So last week I offered Art School Scum for free in exchange for me deputising you all as part of the ventedspleen.com street team (ahem). My challenge being: print out your favourite pages and stick them inside/outside/near an art school of your choice.

Exciting mobile art exhibition or cynical viral marketing campaign? You decide. No… you’re wrong. It’s the former.

I asked you to email me with photos of the results and agreed to blog the best ones as they came in. My favourite will get an original illustration inked on a 6″ x 6″ piece of canvas.

This one made me smile:

“The Art School is Dead … Long live Art School Scum”

Psalter Lane Art School, Sheffield re-opens for one last exhibition.

‘Art School Scum R.I.P’ by Tom Humberstone

Preview – 20th June 2009

Runs – till it rains or gets taken down

Open to all

- Klive, Sheffield

Deadline for entires is the end of August. If I continue to get photos of this standard, I may well send out several illustrations.

Here’s a short, fun one-pager I drew as a post-script to How To Date A Girl In 10 Days. More for those of you who have read the whole thing I guess. There’ll be one more of these little comedic epilogues (set in a comic convention) which I’ll throw online sometime in July.

Art School Scum was the first ‘proper’ comic I ever attempted. I’d flirted with comics before of course – drawing them now and again in my sketchbooks but it was an awkward flirtation. Our eyes never met and I’m pretty sure comics was seeing someone else at the time.

Strained metaphors aside, it wasn’t until I was studying animation at art college that I really gave comics a go.

I was feeling a little disillusioned and uninspired by the work of my peers, a little annoyed at various aspects of art college, and frustrated at the length of time it took to produce thirty seconds of animated footage. So one night, I just grabbed a piece of scrappy A4 paper and drew Art School Scum page 1. It was, I admit, a heavily Daniel Clowes/Robert Crumb inspired piece but it felt good to have drawn it. I photocopied it the next day and posted it around college anonymously.

I produced another page every couple of weeks and continued to plaster them around college. I started getting some nice feedback via an email address I set up to maintain a thin veneer of anonymity – ventedspleen@hotmail.com – and before long I collected the comics in a book that I published by stealing a photocopying card at college. They sold in the student union bar and a local comic shop.

I’m fairly proud of the work, but it’s hard to look back at it now. I was aesthetically all over the place, trying to find my voice, and appropraiting various comic book styles because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the medium. AND YET and yet – it gave me the confidence to keep on trying. The encouragement people gave me after reading the comic was fundamental to me feeling like I might be okay at this.

For some people Art School Scum remains their favourite work of mine.

It’s always sold well for me. Even now. Roughly six years on. I estimate I’ve probably sold about 800 copies of the book since I first produced it. But now that the fourth printing is sold out, I’m reluctant to get it printed up again.

However, I want it to be available for people who want to pick I up, so I’m offering up a high quality PDF which you can download and either read on your computer or print out at home (you could make your own book out of it). The resolution is high enough for you to print it at A5 or A4 – possibly even A3.

The PDF is free. However, if you happen to download the comic and enjoy it, I have one favour to ask of you:

If you go to art school, work at/near one, have friends who go to one, or just happen to walk past one… could you print out your favourite page of Art School Scum and stick it to a wall/noticeboard/tutor’s door/studio or in the student union bar…

There’s a little watermark on each page asking people to go to my site to read more, and I think this would be a nice way of introducing people to alternative comics if they haven’t discovered them yet.

Anyway, you’re certainly under no obligation to do this, but if you do – send me a photo of where you’ve put the poster up. I’ll blog some of the more inventive photos at some point (and the best photo shall receive one of my canvas sketches).

DOWNLOAD ART SCHOOL SCUM PDF (10MB – READING COPY)

DOWNLOAD ART SCHOOL SCUM PDF (60MB – PRINTING COPY)

Some new sketches from my new sketchbook…

For my post about selling small press comics I threw in a little illustration of comic shop retailer. I drew this on a small square of stretched canvas for a bit of fun to see how inking on a different surface would change the way I worked. I used all sorts of things: ink and dip pens, brush pens, snowmen markers, and whiteout for smudges (there were a lot). By and large I think it was a moderate success, and certainly fun to do so I might try and do some more at some point.

“Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo”
- Don Marquis

Occassionally, for reasons best known only to themselves, a few small press comic artists email me to ask for advice about materials, printers, and what to do with their comic when it is published. I usually try my best to reply but sometimes I just don’t have the time.

But then I also love to procrastinate…

With this in mind, I was looking over John August’s fascinating screenwriting blog and thought that perhaps I could, like him, compile a few blogposts that cover frequently asked questions. One of which being:

Where do I sell my small press comics?

There are several options available to you. Mostly, small pressers rely on their local comic book retailer to stock their comic and encourage their customers to take a chance on new material. Sadly, this sort of thing can be rare which is why some of the more successful self-published comic artists are using the internet and monetising it in a way that is working for them (see Octopus Pie and the TopatoCo collective). So…

1. Sell through your website

It’s easy enough to set up a website using blogspot or wordpress or any of the other million ways in which having a website has been made simple. Paypal or Etsy are probably the best ways of making it easy for you and the customer to exchange goods for money but I’m sure there are, again, several different ways to do this too.

2. Attend comic conventions

There are lots of local, national and international comic conventions throughout the year. Along with all sorts of alternative zine symposiums and DIY events that would suit a small press publisher. Working out which ones suit your material and are helpful to you is trial and error, but most will certainly provide an opportunity to meet other creators. Perhaps the most pleasant aspect of these events is getting a chance to meet people who are interested in small press work and, hopefully, your own. Having said all this, I tend to find these things completely exhausting and have yet to feel totally comfortable when sitting behind a table.

3. Use your local comic store

Most comic stores will probably take your comics on a sale-or-return basis and take somewhere between 20-30%. I can’t speak for the rest of the UK but in London, with McForbidden Planet generally only taking comics distributed through Diamond (which is an entirely different headache) and places like Comicana focusing more on back issue trade, the only viable, centrally located shops are Gosh! and Orbital Comics. Here, in my experience, is how they treat small press material:

Gosh! are well known for their support of alternative and independent comics. They have a great stock and are located opposite the British Museum so receive a great deal of passing traffic. They used to take small press on sale-or-return and offer a 70/30 split but, with the departure of one of their staff who used to oversee the small press section, they have opted for firm-sale (buying the stock from you on the spot) with a 50/50 split. This means they may not take your stock if they don’t feel it is appropriate and will probably buy 3-5 copies in based on whether they think it will sell.

Now, firm-sale is a policy that The Beguling (in Toronto) and a few other stores have for small press. I understand it simplifies the paperwork for the staff and makes things that little bit easier, but predominantly these stores offer a better deal than a 50/50 split. That, for a lot of people, may not even cover printing costs and makes taking comics to Gosh! a choice between getting your comics to a wider audience or making your printing costs back. Which is a shame. The small press scene and local comic stores have always had a natural symbiosis and work together to create an exciting artistic community. This policy doesn’t strike me as something that encourages that.

Which brings me to Orbital Comics. Who have, since day one, had a sale-or-return policy with 100% of the profits going towards the creator. The idea being that if they offer this deal, more creators will use Orbital, and more people seeking small press material will patronise the store (hopefully picking up a book that the store will make profit on while they’re there).

There are other bookstores and art/design shops that your work may be suitable for in London, which leads me neatly into…

4. Target your audience

A lot of the material in my comics focuses on very specific subject matter (art school, music, relationships, auto-immune diseases, american politics) which I’ve always tried to address by getting my books in the relevant places. Taking boooks to independent politics bookshops, to gigs/record stores, to private views/exhibitions… whatever gets my work into the hands of those who may be interested but may not walk into comic stores regularly. It’s always worthwhile trying.

5. Organise a book launch/exhibition

Finally, one way to sell your book and get people to see your work is to do it all yourself. Organise a book launch, hire a venue, get bands to play and then advertise or market it in your own way. It can be stressful, it can be a lot of work, but it can also be a lot of fun. One of the positive aspects of the continuing decline in printed media is that more people are taking it upon themselves to do things like this and it goes a long way towards creating a vibrant and diverse alternative scene.

