This November, Mansion Comics will be publishing the very first story of Li’l Nauts in the children’s comics anthology Eggbert (also, it will be my very first published work!).

What is Li’l Nauts?

Li’l Nauts is a spinoff of the characters N-Man, Hypernaut and The Fury from 1963 and Tales of the Uncanny, running with the idea: what would these characters be like if they were all under 10 years old and living in suburbia? Similar to the spinoffs Tiny Titans, Mini-Marvels or Muppet Babies.

The result is a mash up of these modern superhero characters with the classic style of kids comics like John Stanley, Carl Barks and Dell Comics from the 1950s and 60s.

The amazing Jason Week joined me on this idea and with Steve Bissette’s support we created a series that could potentially expand into many many stories. We hope it will.

Check out the samples of Jason’s fantastic art below, and in the coming weeks I’ll explain the process behind the writing of the first 4-page story titled “Li’l Nauts: Hypertot at the Bat” — in which Hypertot struggles to learn the game of baseball — from script to finished page.

Enjoy!

Li’l Nauts™, The Fury™, N-Man™, The Hypernaut™ and Queep™ © and TM Stephen R. Bissette, by contractual arrangement with the original co-creator; all rights reserved. Li’l Nauts™ was created by Tim Stout and Jason Week; ©2011 Stephen R. Bissette, by contractual arrangement with the co-creators; all rights reserved.

Making a Literary Life

I told everyone that I would put Carolyn’s idea into practice for a month and then share the results with you. Well, as promised, I’m here to tell you the results of my little experiment. I hope you find it inspiring.

First of all, I have a disclaimer: I didn’t complete the challenge. I lasted only two weeks. I found that writing a Charming Note everyday is a part-time job and I didn’t do a good job at scheduling for it. The notes themselves took time – sometimes I wrote multiple drafts – and it improved the note to know what the recipient was currently up to, which required research.

Basically, I tried too hard to make them “good”.  If you’re going to start practicing Charming Notes, I recommend writing in an off-the-cuff style. You’ll get more done and feel more accomplished.

But, with that said, I did write 10 fan letters that I had wanted to write for a long time. I won’t go into whom I wrote to because most of them haven’t written back, but two people I admire did respond: Gene Luen Yang and Maile Meloy.

Maile Meloy was the first to respond. I wrote to her because I read one of her short stories in The New Yorker titled Red and Green. I read it while I was working as a videographer for local government meetings. The job was simple; all I had to do was keep the camera pointing on the person talking, so I often brought things to read. But when I read Maile’s story, I got so into it that I stopped paying attention to who was talking and left the camera pointed at the wrong person for a good five minutes! Whoops. Maile liked my little anecdote so much that she sent me a free copy of her short story collection, Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, which was one of the top 10 books of 2009 in The New York Times Book Review! How cool is that? We shared a few notes back and forth, and I now consider her part of my network.

I didn’t have a self-deprecating anecdote to share with Gene Yang so I simply told him how big a fan I am of American Born Chinese and how I looked forward to reading his next book, Level Up. He responded with a very pleasant and friendly email and we are now friends on Facebook. (BTW, Gene wrote five months after my initial Charming Note, so you never know when someone will respond.)

So, out of 10 cards, 2 responded. That’s a conversion rate of 20%. Not bad at all. My wife, Katherine, took part in the same experiment as I did (but she completed the challenge of going a whole month — good job, babe) and got the same conversion rate, 20%.

Have these results inspired me to continue with the Charming Notes? You bet! If I were able to make this a daily habit, like Carolyn suggests in her book, then after 365 days I’d have a relationship with roughly 70 new people, all of whom I admire.

This weekend, I’ll print up more greeting cards and get to work. (I’m using Katherine’s art on it, btw – I recommend you use your art as well, or your friend’s art. It can’t hurt to spread the word one note at a time.)

This time around, I’ll try to be more off-the-cuff and maybe in another six months I’ll have more numbers to report.

If any of you have tried the Charming Note practice, please let us know. I’d love to know your experience with it.

Lawrence of Arabia is based on a true story about T.E. Lawrence, an officer in the British army during World War I, who unites warring factions of the Arab people against a common and formidable enemy, the Turks. He inspires them with the promise of an independent nation (freedom) and risks his life on the battlefield again and again for the Arab people and for the value of freedom.

