Von Allan's official website

When is a Story NOT a Story?

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:09:00 PST

Well, the answer is pretty simple - when one is playing around! While these pages have dialogue, captions, and whatnot and can obviously be read, these pages are not meant to be a story. Even though it looks like a story. Yeah, I know. Ahem.

I wanted to muck around (yup, that's the technical term) with lettering and storytelling rather than work on an actual story. I really just wanted to test out some ideas and see how they play out in practice. I'm always constantly learning, trying, failing, trying again, and playing with art and a "story" like this is a great example of that. But it's good to pull out from the abstract and actually try things in ink and the following four pages do just that.

My approach was pretty simple: draw first, script later, and just try and link images together and see what happens. I didn't do any design work; I just plowed on in. Once I had stuff roughed out, I figured out some dialogue that seemed to fit the panels. Kinda like the old Marvel Method of creating comics. You'll see a few references pop in with the text. Notably a quick nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark. I generally don't like doing that, but hell, I was playing and that's part of the fun.

Double Trouble from Skylanders!

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:29:00 PDT

I don't do a lot of fan art, but I am a fan of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and I wanted to play around drawing and inking my favourite character, Double Trouble. And I ask you: who doesn't like a crazy wizard - especially one in a Tiki mask? Hmmm?

Some other art (just click on each thumbnail to scoot over to see 'em bigger:

Deth Bomber Girls

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:13:00 PDT

It has been a nutty few weeks. In the "not-fun" very stressful sense of the word. And, Murphy's Law* being what it is, my wife and I are not through it yet. So, while we tip toe through the chaos I thought I'd continue my series of "Heavy Metal Girl" pin-ups. Namely this:

For those who care, this was done with brush and ink on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol board (plate finish). A quick aside: I held off buying the 500 Series for years because I thought it was (and it is) expensive. I finally gave it a shot some months ago and I've never looked back. I really wish I had done Stargazer on it. It's that good - at least for my style of work.

*Never forget O'Toole's Rule: Murphy was an optimist!

A bit of the naughty!

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:34:00 PDT

I don't get a chance to do a lot of erotic, naughty or "good girl" work, but when I find the time it's a lot of fun. I wanted to experiment a bit so I came up with this: some undead skeletons in hot pursuit of a naked lady, mixed in with a touch of a "damsel in distress." I like doing pieces "in medias res" (the ol' highfalutin term for starting in the middle of the action); in other words, you don't know how she got into that situation and you don't know she's going to get out. Hell, maybe the skeletons are the good guys? Ok, fine, probably not.

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for skeletons. I really do. It probably starts with the Ray Harryhausen skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts. People are going to roll their eyes, but back in the day I had a kick-ass Blood Bowl undead team. We're talking 2nd edition here and "skelies," along with dwarves, were definitely a team I had a blast playing with it. When 3rd edition came out and especially as Blood Bowl moved into the Living Rulebook era, I came back and a group of us played for a bit. The undead were different but still fun.

70s Barbarian and a Death Wizard

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:37:00 PDT

I'm definitely having some fun with this style of work. A bit of an old-school flare, a bit of a D&D look, and a bit of the classic look of comic books that I love so much. Yeah.

It's also neat to put these things on the actual printed art board. Especially the zipatone (I know, I know - screentone. But I've always associated the tones with the brand name Zip-A-Tone. Kinda like the difference between vacuuming and "hoovering"). I can add it to the digital file after, of course, but printing it so that it appears on the art board is really neat. At least to me!

A few links to some other artwork of mine:

Sandy Hill Lifedrawing Workshop July 4th, 2012 Session

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:15:00 PDT

I've been getting a chance to go to the Sandy Hill Life Drawing workshop here in Ottawa. I used to go very regularly and then life and other things made it more difficult. Not to mention moving further away which made it far more awkward to attend regularly. I used to just to walk over since I lived only a few blocks away and when that stopped being an option, I stopped going. I've managed to hook up with a good friend of mine who, having a car, has been nice enough to give me a ride over. And I have to say, it's been good to get back into it. I'm not crazy about the lighting they have; for whatever reason, the organizers prefer to keep the overheads on so there are no beautiful shadows to work with. You can see a typical example of what I mean right here. Still a great workshop, though, so if you're in and around Ottawa and are interested, you should check it out.

Some people do fairly tight finished drawings, but I've always tended to be more sketchy while I'm at the session. When I get the chance, it's fun to take the sketches and finish 'em in my studio. For those who like to know, the following rough sketches were done on regular 8 1/2" by 11" paper with woodless pencils. Pose time was 30 minutes. For the finished inked versions, I scan them into my computer, blow them up to approximately 10" by 15", and print them out in blue ink. Then I ink over them with my trust brush.

Heavy Metal Girl Pin-up

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 06:08:00 PDT

I talked about my love for that 80s Heavy Metal Girl look a little while ago (along with a few illustrations), but I'm still mucking around with it. What can I say? I like what I like! So this is the same woman striking, I guess, a bit of a pose.

I did this one late on a Friday afternoon while I had some extra time and was a bit stuck for things to draw. That can be a weird time in the week for me for a few reasons. Generally I don't love starting more complex pieces unless I'm pressed for time. In this case I wasn't so I had some time to play. And I tells ya, playing is a big, big part of art. It's a chance to experiment and brainstorm and just relax. So yeah, all that led to this piece.

