Small press digital comics hub?

[John Caliber]

I won't rant on endlessly as I appreciate it's largely OT. One more go, then I'll return to topic... (bear with me!)

I'll have to get an iPad sooner rather than later, then analyse how to make money from it. I'll be glad to see the back of paper comics. The means of delivery should be regarded as immaterial to the quality of the content. I've seen the same thing happen in the tabletop, book-orientated roleplaying community - many participants can't see the wood for the trees and get so hung up on how to make their rulebooks even more complicated that they've completely forgotten that RPGs are supposed to be about telling stories and sharing adventures. The media has to be ever revolutionary, contemporary and life-enhancing. The Old Guard roleplayers frazzle youngsters' minds with rulebook gobbledeegook and turn the kids off in their thousands; they form backstreet 'guilds' and snipe at their gaming neighbours; they are entirely responsible for making the hobby a cultural laughing stock. Now the storytelling component is collapsing and the hobby is reverting defensively to its infancy, and we're back to clubs of intelligent but introverted men pushing little toy men across big tables.

There has to be a cut-off point, not years of infighting among creators. Let the Old Guard pursue it as a hobby, but don't try to hold successive generations back from adapting the medium to modern needs. 'Motion Comics' are certainly not the way ahead - repackaging existing comics with animated snow and pop out SFX, or giving them entirely redundant voice-tracks, is willfully ignoring the power of the medium.

[Ghastly McNasty]

Nothing wrong with a bit of ranting and I love your call to arms John. I do agree, the desire to make something other than vacuous pap is what comics should be striving to achieve. To create something that makes a real difference has to be far more fulfilling than writing a cool Spidey story that no one has thought of before.

However, I'd say these are the hardest types of stories to achieve and only doable buy a lucky gifted few. To be honest, I did turn off a little at the thought of stories about real life and council estates. I suppose when I'm reading comics I want escapism and not to wallow in the misery that is real life.

[John Caliber]

Yeah, I have trouble getting my head around the 'contemporary' stories. It's hard if you have a rough life because you have the defensive instinct not to mirror it with your fiction which may only empower your own 'dark depths'. God I'm so envious of the writers who don't suffer depression and who can cheerfully rattle this stuff off. Garth Ennis' Punisher comics are very bleak, cruel and emotionally demanding, but he always seems to be jolly enough in his photos! And he manages to offset his stories with glorious triumphs of the human spirit.

I've had a big, ambitious graphic novel project stagnating for 5 years because every time I delve into the brutal realism I'm trying to depict, I get horribly-depressed and I end up 'sucking my thumb' while reading my back progs. I've got to get a grip and move forwards. The story I am writing is ultimately very positive and inspirational, but the 'bad bits' are essential to give it depth and gravitas because if it doesn't emotionally touch the reader, then the overall message becomes impotent. This year, the first book should be seeing conclusion, helped massively by my restored confidence in my drawing ability which is due to the opportunities that UK fanzines including the Blackfriars collection and Massacre For Boys, have generously afforded me.

[Ghastly McNasty]

I nearly snared your art skills in this thread here but you declined due to similar topics. Fair do's. This story is about horrific events having a causal effect on young minds resulting in something even more horrific. It's also an attack on modern life styles, the media and consumerist culture. I want it to be more than just a violent tale, even though the violence is key to the story, and have some real substance, to make people stop and think. It's really hard to write those topics well.

Could be we are trying to write the same story?!  If you ever wanna bounce ideas or talk shit about stuff let me know. I'll show you mine, if you etc... Could be beneficial to both our epic tales.

[John Caliber]

With a view towards learning what real benefits various tablet computers offer a digital comics hub, I've had a look at a dozen models.

I'm not really sure what makes one all that better from another, and they all seem to hover about the £400 price mark for something that only has a third of the computing power of my £200 laptop.

Do tablets have USBs? I can only find models with HDMI outputs. My primary uses for tablets would be viewing comics (transferred off external USB HDDs), listening to music and basic e-mail. Possibly using apps for map-reading to help me navigate city centres.

I'm still not clear what makes a tablet functionally better than a smaller multimedia phone, other than having a larger screen.

[Ghastly McNasty]

I was never an Apple fan and don't own an iPhone. Really the iPad is just a big iPhone.

other than having a larger screen.

Probably the biggest benefit. Personally I detest browsing on mobiles, screen way to small, tablets are a much nicer size. That's why they are the future. A wonderful medium between laptops, which radiate your bollocks off when sitting on the sofa, and phones which are to small to read.

When i first wanted to transfer some .cbz files to my iPad I was flabbergasted at what a ball ache it was. Download an app to read them, connect to iTunes on PC, sync the 2 devices. 'I just want to plug in a USB' I thought. The iPad is so nice and usable that you kinda forgive it for its failings and there are other ways to transfer files that work nicely eg Dropbox.

There are USB ones out there but you can buy USB adaptors to connect to your iPad.

[John Caliber]

Hmm, sounds like the USB method of file transfer is being indirectly but actively discouraged.

[NeilFord]

You can sync over wi-fi with iTunes 10.5 or later and iOS 5. Works a treat.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20119865-285/how-to-set-up-wi-fi-sync-for-ios-5/

[John Caliber]

Might be easier to emulate a tablet viewing experience on my laptop and then initially proceed from there until I can more easily afford a decent tablet.

[Emperor]

Entirely by accident I happened to chat with some teachers who use home-made comics to convey ideas to behaviourally-challenged children, and there's a market right there which I'm considering becoming involved with. Instead of pleasing ourselves with sci-fi homages, let's do something that's actually useful for the larger society. The Western world is in a hell of a state and we need practical, inspirational comics, not violence, cyborgs or talking rats. Let's kill off the Antihero (basically the avatar of the angry fanboy) and give comics a minimum level of self-respect once more.

There are fantastic pieces of harmless and throwaway entertainment coming out of the fanzines and what's left of the professional UK comics zone; nothing wrong with one-dimensional pulp to titilate tired brains at the end of long working days. But a lot of it is huge effort and talent throwing itself down a toilet of its own making.

It needn't be either/or - the world needs entertainment and there is no reason this has to be one-dimensional, science-fiction is a great genre for addressing social and political concerns, something 2000AD has done a lot (partly thanks to Pat's initial guiding hand, as well as the strong views of other creators over the years).

In another thread I asked what other types of comics people would like to see from the British small press as it'd be good to try and focus efforts on areas not currently covered:

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,34885.0.html

One of the ideas was a political comic and I can't see why there can't be room for a few publications that address everyday concerns more directly, as long as they aren't too dry and worthy, of course.

[John Caliber]

Modern Britain is ripe for storytelling. Sometimes it's more difficult to get a handle on the modern world because it's always in flux. I can appreciate the lure of period drama as it's better-defined, existing in a historical bubble.

[staticgirl]

With regards to the original post - a digital downloading website would need to make sure its products can be seen on any screen. I tried graphic.ly briefly only to find that the dialogue windows and comics don't resize on my little netbook so I couldn't look at anything at all.

However I do have a collection of .cbr files full of UK comics from yesteryear which work very well on my netbook. I really enjoy reading comics on the net and digitally - it's perfect for a train ride. I'm not fussed by animation because to me animation makes it an animation/film not a comic and I'm not so interested in cartoons as comics as an artform. But there's a lot creators can do still....

[staticgirl]

I took up your baton and ran with it on the What comics would you like to see? thread, John....

[John Caliber]

Thanks. You have a lot of interesting things to add.