Currently, the comic book market is almost entirely driven by the trade paperback. Usually a collected volume reprinting groups of single issues (or “floppies,” as they are starting to be called), trade paperbacks emerged in the mid-1980s as a way to get popular comics material into the coveted book store market, as well as make out of print material available to new readers.

Two of the most successful trade paperbacks of all time are without a doubt Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, partly because they were new and much talked about series at the time when comics were starting to hit the book stores, but mostly because in both cases the single issues were written as chapters of a larger work rather than individual stories. Before long, comics creators began planning their material in four to six issue story arcs, with the inevitable trade paperback firmly in mind.

For the most part, this development has been a positive one, allowing for more sophisticated and challenging material to be presented, and more importantly, giving comics a much longer shelf life than they had previously enjoyed on the newsstand, where last month’s issue would be taken off the shelves as soon as the new one came out, and if you missed it you were just out of luck.

The trade paperback has been so successful in transforming the comics industry that for several years now the future of the monthly comic book has been in serious doubt. More and more, comics fans will wait for the trade paperback rather than buy single issues – that way they get a complete story that fits neatly on a bookshelf, and avoid many of the headaches associated with collecting and storing comic books.

Many have argued that the future for monthly comics lies on the internet, but that’s only partially true. There is a thriving web comics community out there, but studies have shown that internet users are unwilling to read more than a few pages of material while sitting at their computers. For the most part web comics have taken their cues from newspaper strips, with comics, usually no more than a page long and frequently relying on a humorous punchline, casts of recurring characters, and revenue generated primarily from secondary merchandise such as t-shirts and coffee cups.

The iPhone, iPad, Kindle, and the inevitable slew of aftermarket imitations are currently changing the face of publishing in general, and comics publishers are taking their first timid steps into this new market. So far, they are using electronic delivery mainly as a way to promote their printed comics, but this is slowly changing as they realize that the potential to reach new readers is staggering.

While at present publishers are offering mainly electronic versions of previously printed material, it’s only a matter of time before writers and artists start approaching their work with the advantages and limitations of electronic publishing in mind. We are likely to see smaller pages with much simpler layouts, bolder and brighter artwork, scalable word balloons, and, believe it or not, shorter stories, paced to be read during a bus commute to work on a break between classes. Gimmicks like music, sound effects and animation are likely to come and go, as readers will ultimately find these things distracting to what will still essentially be the experience of reading a comic book.

– Jefferson Powers

I liked Fantasian enough to beg my mother to order me a subscription, and I waited anxiously for each quarterly issue to arrive. Starting with #8, the second issue of my subscription, they changed their format from a folded broadsheet to what has become known in ‘zine circles as the “digest,” consisting of a number of standard 8 ½ x 11 inch pages folded in half and stapled along the fold to form a 5 ½ by 8 ½ inch pamphlet, usually with a colored cardstock cover. Beyond the content of those treasured fanzines (also now sadly missing from my collection), I was absolutely fascinated by this format. The size of it was comfortable in my hands, and even the texture of the photocopier toner on the colored paper covers was magical.

Fast forward to 1989. I was in my last year of high school, an aspiring comic book artist and extremely fortunate to be spending time with a lot of very creative people. One of those was Bruce Young, a writer who had self published two issues of Blue Heaven, a moody conspiracy comic with art by Mark Brooks. I got involved as the artist for the third issue, and while the experience of drawing the ten page story made me wonder whether drawing comics was really for me (something I’ve grappled with ever since), the actual production of the book was inspiring. As long as you had the content, it was fairly easy to produce a good looking publication for very little money using a photocopier and some creative folding and stapling.

Jumping ahead to 1994, I had written and drawn a short comic story, but was unsure about publishing it by itself. Luckily, over the years I had managed to surround myself with an army of talented artists, and was able to put together enough material to fill a 28 page publication. The two people who were most important to this effort were my brother Jason, who had been willing to work a lot harder than I was to become a first rate cartoonist, and Paul Schiola, a fellow I met who worked at the local photocopy store and had published several issues of Cutthroat, a collage art ‘zine. Jason provided me with pages of material, drawing the stuff I didn’t have the time or the energy to do, and Paul offered production expertise, and I’m sure he gave me a deep discount on the photocopying.

The result was End of the Line Book One, a 28 page digest format publication filled with rough but well-intentioned comics and artwork. We printed 50 copies and gave them away at coffee shops, art galleries, comic book stores…anywhere we could think of. Armed with printed proof of my intentions, I found that it was easy to persuade writers and artists to contribute, and I frequently found myself acting as a bona fide comic book editor, pairing writers with artists and guiding the creative process.

