Looking For Some Feedback

[George Broderick, Jr.]

Hey, everyone! As the season draws closer, I've begun posting a series of blog entries over on MMC's sister site Real Christmas ( http://www.realchristmas.com/ ), called "Creating Christmas Comics" and one of my upcoming entries is tentatively entitled "Creating Comics FAQ"... but, in order to have FREQUENTLY asked question, they probably need to be asked in the first place... so, I'm posing this to you guys... if you would, in this thread, ask me some questions about my Christmas comics... how I do 'em, where and when I do 'em... even "Why in the Sam Hill I do 'em"... that way, I'll be able to answer them all in the FAQ column when it comes time to write it.

Thanks for your input. 'preciate it...

[dvdelf]

What kind of classes did you have to take?

[Jeff Westover]

Hi George -- GREAT thread! I have a question: who writes your story lines? I believe the writing in your comics is brilliant. Full of humor. Who does the writing?

[Faith4always]

What inspired Christmas Comics? Where did you get the idea?

[Ms_Speedy_Elf]

Have you ever did a faith based Christmas comic? Like ...The Reason For The Season.

[Lorn--xx]

:tree:

[Mumof2]

How long have you been doing christmas comics?
Did you base a character on anyone?
Have you based any situations on someting from your own life? :)

[HolidayHoney]

Do you do all the artwork??

[trackrebel]

how long does it usually take to finish one project....from visualising, to painting, to writing?

[Courtney]

How long have you been doing Christmas Comics?
What inspires you?
Have you done other types of comics?
Do you take suggestions?
How long does it take to create your comics?
Have you thought of animating them?

[Wenceslaus]

Not so much a question, but I grew up loving comic books, and bought many of them every month. Now they have gotten so expensive! Even allowing for inflation, they cost about twice as much as what I paid as a kid. Fewer retailers carry them, and what titles do appear seem more geared to Comic Book Guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_guy) than to young folks.

[George Broderick, Jr.]

Wow! Great questions, all! Some will be answered in upcoming segments of my Creating Christmas Comics blog entriews... but there are enough for a good start to a FAQ...

Wenceslaus, I'll be answering your "comment" under the heading of "Why aren't comics ten cents anymore?" It's really a very often asked question.

Thanks, everybody. Keep 'em coming.

[George Broderick, Jr.]

Just to let everyone know, I've used many of your questions in my FAQ posting, now up at Real Christmas... check it out.

http://www.realchristmas.com/

[Wenceslaus]

Thanks for posting those FAQ answers, they were interesting. I asked why comic books were so expensive today. Even after adjusting for inflation, they cost twice what they did when I was a child. They now have cover prices equal to magazines like Esquire or Rolling Stone, although they contain only a fraction of the editorial content of those magazines. I'm sure a great part of that has to do with the ad revenue those latter magazines make, and which comic books don't, but try explaining that to the 10-year-old with his or her allowance in hand. How many 10-year-olds buy comics over the Internet?

Comic books reached their height of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, with so much other visual entertainment competing for children's attention on multiple television channels and video games, I'm afraid that comic books are pricing themselves out of the market.

Which is a shame, because there's so much talent still working in comic books, including — and especially — yours. cheesy

[George Broderick, Jr.]

Yeh... the major companies have tried over the last few years to "goose" things a little by printing on better paper stock and using die-cut and foil embossed covers, etc. Bells and whistles. This doesn't work because most comic "readers" don't care about that stuff... they just want good, compelling stories and fun-to-look-at artwork.

The big problem seems to be the periodical nature of comics. A concept that may have gone the way of the dinosaurs... why spend $3 for a 32 page comic with about 20 pages of actual content when for $8-10 you can buy a 120-150 page graphic novel that's ALL content... and shop at a Barnes & Noble as opposed to some dingy hole-in-the-wall comic shop.

Most kids these days DO have enough expendable income to afford monthly comics, but there's WAY more competition for their dollars... video games and magazines about video games, Pokemon and/or Yu-Gi-Oh card games, action figures, etc.

And you'd be surprised just how many ten year olds will buy things off the internet... which is kind of a moot point because, these days, the median age of a faithful comic book reader is 18-25, as opposed to 8-12 twenty years ago.

[dvdelf]

crap, im out of both medians