Does this sound like another story?

Perhaps Braveheart, which chronicles the true story of William Wallace as he unites warring factions of the Scottish people against a common and formidable enemy, the British. He inspires them with the promise of an independent Scottish nation (freedom) and risks his life on the battlefield again and again for the Arab– sorry, Scottish people and for the value of freedom.

Or perhaps Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which is the totally 100% true story of the chimpanzee, Cesar, who unites warring factions of monkeys against a common and formidable enemy, the humans, and leads them in battle to ultimately gain freedom in the redwoods of Northern California.

Or perhaps it sounds like the story of Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Spiderman, Erin Brockovich, or Harvey Milk.

To tell the story of a Legendary Hero, the hero must try to unite warring factions of a particular group of people against a common enemy with the promise of freedom. Freedom from what, and where/how the war is fought is to be determined by the circumstances of your story.

Of course, freedom doesn’t come easily, especially for the leader. The road to becoming a Legendary Hero is fraught with costs.

In Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence goes from being bright and idealistic in the beginning to risking not only his life, but also his sanity, his soul, and his belief that man can do good in this world, especially when he is betrayed by both the Arab people (the people he was helping) and his army superiors. He returns home, disillusioned and bitter.

In Braveheart, William Wallace is betrayed by his fellow Scots (the people he was helping) and sentenced to death. Also, his motivations for freedom (as it is told in the movie) where wrapped around the guilt he carries for not being there to save his wife, Murron.

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Cesar’s fellow apes do not betray him (…yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how the sequel starts) but Cesar does have to say goodbye to the human family he loves and make a new home.

Spiderman carries the guilt of his uncle Ben’s death, has a screwed up personal life, and is betrayed when the people he tries to help label him a criminal and prevent him from helping them.

Erin Brockovich and Harvey Milk lose their home life to the cause they serve.

Jesus is betrayed and sentenced to death and just imagine the home life he must’ve had!

You get the idea.

So what’s the pattern again?

-    A leader
-    unites warring factions
-    against a common and formidable enemy
-    for the goal of freedom
-    and deals with the consequences.

Here’s hoping your next hero is worthy of a legend.

So, here we go!

Recently, I gave a lecture at The Center for Cartoon Studies Summer Workshop introducing the very basics of three-act story structure.

Since the majority of students were entirely new to the idea of story structure and the rest of the week’s curriculum focused on creating comics that were no longer than one page in length, I knew the graphic novel approach I usually take on my blog wouldn’t work.

So, I developed a lecture on how three-act story structure is present in stories no longer than 4 pages, including daily comic strips.

In just three to four comic panels, you can utilize three-act structure to tell a story. If there’s conflict and a character reacting to that conflict then you’ve got a story and that can easily fit within three or four comic panels.

Here’s the breakdown I used to discuss three-act story structure in the lecture:

Act 1 is the “Beginning”, where information is setup to provide CONTEXT for the story.

Act 2 is the “Middle”, where characters attempt to achieve GOALS and encounter CONFLICT.

Act 3 is the “End”, where there is a RESOLUTION to the CONFLICT and our character’s character is revealed.

Panel 1 (yellow) is Act 1. It provides the CONTEXT for the strip, answering the 5W’s: Where, When, Who, What and Why.

In this example (Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson), the CONTEXT (5W’s) for the strip is:

• Where are we? A white space. We may be inside or we may be outside, it doesn’t matter. The rest of the strip should make sense without that information. (If it doesn’t make sense, then Bill should have clarified).
• When are we? Day or night is not specified, so it shouldn’t matter for the rest of the strip to make sense. (But it is set post-1932. How do we know that? The character is playing Superman, who was created in 1932.)
• Who is involved? A kid. We know his name is Calvin from the title of the strip, Calvin & Hobbes, but within the CONTEXT of Panel 1, it doesn’t matter. All we really need to know is that the character is a kid who plays pretend.
• What are they doing (their GOAL)? Playing Superman. And we know that by the use of Superman’s trademark line “Up, up and away!” along with the cape.
• & Why are they doing that? Probably because playing Superman is fun.

