Publishing, Portfolio, Podcasts & Potpourri by Gregg Schigiel
My graphic novel, PIX, Vol. 2: TOO SUPER FOR SCHOOL, was nominated in two categories of the Kids’ Comics Awards. It can win if enough kids and teens vote for it before June 16th. So if you’re reading this I ask you to kindly click the link below and vote for PIX in both its … Read more
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.
Check it out, the official trailer for PIX: ONE WEIRDEST WEEKEND! Tell your friends and share, share, share!
PIX: ONE WEIRDEST WEEKEND is now available in comic book shops everywhere, as of today! If your local comic shop was amongst those who chose to stock copies, please consider supporting them and buying a copy from said store. They took a chance on my book and I’d love to see people showing their support … Read more
This coming weekend, March 4-6, I will be at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, Washington. It’s a great convention with a whole slew of talented guests and participants. I recommend it! I’ll be there sketching and talking and selling all kinds of goodies from copies of SPONGEBOB COMICS #1, X-BABIES comics, Puppet Hero prints, … Read more
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?
I’m still going on and on about X-Babies out there. And in the event that you don’t regularly do web searches of my name, I’ve gathered a few here so as to share. First up, an interview on the appropriately named site, Lots of Interviews. Next, I had a brief chat with Rachelle up in … Read more
As of today, we’re two weeks away from the release of X-BABIES #1. October 7, 2009. If you haven’t marked your calendars, mark ’em now!
But wait, that’s but one piece of the big October ahead. With the release of X-BABIES artist Jacob Chabot an I will be on a whirlwind mini-promotional tour, if you will.
On release day, 10/7, Jacob and I will be appearing at Jim Hanley’s Universe in New York City (4 West 33rd Street) from 6pm – 8pm, signing copies of our first issue. Drop by and say hello and buy a copy; we’ll sign it!
The weekend of 10/16 – 10/18, we, along with Chris Giarrusso and Tim Smith 3, will be in Artist Alley at the Big Apple Comic-Con at Pier 94 on 55th Street at 12 Avenue in NY. Jacob and I will be at Table 24, doing sketches and commissions as well as selling and signing copies of X-BABIES #1.
The weekend of 10/23 – 10/25, a whole mess of us cartoonist folks will be descending on Greensboro, NC for Acme Comics‘ the “G-MAN’S GREENSBORO CAPE CRISIS with Chris Giarrusso, Jacob Chabot, Gregg Schigiel, Brian Smith, and Art Balthazar” event. The folks at Acme have been big supporters of our work and are helping us celebrate and promote X-BABIES #1 as well as Chris Giarrusso’s G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS book (in which I’ve been doing the Pix: Teenage American Fairy back-up story). So if you’re in the vicinity of Greensboro, stop by. AcmeComics.com is also home to the weekly comics discussion column I write with Stephen Mayer, “Re: Comics”, in case you want to read more about what I think of stuff (recent discussions have included collected editions and original graphic novels, superhero cartoons, and Marvel Comics’ Star Comics imprint from the mid ’80s with characters featuring prominently in X-BABIES (see how it’s all connected?)).
And THEN, October’s capped off by an appearance by Jacob and I at The Peoples Improv Theater (The P.I.T.) on Tuesday, 10/27, as guests on Comic Book Club, “a weekly comic book talk show featuring the best comedians in New York talking shop with industry professionals from all corners of the comic book world.” I’d be considered an “industry professional”…not one of “the best comedians in New York”…in case that wasn’t clear. Tickets for that show are $5 and are available at the theater web site.
And that, folks, is October…at least until I have new announcements to make (anything’s possible).
In the meantime, as a prize for patiently getting through all of this self-promotional-promotion, here are some random panels from X-BABIES #1, colored by the very talented Emily Warren (think of this like a movie trailer but without any dialogue, soundtrack, or movement):
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:
Every year it comes, and every year you think you might be ready for it…but you never are.
The crowds and the scene in San Diego and at Comic-Con were once again bigger and more intense than the year prior. And again the same refrain was uttered: “It’s not even about comics anymore!” But, from where I was sitting in Artists Alley, comics were very much what it was about. Comics, comic art, superheroes… Way back in the southwest corner of the San Diego Convention Center – hundreds of feet from the big booths and displays set up by the various television and movie studios and video game companies – people were into getting sketches drawn of their favorite characters and meeting and chatting with the guys and gals who create the comics.
At least, that’s how it felt from where I was sitting:
(POV from my table in Artists Alley – A moment of calm – Sunday, 7/26/09)