All told I published four issues of End of the Line, plus a Halloween Special (the only issue that ever had a cover price) and a reprint collection of Jason’s comics. I went on to put together a new first issue, designed to be printed “for real” in the standard comic book size with a color cover, and distributed though the normal comic book distribution channels, but I lost interest in the idea before I could get funding for it. This was eventually published as a 32 page digest called “the unnumbered issue.”

A few years later, thinking my publishing days were behind me, I stumbled into an opportunity to take over Fandom House, a mail order business focused on selling minicomics. Dennis Pimple, the fellow who had started it, was ready to move on to other things and was willing to give me his mailing list and entire stock of minis and small press comics for nothing, and it seemed like a logical escalation of what I had been doing with End of the Line – now, instead of helping comics artists get their work into print, I would help those that had printed their own work find an audience for it. Plus I would get to read tons of minicomics in the process.

Well, I wasn’t able to retire on it, but I did managed to publish two yearly editions of the renamed Makeshift Comics Catalog, and I filled a fair number of orders. I was even invited to speak on a panel at the 1996 Alternative Press Expo in San Jose (one of my fellow panelists was Brett Warnock, who would go on to found Top Shelf Productions). More importantly, it gave me the experience and confidence to open a retail comic book store a few years later, which of course had a superb selection of minis and small press comics.

In late 1997, soon after completing the second Makeshift Comics Catalog, I was working at Pablo’s Coffee in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Pablo’s regularly lent their walls to exhibitions by local artists, and it occurred to me that a showing of the local comics talent might be fun. I worked with Denver’s Squidworks cartoonist cooperative group to get some original comics art to hang on the walls, and put together a digest collection of all the work in the show, titled Pablo’s Comics Extravaganza. The show and book were very successful, and were repeated twice per year for the next five years.

At my retail store I hosted numerous cartooning events with Squidworks, jam sessions where cartoonists both professional and amateur would work together on collaborative comics. The results of a few of these events formed the basis for the February 2001 Pablo’s show, and I returned to producing the accompanying anthology after a two year absence. Hosting the jam sessions also led to my store being one of the official host locations for the first 24 Hour Comic Day in 2004. Cartoonists all over the world, including 10 at my store in Denver, attempted the 24 hour comic challenge, to individually create a 24 page comic book in one 24 hour stretch. I published digests of the eight completed comics, and even managed to create one of my own for the event, which made it into the 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2004 book.

By 2008 I had closed the store and moved to Portland, Oregon. I attended a three day workshop given by Matt Madden and Jessica Abel as part of PNCA’s Graphic Novel Intensive, and had a great time in the class. I was even able to embarrass Matt a little by bringing in Terrifying Steamboat Stories, one of his early minicomics that I had carried in the Makeshift Comics catalog. Myself and some of the other students decided to keep in touch, and our monthly meetings led to INTENSE: Tales From the 2008 PNCA Graphic Novel Intensive, a collection of our work which we published in December 2008. We managed to get the book into most of Portland’s comic book shops, and we even did a show of the original art at a local coffee shop, which brought back memories.

I wrote and drew a four page story for INTENSE, the first I had done in many years. Galvanized by its (relative) success, I even created a short minicomic to sell at our table at the Stumptown Comics Festival in 2009. I’m still not sure if drawing comics is for me, but I sure do seem to love publishing them.

– Jefferson Powers

Image credits: Fantasian #8 cover by Francis Livingston. End of the Line #1 cover by Paul Schiola & Jim Bob Cook; #3 cover by Jefferson Powers; Halloween Special cover by Heather Reynolds. Makeshift Comics catalogs designed by Jefferson Powers. Pablo’s Comics Extravaganza Jam Issue cover by various artists too numerous to mention. INTENSE cover by Jesse Bazata, with Tales of the Sufis minicomic by Ezra Ereckson.

However, no one can deny that Crumb is an absolutely brilliant illustrator. He consistently creates comic pages of astounding detail and is possessed of an instinct for page layout and panel progressions. Watching film of him drawing, either in Zwigoff’s Crumb or in Ron Mann’s excellent comics documentary Comic Book Confidential, he makes the process look effortless. It’s too bad I find most of his work so obnoxious.

Which brings us to The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis, an exhibition of Crumb’s original artwork for his recent comics adaptation of the first book of the Bible, currently showing at the Portland Art Museum.

The book itself is not at all what I expected. In his introduction, Crumb states “I approached this as a straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” True to his word, he approaches the material as literature and refrains from injecting any personal commentary into his treatment of it. Unlike previous comics versions of the Bible, Crumb’s adaptation doesn’t shy away from the sex and violence inherent in the story, but it doesn’t dwell on it either. It really does try to present the stories from the Book of Genesis as completely as possible including everything from the Garden of Eden to the Flood to Joseph’s reunion with his father, and for the most part it succeeds. He even manages to give some visual interest to the rather dull litanies of the “begots” though a series of inventive portraits.

