Zuda Week: I Rule the Night

All this week we're taking a look at the webcomics phenomenon known as Zuda Comics. We started by reviewing all the new entire this month (exhibit A and exhibit B) and now we've moved on to checking out some of the actual winners of the competition. yesterday we looked at the delightful comedy-adventure Celadore, but today we're going to dramatically shift gears and instead look at something a little more, shall we say, downbeat: Kevin Colden's I Rule the Night.



I Rule the Night
by Kevin Colden

When you first pop open the Zuda viewer to check out page one of I Rule the Night, don't be surprised if either you or your computer has a heart attack, because what confronts you is a real rarity in modern comics: a page layout that consists of a whopping 13 panels. And somehow one of those panels manages to still be a half page spread. I mention this mostly as a public service announcement, because if you come to this after reading something like, say, New Avengers #16, which consists entirely of splash pages and huge, empty expanses of blank space, the sudden sight of actual comics storytelling might cause your system to shut down with overload.

This isn't to say, though, that creator Kevin Colden's style is retro, because even though (as we soon discover) I Rule the Night does deal in deconstructing old fashioned comic book tropes, the style of art and the sensibility behind it is nothing if not modern.

The story starts off with a silent and pretty creepy sequence where a very eerie looking kid stalks and brutally murders a random buy in an alley, and at first (thanks in part to the fact that the kid seems to be climbing the wall like a spider) it looks like this may be another vampire story. But then the kid drags the body to a waiting car, whisking kid and corpse to what appears to be the Batcave and suddenly you realize this is a whole different shade of messed up: the kid, we learn, is a girl by the name of Elaine, and once upon a time she was a superhero sidekick by the name of Shadowboy.

This begins a particularly brutal and incisive look at some of the bizarre psychological issues that underlie the world of superheroics. If that sounds a bit too Alan Moore, well, the comparison is apt, since I Rule the Night does return to what has become somewhat familiar grounds over the past couple decades. But it still manages to feel fresh, thanks to an uncompromising viewpoint that doesn't expend much effort trying to pretend these "heroes" were heroic at all, but rather just deeply disturbed people. I think it's no random choice to make the boy sidekick actually be a girl, and one that Night Devil actually performs surgery on to ensure she never matures past childhood; he needs her to be his permanent sidekick, and the sexual discomfort implied by this is reinforced in a brief sequence where the Night Devil kills a "villain" called "The Deviant" because "he was a sodomite, and sodomy is illegal."

This look at Golden Age and Silver Age heroic tropes is accented by some very cool play with the art; during these flashback sequences, the art takes on the appearance of a classic superhero comic, complete with zippo-tone dots and a four-color printing scheme that contrasts sharply with the washed out black and whites of the modern sections.

The biggest problem with I Rule the Night is the fact that it seems to have dropped off the planet. The series abruptly went on hiatus way back in May and nary a peep has been heard from it since. Just this week, Colden tweeted that while he is still working on the comic, the hiatus isn't actual over yet. Zuda itself also announced at one point that big things were in store for I Rule the Night, but nothing more has been said. In other words, nobody knows wtf is going on with this comic. Perhaps they decided the series would be of broader interest to comic readers and are preparing a print graphic novel with the complete story, so people will pay for it instead of getting it for free. This wouldn't surprise me, but if it's the case I think they should announce it, because much of the buzz that had been building over this comic has been lost due to the silence over the fate of the series. Extended silence will kill any project no matter how interesting, so here's hoping Zuda and Colden are able to spill some information soon before this promising comic gets lost in the shuffle.



My Grade: The action may be a little too graphic or, well, deviant for some readers, and it's true that the subject matter has been explored before. But this is still an interesting, modern take on classic superheroes, so if that's your thing, give it a try. A-.

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Zuda Week: Celadore

All this week we're taking a look at the webcomics offered up through the competition at Zuda Comics. We've already reviewed the ten entries that are competing this month (part one is here, part two is here) but you're probably wondering what happens when one of these comics actually wins. Coming up with a compelling eight page intro is one thing (and a very important thing, which I will discuss at length later this week) but turning that into an ongoing series is something else. With that in mind, here's the first full length title we'll be reviewing this week: Celadore.