So there you have it. A small, and by means compressive list of some of the many ways to get your work seen. I’m sure there are better, more viable avenues for you but these are the methods that work for me and might prove useful as a starting point.

Get in touch

Leave a comment if you think of some obvious alternatives I’ve neglected to mention. And if you have any pressing questions you want a rank amateur like me to answer then by all means email and maybe I’ll blog about it in the future.

I recently took part in a questionnaire designed for comic artists attending TCAF for Toronto’s National Post. In one of the questions I was asked what my guilty pleasures were when it came to comics and I answered by suggesting a couple of mainstream superhero comics. You can read the full thing here.

This bothered me – belatedly – for two reasons:

1) I have a problem with the concept of guilty pleasures. I’m comfortable enough with my likes and dislikes these days to accept that if I enjoy something, there are genuine reasons for doing so. Guilty pleasures are an odd concept and I dislike the inherent acknowledgment of embarrassment it implies.

2) I want to take a moment to clarify something about the nature of mainstream and alternative titles. My apologies if this all ends up sounding like a manifesto.

You see – for those of you not overly familiar with the comic industry, readers and creatives alike are often found on opposite sides of the medium’s intellectual and artistic spectrum. By and large there are those who read mainstream comics. Generally published by Marvel, DC, and Image. Generally involving superheroes. And then there are those who read alternative or independent comics.

Those who read the alternative comics view the mainstream with contempt. “They are power fantasies. Juvenile soap operas” they will say. “The art is terrible and there is little of artistic value” they might add. “They do nothing to highlight and nurture the intrinsic potential of the medium” they may well conclude.

Meanwhile, those readers of the mainstream similarly view the alternative press with the same crippling contempt. “It is all badly drawn tales of working in a record shop” they might counter. “It is all unreadable and pretentious arty fare or self-indulgent angst” (quiet at the back – I’m trying to make a point here) they may argue.

Of course, both arguments may well have elements of truth behind them but they are both missing the point.

The point being that we all love comics.

It seems that the smaller and more niche the interest is, the more zealous and polarising the opinions become. Just take a look at any online music forum. Or any kind of counter-cultural movement in fact. People who feel that their likes and dislikes are suitable replacements for an absence of personality are the worst offenders. And they’re ruining all the fun for the rest of us.

Comics that teeter too close to the end of the spectrum on either side become bizarre cliches of themselves and their past. Be they a terrible Robert Crumb clone that betrays the author’s lack of understanding of the original material or a superhero comic so bogged down by continuity and nerd-porn that it becomes unreadable.

For the alternative artists, distancing themselves from the mainstream was an important aspect of their development. Like teenagers rebelling against their parents in order to discover their own identity. They wanted the wider artistic community to take them seriously, and for that to happen, they had to show what the medium could be capable of and somehow remind people that superheroes were but one genre within a larger, more diverse medium possible of achieving anything the artist put her mind to.

Which is fine, but it is now 2009 and most intelligent people accept that comics are a viable, exciting art-form and we can stop calling them graphic novels in that horribly insecure effort to sound more grown-up. Maybe once upon a time this pompous term and this alternative vs. mainstream argument were necessary to getting comics accepted. But it’s done. The battle, for the most part, has been won. If people are so myopic as to not see what a glorious medium comics are, then I’m frankly pleased to have saved myself some time in not having to get to know them.

With that out of the way, can we all now just accept that sometimes one wants to watch incredible, heartfelt arthouse films that change the way we think about cinema and/or ourselves. Discover something true and honest and real. Yet sometimes we may want to watch the latest blockbuster, turn off our minds and simply be entertained. The same is true of comics. Perhaps it is more accepted with films than it is with comics because we can view the narrative of a movie in the company of others, whereas comic reading is a more personal experience…

But you know what? Comics do blockbuster themes, high concepts and action with more gusto, imagination and boundless insanity than the latest big-budget multiplex fare. To ignore that would be to ignore some wonderfully mad and exciting storytelling by incredibly talented creators who were years ahead of their time. If you want some proof, go and check out the original artwork of Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Alex Toth, and Wally Wood in Orbital’s gallery this week.

