Atypical Tales started about midway through 2011, and we’ve been reporting movie news, reviews, and interviews ever since. Toward the end of the year we started adding in other forms of media as well and some guest writers. And we’ve been getting visitors to the site… more visitors than any other site I started. For that, thank you! Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read an article or share a comment. It really means a lot to me.

I’m passionate about storytelling. I love talking about the process behind it. I love finding those stories that really stand out from everything else around and just celebrating what fantastic artists can do.

As 2012 starts, we’re going to take a little break here. This will likely be the only post for January as I take some time to figure out exactly the direction I’d like to take with the site. During the past year, I’ve had some really great opportunities to talk to several indie creators, and those interviews have been my favorite posts on the site. I love the opportunity to see what drives a person to take a risk and tell a story that may or may not reap some sort of financial reward. I love to help indie creators have a spot to share their creation with the world.

So 2012 will find Atypical Tales focusing more on the indie arts community. I’m not sure exactly what that will look like yet, but I want to follow the content and ideas I am the most passionate about. All of us have a limited amount of time to create, and I want to make sure I’m spending my time on what I believe matters… helping creators and investing in the arts community. As such, I want to start a dialogue – not just with the person being interviewed – but also with you, the reader.

The conversation starts today. I realize that this process could take some time to get going, but it will never start without asking some questions. So here we go.

What is it that you appreciate most about any online artistic communities you contribute to? Is it great conversation starters? Is it the networking? What makes you return to your favorite film / fiction / comics website?

Would you like to have an online community where you can share your latest artistic efforts? Would you want to have some sort of open call or theme suggestion to encourage / remind you to submit?

I’d love to hear your opinions. Please feel free to share in the comments below.

We’ll jump into the interview after the video pitch of the story. As you can tell, the guys involved in this project are excited!

Give our readers a quick pitch about the project you’re currently working on.

FYVR, Dragon’s Son is a 4-issue comic book mini-series. It’s an epic fantasy adventure story told through the perspective of a simple man named Liam. Liam is a slave. He has been chained to an oar aboard a Viking ship for two years. He pulls that oar every day with a whip at his back and a knife to his throat. The only thing keeping him alive is the dream of one day returning to his island home and the family that still waits for him there. A chance encounter with a boy with the power to summon fire frees Liam from his long captivity. Liam begins his long journey home with the strange boy, known only as FYVR, at his side. Who FYVR is and the source of his powers is a mystery. It soon becomes obvious that there are many powerful people seeking the boy who wish to use him for their own means. Liam must decide between abandoning FYVR in order to return safely home or fighting to protect the enigmatic boy that saved his life.

Did you already know artist Michael Axt before beginning this project? How / when did you two meet? I know that one of the eternal struggles of comic book writers is finding great artists.

Michael and I were introduced by our mutual friend, Sean Causley. We worked together on a 3-page short together for Sean’s Panda Force web comic. I was really happy with how Michael drew the short and he seemed to like my writing, so we decided we’d try and work on something larger together. Originally, I had a science fiction story in mind but when I found out Michael was a big fan of the fantasy genre; we switched gears and decided to do FYVR (which is project I’ve had on the back burner for a long time).

I am very fortunate to have such a talent artist on board for FYVR. Finding good artists to work with is very hard for writers who are just starting out. My advise to those looking for collaborators is to first find out if there is any local comic book creator social scene where you live. Most mid to large cities have some sort of regular “Drink and Draw” event at a bar (or something along those lines). Go there. Introduce yourself to people. Bring whatever you have to show people. Networking is very important. Go to the Internet if you have to but always try and do it in person if you can. Then take whatever opportunities you can. You never know where things we’ll lead. When Sean Causley asked me to write a 3-page comic for him I had never written anything that short and was pretty intimidated by the challenge. But I gave it my best shot and it turned out pretty good. And I met Michael Axt as a result. Now we have this great long-form story we’re working on together and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Part of any Kickstarter campaign is rewarding those who have contributed. How are you and Axt saying thanks?