Barbarian Bikers escape from a Skeletal Triclops

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 06:24:00 PDT

Continuing my series of pulpy fun 1970s inspired images, this one was a great deal of fun to do. A bit of a challenge, too, since both Bikers were drawn fairly small so getting in the right amount of detail without overwhelming is always a balancing act. I could so do a comic book series full of images like this. Especially if I could put in a bit of narrative substance and characterization to go with it.

I love brush and ink, but this is one piece that would be fun to colour. Especially because it would be damn cool to have it on a t-shirt. Besides, I have a soft spot for three-eyed villains, probably because of the old He-Man villain Tri-Klops. Or maybe my love goes all the way back Three-Eyes McGurk by Alan Moore (as Curt Vile) and Steve Moore (as Pedro Henry)?

Old School Death Wizard

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 05:17:00 PDT

I have a soft spot for wizards. I do. Not so much the high fantasy Gandalf-style wizard from Lord of the Rings, but rather the corrupted evil wizard types from the 1970s. Y'know, a chaotic wizard from, say, Dungeons and Dragons is way more my style. Sacrificing some zoned out chick to some dark god for great power. Yeah. Like that.

Oddly, I don't see a lot of these of bad guys in fiction anymore. Funny enough, legendary artist Frank Thorne used to cosplay it up as a wizard (see this pic for an example). And, of course, these wizards were quite popular during the airbrushed van craze of the '70s and early 80s. I love that stuff. A shorty-style 70s Dodge Tradesman with a gonzo wizard is awesome.

So yeah, that's what was going through my mind when I came up with this:

Photos of my Siberian Husky

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:11:00 PDT

I've got to get some more artwork scanned in and uploaded to the ol' website. In the meantime, here are some non-artwork related photos of Rowen, our Siberian Husky and full-time Von Allan Studio mascot. Both of these were taken by my wife, Moggy, and both photos really capture the mushiness of our almost fourteen year old puppy. She is a truly awesome dog and we are very lucky to have her in our lives. Rowen is a "silver husky" so her colours are quite a bit lighter with less contrast then a ye olde standard "Si."

It's a very dry summer here in Ottawa (borderline drought) hence the very sad looking grass.
More artwork and whatnot to come!

Battle of the big guys!

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 05:56:00 PDT

Just mucking around a bit with this one. I wanted to do a piece with really "squat" muscle-bound guys rather than lean swimmer-types. I'm not absolutely crazy with how it turned out, but it was still interesting and fun to do.

Punk Metal Witches and a Big Guy

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 06:24:00 PDT

I have to say I enjoy doing illustrations that contrast different body sizes and styles. Big beefy guys mixed in with cute punky girls is a great case in point. One of the things I really like about comic book art is how you can play with this type of thing and explore that contrast. And after drawing kids for so long for my graphic novel Stargazer, it's nice to change things up and draw different body types.

You can see a few more illustrations featuring these characters right here.

Angry Armoured Cyborg Guy

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:53:00 PDT

This piece was really done to muck around with various textures to see what worked and what didn't work. If this was an illo meant for colour I'd probably downplay some of those textures since colour, in some ways, serves the same function (i.e.: to allow planes to fade into the background, to give the piece a sense of "grit," to unify different elements together, to show contrast, to show the focal point, and so on!). Brush and ink texture, though, does have a place and I kinda sigh a bit when I see contemporary comic books that go directly from pencils to colours and skip out inking altogether. I think inking, especially brush inking, is becoming a bit of a lost art in mainstream comics and that's a shame. I think strong inking can play a critical role in storytelling and I'd love to see more experimentation with it rather than less.

The other thing I tried was using some of Manga Studio's textures and tones to add a bit to it, too. I like using digital tools in this way, printing them out directly on the Bristol board and then adding more hand-inked tones in and around them. I view digital as a tool just the way I view my pencil or my brush. Digital, of course, also has the advantage of easier "take-backsies" if something you think might work doesn't.

Flying!

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:05:00 PDT

Who does not like flying? I haven't done a lot of super hero art, but I love the idea of flying heroes. It may go back to my love of characters like Supergirl and Mary Marvel. Dunno. But it's what I had in mind when I came up with these.

It's fun to muck around with deep foreshortening and three point perspective. It really is. Being dynamic is really the essence of action comics and I do like to push it a bit and see what I can come up with. When I first started to draw doing these types of poses were incredibly intimidating. I felt very unsure of myself and I would feel somewhat overwhelmed by doing it. Skittish, really, and it would make me very hesitant to try it. And when I did, I wouldn't execute the drawing all that well. My brain can still run in that direction from time to time (especially when I'm tired!) but I'm much stronger than I ever used to be. Art is a constant learning process both about it but also about yourself. Confidence is a big, big part of art. Along with experience and practice.

Heavy Metal Girls

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 05:30:00 PDT

I have to admit to having a soft spot for that feathered hair Metal Girl look of the 80s. Yeah, I know, it really started in the 1970s. But for me, growing up when I did, I really associate it with the 1980s. What's funny is that I had no idea the amount of work the look required. Teasing, hair spray, the whole thing. Now, my main excuse here is that I'm a baldy; hell, I started losing my hair when I was 18 and never cared that much. That meant I never did much with it when I had hair so I tended to be pretty oblivious to the amount of work it took. Doesn't help that I was a only child and, on top of it, I wasn't that comfortable around girls when I was a teenager.

Anyway, as was pointed out to me recently Dazzler from Marvel had feathered hair. I never read Dazzler in her own title and so that image never stuck with me. Same for most heroines of that era; I was more drawn to Storm's mohawk look (as well as the rest of her punk outfit. Damn, Paul Smith came up with an awesome look) and it's one of the few hairstyles that really stayed with me ever since.