Celadore
by Caanan Grall


First off, let me offer my sincere hope that "Caanan Grall" is an actual name and not a pseudonym, because it is fantastic. I'm pretty sure Caanan Grall fought Kull the Conqueror in a Savage Sword of Conan backup at some point. Somewhere, Roy Thomas is rubbing his hands together at the thought.

Having said that, I started Celadore with just a bit of skepticism. The first three pages, while showing some signs of life, seemed a bit cliched: Celadore is a lady with a sword, she's hunting vampires with holy water... something about candles or daylight or something... eh. Whatevs.

Then I turned the cyber page and was in for a surprise. Celadore, it turns out, isn't the story of a lady vampire hunter; it's the story of a lady vampire hunter who's soul becomes trapped in an eleven-year-old girl's body. And that raises some questions, like: what happened to Evelyn, the girl who previously was using said body? And how do you go about hunting vampires when everyone treats you like a little kid?

The answers, as it turns out are a) she's now a ghost, haunting her own body and providing running commentary on Celadore's efforts and mishaps and b) you do it the old fashioned way -- with help from other kids, namely Evelyn's best friend Sam. Sam, for his part, is perfectly willing to believe in ghost, vampires and ninjas, because, as he says, "I am only eleven." He's also both the comedic and dramatic heart of the story, adding heartfelt if often ridiculous commentary and jumping into every possible adventure with unrestrained enthusiasm.

It's that enthusiasm which also captures the reader's imagination, exemplified expertly through Grall's art. While those first three pages are a bit choppy, when the kids come onto the scene the story and the art both spring to life. His style is cartoony without being overly simple or childish, allowing him to play action sequences as easily as comic sequences, which is important because in Celadore the two usually go hand in hand.

And the writing deftly keeps pace with the art. Despite a number of humorous sequences bordering on slapstick, Grall manages to maintain balance, anchoring the moments of humor in character. And while you may find yourself smiling at most individual scenes, somehow they have a way of adding up while you're not looking into an action epic that reveals and explores a unique mythology.

In sum: perhaps it's a good thing that Caanan Grall isn't a Conan villain. Because after reading this, I have a feeling that Conan would end up on the losing side.


My Grade: A+

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Zuda Week: October Reviews part 2

Yesterday we brought you mini-reviews of the first five contestants in this week's batch of webcomics over at Zuda. Today: the other five. Proof that even writers can occasionally do math. Included in this batch: Impure Blood, Old Cthulhu's On the Rise, Pluck, ShockPopTerror! and Where Evils Dare.

On to the comics!



Impure Blood
story by Nadja Baer, art by Nathan Lueth

Impure Blood is an interesting entry in the fantasy/action genre. Baer and Lueth do a good job grabbing your attention right from the beginning, starting in the middle of a gladiator battle that also serves as an introduction to the main characters, who include the gladiator and several vaguely gothy looking aristocratic types. The plot swings into gear pretty quickly, giving us enough of a hint at the story to tease us with possibilities and ending on a decent hook. In other words, it's a well paced and crafted entry.

Having said that, it's not entirely to my personal taste. The character design was a little heavy on the sort of manga influenced vampire bourgeois stylings that for my money have become a little too commonplace these days to still be interesting. I'm sure some people still love this sort of look, but I'm pretty much over it; other than the gladiator, I felt a strong desire to pitch the rest of the characters into a volcano. But, again, that's more my taste than a deficiency in the comic, which was well drawn for the chosen style and aptly written and structured. In a month with a weaker field, this might have fared well, but I'm not sure there will be enough support to move it further in the competition.

My Grades: For personal enjoyment, this gets a C+ , but realistically it probably deserves a B instead.



