Summer

sketch and a test image.

Book Publishing- a few thoughts

Since Wizard World Chicago I have been asking myself - What is CuddleFish? Are we an Art Collective? Not really as we have helped each other in various ways to produce and distribute finished print material. That, in my mind, makes us publishers. This is an Idea that I can really get behind. I think that the other members of CuddleFish can agree that we have done better on our own than we ever have trying to work for others.

I have been thinking about Top Shelf Productions a lot the last few days. A small niche comic book publisher with devoted fans that pick up everything that they release. Mostly black and white graphic novels. This makes a lot of economic sense. With Diamond Distributors increasing their minimum, having a small press "floppy-sized" comic doesn't really make sense. Diamond Distributes to around 3000 comic stores in the USA. To make a profit on a monthly basis one has to hope that each of the 3000 stores buy at least one copy of your $3 comic.

3000 stores buy 1 of your $3 comic= $9000

Diamond pays (best guess) 60% of cover price=$5400

Cost to print 3000 comics with print on demand Kablam-black and white $4755 color $7905

Cost to print 3000 comics with a four color offset printer-$3000 in China (minimum order and must be 6-8 months ahead of distribution schedule.

Now I am just flinging these numbers out at you knowing that I only know these things from research and not from actual experience. There are probably cheaper printing solutions including some of the Canadian four color print presses. But I am just learning and trying to check my logic.

So if you turn the basic bread and butter of your publishing company into publishing primarily Graphic Novels then you can increase the profit difference between what the printer charges and what Diamond (or any other distributor) would be willing to pay for your product.

This will be the tough part of course. Printing bigger means bigger printing bills. That upfront cash to begin the process of getting book to consumer is larger than anything we have tackled yet. We have been reliant on super low print runs and face to face distribution of our products. Lower amount of risk has translated to lower rewards even when we are having successful shows (or selling out of a print run!).

So why am I still awake and thinking about these things despite the fact that I need to be up early tomorrow? Good question.

I want to change the way I perceive CuddleFish. More as a brand. The work that we produce has, up to this point, been intense labors of love. We craft and create each of these books with such a dedication. The plan going forward (at least for The Carriers, HWID, and any other books I put out)- Collected Graphic Novels only. With ISBNs barcodes and distribution.

How will I produce the work? Well, some things have changed in my "day job" that will allow me to focus more on pushing pages out. This is all part of the plan. Scale back and build up. I will be looking to produce a ton of new pages and illustrations. I really want to run a black and white book at the same time that I run a color book. This will be double the production. The black and white book will be a bit more free form and not as precise or detailed as the color work but it will allow me to be more experimental with the art.

Are these lofty goals that I cannot possibly obtain? Possibly. I really don't know. The last year really makes me feel like we can possibly do this. All it takes is putting the time in to put out quality products. Now I have the time.

So this is a letter of purpose. While I may put out a few POD floppies out in the meantime, the goal is to do larger format books with full distribution. DIY all the way.

David Mack sketches The Queen

A gift from my wife via The One and Only David Mack (Kabuki)!

quick little batman sketch

Thank You Chicago!

Had a great time in Chicago! We did a lot of sketching (and drinking). We also met a ton of great artists! New favorite artists- Christopher Mitten, Nathan Fox, Nate Powell, Greg and Fake http://gregandfake.blogspot.com/ , Matt Waite http://waitedesigns.deviantart.com/ , and a bunch more.

Thanks to cool people like Ryan Browne, John Lennon, Franchesco, Matt Taylor, and Matt Hill! See you all at the next show for sure!

The Bright future

So we are about ten days to go before we meet/fail to meet our kickstarter goal for the collected edition of The Carriers. Megan and I just wrapped up our move to our new place. New town, new studio space, and potentially new jobs for the both of us.

The Kickstarter campaign has been a valuable lesson in marketing. If I would give advice to anyone thinking about doing a Kickstarter it would be this- connect your project with the nearest metropolitan area. For my campaign I said I am from Whitewater. This was stupid because it limits the number of people that are going to find my project based on location. I should have said I am based out of Chicago. Chicago is where I do most of my shows and Chicago has a much more interested audience. So lesson learned. Next time i will make that adjustment.

I am also working on a new project that will be sort of like my own version of Heavy Metal Magazine. A bunch of short stories illustrated by myself and the other Cuddlefish Comics guys as well as artist profiles about our friends and show diaries from the various conventions we go to. Early stages at this point but I really like the idea.

The new apartment has really kicked up my creativity so expect over the next few weeks to see a lot more work out of me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKFw-5OdBgs

new Carriers page!

The Carriers 4 page 10

Chapter 4 page 9

new page of The Carriers Yea! So I continue to fit as much time as I can into this comic. I am pushing to get pages out. It just takes a long time to get them out because I continue to work way too many hours at my day job without devoting enough time and energy to my art. That being said (in my opinion) the pages continue to improve. I have gotten into a nice groove here.

Remember to donate to my Kickstarter if you are able. I am getting closer to being done with the first arc of The Carriers and I really want to wrap it all up in one collected trade paperback. And I need your HELP! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thecarriers/the-carriers-graphic-novel give what you can.
There is an incentive for you to be able to have me draw an issue of your comic! check it out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thecarriers/the-carriers-graphic-novel

Wizard World Chicago 2011

Cuddlefish Comics will be at this years Wizard World Chicago! August 11-14th See ya there!

new pages- brain monsters

May 21 2011 SpringCon

Hey just wanted to remind everyone of this weekend's events!

This weekend of course is the MCBA SpringCon http://midwestcomicbook.com/ This is the first show that I have been a part of that I am going into with no anxiety or worries. The people putting on this show seem to have everything covered and are going above and beyond.