Now that the CONTEXT has been established, we want to see the character attempt to achieve a GOAL and face CONFLICT in Act 2.

Panel 2 (blue) shows the character trying to achieve their GOAL – the WHAT from Panel 1 put into action. It can also be called the PREMISE of the strip.

Using the same example, Calvin’s GOAL is to play Superman, so in Panel 2 we get to see Calvin doing just that: playing Superman.

But there is no story without a problem. So, there must be CONFLICT. Something (a person, a thing, fate, or a force of nature) must CONFLICT with the character’s GOAL.

This CONFLICT brings the potential DEATH OF THE PREMISE.

In Panel 3 (red), gravity prevents Calvin from flying (CONFLICT). Will this be the DEATH of playing Superman?!

NO! Calvin continues to play Superman despite the reality of his situation, thus revealing something about his character.

Character is revealed through conflict and Panel 4 (green) is where we get to see that.

Panel 4 is the RESOLUTION of the CONFLICT, and that RESOLUTION lets the reader know something about your character.

This is where you get to show how your character behaves or thinks. In a well-written comic strip, it results in something funny or unexpected.

Calvin has every reason to give up pretending to be Superman but he refuses and improvs his way back into play. Why? Because play is more fun than reality (and if you’ve read Calvin & Hobbes, you’ll know just how true that is for Calvin).

Here’s another Calvin & Hobbes example:

Panel 1 [Act 1] – CONTEXT (5W’s):

• Where are we? A white space.
• When are we? Day or night is not specified, but it is set after those bubble bottles were created and mass-marketed for kids.
• Who is involved? Calvin.
• What are they doing (their GOAL)? Blowing a bubble.
• & Why are they doing that? Blowing bubbles is fun?

Panel 2 [Act 2.1] – GOAL (WHAT in action. The PREMISE): Calvin blows a bubble.

Panel 3 [Act 2.2] – CONFLICT (DEATH OF THE PREMISE): Calvin is stopped in blowing a bubble. Is this the DEATH of blowing bubbles?

Panel 4 [Act 3] – RESOLUTION: Yes. Calvin’s reaction to what happened reveals his character.

THE END!

The best part about Panel 4 is that different characters can provide a totally different outcome or joke from the same PREMISE.

Here’s an example of a Nancy strip by Ernie Bushmiller (notice how Nancy’s reaction to the DEATH OF THE PREMISE provides an entirely different joke):

Panel 1 [Act 1 and 2.1] – CONTEXT (5W’s) & GOAL:

• Where are we? Outside a store.
• When are we? Daytime.
• Who is involved? Nancy.
• What are they doing (their GOAL)? Blowing a bubble.
• & Why are they doing that? Blowing bubbles is fun?
• GOAL (WHAT in action. The PREMISE): Nancy blows a bubble.

Panel 2 [Act 2.2] – CONFLICT (DEATH OF THE PREMISE): Nancy is stopped in blowing a bubble. Is this the DEATH of blowing bubbles?

Panel 3 [Act 3] – RESOLUTION: Yes. Nancy’s reaction to what happened reveals her character.

THE END!

So, when writing your own comic strips, keep this breakdown in mind and use Panel 4 to show the reader what makes your character interesting, funny or unique.

I hope that helps!

And soon, Nook. (UPDATE: Now on Nook, too!)

Since I know very little about html coding, I used a template at kindletemplate.com to design the book in Open Office. It was so easy to learn that I designed my book for both Kindle and Nook at the same time and had them uploaded within a few hours.

One day later, Short Notes was available on Kindle and 24-72 hours from now the same will be true for Nook. Piece of cake.

Feel free to download a sample of Short Notes and let me know what you think of it. I look forward to hearing your responses!

Sure. But be aware that story consulting is a service, and work-for-hire contracts are technically moot when applied to a service. So, sure, I’ll sign it. But do you really want me to?

If you don’t know, work-for-hire is a term referring to work done for a flat fee. The worker retains no rights (copyright, trademark, film rights, publishing rights, licensing rights, etc.). No royalties are expected. No salary. No benefits. The employer doesn’t even have to give you credit for the work you do. Just the flat fee and that’s it.

It’s simple and black-and-white. Employers love it. And sometimes it’s great for the worker as well because they just want a quick job, a little cash and minimal mess. In this way, work-for-hire can be a really great thing.