For $5 you can a digital copy of FYVR #1. For $10 we will mail you a hard copy. Those are the standard rewards but we have lots of premiums on top of that if folks are feeling generous enough to donate more. You can get autographed copies of the book with original, one of a kind sketches inside. We’re also offering original art and the option of having your likeness drawn in the comic.

How will funds from Kickstarter help you get the project going? What kinds of expenses are involved in your production?

The magic number we are looking for is $2,500. It breaks down like this:
– $750 to cover printing and shipping costs for our initial print run.
– $500 to pay our colorist, Mahesh R. Mahadeshwar.
– $1000 for Michael for pencil and ink chores.
– Which leaves $250 for the 10% cut that goes to Kickstarter for hosting and payment transaction fees.

If we are fortunate enough to make more than our goal amount, those funds will immediately be rolled over into the production of issue #2.

What other materials have your written in the past?

I’m currently working on an original graphic novel called BURNT that I am both writing and drawing. It’s basically a murder-mystery that takes place in Hell. It’s scheduled to be published in May 2012. Folks can find out more about it at www.burntcomic.blogspot.com.

I’ve dabbled with web comics in the past. “Azz’s Inferno” and “Quick, The Clockwork Knight” were two of my comics featured on Zuda (DC’s short-lived web comic venture) that some people might remember. Other than that, you would have to be a devoted fan of very obscure small-press literary magazines to have previously seen my name in print.

We have one question we always like to ask our interviewees. Do you have a favorite resource like an instructional book or an inspirational movie that you would recommend to others trying to get their foot in the door in comics? A lot of people have published resources about comics, but what kind of stuff has affected you?

There are a lot of great resources out there for inspiration for creators but the single best piece of advice I ever got about making comics was from a Robert Kirkman interview. In this interview Robert said (and I’m paraphrasing here): “If you want to make comics, make comics.” It’s kind of obvious but it’s still great advice. Don’t wait for a publisher to discover you. Don’t make excuses. Make comics. If you can’t draw it yourself find an artist. Pay someone if you have to. There are a lot of hungry talented artists out there who will work for well below market rate. But the odds of you finding a capable artist who will work for free are not good. If you believe you have a great idea for a comic you should be willing to back that idea financially. Ideas alone will get you nowhere. You need to realize your ideas in finished products you can show people. And show it to everyone you can. Go to conventions. Comic book professionals, as a whole, are unbelievably generous with their time and advice. Take advantage of that.

What are the links people need to know to support your current project? And where can people find more of your work?

You can check out FYVR at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1011388152/fyvr-dragons-son-issue-1. There you can watch our promotional video and get the whole low-down on the project.

I just launched a new blog that will provide information on all of my current and future comic book projects (both my solo ventures and those projects I’m collaborating with others on). It’s a little sparse at the moment but we’re planning on adding a lot more soon. You can find that at www.deadbrickpress.blogspot.com.

Thanks for the chat, Thane, and we certainly wish you the best. Be sure to give these guys some support over on Kickstarter! They have some nice looking work here.

Remember “Little Golden Books?” If you’re between the ages of five and, oh, seventy or so, you should. If you don’t, they’re a very long running series of slim, inexpensive children’s books with subjects ranging from centuries-old fairy tales to Disney and Pixar tie-ins and featuring stories that are intended to both delight children and spur their reading skills on to new levels.

“Grandpa Won’t Wake Up” looks like one of these, but it sure as heck isn’t. It will, however, delight those of us with a fondness for absurd, and slightly morbid, humor.

Written by Simon Max Hill and co-plotted/drawn by Shannon Wheeler, freshly minted Eisner Award winner for his book I Thought You Would Be Funnier and creator of the long-running Too Much Coffee Man comic book/syndicated comic strip, the book starts out innocently enough as two children attempt to wake their assumed-to-be-sleeping grandfather, who had promised to take them to the park that day. It almost immediately becomes apparent to the reader that Grandpa is, in fact, quite dead. This either doesn’t occur to the two children (or the several adults they, at various times, enlist to aid them) or they simply don’t care. It really could go either way as they seem to be enjoying the situation. The result is a series of increasingly absurd, and at times funnily offensive to some (not me), attempts at waking the dead man.

