, again depending on how involved the page is, and how much trial and error is needed. I usually commence colouring a page by roughing in my light and shadow in each panel, then building in the detail, adding textures and finally putting in any special effects or colour holds needed. Once the colouring is complete, all that's left is to separate the blacks, double-check your printing specs and upload it to the ftp server.



Q:How do you go about deciding on colour schemes, palettes etc ? I've heard it said that colourists are the cinematographers of the comics industry adding lots of additional information regarding context, feel, moods, psychological tone and setting, what do you think about that?

A:I would agree that there are elements of cinematography shared with colouring. But I believe the artist/inker to be as much a cinematographer as the colourist. Not only that, but it could be said that they share similarities with the position of production designer on a film set as well. Like a cinematographer, the artist/inker sets up the composition of the frame and provides guidlines for the mood and lighting. And in the role of production designer, the artist/inker creates the design of the mise-en-scene within each panel.

The colourist then works with the artist/inker's guidlines and uses colour to create the illusion of light within a panel. It's the role of the colourist to think practically about natural and artificial lighting, key-lighting and back-lighting, and the colour temperature of different light sources, as well as the emotional and psychological effects these colour choices might have on the reader. In addition to these cinematographical aspects, the colourist, like a production designer, makes conscious decisions about the colour of objects, places and people within the frame. He or she must ascertain how these components might work to influence the mood of the page and how they might detract or draw attention to key story elements within the panels.

Cages

Q: There are many pre-existing colouring conventions in comics (eg primary colours for 'good' characters), do you find you use these at all, are they helpful or restrictive?

A: Having entered into this field with very little prior knowledge of pre-existing conventions or norms, I'd have to say that they haven't really had much of a conscious effect on my work. Most of my colouring decisions and approaches have stemmed from colour theory in general and inspiration from the works of other artists.

Q: Has colouring become an entire art in itself now, rather than just a part of the production process, allowing the development of personal techniques and styles?

A:Indeed. And I think that it's largely thanks to the improvements and advancements being made with digital painting software, and the ease at which artists from any background and media can communicate via the internet. Colourists are able to work much more efficiently in programs such as Photoshop and Painter, giving them time to explore the vast array of tools, techniques and ideas at their disposal.


Q: What are the differences in doing 'full art' and colouring someone else's work? How do you deal with the different styles of underlying pencils, different tones of scripts etc?

A: Although I enjoy doing 'full art', it's been a wonderful learning experience working with someone else's work. There is less of an emotional investment when working with the linework of another artist, and I think that this frees the colourist up to take risks and really explore a page's potential.

It's also not uncommon for a colourist to receive the script around the same time as the penciller, so to be able to have access to the written visual cues from the beginning, and witness another artist's approach never fails to inspire me. It gives you an opportunity to get inside the head of another artist, to explore and examine their decision making, and should their style be considerably different from your own, you have a chance to approach colouring in a way you may not normally consider.

Cages

Q: What advice would you give for people wanting to become colourists?

Aside from just 'practice, practice, practice', there are a lot of wonderful books and forums out there to explore, which will certainly give any prospective colourist a better understanding of what the job entails.

The most helpful book for me so far has been Hi-Fi Color for Comics by Brian and Kristy Miller. It has some invaluable information about the technical side of colouring comics, such as page and printing specs, how to set up an efficient workflow, and creating cuts, grads and colour holds. Plus there's a bonus CD of goodies with things like lineart samples for you to start working on. Brian and Kristy Miller also have a second book coming out at the beginning of 2010 which takes colouring comics to the next level, and looks at different colouring styles for Manga, Superhero comics, covers etc.

In addition to this there are a number of forums you can go to where I'd recommend posting your work, getting feedback and finding advice from fellow colourists. The two main ones I can think of are Gutterzombie and Huedoo. The former is often frequented by colourist veterans Laura Martin and Dave McCaig, and the latter is run by Brian and Kristy Miller.

Q: Which artists and colourists do you admire and inspire you?

Laura Martin is certainly a colourist that stands out in my mind. Her work on Warren Ellis' Planetary was the first time I was ever consciously drawn to the colouring of a comic as much as, if not more than the artwork itself. Which is saying something, because John Cassaday is an amazing artist.

I also love Dave McCaig's work on Mark Waid's Birthright. You have to be a real master at cuts and grads to be able to use them in such a distinctive yet suitably understated way as he does. That particular colouring style stands up on its own, yet never draws so much attention to itself as to detract from the rather fine linework.

Outside of comic book colourists, I find I'm currently drawn to the amazingly hyper-real paintings of matte painters Dylan Cole, Dusso and Dan Wheaton, and a number of storyboard/concept artists and character designers, like Adrien Van Viersen, Dawood Marion, Brett Bean and James Paick.



