War of the Woods

A little more than a year ago, Matthew Petz saw his webcomic War of the Woods win Zuda’s monthly contest. A few months later, Zuda ended their monthly contests, then shut down the website and by the fall the imprint was shuttered by DC — all before Petz’s strip ever began its run on the site.

“A year ago this month I was trying to win the Zuda competition. I finally DID pull off the win…only to watch Zuda fold a few months later,” Petz told me last week. “That was kinda brutal.”

But the end of Zuda wouldn’t mean the end of the strip, as War of the Woods, like several other former Zuda strips, has found a new home on comiXology. But while some of the strips offered on Zuda are still being sold and branded under the Zuda imprint — and through the DC-branded application for the iPhone and iPad — Petz’s strip is now completely creator-owned.

Petz told me that when Zuda closed down, he was offered a percentage of what he would have earned on the contract he won last January, despite the fact that he hadn’t produced any work for them yet. “The people at DC I was dealing with and who I’ve since become friends with were (and still are) very supportive,” he said. “So in the end I got some money and more importantly, I was given my rights back. That was the biggest deal. I own War of the Woods 100 percent.”

War of the Woods

Some of the contacts he made would help him make the jump from Zuda to comiXology. “The day I found out what was happening with Zuda, I got calls from everyone offering support and advice,” he said. “Friends like Bobby Timony, Kevin Colden and David Gallaher. It was David that did an email introduction with David Steinberger at ComiXology. Pretty soon after that I signed up to release WOTW through them. So far it’s been great. The comiXology team are easy to work with and are really supportive.”

And while he no longer has the backing of a large company like DC Comics behind his comic, he does have the lessons he learned from the initial contest.

“Obviously having someone like DC promoting you would be great, but at the same time no matter who you are you need to promote all you can.” Petz said. “That’s the biggest lesson I think I took from the competition. Promote , promote, promote. Interviews like this, podcasts, conventions and of course social media. Social media has the potential to really democratize things. You can’t afford not to embrace it.”

Described at War of the Worlds meets Wind and the Willows, the comic details how two otters, a father and his son, survive and fight back against an alien invasion. “We always see what it’s like for humans to survive in movies like Independence Day or War of the Worlds,” he told me last year when I interviewed him. “My thought when thinking was…I wonder how the animals are gonna deal with this?”

The first three chapters are available via comiXology’s website, as well as the apps they’ve developed for various platforms. Petz said he expects to have the fourth chapter up soon. He expects the first season to run about 60-75 pages, or about six issues, not including bonus material.

“When that’s done my plan is to try and find a print home for the book as well,” he said. “I heard that a lot at conventions last year, so fingers crossed. Beyond all that I have a pretty big outline that tells a big global story. I wrote the ending when I wrote the first eight pages, so I know how everything works out in the end.”

For further updates on War of the Woods, you can follow Petz on Twitter, or check out warofthewoodscomic.com.

Gallaher occupies a unique role as a creator whose popularity is based primarily on his online comics output, with his print work coming to catch up. The writer has a long history with the online work, going back to interning at Marvel’s interactive department in the late 1990s and being a advertising copywriter for several years. While his comics come out on the bleeding edge of comics formats, his instincts owe more to comics’ pulpy roots.

Chris Arrant: Let’s do an easy one, first – what are you working on today?

David Gallaher: This morning, I’m laying out the rest of Box 13: The Pandora Process, which is being illustrated by Steve Ellis and is being published digitally by comiXology. Steve and I also have another project we’re working on that we’re really excited about. It’s got what I refer to as the “new project smell.” Like  High Moon, it plays to our pulp roots – and I think it’ll be equally as vast.

And at some point this week, we’ll start our preparation for the New York Comic Con and discuss what’s next for High Moon.

Arrant: Although you’ve been doing comics for several years, it was your online work like High Moon at Zuda and Box 13 at comiXology that really put you on the map. What do you think of how the Internet changed your career like that?

Gallaher: What do I think? Well, I think it’s kinda great, honestly. I mean, technically, I started my professional career in digital comics with Marvel Interactive in ’99, so I think going back to those roots was really a huge part of why I am where I am today. You are right – I did have several years of traditional print comics under my belt – and while I don’t want to say that I struggled in that market, I did find it a difficult place to attract the sort of audience I was interested in reaching. So, I looked for different places to experiment a bit – places like Zuda and comiXology – and so far those have been great avenues for my work. Moving forward, I hope to develop more projects that move in that direction.

Arrant: Over at Marvel you’ve done two stories, both focused on the Russian superhero team the Winter Guard. Why are you drawn to them so much? Is it the characters, or their country?

Gallaher: Actually, it’s the creator. While he didn’t technically create the Winter Guard, the team was directly inspired by the work Bill Mantlo did with the Soviet Super-Soldiers in the ’80s. I have always been a big fan of his work – and wanted to create a project that played around with some obscure characters while raising awareness of Bill’s current condition, which I talk about a little on my website. Beyond that, though, it was a great opportunity to move these characters out of the faded shadow of Communism and into a bold, more heroic future. I’m enthralled by Russia and by the incredible array of Russian characters in the Marvel Universe – Kraven, Rhino, Chameleon, Black Widow, Omega Red – and I wanted to shine a light on that side of the world. And it was a blast! I got to use the Agents of Atlas, I had Ursa Major punch an undead dinosaur in the face, and I brought back the Dire Wraiths – that to me was a lot of fun. But, at the end of the day, the book was really for Bill Mantlo and everything he inspired in me.

I also owe a big thanks to Jeph Loeb, who brought these characters out of obscurity.

Arrant: Where do you see yourself five years from now?

Gallaher: If you had asked me that question five years ago, I certainly wouldn’t have said that I expected to be writing comics full-time. In April of 2005, my body was breaking down at a severe pace – where I was having eight to nine seizures a week – and where literally every day, I was wondering if it’d be my last. So, five years ago, I certainly didn’t think I’d be where I am today.

With that in mind, I have no idea where I’ll be in five years. The key for me is to keep moving forward. I want to keep my creative team employed telling the kind of stories that we want to tell with as much creative freedom as possible. Basically, the goal is to keep writing comics and new projects until I can’t write anymore.

Arrant: For years, you worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency. How did your work there affect your writing?

Gallaher: Some of my favorite writers worked as advertising copywriters – Terry Gilliam, for instance. And, having spent the years working in that field myself I can tell you firsthand that it fundamentally changed the way I felt about writing. No longer was I writing when I “felt inspired” — now I was obligated to write every day for 50 hours a week, whether it was excellent or excrement. It gave me the discipline I needed to go further with my career. Of course, I also learned something else critically important and that’s “simplicity sells” – and that’s the one lesson I try to keep in mind when I’m writing any project.

