Calgary Studio?

Yes, studios ARE expensive, but not impossible. If you are looking for another Arcana or Dreamwave to start up in Calgary, you are out of luck. However, small studios like Konsequential manage alright as long as the only publish one or two books.
There are two very important things required to start a studio: Money and someone to run things. When artists attempt to run the show, they find themselves too swamped to get any work done and the company fails. Why does Konsequential studios stay afloat? Because Kandrix WANTS to do all the business stuff. Laurie draws, Kandrix inks and runs the company. I have worked with Konsequential. I have stories in both Short Term Konsequences volumes 1 and 2. I will admit now, everyone working on the project was more then happy to leave everything with Kandrix: He set up the timetables for deadlines, called up quebecor, worried about cons and transportation and accomidations, dealt with printing costs, organized fundraising and handled all the bills and finances. Even if someone wanted to start up a company here in Calgary, they would have to want to be involved in the business end, it's a high task administrative job which leaves little room for drawing or writing.
The idea of a group studio for more creative purposes has also been attempted (a la Konsequential studios). The anthologies Short Term Konsequences were made by people who were excited about comics and wanted to get into the industry. So we all got together to hang out and draw and have a good time. It worked for awhile; we had different people teach lessons on drawing and inking and writing, Hell, Steve Colle from Creative synergy taught us a lesson every once and awhile. But, several factors sort of killed the group: the comic itself was intensive and started strife, too many people trying to lead the group, the group was based out of Kandrix and Laurie's home (which was unfair for them I agree, but once the group was moved it was less attractive to take part in), and many other things got in the way (friends and alliances, relationships, travel to cons, money etc etc...). the group still exists, but has been on hiatus due to Drix and Laurie's travelling schedual for cons.
Comics are a difficult field to get into, sometimes I wonder if each person has to go it alone and hope for the best. I would hate to think it though, because I have met/worked with many people in Calgary who are trying hard to get into the industry and I like to consider myself friends or at least aquaintences with most of them. I myself have turned from the mainstream to more indy comics. I figure even if you don't get into a big company or studio, you can still publish and enjoy comics, just perhaps not on the scale you want. Not everyone can become the next Michael Turner or Brian Michael Bendis.

First off: Good to see you here Derek & Sander!

Starting up a comic publishing VENTURE in Calgary is a daunting task. Not one I am willing to attempt on my own...but if the posibility cam to light, I would be on board.

What I propose is COMPLETING projects-with a full team of GREAT talent-producing Comic Books that are attractive to publishers. Take ALIAS, for example being published at Image. 100 GIRLS was originally to come out of Dark Horse Comics- instead of ARCANA.
ANT has moved over to IMAGE.

WE take our completed projects, present them to publishers like SPEAKEASY, or APE ENTERTAINMENT,
or IMAGE & DARKHORSE. Some of us have made contacts with them.

QUALITY has to come FIRST...
and we have to produce the Comics.

Thanks.

GarSeeYa!!!

It has long been my dream to start up a studio, but until my name has some "street cred" attached to it, I'm happy just drawing comics, my goal being to produce them on a very TEXT basis.

It is good to see so many people interested in creating comics and studios. Some thoughts that may make your task look a little less daunting:

The moment you start drawing, you are by default creating comics and in a studio. Even if that studio is your kitchen. The big secret to "getting into the industry" is that you don't get into the industry, you are the industry. Logos, fancy digs and sales come later. Much later. Don't worry about that stuff as it will happen if you just start drawing. For sure it won't if you don't.

On a more sober note, be prepared to work. Seriously work. The business side will be tough enough if you get that far, but the steepest hurdle will be generating that first five hundred pages. You will need a body of work (not just character sketches and a website) if anyone is to take you seriously.

(Of course, if comics are just a pleasant hobby for you, that's okay, too.)

I wouldn't consider as a potential studio partner anyone who doesn't have a track record and neither should you. A lot of studios have just withered and died after the individuals involved discovered what was in front of them. There is a saying, "buy results, not promises."