Some of the people who I'm going to drop some cash on-

Sam Hiti

http://www.samhiti.com/

Zac Sally

http://www.lamano21.com/

Brittney Sabo

http://www.bsabo.com/

Jessica Abel

http://jessicaabel.com/

This show makes me want to live in Minnesota!

new The Carriers Pages

Thanks everyone who has supported my Kickstarter Project so far!

I still have 79 days to go to meet my goal so help me out and promote the heck out of it. float the link anywhere you can! Your help is the key to making this successful.

kickstarter comic THE CARRIERS

Hi!
My name is Kevin Bandt and I write and draw The Carriers. It is a full color fully painted comic that has been described as Final Fantasy meets mohawks meets a rainbow. So yeah its pure awesome. At least I like it. And my wife. And my mom. So there's three people right there telling you to check it out.

So anywho... I am working on a Kickstarter to help fund the big collected edition of The Carriers. I am really just looking to get people to check out The Carriers and help financially if they can.

Check out the video here
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thecarriers/the-carriers-graphic-novel

God Hates Astronauts Pin up

Here is my totally unsolicited fan art for the totally awesome and outrageous comic God Hates Astronauts. I wasn't able to get over to this guy's booth at C2E2. i actually found out about him in the Bleeding Cool article we were both featured in. But yeah awesome comic with special guest star Montel Williams! check it out- http://www.godhatesastronauts.com/

The Carriers chapter 4 page 4

Advice from Chris Burnham Cool points up 25 xp

Any advice for aspiring artists?

Don’t wait for anyone’s permission to start chasing your dream, and don’t wait until you think you’re good enough. Just fucking do it. (that should have been Nike’s slogan) And don’t waste another nanosecond of your life drawing sample pages for Marvel or DC. That shit is a waste of time, and it sends a signal to the editors that the only way you’re going to draw comics is if someone hires you to do it. It shows you’re waiting for permission, if that makes sense. If you really had the drive to be making comics, you wouldn’t be drawing 3 pages of Batman, you’d be drawing 100 pages of your own thing. A decently-drawn completed book is ten times as impressive as the most beautiful 3-page sample in the world. Work on your own book (or web strip or whatever) with your own characters. You’ll get more out of it. And even if it doesn’t end up working out (and, to be realistic, it probably won’t), you’ll have a stack of comics to show for your efforts rather than a stack of unpublishable pages of Spider-Man fighting Wolverine.

from this interview http://www.mycomicnetwork.com/v2/?p=1053

New Page for The Carriers

Oh yeah folks I forgot to post about C2e2! What an amazing show. I was in Artists alley. We killed it! between The Carriers and our other book Gross Grandpa we took home a small pirate's chest full of cash. Saw old friends and made new ones. I loved seeing some of the folks that I caricatured as zombies at previous shows walking around the show floor. I think it made them smile when I would yell out "Hey I know you! I drew you at Wizard World!"
C2E2 was a much more creator centered show than Wizard World was. We actually met people who could get us work in the industry which was nice. Oh and we got interviewed a few times. Best one by far was the bleeding cool interview. The article describes THE CARRIERS as Final fantasy meets mohawks meets a rainbow!
I just frigging loved it! That is going on the cover of the next book If I can use the quote.http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/21/more-awesome-booths-at-c2e2-by-samantha-lafountain/

Issue Four is coming along. I am continuing to refine my style and process. Trying to find a balance between two very different approaches. Both approaches have pros and cons to them. So I mix the two approaches to find something in-between.

We have been working on building a collaboration called Cuddlefish Comics. It is a partnership between Josh Filer, Jake Rueth, and myself. We are planning some really neat things that will be seeing the light of day in the next year or so. I have been getting some work done on my new horror book. It will be awesome!
Josh is working on the second issue of Gross Grandpa! and Jake is working on all sorts of magical awesomesauce.

New Page for The Carriers

We own you now Chicago! You are ours! C2e2 C2E2 C2E2

c2e2 here we come!

this is the direction I've been heading with the under-drawings for my art. Rough as can be! Its been in an effort to just be more emotional with the page. To get out that bit of primal mark making that I had been missing with going pure digital.

I have recently found a new printer scanner from Brother that I am planning on purchasing after c2e2. It is really nice and prints at 11x17 a format that I am much more comfortable with. I have been doing everything at print size because thats all I've had to work with. Going bigger will allow me to have more room to play!

Also I was invited to attend the 2011 mncba SpringCon.... or rather I begged them until they let me in!

Josh Filer and Jake Rueth will also be in attendance!

So for the last week I have had this idea that I could model out some base meshes for the comic. These would be simple anatomy models that could be posed and serve as layouts. I got the idea from animatics for movies. That the simple model gives you an idea of the movement of the character through the scene. So I got to work. I built the girl model from a male base (bad idea!). It took a lot of time. I built the highres then did a retopography in zbrush. This is the most advanced retopography I have ever done. Took a lot of work but I also learned a ton of tricks. So I have a male model and a female model. Guns and cars and stuff like that. I hope to integrate this into my art as soon as possible. I know it will be really tough at first but I think it should allow more realism to my work.

How to Train your Dragon

new cover for issue #4

Green Lantern

I have recently become addicted to Green Lantern.... It shares a lot in common with the Carriers (Lots of Glowing colors and some monsters/aliens ) and I think that's why I like it so much. Anywho, this is my rendition of DC's Hal Jordan

I am compiling some old images for a piece of back matter for the next book and it really struck me as how obsessed with the idea of this comic I have been for at least the last 8 years. Since high school ( I graduated high school in 2003), I was drawing a variation of the root idea of The Carriers. It really blows me away to think of how it started and where it is now. I think I've come a long way but in a way.... I really haven't strayed that far from what I was thinking about when I was 17 years old and drew this chick with red bangs. Ah, nostalgia!