Now that 80s-style heavy metal girl featured in Double Fine's 2009 release Brutal Legend. I really enjoyed the look and design of that game (though admittedly not so much the game play. Real time strategy games aren't my thing). Legend featured the Razor Girls that heavily used that look (strongly influenced, I believe, by the young women in Heavy Metal Parking Lot). Anyway, all that said I definitely love the look! And the brush and ink pieces below were influenced by it.

Free Stargazer Graphic Novel PDF ebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:20:00 PDT

I've recently made the decision to distribute both volumes of Stargazer, my all-ages graphic novel series, for free through a Creative Commons license. I'm a big believer in Tim O'Reilly's quote that, "for a typical author, obscurity is a far greater threat than piracy." I've also been paying close attention to both Paul Coelho (the "Pirate Coelho"!) and Cory Doctorow with their own experiences doing this sort of thing. Stargazer was a labour of love for me but indy graphic novels are a tough road to hoe at the best of times. And since the story is now complete and "out there" in book form, I'd really like to see it get read more than anything else. What I've done is created two downloadable PDFs that are about 30 megs in size each. Plus I've torrented it through various sites (including The Pirate Bay and Clear Bits).

You can find the links to download each volume at http://stargazer.vonallan.com/2012/02/stargazer-ebooks-pdfs-cbrcbz-and.html.

If you like it, please consider purchasing a print copy (links are included in each PDF and also in my shop page). And please pass it along to your friends and family, too!

Dungeon Crawling Zeroes

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:40:00 PDT

These two pieces were inspired by the new Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. I don't get a chance to game that often, but I've been a fan of Goodman Games (the maker of the DCC RPG) for the past few years. Why? Well, one of my complaints about a lot of current role-playing games is their complexity. There are a lot of rules. And a heavy rules set can (but not must) bog down game play. I realize a lot of this has to do with the GM and obviously various players can and will use the rules as they see fit. Even creating house rules to tweak things they do and do not like. I get that. That doesn't mean that the core rules aren't complex in and of themselves, though. It's worse, I think, when this type of “rules creep” gets built into modules and campaigns.

So when I came across the Dungeon Crawl Classics line of modules and started mucking around with them a few years back, I really liked what I read. Rules-lite stories that focus on “old school” style gaming. What I especially like is, at least with the modules I've read, is that the modules can be played in a variety of ways. Ok, ok, I realize you can say that about many modules with a variety of games systems. I know. But by stripping out excess the DCC line of modules gets right down to the core concepts and leaves the rest up to you. GMs aren't forced into a soap opera style plot; instead, the modules focus on action and leave that type of plotting up to the GM. It actually reminds me a lot of the old TSR Marvel Super Heroes modules from the 1980s. Things happen in the modules but the GM is left with a great deal of latitude when it comes to the actual campaign storytelling. I freaking love that.

Goodman Games has taken the next step and built a role-playing game around this concept. I've gone through the beta release rules that were published last year quite a bit and really enjoyed it. The core idea is the “funnel” - instead of creating heroes with better than average abilities right from the get-go, players randomly generate characters that are all ordinary and very average. Hell, some are quite a bit worse than average exactly because the system is so random. These “zeroes” then go out and have their adventure (in my mind this is a classic “issue zero” background tale that comic books have often used). Since many of these plucky little serfs won't survive that initial story, those that do are special. And surprisingly enough for people who haven't tried the game, players do become quite attached to these guys and gals that manage to survive, make it to level one, and become true heroes in the process. As a result of the expected high mortality rate, most players randomly create three or four of these characters; when you put a group together, you have (in my mind) the classic torch-bearing mob from old horror flicks. Sixteen or twenty of these villagers go out, using whatever tools and equipment happen to be available, and “soldier forth” (or answer Joseph Campbell's classic call to adventure).

Who are these characters? Well, since the DCC RPG is a high fantasy game the characters exist in a quasi-feudal world (albeit one where the characters do have money, not something that most serfs had in real feudalism). Farmers, cobblers, ditch diggers, vagrants and woodcutters amongst many others. Their common bond? A goal to change their lot in life, something we can all identify with. Most won't succeed, destined to lie dead and forgotten in some musty dungeon somewhere. Those that do survive become heroes. And maybe legends. It's old-school gaming at it's best and something I'm really looking forward to playing over the next few years.

With all that in mind, I did these two pieces inspired by those plucky little Zeroes; they've answered the call and (ahem!) are boldly going where few serfs have gone before!

CHIKARA in Ottawa!

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:38:00 PDT

*I'm borrowing from the formatting that Dirty Dirty Sheets use for many of their photos. 'Cuz I love it. So there!

So, on Sunday afternoon, my wife and I along with a few friends headed out to CHIKARA's first foray into Ottawa, Ontario. If you're not familiar with CHIKARA, it's influenced by luchadore wrestling, 1980s style old school heroes and villains (ahem - technicos and rudos), super hero comics, and strong match to match (and show to show) continuity and storytelling. They also tend to feature smaller athletes that, in my not so humble opinion, tend to get overlooked. Women are also featured strongly as athletes rather than "divas." Toss in the fact that the wrestlers are charismatic and funny, good with the crowd (and kids, since it was an all-ages show), and incredibly talented athletes and you have a tremendous event.

