On Webcomic Beacon #81, Melissa Kaercher (Tin Lizard Productions) joins Fes, Tanya, and Mark to discuss Fonts and Lettering. Melissa had also drawn this week’s cover art (see the whole thing in our Art Section!)  Font resources discussed, include: Your Fonts custom font creator tool, Ninja Lettering, High-Logic FontCreator, ComicCraft, Blambot, 1001 Free Fonts, Darwinatrix, and identifont.

Milestones: Pron quest (NSFW) (1 yr) and Jayden and Crusader (2 yrs).

This episode is brought to you by: Unamused Comics, Gypsy Girl Press and Yosh!

Be sure to check out our TalkShoe page for Aftershow Recordings! Also, please visit Our Forum for additional discussion!

Thanks to George for recording the sites mentioned on the show: Sexpercussions, Webcomic Reviews & Interviews, CONvergence, Dr Blink Superhero Shrink, Dork Tower, Batman Strikes, Green Ronin, and Devil’s Due Publishing.

We broadcast our episodes LIVE on TalkShoe!:
On Sunday, July 5th, @ 3pm Eastern, We’ll be discussing:
“Multi-lingual Webcomics and Webcomicking”.

Shaenon [Garrity] is self-publishing the first volume of Skin Horse, and she's getting a submission packet together for Diamond Comics Distributors. This is a line from their submission guidelines: 

If you publish comics, Diamond generally receives a discount in the range of 60-70% off the US retail (cover) price.

If we offer a 70% discount, I'm sure that Diamond is more likely to consider listing Skin Horse in their catalog, but we'll only get $4.20 per copy sold (minus whatever shipping costs we incur getting the books to Diamond). If we offer a 60% discount, we'll make $5.60 per copy sold -- still not great, since we're self-publishing this, but I always prefer making more money instead of less money when possible.

So, the question is: Is offering a 70% discount going to greatly improve our chances of getting listed in Diamond's catalog? Is only offering a 50% discount a guarantee that they won't even look at the book and will automatically reject it?

Given Diamond's new standards, what can we do to improve our chances apart from putting Wolverine or Barack Obama on the cover? Are any self-publishers getting picked up by Diamond at all right now? Are there any other alternatives to Diamond if we want to get into comic shops (apart from the traditional method of hauling books from store-to-store and trying to convince the owners to carry it)?

Thanks for any advice.

So many pink comic bunnies to see…

• Peiz reviewed Temple of a Thousand Years, The World of Higal and Used Books, Drawer reviewed Crabapple and Webcomic Critique looked at Weak Daze. Webcomic Overlook reviewed Earthsong and Boss Noodle while Pigs of the Industry reviewed Sin Titulo. Also, due to a scheduling mistake two reviews were posted here last Sunday on Bodega Genius and 67th Avenue.
• The Ephemerist gives us a leg up on Super Sonic, a sound added comic. Size Matters covers Up Blind Alley and Paunch and Whereof One Can Speak takes an unflayyering look at Scott Pilgrim.
• Webcomics Nation has peer reviews of Plague, Everyday Heroes, Looks Like Rain, Jason Marcy, 365 Days (that’s two reviews,) 16Hole, , Bus Stop, The Adventures of Wyatt Earp in 2999, Endtown, Freak U. and a couple of reviews of The Monkey Hotel along with other reviews, too.
• I Love Rob Liefeld commends All These Days Undone and Strawberries to us while The Daily Crosshatch urges to enjoy K-9Lives and ComixTalk lets us know that Freaks N Squeeks is ending.
• Newsarama interviews Andy Belanger about his Bottle of Awesome. Not yet available in stores, this drink will make you bigger, badder and well, awesome.
• Down The Tubes brings us some Hard Lessons in Self Publishing which has some good basic advice and a little extra too. For more good ideas, check out Optimum Wound’s 23 Ways for Comic Artist to Survive and check on Joey Manley’s advertising blitz ROI results so far. The Webcomic List also has some advice for comic creators and debates the merits of posting comics on a certain very high traffic site. Concept Art is having an art contest with some good prizes and pretty open rules if you want some more potential publicity.
• Comic Book Resources gives us an idea on what’s happening with Steve Ellis, David Gallaher and High Moon and Comic Related interviews Ramon Espinoza.
• I like cross site comic projects like we’ve seen in The Blue Lotus Crossover. After seeing the mysterious Blue Lotus reference, I had to check it out. For more of the same, the Floating Lightbulb helpfully reminds us of the Webcomics Crossover and Cameo Archive.
• Meanwhile, Lines and Colors brings us something awesome. And so does Comics Alliance when they show us how we can once again watch The Maxx. Down The Tubes assails us with Ex Atris published on myebook. Myebook?!?
• The Webcomic Beacon discusses Lettering & Fonts. Sidewise brings home the Zuda gold
• Want to see what your site looks like on really small and really big screens and most in between? I assume the smallest is for handheld devices and phones but see for yourself.
• MPD57 shows us his ten best posts. The Frustrated Cartoonist hits 100 strips – congratulations!
• And should the NCS and AAEC merge? You may know what NCS is but what about the AAEC? Thanks to Journalista for the heads up and some other news, too.
• Be sure to see other comic news that I didn’t cover at Digital Strips, Webcomic Overlook and This Week in Webcomics, among others. Many of them have articles up on the 2009 Harvey Awards, for instance.

New pages!

ArtPatient.com