Painting a Graphic Novel using photoshop Elements

Painting your comic book pages.

As an old time comic book artist, I having drawn many many pages for comic book publishers
in the sixties. I still enjoy that contact with paper pencil and ink. I have recently road tested some of the software using the computer to create my new graphic novel. Correl painter is a great,but complicated bit of software. Also a full adobe photoshop will bend your brain. But as illustrator I still prefer the pencil to a good drawing surface to create my new online comic art creation. So I did a road test with the shorter version of (adobe's photoshop Elements 8) and it did just I needed. Also it is fast in creating full color comic book page.

Old time comic book pages drawn for major publishers were draw at (11x17 )in size. You can still draw your comic pages oversize then reduced to image area. . So you.ll need to scale down the pages to manageable size. I now use Strathmore Bristol. 11 x 14. You will still need to xerox your final pages to fit on the scanner bed. 81/2 x 11 before scanning into photoshop Elements 8. I discovered that you will need to change your inking style to your comic art pages. Since the color is trapped in areas to be filled with each color. This is not very difficult if you pay attention that all your drawing points are enclosed. The look of the new comic book pages have is a cold air brush look. Classic comic book coloring pages of the past were flat colors. The flat colors give a clean look to your comic book pages. I prefer a bold clean look to my comic book pages. I like a strong look with strong blacks and pop with bright clean colors.

The bottom line for me is that artists don't really need all the fancy software and tablets. to create a comic book or graphic novel. I'm not interested in becoming a computer tech. I want to create an interesting story and publishing on the web. I perfer my drawing board then color
using this great software put color to my to my work.

Creating an" Ashcan" Comic Book

The Ashcan Comic Book by Bill Barry

An ashcan mini comic book that I created for a comic book series titled "Devastator" This was an eight page "ashcan" for the filing of " Devastator" trademark. But the first step was to find if name Devastator was available. Now, you can go to a trademark lawyer and pay them lots of bucks. Or just do it online. I prefer to do my own leg work. I discovered the title had five hits. (paint gun,truck, crossbow, etc ) Now here you have to understand that there can be many areas that have a mark on the name. But there was none for a comic book character by name Devastator. There are more details in my book "How to Draw a Comic Book." The actual filing will take several months to complete. There is a set of forms that you will receive from the Trademark office. Since I'm a graphic designer besides my comic art skills, I created the logo you see on the cover of the comic book. If this is not one your strong skills get someone to help you design your logo. Now with all the new computer software be sold in the market place.computer I'm sure you can do one for yourself. This your banner that you will use for t-shirt art and what ever else that you can use to sell your comic book concept. The fees have gone up like everything else in life. You will need to produce at least three copies of you mini ashcan comic book to file with the trademark office. The cover must a sale price ($1.00) to show that this product is for sale. The fees have changed and think of like going to Vegas but the results can be a lot better if you believe in you creation.

Now one more important feature of mini comic book series. The story must be a self contained and a complete story in your eight page for mat. You can run a longer story, but is best to pack everything in the one comic book story. The trademark office has been know to give some creators a hard time for not giving the complete story in one comic story. Now you have wait for the results. Someone could have filed for the title as your but was two weeks before you filing. There are no refund in this game. Winner takes all. You receive a notice from the trademark office regarding your filing. It's best send it with a tracking number so that you know that arrived. OH yes, only u.s. money orders! Uncle Sam likes postal money orders.

At the end of this process Uncle Sam will send you a nice document to hang on your wall. They also have monthly publication where your Logo artwork will appear. Your trademark is good for five years. Now prices and other details may have been revised so check the U.S. trademark online info.

There are more details in my book "How to Draw a Comic Book"
copyrighted 2010 by Bill Barry

Creating a sellable title for a Comic Book

STEP ONE. You'll need a simple title for your comic book series. Once you decide what is the comic book world you want your comic book series to live in AKA, Action Adventure, Si Fi, etc. You will need to do a market survey to see if some on has already landed on the title you want to use. Diamond Comics is the worlds largest seller of Comic Books to comic book shop in the United States. They have sold my books in the past and the money was good. The market now is very tight. So some creators have turned to web comics ( self publish) for a while till the sales are good. The Teenage Nija Turtles began with self publishing comic book. Then it soon became a gold mine...They are still mining their pots of gold from that series.

But make sure that you have a title that isn't owned by someone else you will need to do a title
search to see if someone else doesn't have ownership. That is where you have to go and do a serach of the title. You'll have to pay a visit Uncle sam's Trademark and Copyright office to find out if the title is available. (tess) is where you have to go to find out if the title of your comic book is available. Now if someone has nailed that title you want you can still mark it. This is called
a wrap around title, with an extended tite in the front end and the back end of your Comic Book
title. There will be money in the filing phase. But if you use your computer and some time you can save the fees that a law office will charge. I have done all my own trademark searches and never needed the services of a lawyer. $$$$.


Marvel and DC publish special issues with titles that they want to mark. These Trademarks are good for five years. So do your homework and do a title search. This is very important. Once you know the title is clear then you can pick up your pencil and start roughing out you comic book.

Now with a great title you can rough out an "Ashcan" issue of your Comic Book. You'll need a small comic book. This small "Ashcan" issue will be used to file with your title (3 copies)and submit with the current fees to the trademark and copyright office. The reason for a Logo is AKA.. (Superman) so that it can be printed on T-shirts ,Mugs,Movie titles.. you get it?
I will not quote some the famous horror stories of creators that I know who failed to mark their comic book series and lost millions of $$$$$. So this a very important step needed to protect your creative efforts.

I will post more steps needed in the protection of your comic book creative efforts. The two guys that created Superman lost Millions$$$$. Everyone knows how hot Comic Book movies are now.
I have published five books on the subject of Comic Book Art ("How to Draw a Comic Book")and also "How to Draw Storyboards for Animation." The world of Cartooning &How to write a comic book.

My next post will cover More details on Creating an " Ashcan Comic Book."

Bill Barry