The museum exhibit is exhaustive, with all 207 pages of Crumb’s original art for the book. It’s amazing how small the pages are, only slightly larger than the pages are printed in the book. Most comics artists work anywhere from one and a half to two times the size of the final pages, relying on reduction of the art to tighten up their line work. Crumb’s exquisitely detailed drawings don’t really need the help. It’s also interesting to note that every single page is hand lettered, a dying art these days, and especially impressive considering that the pages contain every word of the Book of Genesis!

Even more interesting are the display cases of research material, with everything from pages torn from middle eastern magazines to still images from Hollywood biblical epics, and even a few earlier comics adaptations of the Bible.

After seeing the exhibit and reading the book I have a new found respect for Robert Crumb and his work, I think because The Book of Genesis Illustrated finally manages to separate Crumb the bizarre character from Crumb the thoughtful master storyteller.

– Jefferson Powers

Most cartoonists doing straight autobiography in comics move through two distinct phases with their work. First it’s post-college angst, with comics about the seemingly universal experience of living in dumpy apartments, working miserable jobs, and going to parties and bars, with particular attention paid to romantic failure. Next, assuming the cartoonist has some success with the first phase, comes an endless series of comics about the experience of going to comic book conventions, which makes sense as this is one of the few times a dedicated cartoonist gets away from the drawing table. This rarely makes for interesting reading, even if you get all the in-jokes and pop culture references, and the frequent mean-spirited humor directed at convention-goers strikes me as not only petty, but biting the hand that feeds as well.

There are always exceptions, however, and there are a few cartoonists doing autobiographical stuff whose work makes me eat my words.

Portland’s Top Shelf Productions recently published Alec: the Years Have Pants, a mammoth collection of From Hell artist Eddie Campbell’s autobiographical work from the last 30 years. Campbell manages to do exactly what I was just complaining about, but in a way that makes me love him for it. Through his thinly disguised alter ego of Alec MacGarry he writes about days working at a factory, nights at the pub, and all the awkward social interactions in between with a wry sense of irony and self-awareness. His chapter on the comics industry is a fascinating insider’s look at a formative moment in comics history, and his bemused bafflement over the From Hell film and other unanticipated signs of success in his career is absolutely charming.

Later chapters  are more focused on his domestic life as a married father of three, but even those are highly entertaining and free from the self-absorption that plagues most people’s amusing stories about their kids. One tale in particular, about a father-son day out that finishes (for reasons I won’t spoil for you) with father, son and friends spending several hours in jail, with the mother not finding out until several weeks later, conveys the carefully controlled chaos of family life that most anyone should be able to relate to, or at least enjoy.

In his Little Nothings series, France’s Lewis Trondheim examines the minutiae of daily life in a series of one and two page comics that build on one another to give you an intimate picture of his existence. He chooses to present himself as hopelessly neurotic, yet he obviously has a sense of humor about it – his agonizing decision over whether to save an old day planner to sell on eBay in 10 years, for example, or his joy at not getting his cell phone charger and Nintendo DS cables tangled together as he packs for a trip.

The real treat in the Little Nothings books, though, is the cartooning, simple and effortless as only an experienced master of the form like Trondheim can make it look.

So what is it about these two that succeeds where most others fail? Both are absolute masters of their craft, for a start, and have honed that craft on many other comics besides just their autobiographical work. Most importantly, though, I think both have an ability to make comics about ordinary life with a sparkle of personality that clearly shows how much they enjoy it.

– Jefferson Powers

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, is the most comprehensive textbook on comics creation to date, with chapters on everything from narrative structure to the technical demands of digital art reproduction. The book presents its material in a series of 15 lessons, each building on the last and clearly intended to be the framework for a class, but with enough flexibility that the lessons can be worked through by individual learners (referred to as Ronin in the book) as well as groups of students outside of a traditional classroom setting.

Students at the 2008 PNCA Graphic Novel Intensive were lucky enough to be the first to use the book in a classroom setting, and even better, their teachers were the authors themselves! I recently had a chance to catch up with Jessica and chat about the book, its use in the classroom, and the planned follow-up…

The 2008 PNCA Graphic Novel Intensive was the first time you and Matt taught a workshop where you had DWWP present in the classroom. How was having a comprehensive textbook different from classes you had taught before? How important do you think it is to have a written “backup” to reinforce what’s being discussed in class?

It took a while for us to get used to teaching from the textbook, mostly in the sense that there’s so much there to draw on, and we were used to having to improvise materials for each lesson. So at this point, we’re able to point to a given chapter or section and send students to a well thought out essay with examples, rather than cobbling a handout together at the last minute. In other words, it was a great relief. We’re still figuring out ways we can rely on the textbook in class, for example assigning individual sections to students who are behind in particular areas rather than taking everyone’s class time to review concepts we’ve already taught.

