Comic Forum Zine?

Fysh

It occurs to me that with the discussions of Small Press Comics and Irish Free Comic Day, it'd be good to have a zine-style comic with entries from posters on the comic forum. I'm already trying to get a collection of Comic Challenge strips together, but I want to keep this as a separate thing.

I'm thinking of 1-2 pages per person, black and white (perhaps with half-tones) and no spread pages. Possibly standard comic size, possibly A5. (Obviously I'll clarify the specs if this does go ahead before people submit/prepare work for it). Beyond that, whatever you want to do - illustrated articles, one 2-page comic, a bunch of small strips, whatever. (Probably the best example of what I'm thinking of here is Pádraig o'Méalóid's "Puny Earthling").

Bearing in mind that I'm still trying to work out how to go about doing this, anyone who's interested in contributing, please let me know. I'd like to keep it as a forum-based thing to try and promote the community we've got here, but equally I'd like to stress that this is open to everyone. Part of the idea is to encourage anyone who's a bit wary of self-publishing or making comics to give it a go - it's easier than you'd think to put a page together, and I'll take care of the messy stuff like getting it put together, printed, distributed etc.

Who's up for it then?

Ger_Hankey

I know I wouldn't be the most prolific poster on the forum, but I'd love to get invloved. Count me in!

ztoical

count me in too

Nathanual

As just a writer you can count on me for anything...

Stephen

magwea

Might be interesting to print an extract of some of the discussion threads from the forum as interview style articles.

Patrick Brown

SubCon's on in Dublin on 29 September, and the Dublin City Comic Con's on 22-23 November. It might be an idea to try and put something together in time for one or the other?

Fysh

That's a fair suggestion although I may well not be at either con. I have a local printer in mind for this so I'll try and sort out the deadline and format soon and post up. It would be nice to have a presence at the cons, though...

ztoical

Patrick Brown wrote: »

SubCon's on in Dublin on 29 September

Are you sure? I didn't think it was on this year. The 29th was the date for last year and the 29th of september this year is a monday.

Patrick Brown

Looks like you're right. Still, there's always the Dublin City con in November to aim for.

ztoical

If we wanted to get this printed for mid October we should sort out some details now like dimensions, submission deadline and wither people are allowed submit existing work or if it has to be new work [and if thats the case is it open forum or themed]

Fysh

Argh, you're right. Here goes:

Print size is going to be A5.
Each person involved has 2 pages to do with as they wish.
Submission deadline is 31st of August.
As for existing work, new material would be preferable but existing material is fine.
No colour submissions please, black and white only. If you want to convert an existing piece to grayscale you can do, but if it wouldn't look good photocopied chances are it's no good to me.
(I know, I should probably specify bleed but I'm not sure yet and was going to try and figure it out later rather than make something up and show my ignorance on the subject...)

alnolan

Count me in as well, Kylo.

Al.

Ger_Hankey

Cool! Time to get the ol' thinking cap on....
Got an email address & preferred file type etc. for the submissions?

Fysh

Great stuff Alan

The email address is fyshbowlcomics(a)gmail.com. File formats are the usual: JPG, PNG, GIF or TIFF should be enough for most, but basically if I can open it in Photoshop, it's OK.

livingtargets

sounds deadly.
Does it have to be a comic or can it be pin-ups as well?
Either way I`ll try to do something for it.

Luke F ( http://lukefcomics.blogspot.com/ )

Fysh

Hi Luke, anything goes. Comics, pinups, articles/interviews/rants with doodles in the margins. The only thing I would ask is not to use any 2-page spreads - since I'm not sure where or how I'll be getting this printed up yet (the printer I had in mind turns out not to be an option, since they're actually in Manchester - d'oh!) I don't know if I'll be able to use them properly.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

File formats are the usual: JPG, PNG, GIF or TIFF should be enough for most, but basically if I can open it in Photoshop, it's OK.

wait this is for print right? Then GIF bad! Your going to have to convert everything to the one file format to print and you can't convert from say a GIF to a TIFF without it going super fuzzy due to GIF's being limited to 256 pixels

Fysh

Argh, my lack of knowledge exposed! (I'll be honest, I've never really used GIFs because they're rubbish for colour, I didn't realise there were other issues with it).

Right, scratch GIFs from the list then. If it's down to my preference, then I'd go for PNG, but TIFFs or JPGs will do at a stretch. 300dpi please, anything less will run the risk of looking severly pixelly and crap.

Fysh

Just a thought - for those who aren't aware, A5 is 210mm tall by 140mm wide. Of course, without knowing what bleed I'm using that's not much help. I promise I'll figure it out over the weekend and update here accordingly.

thebaddy

Hey Fysh. Nice idea about the 'zine. I'll throw some stuff your way.

Fysh

As pointed out to me recently, A5 is in fact 148.5mm by 210. (I blame either wikipedia or my inability to correctly read wikipedia for the oversight). Owing to the requirement for continuing experimentation into how I'm going to print this (hopefully happening later this afternoon) I've not yet got a definite answer on the bleed issue.