The other thing that CHIKARA does and it's what's drew me to them initially is that they feature tag team wrestling. I LOVE tag team wrestling. Especially Southern-Style tag team wrestling. Part of what killed any affection I had for the WWF/WWE was the de-emphasis on tag teams by the mid-1990s (that and the deaths of people like Owen Hart). I grew up as an AWA guy who loved the Midnight Rockers, Paul E's Original Midnight Express, Chavo and Mando Guerroro, Badd Company and "Playboy" Buddy Rose and "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers. I also really liked the NWA but it was harder to get broadcasts up in this neck of the woods. Still, I gobbled up references to the Rock 'n Roll Express, Ole and Arn Anderson, the "other" Midnight Express, the Fantastics and whatnot and longed to see them wrestle more often. The WWF also had a great tag scene during this period (the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, Demolition, Strike Force, the Killer Bees, etc...). I had no idea I had it so good or that tag team wrestling would eventually fade away. To my mind, tag team wrestling offers a great deal of storytelling opportunities, a way to bring in less experienced wrestlers, a way to keep veteran wrestlers in the mix, and a way to feature a certain dynamic that singles wrestling simply cannot provide. I think the guy who understood this the best was probably Shohei Baba (or Giant Baba). Baba used tag teams extremely well, maximizing the storytelling possibilities (through King's Road) in a way that I don't think was matched anywhere else in the world. It's an influence in my own creative work and something I'm hoping to bring in to my own storytelling in the near future.

So that's what draws me to CHIKARA. It's very similar, though CHIKARA uses "lucha tag" rules rather than more traditional tag team rules. I'm ok with that, but I actually think (and I may explore this down the road) that it creates some storytelling problems in terms of in-match continuity that makes the action (especially regarding who's legal at a particular time) hard to follow. The big disappointment I had with this show was that Mike Quackenbush was injured the night before in Vaughan, Ontario, and wasn't able to wrestle in Ottawa. I was really hoping to see "Quacksaw" (his team with Jigsaw) but it didn't work out. But the CHIKARA crew made up for it with a fantastic match between Jigsaw and Mr. Touchdown and a bonus match with Ophidian (damn I love snakessssss style!).

Anyways, if CHIKARA comes to your town, find a group of friends, and check 'em out.

On to the photos!

Mr. Touchdown vs. Jigsaw

Sara Del Rey vs. Leah Von Dutch

Del Rey was coming off of her recent tag title win (with partner Courtney Rush) over in SHIMMER. Del Rey and Rush have the portmanteau name of "Death Rush" and I was really hoping that Del Rey would have one of the SHIMMER tag belts with her. But it was not to be.

Ophidian vs. Dasher Hatfield

3.Ole! (3.0 and El Generico) vs. The Batiri

I should add here that 3.0 were fresh off their tag title win the night before in Vaughan. The new CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas looked pretty awesome with their shiny new belts! I'm a big fan of "Three Point Oh." I think they have a lot of charisma and their promo work and in-ring action really clicks with me. The Batiri had a good group of fans and they were chanting "eat the humans" a number of times. Damn funny.

The Spectral Envoy vs. 17 and The Shard

Delirious stalking Ultramantis Black and Hallowicked

Archibald Peck vs. Chuck Taylor

Man, this was a hilarious match. They really had some fun and the crowd was very into it.

Mike Quackenbush at the announcing station with Leonard F. Chikarason

The Colony vs. The Swarm

This was the one match that I was a bit disappointed with. First, I didn't follow the backstory and that's on me. I'm sure I've missed something. It feels like The Swarm are "invading" CHIKARA (or at least challenging The Colony) but I didn't have the background to fully understand it. That said, the match was billed as Trios action (which I took to mean normal "lucha tag" rules but with three men per side). The actual match, though, was much more like a tornado tag (all men legal at the same time) with no disqualifications and no countouts. It wasn't billed that way, though, and the resulting chaos was completely unexpected. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun to watch. It certainly was. And it may play better on DVD with commentary explaining exactly what the hell was going on and why the match was so out of control. Watching it live, though, I was constantly questioning the referee and wondering why other officials weren't coming down to the ring to restore a semblance of order.

The Colony are amazing, though. My wife's favourite team and their team work, personality and charisma (under masks!) is fantastic. I like 'em a bunch (I just like 3.0 and Quacksaw more) and I have a great deal of respect for them, too. I'd like to see them have another run as tag champs.

Main Event: Brodie Lee challenges the Grand Champion of CHIKARA Eddie Kingston

These two went at it. I love Kingston. He gives some of the most passionate promos I've ever heard (seriously, have you checked out his promo for his match against Quackenbush for last November's High Noon iPPV?). His in-ring emotion is just as strong. Not to mention that he's an unbelievable athlete. Brodie Lee, recently signed by the WWE, brought a lot of emotion and energy himself and the two had one helluva main event.

After the show

So that was that. I'm really hoping they can make Ottawa a regular stop on their tour schedule. And again, if they come to your town, check 'em out. I think what they do, how they do it, and the stories they tell are well worth your time. Oh, you can learn more about CHIKARA by visiting http://chikarapro.com/.

Stargazer and Graphicly

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:06:00 PST

I recently signed a deal to have Graphicly digitally distribute both volumes of my all-ages series Stargazer. The first volume of is available for free on the Graphicly website at http://graphicly.com/von-allan-studio/stargazer-v1. Volume 2 is available for 99 cents at http://graphicly.com/von-allan-studio/stargazer/v2.