As a fan of Shannon Wheeler’s work since Too Much Coffee Man appeared in Dark Horse Presents in the late 90s, and a daily visitor to his website for his online strips (www.tmcm.com), I was delighted to see his name attached to this when I first heard of it. Here his art is in line with his cartoons that frequently appear in The New Yorker magazine, as opposed to his TMCM comics and books, and fans that are only familiar with his comic book work will be pleased to see this side of his art.

While I am not familiar with Simon Max Hill, it’s obvious that he and Wheeler have a fondness for the Little Golden Book style and Grandpa reads much like a loving, if slightly deranged, homage to both the style of the series and the age group it is aimed at. This book is definitely not something you should give to your kids, unless you want them to be disturbed, but it’s something you should share with everyone you know who used to be a kid. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it as much as I have.

]]> http://atypicaltales.com/books/friday-review-grandpa-wont-wake-up/feed/ 0 http://atypicaltales.com/books/friday-review-grandpa-wont-wake-up/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=friday-review-grandpa-wont-wake-up http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtypicalTales/~3/pl8gOzmNYYc/ http://atypicaltales.com/comics/friday-review-alec-the-years-have-pants-a-life-sized-omnibus/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:06:11 +0000 Brandon http://atypicaltales.com/?p=1617 Alec: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Sized Omnibus)
Top Shelf Productions, $35.00, Available Now
Writer/Artist/Letterer: Eddie Campbell

Famous for his work with Alan Moore on the massive work From Hell, and only slightly less-so for his own creation Deadface aka Bacchus, Eddie Campbell has released one of his earliest and continuing pieces in his autobiographical Alec series. Consisting of a half-dozen volumes of various lengths, and from various publishers, the book both follows and chronicles Campbell’s life from about 1977 to shortly before the publication of this volume in 2009.

Though the protagonist’s name is Alec MacGarry, the series is the life-story of Eddie Campbell himself. Starting as a young man with no idea where life is going and detailing his exploits both noble and ignoble, the work spares little and shares much with the reader. Eddie Campbell obviously finds life itself to be infinitely interesting, both his own and others, and he uses his intuitive mastery of the comic form to share that with us.

The book, however, is not simply a sequence of Campbell’s triumphs and glories (though he has those in spades); it is truly his life as he chooses to remember it. The work is at times hilarious, at times boring, and occasionally shocking. Campbell does not leave out the portions that make him look foolish, or selfish or occasionally even wicked. He gives us the good with the bad, the sublime with the borderline criminal. The work is sometimes touching, and sometimes raunchy (frequently so during his wilder days in The King Canute Crowd) but  such is life.

An additional item I’d like to point out, and one of my favorite things about the book, is that it functions as a sort of insider’s history of the comics scene. Granted, it’s mostly Eddie Campbell’s experiences, but he is acquainted with a wide variety of well-known (and many should-be-better-known) comic creators and passes on tidbits and anectdotes thatmay well never have been recorded elsewhere. Much of it is, quite frankly, fascinating to a comic fanatic such as myself.

Campbell’s art style progresses over the course of the book, which was written and drawn over nearly the same time period as the events occurred, and his earliest work is scratchy and minimalist to the point that readers only familar with his more detailed work might be disappointed or even frustrated. Fronted by a self-portrait that is done in his most realistic and detailed style, the book then dumps us into a world of scratchy lines and occasional scribbles. The art, like the artist, is not yet wholly formed…but he’s working on it.

This book is not for everyone, as should be made immediately clear. As much as I love the comic form, and as much as I wanted this book (the cost is somewhat prohibitive, even for 640 pages, but I picked this up on the last day Borders was open for a very nice discount), there are sections that are hard to get through. The daily trifles of an ordinary person’s life are not always interesting, but working your way through them makes the truly fascinating parts that much more rewarding.

Alec: The Years Have Pants, is the story of one man’s evolution from a wild youth to a responsible and respected world-class artist from a perspective we could not possibly have imagined on our own. The insights into Eddie Campbell’s mind that he’s only shared glimpses of give us an idea of how he views the rest of us and where his creativity comes from. It leaves me wanting more.