Arrant: Prior to all that you interned at Marvel in the late ’90s. What was it like then?

Gallaher: Interning at Marvel was an amazing experience. I could spend hours talking about how that experience shaped me as a comics creator. I met amazing people, did some work I’m still very proud of, and I learned firsthand how awesome comics could be. Conversely, I also learned how wretched the industry could be, too. At the time, Marvel was undergoing some dramatic changes, doing their best to crawl out of the hole that their bankruptcy left them in. There was a great deal of confusion about what role Interactive should play in Marvel’s development. I saw friends get let go, fired, and whole departments get restructured. It was a challenging time, but, as I said, I learned a lot. It was a tremendous experience that opened a lot of doors for me and my career.

Arrant: What’s the big comic you want to do next?

Gallaher: When you say BIG comic, what do you mean? I mean, I certainly want to do more Winter Guard comics – and maybe one day a neo-noir Dan Garrett Blue Beetle series, but in terms of Batman, Wolverine, or Superman? I’m not sure. I don’t really think that way. I mean, I love those characters — but they seemed pretty locked up for a while. In the meantime, I’m going to keep developing new content, exploring new formats, finding new models of collaboration, working with innovative publishers, and pushing new ideas forward. If nothing else — it will certainly be an adventure.

Zuda Comics

Last week Zuda Comics shut down their website and announced they will release content on DC’s new digital platforms. Currently issues of Bayou and High Moon have made the jump to the iPhone, iPad and PSP, with more on the way.

Ron Perazza, vice president of creative services for DC Comics, oversees DC’s online initiatives and has been at the helm of the imprint since it launched in 2007. He agreed to answer a few questions I had about the imprint, its immediate plans and a few of the lessons they’ve learned over the last three years. My thanks to Ron for answering my questions in what is likely a very turbulent time for him.

JK: Last week we saw a transition in what Zuda is, from a free webcomics site to becoming a part of DC’s new digital strategy, meaning people will be paying to download and read the strips (except for the free first issues, of course). What were the reasons for making this transition?

Ron: The reason is pretty simple, actually. As DC Comics moves more aggressively into Digital Publishing they wanted to coordinate their efforts across all imprints. So while the specifics about which title or how many of each issue might differ, the overall plan is the same for the DCU, Vertigo, WildStorm and Zuda.

JK: What were some of the lessons you guys learned over the past three years that maybe helped pave the way for DC’s digital plans?

Ron: I think the most significant lesson was the importance of Digital Publishing and digital content itself. In addition to some really amazing critical successes that clearly resonated with the comic-buying audience, we were putting up some solid metrics month after month. So in a way, ZUDA was sort of like a pioneer project for DC Comics. Exploring. Now it’s time to move in and settle in a more permanent way.

JK: One of the strengths of the Zuda site and the competitions was that you helped shine the light on a lot of really talented creators. I was always amazed at the camaraderie and energy among this group of creators when I saw them at conventions. What was it like to see that evolve, and are there any lessons there for DC in terms of finding and nurturing new talent?

Ron: You’re absolutely right, the camaraderie between the ZUDA comics creators and staff has been a really unexpected, but welcome, bonus and it seemed to develop completely naturally. I think in a way it was an outgrowth of the way we set the site up from the beginning and the decision to put a lot of power in the hands of the creators and users. Open submission that allow creators to send us what they want to create. An editorial process that not just included user participation but required it in order to green light a comic. It was collaborative by its very nature. On top of that we were lucky enough that everyone seemed to just inherently recognize that not only did we all have unique roles but also that each person’s role had value. Otherwise it doesn’t work. From there it just snowballed – the veteran creators helping the new guys and everyone trying to pay it forward.

It’s naive to think everything will be awesome for everyone all the time. There are definitely going to be some bad decisions, missed opportunities and oversights in any situation. It’s easy to be critical and it’s really difficult to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses. I think the lesson that aspiring creators, working professionals, fans and publishers should keep in mind would be one of mutual respect.

High Moon

JK: Will new Zuda projects still be sought out and developed, or will you just focus on the ones that we’ve already seen?

Ron: This is sort of a bigger DC Comics question and not necessarily just a Zuda Comics question. I think it makes sense for DC Comics to continue developing new ideas and pursuing new creators but obviously they’ll need to do that in ways that make sense for each imprint. At the moment we’ve got our work cut out for us just rolling out the content we have. Ask me again in a few months!

JK: In addition to High Moon and Bayou, which are available now, the press release lists five other series that will “make the jump” from the web to the digital formats — Black Cherry Bombshells, Azure, Bottle of Awesome, Supertron and Lily of the Valley. But I’ve seen mention of Molly Crabapple’s Puppet Makers as well. Can you confirm what other strips will live on in the new format?

Ron: We’re still putting together the exact release schedule and coordinating that with the other imprints. Yeah, Puppet Makers by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt is definitely making the jump as are many titles not mentioned in the press release. Next up for us is The Night Owls followed by Azure. After that it gets kind of fuzzy but we’re going to release new issues every Wednesday. We’ll announce what’s coming up for ZUDA on our blog so I would just direct people toward that until we figure out some kind of more thorough way to communicate the schedule for what DC Comics is releasing across the board each week.

JK: What happens to the strips that don’t make the jump? Can the creators take them elsewhere?

Ron: Absolutely. Our intention is to settle the outstanding contracts and revert all of the rights and assets for any series that isn’t making the jump into the Digital Publishing program. I can’t get into the specifics because it’s something I still need to discuss with each creative team, but generally speaking I think if those creators want to self publish or find another publisher, then we shouldn’t stand in their way.

JK: Will the creators with Zuda strips that are moving to comiXology and the PSP continue to produce new chapters?

Ron: That depends on the story and the specific situation for each comic and creative team. Each ZUDA series is a finite story. None of them were ever planned to go on forever, cliffhanger after cliffhanger. So there are a few series that have already ended and are a complete story; for example, Melody or The Night Owls. There are others that are still under contract, and we’re going to work with those creators to continue to deliver their pages; for example, I Rule the Night or Puppet Makers. After we publish what was already on site, we’ll just continue right through to the new pages.

JK: Will the print collections of Zuda comics continue?

Ron: What, digital isn’t good enough? Save a tree. Ha ha! Actually this is all being evaluated still, so I don’t have an answer just yet. Previously we didn’t have an aggressive print publishing plan – just two or three books a year. Digital Publishing is sort of a game changer for ZUDA. There’s a wealth of data that we can gather that is likely to affect our decision-making process. I think it’s too early to say how this will affect our print publishing plan.

