I'm on Warren Ellis' email newsletter"bad signal" and this was pretty interesting
"Some months ago, it occurred to me
that it'd be possible to do a monthly
anthology book in the Image Slimline
format, which we used to call the
FELL format. 20pp of guts, plus
covers, USD $1.99, yes? I conceived
it on the assumption that it'd be
done at an Image-like company
where there are no advance payments
and all the money comes on the back
end, hence the particular structure
I envisaged. Which is:
1
5
1
5
1
5
1
+ 1 cover
wherein the 5s are five-page stories
or chapters, and the 1s are one-page
pieces. With each of the 5s done by
a different artist, and the 1s plus
the cover done by another single
artist. Hence, one writer and four
artists. Which makes it easy to
carve up the back end - 20% for
each of the five contributors.
(Because, trust me, you don't want
to involve comics publishers in
complicated splits. I don't have time
for all my personal examples of
such. Just trust me and move on.)
This structure leaves one page of
the guts and the inside back cover
loose for whatever you feel like.
It doesn't declare what any of the
units should do. Ultrashort stories,
serial chapters, something equivalent
to Brendan McCarthy's Artoons...
Whatever.
I know exactly what I'd do with it,
personally. But I'm never going to
get the time to do it. So I throw the
idea out there to all of you. An
affordable, easy-to-assemble
anthology format where, for
each artist, the whole monthly
commitment is 5 pages. Obviously,
it'd be a bit of a monster for the
writer. But that's what we do, right?
It doesn't solve everyone's problems
with the anthology format, of
course. But it means taking a chance
on a new anthology title is only
costing you some pocket change.
Which is a big hurdle taken care of
right there.
Not huge chunks of story, for a
monthly anthology, of course --
but then, neither were WARRIOR
or STRANGE DAYS, in the course of
things. And if you're going to aim,
aim high...
Anyway. I throw this idea out for
your consideration, since I don't
have time to operate it. This product
is freeware and not supported.
There is no help system. Buyer
beware."
maybe scrap the one pagers and put in some adds. it can be done.
Every few months or so i go through my Alex Toth craze and become amazed at how incredible an artist he really was. And whenever i go through a new search of his work, theres tons of stuff I've never even seen before, which just goes to show the enormous amount of work he was able to produce in his lifetime. This piece i recently came across and was blown away by it. The way he's able to get body language, realistic shadows and action across simply with the use of whatever was lying around(sharpies, pens, brushes,ect.) is something you don't see too often. If you haven't already seen this one before, enjoy! Wow, I guess I'm officially a member of artburn now!