Old Cthulhu's On the Rise
Daniel Thollin

Next up is Old Cthulhu's On the Rise, which I think is on page 455 in your hymnbook. This is a pretty simple tale, being basically just an introduction. A couple guys are wandering around the countryside in England when they get spooked by... something... and then run into a creepy fisherman type who leads them to town and who may or may not be either Cthulhu or Old Gregg from The Mighty Boosh. Though he's certainly one or the other.

This has some promise; old fashioned Lovecraftian horror actually seems kind of refreshing compared to some of the new stuff that is currently being overdone, and the final page is a pretty nice way to go out. But the rest of the comic doesn't quite live up to the promise. The art is not quite there yet, though I suspect the artist would be better once he got to the monsters instead of regular stuff like human faces and landscapes and such. And the writing, while not offensively bad, isn't quite focused either. I'd be interested in seeing what creator Daniel Thollin might come up with in a couple years after he's honed his craft more, but for now, this one falls a bit flat.

My Grade: C-



Pluck
writing by Gabe White, art by John Amor

Pluck is one of the stronger entries this month, in part thanks to its finely rendered black and white art. There has been some discussion about color versus black and white on the Zuda site, and the consensus seems to be that black and white comics have an inherent disadvantage with the voters. I don't know if that's true, but I hope not, because Pluck is an example of a comic that benefits from being uncolored. The linework in the art is deft but also very fine in the technical sense; there are a lot of thin, small lines that might very well be lost or obscured if the art were overlaid by a coloring job. A good colorist can add some to a comic, but a bad colorist (or just the wrong colorist) can completely wreck otherwise good art. This is a case where I suspect the story works better in black and white than it would if it were colored, so I hope it doesn't suffer in the voting as a result.

As for the story, it looks to be a modern take on old fashioned fantasy, with a average kid and his best gal pal appropriating a prophecy in order to make themselves into the chosen one and thus gain the monetary benefits. I wasn't totally enamored with this, mainly because there was just enough snark that I ended up not particularly liking either of the main characters. And if I'm going to read more than eight pages of a story, I'm going to need to care about someone or something. But this opening is interesting enough to at least give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

My Grade: B+



ShockPopTerror!
Jean-Michel Ringuet

To borrow a railroading term, this is probably one of the most narrow gauge stories you're going to find on Zuda. An ode to 70's style grindhouse films such as... Grindhouse... this is pretty much a vignette showing two Daisy Duke wannabes taking down monsters and bikers alike with everything from a tire iron to a chainsaw. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot in the way of plot -- something about some missing somebody or something -- but that's not really the point. Humming the theme to Convoy while checking out hot chicks in hot cars wielding hot lead is.

And on that level, this is fine. The style of the art is perfectly done, with everything overlaid by what seems like a layer of grime, making this look just like a 70's era cartoon print or old lunchbox, complete with era appropriate font. Indeed, the whole enterprise is pretty much an exercise in style over everything, so if you enjoy that sort of thing, go for it. To quote eminent literary critic and comics expert Bill Belichick, it is what it is. With ShockPopTerror!, there's not much point in saying anything else.

My Grade: This is a tough one. I'm sure for those people into Dukes of Hazzard and Coffy, this is great. For everyone else, it's probably a C+.



Where Evils Dare
writing by Tony Lee, art by Stefano Martino

And then there's Where Evils Dare. It's no exaggeration to say that this is on a different level than most of the competitors at Zuda, because it is literally true; while most submissions are from up and coming creators trying to catch a break, Tony Lee and Stefano Martino are established industry pros, having both produced work for IDW in the recent past.

It's no wonder then that this is one of the most professional entries Zuda has ever featured. I'll be speaking in more detail later this week about some of the structural elements that go into making a successful Zuda submission (that is, aesthetically successful; once that's done, it's up to the judges and voters) but suffice it to say that Lee and Martino pretty much nail the key elements. It starts with a bang, introduces the characters, concept and the storyline and then goes out on a bang as well. There are a couple pacing issues caused by trying to get this all done in eight pages -- perhaps some of the supporting characters could have been left unnamed, for instance, as the references to classic horror stories came a little to thick -- but it's pretty much just nitpicking. Overall, the story -- which revolves around the idea that literary mainstays like Dracula, Frankenstein and the werewolf were fighting for the Nazis during World War II -- is expertly drawn and adroitly plotted and scripted. This is a comic I would pay to read.