Jessica and Matt teaching at the 2008 Intensive. Photo by Erika Moen.

Also, since our section at PNCA was only 3 days long, we wanted to spend as much time as we could in intensive teacher-student interaction–in other words, critique-based teaching. We focused on the writing stage of comics (which includes of course the planning for the images–the sketch stage), which is the most critique-intensive and difficult to master on ones’ own, knowing that the students would be able to take their pages to completion using the lessons in the textbook. That wouldn’t have been as possible if we’d had to spend more time on demos and explaining. We knew we could rely on the textbook to repeat and clarify what we might have time to cover only cursorily in class.

Do you have a follow-up book planned?

Yes, we’re currently working on a second volume of our textbook. It doesn’t have its own title yet (though it eventually will-we won’t simply call it “vol. 2″), but we conceive of it as the second year of a course of comics study. DWWP is designed to cover all the elements of comics, but because there are so many aspects of the art form, and so much to learn, it’s inevitable that many topics get covered at a fairly cursory level. The second book is our attempt to deepen and widen the discussion. We dive back into every major area of study from DWWP, and add to the complexity of the topic. In particular, we spend a lot more time talking about difficult subjects like composition, this time extending up to the scale of an entire graphic novel. We talk about tackling large projects, organizing your time and work, as well as more about drawing, inking, and so on. We also attack two of the areas most asked for by students of the first book: webcomics and color. Of course there’s always more to say in each topic area, but we hope to start addressing the gaps on our new dw-wp.com website, as well as, possibly, in more print books to come in the future (no specific plans at the moment, though!).

Do you think there will come a time when the amount of instructive material available for student comics creators comes close to matching that of, say, graphic design or fine art? (or are we already there?) What further reading do you suggest for students who have worked through DWWP?

It seems unlikely that we’ll catch up to those more established areas of study. Work’s been done in those areas for hundreds of years in the case of instruction in the fine arts. But it’s not how much there is out there that matters, it’s how good is the material! And we have a few great books for comics study already, especially Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and Making Comics. There are other good books out there, too, like the DC Comics series of instructional books, and the Idiot’s Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel. Mostly, though, I recommend students of comics read and study lots of comics, both in the contemporary scene (especially the literary side of American comics, European comics, and the best manga), and in older comics, particularly newspaper comics from before about 1950.

Krazy Kat by George Herriman.

Can you cite some specific examples?

Terry and the Pirates, Popeye, Krazy Kat, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Polly and her Pals, Captain Easy…there are so many.

Do you think webcomics will completely replace newspaper strips, in terms of providing short, punchline-driven comics?

It’s possible that webcomics will largely replace newspaper strips. They’re certainly the artistic inheritors of the gag-a-day tradition, with more space and freedom. I don’t think we’ve seen a whole lot of greatness in that area yet, but we’re just getting started. And newspaper comics keep getting minimized and cut until there’s barely anything there. And of course, it’s entirely possible that newspapers themselves will be largely online in the very near future, which makes newspaper comics webcomics anyway…

Jessica Abel interviewed by Jefferson Powers.

So, why do bad things happen to good comics in Hollywood?

Comics creators – and their fans – have to understand that mainstream Hollywood is a machine designed for one thing:  making money.  The studios nowadays are not the autonomous entities they were in the Golden Age.  Sony, Universal, Paramount – all the majors – are parts of mega-conglomerates that exist solely to churn out profits.  That “Bottom Line” mentality starts at the top and trickles down like drops of sweat into every aspect of movie-making, including the most basic creative decisions.

That means all content – comics and otherwise – that moves through the Machine’s system is going to be subjected to an invasive process that will reconstruct it into a product that the Machine can sell to the widest possible audience, which generally means males ages 13 to 35.  So if the original comic or graphic novel has some idiosyncrasies or hard edges, those will likely be removed.

Also, the creators of comics that get sold to Hollywood are mistaken to think they are going to have any kind of creative control.  The fact is NO ONE has creative control anymore in the mainstream system.  That goes for the film makers too.  Even directors and producers have to answer to this Bottom Line mentality.  No one is safe from it; no one is immune.

This is not is say that good work isn’t being done.  It simply means that  the work will be subject to a set of criteria the studios believe will ensure a successful movie.

The more outsiders understand this process, the less disappointed they’ll be.

Charles Burn’s Black Hole is currently in development as a feature film. What are the challenges to adapting something like Black Hole to the screen?

Black Hole is case in point, really.

I’m a big fan of the book but I have my doubts whether it will translate successfully into a feature film. First off, Charles Burns’ artwork is so idiosyncratic – and at times complex – that it will be very hard to replicate in live action. This is an issue for any comic or graphic novel with a unique visual style. Invariably, something will get lost in translation, and frequently it’s the very elements that made the material special in the first place. Can you imagine R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis as a live-action feature?

