The view from the fourth floor balcony of the F Building, Shikoku Daigaku

I posted a recap of 2007 in an entry published a year ago, and figured I’d make it an annual thing. So here’s my recap of 2008, along with an obligatory New Year’s resolution.

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2008 was a mixed bag.

The positive aspects of the past year were by-and-large me reaping what I sowed in 2007. I procured funds to self-publish Tonoharu: Part One in 2007, and saw the first printing sell out last summer. It’s received coverage in mainstream publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Entertainment Weekly, among others, and all-in-all has been a promising start to my cartooning ambitions.

I also successfully applied for a Monbukagakusho Scholarship in 2007, and beginning in April of 2008 I began a two-year post-grad program at Shikoku University in Japan, studying East-Asian Calligraphy. That experience has been really great so far, and will be the subject of a few blog entries sometime this new year.

Rotten luck was the cause of most of the negative aspects of 2008. The stock market tanked (perhaps you heard), and that, along with me breaking my ankle without health insurance, made the year very costly. I won’t say exactly how much I lost, but in general terms, it was a good year’s worth of living expenses. That would be a big deal for anyone, but since my financial future is particularly shaky (cartooning is hardly a cash cow), it’s all the more important for me to have money to fall back on. So losing a huge chunk like that was a big hit. Thank god I got the before-mentioned scholarship (it includes a living stipend), or I’d be in pretty dire straights right now. [Read more →]

I usually update on Fridays, but figured this week I’d move it up a day for a special Christmas entry.

Above is a hand-drawn, Muppet-themed fried chicken nugget advertisment I spotted at a convenience store near my school a couple weeks ago.

Elmo looks like a pervert

But of course the piece de resistance is the Christmas Tree/Grover Crucifix motif. Nothing says Christmas like a bloody, beaten muppet!
 

Is he wearing underwear? And what’s that thing on his side? Hm…

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Just a quick reminder that Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota, an exhibit at the Minnesota Museum of American Art that includes original art by me and other Minnesota cartoonists, the closes in just TWO WEEKS, on January 4th, 2009.

So if you live in the Twin Cities and haven’t gone yet, now’s the time! More information can be found on the MMAA website.

Progress Bar Key
Scripting/Page Layout: Self-explanatory
Artwork: The Drawing, Inking, and Computer Work for the comic
Final Edits/Incidentals: Post-Production Edits, Designing the Cover, Preparing for Press, etc.

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When I wrote the first progress report for Tonoharu: Part Two back in mid-July, I was a quarter of the way through the artwork. I concluded the entry saying I’d update on my progress again when the artwork was halfway done. I estimated/hoped that that update would come in “three or four months”, which would have been in mid-October/November.

So here we are at the end of December. And instead of being halfway done with the artwork, I’m only a little over a third of the way through it. Sigh.

I started a post-grad research scholarship in April of this year, and that, along with other obligations, have placed more demands on my time than I had originally anticipated. So I haven’t been able to put in as many hours into the comic as I had hoped, hence the slower production. [Read more →]

Pictured: Morikami-sensei, and Yours Truly

I haven’t done a “Media Coverage Roundup” since August, so I figured it was about time for another one.

My graphic novel Tonoharu: Part One has been out for a while now, and the effects of my initial marketing push have died down. So there hasn’t been a massive amount of coverage since last time. But there still were a few notable pieces:

*** As you probably gathered from the scan at the top of this entry, I was recently covered in a Japanese newspaper. Tokushima Shinbun wrote an article about my comics and Japanese Calligraphy research at Shikoku University. This is the first Japanese coverage I’ve ever gotten (that I’m aware of), so it was fun to see. For those who can read Japanese, the article can be read online here, or a virtually incomprehensible Google Translate English translation can be found here.

*** Tonoharu: Part One was reviewed in the October 2008 issue of the venerable Comics Journal (issue #293). The review doesn’t appear to be online, but if you’d like to pay a little over ten bucks to get your hands on it, here’s the amazon.com link. The review is mixed, but overall is fairly positive. Reviewer Bill Randall begins by saying he wants to buy me a beer, which is how all reviews for Tonoharu should begin.

*** Finally, Brandon & Tim (couldn’t find their last names anywhere) chatted about my book on their podcast Deconstructing Comics. This is, to my knowledge, the first (and so far only) non-text coverage I’ve ever received. I’ve grown accustomed to reading complete stranger’s opinions about my work, but listening to complete strangers talk about it was a little weird/unsettling; more visceral, or something.

