Independent Propaganda

Courtesy of Jim Giar

Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 3
Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 2
Read The Making of SOULDRIVER Part 1

THE MAKING OF SOULDRIVER is a series of articles documenting the trials and tribulations of self publishing ones own comic/graphic novel..or whatever you want to call it. Available in both widescreen and full screen and told in vivid color and excruciating detail by writer/artist and creator of his own self-publishing venture, Jim Giar.

Hello! Yeah I know…I know. It’s been a while, like I didn’t already know that. Go ahead. It’s o.k. Admit it, you missed me. What can I say? I’ve been busy. No. It’s no excuse, but it’s all I got.

The past year of 2006 was an amazing year for me. I’ve spent the last several months networking. Joining places such as myspace and comicpsace. You know, peddlin’ my wares, getting my name out there, shaking hands and kissin’ babies. So not only is Souldriver close to launching, (Tentatively for the end of January, more on that later. Quit rushin’ me!) but I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and befriending some amazing people. They weren’t necessarily in person mind you, but more of what I like to call “I-friends” or internet folks. Chances are I may never meet a lot of them in person but they have been instrumental in providing me support, inspiration and keeping me motivated….. ….Oh yeah and recipes for homemade soup. (Thanks Joanne!) So I won’t bore you with the episodes that have taken place since last we talked.

O.K..I lied. I’ll bore you. Hey, who doesn’t like to talk about themselves…and dammit it’s my article.

Any of you out there reading, just getting started or getting ready to enter the hell pit that is self publishing, hopefully you have an idea on what you’re getting involved in. Going into this I thought, I’ve got to write a story, make pretty pictures, put in those little word balloon thingies filled with snappy banter and I’m done. Put that sucker out there and watch the fans clamor and trip over each other making their way to my front door…begging me for autographs and free swag. Obviously..I was wrong.

What I have learned is that each and every aspect of this creation process has its place..it’s importance. For years I’ve listened to and read articles. The great debate. What’s more important? I’ve read responses from writers, artist, letterers and editors. “I’m more important. NO, I’m more important, NO me!” But you know what…I thought I’d have this done and ready in 6 months. Talk about delusional. Each and every aspect of the creation process has its own importance…Its own function. One without the other only cheapens the final product, the end results. It took me two years to come up with the concept of Souldriver, originally planning on doing one book. However, the more I wrote the more I realized that I had more to say. Or rather the story had more to tell. I went into it thinking I wanted to do it all in singles. Until after talking to some other writers and creators, who helped me decide otherwise. If you have more to tell, why limit the story of its potential?

Souldriver went on to become a planned series of books. Three total. The first book, the one soon to begin, is titled Of Mist and Smoke. The importance of the writer is one of the biggest and most absurd arguments ever.

THERE IS NO STORY WITHOUT A WRITER! At least not one worth reading and unfortunately I’ve read some of them. Paying attention to pacing, structure, characterization, believable and suitable dialogue along with many other facets are what makes a competent and entertaining story. Believe me, don’t fool yourself into thinking anything otherwise. Not to take anything away from the artist. If you haven’t guessed it by now, and I’d be concerned if you haven’t, I’m doing all the chores on this. From the writing, pencils, inks, lettering, promotions, coffee run. You name it I’m doing it, except for the logo and color work. I’ll mention that later.

Of all the things I’ve had to do for my book, this is the part I love most. The planning and plotting of pages and panels. (Say that five times fast.) This is when all the pieces fall into place, when we physically get to see the characters that till now only existed in my head. The world that existed in my imagination takes shape. The villain finally has a face. The hero has a soul. (No pun intended) As the artist, I now understand when I worked with writers and they had that excited sound in their voice after seeing some of my pages. Granted, it’s a bit humbling now. It wasn’t my artwork. What they were really excited with was the completion of a thought given form. Now you would think that being an artist, the inking process over my pencils would’ve been the next logical step. One that I’d be chompin’ at the bit for. Wrongo!

I have feared my inking for years. It all stemmed from what appeared to be a rather successful portfolio review from one of the big guys. After looking through my portfolio the conversation went something like this:

Editor: How old are you?
Me: 30
Editor: Are you married?
Me: Yeah
Editor: Got kids?
Me: 1 (at the time)
Editor: So why waste your time inking?

Which in a round about way, I guess, was his way to tell me to stop inking my own work. He suggested getting in contact with other inkers and letting them ink over my pencils. So for the longest time I hung up my quills, strapped in my brushes (Thank you to all the fast food restaurants for the straws.) and let the ink coagulate in my rapidios, never to dip in an inkwell again. Until now!

I hate workin’ for free. I understand it. I’ve done it as well in this business. But it’s very easy to become disenchanted when you’re doin’ all this work and all you get is a thank you and a pat on the ass. So the last thing I was goin’ to do was ask someone to work for free for me and ink my pages. So I buckled down and practiced a lot. Read a lot and studied a lot. I recently read a post on DW from a young lady who is studying to become a “comic book artist”. She used a term for an inker that kind of sums up what they do a little more than just “trace”, a finisher. I like that. A finisher! Kinda’ rolls off the tongue. Inking is an art. And doing it correctly and adding your own special signature to it is a skill. Allowing the original look of the pencils to shine on its own is even more challenging. Creating the illusion of depth is the most intimidating aspect of inking, one that I don’t envy for those that call it a profession. It’s a thankless job. The A-list of professional finishers is to long for me to go into. Finding one to mesh and give your pencils the right panache is almost as important as your story. I am by no means a finisher. But it’s my pencils so if I botch it up. I know where to go and who to see. My hat goes off to the finishers!

Now those little balloon thingies! Of all my jobs on this book, this is the one that stressed me out the most. Not so much lettering. I’ve always prided myself on having very neat handwriting. Hey, my mom says so all the time. But word balloons…ugh. The templates they make are so..sterile looking, cold and lifeless. I wanted organic and alive. So I began the search. Going onto the web and looking at the more successful comics to see what they were all doing. I went into my old issues of comics to see how the old timers had done it. Now some of you may think I’m being obsessive. But I want a certain look to my book but also something practical. I’m still learning Photoshop so that was out of the question. I literally lettered the first six pages and after doing the balloons began to hyperventilate. They were ghastly. My six year old coulda’ done a better job with crayons. Then I realized that what I was trying to do was force their shape. If I wanted it organic I needed to simplify the shape and still have it fit the feel of the story. So I toyed around a little more and came up with a shape…something that didn’t jump out and say Hey…I have no frickin’ clue on what I’m doin’. I’m happy with it. I won’t be forcing any letterers out of business. But it works for my story.

So what was the point of all my rambling? Have absolutely no idea….However, what I would like to say is every aspect of the story..every job of putting something that matters this much together is important. Ultimately when this is all said and done. I’m the one that has to stand in front of all of you or in front of anyone that wants to read my story. I have to stand before you and say here. This is mine. This is me. I owe it to you and to them. But mostly I owe it to myself. (Next article..SOULDRIVER…I promise.)

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