Publishing, Portfolio, Podcasts & Potpourri by Gregg Schigiel
I’ve covered some of this over at PixComic.com, but in an effort to make this page about something more than Tom Cruise podcast episodes, I thought it worth putting some words down here.
In late 2014 I finally took Hatter Entertainment to the next level, self-published PIX: ONE WEIRDEST WEEKEND under the Hatter Entertainment name. It was something I long wanted to do and it remains one of my proudest accomplishments of my professional career.
This past weekend at the Emerald City Comic-Con I had a bit of foresight and did what I could to document a sketch-in-progress. Admittedly, this started more as a bit of show-off-ery after a conversation with Jason Howard the night prior, wherein we discussed the challenges of taking a tiny doodle full of energy and maintaining that energy in the final, larger piece.
So when a group of very friendly folks asked if I’d draw a piece showing “Spider-Man beating up Batman”, and I started with a tiny doodle, well, I took out my camera and snapped some pics to essentially rub Jason’s face in it and give him the business.
But what actually ended up happening is I had the makings for this post.
In this instance the sketch did indeed start with a tiny doodle drawn at the top left of the page. Here’s that a bit magnified:
Many years ago, during my time at Marvel Comics, assistant editors (of which I was one) attended semi-weekly “Assistant Editors’ Classes”, something that happened throughout Marvel’s history from time to time. This round of classes were taught alternately by Chris Claremont and Mark Waid, both of whom were (and are) renowned for their work as … Read more
I have been drawing SpongeBob SquarePants professionally, with varying degrees of success, for ten years now as of today.
February 14, 2000 was my very first day working for Nickelodeon as part of Nickelodeon Creative Resources (AKA: NCR). And it was on that day I got my first real exposure to the now still mega-popular SpongeBob SquarePants.
That day I saw what was for me my first episode of “SpongeBob SquarePants”, and considering the date it was no coincidence the episode we watched was episode 16a, “Valentine’s Day”.
January 28, 2000 marked my last day working as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics.
I started there, first as an intern in the summer of 1996…followed by my first work as a freelance penciler a year later on WHAT IF? #104…and then joined the staff as Tom Brevoort’s assistant in October 1997.
In the two-plus years I was there I had the joy and honor of working on some of the best titles with some of the greatest talents in the field and an overall amazing crew at Marvel itself, from my fellow editorial staff to the production team in the Marvelous Marvel Bullpen to the folks in manufacturing, accounting, online, advertising and creative services. And I even got to draw a comic book here and there, when the opportunities and time permitted. To this day, so many years later, I think back on great memories of my time at Marvel Comics.
I thought it might be fun, upon reflection, to tell a few stories or make note of things I recall from my time.
X-BABIES #4, the final issue of the the X-Babies mini-series I’ve gone on and on about lo these past many months, won’t be out yet for another 30 days, on 1/27/2010. That’s 30 days on top of the past three weeks since issue three rocked the comic book reading masses to their core*! That’s a long wait. What are you supposed to do then if you want your X-Babies fix?
For the release of X-BABIES #1, I was invited, along with artist Jacob Chabot, to appear at Jim Hanley’s Universe at their Manahttan location. The good news was we had a great time, met a lot of people interested in X-Babies, did a lot of drawing, and sold the store out of all their copies of X-BABIES #1.
The bad news: they sold out of X-BABIES #1 and some folks weren’t able to get copies. BUT, they might have more copies this Tuesday, the 13th, so not all is lost.
For those of you who couldn’t make it, here are some photos from the event (thanks to Mike for manning the camera):
Signs outside let passers by know the who and the what.
In the event you haven’t been paying attention (and shame on you for that), G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS #2 came out on September 9th, featuring Part 2 of the 5-part Pix: Teenage American Fairy story, “The Most Dangerous Donut”. Did you miss it? Well, go to a comic shop and get a copy. Come on, people!
Now that that’s out of the way…
A lot of people ask me what my process is for creating comics. And by “a lot of people” I mean hardly anyone if anyone at all, and by “ask what my process is” I mean people, when they ask, like to ask things like do I use a computer for everything now, do I also put the words in the “little bubbles”…things like that.
But regardless, I thought I’d take the time to give you a tour of how page 5 of “The Most Dangerous Donut” came to be.
WRITING/LAYOUT
It all starts with the writing. When I’m drawing my own story, the writing happens in three basic stages. First is all in my head, where I think about the story, picture pages in my mind’s eye, and figure out the basic beats and some of the dialogue and how it’ll all fit together once drawn.
Stage two is the layouts, and this is maybe the meatiest part of it. Here’s where I lay out the pages, panel-by panel, including a rough sense of dialogue and where it’ll go. Here are my initial layouts for page 5:
And now, to make up for a nearly month of absence, here’s a nice long one for ya:
In 1999, as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics, I had, aside from my duties as an assistant editor, drawn a few comics, pitched a few ideas that went nowhere (i.e. – Deadpool/Spice Girls – and yes, that’s for real; I’ll talk about that another day), and had written letters pages and a few things that never saw print.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I suggested an idea to editor Mark Powers and he responded with, and this isn’t an exact quote despite my using quotes, “That’s hilarious; let’s do it…if you write up the new project memo, I’ll sign it”. [By way of explanation: a new project memo was just that, a form you submitted to decision makers when proposing a new series, mini-series, one-shot, etc. On this form you indicate the creative team, title, concept, page count, etc.]
One of the little joys of conventions is putting faces to names and meeting people who you until then only knew over the phone or e-mail, etc. At this past Comic-Con in San Diego, I finally put a face to a name I’d first encountered nearly 10 years ago: Jamie Coville. At the end of … Read more