Comic Book Considerations

Legal Issues

Copyright - The legal problems you can encounter when making a comic is copyright issues, copyright infringement and theft of ideas or stories. You can register a copyright online to protect your work from have ideas stolen from it, but copyright comes at a cost. The payment for the copyright depends on whether the work is published or unpublished; the date of publication can also be a consideration when coming up with the payment for copyright.

I will make sure my comic will not break any copyright laws by checking for any similar

stories to mine which are copyrighted before I publish my own. I will make sure I search for any other comics for stories related to vampires, I will look at the story structure of the comic book making sure there are no similar storylines to mine which may interrupt the publishing of my comic book Vampires Ruling Britain.

Vampire Comics
Dracula the Graphic Novel: Original Text

This is not similar to my comic due to is being set in the times of Queen Victoria, a dated comic inspired by horror stories of Frankenstein. This comic looks at the monstrous side of vampires, the side where they do not feel for human life and will do anything for the most exciting kill. Even though my comic has blood thirsty vampires, they still care deep inside; the vampires have been outlawed by the humans for so many years they feel it is time to get their revenge on the world.

Planet of Vampires # 1 (Original American COMIC

This comic is not similar to my comic as it is a sci-fi take on vampires and the world population; the main characters in this film are a group of 5 astronauts, they had been returned to Earth from the Aries VII mission to Mars that was launched in 2005 to look for life forms. While they were away a nuclear war broke out, and the survivors have been split between two groups — human savages and high-tech vampires. The comic carries a theme of surprise as the main characters have not seen the build up to this destruction. While my comic, the main human characters have witness the traumatic experienced the destruction and their loved one dying in front of their eyes, for this they have grown stronger as a human race.

Topic of comic

The topic of any stories written has to be analyses thoroughly before any publication; this is because the comic book may cause offence to somebody due to wrong representation or the manor of the writing.

In my comic the topics which could cause concern is the topic of vampires and the talk of blood. The way I will manage these concerning the topics by making sure I put an age certification suitable for the reader, protecting the younger generation from content that may cause them distress.

Marvel Rating System,  June 2005

-          ALL AGES

-          A Appropriate for age 9 and up.

-          T+ SUGGESTED FOR TEEN AND UP

-          PARENTAL ADVISORY

-          MAX: EXPLICIT CONTENT

I would rate my comic as a T+, I have decided this because of the comic including blood content and violence content which is not suitable for children aged 9.

Resources

Publishing – Publishing your comic includes two key companies a distributing company and a printing company. You need to find a company who suits your needs, this may include finding a printing company who will print your comic at a good price per unit and how will also help give you on how to distribute the comic books local stores or online companies, this information will save you time and money.

Publishing Companies

-          Trafford Publishing, http://www.trafford.com/

-          Lu Lu, https://www.lulu.com/

-          Comic Vine Publications, http://www.comicvine.com/london-night-studios/57-591/

-          Warpton, http://www.warpton.co.uk/

-   

Printing – There are two fundamental types of printing, is Black and White and Four-Colour many low budget comics print in black and white to save the company money and to lower the price of the comic for the buyer, attracting more people to feeling they can afford to buy it a fun read.

Printing Companies

-          Kodak, http://graphics.kodak.com/

-          Atlantis Studios, http://www.atlantisstudios.net/comics_custom_printers.htm

-          Wedo Comics, http://www.wedocomics.com

-          Pulse Printing, http://www.pulseprint.co.uk/products/comic_book_printing/ 

Black and white line art requires only a ‘line-shot’; this is done by a camera burning the plates for the printing presses. Black and white lines art is very cheap in pre-press production, but grayscale artwork requires scanning to prepare it so that the plates can be burnt. Colour artwork is the most expensive in the printing business as it requires scanning and trapping, in addition to separation into CMYK a four color film; finally each page must be separated into its component Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black to complete the printing process.

Cost –  the cost of make a comic book can depended on many different items such as choosing the right company to help you make it, what printing package you choose and the way you distribute the work.

Figures from http://www.mixam.co.uk/products/books

Audience, Target Market The Target audience for my comic includes a range of people such as people who are interested in vampires but want a change in story from the typical romance stories. The comic fits in well the vampire market including Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, but with the additional story line of the state of the world and the situation the two main character

Cartoon Publication

I am going to create my comic book Vampires Ruling Britain in a magazine comic strip format. I have chosen this format to publish my comic in because it makes the comic more accessible for the public as you don’t have to be a comic lover to read it.