I have had only two studio partners in my twenty year career. We would all have been fine without each other. Together, we really kicked ass. One is now an art director with his own studio and one is my wife. Not that the other guy wasn't cute and all.

If anyone wants to know just what it takes to get a studio up, I'll happily go over it with you. The rewards are amazing, but keep in mind that if it was easy, everybody'd be doing it.

Cheers!
-Derek

Good points all round, but I tend to look at things in a very realistic and very logical manner. So prepare for a smattering of Vince.

While a studio in town would be great, you really have to consider how it'll work. Already there are factions or sects of indy creators in town. I happen to be in one, though I think of it as more of a 'League of 5.' All these people with their various styles, options and schedules have to work for the good of the studio. And that can be a really tough thing to do, because as a studio you have to set some concrete deadlines, yet at the same time, you have to be flexible to the people working on it. If you're not, then people may start to abandon the whole thing and then you're left with no books and no staff.

You'll also have to work out salary, overhead, printing costs, all that stuff. And eventually, you'll have to work out profit sharing too. Not easy when you've got alot of people who'll be paying different costs and getting different returns based on quality and quantitiy of work as well as the unequalizing aspect of reputation as an artist. Those who've 'hit the big time' would naturally want more money as logic dictates their names attached to the project would garner more sales.

If there was a studio, there would have to be enough people and material to put out books on a regular or semi-regular basis. People forget series easily when it takes like 6 months to put them out. Realistically, no one can quit their day job and do it full time. Especially starting a new studio. Many creators worked a normal job while working on their first big comic breaks. The key to their success was making a comic that people really liked. That gave the publisher and studio enough of a reason to continue the series and probably give a pay raise to those involved. Job security sucks in the artistic industry. The reason why the top dogs are still the top dogs is because of their reputation. Look at how many people are clammoring for whatever Jim Lee's working on. He's got a rep and he keeps delivering on that.

I think as individuals, artists should work on getting portfolios and self-publications done before opening an official studio. Investors and fans need to see an impressive resume and portfolio of work before they even consider giving you a chunk of their paycheck.

The industry has gotten really diverse in the last ten years. The sweeping trend of manga, web comics and alternative comics have really boosted the choice in the industry, but have also watered down sales on many former mainstream series. If you really wanna succeed as a studio, you have to be 'as good' or 'better' than whats out there to get attention and sales. Talent and motivation mean jack if no one likes or reads your book.

Not only do you have to be good, you have to have distribution. I'm not sure of the strength of the calgary industry, but I know its not enough to keep a studio afloat. You need to branch out and get to as many people as possible. There's always places like Diamond and Coldcut, but there's always alternatives to those. There's seller's shops on Amazon, Cafepress, or even Comixpress. The internet is a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

So, I'm sure a few of you feel down-trodden and disillusioned now, but there is always hope. The best case I can give, is Flight. They were just a bunch of artists, with various levels of experience and talent, who made connections over forums and whatnot, and got together to create an anthology together. They picked the San Diego Comic-con to launch it, they promoted it all over the internet on comic and art forums, they wanted to make sure they got everyones attention. It was distributed through Image, they got Scott McCloud to do an afterword. They did it right. And they did it without a studio, not to say its the key to their success, but sometimes the local talent pool is not up to the challenge. You have to branch out and work with what you can find. ie over the internet. The book is really good and it looks very professional, it can stand up against anything next to it on the shelf. Vol. 2 is coming out, and I cannot wait, it is truly a revolutionary book. Pick it up if you haven't done so already, see how its done.

So there it is. In summary for those who skipped to the bottom or got lost in my writing:

1) Get better at drawing, writing, whatever you need to tell a story. Do it on your own or apply to a company and learn the trade there. This of course depends on how serious you are about becoming a full time artist.

2) Find people who can help or contribute, and if possible, make sure they are up to the task. Nothing kills a project better than someone backing out during production or failing to deliver.

