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 The payment for the copyright depends on whether the work is published or unpublished; the date of publication can also be a consideration when coming up with the payment for copyright.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/

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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