The trouble starts when work-for-hire is used outside of its intended purpose.

Employers are only supposed to use work-for-hire when it fits within 9 criteria:

1. Contribution to a collective work (like a magazine or encyclopedia – individual parts collected to make a whole),

2. Contribution to motion picture,

3. Supplementary work (like a map) contributed to a work by another author,

4. A compilation (new arrangement of preexisting works),

5. A translation,

6. An atlas,

7. A test,

8. Answer materials for a test, and

9. An instructional text.

(Taken from Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, edition 13, page 32-33.)

Unfortunately, because work-for-hire is so black-and-white (for a single flat fee, the employer owns everything), employers want to apply work-for-hire to anything and everything, including story consulting.

I’ve had a number of potential clients ask me if I’ll sign a work-for-hire agreement for my story consulting services. In those moments I have a dilemma because consulting cannot be defined as work-for-hire. It’s a service.

A friend of mine gave a good analogy: “Asking a consultant to sign a work-for-hire agreement is like telling a plumber, ‘I still own the pipes when you’re done.’ Of course you still own the pipes! The plumber is there to fix a leak, nothing else.”

If I were to sign, the agreement would be determined moot. But if I don’t sign it and offer a proper contract for a consulting service then the client gets confused (usually because their lawyers advised work-for-hire), or worse, upset. I’ve lost jobs because of it.

So, do I sign the contract and know that it means nothing? Or do I do the right thing and give an alternative option to the client that is legally binding?

The only work-for-hire contracts that won’t be determined moot in a court of law when applied to a service are the contracts that have a sentence like this:

If for any reason the results and proceeds of the services are determined at any time not to be a work for hire, the Worker hereby transfers and assigns to Employer all right, title and interest therein, including all copyrights…blah blah blah.

The above can be translated as:

Even if this work isn’t work-for-hire, you agree that it is.

(The sample was taken from a sample work-for-hire contract. And, here’s the kicker, it was for film work, which already is work-for-hire. See how eager lawyers are to protect everything under work-for-hire?)

So, will I sign a work-for-hire agreement? Sure. The advice I give is entirely in reaction to my client’s work. I don’t own the work that I react to, and in the contract I provide I make it clear that my clients own their expression of the ideas I share with them (the expression of the idea is the only thing someone can own, anyway).

The real question is: Do you want me to sign a work-for-hire agreement? Probably not.

The Writers Journey

The Writer’s Journey (now in its third edition) is essentially a laymen’s version of The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. It simplifies Campbell’s dense writings about world myths and The Hero’s Journey for the modern day writer using examples like The Wizard of Oz and Hitchcock films.

I didn’t think The Writer’s Journey was so great when I first read it. There is a lot of story theory in this book (A LOT) and it discusses multiple paths writers have within each given section of The Hero’s Journey, so it is really easy to get overwhelmed with information.

But now I realize what I was doing wrong:

I started at the beginning and read it like a normal book! I don’t recommend that.

Instead, I recommend what I did this time around because it has really worked and invigorated my creativity as opposed to bored me to tears:

I had a project in mind that had a beginning, middle and an end, but the middle was weak. I wanted help flushing it out. So I grabbed The Writer’s Journey off the shelf just to give it a try. By having a specific project in mind, I was able to use the many options Vogler offers as prompts and discern which path my story wants to go down. Instead of being overwhelmed by theory I was selecting from my many options as it applies to my specific project, which is much more empowering for me as a writer and my story is ten times stronger than it was before.

The first few times I read The Writer’s Journey, it was like I was shopping for jeans by looking at all the options and imagining which pair would look good. This time, I tried on the jeans and found a pair I like.

Don’t read this book. Use it.

I hope that helps!

I made the mistake of not clarifying that point a few weeks ago and almost had the limbs torn from my body by irate female storytellers. 

I was sharing a nice dinner with a few friends and we were discussing the most recent Academy Awards. One of my friends, a woman, mentioned that she was glad to see the Academy nominate Jennifer Lawrence from Winter’s Bone for Best Lead Actress, claiming that it was rare to see such a tough female character be the focus of a film and be praised for it.

