Cinebook to introduce cult graphic novel series “XIII” in English at the Bristol International Comic Expo.

Cinebook will publish “XIII” at the rate of one new volume every two months from May 2010 to July 2013.

Everybody will discover the identity of XIII in 2013!

Over the last 25 years, the dark, engrossing graphic novel series “XIII” has attracted a cult following in French-speaking countries and beyond, with readers eagerly awaiting every one of the 19th instalments published so far.

Launched in 1984, “XIII” was born of Jean Van Hamme’s script and William Vance’s art. Van Hamme was featured on the Wall Street Journal front page in May 2009. He is one of Belgium’s most successful contemporary novelists and comic writers.

Wiliam Vance is the illustrator of numerous bestsellers, including “Marshall Blueberry.”

Cinebook will hold daily drawings for free copies of XIII Vol.1 – The Day of the Black Sun at the Bristol International Comic Expo.

 http://technorati.com/blogging/article/5-tips-for-running-a-successful/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+trarticles+%28All+articles+at+Technorati%29

Here are five steps to insure that your blog is successful:

1) Develop quality content - Well, here’s a point we haven’t heard before. As cliché as it sounds, quality content is the foundation of a successful blog. Without quality content, the hard work that you put into marketing your blog will go to waste. It would be pointless to implement the following strategies without quality content.

*Hey,I think CBO has quality content,don’t you?  So,that’s a tick in the box!

2) Maximize social media potential - Implement strategies through social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to get your brand out there. You can start by marketing your blog through these sites and posting updates to your followers when you post new articles to your blog.

*Well,I mention CBO on my various Yahoo groups and on my Linkedin Profile as well as Face Book but I won’t touch Twitter.  But,still a tick in the box!

3) Reach out to authors with authority - Communicate with like-minded authors who have a large following. These authors can help by providing leverage for you and gain attention to your blog. Do not spam them, but let them know who you are and complement them on the work that they’re doing in their area of expertise.

It’s important that you don’t come across as though you have an agenda, but that you are there for purposes of socializing, especially at first. From time to time you may want to go back and communicate through different mediums, which leads me to my next point.

*Well,I have tried being friendly with other blog owners but but most just don’t want to know -some funny sorts in comics though Rafiq Raja and The Kryptonian have great blogs.  I know creators and publishers but most -not all- have their own agendas but what the heck -I try:half tick.

4) Comment on other’s posts - One of the best ways to get your name in front of major authors in your niche, and possibly get high quality back-links to your site, is reading and commenting on blog posts.

The key to doing this is providing quality feedback. By doing this, you gain the attention of the author, which in turn will draw attention to your site. When you get accomplished authors viewing your site, and they see quality content that they like, they will link to your site which gives you major points in search engine ranking.

*I do try commenting but some people always look at comments suspiciously!  Seriously,some groups won’t let me on because I’m not keen on scanning new books!  But still a tick I feel.

5) Participate in forums - Do a Google search on forums closely related to the topic of your blog and actively participate them. When you have helpful and quality feedback on a topic in the forum that is beneficial to the topic author, naturally, the author and a number of other readers and commentators, will want to find more helpful information that you have to provide.

*Well,again,I try.  That said,too many forums are just 99.9% full of people saying “superb” “Fantastic” “Wonderous” “The best art ever” -seriously,some people could get that reaction if they put a photo of snot on their page.  Never,ever give false opinions to flatter someone so I’m not getting a tick here!

I think Jarrod has come up with some good tips for newbies wanting to push their blogs.  It certainly made me think about what I do but I think the big plus is “if you enjoy it -do it”!

Independent Comic and Small Press publishers should welcome this as it gets them into a real comic shop where there books can be seen.

Excelsior! Comics are stocking books on a Sale-or-Return basis.  The deal is 60-40 and if you are in Bristol or the area just pop in and chat to Marcus Kent.  If you are further afield drop him a line at:

marcuskent@hotmail.co.uk

Hey,if you are passing check out their Manga range and ask about their games evenings and Anime events.

Someone asked me a question that got me thinking.  “Who out of al[sic] the comic artists you like would you really love to work with as a writer?”

Being honest,it didn’t take that long to answer.  There would be two groups of choices:UK and USA.

Sadly,Don Heck is no longer with us but he influenced me a lot when I was younger and his work still looks cool [and a certain editor at Marvel Comics dumped him to one side…no,let’s keep this happy Sunday not Bitter Sunday!],John Buscema likewise,no longer with us.  That leaves:

Sal Buscema -also a great influence and his work was not just professional but expressed action and fun and his The Mighty Avengers work,The Defenders –so much now out there via The Essentials titles!

John Byrne -Okay,I slipped out of reading comics for a few years as I was busily trying to work in them but then,on walking into a newsagents in Bedminster with my young brother,Michael,my eye was caught by a cover:Alpha Flight no.4,November,1983!  I try not to analyse these things but that cover made me pick the book up and half-way through I was definitely a Byrne fan.   Doomsday+1,Rog and other strips I was familiar with but Byrne has consistently shown his love of characters and good story-telling.

Neal Adams -oh boy. Do I need to give a reason to be an Adams fan??  Superb artistic and colouring skills and a great stor-teller.

Jim Steranko -am I showing my age now?  Very stylish.

Gene Colan -WHO would not want to work with Gene The Dean??!

Carlos Pacheco -again;just look at his work.