Beyond All Boundaries uses elements of several storytelling disciplines. On the surface, it’s a really well put-together documentary, but it becomes so much more in its presentation. The theater is equipped with seating that vibrates when a tank is rolling at the audience or shakes when the atom bomb detonates onscreen. Props rise up from the stage or descend from the rafters to create a realistic set piece that directly coincides with the footage on screen. Lights positioned throughout the theater highlight and interact with the storytelling like audiences would normally experience in live theater or at a concert. And large fans create gusts of wind during appropriate moments in the story.

This is so much more than just another documentary. First of all, the film shows on a screen that measures 120-feet wide. Because of all of the interactive elements, the film is mercifully free of today’s 3D effects. No Roy Orbison 3D glasses required!

And the cast of narrators is quite surprising. Tom Hanks is obviously the main narrator, but the cast also includes Gary Sinise, Elijah Wood, Giovanni Ribisi, Tobey Maguire, Neil Patrick Harris, Brad Pitt, Chris Pine, Kevin Bacon and several other notable actors. But the inclusion of these big name actors isn’t even highlighted in the presentation. The actors read reports from wartime journalists, letters from soldiers and quotes from famous politicians. They give emotional depth to historical passages without distracting from the grand epic of true history.

I think this presentation was the first time I’ve ever grasped how global this World War actually was. Though the narration had to move quickly through individual events in the war, it did a fantastic job of conveying the worldwide pandemonium and the deep uncertainty of the population.

Several stories that I currently read and watch – and even several that we’ve covered here on Atypical Tales – include World War II events or Nazis as villains, but Beyond All Boundaries gave real context. Here was a time in history when heroes fought every day. Heroes toiled at home to work in factories all day and then come home to provide safe haven for their families.

It’s truly a humbling experience.

Beyond All Boundaries is a part of the World War II Museum in New Orleans, and it is definitely worth visiting if you’re ever in Bayou Country. I have to say that the theatrical presentation was probably the most impressive part of the whole experience, though there are fascinating photographs and bits of history scattered throughout the museum.

It’s been said, over and over, for almost 70 years: “the superhero has been done to death.” And yet it keeps being “done”, over and over, all over the world, in virtually every artistic medium, in ways as varied as the people who create and tell their stories. Even if this weren’t true, which it most certainly is, shouldn’t the fact that The Big Two continue to publish superhero comics almost exclusively tell detractors something? That movies/TV shows/toys/video games based on those comics are getting bigger every year (with notable, exceptional flops that prove the rule, of course)?

Well, naysayers be damned…superheroes are here to stay, and those who want to will always find a new way to tell their stories. The Deadbeat, by writer/artist Jeremy Massie, is one of those stories.

The Deadbeat is something of a superhero slice-of -life book. While there are giant monsters, super villains and even a “world’s greatest detective”, the majority of the book is devoted to more normal situations, many of which are moments of quiet desperation or extreme frustration.

The protagonist of the book, who is never named, was once one of the world’s greatest heroes. Many years prior to the beginning of the story, the “hero”, through an act of ignorance more than anything else, fails to recognize a threat and thousands of people are killed. The victims include his wife, whom he seems to idolize even years later, and he decides that he is not fit to be around normal people, especially those he loves. Dropping his infant daughter off at his sister-in-law’s home (without even forewarning her), he disappears. Flashforward roughly 18 or so years to the beginning of the book. The hero has gone to pot and spends most of his time drunk (on Yoohoo, which affects his body the way alcohol affects a mere mortal’s) in a seedy bar. When a young woman walks in claiming to be his daughter, whom he has believed dead for years, he engages her in a brief battle before she proves her parentage to him.

The story starts out well; it’s certainly an interesting concept, and it’s sort of a reverse version of After The Cape (from Shadowline Comics). Based on the book’s back-cover blurb, I expected a simple slice-of-life story revolving around a lonely father trying to reconnect with his long-lost daughter, and at the outset that’s what you get. However, after the first few chapters, the book seems to lose focus.

