Reposted from the old blog where it was posted only last week. But good reviews need to be preserved for posterity.

This is one of those blog reviews that makes you dance and sing, and very happy you got out of bed in the morning.

I know it is the way of the big ego to be too happy with good reviews, but this writer hit many of the points I am trying to make with my book, so that has given me a boost. From Cheerful Megalomaniac:

One of the things that I was extremely surprised to see in there, is a man’s addiction to the “Nexus” a communications network somewhat akin to the internet. He actually becomes numb to humanity because he is so enthralled by the flow of information; whats the point in knowing everything, if you care for nothing? Any comic book that looks at the effect extreme internet addiction can have on someone life, but more importantly WHY the internet is so seductive, is pretty fine, IMHO.

You know, I created that scene before I ever spent a little too much time on the internet, having to download Leechblock, so I really do need to listen to the warnings in my own stories!

Click the SHOP link above to buy my books.

And thanks, Cheerful Megalomaniac!

c

You can hit the SHOP link above for more, or you can click here to order all the A Distant Soil graphic novels.

Revised shopping for t-shirts, mugs, etc, coming soon.

Many warm and fuzzy “Thank you’s!” to all the blogs and news sites which have spread the word about the A Distant Soil webcomic:

Publishers Weekly’s THE BEAT.

Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources

Newsarama

HQ Maniacs

FLEEN

Captain Comics

Quasar Dragon

State of the Art Brain Surgeon

Did we miss anyone? Let us know.

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Here’s a great list of ten tips for starting and running a small business that also apply to freelance creators. Remember, freelancers are small business people. No matter how iconoclastic you are in your art, it doesn’t hurt to exercise some discipline when it comes to your studio.

At the top of the list, is Set Work hours and Stick to Them. I used to be a lot more disciplined about time management myself. Nowadays, I’ve been working 6 hours one day, and 14 hours the next. Not so good. I pulled out all of my time management training tapes and motivational tapes, and have been a lot more disciplined since January. But last year was a very disruptive one and I eroded my time management and personal discipline skills. So, it’s back to boot camp for me!

A rule I used to break all the time: Even when you really need the money, don’t take just any assignment. While I thoroughly reject the psuedo-mystical explanation provided in the article that “…the universe will take cues from your behavior and provide for you accordingly”, the Occam’s Razor explanation is simply that taking any old job for a buck is depressing, demoralizing, and likely to lead to more bad jobs simply because you won’t do your best work, and the best clients won’t see the work of which you are capable. If people only see second-rate work from you, then you will get second-rate jobs.

The longer you can keep your expenses low, you will be able to afford to take jobs that inspire you until you are on your feet and self supporting. Moving out on your own or getting a nice studio is great, but hold off on acquiring the trappings of success as long as you can. Keep your surroundings modest and try to only take work that allows you to do your best.

This is a REALLY important one: Communicate with clients to keep them happy, even when you mess up. When you are running behind schedule, or overbooked, or your cat died, it’s important to let your clients know if you are going to screw the pooch. They need to know where the project stands, so they can make other arrangements. Editors aren’t ogres. Many of them can squeeze a few extra days (or even weeks) out of a deadline, if you really need it.

What they can’t stand is the freelancer who simply drops out of sight, or, worse yet, the freelancer who treats them as if they are some kind of confession booth. Your editor is not your friend, they are not a psychiatrist. Don’t share every problem and setback. Just let them know you need more time.

If you are too open with your personal problems, the editor will begin to see YOU as the problem. Don’t run to your editor with every little thing: your annoying neighbor, the flu, the car had a flat, etc. These are things that happen in the normal course of everyone’s life, but when that is ALL the editor ever hears from you, they will eventually hear your name and think, “What is up with that loser, now?”

I used to be a lot more chatty about minor personal problems with my editors (and even online) but people have long memories, and they often remember only the bad stuff.

For example, sometime in 1994 or so, I had an accident and got chemical burns in my eyes. I am blind as a bat and picked up swimmers ear medication thinking it was my contact lens drops. The problem cleared up in about three months and there was no lasting damage. However, last year, an editor with whom I have never worked inquired about it, wondering if a twelve-year-old injury might impede my ability to get a job done! I had almost forgotten about it, but 12 years later, that editor had not.

And last year when I postponed a meeting with an editor by one day so I could get over a migraine, the editor’s first question was “Do you get those a lot?” Well, actually, no, but an editor is going to want to know if you have a lot of health problems or personal problems that will make meeting deadlines difficult.

Don’t tell your editor anything about yourself they don’t really need to know. If it’s not relevant to the job, it probably isn’t any of their business.

Editors can be great people, they may even be friends, but in the end, they are talking to you on company time on company matters. Behave accordingly.

Reposted and updated from the old blog. Hope it’s of use.

c

With New York Comic Con this week, I bet lots of people who will have some art they want to put on the walls. It is to be hoped, some of that art is mine! Thanks!

Whenever I create original art, I try to make it conform to US standard mat or frame sizes so fans can avoid expensive custom matting and framing costs. Some framers and print brokers try to take advantage of customers, talking them into extremely expensive services they really don’t need.

Once, I even worked with a small time printer wannabe who repeatedly ignored my instructions to size my prints with framing costs in mind. Waiting until the last minute to ship the prints (which usually showed up the day of the show, meaning there was no time to get corrections made) I was stuck with prints that not only cost me a lot of money to have custom framed, but cost the fans, too!

Naturally, the client was happy to pocket a lot of custom framing costs; his sideline was to try to get artists to let him sell their prints online…with hefty framing charges passed on to the customer, of course.

Let me give you an example of what custom framing costs means for the fan who just wants to enjoy his art.