Here’s where I made the mistake by saying, “She was probably nominated because her character has a Male Character Arc.” It was amazing to see how fast the party went from pleasant to Let’s-Skin-Tim.

The Male Character Arc charts the growth of a character whose heart is too hard in the beginning, while a Female Character Arc charts the growth of a character whose heart is too soft. By the end, the character has learned (or at least is starting to learn) how to have a more balanced emotional life.

Like I said earlier, male characters are typically given Male Character Arcs and vise versa, so when you give a female character a Male Character Arc, or a male character a Female Character Arc, you are essentially playing against type — meaning, what the mass public is used to. It’s difficult to do but if you’re able to pull it off you can have characters as rich as Ripley from Alien (Male Character Arc) or Lester Burnham from American Beauty (Female Character Arc), and not surprisingly, these characters are often nominated for Academy Awards – which is why I said what I said at the party.

• Ripley of the Alien franchise has a hard heart. In each story, she must learn a deeper and deeper sense of what it means to be a compassionate person. That’s why at the beginning of Alien, Ripley won’t let an injured man back onboard the ship (lacking compassion) and in the end she risks her life to save a cat (starting to learn compassion).
• Jennifer Lawrence’s character, Ree, from Winter’s Bone hates her father (a hard heart), but through the ordeals she experiences she learns to soften her opinion of those she initially hated.
• Lester Burnham from American Beauty lives a passive life without risk or involvement. As he says in the beginning, he feels “sedated” (too soft). The rest of the story documents how he learns to grow a spine and live life the way he wants to.
• Po from Kung Fu Panda has a Female Character Arc, growing from a fanboy who doesn’t believe in himself (low confidence, too soft) into the Dragon Warrior (higher confidence).

Why are they named Male/Female Character Arc? I don’t know. I assume it’s because, stereotypically, males embody hard characteristics and females embody soft characteristics. It would probably be less confusing to have different names like the “Hard-Hearted Character Arc” and the “Soft-Hearted Character Arc,” but that’s just what they’re called. (If anyone knows of better names I’d gladly adopt them.)

A really interesting difference between the two character arcs is that characters of the Male Character Arc generally do not know they are too hard-hearted but characters of the Female Character Arc do know they are too soft.

Characters with a Male Character Arc stubbornly try to face their story’s problems in the hard-hearted way they are comfortable with until life will no longer allow them to carry on without changing (usually by the end of act two).

Die Hard is like this. Bruce Willis plays a husband who is too hard to say “I’m sorry” to his wife. It takes a band of international thieves, bombs and bleeding feet to make Bruce say “I’m sorry,” but even when he finally does, he doesn’t say it directly to his wife, he tells his buddy to tell her. But at least he’s learning.

The Female Character Arc, however, tends to follow a character who knows by the end of act one that they need to change. Being too soft isn’t helping them live their life. They have to get tough. But life and society are not going to make it easy for them to do that.

Kathleen Turner has this type of Character Arc in Romancing the Stone. She lives a sheltered life, desperate for a man to love her. But once her sister is kidnapped and held for ransom, Kathleen must get tough to save her. Along the difficult and dangerous way, she learns how capable she is and that she doesn’t need a man, she just has to love herself.

If you want to learn more about the Male and Female Character Arcs, I’d check out 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt.

I claimed that the comic he published, Kindle Comics, couldn’t be making money due to the $.15/MB fee that Amazon charges per download, but he told me his comic is making money and he hasn’t seen any sign of being charged this fee at all. This got us talking and I decided to share our conversation on my blog.

I was really excited to hear about his experiences with digital publishing. If publishing comics on Kindle is a viable option for making at least a little bit of money with our comics, I wanted share that with others and get more comics out to readers.

Okay, here’s the Q&A…

TIM STOUT (TS): Thanks for agreeing to do this Q&A, Chuck. I’m very excited to learn more about e-publishing comics through Kindle from someone who is actually doing so. To start us off, could you give us your background in comics and what inspired you to start publishing on Kindle?

CHUCK AUSTEN (CA): I worked for a number of years, on and off, as a writer, inker, and/or artist in mainstream and independent comics. I’ve done everything from X-Men, to Superman, to Badger, to self-published and adult comics. I got out of the comics business about seven years ago and went back into television animation. I’ve created a series, storyboarded, directed and done some writing for various things, including King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show.