Only a couple of directors come to mind who have the right sensibility for Black Hole: the Two Davids, Lynch and Cronenberg.  Neither one is a mainstream director, and both are artists, which scares the people in suits.  Lynch’s track record of Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks, would in my mind make him the ideal candidate for director, but the corporate suits won’t touch him because his last efforts failed to make any money. So Paramount, the studio developing Black Hole, has put it in the hands of another David – David Fincher. Fincher’s a visual stylist, no doubt, but does he have the emotional chops to capture the lurking dread of promiscuous teens in the 1970s trading an STD that causes them to sprout more than a bad case of acne?

Right: from Black Hole. Left: from David Lynch's Twin Peaks.

Originally, the screenplay was being written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery, who had worked together on Beowulf for Robert Zemeckis. But they “abandoned” the project in 2008 after meeting with Fincher who reportedly told them that he needs to have about ten drafts of the script done before he can commit to shooting it. So I don’t blame them for bailing out. Perfectionist streak aside, another issue with Fincher is that the guy is in constant demand. Everyone in Hollywood wants him. So he has about a dozen projects in development all over town. Of those, he will direct only one or two. Even today, I read that he’s attached to direct a new version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Disney.

Meanwhile, Charles Burns has signed off on it.  He’s gone on record saying he spent nearly a dozen years working on it and wants to tackle other things now. So he took a paycheck and ran – and I don’t blame him, I would have too.

Unfortunately, that leaves Black Hole to languish in what is known as Development Hell, a fate that happens to many wonderful projects once they arrive at the Gates of Tinseltown.  The artistic and business (corporate) odds are stacked against it right from the start. Sometimes I think it’s a minor miracle anything ever gets done; a major miracle is something is done well.

Are there alternatives to the Hollywood system for getting films made (i.e. Ghost World, Sin City, Kick-Ass)?

There are always alternatives.  Which means there’s always hope!

You can circumvent the Machine by going the independent route.  It can be longer and more difficult but potentially the more rewarding.

There are many producers and film makers and stars who have their own production companies.  Sometimes those companies have an overall deal with a studio which pays for their overhead in exchange for getting a first look at anything they develop.  Other times they exist independently outside the studio system.  Those are good places to go because they will develop a project with little or no studio meddling.  As a content creator, you may not get much money initially but you will most likely have a more pleasant experience and your comic or graphic novel will get better treatment – and you might actually be involved in the process!

Then there are many indie producers who have no money of their own but make up for it in enthusiasm and hustle and good taste.  They might option (obtain exclusive rights for a little money) your comic or graphic novel, then either ask you to adapt it into a script (usually for free) or introduce you to a screenwriter who will adapt it (frequently for free).   The “indie prod” will then take the project and “shop it around” town in an attempt to get it funded.  Or they might have the phone number of a Texas oil billionaire who is dying to break into movies.   A good indie producer can be like having a tenacious bulldog in your corner.   They are very alert, resilient and resourceful, and they can be great champions for your work.  They also think outside the box because they have to.

A good example of a graphic novel that followed the indie trail to artistic good results was Ghost World.  It was released in 2001 by United Artists.  UA was once a full blown production studio.  It had been created by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and other silent film stars.  But today – and in 2001 – it is considered an indie because it doesn’t have the mega-funding of a Warner Bros.  Ghost World was director Terry Zwigoff’s first non-documentary feature.  (He had previously done the excellent doc about R. Crumb, so you knew he had a feel for comics.)  He and Ghost World‘s creator Daniel Clowes co-wrote a script that was faithful to the original work but stood on its own as a movie too.  Their screenplay was even nominated for an Academy Award.  That would not have happened if they had gone through the Mainstream Machine.

However, in the eyes of Mainstream Hollywood Ghost World was considered a failure because it didn’t make any money.  It cost about 7 million dollars – a modest budget, especially then – but after nearly ten years, it has recouped only a little over 6 million.

Sin City also went the indie route. It had a budget of about $40 million and has grossed to date nearly $100 million. That’s a successful film in the eyes of the industry.  But artistically, did it work?  It struck me as overly-mannered and self-conscious.  Because it replicated Miller’s original graphic novels frame-by-frame – literally used them as a storyboard – I felt the film version was never allowed to breathe, to sprout a life of its own.  It wasn’t organic, in other words.  But I greatly admire Robert Rodriguez for going for it and insisting Frank Miller be awarded co-director credit. That’s gutsy.

Is the internet a viable alternative distribution method (i.e. Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog)?

Yes, and its function in that capacity will continue to grow. That’s great news for artists and writers and other content creators because they won’t have to knock on the doors of the studios to get their work seen. The Digital Age has taken the Keys to the Kingdom out of the hands of the agents, lawyers, and studio execs and put them into the hands of the People.  That’s also the bad news because now – as creators of content – we have to distinguish ourselves from the flood tide of amateurs out there.

