Bonus
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Touch-ups (Battle of the Titans)
Comics are a team endeavour. It sometimes happens that the writer will ask an artist to modify an image to enhance the overall consistency. In this story we asked the artist to add some panels—the equivalent of one full page—to make the characters’ movements on the battlefield very clear.
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Promotion
Here are a few excerpts from an article by Hannah Means-Shannon, reporting on comments made during WonderCon 2013 by people involved in marketing at comic book firms:
- “Trying different approaches and continuing to do so as long as possible is key;”
- “Knowing the pitch well, and the many angles from which it might be interpreted, breaking out of narrow genre definitions, for instance, may win the day;”
- “You have to believe in what you’re selling” and believe that you are “one of the best advocates for it.”
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The ramifications of our characters’ lives
Wherever possible we try to give our characters a social life. We want to give them a life that extends beyond the scope of the story they are in. For example we wanted Cesar to have a wife and kids. That way he doesn’t exist solely to interact with the other characters in the story; he also has a life outside it.
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Marketing your characters may stunt their development
Mark Waid has expressed an interesting opinion about seeking profit with Web publications: “Waid commented that the tendency toward merchandizing may encourage the slow-down or freeze of new developments in a character since ‘every character becomes a beach towel’ in the end” (Hannah Means-Shannon, “On the Scene: WonderCon 2013,” comicsbeat.com, March 30, 2013.). This simple comment summarizes the conflict that may arise between financial profitability and artistic integrity.
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Touch-ups (Cards on the Table)
Comics are a team endeavour. It sometimes happens that the writer will ask an artist to modify an image to enhance the overall consistency. With this story we changed the order of two of the panels to make the scene flow more naturally.