"The Puppet Makers" character designs, by Molly Crabapple

Back in mid-May, Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt launched their latest project, Puppet Makers, at Zuda Comics. When Crabapple gave me the head-up about the project a few weeks back, I immediately recalled our enjoyable last interview (August 24, 2009), and decided to go for another round of questions. Here’s the official synopsis on the project: “Versailles 1685, France has industrialized centuries before her neighbors but focuses on creating exquisitely ornate robotic shells for the aristocracy called, DOLLIES. Towering, lavishly expensive, and run on electricity provided by damming the Seine. Only the court elite wears Dollies, but their upkeep is beginning to bankrupt France. During the king’s birthday party, his Dolly explodes but is found to be empty. Rumors fly, blaming THE SMASHERS, a ring of Luddite terrorists who may lurk within the palace. The church’s cardinal sends a neophyte priest, JEAN JAQUES, to uncover Smashers at court. Amidst the contrary, conniving and self-indulgent upper class, Jean is thwarted at every turn. As he begins to uncover the truth behind the king’s disappearance, he finds that decadence and deceit may be a greater threat to the throne of France and his own life than her missing monarch.”

Tim O’Shea: What is the core appeal of steampunk fiction for you as a creator?

Molly Crabapple: I started drawing steampunk pictures in college. A teacher assigned me to design a skateboard deck, and, rebellious thing that I was, I thought it would be hilarious to imagine kateboarding as the sport of trussed Victorian ladies. I drew a board titled “Lady Etheldrina’s Wheeled Conveyance”, which shows a bouffant haired aristocrat on a skateboard, which is then being hauled by her maid.

I like working in the steampunk genre because I get to imagine the horrifying and hilarious ways technology would distort my favorite time periods.

O’Shea: Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like the opening panel of your story must have been hell to draw. Was it?

Crabapple: Yes! Oh yes it was.

O’Shea: How many weeks is Puppet Makers running–and how frequently will it be updated?

Crabapple: Puppet Makers should run to 240 pages, and is updated every Wednesday

O’Shea: Given that Kevin Colden’s  I Rule the Night is a mature content story at Zuda, I was surprised to see you did not develop a mature content tale yourself. Care to explain your thinking on not going for a mature content tale?

Crabapple: I had a few reasons. First, me and John feel like we’ve been pigeonholed as the people who make the  comics about sexy sexy sex, and while we like boobs as much as anyone, doing only boobs causes people to overlook your other talents. Second, I hate content filters with a fiery passion. The world isn’t childproof- if you don’t want your kid to see the organ they came out of, keep them away from a computer. Not that that will work anyway.

O’Shea: When you’re steampunking history as you are with this story, is there still an amount of research to be done on the front end? Do you or collaborator John Leavitt do the bulk of the research (or is the load shared)?

Crabapple: When you steampunk up a time period, you actually need to know more about it than if you were doing straight historical drama, because you have to know their design grammer and societal norms well enough to imagine how anachronistic tech would change them.

Luckily, me and John are both history junkies. We’ve spent years intrigued by the machinations of Versailles- how Louis XIV’s perfect trap for the nobility eventually led to the French revolution. We gobble up biographies and design books. I’ve been memorizing Baroque: Style in the Age of Magnificence.

O’Shea:  How did John first come up with an idea of a soundtrack for Puppet Maker (which includes the range of “Celebrity Skin – Hole; The Infanta – The Decemberists; Rip Her To Shreads – Blondie; and Queen Bitch – David Bowie) Did you have any input on the soundtrack as well?

Crabapple: John’s a music genius. The soundtrack is all him. Though Celebrity Skin is one of my favorite songs

O’Shea: Do you approach your layout or pacing differently when creating for Zuda versus an ACT-I-VATE project, or do the slightly differing interfaces have no bearing on your approach?

Crabapple: I can be more fancy pants on Zuda because I’m getting paid. Act-i-vate was more of a fun side project. Also, Zuda is a horizontal page layout, which just makes more sense on a computer screen.

O’Shea: Have you already gotten an iPad, or are you holding off until the first round of bugs are sorted out? As a creator, how maddening is it to try to  stay on top of every new app that might be the new “best” way to present your webcomic?

Crabapple: I’m probably not going to get an iPad (Apple’s shitty attitude towards scantily clad pictures and indie developers is a major turnoff). However, Scarlett Takes Manhattan is available on the ipad and iphone via the Comixology app. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the best app out there for displaying comics on mobile devices.

O’Shea:  Given your obvious love of theater, any temptation to adapt one of your webcomics to a play?

Crabapple: We’re talking to one of my heroes about doing Scarlett as a play. God knows, he’s a busy gentleman, so perhaps it won’t happen. But there are murmurings

O’Shea: How goes the world of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School?

Crabapple: Busy! We did Sketchy’s at MoMA several months ago, and we’re bringing it to the Brooklyn Museum in August. We’re at over 120 branches, are beta testing a new website, and throwing a splendiferous warehouse party called The Art Monkeys Ball on June 12.

The Adventures of Bronzegold, Barbarian Rogue by Benjamin Marra

“PHD Tales from the Road” by Jorge Cham

The System by Rosscott

“Sasquatch & Nigel” by Nick Edwards

“The Scottish Play” by Kate Beaton

Street Code: The Beautiful Girl with Bolshevik Breasts by Dean Haspiel

Hat tip: Betty Ragan, Meathaus

Max Overacts

Canaan Grall, the creator of the Zuda comic Celadore, has just launched a new comics site of his own, and he’s starting it off with Max Overacts, a zany-kid strip with a touch of Calvin and Hobbes. The title pretty much describes the concept, but Grall pulls it off pretty well with a nice retro design, a kid who manages to be smart-alecky without being annoying, and a cute cast of side characters (including Max’s ventriloquist dummy, another retro touch). While Max does overact in each comic, Grall has a fairly restrained style, so the whole package works without seeming over the top.

Grall says he first thought of Max Overacts as a picture book, then decided it would work better as a comic and drew it as a Zuda entry. He had second thoughts, however, and posted it on his site. (Interestingly, the Zuda format looks pretty good on a web page with the comic at a natural size, neither too small nor full-page, and without the annoyingly slow Flash interface.) He is talking about putting up another comic once he works his way through the 60 screens of Max, but I wish he would stick with this one, as it has a lot of potential.

Modesty Blaise

Passings | Writer Peter O’Donnell, creator of the Modesty Blaise comic strip, died May 3 at age 90.  Steve Holland notes that although the prolific novelist suffered from Parkinson’s disease, he “kept in touch with fans and continued to pen introductions for Titan’s Modesty reprints.”

