Posts Tagged: storytelling

Matchmaking YOUR Questions With Your Favorite Creators

Have you ever wanted to ask your favorite comic creator a question? Maybe listened to a podcast and thought, I could ask a better question than that? Well, here’s your chance.

We at MakingComics.com are working on designing a new Gutter Talk project (which may potentially be unveiled as a panel at San Diego Comic-Con International 2018 – yes, THAT Comic-Con) and both the questions and the guests will be determined by you. We’ve been so blown away by the overwhelming positive response by learners in our “How To Make A Comic Book” Coursera course that we’ve decided we want you to be the center of what we are doing next.

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101: Patrick Yurick & Rachel Beck (ComicFuel 5) – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”  – Alan Watts

As we walk out into the world we are entering a story. This story defines us and the way that we interact with our beliefs, actions, society, etc. As much as we are always entering into the story that others have defined for us, we are also given the gift of writing our own story in every action we take. This month I sat down with Rachel Beck, founder of Storyforge Productions, and we discussed the nuances of story telling. We looked at our society and how we are working to rectify our long history with marginalizing females – specifically in the comic industry. We also looked at the basic construction of worlds and characters and how those construction create compelling reasons that keep us reading.

Reflecting on the talk I am reminded that complications are what keep us interested in the world around us. As comic artists we create fiction where our character confront and battle those contradictions. Theoretically that gives us the inspiration to fight our own demons. That’s what the #ComicFuel show is all about right? For us to join together to turn away from just consuming art and to bring us into the battle – the battle to create art.

So get out your pens and papers. Sit down. Join us as Rachel and I provide the fuel you are going to need for the coming battle.

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Comic Road 2: Scripting Time!

I’m not going to lie. Scripting is my jam. I’m a writing kinda guy, so excuse me if I get a little resource happy here. But there’s so much stuff to learn about scripts that just giving you guys only a couple of resources might break my heart. So we’ll start at square one.

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99: Patrick Yurick & Adam Greenfield (ComicFuel 4) – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

“…it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” 

Rocky Balboa’s inspirational speech to his son in the 2006 installment into the Rocky franchise is definitely the inspiration for this show. There’re a lot of projects I work on right. Art, design, and educational experiences I am currently slaving away over. I spend a lot of time, and incur a good deal of mental anguish, trying to figure out what the “right” thing to do is as a day job. When Rocky talks about taking hits, in my context that is all about my own personal demons regarding my design process. My own shadow/devil on my shoulder telling me I’m wasting my time.

Last month, I’ll be honest, I almost considered #ComicFuel a waste of my time. Three episodes in and I was ready to give up.

I almost didn’t finish episode 3. Even during the process of doing it, I didn’t want to finish it. I did finish, barely, and then I swore to myself that I wasn’t going to do another episode the same way again (if I did another episode). So I called Adam and asked him to record a quick episode where we powered through a ton of questions. It turned into a longer episode.

As I sat down with Adam Greenfield this week to record the fourth episode of #ComicFuel I was reminded why I do this. Sure, this episode is WAY too long ( cough-2hoursand14minutes-cough ), but who cares? I got to sit down with my friend and answer some student questions and talk about how to practice art. In my ideal retirement scenario I would spend every day doing this.

I was reminded that MakingComics.com is the purely “good” thing that I have in my life. For me this is the one sacred space in this whole universe where everything we do is just good. We aren’t always active, or on time with our products, and they aren’t always produced with the kind of quality I’d like – but at their core they are good. We’ve made decision after decision to not turn this into a project that will go anywhere (i.e we are staying here for good). It isn’t a startup business – it is a public service. That is what makes it “good”. It hasn’t been tainted by the threats of being economically unviable – because it isn’t.

I thought I was done after my 2 hour session with Adam. Then…

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96: Patrick Yurick (ComicFuel 2) – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

Holy MOLY, what a whirlwind of amazingness it has been in the time between the release of episode 1 of Comic Fuel and Episode 2! We have had a thousand people download and listen to the episode and I have enough questions that I have to wait for another four episodes before I can put out another call for questions. Wow.

In this episode, episode 2, we’ll discuss project management, the comic creation process, coloring comics, penciling comics, and hosting comics online. The questions came from places like Ireland, India, Brazil, California, and Indiana. For legit #comicfuel we’ll hear about why we do art from Stephen McCranie, transitioning into fame and what is at the core of what artistry is really about from “How I Met Your Mother” actor Josh Radnor, and we’ll also hear about the art of really listening by famed audio producer Chris Watson.

Questions answered in this episode (jump-to specific question times listed below)

  • How many pages should a comic issue be to be printed?
  • How long would it take to make a comic by yourself; scripting, storyboarding, art and lettering; and self publish it?
  • How do you keep up momentum on making comics?
  • How long does it take for a comic book artist to make a comic book?
  • What is the step-by-step process I should go through to choose colors that will look good?
  • What kind of colors can i use?
  • Am I just not being patient enough with myself, or am I trying to fit too much, too zoomed out, into one panel?
  • What websites are best for starting to post a webcomic?

Another big announcement is that I spent a lot of time this month creating the Comic Fuel Podcast Wiki (http://comicfuel.wikidot.com/) which will serve as a repository for all questions, notes, and links that are mentioned in the show. Check it out. It took me FOREVER to make, but I’m really proud of it.