My Grade: I'm giving it an A-. I know, I know, you're thinking, why not an A or an A+? It's very close. A couple minor tweaks in the middle of the story might have pushed it to an A; but there's always some room for improvement.

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Zuda Week: October Reviews part 1

Yesterday, Zuda Comics posted the newest batch of competitors on their website, which was awful nice of them considering this is Zuda Week here at The Vault. What a handy coincidence, right? So today and tomorrow we'll be offering mini-reviews of then new series currently being featured so that when you finally queue up to vote, you'll have all the information you need to make an informed decision. Today's offerings: A Polar Nightmare, Blitz, Doc Monster, Evil Ain't Easy and Fly Me From The Moon. Let's get to it!


A Polar Nightmare
Amancay Nicolas Nahuelpan Bustamante

First up is A Polar Nightmare, with art and writing from Amancay Nicolas Nahuelpan Bustamante, aka annb. Done in a fairly stark black and white style with just hints of color thrown in here and there for emphasis, A Polar Nightmare tells the story of two kids who journey to the North Pole to protest a lack of decent Christmas presents. When they find Santa, however, they discover he's some sort of flabby, demonic A-hole who passes judgment on kids through sinister doggerel.

The art is the best part -- it's strong, bold and oddly reminiscent of some of Todd McFarlane's early work on Spawn; the evil Santa could easily be Clown and the kids look like kinda like McFarlane kids as well. The writing, however, doesn't keep up with the art (another McFarlane hallmark!) and I have to say the basic premise doesn't do much for me either. Okay, so Santa is kind of evil instead of good. And? While the pages shown here set the tone pretty well, they don't really tell us what the story is about; as I've said before, a concept is not a story. Stronger writing, both in terms of plot and text, might make this viable, but I have the feeling this dark Santa thing has been done before and done better.

My Grade: Despite some nice art at the start, the best I can give this is a C-.



Blitz
Ted Dawson

Blitz is an interesting departure from the standard Zuda style, if such a thing could be said to exist, deviating from established fan-favorite genres like zombie horror into a more cartoony world where a semi-cuddly alien runs into a scruffy dish-washer while trying to find his missing mother. Readers will still find it somewhat familiar, though, as the writing and design of the strip both seem strongly influenced by Jeff Smith's groundbreaking epic Bone.

Of course, you could do a lot worse than emulating Bone, and Dawson does have some nice moments. I enjoyed the sequence where the unnamed Bone-like alien tricks the bad guy into releasing the title character Blitz by forcing him to count on the fingers of both hands. But in general, though the characters seemed to have some promise and the art was fluid and competent, this apple seemed to fall a little too close to the tree to really stand out. The danger in doing something like this is that people who recognize the influence will automatically compare it to the original. And by those standards, any series going up against Bone is likely to come out on the short end of things.

My Grade: The talent is there, but some more refinement might help differentiate this. I was also a little confused by the layout at one point, which is hard to do considering the whole thing is just two rows of square panels. B-.



Doc Monster
David Flora

Doc Monster brings us back to the world of the 1950's, where we meet a G-man named Clay who has been assigned to a strapping, pipe smoking scientist known by the code name Doc Monster. Just why he has been assigned to this otherwise benign looking fellow soon becomes clear: when a flying saucer filled with bug-like aliens suddenly erupts from the ground, Doc flies into the air to combat it. Looks like there's more going on here than meets the eye.

Creator David Flora renders the story in a pulpy style which, when overlaid by a subtle coloring job, almost appears to be painted. It perfectly suits the retro tone of the story, as does the dialogue and even the choice of fonts. There are a couple hiccups with placement of narrative captions, but other than that, Doc Monster provides a fun, fast paced glimpse at an old fashioned superhero adventure. If that's your kind of thing, then this is a strip for you.