Born in south London on April 11, 1920, O’Donnell wrote such adventure strips as the long-running adaptation of the James Bond novel Dr. No, Garth, and Romeo Brown before being asked in 1962 to create a new character for the Daily Express. He came up with Modesty Blaise, whose catsuit-wearing heroine fought villainy with the help of her right-hand man Willie Garvin. The strip was quickly picked up by the Evening Standard, and ran from May 1963 to July 2002.

O’Donnell also wrote a series of Modesty Blaise novels and, under the pen name of Madeleine Brent, several historical romances. [Bleeding Cool, Guardian, Times Online]

Zuda Comics

Publishing | Webcomics commentator Mike Perridge considers what form a retooled Zuda Comics might take. [mpd57]

Publishing | Marvel has signed separate deals to launch a children’s books line at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and to expand its partnership with Bendon Publishing. [Publishers Weekly]

Awards | A look at the Eisner Awards nominees for best continuing series. [Suvudu]

Creators | A spotlight on, and video interview with, artist Alex Ross. [Chicago Now]

Berkeley Breathed

Creators | Sam Thielman chats with Berkeley Breathed about IDW’s Bloom County: The Complete Library, fans and the controversy surrounding his 1987 Pulitzer Prize: “It was really spearheaded by this guy Pat Oliphant. He did not like me, he was sure that I had stolen the penguin from him — that little character down by his signature is a penguin, apparently. It was a cover story in the Washington Journalism Review. I took it lightly, but I should have gone over and punched him in the face. In their minds, you don’t win a Pulitzer unless you’re cutting heads off. Now it’s no longer called editorial cartooning — it’s called cartooning, which is what it should be called.” [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Daniel Clowes talks about his latest book, Wilson, and where the name comes from: “I wanted a very bland name, the type of comic strip name you’d see in a ’50s or ’60s comic strip that has no distinguishing characteristic at all. Of course, there’s Mr. Wilson, who lives next door to Dennis the Menace. There are lots of people with the last name Wilson, it’s probably like the eighth most common name in America, something like that. It’s not as obvious as Smith, but I wanted it to seem generic, I wanted him to seem in some way like he’s a comic character. You don’t even know if it’s his first or last name because I changed my mind about that so much that I decided it’s just a single name, like Cher.” [Gothamist]

Dash Shaw

Creators | Lauren Helman talks with Dash Shaw about BodyWorld, process and the future of comics: “Right now in bookstores, all of the comics are grouped together: the reprints are right next to the contemporary comics, next to Marvel and DC, next to a nonfiction comic, etc. It’s as if you went into the book store and everything, all of it, was organized alphabetically. So I think what’ll happen in comics is that it’ll become more like other books, in that a Web cartoonist doesn’t necessarily read print comics, in the same way that some romance author doesn’t necessarily read the latest science fiction works. That’s already happening. But that’s unusual in comics. It’s usually been a small community. But, at the same time, I think there will be people who are viewing everything as a whole. So someone will like Robert Crumb, Otto Soglow, and Suehiro Maruo and then make comics that they’d want to read. Everything will move farther apart and also come closer together at the same time.” [Suvudu]

Art by Faith Erin Hicks

Creators | The National Post rolls out more Q&As with creators attending this weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Leslie Fairfield; Clayton Hanmer; Tara Tallan; Diana Tamblyn; Dalton Sharp; Jason Kieffer; Sam Logan; Adam Bourret; Faith Erin Hicks; Ethan Rilly; Hyein Lee; Will Dinski; and Rachel Dukes. [Toronto Comics Art Festival]

Creators | Cullen Bunn continues his  interview tour in support of The Sixth Gun, his new supernatural Western (with artist Brian Hurtt) from Oni Press. [Comic Monsters]

Creators | Brian Heater wraps up a three-part interview with Jamie Tanner and Robin Enrico, and kicks off a four-part Q&A with Ben Snakepit. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Eldritch

Creators | David Harper talks with Aaron Alexovich and Drew Rausch, the team behind Eldritch, Zuda’s winning entry for April. [Multiversity Comics]

Creators | Sword of Dracula and Psy-Comm writer Jason Henderson discusses his new young-adult prose novel Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising. [KansasCity.com]

Comics | Yesterday saw a list of the richest characters in superhero comics, so it’s only fitting that today there’s a rundown of the poorest characters. [Comic Vine]

Comics | Kevin Guhl counts down the 10 best deaths of Spider-Man from Marvel’s What If …? series. [Topless Robot]

I Rule the Night

Fresh off the news that they are ending their monthly competitions, Zuda announces this week that Kevin Colden’s long-delayed I Rule the Night, one of the site’s instant winner strips from last year, is back after a 10-month hiatus. And it is now Zuda’s first mature readers strip, meaning you’ll need to create an account and log into the site to read it.

“That’s the reason behind the hiatus. Mostly. There was some other business going on with switching publishers and new executives,” Editor Ron Perazza said on the Zuda blog. “Corporate structure aside, we knew this series was going to touch on some dark, thought provoking themes when it first launched but we still needed to do our editorial due diligence, plot out the series with Kevin and, in a larger context, determine just what having a mature readers series for ZUDA might mean. On the development side we have to make sure that users were able to opt in or out of viewing mature content, should they decide that it simply wasn’t for them, and how this affected navigation, the comic display and other site sections.”

Readers who don’t want to view mature content will be able to opt out, Perazza said. He also added that the strip will be updated three times a week for the rest of season one and on into season two.

The news comes two and a half years after the launch of DC Comics’ online imprint, and follows scattered incidents in which competitors were accused of cheating or being overly aggressive in their promotion. The process also has been criticized for seemingly favoring the superhero, action/adventure and horror genres. In his blog post announcing the end of the competition approach, Ron Perazza, vice president of creative services, acknowledged some of those shortcomings while praising the merits of the format. However, he didn’t say yet what might replace it.

Response to the announcement has been largely positive, even on the Zuda Comics message board (even if, as you might expect, it’s accompanied by a little hand-wringing). From elsewhere in the blogosphere:

Larry Cruz: “On one hand, this is somewhat of a blow to independent webcomic creators who wouldn’t have had quite the exposure otherwise. On the other hand, online voters tended to gravitate toward some of the most predictable categories, which means that horror or hero-style comics were almost always going to get the upper hand. (Which, frankly, was a blow to the relatively unconventional Sam & Lilah — reviewed here — a comic that the editors liked but the voters didn’t.) So count me as a supported of this brave new era of Zuda 2.0.”

Lauren Davis: “Good on you, Zuda. It’s your time, money, and reputation that goes into these things and you should promote the comics you want to promote. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see whether Zuda continues to engage its community without the monthly competitions.”