They had mixed feelings about the book, and conclude by giving it “two thumbs sideways”. Oh well. Click here for the mp3. They start off discussing a different graphic novel (Alex Robinson’s Too Cool to be Forgotten), so they don’t get into Tonoharu until the 14:30 mark. [Read more →]

This mascot makes no sense, unless it’s for a company that either:

• Makes toilet paper for rabbits, or
• Makes toilet paper from rabbits

In any event, good call on the pink bowtie, anonymous Japanese character designer!

Source: A random cardboard box, seen at school

I’m not sure how many current participants / alumni of the JET Program regularly read my site, but if you’re out there…

I was asked by JET alum and all-around nice guy Steven Horowitz to plug his new website JetWit.com, a blog “for the JET alumni freelance and professional community”. It looks pretty good, so if you’re a freelancer / professional JET alum (or a freelancer / pro who’s interested in Japan), check it out:

JetWit.com Homepage

It was my understanding that the legal driving age in Japan was eighteen, but seeing as how the following car is clearly owned by a nine year old girl, now I don’t know what to think.

Car spotted in parking lot at Shikoku University, Japan.

This is the last in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

Part Ten: The Long Haul / Conclusion
The Long Haul (Speculative)
Throughout this series, I’ve reminded readers about my relative lack of experience, and asked them to take my advice with a grain of salt.

If previous entries in this series should be taken with a grain of salt, then this entry should be taken with a brick of it. Up until now I’ve at least offered advice about things I’ve had some experience with (limited though it may be). The subject of this last entry is making a living as a cartoonist over the long haul, and since my book was just published earlier this year, I can’t yet say if cartooning will be a sustainable reality for me. If things work out well, I may someday rewrite this final entry from experience, but for now, bear in mind that the following is mostly speculative.

Alternative Revenue Streams
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, cartooning is a poor career choice. Even making a living wage is the barest sense is often difficult; only a handful of “alternative” cartoonists are able to make a living exclusively through cartooning. For other cartoonists who aren’t as talented/prolific/lucky, money has to be sought from other sources to supplement the lousy pay of cartooning. Here are a few of my thoughts on places to start. [Read more →]

This is the ninth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

Part Nine: Marketing
One final book recommendation
Once you’re starting to think seriously about book marketing, it’s time to get one more book:

1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer

This is the only standalone book on book marketing that I’ve read, so I can’t say how it compares to other books on the subject. But it works as a good companion to The Self-Publishing Manual, and contains just what it says: hundreds and hundreds of ideas for marketing your book. Additionally, there are little tidbits about the book industry scattered throughout, which make this book a fairly good resource for information on that front as well.

On the down side, it’s organized poorly, and the author shamelessly self-promotes himself to the point where it becomes grating. I mean, it’s a book on marketing, so I suppose some of that is to be expected, but Kremer takes it too far. Every other page he plugs some project he is involved with, some of which only had a tenuous link to book marketing. It got on my nerves after a while.

But ultimately the good outweighs the bad, and 1001 Ways to Market Your Book is worth checking out.

Once you’ve skimmed through 1001 Ways to Market Your Book and the marketing section of The Self-Publishing Manual, you’re probably ready to start up your marketing effort. [Read more →]

This is the eighth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

Part Eight: Distribution
If the intended scope of your self-publishing plan is particularly narrow, you could maybe get by without a distributor. You could keep it grassroots, sell your books on consignment at independent booksellers & comic shops in your area, sell them yourself at conventions and through your website, and maybe set up an account with amazon.com to get a few national/international orders.

But if your distribution plan is a little more ambitious than that, it’s best to work with a distributor. You can still do the grassroots stuff, while relying on your distributor to reach markets you otherwise wouldn’t be able to (like chain bookstores across the country, or whatever). Plus having a national distributor makes you seem more legit, making it easier to get media coverage and the like. [Read more →]

This is the seventh in a nine entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

Part Seven: Working with Book Printers
Before I get into this entry, I’d like to reiterate and expand on disclaimer #1 from the first entry of this series. I wrote that those planning a project that differs greatly from Tonoharu in terms of presentation might want to take my advice with a grain of salt.

Tonoharu: Part One is a 128 page hardcover book with two-color interior pages and a four-color dust jacket with metallic ink accents. Because of that fancy nonsense, the only economical way to publish it was to print up a couple thousand copies at once, via offset lithography.

I had a Xeric Grant (hopefully you will too by the time you start taking serious steps to self-publishing), so printing up all those copies in one shot wasn’t a financial risk for me. In fact, if I didn’t use the Xeric money within one year I would have lost it, so there would really be no reason not to print up a bunch at once. [Read more →]

This is the sixth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this page.