Fysh

Alright, I've been messing around with printers and copiers at work and have decided that the easiest thing is to have the page size as A5 with 5mm margins. Again I stress, anything sent to me should be black and white - you can try for grayscale if you want, but the rule of thumb should be something that looks ok after a black & white photocopy.

livingtargets

okee-doke
one thing,is A5 the total size including margins or is it A5 with 5mm added on?
sorry if that seems like a thick question,it`s just I don`t want to make any silly mistakes...
Luke

Fysh

Fair question, I could probably have explained myself more clearly - A5 is the full size including margins, so your effective drawing space is 138.5mm by 200mm.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

Fair question, I could probably have explained myself more clearly - A5 is the full size including margins, so your effective drawing space is 138.5mm by 200mm.

are people allowed have the artwork bleed?

Fysh

Not this time round, unfortunately. If this goes well I'd like to turn it into a regular thing though, and it might be possible then.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

Not this time round, unfortunately. If this goes well I'd like to turn it into a regular thing though, and it might be possible then.

ok there was a little confusion there - the measurements given wouldn't be called bleed - bleed would be bigger then paper size [to allow your artwork to bleed off the page]. Here the 148.5mm by 210 would be the trim size [ie where the paper is cut or trimmed] and you do your artwork in the live area which is the area 5mm in from the trim.

ztoical

hey Fysh,

Can I clear up some confusion I have - your putting together a collection of the creator challange comics for the free comic day right? Is the boards zine going to be part of the free comic day or is it being put together to sell? Also are people allowed submit exsiting pieces to the zine or does it have to be new work ?

Fysh

ztoical wrote: »

hey Fysh,

Can I clear up some confusion I have - your putting together a collection of the creator challange comics for the free comic day right? Is the boards zine going to be part of the free comic day or is it being put together to sell? Also are people allowed submit exsiting pieces to the zine or does it have to be new work ?

Hey,

I'm working on a collection of the comic challenge entries at the moment, but I haven't yet been able to make sure that it'll be worth getting printed up in volume. It's a separate endeavour to the Boards Zine though. I'm in two minds as to whether the Comic Challenge Collection will be free or not, but the Zine will definitely be free. (For what it's worth, the highest price I'd be willing to put on the Comic Challenge Collection would be ~€3, which would just about cover the printing costs and to my mind is not an unreasonable price for 52 pages of comics. More on this when I've managed to confirm in the next couple of weeks whether the printed version is actually feasible or not...)

Regarding submissions to the zine - I would prefer new material if possible, but any existing material people want to contribute that fits the requirements is also more than welcome.

dmcloughney

Hey Fysh,

The zine is a great idea and I would love to be a part of it. I'am working on something at the moment that I hope to have ready for Irish free Comic day but I'll try my best to get 2 pages of a seperate work over to you by the end of the month. Is it ok if I end the two pages with "to be continued" and direct readers to my comic which will have the conclusion? I don't want to step on any toes, basically is it ok to use the zine to promote my stuff.

Fysh

Hi there,

My general preference is for self-contained material, but so long as your comic includes an indication of where readers should go to find the rest of it (be that in print or on the web) then I think it's fair enough. The zine's point is to promote everyone who contributes, after all.

On a more general note, please remember that the deadline is August 31st. I've had a couple of pages through from people already, and am normally happy to be flexible with the Comic Challenge but since this needs to be printed up I can't really do the same thing here. If you're interested in contributing and I don't have an email address for you, please either PM it to me or mail me at fyshbowlcomics(a)gmail.com.

Cheers,
Fysh

dmcloughney

Cool, I'll have 2 pages over to ya before the 31st. Just a few quick questions: How many pages do you think will be in the final print? Also how many copies of the zine do you think you will be able to print off and what shops are you gonna stock them in?
Again, Fair play for organising this and if you need a hand give us a shout.

Fysh

My initial thought was 24 pages including covers (which realistically means 20-22 pages of comics) but it depends on how many submissions I get - I'd rather keep the page count to 24 and pad it out with pages from the Comic Challenge if there aren't enough submissions, but we'll see how we go.

I'm thinking of ~300 copies initially. I'd like to send copies to the main comic shops in Dublin, Cork and Galway at least (figuring on between 25 and 50 copies per shop). I also want to have a bunch to give away at 24 Hour Comic Day. Later on I may print up another batch for the Dublin Comic Con, but I have to get it put together before I start thinking about that sort of thing

Fysh

I was hoping to avoid doing this, but due to circumstances there's no way around it - I'm extending the deadline for submissions to the zine until the 14th of September. (Partly because a couple of people have asked me to, and partly because I won't be able to dedicate the necessary time to it before then).