Mike Perridge: “What does the future hold now for Zuda if the competition is no more? I’ll take a wild guess and say they’ll try to use their resources more carefully in future. It’s all very well offering a cash prize to the winner, but then contracting them to complete a strip over the course of what might be a year seems, in a recession, to be recklessly wasteful. If the strips chosen in the contest had all been of the same quality and promise as the best strips then there wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but stretching out hopeless, yet inexplicably popular strips over a long period of time just makes the whole catalogue look a little stupid. Instead of increasing the kudos attached to such a high-profile publisher the poorer quality strips just made everyone think that they all had an equal shot at making it as a comic professional – which clearly they did not.”

Johanna Draper Carlson: “I think this move makes sense for them — at the time Zuda started, they shook up the digital comic world, spawning lots of discussion, but 2 1/2 years of having to crown a winner every month… that’s a lot of competitions to manage, and the material was becoming a bit same-y.”

Heidi MacDonald: “In our humble opinion, the move to install editorial mandate over popular choice is a sound move. Many of the Zuda winners we saw tended to fall into the “Wild ‘n crazy action humor” genre — if that is even a genre — and had more nerd-appeal than staying power. Instilling a bit more quality control should up the entire line’s profile.”

Digital Strips rounds up some Twitter reactions.

Those of you familiar with the history of the competition know that we’ve had our ups and downs. While I don’t think anyone can argue with the quality of previous competition winners like HIGH MOON, SUPERTRON and others, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there were clearly great series that, for one reason or another, didn’t win.

The format absolutely has merits; engaging the community and giving them real decision making power, giving creators a level of exposure that they might not have otherwise had and encouraging an ongoing dialogue about storytelling, quality and what makes good comics. However it’s also had its shortcomings; accusations of cheating, confusion about the process, spamming in the the name of promotion and argumentative, dismissive or even aggressive behavior.

Is there a better way to achieve the former without having to endure or encourage the latter? I think so. The comic industry needs a steady influx of new creators and new ideas. We should consistently explore the medium, looking for new ways to tell great stories. I think that if we, as a company, are committed to those goals we would be foolish not to pursue them.

He goes on to say the site will change as they eliminate the competition and retool the submissions section.

Zuda launched back in 2007, with the first contest going live in November of that year. The site’s “American Idol” style competitions received a bit of criticism at the time (as did other aspects, like the contract and the Flash interface), most notably from PvP creator Scott Kurtz. The contests continued, and as winners like David Gallaher, Steve Ellis, Sheldon Vella, Johnny Zito, Tony Trov and many others started becoming ambassadors for the site and the competition, it seemed like opinions started to change — even Kurtz changed his position somewhat.

I don’t think Gallaher, Ellis and the rest needed to win the competition to become comics creators — I’m pretty sure most of these guys were well on their way to a career in comics regardless — but the competition did give them a jumpstart and did bring us, the reader, some pretty cool comics. So kudos, DC and Zuda, for bringing these guys deserved attention … I’m hopeful that you’ll continue to do so with other creators.

Joining in the “long tradition of comic book crossover events,” according to the press release, Zuda’s The Black Cherry Bombshells and SuperTron strips are crossing over.

“We’ve been dropping hints in both strips for a while. Last year The Bombshells appeared in SuperTron’s dream and recently connections between the King and MOM Bot were discovered,” said Johnny Zito, co-creator of The Black Cherry Bombshells.

SuperTron creator Sheldon Vella will illustrate five episodes of Black Cherry Bombshells beginning April 5. Sheldon’s stint as guest artist will connect the Armageddon events between both series and will catapult both comics into their final chapters.

“We’re really excited to finally team up with Shelly. For the longest time we’ve thought of the Bombshells as the prequel to SuperTron,” said Tony Trov, co-creator of The Black Cherry Bombshells.

This isn’t the firts time Vella has drawn the Bombshells; you can see a promo piece he did for them last year in this post. And check out another piece of art after the jump …

*****

"The Puppet Makers" character designs, by Molly Crabapple

Following up on this morning’s announcement, Zuda Comics has released some of Molly Crabapple’s character designs for The Puppet Makers, her upcoming webcomic with frequent collaborator John Leavitt.

The series, described as everything from a “Rococo steampunk murder mystery” to “Blade Runner meets The Other Boleyn Girl,” is one of those rare instant winners in the Zuda competition, joining the likes of Jeremy Love’s Bayou, Dean Haspiel’s Street-Code and Kevin Colden’s I Rule the Night.

Update: io9.com now has the official description for The Puppet Makers:

Dangerous Liaisons meets Blade Runner. The Puppet Makers is a mystery set in an alternate historical Versailles. Versailles is run by clockwork and aristocrats wear robotic suits, or Dollies, to go through the elaborate rituals that proscribe daily life. When the king’s Dolly explodes, it is revealed that he’s long since vanished. A young monk’s investigations into the king’s disappearance draw him into the dark secrets of the court.

No debut date has been given.

Nightmares & Fairy Tales #1 (2002)

A couple of announcements were made last night about new series that are light on details but heavy on potential interest:

• Artist Molly Crabapple revealed on Twitter that she and frequent collaborator John Leavitt are working on a “Rococo steampunk murder mystery” called The Puppet Makers for DC Comics’ Zuda imprint. The publisher describes the webcomic as a “Victorian Age Blade Runner.”

“We are working on the script now,” Crabapple wrote. “We are so excited to be working on our dream project with Zuda we could die.”

• Writer Serena Valentino announced she’s reuniting with original artist Foo Swee Chin (FSc) for a four-issue Nightmares & Fairy Tales miniseries called Annabelle’s Story.

The series, which was released from 2002 to 2008 by SLG Publishing, centers on a strange rag doll named Annabelle who recounts the dark stories — often variations of familiar fairy tales — of the girls and women who have owned her. Annabelle’s Story is set to debut in November.

Superman

Legal | In what could be a prelude to a courtroom battle with the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, Jeff Trexler reports that Warner Bros. has replaced its outside counsel with superstar attorney Daniel Petrocelli.

A partner in the Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny and Myers, Petrocelli is best known for representing Fred Goldman, father of murder victim Ronald Goldman, in a wrongful-death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. Petrocelli also successfully defended The Walt Disney Co. in a lengthy battle over merchandising royalties from Winnie-the-Pooh.