3) Make a good product. The industry is diverse and expensive. Carving your niche will be a long and hard process, but talent and promotion will help greatly.

4) Find your audience. Find them whever you can. Get a website, get some online links going. Make promotions and ads. Keep comic book readers in the know. If they don't know you exist, they won't notice or look for you in the stores. Simple as that. Distribute books where you think they'll sell. Get articles done on any number of online comic book sites.

5) Don't limit yourself to Calgary. That's a sure death for any serious studio. Attend conventions, promote, get your books to all major cities and comic book stores either through major book distributors, internet ordering or just plain old correspondence. If needs be, find a publisher, have them do all of that for you. Places like Image, Slave Labor Graphics or IDW will take submissions for series. If you're good enough for the industry, it'll be harder for them to say no.

That's all I have for now.

-Vince-

Actually, IDW won't take unsolicited series proposals and haven't for the better part of a year (and they're pretty much booked till mid-to-late 2006 anyway).

Image has become a much, much tougher nut to crack now that Erik Larsen is in charge. There's still a chance of breaking through there, but new projects by unknown creators have become less of a priority than ever, with what seems like a lot of submissions slipping through the cracks there in the last year or so. I know of three projects currently contracted for publication at Speakeasy, all by people who are published comics creators, at least one by someone whose original graphic novel was published by Image less than two years ago--all these guys went with Speakeasy simply because there was no response at all to submissions made to Image (I have to admit to a little bitterness in this regard, as my PARTING WAYS submission never got a reply, either--but now knowing the talent of the people I'm in that boat with, I'm not so depressed about it.)

In addition to those new projects, which I don't think have been officially announced, there's PHANTOM JACK, SWORD OF DRACULA, and THE MERCURY CHRONICLES--the first two were originally published at Image, the other was set up to be published there, all had the plug pulled unceremoniously by the new regime and now have new homes, PJ and TMC at Speakeasy, SoD at IDW.

From posts B. Clay Moore, creator of HAWAIIAN thingy and Image's marketing guy has made on a couple of messageboards, I gather that the focus at Image these days is on getting a greater market share for the company (which has apparently fallen behind Dark Horse in terms of sales) by pursuing new, creator-owned work from established creators with something in the way of a built-in audience. FLIGHTs will happen, but finding and publishing new creators is, unfortunately, not the priority for Larsen that it was for Valentino.

SLG does look at new project proposals with a full creative team attached, and in at least one case I know of, has given fairly decent feedback along with rejection.

Speakeasy is aggressively looking for new projects; having a creative team attached is a big plus there.

Platinum Studios is also big on finding new projects, but only on a WFH basis, though creator-original projects do have a reversion clause that allows the creator to reclaim the properties after a period of time. The big upside of Platinum is that they'll look at projects without a full creative team attached.

Top Shelf looks at proposals, and responds. So does Terry Nantier at NBM. Both want creative teams attached.

Oni doesn't look at unsolicited submissions, and is booked way ahead.

AiT/PlanetLAR doesn't officially look at submissions. Unofficially, they really do look at subs that are finished, and if they like something, there's a very outside chance they might do something with it. Odds are they won't, though, unless you're a personal friend of the publisher.

Don't know about Alias, Kandora, of FC9.

IBooks and Archaia took submissions and never got back to me, but that was on a convention floor, which isn't a great place to be handing pitches off--they could simply have been lost.

...

What were we talking about again?

Most companies, unless you have something amazing, aren't interested or aren't willing to take the risk on new blood. It all comes down to trust. The reason Slave labour won't take submissions that aren't COMPLETELY finished is because they don't want to risk putting money into it, then find out you can't meet your deadlines or draw the caliber of art you did in your proposal.
Don't blame the companies, they just want to make a profit and cover their asses. And really, you can't blame them. In a small industry like comics, no one can afford to take risks it's too expensive

Andrew,

Fine by me if we stray off topic. I think a few of us need and want to hear abot the realities of persuing a carrer in this industry.

