Pikitia Press Blog

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Paper Trail

Rory Hewson writes about F.J. Nealie's Rotorua cartoons. Preview here. Further commentary here.

JAMES JAMES!

Bob Temuka writes about focusing on individual panels from comics.

Kelly Sheehan's idea of a perfect panel: This moment from Tim Kidd's Came The Dawn

Chromacon have Boosted and Pledgeme campaigns running to help finance their festival.

Renowned political cartoonist Malcolm Evans paints a live billboard drawing in central Wellington.

Tim Molloy shares album art for Cash Savage and the Last Drinks.

Sam Orchard shares a page from a submission to the Anything That Loves anthology.

Tyrone Ohia's Te Blog.

This is Moonbeard.

Kiwigame's NZ advertising Flickr set.

Another Kiwigame Vintage NZ Advertising set. I used to buy and use these tattoos!

It can't hurt to link to more DIE POPULAR.

Tane William's illustrations for Steve Braunias.

Ele Jenkins tumblr.

Grant Buist recently wrote about concluding his twelve year run on strip Jitterati for Wellington paper Capital Times which has ceased publication. A recent post on Buist's site indicates he has found a new home for Jitteratti.

Capital Times' last issue came out this month after 38 years of publication. The issue below featured Mat Tait's illustration from Pictozine #2.

Melbourne Comics festival on in Northcote this weekend. More details here.

Ive Sorocuk shares a detail of the cover created in collaboration with Alex Clark for his forthcoming Comics Face collection.

Kevin Patrick writes about the discovery of Terry Trowell paintings in Western Australia.

Popeye.com interview Roger Langridge.

Paul Mason writes about an Australian soldier character in Timely/Marvel Comics.

Anthony Woodward offers 4 issues of Sketchbook Comix through a pay what you want model.

Anthony is preparing a third Chugnut Comics free comic book day comic. Read Chugnut #1.

Simon Hanselmann features in the latest issue of š! #13 'Life Is Live'.

Gavin Aung Than tackles super heroes via Jack London at Zen Pencils.

Daniel Best writes about his forthcoming book about Australian comics publisher Newton Comics. Best has also established a Newton Comics facebook group.

Joshua Santospirito features on The Comic Spot.

Sunday Gem: Commercial Artist Brian Bysouth Interview

The artwork for Matt Helm by Brian Bysouth, 1966

A piece of unused concept artwork for Judge Dredd, 1995, by Brian Bysouth

Not Comics: A fascinating look at the work and career of a commercial artist.
An extensive Film on Paper interview with British designer and artist Brian Bysouth.

Images from Film on Paper.

English Comics Daily Diversion: Wonder May 25 1946

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Productivity and Motivation: Jason Franks and Paul Mason

Part three of talking with self-publishing/small press cartoonists about productivity and motivation.

Jason Franks

Do you experience a drop in productivity upon completing a comic? Have you developed methods to deal with creative lulls? What do you consider the primary obstructions of your productivity?

Nope.

Because I am principally a writer, it usually takes months or years for any given piece that I write to see print--so I'm already well into the next project. In fact the converse is probably true: depending on the publisher, pushing a book through the lettering/production process might interrupt my writing schedule for a period, so my productivity usually goes up right after a book comes out when I can settle down and get back to creative work.

Paul Mason

After spending maybe 4-6 months solid on a book writing, drawing, colouring, lettering, assembling/pre print etc, especially ruining my body clock in the process, I can’t help but blow off a few days doing very little creatively as I recover. Read a favourite book, stare at the idiot box, dust off the Playstation for my twice a year game session etc, and maybe sleep longer than 5 hours.

But no method is better to beat this than the next pending deadline/task on the list. I remind myself “Don’t be an amateur”- This applies not only to my comic tasks, but also my sports or work practices. A pro would tough out the pending tasks and get it done. I figure I can’t reach my goals screwing about, and not bringing out new stuff. Not much of a method, berating myself mentally, but it’s true. It’s the same when I have to find the time to train for a world championship or tournament while working, studying and comicing- I might have worked all day at the day job, sat through peak hour traffic, get home to more work, an empty kitchen that needs groceries, sort a meal out, prep for the next day etc. and think the last thing I want to do is exercise. “Would an amateur relax? What would a champion do?”. There’s my answer. That comic page needs to be done by the end of the evening. “Would a pro watch TV and play video games instead?”

The fact that I hate one of my day jobs, and I have a doctoral degree to complete soon is a motivation. Improvement should always be an answer to procrastination. Don’t just “exist” in life. Accomplish things.

The enemy- Social media. A necessary evil in terms of keeping in touch, promotion etc, but you can easily get caught up looking at nothing important at all, chatting to people etc. A great time-swallower. Really though, the enemy is me. The TV or internet doesn’t turn itself on. It’s a battle, since comics can be a solitary pursuit, and the social media contact can be an alluring time-waster. But my main drive? Reminding myself that I don’t have much time; every minute wasted is potential sleep time disappearing, and that book down the track might not get done on time.