My Grade: A highly enjoyable, professional effort. A-.



Evil Ain't Easy
Seth Wolfshorndl

Evil Ain't Easy is the work of cartoonist Seth Wolfshorndl and is essentially a comedic riff on supervillain tropes. Dr. Nimbus is a mad scientist who bears more than a passing resemblance to a talking thumb; armed with his Destructo Ray and the ability to create henchmen by animating the dead, he sets out to conquer the world. Or so he claims; in reality, he seems too caught up in every day evils like trying to pay the rent to get very far on his master plan.

Wolfshorndl also plays a bit with the format; the eight page sample is less of a story and more of a series of (sometimes) related gags, some of which take up only a single page. The horizontal layout of the Zuda viewer only emphasizes the feeling that you're reading a collection of Sunday comic strips rather than a unified piece. Unfortunately, some of the jokes, while mildly amusing, are just that: mild. This may be a function of the pacing, as the art serves the premise well; but trusting more in the art to build the gags rather than using occasionally stiff dialogue might lead to better punchlines. There's some promise here, but I'm not sure it will garner enough votes to see it fulfilled, which is too bad; this strip has some charm and I enjoyed it, just not as much as I wanted to.

My Grade: It's better than, say, Garfield. B-.



Fly Me From The Moon
Gabriel Bautista

No, this isn't a sci-fi Frank Sinatra bio, but you might be forgiven for thinking it was based on the name. Indeed, Fly Me From The Moon almost seems like the result of a bet or a college writing exercise; you know, everyone is given a weird, punny title and then you have to build a story around it.

Well, the finished product isn't quite that bad. In fact, it's pretty okay. The story, as far as I can make out, is about a guy who sells his business in order to escape a political coup and then takes a space ship to the moon to rescue his wife from the insurgents. I say "as far as I can make out" because just what is going on isn't entirely clear. Half of that is intentional, as the characters speak in mysterious terms about shadowy operations, and half of it is the result of just confusing writing and art. The art is actually pretty good, as far as linework is concerned, but the pulpy coloring job is so pulpy that at times it washes out the images, making them muddy and difficult to follow. The end result is a series that tries to jam so much style and so much substance into eight pages that it ends up overwhelming the story and the reader.

My Grade: I really wanted to like this, but... I kinda didn't. C+.

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Zuda Week: Preview

For the last few years, webcomics have been slowly but steadily making inroads into the comic marketplace. By virtue of being both free and on demand, internet comics have begun attracting more and more readers, both from within and without the traditional comics fan base; and the more people that read webcomics, the greater the need for compelling, professional content.

That's where Zuda Comics comes in.

Owned by DC Comics and launched with much fanfare back in 2007, Zuda Comics has quickly become the hub of the webcomic community. While the company has gained its fair share of criticism over the always prickly issue of creators rights and work for hire projects, it's also provided an avenue for hundreds of new creators to both gain exposure and actual cash money for their efforts. But most of all, it gives readers looking for a comic fix their one stop shopping for a wealth of ongoing projects.

For those not familiar with Zuda, here's how it works: every month, Zuda debuts ten new features, each represented by an eight page tryout story (often comprising the first eight pages of a larger storyline, rather than a standalone tale). Over the course of the month, readers can vote for their favorite submission and at the end of the month, the winning strip is rewarded with a one year contract to provide ongoing content. At present, there are currently 30 winning series in production, meaning one title or another is updated with new content just about every day of the year. Plus, the losing projects are still archived, giving comics enthusiasts a wealth of new material to pore over (195 eight page intros to date) while giving those creators a permanent spot to gain exposure and new fans.

Over the course of the next week, then, we'll be taking a closer look at Zuda, beginning with reviews of the ten series currently vying for the October title and continuing with more in-depth looks at some of the flagship Zuda titles such as I Rule the Night and Celadore. I'll also be giving my thoughts on what you can learn about the submission process from the titles that are accepted and how this can help you hone your own Zuda pitch.