You can learn more about Stargazer by visiting the official website at http://stargazer.vonallan.com

Two lovely reviews for my graphic novel Stargazer

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:46:00 PST

First up is Marc Schuster's review of both volumes of Stargazer at Small Press Reviews. He writes:

"While Stargazer certainly evokes “little girl lost” tales a la Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, Allan puts a new twist on the formula by sending three friends into the mysterious realm on the other side of the proverbial looking glass. In so doing, he gives his characters the opportunity to come of age even as they bump up against the limits of their friendship. In this sense, the graphic novel is a spiritual and emotional cousin to Stephen King’s “The Body” in that it’s as much about growing up as it is about exploring the unknown.

Overall, Stargazer is an excellent graphic novel by an artist whose talent is only rivaled by his heart. Perfect for readers of all ages, particularly those with a love for the fantastic."

The full review is at http://smallpressreviews.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/stargazer-vols-1-and-2/

The Midwest Book Review recently reviewed Volume Two and wrote the following:

"'Stargazer' is the second volume of graphic novels from Von Allan, following Elora and her two best friends Sophie and Marni as they journey to a tower, making friends with robots and other creatures who at first don't seem so friendly. Through friendship and their own creativity, they will have to see themselves back home for adventure and much more. A fine pick for younger readers who often have daydreams of their own, "Stargazer" is an excellent and much recommended pick, not to be overlooked."

The full review is over at http://midwestbookreview.com/sbw/jan_12.htm#Comix/GraphicNovel

Additional reviews from a wide variety of sources can be found at http://stargazer.vonallan.com/2010/05/reviews-for-stargazer.html

Site news

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:41:00 PST

Ok, I think the site should be back up and that any broken links have been corrected. There may be a few small issues, but the site overall the site migration to the new server went pretty smoothly. I probably could have done it even faster, but there were a few other things to do in the meantime.

Now I just need to scan some new artwork and get it uploaded. Soon!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Switching Servers and Site Hiccups

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:05:00 PST

I'm just finalizing a move to a new web host and that means there will be a few hiccups and broken images and links in the process. I'm slowly but surely catching them, but it may take a few days or weeks before I finally track 'em all down. So please bear with me as I get it all sorted out.

Today's the Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:38:00 PDT

Yes! The concluding volume of Stargazer, Volume 2, is now available world-wide. It's 110 pages long and, I think, will surprise people. One of the things I tried very hard to do with the story is make a comic featuring kids exciting, scary, and hopefully the ending will catch at least some people by surprise. A full list of retailers that are known to be carrying it can be found at the Stargazer mini-site at http://stargazer.vonallan.com/2010/05/retailers-who-are-carrying-stargazer.html. This list includes both comic shops and book stores that I know are carrying Stargazer plus links to a wide variety of online retailers who are also stocking it. And since it's available through a wide-variety of distributors, ordering a copy is very easy for individuals, retailers and libraries. In other words, tracking down a copy should be very simple. If you run into any trouble, though, just drop me an email and I'll see what I can to do help!

If you're not sure where a local comic shop in your community is, you can always use the very handy Comic Shop Locator Service to track one down. If they happen to be out of stock for whatever reason, it's very easy to re-order a copy. Just let them know the item code (it's AUG111259) and the ISBN (it's 978-09-781237-4-1). I also want to take a moment and express my thanks to the comic book stores that have supported my work. While the industry is dominated by Marvel and DC, many of these stores still take chances on independent creators and that's remarkable. The medium of comics is incredibly diverse and there's some fantastic work out there by creators you may not have even heard of. A well-stocked and well-run comic shop will help you find them. All you have to do is ask.

Minimum Wage and the Prices of Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:35:00 PDT

“The truth is people are leaving anyway, they’re just doing it quietly, and we have been papering it over with increased prices...We didn’t want to wake up one day and find we had a bunch of $20 books that 10,000 people are buying.”

Dan Didio, co-publisher of DC Comics, Los Angeles Times, August 22nd, 2011.

A number of comments have been written about DC's upcoming relaunch of their superhero universe. There have been articles on gender inequality (notably DC Women Kicking Ass and Laura Hudson's editorial on Comics Alliance) , Brian Hibbs has touched on the sales challenge Direct Market retailers face, and Corinna Lawson has spoken passionately about the marketing (or the lack thereof) over on Wired's Geekdad blog. I wanted to take a broader look and examine the role of pricing in the current comic book climate and why I think that pricing, more than anything else, will restrict DC's ability to grow their audience during the relaunch. In examining this, I'll be looking at the entire Direct Market and not simply DC's current plan and hopefully come to some conclusions that may surprise you. They certainly surprised the hell out of me.

Prices of comics in context

My thesis here is pretty simple. Many people have written and spoken about the high price of comics over the years. This can range from the "I remember when..." type comments to more contemporary concerns about the health of the entire Direct Market. The problem with a lot of these statments is that there's no context to the arguments. Are comics more expensive than they used to be? Sure, but then so is bread, rent, cars, movies and many other things. The issue isn't whether things have become more expensive (everything has), but to try and see the price increases in the context of something else. Whatever that is, it has to be consistent for it to be relevant. When we look at the history of comic book pricing, it turns out there is something we can compare it to. And that's the history of the Federal Minimum Wage in the United States.

Actually, it's an ideal metric. The Federal Minimum Wage was signed into law in early 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. At almost the same time, Action Comics #1 hit newsstands featuring, of course, the first appearance of Superman. In other words, comic books and the US Federal Minimum Wage have existed at the same time since the birth of the Golden Age. Due to this, it's a perfect way to examine comic book pricing. Context is everything and this gives an excellent context to what has happened with both prices and minimum wage over the past 70 years.