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

I was hoping to avoid doing this, but due to circumstances there's no way around it - I'm extending the deadline for submissions to the zine until the 14th of September. (Partly because a couple of people have asked me to, and partly because I won't be able to dedicate the necessary time to it before then).

cheers fysh, I've the pages for the GOAL anthology off to the printers this week so can focus on my submission then.

Fysh

Just a reminder for anyone who wants to send me something for the zine, the deadline is Sunday. Mail it to me at fyshbowlcomics(a)gmail.com.

Fysh

It's been a while since I updated this thread, but the zine seemed to go down pretty well over the weekend at 24 hour comic day. I erred on the side of caution and got loads printed so a good few people got to see it; as far as I know copies ended up in Sub City, and should hopefully appear in other comic shops around the place in the next few days (I still have a good few copies that I will endeavour to distribute as well, but that's another matter). I think one or two people took some to give away at the Dublin City Comic Con.

When I get a chance, I'll put together a web-only version in PDF and upload both that and the printer-friendly version I used to create the sample so that anyone who wants a hard copy can have one.

It seems to have gone down well, so I think we can at least consider an issue #2. I'd love to see this as a regular thing (maybe dropping to 16 pages per issue, and possibly with written pieces as well as comics) of some sort but that's not the same thing as having it be feasible, as Bob Byrne's valiant efforts with The Shiznit showed.

The first thing is to work out whether folks are up for this again (perhaps on a quarterly basis), before we go trying to figure out how to do it. What say ye?

Saruwatari

Picked up an orange copy of it, loved it! I completely forgot about until I spotted it at the table that day. I think it'd be a great venue for showing off the underground talent here, and perhaps get some more content made for the zine (rather than putting in pre-made material, not that it's too important)

And cheers for putting a link to my blog Kyle, didn't spot that till' I got home! And I think the articles are a nice idea. I'd love to do something for the next one,I've got a MidTerm Break next week so I'd have a bit of spare time from exams and work to do it.

BTW, did that fecker Bob ever turn up at all? And did Al and Dec return at any stage?

Fysh

No problems re: the blog, thought it would be nice to have links to as many people from here as possible given it was a boardsie thing

As for Bob, he never did show up, sadly. Don't think Alan or Declan made it back either, although I could be wrong there - the whole thing's going a bit hazy now what with the lack of sleep, heh.

Ger_Hankey

Fysh wrote: »

It's been a while since I updated this thread, but the zine seemed to go down pretty well over the weekend at 24 hour comic day. I erred on the side of caution and got loads printed so a good few people got to see it; as far as I know copies ended up in Sub City, and should hopefully appear in other comic shops around the place in the next few days (I still have a good few copies that I will endeavour to distribute as well, but that's another matter). I think one or two people took some to give away at the Dublin City Comic Con.

When I get a chance, I'll put together a web-only version in PDF and upload both that and the printer-friendly version I used to create the sample so that anyone who wants a hard copy can have one.

It seems to have gone down well, so I think we can at least consider an issue #2. I'd love to see this as a regular thing (maybe dropping to 16 pages per issue, and possibly with written pieces as well as comics) of some sort but that's not the same thing as having it be feasible, as Bob Byrne's valiant efforts with The Shiznit showed.

The first thing is to work out whether folks are up for this again (perhaps on a quarterly basis), before we go trying to figure out how to do it. What say ye?

I was in town on Saturday morning and went to a couple of places but didn't find it anywhere. It was ridiculously early mind you, so maybe they didn't have them yet?

But yeah, I'd definitely be up for doing another one.

Fysh

Ger_Hankey wrote: »

I was in town on Saturday morning and went to a couple of places but didn't find it anywhere. It was ridiculously early mind you, so maybe they didn't have them yet?

But yeah, I'd definitely be up for doing another one.

I'd hoped to get a chance to drop in copies to the likes of FP and Sub City, but as it turned out I already arrived about half an hour late to 24 Hour Comic Day. Bridgeen was a star and dropped a bunch of them into Sub City, and I think someone took some over to Octocon as well. If there aren't any in Forbidden Planet or Tower by the end of the week let me know and I'll sort out sending some over.

ztoical

in case people are wondering what their looking out for

Saruwatari

I somehow creased mine down the middle and there's some 7up stains on it from a can I thought was empty, bah. Next time I'm in town, I'll pick up a few to give to some friends...

Fysh

As I mentioned before, I still have some copies of the zine that I should probably arrange to send over somewhere for further distribution. In the meantime, I've uploaded the original PDF file (at printable quality) to rapidshare here - set up your printer to print A4 double-sided (flipping the pages in landscape orientation, not portrait) and you'll have your own copy. One or two people asked about this so it's worth clarifying - as far as I'm concerned I have no problem with people printing up a few copies of the zine to give out, the only thing I'd object to is people charging anything other than what it costs you to print it up.

For those who either don't have broadband or don't want to print up the zine, I've also got a lower-res copy for reading on your computer screen here.

Let me know if either link gives you trouble, although as far as I can tell both are currently working.