The Siegel family, of course, has its own superstar attorney: intellectual-property lawyer Marc Toberoff, who also represents the children of Jack Kirby in their bid to reclaim their father’s copyrights to characters he created for Marvel. [Blog@Newsarama]

Legal | A proposed amendment to Tokyo’s regional laws designed to ban the sale of loli material to minors uses such vague and sweeping language that the effects could be far-reaching. [Sankaku Complex, Icarus Publishing]

Detective Comics #27

Comics | Michael Cavna delves into why collectors are suddenly paying $1 million and more for Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27. “This has a lot to do with timing, the serendipity of the right events at the right time,” says Vincent Zurzolo, co-owner of ComicConnect.com. “I think you see people worried about the stock market and real estate and wondering what to invest in. For people who love this material or have the foresight to see years down the road, you realize this stuff is actually a great investment.” Meanwhile, Nancy Crawley discovers that her stack of comics from the ’80s and ’90s aren’t worth much. [The Washington Post, The Grand Rapids Press]

Publishing | Japanese publishers Shonen Gahosha Co, Takeshobo and Mag Garden are launching three magazines for mobile phones in that country, with plans to expand to North America. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Allegations of plagiarism against Incarnate creator Nick Simmons continue to spark online discussion about copying, piracy and scanlation: Deb Aoki rounds up a selection of Twitter and blog posts at About.com, where there’s a lengthy comments thread; Melinda Beasi recounts her own history as a scanlation “junkie”; and Matt Blind weighs in. [Robot 6]

From Ghost Projekt #1

Creators | Collaborators Joe Harris and Steve Rolston discuss their upcoming supernatural thriller Ghost Projekt. [Ain't It Cool News]

Creators | Monsterplex writer Brock Heasley discusses his webcomic, which won the January Zuda competition. [Rocket Llama Headquarters]

Comics | To marks the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, Graeme McMillan names the 75 collections and graphic novels you already should’ve read. [io9.com]

Comics | Ben Morse re-examines writer Fabian Nicieza’s tenure on Marvel’s The New Warriors. [The Cool Kids Table]

Comics | If you have an aversion to spoilers, you may want to avoid this chart depicting the lifespans of characters from the first 70 issues of The Walking Dead. [Mightygodking]

Comics | In the latest installment of “Gateways to Geekery,” Noel Murray examines Bronze-Age comics, and recommends Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson’s Manhunter as a starting point. [The A.V. Club]

Comics | Dan Phillips offers pointers on how to introduce friends, family and co-workers to comics. [IGN.com]

The Thunderchickens

Last month The Thunderchickens were riding high in Zuda’s monthly webcomics contest, but they dropped out due to some sort of kerfuffle with Chuck Harrison, creator of NewBot, another strip in the competition.

Well, it looks like both sides have made peace, based on this comic strip by Harrison and Thunderchickens artist William Blankenship. And above you’ll see that Blankenship and Chad Boudreau aren’t done with the Thunderchickens … Blankenship teased us on Twitter with the above image.

King Con Brooklyn

Here’s an event that makes me wish I lived close to New York City again: King Con Brooklyn, a comics and animation convention being held Saturday and Sunday at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

It has a great name, and boasts an impressive lineup of largely local guests, including Harvey Pekar, Al Jaffee, Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Brian Wood, Alex Robinson, Molly Crabapple, Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Kevin Colden, David Gallaher, Steve Ellis and Matt Loux.

In addition, there’s a programming schedule that includes workshops, a DC Comics/Zuda portfolio review, creator spotlights, and panels devoted to kids’ comics, European comics, digital comics, animation and Marvel’s publishing plans.

The convention will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on both days at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn.

The Count

Editor’s Note: As mentioned earlier today, we’re celebrating Halloween all this week here at Robot 666. Here’s the first of six Six by 6 columns with that theme, by guest contributors Tony Trov and Johnny Zito. They are the creators of Black Cherry Bombshells, the girl-on-zombie web comic from Zuda Comics. This October saw the debut of their newest title, LaMorte Sisters, about a vampire orphanage run by strict nuns.

By Tony Trov & Johnny Zito

(In no particular order)

1. The Count

Tony Trov: The Count is a mysterious force on Sesame Street. He has these neurotic ticks that makes him really intense. The Count counts things, even when there’s just one. His math OCD makes him great at figuring out the tip.

2. The Lost Boys

Johnny Zito: Nothing’s cooler than drinking weird substances out of bejeweled bottles in a crazy vampire cave with Kiefer Sutherland. Raising terror on Santa Carla Boardwalk looks like a lot of fun, too. Unfortunately, all the Chinese food out west sucks. Ew, maggots.

3. Salma Hayek

Tony Trov: I like when people bring their pets to the bar. Dogs are cool but snakes are bad ass. Drinking with the Vampire Queen from From Dusk ’til Dawn doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll put her foot in your mouth. But I’m OK with it either way.

4. Vampirella

Vampirella

Johnny Zito: Vampirella is the crazy girl dancing on the bar, knocking back Walker Red. She’s gonna leave you broke and send you home with bruises. It’s worth it though, your ex will be so jealous when the pictures hit Facebook… Please take me back, Elvira?

5. Nosferatu

Tony Trov: The OG vamp from the days of silent film is celebrity royalty. I’d really like to kick back with the old man and ask what it was like meeting David Bowie and Freddie Mercury on the set of their music video for Under Pressure.

6. The Brides of Dracula

Johnny Zito: With wingmen this good we could ALL be smooth as Dracula.

Tony Trov: Let us know if we missed any vampires worth boozing with.

Johnny Zito: And please check out LaMorteSisters.com every Friday for more vampire action.

This weekend marks the coming of the  Harvest Moon,  the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox.

In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but this year it occurs in October just before hunting season.

This ominous moon also signals the debut the long-awaited fourth season of the werewolf epic – HIGH MOON!

Written by myself, illustrated by Steve Ellis, and lettered by Scott O. Brown, this season brings Macgregor to the streets of London where he must unravel a hidden family curse before it claims its next victim.

After this weekend’s update, you see new pages every Monday by sundown.

Long Beach Comic Con

Okay, that’s grabbier than “Strangeways in Long Beach,” ya gotta admit.  It’s even more accurate, since this week’s guest blogger, David Gallaher, will be there as well.

Where in Long Beach?  Why, Long Beach Comic Con, of course.

It’s been a long time since the LA area had a bigger show to go to.  The last show there was in 2008, and while it made for an interesting debut and and a great place to see friends over the weekend, it wasn’t a barn-burner of an event.  I always felt that the shows put on in Long Beach far overshadowed the LA shows in terms of quality and location, and I’ve no doubt that this new show will live up to that.  Apparently Stan Lee himself will be cutting the opening ribbon, which might be fun to see.  I would love to have him sign my copy of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS some day (indeed the book that made me a Marvel zombie so many years ago, also forming an impression of comics as books that I’ve yet to shake.)

I’ll be down at booth 63, Mr. Gallaher at booth 62 (I wonder if I can get him to swap booths with me — sentimental reasons).  I’m sure he’ll have plenty of copies of HIGH MOON to sell, as I will have plenty of copies of MURDER MOON and the limited-edition red cover chapter #1 collection of THE THIRSTY.  And don’t forget, those fabulous five minute stories will also be available for the asking.