Minimum Wage and the Pricing of Comics

Let's get right into it. In 2010, the US Federal Minimum Wage was $7.25 per hour. Figuring a 36 hour work week (factoring in unpaid lunches), it meant that someone working a minimum wage job was earning $261.00 per week before paying any taxes. In 2010, the average cover price for a typical 32 page superhero comic was $2.99 (1). In other words, to purchase ONE comic would cost 1.15% of someone's weekly income. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it represents one of the highest price points in the history of comics. I'll show this more concretely as we go forward, but for now I wanted to compare that to another key benchmark in the history of comics: the publishing of Fantastic Four #1 in 1961. This is especially timely since the Fantastic Four just celebrated their 50th anniversary. FF #1 was cover priced at 10 cents US. The US Federal Minimum Wage in 1961 was $1.15 per hour and, figuring the same 36 hour work week, a person would have earned $41.40 per week. To purchase the first issue of Fanastic Four, a person working minimum wage would have spent only 0.24% of their pay cheque. That is a stunning difference in price. To put this even more plainly: it represents a 379.2% increase in the price in relation to minimum wage from 1961 to 2010.

Note carefully that I'm not talking about inflation. Rather, I'm talking about the nominal price not adjusted for inflation. This is critically important to understand. Real wages and real prices (i.e.: wages and prices adjusted for inflation) is a separate argument to the one I'm making here. If I do a sequel to this piece, I will explore it because it's very clear that things are worse when you factor these in.

One more example before we get to the meat of things. Action Comics #1 was published in 1938 and also had a cover price of 10 cents. The US Federal Minimum Wage for 1938 was 25 cents per hour (PDF) or $9.00 for a 36 hour work week. That means purchasing Action Comics #1 would have cost someone 1.11% of their weekly income. That's quite a lot and you'd be right to say so. BUT...Action Comics #1 (and most comics published during this period) had a much higher page count then current comics. Action Comics #1 was 64 pages long, double the current standard of 32 pages. In other words, to compare it to today means we would need to make an adjustment to reflect the higher page count. When we do that, we see that Action Comics #1 would have cost approximately 5 cents if had been 32 pages long. That would have put it at 0.59% of someone's weekly pay cheque, still quite a bit higher than when Fantastic Four #1 debuted some 25 years later but not nearly as high as where things are now. Did the sales reflect that? They sure did. As John Jackson Miller pointed out on his Comichron blog, the print run for Action Comics #1 was only about 200,000 copies. Another key point: 0.59% of weekly US Federal Minimum Wage was the highest comics would cost until 1986. 48 years. Amazing.

1938 to 2010

The two charts below illustrate this visually. The first chart shows the unadjusted page counts. It wasn't until approximately 1955 (2) that comic books had shrunk to the page counts we now know so well. Both charts are identical from 1955 through 2010, but from 1938 to 1954 I adjusted the second one to reflect a typical 32 page count comic.

1938 through to 1969 saw a remarkable change occur in pricing in relation to the weekly US Federal Minimum Wage and you can see this in the chart below. Throughout this period there was a continued downward pressure on prices. Comics became cheaper in relation to the minimum weekly wage. A teenager getting his or her first job at, say, a fast food restaurant in the 1960s could easily afford a few comics per week. In fact, in 1968 and 1969 comics were only 0.21% of the weekly US Federal Minimum Wage. Is it any wonder that a comic book was considered disposable?

From the 1970s to today

The Direct Market rose to prominence in the late 1970s and the entire decade was marked by price fluctuations and stagflation that differentiated it from previous recessions. Comics were not immune to this and they would never return to the low price ratio that we saw in 1968 and 1969. Comics were cover priced at approximately 12 cents in 1968 but by 1974 were up to 25 cents. While that is a significant increase in cover price (108.3%), minimum wage was also increasing and that helped keep the ratio of cover prices to weekly minimum wage relatively low. By 1979 a single comic book still cost only 0.38% of the average weekly US Federal Minimum Wage. In context of where prices are today, it's pretty remarkable. That said, it's important to remember what was happening during this period. Tom Spurgeon and John Jackson Miller had a good discussion about it a few years ago and Miller correctly points out that the 1970s were a period of constant change. He noted, "Retail was changing in the 1970s -- comics, which had been a loss leader for convenience stores, drugstores and the like, needed to become more profitable as the mom-and-pop store gave way to the big chains (7-Eleven, Walgreens, later Wal-Mart, etc.). The print-three to sell-one model pinched comics all the more in a period of high inflation and paper and transport price increases -- and so the structure of comics sales at the time made us more exposed to external forces."

Comics continued to increase in price throughout the 1980s, crossing their most expensive point regardless of page count in 1986. The Direct Market was firmly established and some amazing comics were made during this period. Spiegelman's Maus. Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez. Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen. Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. Simonson's Thor. Sim's Cerebus was in its prime. This was also a time where the speculator bubble really started in earnest. Prices rose to reflect the craze, reaching cover prices of 75 cents in 1986, $1.00 by 1990 and $1.50 by 1994. Much has been written about how the bursting of the speculator bubble destroyed much of the comic book industry and I won't recap that here. The numbers are staggering, however, and The Amazing Spider-Man is a typical example. John Jackson Miller's website has detailed postal records on it going back to 1966. This is considered to be "Average Total Paid Circulation." 1991 saw total paid circulation of 544,900 and 1992 rose to 592,442. As the bubble burst, sales decline dramatically. 353,025 in 1994, 234,290 in 1995, 216,779 in 1996 and 159,950 in 1997. The numbers have never recovered. The most recent data is from 2008 and total paid circulation was 105,948.