Newspaper Comic Research
Garfield

Published 12^th December 2011, by Jim Davis, The Seattle Times

This Garfield comic strip is updated and distributed every day in The Seattle Times, US.  Each comic strip varies in size depending on how much dialogue is included; the strips are printed in colour to make sure the audience develops an instant connection with Garfield as he is widely known for his distinctive colourings. The comic strip mainly focuses on the interactions among Garfield, Jon, and Odie including some recurring minor characters.

Graphic Narrative Book Research

Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1: Power and Responsibility: Power and Responsibility
Published 1^st June 2001, by Bill Jemas (Author), Brian Michael Bendis (Author), Mark Bagley (Illustrator), Brian Michael Bendis (Author) › Visit Amazon's Brian Michael Bendis PageFind all the books, read about the author, and more.See search results for this author name Are you an Author? Learn about Author Central Mavel Comics

Spiderman Graphic Novels are printed in volumes; once another Spiderman novel is completed a new volume is printed in a book format and distributed to book shops and online stores such as Amazon. The comics are printing in pages about 200; the structure of the number of drawings per page can change depending on how important the shot is in the story line. These comics are printed in colour, attracting the buyer to the front cover using stand out colours of red and blue, this lets the audience no instantly that it is a super hero comic as these colours are widely known to be connected with Superman and Spiderman.

Magazine Comic Research

Billy Wizz, Beano

Published 10^th December 2011, by Beno, D.C. Thomson & Co

Billy Wizz is a comic strip published in Beano Magazine realised every month packed full of different jokes and a range of different new comic strips. The comic strips are printed in colour and fill one page of the magazine; the numbers of shots per comic strip can vary depending on how much background detail the artist wants to include which can help the story progress further. The stories progress every magazine to hook the readers to buy the next issue to find out what their favourite comic characters are doing next.

After researching the different publishing options for comic, it has backed up my decision to publish my comic in a Graphic Narrative book. This is because of how pacific my target audience is, publishing my book in a magazine or newspaper my lead my comic astray as this may mean I have to change parts of the story to adjust to their target audience. I feel if I publish my comic in a book this will help the readers understand the story completely, giving them a chance to understand the idea put across in the novel, letting them decide if they would like to read the next novel in the series.

Typography

The font I am going to use in my comic is called Valdemar from urbanfonts.com.

This font suits my comic book very well as they both share a vampire theme, this font is clear and easy to read but is also decorative and a gothic assents. This fount will be included in the heading and in the text which will be included with the pictures.

Character Profile

Tyler

Clothing:

T-shirt – Blue

The blue represents his importance in the story line, it also shows his power as he controls he path in life.

Trousers – Brown

The brown trousers his traditional values to defend his loved one in the face of danger.

Gem Necklace – Yellow

The yellow in his necklace represent the hope of a better world, how he might be the one to restore the safety.

Hair:

Black - Short

Black in his hair helps create more detail to the character, showing their importance in the plot as it creates more personality.

Anna

 

Clothing:

Long dress in velvet – Brown

Her long dress and in the color of brown shows her traditional values, treating people with kindness.

Fabric belt – Purple

The purple shows her magical powers, being strong and fast.

Gem Necklace – Green

The green shows how Anna is a peaceful character; she does not embrace her inner monster of being a Vampire.

Hair:

Blonde –Long

He shade of yellow shows a glimmer of hope in the destruction of the world and she maybe the one to solve the problem, as she is a powerful character.

Vampires Ruling Britain - Storyboard

Questionaire

After Reading the stories and looking at the characters which stories do you like the most?

Vampires Ruling Britain - ///

Demon Holiday -

At Worlds End - //

Why do you like the story?

-          I chose Vampires Ruling Britain because it’s unusual as very few stories have situations where vampires have taken over the country. It sounds exciting and I look forward to the final result.

-          I chose At Worlds End because it is more original and creative idea out of the three stories.

-          I chose At Worlds End because the story is more in depth, it has been thought about the most out of the three stories.

-          I chose Vampires Ruling Britain because it sounds very interesting and would like to read more.

-          I chose Vampires Ruling Britain because it is a new take of the vampire craze which is going around, it shows the lead women being strong and taking control of the situation.

What would you improve about your chosen story?

-          The thing I would change about Vampires Ruling Britain it the grammar of the synopsis.

-          The thing I would change about At Worlds End would be to elaborate on the background, why is the world ‘full of destruction’?

-          The thing I would change about At Worlds End would be instead of him becoming a zombie, maybe he becomes insane instead.

-          The thing I would change about Vampires Ruling Britain would be to create an unexpected twist at the end of the story.

-          The thing I would change about Vampires Ruling Britain would be to extend on the story of vampire vs. human story, haw did the world become like this.

Chosen Story: Vampires Ruling Britain

Why? Because it is a strong storyline and won the majority of the vote in the questionnaire I passed out.