Q: You also do work for film and television as a digital artist and storyboarder. Tell us about some of the projects you've worked on, and a bit about what is the same / different about working in these various media.

My film work has fallen more and more to the wayside as I've become more involved with illustrating and colouring comics, but I do still create the odd concept art and character designs here and there for various pitch projects. Probably the most notable project I've worked on was an Australian feature film called Crooked Business, where I was responsible for churning out storyboards for the 95 minute film. Aside from this I've also worked as storyboard artist on a number of short films, music videos and commercials, and created concept and character art for feature and television pitches. Nothing overly fancy, but it helps to pay the bills.

I think that the biggest similarity between my roles in film/tv and comics is the use of sequential imagery to tell a story. However, that's possibly where the similarities end.

With comics, the artwork is the end product, there is little else to consider other than the limitations of the page, and there is a great deal of freedom awarded to the artist because of this. With storyboarding on the other hand, the artwork is merely a small cog in a very large and complex machine.

When storyboarding a project, attempting to get story across quickly and visually is not your only major concern. You've also got to take into consideration how your shots might influence or be influenced by the production of the film. A storyboard artist needs to be aware of things like film lenses, camera limitations, budget limitations (most everything that's drawn needs to be recreated somehow on screen), and communicating necessary visual information to the various departments. It's a rewarding if not stressful process, but I much prefer the creative freedom offered while working in comics.



Q: Colours often look different on the printed page, to how they look on screen. How do you work around that?

A: Send hate mail to the Printers? No. That's a lie ... mostly. It is a big issue, and it's been said that you almost need a background working with commercial printers in order to really understand the mechanics behind the printing process. I can't say that it's something I've managed to satisfactorily work around yet, but I'm learning more about it as I witness more of my work being translated from monitor to printed page. At present I'm experimenting with working in Photoshop in RGB mode with WorkingCMYK (under View >> Proof Setup) turned on. Previously I merely worked in CMYK mode, but after doing some research and reading up on what a couple of veteren colourists have said, this current method seems to provide the most accurate depiction of what your colours will look like once printed. Or at least that's the plan. I'll let you know how it turns out when the next book comes out.


Q: What is the hardest thing about being a colourist?
A: Flatting? It's mind-numbing and I hate it. Seriously. No, but honestly, I'd probably say that all the technical learning involved with colouring digitally has been my biggest hurdle. I was never previously all that technically inclined, but I must admit, that once it's under your belt and you can get back to focussing on the creative aspect, the rewards are astronomical.

Cancertown Double Page Spread with Initial Colours

Cancertown Double Page Spread with Full Final Colours

Q: The story is now well known that when Xander Bennet asked you to do the art for Cages it was the first time you'd done a comics project of that length. How did you go about jumping into that, what did you learn from it, and was having the freedom to start from scratch and develop your own method liberating or terrifying?

A: It wasn't a small jump, I can say that. I think from memory I spent two months during my last year at university being force-fed comics by Xander. It was his way of introducing me to the medium. This was closely followed by an insane number of technical books on making comics and creating art digitally.

The whole process ended up being quite long and drawn out. I was trying to learn about the medium I was working in from scratch, as well as the tools I was working with, whilst simultaneously attempting to produce as professional a looking product as my meagre art skills would allow. Up until this point, all I'd really done was draw quick, crude storyboards in pencil which I didn't even ink.

So yeah, definitely more terrifying than liberating.

• Buy Cages from Amazon or use Diamond Order Code NOV085310
• Buy Cancertown from Amazon or use Diamond Order Code JUL091827.

You'll be able to find out more behind the scenes info on Mel's work in The Insomniac's Guide To Cancertown next year.

Who Wants To Be A Zombie?

Rich McAuliffe and Mark Chilcott, the slight unhinged creators of Damaged Goods, are currently on the prowl for victims...umm...I mean willing volunteers...to immortalise within the pages of the dark and twisted story The Bride.

All you need to do is send a photo of yourself doing your best zombie or victim expression.

Should you be one of the 3 that makes the cut (sorry, I tried to resist doing that, but I was weak) and be chosen as the model for either a zombie or a wedding guest then you'll appear in the story, get a full name credit in the book, have your original photo appear in the back matter and receive a free copy of the book.

Full details of how to enter can be found over on Rich McAuliffe's blog.

You can read Tea Party from Damaged Goods as a free preview on MyeBook to get an idea what you might be in for:

Sharing The Love

The next but one Accent UK anthology, Victoriana, will include a story from yet another Insomnia Supergroup. At this rate we're going to be able to play "Rock Family Trees" for the comics industry in no time!

Michael "Quarantine" Moreci has penned "Wolf Like Me" and art is in the capable hands of the Kronos Citizens Alex Willmore and Lauren Anne Sharp.

You can see a sample page over at Michael's blog.

Things are starting to gear up for BICS 2009 now...more news very soon.