When my client printed my work on 13″x19″ paper, and failed to reduce the printed art so that it can fit a standard mat size, every time a fan wants to have the work matted, a custom, double mat job will cost about $60- $80. No kidding. Without a frame! That’s more than I was charging for the print alone.

Yet, to buy a standard, ready made double mat, you will pay only about $10. To pop that mat into a 16×20″ frame, you will pay about $20-$30, MAX. So, to get your mat alone, the custom mat job will cost you 2-3 times as much as mat and frame COMBINED for standard sizes!

It would have been simplicity itself to have the art reduced, then printed on standard 13″x19″ paper. Then trim the paper to 12″x16″, which is standard. But then, there wouldn’t be a healthy back end in framing money, right?

A lot of art stores really don’t tell their customers little things about stuff like standard frame sizes. When you go in to get your art matted and framed, they will try to get you to cut the mat to fit a uniform area around the art. That is, they will try to convince you to get your 13″ x 19″ original art matted to a frame radius of 15 “x 21″ to “make it even”. There is no frame standard for 15″ x 21″. So, your framer will have to make a custom frame for you. This will cost you about another $100-$150.

So, your custom mat and frame job – for the $20 print or the $40 comic page you bought at the convention – could run you nearly $200!!! Honestly, do you really care if the measurement on the top and bottom of the mat is the same as the sides? Even if that will cost you another $200?

I don’t. I just want to look at the picture on my wall.

If you can’t find a mat to fit your art ready made, you will have to shell out the dough for the custom mat job. But the secret to saving money here is to make absolutely certain that the outer dimensions of the mat conform to a standard frame size that you can buy ready made off the shelf. Get your 13″x19″ art matted to fit a 16″ x20″ frame. Then walk over to the frame section of the store and pick up one of those $20-$30 ready-made frames. It probably already has a mat in it that you can use for something else later.

This little trick will save you around $100 per piece of art, and you can afford to have a lot more art on your walls!

Custom matting and framing can be beautiful, but it’s a sucker’s game. The average person does not need to be spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars matting and framing art! You can enjoy your art and save some money, too!

Also, try to have your mats cut in bulk. That is, if you are a comic collector, might as well have ten mats cut at a time. Comic art usually comes in one or two sizes. See if your art store will give you a discount for the bulk order. If not, go someplace else.

Try to make sure you do business with an art store that does their own matting and framing in house! Lots of them do not. They send out, it’s takes days to complete, and they charge a big mark up.

Don’t get nailed on high matting and framing prices! Custom matting and framing takes skill and can be lovely, but it’s not rocket science and ready made frames are easy to handle yourself. If you can pop a photo in a mat, you can pop art in, too. Use art tape, or even cloth medical tape to secure the art. HINGE ONLY AT THE TOP! Do not tape art all around the perimeter. If you make a mistake or need to remove tape, apply high heat with your hair dryer or a heat gun. It will melt the adhesive and it can be safely removed.

Here are the
Standard U.S. Frame Sizes:

4″x5″

4″x6″

6″x8″

5″x7″

8″x10″

8″x12″

8-1/2″x11″

9″x12″

10″x13″

11″x14″

12″x16″

14″x18″

16″x20″

20″x24″

22″x28″

24″x30″

24″x36″

30″x40″

Remember, this is the OUTER edge of the original art or for the mat you have cut to fit. Tell the framer to cut the outer perimeter of your mat to the standard frame measurement, and plop it in the frame. Most standard frames are already supplied with backing and hanging apparatus, so you save money there, too.

Another fun tip: ready made frames usually have sturdy hinged backs that allow you to easily pop a picture in and out without special tools. You can have a number of favorite pieces with inexpensive mats ready to rotate any time you like. Change your wall decor and enjoy a new piece of art every month.

When framing costs more than art, something funny is going on. Save some money on those custom jobs and buy more art to enjoy!

When I first posted this, we got a great comment from Ty who pointed out that ready made frames often didn’t come with UV/conservation glass. Since that glass can be bought in standard frame sizes, you can buy ready made frames with cheap glass and get UV glass later.

Here’s a couple more points I thought might be of help:

1) Buy a pad of acid free paper and back your art with it. This will help protect the art in case the backing is not acid free. Discard the sheet yearly and replace with a fresh one. A block of 20 pages of paper at 16″x20″ should cost about $10. Most collectors do not know that mat board should be replaced periodically as a matter of course, acid free or not. Lining the back of your art with acid free paper and replacing it continually will aid art preservation.

2) You can also buy UV protective spray which can be used directly on SOME original art and glass. Or you can buy UV protective glass/plastic panels. They come in the standard mat/frame sizes and are very reasonably priced. You don’t need to have them custom cut. Most art supply catalogues carry them pre-made.

3) A lot of comic art can be sprayed with de-acidifying spray. Black and white art tends to be a safe bet for this treatment. The spray is a little pricey, but a $9 can will cover a lot of art, and it will reduce the acidity of your paper, preserving it and protecting it. Follow directions carefully.

No matter what you do to protect your art, remember that most comic art was drawn for commercial reproduction, not preservation. Do not display in direct sunlight.

MOST of my art was done with conservation concerns in minds, but some of my early art was not. Most black and white comic art can be preserved with simple, inexpensive methods.

There is no preserving old tone sheets. They are plastic and were not created with longevity in mind. Modern Japanese tone sheets are supposed to be acid free and archival. Mine have not yellowed in a decade.

Buying the ready made frames can be a special problem for me, since most come with glass. Shipping glass usually means that no matter how careful I am, something breaks en route! I like the plastic, but it sometimes has a dull surface that ruins the glossy look of oil varnish. Sometimes I just take the glass out entirely for shipping to shows.