More True Believers

Contact cards and examples from artists

Whilst working at the comic festival the most valuable experiences I had were talking to comic book creators, seeing the variety of work there and getting advice about my own work.

I enjoyed chatting to Jude Melon also known as JCMelon a London based artist who has an ongoing webcomic 'fight or flight' found at http://fightorflightcomic.blogspot.co.uk/

Comic cover #1

bookmark from TBCF

Although 'fight of flight' is an ongoing and major part of his professional practice JCMelon taught me of the importance of diversifying and having shorter more saleable things that customers can by rather than having to get fully invested in an ongoing series.

one of his prints

To attract more fans and to give them a taste of his art style JCMelon also produces cute prints with mainly animal characters and amusing quotes and slogans, these have a wider appeal and customers would like to buy them as gifts as they have obvious messages.

JCMelon was talking about how artists always have  a big project or plan that they want to achieve but you have to do smaller scale work first to get experience and attract fans.By the end of this the large project will have changed in nature, having been influenced by the smaller scale works and you will also have created a fan base.

After talking to JC Melon I will take a step back from the comic book I have planned and try to diversify with more saleable items.

Another artist I met and greatly admire is Paul Duffield an illustrator and comic book artist who produces serialised webcomics as well as contributing to other works such as The Phoenix Weekly Story Comic. His comics are available to read on his website  www.paulduffield.co.uk/

His newest graphic novel 'The Firelight Isle'

I find that his compositions are beautiful and add a new dimension to reading his stories. I bought his comic 'Signal' a short wordless tale that he describes as a 'visual poem'. This can be seen in the flowing sequence of the panels the repeated patterns and elements like notes the layered imagery like a complex melody. It has inspired me to create something similar as I want to create a shorter piece of work that will advertise my style and get me used to seeing a project through to completion.

My copy of 'Signal' already well-loved

Page spread from 'Signal'

I will contact Paul Duffield soon and hopefully get an interview and some advice.

Potential Publishers

UK Comics publisher

I met Stuart Gould at the True Believers fair who was easy to spot as he was eccentrically dressed and found he strongly supports independent creators and will help printing comic books art books and graphic novels aswell as prints and posters. He takes a personal approach unlike online printers and wants to know the creator and their project. Once I have a comic book project fully planned out I will consider working with him as I like his attitude and approach. UK Comics helped to publish John Lock's 'Afterlife' comics and he is a Cheltenham based author who was one of the most important creators at the festival.

Hellbound Media publishers

Hell bound media is a publisher specialising in small print comics often as the name suggests with horror and supernatural storylines. They also produce collective volumes with guest artists doing different stories. I liked the work in these and showed them my 'Remnants' booklet, they liked my art style especially on the cover and I left them my contact details. I got a good response from them so would consider seeing if they would publish some of my work in the future ' Remnants' has supernatural themes so might fit well with them.