See you there!

Later this month, Zuda Comics will celebrate its second anniversary as DC’s webcomics imprint. One of the people responsible for the success is Ron Perazza, Vice President of Creative Services.

Welcome Ron.

For starters, take a moment to tell our readers who you are.

Sure. I’m the Vice President of Creative Services for DC Comics – which doesn’t really do much to describe what I do every day. In a nutshell, I’m responsible for what can very, very loosely be described as “other.” Ha! It includes everything from custom publishing (like posters for the American Library Association or LEGO’s Bionicle Comics), creative for promotions and tie-ins based on DC Comics characters (like the BATMAN BEGINS DVD menu, the SUPERMAN RETURNS/PEPSI webcomic or the SMALLVILLE animated “content wraps”) and creation of marketing materials such as convention graphics, house ads or PREVIEWS. I also oversee DC Online, which includes all of our websites, of course, but also things like the audio/video & podcasts and I’m very involved with DC Comics’ talent search, which we do at conventions. On top of all of that, I run Zuda Comics – DC Comics’ webcomics imprint. It’s kind of never the same day twice.

For those who haven’t heard about Zuda Comics, what it is all about?

Zuda Comics is DC Comics’ webcomic imprint. Basically we’re publishing comics online and then later, once there’s enough material available, collecting them as graphic novels for traditional print distribution. We take open submissions – anyone can send us their ideas and samples – but we select what we’re going to publish in kind of a unique way. On the one hand we have a traditional editorially driven selection process where the Zuda Editors (Kwanza, Nika and I) simply read, review and select what we think would be good for the site. However, in addition to that we have a competition where we put the submissions online and let the users decide. The resulting catalog is a pretty interesting mix of genre and style but I think it’s been very effective so far.

Tell us about the selection process for the Zuda competition. How are competitors selected?

Well, as I mentioned above, anyone can send us anything – and they do. Our first pass is to weed out things that simply don’t meet our editorial standards or contain material that disqualifies the submission in some way; for example, if it contains someone else’s trademarked characters or doesn’t follow the technical specs. After that it’s a lot of reading. We read and review every submission and do our best to judge it on it’s own merit, not in comparison to something else. We’ll try and mix and match the submissions as they go online in order to keep each month diverse. That way it’s not a competition about which robot story is best or which mystery but, ideally, which story. Period.

What are SOME of you favorite Zuda entries that didn’t go on to win?

A comic that I often reference as one of the ones that I thought was really great, that users didn’t select but, fortunately, continued on it’s own outside of ZUDA is Sam & Lilah. I think Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park are really talented and it would have made a great addition to the ZUDA catalog. That month the users picked THE BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS – also a great comic but very, very different in tone, style and just about everything else. You can’t say the users got it “wrong” they just went a different way. The BOMBSHELLS has be great for the site but it’s good to know that in some small way we were able to help Jim & Hyeondo out and that they’re continuing to tell their story. It’s over ACT-I-VATE now.

Currently, Zuda’s catalog contains more than a handful of horror and science-fiction based titles. Why do you feel like these genres have been more prevalent than other genres – like superheroes, romance, or comedy?

That’s a good question. Both horror and science fiction are classic comic book/fantasy genres so I’m sure their popularity on ZUDA corresponds in some way to their popularity in general. I think there might be a bit of a snowball effect as well. Meaning, if you’ve got a few great horror series you’ll begin to gather an audience of fans of horror. Those fans are then the ones selecting the next winners. And so it goes. That’s not a bad thing because you’re appealing to your audience and giving them quality stories they connect with and care about. Our job, as editors, is to make sure that all of the comics get equal attention. We can do that in small ways, by simply creating promotions or ads to get readers interested in other stories, or in large ways by bringing in high quality comics from different genres; for example THE NIGHT OWLS or STREET CODE. It’s really win-win. You expand your audience and you expand your catalog at the same time.

Is there any genre, in particular, you would like to see more of on Zuda?

I’m kind of a military history buff so for me personally I’d love to see a well told military comic. Something straightforward, well researched, fact based and compelling. I have no idea if that would be interesting to anyone else though! Generally speaking fantasy and action are great but I would love to something unexpected.

What is Zuda’s editorial policy? Are you guys really hands-on? Really hands-off? Or, somewhere in the middle?

It’s interesting because Kwanza, Nika and I each have very different interests and styles. Nika is our assistant editor and she’s very nuts-and-bolts. Very detail oriented. Where Kwanza, our editor, is much more big picture focused. The big idea. The essence. I tend to approach things very visually. I look at the character design, the camera angles, the storytelling and the rendering of the art itself. Kwanza comes at it from a writing and story point of view. I think the combination works out really well for us in that we’re able to cover a lot of bases by working as a team. It also lets us adjust to the particular working styles of the different creative teams. I think fostering that kind of flexibility at the editorial level is critical to adapting to the vast diversity of work we’re seeing come through the site.

Starting a new imprint isn’t always easy. As an editorial team, what have been your biggest successes? Was there a particular challenge that seemed difficult at first – but then turned out to be easier than you thought it would be?

I think our biggest success has been launching a successful imprint! I know there’s a lot of focus on the editorial and I think that’s natural but before we could put up a single page of a single story we needed the site itself. Our internal tech team, led by Dave McCullough, partnered with really talented people from IBM and some other contractors to put it all together. We spent months going through the most minute aspects of the site – what technology to use, what kind of hardware we’d need on the back end, navigation flow, information architecture, etc, etc. At the same time we’re working with Legal, with Publication Operations, Accounting, Budgeting, and so on. As a business it was all new. It needed to be flexible enough to grow but still capable of working within an existing structure in order to take advantage of those benefits. It’s was both vast and deep…and it’s ongoing. Making comics, well…that’s the fun part!

What have been some of the specific obstacles or challenges Zuda has faced? And, how have you overcome them?

There are always obstacles even if they’re just small, daily challenges. One of our recent challenges that I think we overcame successfully is making the jump from online to print. We didn’t want to just plop the pages in to a book. We wanted to really preserve the story and mirror the online reading experience as much as we could while still providing the reader with an enjoyable print experience. That’s why we went with the landscape format book, among other decisions. Having worked with us on the HIGH MOON collection you know first hand how much time and effort we collectively put into each and every screen in making sure the color was correct, the text was readable, and so on. It was challenging but in the end it was worth it.

In the recent site wide revision, Zuda added a mature content filter to the site. Does that mean that readers can expect to see adult content on the site soon?

