Notes from the Field: Production I

Setting out to create a comic is never as easy as one might think, even after years of experience in the general art field. I'll be going over some of the technical issues behind the creative process that make this art form "special" on many levels. While their are many books that go over what you should do, I still feel like there is information that'll slip through the cracks.

So it goes with the first issue. While our goal is to finish all five books before we even solicit them, it means we have to put each and every issue to bed before moving onto the next one. The first issue I'm quite positive is usually the hardest.
The challenges I'm faced with are numerous. It's a 32 page book, and those who are not familiar with pagination (the front-to-back numbering of pages) sometimes find it a challenge to decipher. A 32 page comic actually includes in the page count the covers inside and out. Those count as four pages, and the rest of your story has to fit in 28. Trying to explain that to Scott was tough, as I'd get confused myself. He had to adjust the script numerous times accordingly. Here's a template that I made to help us layout the book and see it. Since we're both artists, this was quite valuable.

As boring and technical as this may be, understanding it helps free me up to be more creative.

The other part of the battle is the publishers printing and production methods. The best way to understand that is to go right to the source, the print production manager. Image is a staff-wise a small operation, but they handle a lot of books. So I decided to ask other creators the questions I had regarding, coloring resolution, output, and other small technical things. What I found is a bevy of different answers, and some similar ones. As far as final file outputs for color, 400 dpi was the lowest anyone should color their work. That's a big issue to me as I've colored the first issue at 300 dpi. I guess I had been under the wrong impression for some time. Better to find out now then get 5 issues down the road.

My biggest fear was: Am I going to have to recolor 28 pages?

In my next installment I'll go over what kind of hole I dug for myself, and how I got out...or am working on getting out.

=s=