The show notes for Episode 2 are at: http://comicfuel.wikidot.com/wiki:episode-2

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Comic Road 1: Starting Your Comic

So you want to make a comic? That’s great! In fact, that’s exactly what a class full of students down at Chula Vista High Tech High wanted to do. And after designing an extensive curriculum, Making Comics Worldwide CEO Patrick Yurick, and incredibly handsome Editor-In-Chief Kevin Cullen, decided to bring all of you burgeoning comic creators into the mixture by giving you the opportunity to follow along with the Graphic Novel Project (GNP) students step by step through this blog! (more…)

79: San Diego Comic-Con 2015 Panel – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

There is nothing easy about making comics, whether it’s the art or the storytelling. Just flipping through the first few pages of your favorite story can be enough to intimidate even the hardiest of the artists out there. It really does take a fair amount of chutzpah to want to make comics. But fear not, for there are things out there that may not make it easy for you but can, if nothing else, make it easier. And that’s why we at Making Comics were excited to have assembled this group of people ranging from artists to editors, if not both, for the live Gutter Talk panel at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego, because we just had a feeling that they would be the ones to provide both inspiration and very useful knowledge.

Moderated by the Gutter Talk podcast host Adam Greenfield, the panel consisted of Mark Waid, writer of Daredevil and most recently the Archie comics, Christy Blanch, an educator and also writer for The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood, Chris Miskiewicz, the writer for Thomas Alsop, Rachel Dukes, creator of Frankie Comics, and Calista Brill, a senior editor with First Second Books. See what we mean? This panel was destined to be amazing and it certainly lived up to the billing. Download or stream the show and you’ll see what we’re talking about.

Please also be sure to head over to iTunes and give us a rating and review. What you gain from doing this is tenfold compared to what we get out of it, and this is why we are doing what we are doing. From the new site to the future plans we have in store for everyone, it all becomes more viable when we become more visible.

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[Teaser Trailer] Making Comics Gutter Talk LIVE at SDCC! – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

**tap tap tap**

Is this thing on? Yeah? You can hear me? Ok, good.

Hi, everyone. Adam here. Yes, your host. I know it’s been a few weeks but if you couldn’t tell, I’ve been a little busy. Also, usually this post is written in 3rd person but this is a bit of a special post so I’m going to do that thing in 1st person, if you all don’t mind. Who knows? Maybe this will become a trend.

Unless you’ve been under a rock or are new to us, I say either glad to see you’re free or welcome to the site, whichever suits your situation. Either way, you probably know by now that we had a live Gutter Talk panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con and from what I remember, it was pretty great. It’s weird once you get up there and get on a roll. You sort of black out and the next thing you know a Comic Con employee is holding up a STOP sign. Where the heck did that 50 minutes go?!

From what I do remember, though, it was a pretty great panel. Just to be sure my memories were right, tonight I went back and listened. I stand corrected; it was an amazing panel. Everyone on there had great answers to the questions and made the panel a lot of fun. It was extremely inspirational and so far the highlight of my year.

What I want to share with you here is just a quick thing I pieced together, partly to dust off the microphones because it’s been a little while, but really because before I release the full panel in a couple weeks I want to give you a brief idea of some of the fun you’ll get to hear soon.

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68: Wondercon Panel 2015 – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

The Making Comics Gutter Talk podcast goes live once again from the halls and walls that make up the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California as several of the Making Comics crew invades WonderCon 2015. Last year’s panel was so much fun we had to do it again, though this time there were no Godzilla facts. Sorry to disappoint you. But there were other facts we figure you will want to hear.

This year’s Gutter Talk WonderCon panel was led by Adam and focused on storytelling in comics. The topics ranged from story idea inspiration to editing a story halfway through to collaborating with an artist or storyteller. There were questions from Adam, including a pop quiz, and some fantastic questions from the audience, which the panelists handled like the professional artists they are. Speaking of the panelists….

Just like last year’s Making Comics panel, this year’s guests were top notch. The list included Rachel Beck from Storyforge Productions, Jason Brubaker, the creator of Sithrah and reMIND, Ted Washington, artist, writer, and founder of the small publication company Puna Press, and Making Comics Worldwide’s czar- uh, CEO, Patrick Yurick. The list of qualifications among them made them perfect people to discuss the art of storytelling in comics, especially, but other formats as well.

If you were unfortunately unable to make WonderCon this year, we have your back. We always do. Please enjoy this amazing conversation with some of our favorite artists.

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67: Sarah Yoon (3 Questions) – MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

Several of the Making Comics Worldwide crew graced the rooms and halls of WonderCon 2015 recently and while there, Adam was able to record four upcoming podcasts, the live Gutter Talk panel “Storytelling in Comics” included, in a 24 hour period. That has to be some kind of record, right? And while very little time was spent wandering the floor, it was a worthy sacrifice to be able to capture conversations like the one you’re about to listen to.

In this Three Questions episode, freelance writer and soon-to-be mom Sarah Yoon sits down with Karyn Keene, co-founder of Storyforge Productions, a company with a stated mission of helping tell stories across various mediums. In an age where there are numerous ways of telling a story, it can be both tricky and overwhelming. One of the biggest steps to being a better effective storyteller that Sarah discusses is knowing the type of writer and storyteller you are. Using ideas from her book, “Firestarters: Multi-Disciplinary Inspiration for Writers,” Sarah dives in to the three types of writers she has discovered through her research.

Whether you are a writer or not, this podcast episode is a must-listen. It will not only make you stronger as a writer and artist overall, it could help you understand other writers you will encounter in your career and life.

These are Sarah’s three questions:

Question 1: What are the three ways creativity manifests itself in writers?

Question 2: What do you find yourself working the most with?

Question 3: How did you decide what you wanted to write about?

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