Leonieblog

....as GOB would say. Well, now the tutors are answering questions regarding the exhibition (which is next week), I have found out that we are not allowed to frame our work. Unfortunately I've just spent £60 on custom frames, and as this course has already dug me in to debt I'm pretty angry. I see that it is my fault for not understanding the rules (which no one told us), and that as someone who has worked as a gallery assistant, technician and occasional exhibition curator, I was stupid to assume that a professional exhibition could include frames. I should've known from looking at the degree show how it would be presented, but unfortunately that was only put up this week...too late for me to cancel my order. (And when I had my degree show at this uni we were allowed to frame stuff, actually we were encouraged to...but I guess that was six years ago)
So now I have to try and get prints done of my work by Friday (because no way am I hanging up originals unprotected on foamboard, stuff's already fallen off the walls from the current exhibition). And if anyone would like to pay £30 for an A3 frame I will happily paint them an original piece to go inside it.

Posted by Leonie at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just getting ready for the MA exhibition, it's on from the 7th to the 13th of July (the opening is on the 6th) at the Hutton building, University of Sunderland. In theory there should be two framed pages from the comic, two mounted pages of rough layouts, the finished bound book and some little books of the early sketches (two pictured above) . Then I have a little bit more to do on my dissertation and then I'm finished and I can have a rest. Then I have to get back to getting this thing published, finding some work and starting the next issue of monstrum. I think I might keep this blog going after I finish the MA because it's been really useful.

Posted by Leonie at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm planning to update my main website next week. (www.lomoore.com) I'll probably change the main page a bit and I have more artwork to add, particularly to the comics section. If you have any suggestions or comments they'd be much appreciated. Is it hard to navigate? What's annoying about it? I think the fonts on the titles are ugly, so they're getting changed, and some people have said that the images aren't big enough, so I might look at a way to display them differently.

Posted by Leonie at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is wookie enjoying my graphic novel. He says it's good, but he has been known to lie. This is the mock up copy, the final one should be finished soon.

I've been doing some kids comic book workshops over the last couple of days with primary schools. Some of the genius strips included memorable lines such as: " I'm going to raid this semi-concious man ". "Better bring your scared face " "Where is my dress? Oh, I am wearing it!" and this gem below:

Which reads:
Panel one: " I'm gonna fight you."
"oh yeah, bring it on."
Panel two: " Oh I'm so scared"
"When I fight you I bite you because I'm Black Diamond."
Black Diamond was a bare knuckle boxer they were learning about.
Also, in one of the comics, someone was knocked out when they tripped up over a dog. It's been a surreal two days.

Posted by Leonie at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Godzilla vs a giant trout. Meal times are never boring around here.
Nearly finished the book. Have decided to print the entire thing at home, double sided A4 (it was intended as an A4 book anyway) and then it will be hand bound by genius bookbinder Deirdre, (if you've seen the TGT Bishi book or the Gone exhibition comments book, they were both made by her).
At the moment she is finishing off my mock up copy, then we'll set to work on the finished one and hopefully we will make some little books of my early sketches and paintings. So at least my exhibition will kick ass! I've been asking around to see if any publishers are willing to look at it as a PDF file on disc (Fantagraphics had said they would need to see more of the book and this seems like the easiest way).
Thanks again to everyone who has been visiting this blog, the last few weeks have been very tough and your words of encouragement and advice have been much appreciated.
Below is one of the final paintings I did for the book, and possibly my favourite, it's half of a double page spread.

Posted by Leonie at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the whole book printed out on single sheets. Looks pretty hefty! Having read through it, I've decided to add four more pages as I don't like the pacing in the first part of the story. It will run at 80 pages, but was originally intended to be much much longer, so I have plenty of stuff I can add in.
I still need to sort out the text, and may have found a printing solution (need to talk to someone this weekend about it).
Top Shelf have turned me down, which I'm not surprised about, and Fantagraphics replied to say they thought it was a childrens book. It's nice they got back in touch, I wasn't really expecting a great response to it. Waiting to see if anyone else gets back about it.

It's probably a tough one for publishers, I should've planned for this before I started.
Here's where I went wrong:
1. They haven't heard of me, so it's risky to begin with. I should've signed my work 'Alan Moore' instead.
2. It's painted and could prove expensive to reproduce. I should've done it standard comic size in black and white or computer coloured.
3. It's not the 'hot' style at the moment. I should've gone Manga, that seems a lot easier to shift.
4. It's not easy to market. I should've been controversial or done something that would sit well in a guardian review. I might try this next time, how hard can it be....
5. It's a tough market. I should've killed off every other comic artist and writer or a least scared them off the idea of wanting to get anything published.
6. Not much room for merchandise. Actually, you can make merchandise from anything these days, that's not a problem.
7. I was going to say it wouldn't make a good movie, but it doesn't matter if it's good or not, they'll try and make it anyway. Maybe it would be a good movie. I'd better get that screenplay ready, just incase.

There's the formula for making a graphic novel. Or not. Maybe that could an experiment.