Vera, the hero’s daughter, vacillates throughout the story from curious daughter, wanting to know more about her father, her mother, and the situation surrounding her abandonment, seemingly interested in loving and being loved by her father to psychotic super-powered angsty teen, who wants to wreak havoc. In between being told tales by her father and his attempts to train her as a hero, Vera exhibits super-villainous tendencies, including murdering the hero’s landlord. Her personality shifts are never explained, somewhat clumsily hinted at (in a speech by Vera) being a result of her exposure as an infant to the exotic radiation that contributed to her mother’s death, and seem like they were added almost as an afterthought to increase the story’s drama level. The result is an unsatisfying ending that leaves nothing resolved and the reader wondering what the point of it all was.

Jeremy Massie’s art nearly makes up for the story, however; it is clean and has a classic feel to it. It reminds me of what a superhero book done in the Archie Comics universe, in the Archie style, would look like. The only issue I have with the art is that the pages were somewhat low resolution compared to most printed works, as if the images the book was printed from were not quite at the required DPI level. Some people may not notice this, though, and the book suffered only slightly from that.

At the end, it’s not that The Deadbeat is a bad story, it’s just one that is somewhat underwhelming and could have used some plot reworking before being produced.

RPC delivers.

My favorite story in issue 4 was the final tale, Bad Boy, written by Alex De-Gruchy, drawn by Lucas Heneks, and lettered by Philip Nolte. The story kept me guessing all the way to the end with sinister turn after sinister turn. What starts as an evening with friends in a nice family home quickly turns into something more malicious and ghastly.

Kidthulu always keeps me entertained in his tales. Martin Brandt’s creation continues on with his boyish charm and other-worldly friends in a rollicking tale about swiping sandwiches. There’s just something fun about throwing creepy creatures and Dennis the Menace type sensibilities.

Is This… Hell? shows that events are not likely to turn out well if you’re drinking and piloting an airplane. I enjoyed the character work here, but the ending was only okay. It wasn’t bad, but I was looking for something a little more dramatic.

Motherhood plays your emotions throughout, in a good way. If you have kids, you know all the fears that can come along with having a child. There are so many things that could go wrong, and you can drive yourself crazy if you dwell on the negatives. Writer Barrows defies expectations and twists the story. There are so many ways that I could approach a discussion about the ending, but I can’t find a way to do so without spoiling it. So I’ll leave you to find out for yourselves.

Reasonably Priced Comics is a black-and-white comic book, and the artwork makes good use of the ink and paper format. While I’m a fan of reading comics on electronic devices, black-and-white art always feels like it belongs on paper, so I recommend picking up the print copy of this issue.

Readers already familiar with the series will note that Voyaga is absent from this issue, but the storyline promises to resume in issue 5. If Marvel and DC can have delays, then indie publishers can certainly have them, too. What’s impressive is that RP Comics is able to keep on a regular schedule. Most small-press books don’t even try.

Check out Reasonably Priced Comics to purchase a copy and see some of their other work.

Check out the info below.

Give us your quick pitch of Third Base.

A group of teenagers find themselves marooned on Mars’ Third Base after their parents are killed in a mysterious accident. With three months before the next shuttle can arrive from Earth, they’re forced to fend for themselves. Think Battlestar Galactica meets Lord of the Flies.

Third Base is in a competition on Facebook over at http://apps.facebook.com/mncwebfest/showentry/994501/null/4. Tell us about what’s happened in the contest so far, and what do you stand to win if you get the most votes?

Movie Extra are offering a $100,000 production budget for the best 60 second web series trailer and pitch. The prize money would produce a 7 x 3 minute episode season – so we’ve also had to submit detailed storylines for the show, in addition to the trailer. Voting and buzz generation are also a huge factor in the judging process – the organisers are really keen to see if our series are able to capture the interest of internet viewers and therefore be viable as an actual webseries.

The contest actually started a few months ago, so we’ve been able to see some of the other entries on Facebook as we were prepping our own shoot. The standard was pretty high, so we were aware that we needed to push the production values as far as possible, and really communicate the story in an exciting way – in just 60 seconds. We shot on a single day – less than a week before the submission deadline – and edited rather frantically over the next 4 days (including ADR and visual effects). Finally the trailer was complete and we uploaded the night before the deadline.