When the Writers Guild went on strike a couple of years ago, it was mostly over the potential of the internet as a distributor of content. Ironically, the strike ended up accelerating this development.  Mega-successful writers like Joss Whedon – because they suddenly couldn’t work in the traditional markets – began experimenting with it; his Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a perfect example.  What started as a whim became a sensation.   Others followed.  The strike was settled, of course, but the damage was done.  The Pandora’s Box of www.com had been opened for the industry and Mainstream Hollywood has not recovered, and probably never will.

The question is how can the internet be monetized?  What is the new business model that will allow indie artists, writers and other creators of quality internet-based entertainment to convert the hits on their website to dollars in their bank account? Those new forms haven’t fully emerged yet but they’re on the way.  And when they arrive, look for the tentacles of the entertainment conglomerates to start wiggling their way into them.  They will want their control back.

Randall Jahnson interviewed by Jefferson Powers.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of long form comics work out there, it just tends to take a form similar to the old Terry and the Pirates or Flash Gordon syndicated strips – an ongoing story told in short, single page (and sometimes just three or four panel) installments. It’s simply a feature of the format – where a book or even a minicomic needs at least 8 to 12, but more often 24 to 30, pages of material to form a printable, sellable book, a web comic has no such physical constraints, and relies on repeat visits to its hosting site, so a one page per day (or per week) release schedule serves the format much better.

The biggest result of this is that the majority of web comics (and certainly the most successful ones) tend to be short humor strips that use the conventions of daily newspaper strips: a three to six panel setup centered on a joke or gag, with a recurring cast of easily identifiable characters. The humor often comes from the audience’s familiarity with the characters, or from cultural references directed at the target audience, an audience that, thanks to internet publishing’s combination of low production costs and vast potential reach, can be much more directed and specific.

There are, of course, untold thousands (possibly millions) of comics out there. Many have banded together on sites such as Modern Tales or Webcomics Nation in order to reach an audience, while others use blogging platforms such as Blogger or WordPress, and still others just maintain their own websites, relying on word of mouth, link exchanges, and random chance to reach their readers.

Here are a few that, for various reasons, stand out among the crowd:

WONDERMARK by David Malki. Malki juxtaposes re-worked Victorian era illustrations with biting, sarcastic comments on such trivialities of modern life as Facebook, marketing hyperbole, and social awkwardness. Updated with new strips every Tuesday and Friday.  wondermark.com.

DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary by Erika Moen. Most autobiographical comics leave me cold, but for some reason I really enjoy this one. The art is simple, fluid and expressive, and Erika writes about her life with a refreshing frankness. Dar recently ended after six years, but all the strips are still online and two printed collections are available. darcomic.org.

THE MEEK by Der-shing Helmer and ESCAPE FROM PLANET NOWHERE by Otis Framton. Two long form works that abandon the page-a-day approach in favor of multipage stories more akin to traditional printed graphic novels. Unfortunately both suffer a bit in the presentation, as they use standard webcomic interfaces which display the most recent page first, as well as horizontal pages which require scrolling to read. However, the artwork (especially the color) in both comics is absolutely breathtaking, and the stories are engaging – THE MEEK creates a rich fantasy world populated by expressive characters, and ESCAPE FROM PLANET NOWHERE conveys a strong sense of pace and motion with its science fiction story and animation style artwork.  meekcomic.com. planet-nowhere.com.

Left: The Meek. Right: Escape From Planet Nowhere.

GARFIELD MINUS GARFIELD by Dan Walsh. A very postmodern take on the classic comic strip. Just as the title implies, Garfield and his thought balloons are removed from Garfield comic strips, leaving Jon talking to himself and reacting to things that aren’t there. The result is a sometimes funny, sometimes surprisinglysad tale of loneliness and existential angst. garfieldminusgarfield.net.

AXE COP by Malachai and Ethan Nicolle. They say that as adults we lose the unfettered creativity we all have as children – the ability to just imagine, without being constrained by rationality or second-guessing. Nowhere is that better illustrated than in AXE COP, the relentless tale of a cop who finds the perfect fireman’s axe, illustrated by 29 year old comic book artist Ethan Nicolle and written by his five year old brother, Malachai. axecop.com.

Axe Cop went viral just days after the first chapters were published online, and within a month it had been written about and discussed on hundreds of news sources and blogs including Wired, USA Today and MTV, and had over 750,000 readers. All for a comic that, under the traditional comics publishing industry, would probably never have seen the light of day.

– Jefferson Powers.

Top of page: image from Wondermark by David Malki. Read the whole strip here.

Daniel Duford

What got you interested in comics, and why do you think the form is worthy of serious study?