Novels, though, have always been real passion for me. I’m an avid reader and love books, so writing prose has always been a secret desire. I got into the Kindle because a good friend of mine, Allan Jacobsen, suggested I do an illustrated novel as a way to get myself moving in that direction, while possibly giving some added value to the book. I had some down time so I wrote a story that had been festering in my imagination for a number of years. It’s called Like Warm Sun on Nekkid Bottoms, and it’s about a minister, a stripper, a comic collector and a clothing executive who get trapped in a nudist resort. Yes, it’s a realistic, heart-warming drama. (laughs)

I actually published it first at LuLu, and got a few sales there, but mostly I got a book I could show my friends. Then my wife bought me a Kindle 1 when it first came out, and I was hooked in all ways. I immediately saw the future of reading. Digital, hand-held. I’d always believed that was the direction. There had been e-readers before. But Amazon support, thousands of potential books, paper-like reading—Kindle was it, for me. Since Nekkid Bottoms was already digital, in that I wrote it in Word, I just did some research and formatted it appropriately, then loaded it into the Digital Text Platform. It was relatively easy. I think it took me a week to get it right. Comics are even easier. I wasn’t looking to make money. I was just looking to get it out there. Making money was a bonus.

TS: How were comics easier? What did you do to format the file?

CA: If comics are created as single images for a Kindle screen at Kindle resolution all you have to do is load them into an HTML file in Dreamweaver, or some other similar program. Then save the HTML file, put it and the image files (jpg’s or gifs) into a folder and zip them together. Boom, you’re done. You upload that zip file to Amazon’s DTP, and that’s it. The Kindle knows each screen-sized image is a ‘page’ and automatically formats it accordingly.

Text is more difficult because of formatting, font-sizes, and porting the material from whatever word processor you used into the HTML program. There are ‘cruncher’ programs like Calibre or Smashwords that will do it for you, but the formatting is sometimes less than elegant. I’m a perfectionist, so I spend more time on text.

TS: We started talking when I got my facts wrong for my post Why Kindle Has No Comics (and I’m very glad we’re talking now so I can clear that up). I said that since Amazon charges $.15 per MB for each download, your comic, Kindle Comics, couldn’t be making money with a $1.69 price. In fact, by the math, Kindle Comics would be losing money. You said that’s incorrect and you are making money on Kindle Comics. How was I wrong?

CA: I’m not sure you were wrong (laughs). Amazon may have those policies, but are just taking pity on me. I don’t know. I haven’t looked into it, yet. Or maybe I’m losing money and reading it wrong (laughs). But I seem to be making a few bucks on it, so it doesn’t seem to be a losing proposition yet. I get a notice every month, and every month it seems to be a net gain, not a loss.

Over the course of a year I’ve made more money on that than I did on my last self-published venture through comic shops, in traditional print, pamphlet form. In a sense, independent publishers can’t NOT make more money than they do in comic shops. Most publishers lose money on pamphlet comics. I did on Worldwatch. They hope to make it up on the graphic novels. But that’s assuming you can afford to bankroll the loss until that point. I couldn’t. On Kindle, there’s no printing cost, no distribution fee…and Amazon stores the files indefinitely. It’s not a collectible market, it’s a readers market, and that scares some people. It’s a different approach.

TS: Well, that’s great! I’m very glad to hear we can make money on our comics through Kindle. Under further investigation, I’ve read that some people are charged and some are not. Even Publisher’s Weekly is confused. Have you been charged the $.15/MB fee for Nekkid Bottoms?

CA: At the moment I’m not being charged. I’m going to adjust my pricing, though. Just to be safe. I may just be lower on the list.

TS: What titles have you published for Kindle, thus far and what has been the response from readers?

CA: Like Warm Sun on Nekkid Bottoms, which has done far better than I ever dreamed it could. It’s gotten four out of five stars at Amazon and sold remarkably well for something with no history, no name writer, and no promotion. And Kindle Comics, which was a favor for a friend, which doesn’t sell big numbers, but it’s consistent. I’m working on two more novels right now, as well as helping other friends get their work up there, either through me, or showing them how to do it themselves. I truly believe it’s the future of publishing.