What's interesting to me, though, isn't so much the collapse of the speculator market but what happened to prices during the aftermath. I started this essay with a quote from Dan Didio that I think is highly relevant here. Didio said, "The truth is people are leaving anyway, they’re just doing it quietly, and we have been papering it over with increased prices." At no point from the sales collapse in 1994 to the present have prices ever been reduced. Ever. The cover price has continued to increase in an attempt, as Didio mentioned, to deal with the decline in sales. The math is pretty simple. If a comic priced at $1.00 was selling 350,000 copies, then that's $350,000 in gross revenue. If, 10 years later, you're seeing sales of only 125,000 copies, then you're in trouble. The supposed solution is to raise the price to try to regain the lost revenue. But that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy: the higher prices drive people away, especially since the US Federal Minimum Wage has not risen by the same percentages. The chart below shows this clearly.

Movies and Comics

I can hear you, though. Everything has become expensive, right? Movie tickets are a typical example. I wanted to drill into that a bit and compare film ticket prices and comic book prices in relation to minimum wage. Movie ticket prices are a little harder to come by, mainly because there are regional differences that can really affect pricing. Fortunately, Box Office Mojo keeps a history of average movie ticket prices that goes back to 1980. The National Association of Theatre Owners has data going back a bit further. We can examine and make direct comparisons from the time period covering 1974 to the present. The results are eye-opening. Film prices have always been between 2.63% and 3.53% of the US Federal Minimum Wage throughout this period. While the price ratio has gone up, the trend line is not as sharp. The chart below shows it visually:

Let's me put this in even more context. It's May 1977 and Star Wars has just arrived in theatres. You work full-time at a minimum wage job. You'd have been earning $2.30 per hour or $82.80 for a 36 hour work week. You're willing to spend about 6% of your pay on comics and movies. A ticket to see Star Wars was, on average, $2.23 or 2.69% of your pay. That's quite a bit but you still had 3.31% left over. Comics were, on average, 30 cents. You could have bought nine of them and it would have only cost you $2.70. Or 3.26% of your pay cheque. You can see Star Wars and still buy all those comics and you're just under budget.

Fast forward to May 2010. Same situation. This time you want to go see Iron Man 2. That would cost you $7.89, but you're now earning $7.25 per hour or $261.00 per week. Iron Man 2 will set you back 3.02% of your weekly pay. Not bad, not bad, especially in comparison to 1977. You also want to buy some comics. A comic now costs $2.99 or 1.15% of your pay. Two comics will cost you 2.29% of your pay. You might be able to squeeze a third one in, but you're going to go over budget to do it. Ouch.

This may go a long way in explaining something else. Namely, why haven't fans of superhero movies crossed over into becoming new comic book readers? Price may be an issue. In 1978, the first Superman movie arrived in theatres. Average film price was $2.34 and the weekly US Federal Minimum Wage was $95.40. A ticket cost you 2.45% of your weekly pay. A comic was 35 cents or 0.37% of your pay cheque. When the Tim Burton Batman film came out in 1989, movie tickets were priced pretty high ($3.99 or 3.31% of a weekly US Federal Minimum Wage of $120.60). A comic was still around 0.76% of your weekly pay. By the time Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man film arrived in theatres, things had changed. Ticket prices were $5.80 and the weekly US Federal Minimum Wage was at $185.40. Or 3.13%. Comics? They were now $2.25 or 1.21%. It was becoming harder and harder for people earning minimum wage to make the transition from movies to comics. Even if they wanted to, they can't afford to.

People wonder why comics aren't selling the way they used to? Come on. I'm not arguing that convulted storylines, "waiting for the trade" mentalities, crossovers, and the like haven't hurt comics. I'm also not saying that movies, video games, and the like haven't hurt comics, either. I think all of these things and probably more have taken their toll. But...the simplest explanation regarding what has happened to the popularity of comics is what's happened to their prices in relationship with minimum wage. They were cheap and now they're not. That's done an incredible amount of damage. It's not just that the same readership base is simply purchasing less comics, though that may be part of it. As the population in the United States has grown over the past 25 years, the readership has declined. New readers aren't being created, at least not for periodical comics.(3) Why? The answer is price in relationship to an ordinary person's pay. Price in relation to the weekly US Federal Minimum Wage.

DC's 52 Relaunch

So, here we are, at the crux of the issue. As Didio noted, DC recognizes that sales have fallen. The reboot/relaunch is an attempt to correct that. I'm pretty confident that they'll see a sales spike for at least a few months. In fact, there are already reports that the new Justice League #1 has had pre-orders of over 200,000 copies. The big question, though, is where will things be, say, 24 months after the relaunch? How about 48? I think we can now make an educated guess. 48 of the 52 titles are priced at $2.99. The other four are all $3.99. If you're working a minimum wage job and want to buy 'em all in a given month, this is what you're facing:

The 48 cheaper titles will cost you $143.52 while the other four will add $15.96 for a grand total of $159.48 before any taxes. If you're earning $261.00 per week that means you're earning $1,044.00 per month. To buy all 52 titles will cost you 15.28% of your pay. Back in 1977, to buy 52 comics during the course of a month would have cost you $15.60 (at 30 cents each). You would have been earning $82.80 per week or $331.20 per month, but all 52 comics would have cost you only 4.71% of your income. That's it. Game over. Lower wage earners will find it impossible to purchase all of these comics. They'll find it impossible to purchase half of them. It's not financially doable.