I've been at this for a while too, and know the frustrations of knocking my head on the glass ceiling- set up by many publishers.

Some one told me once that there is a " good old boys network" basically in three places in the U.S.

One is New York where DC and Marvel are. The second in southern California, where IMAGE and Hollywood are.
Third is the Northwest for Dark Horse Comics.

In these circles you see the same people at every gathering, a lot of work is handed out between friends.
There is a shallow pool that everyone swims in, with only so much room for all the little fishes. That pool is shrinking.

Why should the US have majority influence on the comic industry? They have the most buyers.

Stilll not everyone reads superhero books. There is a huge line up of very popular independant books. I can't give you any numbers as far as market share, but they are getting consumer support.

Canada is not doing so bad Arcana, Speakeasy, Udon the now defunct Dreamwave. We have the talent, we can produce the comics and do it well.

In Calgary we needed better communication, just to learn from one another. Hearing about others personal experiences, prepares us for the challenge.

Better to have the ammunition ready, knowing what lies ahead of you...and scouts-recon has given you reliable intel.

If we can't publish from Calgary, we can create a better
Comic Book and farm that off to publishers. There is no doubt that the talent is here, it is obvious on this forum.
If a few of us got together and did a solid four pages each- we could see another FLIGHT take off from Calgary.

Thanks Guys.

GarSeeYa!!!

New user here. Don't want to overstep my boundaries but I've really enjoyed this conversation and I just wanted to give a couple thoughts about some things if I may... I've only been publishing under Arcana for a year but I've learned volumes through successes and mistakes in that short period of time. Hopefully I these insights will help you decide what is best for your creative outlets...

Andrew basically nailed the answer as conventions aren't a bad place to show a company your idea but definitely do try and 'hit them at the right time'. There are times when we are selling books and are slammed and an artist comes to us with his portfolio...I can't leave and Todd or Mario or Egg do their best to try to do a solid review. As well always have a 'take home package' that they can have that has your email and/or phone number. I'm actually going to Calgary with full intent of doing portfolio reviews and trying to get some more Canadian talent. Todd Demong is Arcana's senior editor and a Calgarian.

As for what to show...keep it simple and show what you want to do. If you are pitching your penciling abilities show sequentials and not just some pin-ups. If you are a inker show before and after, colorists have to print full color pages (and presentation does actually matter). I've seen tonnes of submissions that didn't catch anyone's eye because it was a bad photocopy or it was rough I didn't know what they did. Put 4-7 pages together and make sure you put your best foot forward.

Self publishing...yeah...$10K is definitely on the low end. There are so many costs that I wouldn't have even thought of prior to doing it. Then you have to think..what is your goal? Do you want to be a publisher, a creator or an artist? If you want to be a recognized artist (e.g. 'Todd Demong') then make sure you get your work out there through different companies, different venues, etc. I definitely wouldn't self-publish...if your goal is to create the next big Intellectual Property (e.g. Kade or Ant) then find a publisher that will help catapult you much faster, cheaper and with less risk than you can. Finally if your goal is to become a publisher...take this advice I heard from William Christensen...to make a million dollars in publishing...you have to start with two million.

Having said all that I'm definitely here to help and I'm hoping that I can meet some great people for portfolio reviews in Calgary! Ultimately what Todd and I are looking for is either incredible talent that we can find a home for, or much easier, a GREAT story with GREAT art and a project you want to take on under the Arcana banner (this is what was done with Ant, 100 Girls, Starkweather, Hero House, etc.).

Finally...how I got sent to this board GarSeeYa sent me here to post the following link:

www.comiclotto.com/clients/torontocomicon/awards_vote.htm

If any of you could vote for Arcana, and possibly forward this to others who might vote it would be greatly appreciated.

Si vales, gaudeo!

Sean O'Reilly
Arcana Studio
www.arcanastudio.com

Do you see it as a responsibility to foster Canadian talent, or do you perceive a bias against Canadian creators South of the border and want to counteract that, or am I overanalyzing this completely and you've phrased things this way because you happen to be coming to a Canadian city?