There are,obviously,others and I’m going to kick myself after for not including them here.  I would like to work with a number of the 1960s/1970s artists but that’s all fantasy wish-list stuff.

In the UK the choice is smaller.  Mike Western [”The Guv’nor”] is no longer with us but at least I managed to ink a The Leopard From Lime Street pencilled illo he did -and he liked it!

John [”Coop”] Cooper -been a big fan of his from Johnny Red,One-Eyed Jack,Judge Dredd and in recent years Armitage for the Dredd Megazine.  And those Action Force strips -classic!

Barry Mitchell -another British comics great who,like Coop,I’ve interviewed.

Thing is,so many are just passing away in relative obscurity.  We just don’t show British creators the respect they deserve [writing and drawing comics isn’t “five minutes easy work for a lot of cash” as one person put it to me before running away!].

Jon Haward -I can’t believe how under-rated Jon seems to be.  Fantastic work.

Nigel Dobbyn -been a fan of his work since Super Adventure Stories,a zine waaay back in the 1980s.  His work now is superb and he’s revitalised Thomson’s Billy The Cat without ruining him.

Shane Oakley -another former zinester and I’d urge everyone to check his work out online.

Matt [D’Israeli]Brooker -now I surely do not have to tell people about Matt’s work?  I was a fan of his waaaay back -almost as “waaay back” as Nigel Dobbyn].

There are others but they know me and remembering names!

An eclectic mix.  And you,CBOers -whose work do you rate?  Hmm?

If you never read The Lost Generation by John Byrne there is a nice little write-up here:

http://www.comicbookbin.com/Marvel_The_Lost_Generation001.html

Technically,it is far easier to put together a comic album of new material than it is to put together one of Golden Age strips -whether UK or US GA.

New strips it’s simply scan-resize-convert to pdf-upload.

With Golden Age comic strips it just ain’t that simple! 

Firstly,you are dependent on other collectors scans and so long as they are a reasonable size no problem.   However,when you are talking about comics that are 50 or 60 or even 70 years old it is a far different matter.  Remember that these were cheaply printed “throw-away” kids entertainment available for 2  to 6 pennies in the UK or 10 cents in the US.  The paper can look good but be as brittle as brittle can be or stapled slightly off centre.  Combine the two and it’s not a comic you really want to manhandle a lot.

This is a big problem.  In reprinting GA strips there were certain considerations:one was to make the books affordable.  It would have been wonderful to have full colour but the cost would be too high and so it was decided the books would be in black and white.  So,lower cover price.

The strips were selected.  Easy.  Then the snag.  Because of the age of the comic no collector,no matter how generous,is going to rip apart his valued comic which,let’s be honest,he may have paid a small fortune for.  It would destroy the book.  So when it comes to selecting the strips to reprint you have the problem that some pages are going to be slightly or noticeably crooked.  However,you never hear GA fans on any group protest:”Those pages were crooked.  You ruined it for me!”  GA fans know how rare the books are and how lucky they are to see them -even as scans.   In fact,a crooked page is not something that will put a true GA fan off.

As a publisher I look at the crooked page and it annoys me.  As a GA fan it doesn’t -even in black and white this is a printed version a fan can hold and read and not get boggle-eyed by looking at online scans.

Simply converting a colour page to grey scale is not all it entails by any means.  Lettering and printing can be off or faded so it needs to be adjusted brightness/contrast.  In some cases a single page may need to be altered using brightness and contrast 2-3 times.  Now if you consider that there might be 10-15 pages that need this sort of work doing you can see it takes time.

In fact,it can take 5-6 hours to make 4-5 colour pages suitable for printing as black and white.

 Then you have the other “basic chores”:re-sizing pages and then converting the whole to a pdf file which is the easy bit. 

It would be easier if I had the original pages or copies of the books themselves,of course..but could I tear up a GA comic to scan?  I doubt it!

Of course there are other problems and they seem to show up in UK comics exclusively:sellotape repairs,foxing on the pages [mould spotting],huge tears across pages and even scribbling.  So far I have managed to cover all of these up and I think I’ve done quite well.  One collector who sent me a scanned strip that was awful -sellotape,foxing and even rips,emailed me to say he was glad I’d found another copy to use -he wouldn’t believe it was the scan he’d sent me!!

Oh,and then we have the colour.  Black and white would be nice but UK war-time comics were printed on odd papers and ink shortages meant purple,orange,red and even green inks were used and some of it so faded that on first glanced I’ve just shaken my head and said “un-use-able”!  But I’ve worked on the pages and not done too bad a job!

So,there is my moan.  Then why do all this? My name is Terry Hooper and I’m a comic geek.

You can find Keiren’s blog over at:

http://templetonsmith.wordpress.com/

I am now off to punish myself by smearing hot vegetarian cottage pie across my body….hmmm. cottage pie.

For folks eager to get my new book “Follow Your Art”,it is 100 pages,black and white,US Comic book size and a cover price $12,add $3 p&h for US, $5 elsewhere.

Available for ordering through either Paypal roberta (at) drizzle (dot) com or snailmail my NEW PO Box, Roberta Gregory, Box 9599, Seattle WA 98109.

Since it is POD,sorta,the per-copy price is higher for me than regular..printing but I am trying to keep the price down.

The next collection of US Golden Age strips from the Centaur line is due for publication in May.  The cover above is a little teaser!