I began reading comics before I could read. I have a very early memory of sitting in the backyard with my older brother Mike and drawing panels and word balloons before I could even write. When I was in grade school my ambition was to be a comic book artist. It was my first exposure to art. I was shamed out of it in art school but the building blocks of my artistic eye come from looking at comics.

I think comics are a very rich form because it can so easily dip into pulp as well as very avant-garde work. It has aspects of film, television, pulp fiction, old master painting and even poetry but it works of its own accord. Of course the history of visual storytelling goes back to the caves of Lascuax and into things like illuminated manuscripts and Aztec codexes. The possibilities of the medium are very rich.

You mentioned that you were shamed out of being a comic book artist in art school. What do you think is different now, as opposed to when you went to school? Why do comics and graphic novels currently seem to command so much academic attention?

I think a generation now in academic positions grew up on comics. Not just mainstream comics, but took part in the DIY work of the nineties. There’s also a much more varied field of work out there. Interesting, sophisticated work is now the norm not the exception.

Do you think that alternate delivery methods are contributing as well? Between the internet and the increasingly large graphic novel sections in bookstores, are comics getting better exposure than they used to?

They’re getting reviewed differently and I think the internet allows distribution to a more dedicated and savvy audience. You can bypass the old hierarchical mass media model. Word of mouth becomes very powerful.

So what can students expect from your section of the Graphic Novel Intensive this year?

As in years past I will be working with ways to expand the narrative. Since Shaenon [Garrity] will be covering some storytelling basics, I will focus on how to use the medium to its best advantage and then stretch it further. We’ll look at experimental storytelling, how the output (size and media) can affect the tenor of the story and so on. We are also doing an anthology which will be published on Lulu.

Do you see internet publishing as the best platform for modern comics work? Do you think that, stylistically, there is a difference between work prepared for online publishing as opposed to print?

I think the internet has to be the best platform for contemporary comics. Comics as a medium is the result of very specific print technology. Many of the traditions and language emerged out of the needs and limitations of cheap four color print processes. The rectangle page, hard black line work with flat color is all in response to the technology. Even now many of the formats that were traditional to comics- the floppy magazine, the bound book- have a sense of nostalgia. The floppy is untenable economically and makes no sense. The book as an object is becoming fetishized because of digital technology. In fact, I would argue that digital tools are the very reason that an entire generation uses the language of outmoded print technology-letterpress, silkscreen, etc. The new comics have to develop for the expanded medium of the web. They are read differently then books and are not bound by the same format or economic restraints.

I think it has the potential to democratize the medium as well, by opening up new audiences and platforms that historically would have required an enormous amount of capital to pull off. That being said, my first introduction to comics was via the newsstand. At .40 per comic it was a much different thing than 2.99. I love the physicality of comics but see how the internet could not only give life to printed comics, but to a whole new type of comic made specifically for the web.

Daniel Duford interviewed by Jefferson Powers.

So what prompted you to start Primal Groove Press and publish the original Top Shelf anthology?

When I got into mail-order mini-comics, I discovered there were lots of my favorite cartoonists not being represented in the current crop of indy anthologies at the time (influential books like D&Q, Rubber Blanket, Raw volume 2, Nozone, et al.). So I decided, hey, I’ll have to do it myself!

Did you even attempt to get traditional comic store distribution through Diamond, or did you go straight to alternative sources?

Oh, totally. I used Diamond, as well as Capital City (for one solicitation cycle, before they went under), Cold Cut, Last Gasp, and a handful of tiny mail-order distro outfits.

What alternative ways to get your book out there were you able to find in those dark, pre-internet days?

Besides the normal methods, more than anything, the best way to generate awareness (and therefore sales) was to get out on the road and attend as many small conventions as possible.

Do you still think it’s important to get out to local conventions and meet potential readers face-to-face, or do you rely more on the internet to generate awareness now?

If you want success, you have to do both of these. And more. Even then there are no guarantees. Everything starts with a good comic, however. If you don’t have that, you’re not going very far.

At what point do you feel like you made the shift from small press anthology publisher to the graphic novel publisher you are today? Was there a sudden, game-changing event or was it a gradual process?

I’d published exclusively floppy comics for the first couple years, and then in 1997, as I was virtually out of money, I published my first square-bound book, which was Top Shelf volume 5 (which featured a sweet wraparound cover by Pat Moriarity.). It was then (literally) that Chris Staros approached me about being business partners. From the beginning, we aimed at not serializing any stories, and became known for breaking that new ground with Blankets, at almost 600 pages.

How did you get into the bookstore market, and how do you think it compares to the comic store market?

We started in the book trade with a distributor called LPC. Though that relationship ended up with disastrous results, they did open that new market. There’s no real comparison between the two markets, since they are radically different in many ways. Sales of books into the comics market are non-returnable. A sale is final. In the book trade, stores can at some point down the road, return books for which a publisher is then liable. We count on both to keep the doors open.

