All posts tagged books
Friday, December 1st, 2006
My brother Kevin Robertson’s new comic American Soil is now available to order in both print and PDF copies. It’s a Horror Comedy Political Satire inspired by the U.S. led “War on Terrorism”, and set amidst an invasion of flesh eating zombies. Fantastic artwork, and a very entertaining script make this a great book for those interested in comics, horror films, and recent political events. I recently asked Kevin some questions about the book, and the process that brought it together.
(more…)
Tags: art, books, Family, film, politics, spooky, webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Monday, January 30th, 2006
My brother gave me a copy of Lloyd Kaufman’s new book
Make Your Own Damn Movie for Christmas, and I’ve been reading it on my lunch breaks. It offers a bit more practical advice than Lloyd’s first book—
All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger: The Shocking True Story of Troma Studios. Lloyd Kaufman is, as I’m sure you’re all aware, the prolific independent filmmaker behind the Oscar winning films
The Toxic Avenger and
Class of Nuke ‘Em High 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid. Lloyd’s lunatic anecdotes about the chaos of his productions is oddly appealing—at least to me. As I mentioned earlier, one of my resolutions for 2006 is to finally make a return to filmmaking in some form or another, and shoot my own Damn Movie.
The challenge of course is that I have very little money to put into making a movie, and Guelph isn’t exactly Hollywood—or even Hollywood North (aka Toronto). So I decided to see what resources we do have here…
It looks like the website for Ed Video recently received a much needed update, and is now considerably easier to work with. Ed Video is Guelph’s video arts co-op, offering a wide range of support for people interested in making movies. Filmmakers can rent DV cameras (including the Panasonic AGDVX100 which can shoot 24 frame progressive video), tripods, lights and audio equipment. They also make editing facilities and audition space available for aspiring film auteurs. Considering that they offer a handful of film production courses, it reminds me a lot of film school—only with more modern gear.
Ed Video had a link to ontariofilm.com, a new site intended to provide aspiring filmmakers that are outside of greater metropolitan areas access to a filmmaking community in Ontario. The messageboard is pretty quiet at the moment, but I’m not sure if that’s due to a lack of interest, the newness of the site, or people just not knowing about it. Maybe mentioning it here will help out with that last point.
Finally, anyone in the area who might be interested in working on an independent film this summer, send me an email and I’ll let you know when I’ve got things a bit more organized. Sometime after I finish the second half of Lloyd’s book.
Tags: books, designmeme, film
Posted in designmeme | 6 Comments »
Saturday, December 10th, 2005
I’ve been publishing some new lenses with Squidoo this weekend. I’m still getting used to the system, and I’m not sure whether this site will become very popular, but I was fortunate enough to get a few good URLs for my pages so it’s probably worth investing some time in developing them and seeing what happens.
I was fortunate enough to register book, board games, magazine and video as well as a few others. There’s not much to see now, but hopefully there will be soon.
It’s an interesting process putting a lense together — in some ways like any other page, but in others quite different. Without little control over the way things are presented visually, there is a fair amount of trial and error to get things right. My plan is to slowly build up my lenses over the next week or so, and then wait to see how much of an audience Squidoo is attracting before spending too much time on this.
Tags: books, web
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Saturday, December 3rd, 2005
Adding to the the section on tools and workspaces I wrote for the Webcomics book, here is my list of the top 10 webcomic resources.
Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud
A comic book about comic books, and an incredible resource for anyone working in the graphic arts. Understanding Comics provides numerous insights for how to structure your comics.
DrawingBoard.org
Some of the best illustrators on the web post their artwork on this message board, and the numerous drawing challenges provide a great opportunity to improve your artwork and get feedback.
Strathmore Sketchbook
Everyone has a different type of paper that they like. I’m partial to Strathmore, and find the sketchpads fairly economical while giving much nicer drawing surface than whatever I’ve got in the printer.
Sakura Brush Pen
The organic and variable line weight of a brush, with the convenience of a pen. A brush pen won’t spill, and is cheaper than most ink and brushes.
Blambot Fonts, by Nate Piekos
Tons of comic lettering fonts for dialogue, sound fx, and titles. Each month two new fonts are added to the catalogue—and one of them is free for independent comic book creation and non-profit use!
Adobe Photoshop
Most web hosting companies limit the amount of bandwidth your website can use each month. Making sure your webcomic images are properly optimized is an important, and often overlooked step in online publishing.
Wordpress
A free blogging system you can add to your website. Having a blog is a good way to keep your webcomic readers informed, and makes updating services like Google and Technorati a lot easier. Some web hosting companies even offer wordpress to all their users.
Google Adsense
A great idea for making some extra income from your webcomic, signing up for google adsense lets you put ads on your website based on your specific content. Visit DJ Coffman’s thoughts on making money with your webcomic for more advice on advertising.
Comic Book Legal Defence Fund
News and information about comic censorship in the U.S. If you’re thinking of making an edgy or adult themed comic, this may be a good resource for you.
Coffee
Whether you get your fix from Tim Horton’s or make it at home in a coffee press, this is essential. Use with caution.
I’d be interested in hearing from other artists about webcomic resources they’d add to this list.
Tags: books, design, tutorial, web, webcomic
Posted in tools | 5 Comments »
Saturday, November 26th, 2005
Last year Steven Withrow asked me to contribute to a book he was putting together on webcomics. I was flattered to be asked, and wrote what I thought would be good advice for someone getting started with using a computer to publish their comics. At the time I thought the book would probably be small press or self-published, and after a few months I forgot about it entirely.
A few weeks ago I was at Chapters, our local bookstore, and saw a really nice book called… Webcomics : Tools and Techniques for Digital Cartooning... by Steven Withrow and John Barber! It wasn’t a small press book after all—it was a high quality, full-colour coffee table book. But what impressed me the most was the the number of talented cartoonists who had also contributed advice and artwork. Some like Nate Piekos, Joey Manley and Amy Ganter I knew quite well. Others like Shaenon Garrity and Joe Zabel I knew of, but hadn’t really read much of their work. As I flipped through the pages I realized it wasn’t just a book that I’d pick up because I’d contributed to it—it was actually the sort of book I’d want to have on my shelf next to my copy of Understanding Comics.
I spent some time reading through my copy today, and it makes me want to pick up my sketchbook and pencils again.
Tags: books, webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
My mother-in-law Sheila has a new website at MooAlley.com. The site has information about her recently published book Somebody Move the Cat! (ISBN 1-896922-27-9) as well as the other writing projects she’s working on. The site takes its name from the laneway near her house which is frequented by cows from the neighbour’s farm.
Tags: books, Family
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
