Making Comic Books - Project Update - Death Maze #1
In addition to working on The Nefarious Mr. Green comic, I have started writing and working with artists on a comic anthology I am calling Death Maze. Taking place in the same universe, Death Maze is a bunch of two-page comics that tell the stories of superheroes attacking a supervillain’s lair and meeting their end in various ways in the elaborate Death Maze. The comic’s consistent stars are two henchmen named Bert and Ernie who have been assigned to the Death Maze.
Because Death Maze #1 is almost complete, I wanted to share a post on how I started making this comic book. By the way, you can see the script, the art and different versions of the color for this project on our Patreon page! We will also be publishing the comic to our Patreon page. Support our comics and read our comics by becoming a member.
Writing the Comic
Everyone dreams of producing a full issue comic book or even a graphic novel, but the cost of doing so is a bit outlandish. So while I am working with an artist to complete my first full issue comic, I decided to work on some short comics that would not cost a lot to produce, would help me practice the art-form, and would be fun to see in completion. I decided on the length of two pages as a way to entice artists to work on the project in between their main sources of income and also a a way to challenge myself to be concise. When you write a full issue, it is sometimes hard not to expand scenes over multiple pages and the result can be a dull issue. When you are writing a two-page comic book, you’re locked into the most concise way to tell the story. There’s a finite amount of space on each page and you must really focus on the important elements of the story. Could these two page comics be expanded to five or even ten page comics? Yes. Of course. They could all be 22 pages as well. The difference is in the storytelling. Condensing them to two pages makes forces the story to conclude quickly. I also just think they’re funnier when they’re short. Who wants to read a whole comic with a superhero who dies at the end? Don’t answer that if you’re an Academy Award voter.
Approaching Artists
I’ve decided that each issue of Death Maze should be completed by a different artist. One reason for this is it will give me an opportunity to work with a lot of people and see how different artists communicate. The other is because I did not want to bog any artist down with a full project. Giving artists a full issue or multi-page project is asking them to commit to the project long term. With a two-page commitment, even busy artists seem to be able to squeeze the project in. Then you have their great talents working on your project, and they have sometime to do that is not the same books over and over.
With that being said, Death Maze #1’s art is by Emmanuel Gaggino. He is a very talented artist from Argentina that I have found on Fiverr. Due to the script only being two pages, the panel count is a bit higher per page than usual. I think Emmanuel handled this difficulty well. There was one thing that we needed to work on during the drafting stage and that was The Mighty Gareth’s waist line. He was drawn looking a lot like Joel McHale. In the script, The Mighty Gareth is out of breath and not in shape to be pulling himself up into the sewer on the side of a cliff. That was my main revision with Emmanuel. Did the finished page reflect that change? See below…there’s definitely a gut, but his face is still pretty chiseled. It looks more like Joel McHale after quarantine.
Sorry Joel McHale, you’re going to have to start Keto now…
3. Approaching Colorists
This is the part of the issue that is taking the longest. With experience only with finding artists, I have been approaching different comic book colorists and seeing how they approach the project. So instead of having just one colorist on this issue, I will have three versions of the color and then will need to decide on which will be the final. I will share these with you in a future post.
First colorist’s version of Death Maze #1
4. Getting a Letterer
Finding a letterer seems a lot easier than finding a colorist and I have found a person I hope to work with. The rates for letterers are a lot less than colorists too, so maybe that is why it is easier.
5. Releasing The Comic
Unlike regular comics, 2 page comics don’t really have a place on Comixology or other comic retailers. Instead, we will be releasing our shorter projects on our Patreon page. This way, our comics will have a place to live and an audience, and our fans will still be able to support our projects for as low as $1 each.
Check out samples of Death Maze #1 on our Patreon. Feel free to reach out with any questions about how this comic has been coming together.