TS: You had an earlier online publishing experiment with www.e-spinnerrack.com . What was your experience with that and how did it influence your decision to try Kindle?

CA: Well, that was mostly a test. A proof of concept for a new approach to comics specifically designed for digital platforms. It showed people what we’d been talking about, in as much as you can’t take a comic and squeeze it into a Kindle, or e-reader, or onto the internet. You need to consider the pluses and minuses of the new technology and use them to your advantage while still making it a ‘reading’ experience, unlike ‘motion-comics’. So it worked in that sense, but when people are used to one approach—in this case print—they’re surprisingly resistant to new approaches. So it failed to get people to move over to new ways of thinking.

TS: Have you considered turning those comics into apps for the iPad?

CA: Yes, we’ve considered converting them, but I think we need to rethink the process. We’re one-man operations, John and I. Or three men and one woman. It’s small-time, really, and with limited creative resources we want to put the best ideas first. Are superheroes the best thing for Kindle? I’m not sure. Should things follow traditional print genres? Romance, detective, sci-fi? This is a different market. I think shoehorning superheroes into it might not be the best use of time. Fantasy is more likely a better fit. Romance. Comedy. My webcomic, Kirby and Me, for example, would be a better fit. Time spent on one idea is time not spent on another. Worldwatch takes from Kirby and Me, and do I want that?

It’s a question I’ve long wondered about, and I think only by doing it—testing various ideas out—will we discover the best approach. I’ve actually been doing digital comics and content for years. Mark Badger first did digital comics by making them Quicktime files you ‘stepped’ through. Some friends of mine and I worked on something called Mindstorm many years back using software especially for that project, and then John Eddings—a fellow animator—and I put together e-spinnerrack about five years ago, mostly as a test to see how we could approach a reading experience with digital technology. Those were all done in Flash. Some other program might be better, especially for iPad and iPhone with their finger-flip, ‘page’ turning.

The different approach for comics also means additional work unless it’s designed specifically FOR the new readers. Comics pages can’t be translated straight to Kindle. The screen resolution is too low for easy reading. iPad works better, but even then, it needs to be re-thought. Why continue doing traditional pages when you’re not limited by print signatures anymore? When you have access to sound, and music? A newer approach is called for, I think, than simply porting one format over to another.

So we’ll be doing something, but those specific comics? Not sure, yet. I’ll know in a month or two.

TS: What advice would you give to those thinking about publishing their comics to Kindle?

CA: Do it. Period. Right now it’s a no-lose proposition. It costs nothing other than your time, which most people have already invested, and you might get something out of it. Who knows? You could be the next Amanda Hocking.

TS: What are your future goals with e-publishing?

CA: At the moment, keep publishing my novels. Maybe some comics. Definitely look into Kindle Comics and see if it’s costing me money! Maybe do an upgrade. It was created when Kindle 1 was still the only Kindle. It needs an updating if it’s going to stay available. I make a good living in animation, so right now it’s a fun hobby that more than pays for itself.

But in the future? It would be great to publish full-time, comics, animation and novels—whatever interesting hybrids this new tech allows. That’s the dream goal.

TS: Thanks, Chuck!

CA: Your welcome, Tim.

People often ask me that because they have a script that hasn’t sold and they don’t know what to do with it. For whatever reason Hollywood studios have passed on it (not necessarily for a good reason, mind you), and the writer’s agent or friend has comforted the writer by saying, “Maybe it would make a good graphic novel.”

That’s a great idea! The writer feels like the project has a second life. They feel liberated from the Hollywood gatekeepers. Their script will become a graphic novel and everyone will love it and Hollywood will pay a million dollars for the film rights and the writer will blow raspberries at everyone who didn’t believe in their project at the beginning. Ha!

There’s only one problem: the writer doesn’t know anything about the process of making a graphic novel. So, they come to me asking, “Could my screenplay make a good graphic novel?”

Let me answer everyone who could possibly ask that question by saying a graphic novel can tell any story that film can (utilizing its own strengths, of course), so, yes, a good screenplay could be adapted into a good graphic novel. But the real question is:

Do you really want to make your screenplay as a graphic novel in the first place?