The downside to submitting so late in the process was that viewers then only had a week to vote for the project – compared to months for some of the others. So in terms of voting – we started off way behind. To build buzz and interact with viewers, we created a Facebook page for the series and continued to update with behind the scenes stills and video clips. I think this helped us connect with viewers – showing up directly in their feeds. I also personally reached out to a number of filmmaking and sci fi forums. One of the rules of the contest is that the trailer must reside exclusively on the Movie Extra facebook page, so it was a challenge to reach people without a YouTube presence.

The next stage is to release a number of extended scenes. We massively overshot the amount of footage we’d need for the trailer, so there are a couple of complete scenes ready to hit the web, which will help viewers get a sense of the show’s tone.

After a bit of viral promotion via friends/family/sci fi fans on social networks, the show got several hundred votes and was selected as a finalist. So we’re now in the final stage of voting – with all counts reset – and have until Tuesday 6th December to campaign for as many votes as possible!

Looking through your showreel, it appears that you already have plenty of experience in dealing with the merging of the internet and filmmaking. How do you think that social media and the internet in general are affecting filmmaking?

The influence of social media and the internet on filmmaking is massive. Not only in terms of marketing, but also in the content itself. A couple of years ago I independently produced a web series titled LOL (www.lolseries.com) – which focused on a teenage girl and the pressure she felt to grow up, through social networks like Facebook. Status updates and profile photos appeared in the show – as well as the way teens misrepresent the truth on those sites. It’s now become a pretty mainstream convention and you see social networking integrated into the plots on a lot of TV shows and movies.

There’s a great opportunity to reach out and connect with niche audiences on the internet. Sci-fi tends to have a rough ride on television – I’m still in mourning for the abruptly cancelled Firefly - but online sci fi communities have a huge presence. So it makes sense creating content for sci fi fans and delivering via the web. Something which might not be deemed mainstream enough for television can really thrive online – shows like The Guild did a great job of finding an underrepresented audience.

Should we win the Movie Extra WebFest production budget, we’ll also create a lot of additional content around the show – including video diaries for the characters and an online game. There’s a great opportunity to really build the mythology around webseries, TV shows and films online – where viewers can really dig deep into the story, if they choose. Speaking from personal experience, I loved Battlestar Galactica and watched pretty much every piece of web content they released. And then went to the conventions.

In light of the experience that you’ve had from other shows, what lessons from your past work apply most as you’re making Third Base?

The biggest struggle I had with LOL was delivering enough content to the audience. As that show was self-financed and I was working full time on Hollyoaks, it really was a case of plugging away at evenings and weekends – shooting and editing whenever people were free. That process – which is pretty much how most webseries begin – meant that there were quite often delays in delivering content to the viewers.

On one hand it was great to get angry emails demanding that the next webisode be posted online immediately – it showed that we had a fanbase – but I also felt I was letting them down. I mean who wants to watch 5 minutes of anything, then wait a month before watching the next 5 minutes? It doesn’t make for the best viewing experience.

Previously I’ve had to wear a lot of hats on independent productions – i.e. in addition to writing/directing, I’ve ended up producing, camera operating, buying costumes, taking stills, handling the catering… it can be distracting. On Third Base, I’m fortunate to be working with a great producer in Zoltan Deak, and should we win the competition, we’ll be able to hire and pay a decent sized crew. It’ll still be a small production, but I’m really keen to focus on the writing and directing.

The script is incredibly important, so I’m looking forward (fingers crossed!) to having the chance to really develop the show. Whilst making LOL - a lot of the time it was a case of calling the actors and asking ‘When are you available? I’m thinking of shooting more episodes’ – and the only time everyone is free for the next six months is next weekend. So then there would be the frantic scramble to write, storyboard, get locations, costumes, permits… everything. In an incredibly short space of time. It’s pretty exhilarating, but there’s no doubt that the end product suffers as a result.

What was the process like to cast your film? Had you worked with these young actors before?

