The Third Session

March 17, 2014

I was able to visit the Image building again this Monday. This time, I felt a lot less nervous and a lot more comfortable with the staff. Mr. Chan started off the session by telling me about international printers that Image Comics have to distribute works. It made me wonder how popular certain issues are in those other countries and curious to know which comics are popular in different places but not so popular here and which are popular here but not so popular overseas. He also mentioned how creators can be picky on which paper to have their comics printed on. He said the most common types of paper used today are glossy and matte. As he was showing me examples of both types, I fell in favor of the matte paper. I felt that it looked better for the type of comics I like to read because it made it look darker and gave it a more serious tone to it. This type of paper, however, can hid some of the coloring detail the colorist and/or artist put into the art (as Mr. Chan pointed out), so I understood why a good amount of creators use glossy paper for their comics. After he showed me the different textures and thicknesses of paper used to print comics on, Mr. Chan began to work on an advertisement for an upcoming comic series called Outcast. He used the artwork that will appear on the cover of the first issue for the advertisement. The logo and a quick description of what the series was about was placed on top of the artwork. The last few things added were the company logos, the legal stuff at the bottom, and a space for the bar code to be placed. Going through the process with my mentor really helped me think differently as an artist as well as a consumer by interpreting what the company is trying to make viewers take away from the ad. Initially placing the artwork on the ad required the ability to interpret what the artist may want to emphasize in his/her art and to planning ahead a bit into how the rest of the ad will be placed. Mr. Chan mentioned at this point how comic book artists use emphasis to make the readers know what is important in the story and what is not. When placing the description of the series, he experimented on how the letter would appear. Font, leading (the space between the lines of a paragraph), kerning (the space between the letters), thickness, and color were all considered when deciding on how the words were to appear visually. Helping in making a few decisions and experiencing the thought process that goes into creating an advertisement was fun. I really enjoyed experimenting with different aspects of the ad and trying to figure out how all the necessary information will fit without taking away from the point or feeling the artist might want the audience to come across.

I was able to get a good understanding on everything that is considered in creating an advertisement for a comic and a comic book itself. Next Tuesday, I hope continue to learn more about the process while focusing on its technical requirements.

Time logged for this session: 3 hours

Total time logged: 9 hours