So check back tomorrow as I bring you round one of the competition. Because when you get down to it, there's just nothing better than sitting down with a pile of new comics and cracking them open to see what magic waits inside.

Even if they're on your computer.

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Voices from Artists Alley: TYLER JAMES part 2

We wrap up our week of conversations with the self-publishing set with the second half of our talk with writer and artist Tyler James. In case you missed yesterday's segment, where Tyler talked about his own projects, now is the time to read it. DO IT. Okay, back? Good, then let'stake a look at the second half of our interview, where Tyler discusses a topic near and dear to my heart: how to break into comics. But while I've been talking to you guys about how to submit within the system, Tyler focuses more on how to create your own system to get your ideas seen.

Let's go to the tape!


Scott Harris: I’m not too familiar yet with web comics, but I’m curious just what the business model is. You publish your stories and you’re building your readership, but just how do you make this financially viable? Do you have sponsors that advertise on your site? Or is there some other way?

Tyler: You know, there are a number of different business models. I’m also a two time competitor on Zuda Comics, Super Seed was a competitor on Zuda. There, it’s owned by DC Comics, their business model is they’re looking for comics properties. They post them online for free and then they’ll eventually collect them in a trade and sell those, and also look to exploit them into other media. So that’s what the big DC/Warner Brother model is, that’s their apparatus.

A different business model, and really the self-publishing model, is something that’s been around for the last ten years or so, and that’s comics like PVP. The web comic world is huge. Basically what you do is, you put your comic up for free and support yourself by posting ads for other sites, by selling things like collections of your book at shows or online; and then other merchandise, T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, prints, and that’s the business model. And, you know, it’s tough because there’s a lot of stuff out there but on the flip side, some of my comics had more eyeballs on them than some of the lower selling Image titles in the last month. Simply because it’s online, free – it’s exposure.

And I really think, to work for Marvel and DC, the way to do that is not to just submit story after story of your take on Superman because if you look at everybody that’s working on big name comics, they’re bringing an audience with them when they get there. If you don’t have a web presence you’re shooting yourself in the foot nowadays. That’s just what I’ve been seeing. And as I’ve been putting up content on a regular basis, using social media, you find that you can really start to build a name for yourself.

I also teach a class. I’m from Newburyport on the North Shore and I teach a class on creating comics and writing for comics and graphic novels. And I write a column every Monday on the Comic Related website, it’s called Creating Comics: the Art and Craft.

This is something I'm personally interested in: how do you contact and form relationships with artists? Do you meet them at conventions, or do you usually contact artists online?

Sometimes. Chris Gibbs is around the corner; I started chatting with him at a show and he did a pin-up for CounterTERROR for me, which is cool. But there are a couple sites online – Digital Webbing is probably the most popular one, if you just post an ad and they have a section for collaborations and a section for paid work.

A project I’m working on is going to be trying to improve on that process, make it easier to match up artists with writers and writers with artists online. But for now, [it's] posting stuff on forums going on sites like Digital Webbing or Comics Space and just find an artist you like and contact him directly.

I teach a course on writing, and one of the things we do is we look at solicitations for artists. And there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it, and you do see a lot of the wrong stuff out there.

I don’t know if you saw the announcement that Marvel did; in their open submissions for artists, they hadn’t actually picked anyone for five years. Very, very rare is the publisher that will see a script, love it so much that they say we got to get this guy and find an artist for it. The business just doesn’t support that.

So if you really want to write comics, you’ve gotta write comics and get them in comics form. I’d suggest starting with just short stories, five pages, eight pages, learn how to work with artists because that’s a big process. For me, I’m lucky that I have a modicum of artistic talent that I don’t necessarily need anyone to tell stories. Like [Super Seed], I did everything on that one, I did lettering, I did coloring, I did the production, I did everything.