Though my producer Zoltan had worked with a number of the actors previously, this was my first time working with them. We’d recently been casting for another couple of projects and didn’t really have the time to do a dedicated casting for all the roles in Third Base, as we were less than a week out from the shoot date! So it was a case of looking back through previous audition footage and finding actors that we thought could do a good job – and shortlist from there. I’m really pleased with how they performed and though not everyone has a chance to shine in the trailer – you’ll see more from them in the full scenes that will be released shortly.

One of our favorite questions to ask filmmakers is what is one resource that you would recommend for filmmakers just getting started? Do you have a “go to” book or video or piece of equipment to inspire you in your filmmaking?

Difficult to narrow it down to just one! There’s a fantastic book by Michael Rabiger called ‘Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics’ which I revisit constantly.

There’s also a couple of great blogs that have a lot of technical information on new cameras and editing techniques – nofilmschool.com and filmmakeriq.com.

Also read Filmmaker Magazine and Script mag pretty regularly to keep me up to date. There’s lots of really inspiring success stories in those publications about low/zero budget productions that go on to be successful in theatres/dvd/web – and details on how they did it.

How can fans support your current project, and where can they find more of your work?

The best way to support Third Base would be to check out the trailer via Movie Extra’s Facebook competition, and vote for the series by clicking the ‘LOVE IT’ button. We’re really trying to spread the word about the show as far as possible, so sharing the link via blogs and Facebook/Twitter would be a fantastic help. Voting closes on Tuesday, the 6th of December.

We’ve also got a few more photos and behind the scenes clips on the website (http://www.thirdbase.tv).

There’s some more clips from my previous shorts and web projects on my website (http://www.ricforster.com), and my teen web series LOL can be viewed at http://www.lolseries.com.

Thanks, Ric, for taking the time to talk with us, and we certainly wish the best with your competition.

Jump on over to the Movie Extra Facebook competition and cast a vote.

I love webcomics, but it’s rare that I begin following new ones (new to me, or new in the literal sense); most of the many webcomics I’ve been reading I have read for a decade or more and my fanship harkens back to the days of college when I had a (for the time) very fast internet connection and not enough to occupy my time once the daily work was done (yes, I know…nerd).

Be that as it may, I am always on the lookout for new comics to read, especially as some of the older ones I followed have ceased updating on a regular basis. My latest, and quite possibly greatest, find is the delightfully alliteratively named Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant.

Written, illustrated and lettered by two-time Eisner-nomated comic creator Tony Cliff, the comic is proclaimed by its creator an “online graphic novel” rather than a typical webcomic. While the term would ordinarily cause me to scoff, as I’ve heard it before from comics that did not live up to the name, Delilah Dirk’s tale could not possibly be called anything less.

Tony Cliff, whose body of work is small (consisting of several contributions to the Flight anthology and an older, self-published Delilah Dirk comic) but incredibly polished and this latest offering is a masterpiece that any creator would be proud to be associated with. The fact that Cliff does it all, and on a regular basis (the comic is updated every Saturday in 4-6 page installments), is especially impressive.

The story follows the heroine, Delilah Dirk, as she makes her way across first Turkey then another, as-yet-unamed, part of Europe in the company of Lieutenant Erdemoglu Selim, usually referred to after his introduction as “Mr. Selim”, an officer in the Janissary army who strives to repay the debt he feels he owes her for saving his life. Never mind that it was Delilah herself who originally endangered it. Mr. Selim is not fond of danger, or adventure (preferring to dabble as an amateur tea “master”), but is caught up in the adventures of Ms. Dirk, who is a self-proclaimed auteur of nearly all forms of knowledge and martial arts and has no problem proving her claims time and time again.

The work is gorgeously illustrated in a style that is very much its own, at times looking like stills from extremely high-quality animation, while leaving a reader with a feeling that it has more soul than other works of its type. A comparison could be made to Scott Wegener’s work, for those familiar with it, although Cliff’s is more nuanced and his people more true-to-life while still retaining a look that is definitely fiction.

