Evaluation

What & How

For my final major project I decided to make a comic based on real life situations that have happened to me at my place of work, at a library.

I decided that making a physical book was the best way to present the piece, to show potential publishers and employers of what I can do from a simple idea to a final piece.

In order to conclude in what medium I wanted to work in for the project, I decided to experiment in many different ways to see what way best suited for to my book.

• I tried working in digital media, with drawing line art and colouring using software as most mainstream comics do these days, but found that the images I produced seemed too lifeless and static.
• When I decided to scan in my line art, and use traditional colour techniques such as using different inks, I found that they both brought life into the pieces and the characters I had drawn, and set them apart from the typical comics people relate to in the mainstream market.

To represent the location of the library and the characters I wanted to portray to the best of my ability, I set about doing a number of things to improve my skills.

• I constantly kept doing observational drawings of people to brush up on my figure drawing. I also tried studying human anatomy from books to capture basic movements and muscle movements accurately. When I decided that drawing realistic figures was not working for my particular stories, I research into publications and artists who simplify their figure drawings.
• I tried doing observational location drawing of the library itself, as that is where my story is mainly based. I also brushed up on location drawing of some general locations, in case the story was to portray certain other locations.  

Audience

My target audience for my story was older teens to young adults. This is because of the nature of the stories I conceived which sometimes could have adult humour, or relate to situations which an older reader would relate to. In order to engage in different markets where this particular audience may read comics, I presented my comic in different formats.

• I made a bound book version to satisfy the audience which still like a physical product to have in their hands and keep forever.

• I kept the digital files of the comic pages and put them up on a web comic hosting website and my official website, to satisfy the audience which normally read their comics digitally either through a computer, on a tablet, or a smart phone.

I also researched into how self made comics are marketed. Typically self published titles are aimed at an audience who invest mainly in the artwork and the appearance of the books themselves. To gain a reaction as to how my self made title would fair, I took my book to my local comic book store, who also have a self published section of comics. They seemed genuinely interested in taking the title so I gave them a copy. Once I graduate, I also aim to make more of these series of comics and tour comic fairs and conventions to promote them.  

Publishers

Whilst visiting the London Book Fair, I found that having an actual bound book to show to publishers was a big help in gaining a conversation with publishers. Whilst there, publishers such as Self Made hero and Soaring Penguin seemed genuinely interested in the story and artwork, where as MP Publishing were interested in the artwork. They all gave me business cards and told me to contact them once I had graduated. Self Made Hero also told me that they tour comic conventions as well, so that also gave me an incentive to make more comics and comic conventions when I graduate. 

Conclusion

From the reaction I got from independent graphic novel/comic publishers at the London Book Fair, I would like to assume that the objectives I wanted to reach for my final major project were met. Hopefully after graduation, I will aim to make more independently made comics and tour the comic book conventions to draw even more interest from independent publishers and promote my work.