What would have worked? Here's a thought: a price drop combined with the relaunch, backed by an aggressive attempt to put comics into more venues and an advertising campaign that would have spread the good news. What would the news have been? Fresh and affordable comics that anyone can read. What did we get? A DC gamble that the new "issue number ones" combined with a simplified universe will be the draw. Perhaps they're right, but based on what I've outlined here I think the odds are really stacked against them. What should the price have been? I don't know. I think there's room for experimentation, though, and I'm disappointed that DC didn't seize the opportunity to try. Take Wednesday Comics as an example. Instead of launching a 14" x 20" broadsheet at $3.99 US that was in an entirely different format that a typical comic, why didn't they try launching a couple of monthly titles on the same newsprint but priced much lower? Say $1.50? A "done in one" type story so that everything stands alone? Something like All-Star Superman might have exploded in popularity at a price point like this. It was not to be and I, for one, find the lack of any experimentation with the 52 relaunch deeply disappointing.

Digital

Pricing is also why I don't think digital is a threat to brick and mortar retailers. At least if the prices remain comparable to print comics. The Wall Street Journal published an article back in the spring that detailed who exactly is purchasing Apple's iPad. At the time, 7.8 million people owned iPads but only 6.4% of them earned purchased an iPad while earning less than $25,000 per year. Only 11.9% purchased an iPad while earning between $25,000 and $49,999 per year. Meanwhile, 49.4% of iPad owners earned more than $100,000 per year. Simply put, those earning minimum wage (and please remember that if you're earning $261.00 per week your annual salary is $13,572.00) will not be purchasing digital comics for the iPad. They can't afford to. As Chris at the ComicShop.net recently wrote, "If you really think comic shops are slowly dying off because of the demand for digital, your privilege is showing. Comic shops are dealing with a tough economy because comic books are a luxury—the first thing that gets cut when people are trying to save money. Food or comics? There’s no app for that." He is exactly right.

The Future?

This is a tough one. Prices have never fallen. In fact, both companies are now flirting with $3.99 price points and, based on the history I outlined here, there's no doubt in my mind that will become the new benchmark in the nearish future. That would be 1.53% of a $261.00 weekly pay cheque. For one comic. Man. It's certainly no way to grow a readership. Is there a way forward? Well, it's tough. If the answer is to keep battling declining revenue by raising prices, then the answer is no. Well, unless they can figure out a way to raise the Federal Minimum Wage at the same time! Seriously, though, comics are a tricky beast. Perhaps Marvel and DC feel that the answer is to turn it to a hobby that only affluent people can afford and keep upscaling things in accordance with that. Maybe. In the meantime, people will still continue to see superhero films and publishers, retailers, and media will wonder why the millions of tickets being purchased somehow doesn't translate into more comics being sold. Well, we know why and that's something. Not much, but something. And then DC and Marvel will reboot/relaunch once again, as they've done so often in their histories.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I have a new graphic novel coming out in October 2011 called Stargazer Volume Two. There's a preview up on my main Stargazer website. Go check it out, ok? Stargazer Volume Two has Diamond Item Code of AUG111259 and an ISBN of 978-09-781237-4-1. You can find reviews, ordering information, and the like at http://stargazer.vonallan.com

Footnotes

1. Average Cover Prices of Comics: Figuring out average cover prices is a bit of a chore. What I did was use "typical" comics in a given month and average the price from there. I mostly focused on Marvel mainly because DC went through a phase, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, where they experimented quite a bit with page counts. I'll try to get this up on Google Docs so that you can better see what I was doing.

2. Page Counts: I used Action Comics to show the historical changes in page counts. A good overview can be found on Comics.org. Note that they include the front cover, the back cover, the inside front cover and the inside back cover to the total page count. This is why they note that Action Comics #1 was, for instance, 68 pages long rather than 64 pages.

3. Readership: I stress periodical comics here, because the one key thing that has grown the industry is the graphic novel. Getting firm numbers is tricky, but the growth of "book form" comics has developed new markets in both bookstores and libraries. That has helped a lot.

Shop for Von Allan's books and art

noreply@blogger.com (Von Allan) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:17:00 PDT

The second and concluding volume of Stargazer is available world-wide beginning on October 12th, 2011. A list of known "brick and mortar" retailers who are carrying Stargazer is over on the Stargazer subsite (http://stargazer.vonallan.com). If a comic bookstore close to you isn't on the list, you can certainly use the Comic Shop Locator Service to inquire with various comic book shops. It's also available through a wide-variety of online retailers and some purchasing links for each volume are included below. My first graphic novel, the road to god knows..., is also available. Please click here for information on how to order it. Stargazer Volume Two:

Stargazer Volume One:

Stargazer is also available on Barnes & Noble and Chapters/Indigo, too! the road to god knows..., is also available! There is a subsite for the road to god knows... at http://trtgk.vonallan.com with a full list of retailers who are carrying the book. Links to order through online retailers are below: the road to god knows...:

Stargazer Teaser Print.
Measuring 11" by 17" and printed on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol (100% cotton fiber, acid-free archival bristol on a Plate (Hot Press) surface). The entire print is treated with a coating to protect the colours from UV light. In addition, I'm offering free shipping for a limited time. The print will be packaged flat against backing board and wrapped in a special protective plastic. Price is $25.00 US.