From the beginning our goal with ZUDA was to work with new creators, new styles, new genres. To tell great stories. Because engineering a site like this is a long term process, we wanted to set up the potential for content that touches on potentially sensitive themes in the event we want to do so at some time in the future. At the same time we want to respect our users, giving them control over what they want to read – and what they don’t care to read. In that regard our recent upgrades are a next natural extension of what’s been planned from the beginning.

In the last several months, Zuda has received a fair bit of critical acclaim, first with BAYOU, which recently won five Glyph awards – and now several other strips are nominated for a handful of Harvey Awards – how does that feel?

Is that a real question? It feels great! It’s wonderful to receive recognition and critical acclaim! It’s also wonderful that the different creative teams have such an “all for one, one for all” attitude about the accolades as well. You should know this since you’re a part of that group, but it’s really great to see the support that the creators give each other. It sounds dopey but it really is kind of like a big family and when something good happens – like an award – it’s refreshing to see how all of the other creators rally around that moment.

Of course, with critical acclaim also comes criticism. Critics have often railed against Zuda on everything ranging from the contracts to the use of Flash as a comic app. How do you react to that?

In general my reaction has been to keep calm and try and convey that facts. I’m OK with having a difference of opinion; after all, this is comics – there’s no shortage of opinions. But I’ll admit it’s bothersome when criticism is based on false assumption and misinformation. The only sane way to counter that sort of criticism is by providing accurate, honest information and fact. To that end we try and be very open. We keep information about the competition and our contracts online, we maintain a feedback account on the site for questions and we actively encourage people to seek out others that can help them make decisions that are in their best interest. We try and remain approachable through things like our blog, Facebook, Twitter, at conventions, and so on. I think it’s also important to remember that people critique things because they care. That’s the common bond.

This month, HIGH MOON hits bookstores and comic shops – and in March, THE NIGHT OWLS is scheduled to drop. What is next on the publishing schedule?

Little plug for yourself there, huh? We work out our print publication schedule as the online series’ progress based on the individual artist or creative teams delivery schedules. It’s somewhat flexible, within the obvious limits around the time required to solicit, design, produce, print & ship the book. Given that giant caveat, BAYOU Vol. 2 would follow THE NIGHT OWLS. That should take us through the middle of 2010. We’re looking to do one book per “span.” In the book market a span is four months so there are three spans per year.

Besides the sales of print copies of BAYOU, HIGH MOON, [etc.], are there other plans to eventually monetize Zuda (subscription fees, advertising, merchandise, etc.)?

I look at ZUDA as a long game. It’s an investment in the future. Our primary goal is to work with talented people, tell the kinds of stories that we’re not telling with our other imprints and take advantage of the web as a storytelling medium and delivery method. Using our existing infrastructure to extend that into the print world and beyond, where possible, is a natural fit. We have absolutely no plans to turn ZUDA into a subscription site. I think it’s important that users can get to the comics quickly, jumping through as few hoops as possible. Once they’re there they should have as unobstructed an experience as possible. That’s why “full screen” mode even blocks out the advertisements. Focusing too much on the quick hit or quick sale is a bad idea, in my mind. We shouldn’t put the cart before the horse. It’s critical to remember that people come to the site because of the comics. If the comics are good and if the readers are invested in those stories…well, success will follow.

In addition to your work with DC and Zuda, you use your Twitter account to actively encourage readers to ‘make comics’ – by providing them with resources, tools, and insights to help them hone their craft. What was the genesis of that?

It was a confluence of things, really. Partly because I’m online pretty much all the time. Partly because I do the Talent Search presentations at conventions and the portfolio reviews that follow. Partly because I’ve led a pretty odd life in comics, being exposed to a number of diverse areas of the business. However, the actual moment that I started posting comments and advice was the direct result of a question about webcomics that someone tweeted to CB Cebulski, Marvel’s Talent Scout. CB and I are friends and so he knew what I was doing over at DC with ZUDA. He prompted me to respond to the question and it just took off from there. Generally speaking I think social media gives us a unique opportunity to connect with other creators and fans in ways that were impossible five or ten years ago. Since comics are collaborative by nature, connecting with people just makes sense. If in the course of my career I’ve learned something and I can pass that on to someone else, helping that person become better at whatever it is they’re trying to do…why wouldn’t I do that?

For what it’s worth…

CB Cebulski [on Twitter]
Ron Perazza [on Twitter]

…and the hashtag is #makecomics

Be forewarned, this is my personal Twitter account and not a company account! In addition to comics you’ll get talk about football, food, video games and all sorts of other random nonsense. If you’re interested in just following the company you should follow: Zuda, DC Nation, Vertigo, Wildstorm, and CMX

How did you learn to be an editor? Were there specific editors who mentored you? Or, was this just a result of being in the industry for a while and learning while on the job?

I was lucky enough to start my career in comics as an Assistant Art Director for Marvel Trading Cards and Game Cards. This was in the heyday of trading cards and because of a complete fluke of corporate licensing we had the rights to create both Marvel and DC Comics cards. As a result I got to work with some of the greatest creators in comics, from both of the major publishing companies, old and new. That kind of contact and experience is invaluable. I got to learn about their styles, creative processes, tools, methods, schedules – everything. Having just come out of art school (I have degree in Illustration/Art History) I was like a sponge, soaking up everything I could learn. Another side benefit of trading cards was that I very quickly became steeped in comic fact. Significant issue numbers, specific powers and abilities, character histories, storylines, relationships, etc. That top down, big picture view of things was fantastic for seeing what made sense and what didn’t from a story point of view.

On top of all of that there were two people in specific that had a lot of faith in me and my abilities when I was first entering comics. In retrospect it’s hard to believe they trusted me with as much responsibility as they did but I’m extremely grateful. The first is Bill Jemas. He was the guy that brought me into comics and gave me my first job. I know Bill gets bashed a lot but he’s an incredibly smart guy and was always really good to me. The other is Dan Buckley. Dan was my immediate boss at the time. The great thing about Dan was his sense of teamwork, relying on the strengths of the individual to do what they do best. He also has a tremendous respect for creators and characters and I think that’s extremely important. Since then I’ve worked with a lot of great folk and it would be impossible to list all of them and how they’ve influenced me over the years but I think it’s important to know that good information can come from everywhere, from anyone. You have to remain open enough to harvest it all but decisive enough to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Finally, what parting advice would you give an aspiring creator who was interested in submitting to Zuda?

Don’t be a jerk. Nobody likes that guy. Don’t be a kiss ass. Nobody respects that guy.
Don’t be two-faced. Nobody believes that guy.

Above all else – don’t be all hype and no substance.

Thank you, Ron.

To read, vote, or create with Zuda Comics, head to their website at www.zudacomics.com.