Website update

More flash work today, prepared images for a slide show. Started mapping out online game experience that will coincide with comics. Raining out. Maybe its just Tampa being so spread out, but you'd hardly know there were people in town for the Super Bowl. I haven't seen huge masses of people, but maybe I'm just in the wrong areas

Review: Watching the Watchmen

Dave Gibbons has put out a book that details, in part, some of the behind the scenes thinking that went into the now legendary "Watchmen" comic book by him and Alan Moore. This isn't a complete telling of the story of how the Watchmen came to be, to get the full story, you'll have to also buy the "Absolute Watchmen" edition of the comic. So the story of the DC aquisition of the Charlton characters, and their eventual transformation into the iconic persona we know now is incomplete. However, what this IS, is a view into the creative mind of an artist/illustrator. It is amazing to see how much of the sketches Dave Gibbons has saved. He even has the home-made inkblots he used to figure out Rorschach's mask effect. This book probably was green-lit because of the upcoming movie, but who cares, its a treat. Its a look into the nuts an bolts, behind-the-scenes of what it takes to produce a comic. Its quite something to see the onion-skin manuscript that Moore sent to Gibbons. A reminder in this digital age, of how writing used to be done, laboring at a hulking metalic beast of a typewriter, having to use white out, smudging the script... That is what is great. The Chip Kidd cover is good, and has a nice obverse to the Dr. Manhattan cover. Now onto what's not so good. The interior design, not done by the estimatable Mr. Kidd . The inside is layed out out alright, but the designers choice to use colored body copy against black backgrounds, makes it VERY hard to read, the legibility of this design makes it difficult to give the book 5 stars out of 5, so I can't.  4 out of 5. It would be lower because the actual information (which is important in a book presentation) is so poorly designed, had it not been for the phenomenal source material, I would likely rate it a 2.5-3 star book at best. But its a definite recommend, and ultimately it needs its companion, the previously mentioned "Absolute Watchmen", but buy it, its a great read (tough on the eyes), and a great piece of art.

Website Progress

I have the design for the flash website finished. Today I cut all the PNGs out, I will layer them to create the illusion that the TVs are projecting actual information, this will make it much more modular, and allow me to pre-load the front part of the website, and then load the separate movies for each category. Tomorrow I start creating the buttons and individual movies that will combine on the website.

Tomorrow, my first comic related review....

OK

This blog's main purpose is to detail my endeavor to get published, what it takes to write, draw, produce, sell, and promote a comic book. Hopefully it will be full of all sorts of interesting trials and events, ups and (cross fingers) not too many downs. BUT I will also be using this blog to give reviews of books, comic books, movies, DVDs video games, whatever. I'll send it out to the ether, and if anyone wants to read my take on them, great. 

Up and Running!

Well, here it is. The first post to the blog for Big House Comics. I'm updating my website www.bighousecomics.com and am integrating flash into the design. I got my color copies back from the printer, happy overall with the color, good enough to send out. Will be drafting the cover letter this week, and synopsis.