But to do things at a higher level, I can’t do everything. So on Tears of the Dragon, this is gorgeous stuff, I have a colorist in Canada and the artist that I’m working with [in Indonesia]. And this is better than the last thing I did working with an artist.

I think it’s really frustrating to send stuff out and not hear anything back. [But] it’s well within your power to make books happen. And rather than sitting on the sidelines and hoping that someone else is going to make it happen, I’d just encourage you to take a shot at it. Do something small, especially since I assume you don’t have a huge war chest ready to throw at the top caliber artists. But there are people that are out there that will work for art supplies, that will work for credits as long as they know you’re going to be pushing forward with it.

Nobody’s going to sign up sight unseen for the deals of “you’ll get paid on the back end of it so draw my 70 page graphic novel”, because it just takes too long. You’re asking too much of someone’s time for that. But can you get someone to do a five page or eight page story for some art supplies and a little bit of beer money? Yeah. And if you’re willing to put in a little bit more, you can get guys that are really goo. I mean, this artist that I worked with here, he’s doing work for Boom! Studios now. He’s a year or two away from Marvel. He’s that good. And because I’ve had other work out there before, and I’ve worked with other artists, he was willing to give me a pretty good deal on a page rate. A lot less than he should be charging. But that’s because I have work out there.

Now, if you don’t have any work out there, an artist is going to give you, you know, 80 hours or 100 hours of work, so you just gotta think of it from that perspective.

But make it happen. Take control.

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Voices from Artists Alley: TYLER JAMES part 1

Our final interview from last Sunday's New England Comic Con was so sprawling and epic that I had to split it into two parts. Our subject? None other than writer and artist Tyler James, who has been featured in the Zuda webcomic competition twice. This first half -- the Fellowship of the Ring of Tyler James interviews, if you will -- discusses Tyler's various projects, including those Zuda series as well as many other comics. Here we go!


Scott Harris: Hi Tyler. Would you mind introducing yourself to those few readers out there who aren't already following your work?

Tyler: Hey, I’m Tyler James, I’m the creator-slash-writer-slash-artist of a number of comic titles. Most recently I’ve been working on Over, which is an online graphic novel, it’s a romantic comedy, sort of a cross between Chasing Amy and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and it updates Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’m also the writer on a fantasy comic called Tears of the Dragon, which updates Tuesdays. And I’m probably most known for my series Super Seed, which is about the world’s first superpower fertility clinic. So, that’s kind of the stuff I do.


So the material debuts on your website and then you collect it into printed form?

I’ve kind of in the past six months really been getting into web comics. Prior to that I had been posting my stuff online just, you know, finish something, put it online and get some feedback. With Over, it’s my first foray into actual being on a regular, scheduled delivery of content and it’s actually a great experience just in terms of putting out work on a regular basis, seeing readership build, getting feedback. So I’m definitely a convert, as opposed to just when you finish a page or finish something you put it online, to actually delivering it as if you were a content provider. People get on your schedule and know, hey, it’s Monday, new page is up.

Over is just the latest in a long line of projects you've put out in the past couple years. Can you give us an overview of the various titles you've worked on?

Well, Over is a story about an indie comic book creator – he writes a fantasy comic that’s pretty popular – it’s been months since he’s written that comic because for the last six months he’s been working on a graphic novel that he thinks is going to be this great, romantic piece and it’s all about his failed relationship with his last girlfriend.

When he finally delivers it to the publisher, his publisher tells him it’s absolute crap and it’s unpublishable and he doesn’t understand how that’s possible. But what he ends up finding out is that there were about five good scenes and in those five scenes, it kind of explains what went wrong with his relationship. And at the same time, he kind of deals with a number of hijinx with all the stupid, crazy things people try to do to get over bad breakups. That’s kind of what Over is all about.

It’s in the vein of some of the more recent comedies like 40 Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up, something like that. It’s my attempt at doing something a little different. But it’s got a lot of inside baseball because the protagonist is a comic creator, a lot of self-referential comic book stuff, so comic creators really dig it but I think comic fans will enjoy it. There’s a lot on inside jokes to enjoy.