Mainstream comics? Alternative comics? This is not what we should concern ourselves with anymore.

There are good comics and bad comics.

And guilty pleasures…

Old news for those of you who bought the final book, but for those of you who have yet to pick it up, here are a few more pages from the final issue of How To Date A Girl In Ten Days.

If you’d like to buy the comic and read the final pages please click here or visit Gosh! or Orbital Comics.

There will be a couple of fun “postscript” comics to supplement the ending of the book which will be internet only exclusives so keep your eye out for those…

I love going to see live comedy. And London is a great place to see some.

The city is lousy with small, intimate venues that offer cheap, exciting new comedy throughout the year – and right now is a perfect time to catch a few shows. Edinborough is approaching and pretty much all the comedians taking part are previewing and testing their material for less than half the cost of those final fringe shows. There’s something fascinating and very enjoyable about seeing these shows come together at this early stage.

The Happy Mondays nights at the Amersham Arms in New Cross are just one way of seeing some of these previews. But if you want to find some comedy near you then there’s a new site called London Is Funny which will help you discover where and when to go.

The site (designed by Joe Lanman) is easy to use and has some very nice illustrations on it (I think you can all see where I’m going with this…)

I illustrated a header image for the incredibly talented Josie Long’s forthcoming guide to charity shops which will be on the site soon:

I also designed the logo and various icons for features on the site (”The Rant”, “My First Gig”, “Guide To London”, etc.):

Be sure to check out the site and give it your support – it’s a fantastic resource if you live in London and enjoy a spot of live comedy.

…and I’m all out of gum

A mixed bag of month-old sketches that I forgot to upload.

TCAF

It’s a little belated (which isn’t my fault!) but I thought I’d write a little about my experience at TCAF this year.

I was lucky enough to be given a shared table with Becky Cloonan in the massive Toronto Reference Library to which TCAF had moved after 2007’s UOT location. Becky was a lovely table mate and her work is definitely worth your time – I’m sure I caught a lot of secondary trade from the long queues waiting for her to sign their books.

The weekend went incredibly well and I met a lot of lovely people during the show and at the after-parties. Thanks to everyone who came and bought something or just said hello.

When it came to Sunday afternoon I realised I’d agreed to be a part of panel talking about studying comics at university. I was ridiculously nervous about it beforehand but by the time I settled into my seat in front of the audience, I managed to descend into my ‘rambling bore’ mode and somehow got through the hour by never shutting the hell up. Ross Campbell and Lucy Knisley joined me and I think/hope we managed to cover a wide spectrum of options, opinions and advice for prospective comic artists. I’m glad I did it and think I might even be less stressed if I ever agree to do another talk.

Among my favourite picks over the weekend were my Michael Cho print, Lucy Knisley’s ‘Pretty Little Book’ (absolutely wonderful – make sure you pick up ‘French Milk‘ as well), Taddle Creek’s comic issue, pretty much all of Tom Kaczynski’s comics, and… well… let’s stop there shall we? I could write several blog posts about the amazing comics that were on display. Inspiring stuff.

A huge thanks to Chris Butcher for inviting me again this year and organising what is possibly the best alternative comics festival ever. Of course, a gentlemanly hat-tip to everyone else who made the event such a success, including all the delightful volunteers – some of whom I feel I should hire as my agents, such was the vigour with which they encouraged people to check out my stuff. It’s possible they just felt a bit sorry for me…

Pen Club TO

I spent a few days after TCAF hanging out in Toronto with friends. As always, I had a wonderful time. Below are a few sketches I doodled in various patio bars, Future Bakery (which is where the Torontonian Pen Club is held), and wandering around High Park.

Here’s a photo from Pen Club. Also pictured: the Oreo cheesecake I had. A foodstuff fit for gods.

Post TCAF press

My visit to TCAF is briefly mentioned on about.com (I was tired. It was early. Excuse the photo) and there’s an interview with me conducted by Pen Club founders Cton, Steve Wilson, and Aaron Leighton on Open Book Toronto.