In case it looks like I'm trying to start something, there's no right or wrong answer to this in my mind, I'm just curious.

Wow...i finally sat down and read everything in this thread. Thanks for the cool words about the stuff we've done, and hopefully a lot more in the future. As Devon had mentioned, we've been at plenty of shows over the last month or so, we were in Seattle, San Francisco, and most recently Long Beach California (for Wizard LA). I haven't even been back a full week yet.

We're also in the process of moving, sort of. We actually just bought a place and we're renovating it first. Anyways...

Some thoughts on the stuff in this thread...

Starting up a studio would definitely be a cool thing, and that's kinda what the Short Term Konsequences things was supposed to support. The whole comics industry thing is definitely a tough thing to crack, and you really have to be dedicated and serious about it if you want to have a chance in the industry.

I agree with pretty much everything that's been said with regards to the whole Calgary thing, but it's tough unless you have a specific goal, and an administrator / enforcer.

Let's look at STK for example, those books were something that I really pushed for, and it was a ton of work. I had a specific goal in mind, and a timeframe for the project. Let's say hypothetically you took me out of the equation, then the book probably would have never been published. Some of the contributors were really serious about it, and others weren't. It's really tough when not everyone is on the same page.

Another thing to consider is the 'job' part of it. No contributor was paid for their work, as in like an employee. So, for most people that changes how seriously they take something. What do I mean by that? If your paycheck depended on how well you performed. then there is a significant difference in how tackle a project.

The vast majority of comic artists aren't paid for their early work, their just trying to get something published so they can get noticed.

What I'm trying to get at is a concept called 'earned responisibility'. It's pretty straight forward, and remember that I come from a business background...let's say your working at a regular 9-5 job. Your duties are pretty straight forward, and there are quite a few ground level workers. Let's say the job is to mop floors. If I'm the boss, and I'm looking for a new manager, then there will be several qualities that I want that person to have. Some of these are; good work ethic, positive personality, responsible and trustworthy. The list could go on. If the person can't even do a simple task properly (mopping floors), then there's no way I'm going to give them the task of running the team! Simple right?

What does this mean for comics? You gotta show everyone else that you are serious about it (unless your not serious). All those little details add up, and that's what seperates the good from the average, and the good from the best. If you're not willing to put your all into a project that you're using to promote yourself, why would anyone give you the responsibility to develop a book?

I'm a big fan of 'actions speak louder than words', and your portfolio, or published work is essentially your actions. There have been numerous times that we've been approached while we're at a con about 'I have this great idea!" I'm sure Sean over at Arcana can agree with me on that one. Truth is, I want to see it, not hear it.

Point is, this applies to any business, not just the comics world....

I have a lot of respect for everyone out there in the industry, in some way, shape or form. And I'm not just talking about all the pros either, there are a lot of young talents here, like Damien with Dorkboy and Nick Johnson with Art of Dodging Shadows. Heck, Nick got his mini-series done before us! Devon for having lots of work to show, Richard for constantly improving....even Liefeld for being Liefeld.(ahem*)

Anyways, it's late and I've got to get up in a handful of hours for a breakfast meeting....I think my stuff has lost any coherancy...hope to hear from some of you soon

Kandrix

Nano-thought...

It seems that if anything is to happen, it would have to happen small. Maybe kind of like a studio band, where everything is self-motivated, put together small-scale.

Hopefully I can add to that list with Radioactive City. I've been putting together a pretty solid book with a few surprises in store. Doll Steak Issue 1 will also be coming out soon after ... both are under the Radioactive City name ...

Issue 1 of Radioactive City: Meltdown (no longer Presents) is already full and I'm working on the fill of Issue 2.

Issue 1 is looking to debut as of the CCTF and we're going to see about a launch party.

RC:M is based on promoting our talent here. I'm all up for helping out.