Posted by Leonie at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If anyone knows a cheap and reliable printer, now would be a good time to mention them.
As I get closer to completion, I have realised that my options are quite limited. I can't afford to self publish, but I do need to get at least one copy printed up for my final exhibition in July. So far I've been quoted over 100 pounds for one copy, which I can't afford. Also, I'm really stuck for time which isn't great when you want something perfect bound.
Unless a publisher picks it up, this book may not see print past one exhibition copy. I'm considering a print on demand service, but don't think they can deliver in time for the exhibition, and I don't know what the quality is like.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Posted by Leonie at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Here are a few of the books I've been reading for my dissertation:

Lewis, L. ed. (1992) The adoring audience: fan culture and popular media, Routledge.

I don't know if a revised version of this has come out, but it could do with an updated or new edition. This is a collection of essays about fans and audiences, ranging from Elvis to Cagney and Lacey obsessives. Quite interesting, particularly for anyone looking at audience / author relationships or tv/ pop music history. Would be nice to see some new stuff in there as some opinions may have changed, and also so much has happened since.

George, M. ed (2003) The comics journal library, Vol 2: Frank Miller, The interviews: 1981 - 2003, Fantagraphics.

This is great, even if you aren't a big Miller fan. Miller is very outspoken about comics, and as this volume covers such a huge chunk of his career, it's interesting to see some of those opinions come back to haunt him. It also charts his changing relationship with The Comics Journal and the interviewers. Wonderful insight into comics history and into Millers career.

Sorensen, L. (2005) The library of graphic novelists: Bryan Talbot, Rosen publishing group.

This could have been a good book. But it wasn't.
I don't know what the other books in this series are like, but I'm not paying to find out. I get the impression the author has never spoken to and possibly never read any of Talbots work. Most of the book is cobbled together from other books ( actually, from about two other books...) and although it could be argued that this book could be of use to someone new to graphic novels, I'm sure there are far more useful ones out there.

Talon, D. (2003) Panel Discussions, TwoMorrows publishing.

I love this book. It's just artists talking about the design of their work and for a geek like me that is wonderful!
Reading Mignola describe his design process....wow! It's not perfect (could do with larger colour spreads for a start)but I love this book.

Wright, B. (2003) Comic book nation: the transformation of youth culture in America, John Hopkins university press.

Approaching comics from a historians point of view, this book gives great social context to developments in the comic industry. Although useful for academic purposes, it is written in an engaging manner. Hefty as it is, I wish it had been a bit longer, although the edition I bought has an extra chapter tagged on about 9/11 which isn't as well written as the rest of the book. Enjoyable and really useful!

Daniels, L. (2004) Wonder Woman: The life and times of the amazon princess. Chronicle Books LLC, California.

Firstly, this book is designed by Chip Kidd. So there's your first reason to buy it. Second reason is that it is entertaining and covers pretty much all aspects of the amazon princess, giving all sides of the arguments and disputes that have come about over the years. Also gives a fascinating insight into the crazy life of her creator....

Sabin, R. (1996) Comics, comix and graphic novels. Phaidon Press.

This book was vital to my last dissertation. But, my last dissertation was a bit rubbish.
Sabin manages to cover a huge amount of ground, touching on many facets of the comic industry and the history of comics. As an overall guide to comics history, this is really good. Obviously it isn't very indepth, but it does cover lots of stuff. It is well written, well researched and designed well enough to be a coffee table book at worst. One of the best all round books on the subject that I have come across.

Slatin, J. (2003) Maximum accessibility: Making your website more useable for everyone. Pearson Education Inc.

I read this for one of the essays I had to write, but I thought I'd include it because it was interesting.
I hadn't realised how badly designed most websites are in terms of accessibility. And as someone who does a lot of work for Museums, Galleries and schools, I have to be reasonably aware of accesibility issues relating to design. Some of the worst offenders are major online shops. When you consider that (according to the disability rights commission www.drc-gb.org) disabled people have an annual spending power of 50 billion GBP, you'd think these sites would make more of an effort.
Also filled with programming jargon to help you get your site up to scratch and some info about the laws in place.

The national writing project (1990) What are writers made of? Issues of gender and writing. SCDC Publications.

Experiments done in class rooms to see the differences in storytelling between girls and boys. Worth reading for the kids stories and drawings alone.

Gravett, P. (2005) Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life. Aurum Press Ltd.

What a clever book! A problem with trying to get graphic novels out to a wider audience is that they don't know or understand what's out there. This book helps by acting as a guide and interpreter. Well written with an innovative design and layout. The books covered are so diverse that this can be enjoyed by GN enthusiasts and new readers alike.

Spencer, A. (2005) DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture. Marion Boyars Publishers.

Pete recommended this book for something else I was working on, but it has proved useful for my dissertation also. A good overview of zines and zine culture which raises some excellent points and neatly sums up some tricky concepts.

Carrier, D. (2000) The aesthetics of comics. Penn State university press.

I've just started reading this book, but it aims to approach comics in a philosophical manner and place them within the context of art history. So far, I've learned how Gary Larson's work is a perfect example of Baudelaires claims.
I'm not sure if the author can top that, maybe he should have saved that point for the end of the book.

Posted by Leonie at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)