What did Chris bring to the table that you didn’t already have or weren’t already doing?

I’m a visual guy. It hurts my brain just balancing my checkbook, let alone crunching the numbers in a business. And that is exactly what Chris is great at. So we complement each other perfectly.

How do you think the comics industry is going to evolve over the next ten years or so?

If I could answer this correctly, I’d be able to retire in ten years.

Obviously digital content is here to stay. Probably printed books will be a niche market, but for small publishers like ourselves, that’s the way it’s always been.

Brett Warnock interviewed by Jefferson Powers.

Top Shelf just happens to be the publisher of three of my all time favorite graphic novels:

From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. A meticulously researched, fictionalized account of the Jack the Ripper murders, told in exhaustive, gory detail. Eddie Campbell’s visceral illustrations complement the dark story perfectly, and Moore’s writing paints a vivid, immediate picture of the personalities involved and the world they lived in.

Owly by Andy Runton. There’s no real reason why Andy Runton’s sweet, charming stories of a lonely owl’s misadventures should appeal to me particularly, but good cartooning is good cartooning. Runton is a master of conveying emotion, and I always look forward to reading his work.

Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson. This epic tale of relationships gone bad, employment gone even worse, and how ultimately life is down to the choices we make, started over 15 years ago as a self-published minicomic and took the author close to 10 years to complete. Top Shelf has collected the entire series into one massive 600 page volume which I always have a hard time putting down, even on repeat readings.

The exhibit hall at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel was packed solid with a sensory overload inducing array of comics and their creators, a broad cross section which included everything from students hawking their first photocopied minicomics to major independent publishers like Dark Horse and Top Shelf to comics superstars such as Paul Pope (THB, 100%, Batman Year 100) and Craig Thompson (Goodbye Chunky Rice, Blankets) greeting long lines of fans and signing copies of their books. There were panels on subjects ranging from self-publishing to inking and coloring tips to the problems with adapting comics to the screen.

A highlight of the festival  has always been the Saturday night Comic Art Battle, an unlikely blend of comics and improv comedy sponsored by Cosmic Monkey Comics and hosted by comics writer Jeff Parker (Underground, Mysterius the Unfathomable, X-Men: First Class). Cartoonists are divided into two teams and given a series of improvised creative challenges which they must draw live in front of an audience. It’s always interesting to watch normally solitary cartoonists feed on the energy of the audience…this year’s battle ended in a dance-off between the contestants.

Comics-related social opportunities and performance are all well and good, but for me the meat of the festival is the books. Stumptown provides a rare opportunity to peruse hundreds of small press and self-published comics that I’m unlikely to see anywhere else. If I had the budget I would pick up one of each of everything that was on offer, but unfortunately I was forced to limit myself to a handful of books that caught my eye. Here are a few:

Coping With Death by Maris Wicks. A charming little 12 page minicomic depicting a Scott Pilgrim style fight with the skull faced avatar of death.  The gentle, humorous style of the cartooning managed to fit in a few moments of honest melancholy amidst the action. dotsforeyes.blogspot.com

Water Column issues 1 and 2 by Josh Frankel. A great argument for why festivals like Stumptown are so important. Water Column is an absolutely fascinating wildlife documentary in comics form, that follows the life cycle of several undersea creatures in moment-to-moment detail. This was a great book that would have absolutely no audience in the mainstream comics market. hungryforbrains.com

How to Start to Think About Learning to Draw Comics by James Sturm. Ostensibly an informative booklet for the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, this beautifully designed publication describes academic life at the CCS in a sarcastic, humorous way that prospective students should find very appealing. cartoonstudies.org

Panorama by Steph Godfrey. One of the things I love about minicomics is the limitless variety of formats they come in. While there are a few standard formats, the nature of the minicomic, with its small press runs and limited distribution, means that anything is possible, and Panorama certainly takes advantage of that. A dream story about Monument Valley with detailed illustrations that would be fairly impressive even in a more conventional format, the author has chosen to present the story in 1.5 x 8 inch panels which can be unfolded to create a single continuous string of panels over 13 feet across. girlgodfrey.com

Tragic Relief by Colleen Frakes. A wonderful silent comic that abandons the familiar comic book structure of panels and word balloons in favor of a more open, airy approach, reminiscent of New Yorker cartoons. The story, a fable about a man whose romantic life is constantly sabotaged by his overbearing mother, is told with deceptively simple drawings that are a lot more sophisticated than they initially appear. This was probably my favorite book of the festival. tragicrelief.blogspot.com

This was just a tiny sample of the overwhelming array of original comics on offer at the festival. In the back of the program book, an ad for next year’s festival proclaims “More space! More exhibitors! More guests! More everything!”

More? I can’t imagine.

– Jefferson Powers