When thinking about adapting your screenplay into a graphic novel, here are a few (potentially sobering) things to consider before jumping in:

1. Changing mediums will not save a poorly written story.

If studios, agents, directors and film stars all turned down your script, it’s likely your script isn’t very good and needs to be rewritten. Publishers are sent hundreds of scripts a week that have been tossed at them as though the graphic novel industry should be grateful for Hollywood’s rejects. Don’t join the trend. If the story stinks the medium won’t change that. Take the time to make the story good.

Do you have beta readers (a group of fellow writers and readers who give you tough-but-fair notes about your story before you send it out)? If you don’t have beta readers, get some. If your beta readers said “good script” and everyone else said “this stinks,” get new beta readers.

Send your script to story consultants. Often, they are the best beta readers you can get because many have industry and/or writing backgrounds, they aren’t biased to you (friends and family can make terrible beta readers because they are too nice), and they are skilled at giving notes in a constructive way. If you can afford it, try three different consultants and see who you like to work with. Who tried the hardest to help you? Who improved the script the most? (Shameless plug: Graphic Novel Story Consulting.)

Making the story great will take time, which can be a bummer, especially if you’ve been working on something for a long time already. But switching mediums won’t make things go faster, in fact it’ll take just as long if not longer.

2. It usually takes more time to make a graphic novel than it does to make a film.

How is that possible? Drawing can’t take that long.

Oh yeah? Consider this: DC can get a 32-page comics done in a month, which is often 20-22 pages of comics with 10-12 pages of ads. So, lets say 20 pages a month, and that’s usually starting with a script that was written the month before.

“Okay,” you say, “if my graphic novel is 200 pages, it can be done in 10 months. That’s doable.” But also be aware that a single DC issue has a separate penciler, inker, colorist and letterer and there is typically little to no time for revisions. Artists are often left to make decisions about the final product that are completely independent of the writer. So, if you want to make revisions, or be involved in the creation of the final product, it’ll take more time.

If you have signed with a publisher, then once the content of the book is done (which, depending on how many artists are assigned to your project, can take 1-4 years, if not more), it will still be a year before it hits shelves in order to print the books and maximize the marketing campaign.

If you have not signed a deal with a publisher, then your graphic novel has become a vanity project. You are now the boss. DC can pressure their artists to meet their deadlines for low pay because they’re DC and the artists’ work will be seen by many readers. You are most likely not as big as DC. Because of that, you will need to be more flexible with your schedule and offer better pay to compete for good artists, which brings us to…

3. Producing a graphic novel costs thousands of dollars.

How are you going to pay a penciler, inker and colorist to complete 200 pages? If you’re about to say, “They’ll do it for the experience,” you need to wake up. You’re not going to get a team and definitely not professional quality art for free. If you offer that, you’ll get someone who doesn’t draw well and/or doesn’t know what they’re signing up for (and will leave your project as soon as he/she realizes how much work they are doing for free — or at least, they should).

“Okay, okay,” you say, “So, how much does it cost to have freelance professionals pencil, ink and color 200 pages?” The 13th edition of the Graphic Artists Guild’s Handbook Pricing and Ethical Guidelines says freelance pricing is:

Pencils: $100-400 per page

Inks: $75-300 per page

Colors: $100-150 per page

So, at your lowest, a single page (with separate artists or all three tasks done by one artist) = $275.

$275 x 200 pages = $55,000!

And that’s the low end of the scale. The high end costs $850/page (x 200 = $170,000!!!).

“That’s crazy,” you say. “Publishers don’t pay that much.” You’re right, but publishers also offer royalties, shelf space in bookstores and brand recognition. And if the publisher is as big as DC or Marvel, the artists’ work will be seen by thousands, if not millions of loyal readers (not to mention artists can sell their original pages to DC and Marvel collectors for more money).

If you are not going to pay the going rates, what do you have to offer? If the artist(s) love the story, they may do it for less money (see #1 again). What else?

To summarize: Make the story great. Know that it will take time. Make friends with editors and publishers at conventions. Send them your script and see if they’ll buy it. If they don’t and you still want to do it, start saving money, fundraising, or learning how to draw.

It can be done. And if Hollywood was dumb enough to pass on your awesome script, I want to see it as a graphic novel. But, the question is: Do you want to?

I hope that helps.