Beyond the characters, the environments Cliff has created are stunningly beautiful and realistic. By his own admission, he has never traveled to Turkey, but his renditions of Contantinople in 1805 feel alive, as if he had traveled back in time and simply drawn what he was seeing. An imagination such as his is truly a wonder.

The writing of the story is perfectly paced, moving along at a brisk clip while not skipping over character development. The action is nearly non-stop after the prologue and early pages of chapter one, but bits and pieces of both Selim and Delilah Dirk come out as their personalities and histories are built.

Delilah Dirk, for now, is only available on the web but will come to the printed page some day, per the site’s FAQ. I can’t wait for the day I place this volume on a shelf along with some of my other favorite tales, but I urge you not to wait that long. Head to the website and start from the beginning of the tale. You’ll like it so much, you’ll read the entire thing in one sitting, like I did.

The world of media has changed forever with the introduction of a few key technologies. Delivering novels, movies, TV shows and more on smart phones and tablets have completely changed the way we think about information and entertainment. We no longer have to be bound to ideas of getting the biggest widescreen TV for the livingroom. After all, we can take our tablet on the bus or airplane. Stuck in the grocery store line? Pull out your iPhone and get some reading done.

Publishers of all media types are scrambling to find effective (a.k.a. “profitable”) means of delivering content to an interactive audience. While Godin’s interview specifically dealt with the book publishing industry, his ideas are valid for all media types.

Godin spent some time talking about the new role of publishers in a world of constant advertising, and he pointed out that publishers need to stop trying to market to everyone. Books are not a “one size fits all” commodity. Rather than broadcasting messages to the masses, publishers have to become specialists at providing consumers with products that they are already likely to be interested in. Being able to deliver that kind of marketing requires data-collecting that physical, real-world bookstores (and other media stores) will have trouble implementing. Online systems like Amazon and Netflix are equipped to effectively market their products due to their intricate algorithms.

Media creators are also forced to adapt to this new world of interactivity and accessibility. Upcoming authors, artists, filmmakers, etc. have to find ways to make themselves accessible to their audiences. They are the ones who need to market themselves to their audiences. While musicians are already familiar with this type of marketing from way back with handmade posters and CD’s burned on their home computer, other forms of art are having to catch on in the digital era.

Godin had a few interesting suggestions for the introverts and those who wish to keep their lives private: hire someone to take care of the social media for you. You don’t have to be the one pushing out those daily updates. Or, how about forming a group of authors to help promote one another whenever new works come out? Cooperation can remove some of the stress for those who are new to the idea of social promotion.

It’s Your Fault – For Better or Worse

In this new world of publishing, artists have much more control over their own fates. They can create their own platform and get their work in front of an interested audience. Or they can fail to get their work out there effectively. When that happens, there is no publisher to blame, no manager that should have figured it out for them.

But, even in this time of new responsibility, creators have to be willing to fail… a lot. Effective publishers did not arrive at successful systems by only pursuing what works. The failures were just as — if not more so — instructive as the successes.

Re-Thinking Digital Publishing

If someone can consider themselves an expert on a topic after reading a Twitter stream, then will they be willing to read a book? How much material would they read?

Godin predicts that genre fiction in digital form will likely run at 99¢ and $1.99. Bestselling literature fiction, which currently sells around 5,000 copies, will likely still sell the same number of copies, though the market will not be able to support the cost of hardback.

The key here is that this method is applying to general audiences. Yes, people tore through Harry Potter books like they were nothing, but that was the exception rather than the rule for most people. The idea is not that longer materials can never work, but people’s exhibited tendencies indicate that they will likely act in a certain way.

Real World Examples

Last week, we covered a new series of episodic fiction in Yesterday’s Gone. Authors Sean Platt and David Wright have found a successful platform for sharing their new series by releasing the book exclusively through digital channels. Their loyal audience is clamoring to have season 2 on their digital devices.

With a price point at 99¢, the series is easily accessible, and I can attest that it is a blast to read.

What do you think? Do you think new media outfits can survive a digital-only distribution model? People enjoy owning paper books and movie discs. Can audiences give them up? Sound off in the comment section below.