Posted by Pete

Tom Gauld and Simone Lia of Cabanon Press got in touch. They do a number of interesting looking books which they promise to send me, which is a good thing.

Anyone else wants to send me stuff, send it to BugPowder, PO Box 20778, London, E3 4WD

10:59 AM |

Posted by Pete

Taken from the BugPowder mailing list:

Rough Guide To Publishing
by Toby Tripp

You've got a (comic) book.
You want to print/publish it.
Before you do: get an ISBN number from:
The ISBN agency, Woolmead House, Bear Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7lG

Barcodes are the mark of the beast.
Have a barcode made that relates to the ISBN of your (comic) book.
Normally you need to pay about twenty pounds per barcode, unless you have a friend who can do it for free.
Barcodes aren't essential for all potential retailers of your (comic) book, but, if you plan to sell them through big chains like Waterstone's or Borders, it will help your case. Amazon.co.uk won't sell anything without a barcode.
Make sure the barcode is printed at 1200dpi.

Now publish your (comic) book. Make sure you think your (comic) book is good, and enjoy that feeling while it lasts. Because no doubt, in about a weeks time you'll think it's a pile of shit. And in about a month, you'll know it is.

Next you need to supply Whitaker and Bookdata with relevant information (title, author, isbn, content etc) about the (comic) book. Get a form from them or do it on the net. It takes months for them to process this information - so do it early.
Once processed, people will be able to order your book from bookshops around the country via a system called Whitaker Teleordering. Once again, many big chains won't consider selling a (comic) book unless it's available through the Teleordering System. Amazon.co.uk also requires this.

Once published, send a copy of your (comic) book to:
The Legal Deposit Office at the British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7BY with a letter saying you'd like to deposit it for copyright purposes.
Give your address. You'll get a dated receipt from them in a few weeks. This ensures, in a pretty watertight way, copyright of your work.

Now, for posterity, (and also by law,) send five copies of your (comic) book to the:
Agent for the Copyright Libraries. 100 Euston St, London, NW1 2HQ.

These will be forwarded on to the Universities of Oxford & Cambridge, The National Library of Wales, The National Library of Scotland & The Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Now trudge around shops asking if they want to take your book on a sale or return basis.

Most importantly, learn to convert rejection into energy.

5:19 AM |

Posted by Pete

Couple of people contacted BugPowder today...

Greg Vondruska has a comic called Tread which is stocked by Gosh in London, though he himself lives in Florida, USA.

Jeff just sent the url for his site for The Ridiculous Bugman. There's not much on it yet but he's publishing out of Australia.

5:18 AM |

Posted by kookymojo

Really cool database of album covers by comics artists, plus cover art of albums based on comics, or covers featuring comic strips. Needs updating, though that doesn't matter because there's a lot of stuff already on there. (via The View From Here)

4:21 AM |

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Posted by Pete

How to make mini-comics in two easy steps by Jess Hamm (via his bit of Modern Tales)

2:14 PM |

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

Posted by Leonie

The next Bishi Bashi small press and indie comicbook event will take place on the 10th of April 2002, in Newcastle. Event runs from 7o'clock-1a.m. As well as comic stalls there will be a talk by Steve Donald, a screening of a b-movie, an exhibition and prizes.To promote or sell your work or to find out more check out the events section of www.tgtokyo.com

12:30 PM |

Monday, March 11, 2002

Posted by Pete

Matt Brooker, the artist known as D'Israeli, informs that his comic colouring tutorial has moved to a new place. (That could have been phrased much better...)

12:55 PM |

Sunday, March 10, 2002

Posted by Pete

Ed Hillyer writes with news about Jean Genii:

A new extra-length JEAN GENII episode to view:

and then check out the linked archive (9 episodes - while you still can, not sure how much longer they are up!)

AND the linked game due to go up at any time now

If you are webby types and have sites you can mention JEAN GENII on, or link to JEAN GENII

Please do!!

Thanks

ED (ILYA)

3:41 PM |

Posted by Pete

New episode of Jason Little'sBee is up.

(Other online cartoonists can use BugPowder as an annoucement point by emailing me).

2:22 PM |

Posted by Pete

Modern Tales is back online.

2:20 PM |

Posted by Pete

Artbomb appears to be a resource center for readers of graphic novels and other comics of length and seemingly quality. (Brought to my attention by LMG)

2:10 PM |

Thursday, March 07, 2002

Posted by Pete

Just adding my voice to Simon's recommendation of the Cary Grant strip. I finally managed to download the 20meg PDF and it's a wonderful comic. Very British but with a definite Paul Auster feel to it. Definitely worth checking out.

5:01 PM |

Posted by Pete

Apparently Modern Tales has been too successful for it's own good and has exceeded all bandwidth expectations. All should be sorted in the next day or so, so be patient if it's not working for you.

3:01 PM |

Posted by Pete

One of thing things about this site is people I haven't known for years keep popping out of the woodwork with wee sites of their own. Mal Earl is the latest. He did a comic called Bedlam Black in the mid 90s and is now working on Stovepipe

1:32 PM |

Wednesday, March 06, 2002

Posted by Pete

New episode of Jason Little's Bee is up.

10:46 AM |

Monday, March 04, 2002

Posted by Pete

BugPowder, PO Box 20778, London, E3 4WD

If you want to send something to BugPowder HQ so it can sit on the Big Pile Of Stuff, you can send it to this address. More importantly, if you're sending me a package or something of value, send it here cos it's safer that our home address.

5:07 PM |

Posted by Pete

Modern Tales just launched and I for one have signed up. It costs $30 a year to access some quality comics and the vast majority of the cash goes directly to the cartoonists. Since pieces like Tom Hart's new Hutch Owen story are long works in progress, this is a way of supporting their gestation.

2:19 PM |

Sunday, March 03, 2002

Posted by Pete

Simon Gurr would have blogged this if he hadn't forgotten how. Cary Grant on the Hollow Earth site. Simon writes:

It's nearly 200 html pages (1 image per page) but you can download a PDF of the whole thing. I have to say I found it completely captivating. The narration, the simple but consistent artwork, the dreamlike quality all had me hooked straight away. I don't know exactly who's done it - someone known only as Matthew apparently, and described on the hollow earth site as "The Bloke from Room".

Check out Simon's site while you're at it.

3:10 PM |

Posted by Pete

Well, wadaya know, there's another Mark Stafford portfolio online. Zen Pilot has a bunch of other stuff, but click on Comics, then Stark for the Stafford stuff (or use this link without the frames).

2:43 PM |

Posted by Pete

Borderline #8 is out and, amongst other features, has Paul Gravett on Angoleme, a look at Dean Haspiel, an interview with Alexandro "battier than bat shit" Jodorowsky and me writing about Steve Ditko of all things...

1:17 PM |