Tears of the Dragon is sort of my attempt to do an epic fantasy piece, you know, Lord of the Rings, Willow, Princess Bride are all kind of inspiration for it. It’s a story that starts out with two dragons in love and at the same time, there’s a king who is dying without an heir. And there’s two rivals for the throne, and one of the rivals is a war leader, the other is more of a man of the people. And the man of the people ends up, to try to become king, he goes back to an old custom where before you become king you have to slay a dragon. Now dragons are very rare, but he tracks down a dragon and kills a dragon and he end up killing a dragon that’s the great love of the other dragon and that basically sets off his slow demise. Just in that initial act.

That’s what kicks it off. It’s a fun story. I’m working with a talented artist from Indonseia who’s just knocking it out of the park.

And then there’s Super Seed, it’s about the world’s first superpower fertility clinic and abhout kind of the pros and cons of a world with superheroes. And the idea behind that is, if you look around the world now, people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have kids the way they want – sperm donors from Olympic athletes and Harvard PHDs go for top dollar and the idea is, just how much would people pay for Superman to be a donor?

So there’s just a lot of different story ideas to play with there.

And I also have a book that’s a collection of [some] of my different stories. CounterTERROR is kind of an action-slash-horror mashup. I. C. E. is a comic that competed on Zuda in July and it’s sort of a political thriller that deals with the war on terror and the torture debate.


Tomorrow: Part two of our interview with Tyler James focuses on the business side of things. Just how do you go about assembling a creative team and setting up a successful self-published comic? Tyler tells us his secrets!

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Voices from Artists Alley: SAM COSTELLO

Another day, another interview with a small press comic creator. And what could be a better compliment to your morning bagel than a brief chat with Split Lip writer Sam Costello? He's like human cream cheese, y'all. Let's get right to it!


Scott Harris: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Sam. What can you tell the readers out there about yourself and your work?

Sam Costello: My name’s Sam Costello, I’m a writer of all sorts of things, including comics, based in Providence, Rhode Island. The main comic I have these days is a series called Split Lip. It’s a horror anthology. I write them all but they’re drawn by different artists from all around the world. I post them online at splitlipcomic.com and then also make them available in print.

Is Split Lip self-published, or do you have a publisher you work with?

Basically, it’s self-published. I did have a publishing deal in Australia for a little while but unfortunately that company went out of business, but I don’t hope there’s any relationship between them publishing me and going out of business.

When did you start working on this?

Split Lip debuted in October, 2006, so we’re coming up on the third anniversary now and we’ve published about – I think we’re in the middle of the 27th story on the website right now and it’s about 300, 310 total pages of comics available on the site. But of course, I had started working on it a little before that, I started at the beginning of 2006 actually writing the stories, finding the artists, that sort of thing.

Okay. So the stories debut on the website first, then you compile them into the trades?

That’s correct. The stories get serialized on the website, three pages every Sunday. So you get the new stories coming online, then basically I put out one collection a year. So right now we’ve got Volume One, that came out in 2009; Volume Two should be debuting in probably January, 2010.


And the series is mostly horror?

Yes, it’s basically entirely horror. It’s the kind of thing, if you like Twilight Zone, if you liked the original Tales From the Crypt, you’ll probably like this sort of thing. It’s more about scaring you, more about ideas and mood and tone. You’re not going to find vampires, you’re not going to find zombies, you’re not going to find any of those sort of traditional, archetypal horror concepts. It’s very much about trying to push in some different directions that you don’t find in a lot of modern horror comics.

So it sounds more like it’s more of an atmospheric type of horror, like Poe.

Yeah, there’s definitely some of that. It’s difficult, you’ve got to walk that line between having the atmospherics but also the action. People are looking for certain things out of horror, so some of the stories are a little bit more low key, some of them are a bit volent, some of them are a bit scarier, some of them are a bit more strange or weird. It kind of runs a gamut.

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