Part Six: Preparing for Press
Hiring Help, or Not
As you begin preparations for press, you have to decide if you’re going to go it alone, or if you’re going to hire outside help in the form of graphic designers or pre-press specialists.

Personally, I went it alone. There were some hiccups along the way, but all-in-all I’m glad to have gone through it, and learned a lot of valuable lessons that I can use to improve the appearance of future books while keeping costs in check.

What’s right for you will depend on your background and circumstances. Generally speaking, I would say if you think you’ll only be doing one book, it’d probably be best to hire people to do all the prepress work for you. If you think/hope to be creating comics for the long haul, it would probably pay to bite the bullet and learn how to do it yourself.

[Read more →]

This is the fifth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this page.

Part Five: The Xeric Grant
Introduction/Benefits
If you’re thinking about self-publishing a comic book/graphic novel, you may already familiar with the Xeric Foundation, a non-profit organization that distributes grants to comic book self-publishers. If you’re not, please see this blog entry I wrote a while back, or better yet, visit the Xeric Foundation’s official website.

The Xeric Grant is great for a number of reasons. The most obvious being, it’s free money. You have to use Xeric funds for expenses directly related to the publication, marketing, and distribution of your comic (so you can’t use it to pay your rent or gambling debts), but other that that, it’s pretty much no strings attached. You never have to repay it, and you keep the copyright to your work. [Read more →]

This is the forth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this page.

Part Four: Money Matters
Since I’m so disclaimer-happy, I want to reiterate: cartooning (especially “alternative” cartooning) is a horrible career choice; it is a field where “breaking even” is often considered to be synonymous with “smashing success”. You should only consider cartooning as a career if you are either independently wealthy, or if you feel like you can do nothing else with your life.

I myself am firmly and exclusively in the second camp, and if you are too, then it’s all the more important to put yourself in a good financial place before you self-publish, and to make good choices with what little money happens your way once you start selling books. [Read more →]

I’m putting my How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel series on hold for one week, since the following announcement is time-sensitive.

I just wanted to remind Twin Cities residents that the opening party for the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s fall exhibit Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota is tonight at 8pm! Admission is $10, or $5 for students and MMAA members.

I unfortunately will not be in attendance, since I’m currently on the opposite side of the globe. But I assume that most of the other contributing cartoonists will be there, so anyone interested in the Minnesota comics scene should definitely check it out!

*UPDATE* It’s over now, of course. The MMAA website has some pictures of the event here.

The exhibit actually opened last Sunday, and my parents snapped a few pics of my contribution to it: [Read more →]

This is the third in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

Part Three: Research, Research, Research
If you’ve been drawing comics for a while and are considering self-publishing in the not-so-distant future, it’s probably the right time to sit down and start doing some research. Reading this guide is perhaps a very small step in that direction, but by itself isn’t nearly enough. To really prepare yourself, you’ll need to crack open a few books. [Read more →]

I’m happy to announce that artwork from my two comic books, Tonoharu and Young Men of a Certain Mind, will be displayed at the Minnesota Museum of American Art as a part of their fall exhibit Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota!

The exhibit opens on September 28, with an opening party taking place on October 3rd at 8pm.

This is the first time my work has ever been publicly displayed, so needlessly to say I’m thrilled; the only downside is that since I’m in Japan, I won’t be able to attend the party. But my parents will be representin’, so here’s your chance to meet them! Oh boy!

For more information, check out the MMAA’s website.

*UPDATE* The International Cartoonist Conspiracy website has a page with even more details, including a full list of featured artists. Check that out here.

This is the second in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

[Read more →]

I’m delighted to announce that I have been nominated for a 2008 Ignatz Award in the category of “Promising New Talent”! For those who aren’t familiar with the Ignatz Awards, here’s a description taken from their website:

The Ignatz Awards, named for the character in the classic comic strip Krazy Kat by George Herriman, is a festival prize that recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The ballot is created by a panel of five cartoonists and is then voted on by the attendees [of the Small Press Expo]. This offers a unique reflection of the views the professionals and their fans.

The Ignatz Awards is one of the most prestigious comics awards, so I’m thrilled just to be nominated. Of course I’d be even more thrilled to win, so if you happen to be attending the Small Press Expo next month, please consider voting for me! Thanks!

*UPDATE* I didn’t win. Shucks. But my thanks to those who voted for me, and my congratulations to winner Sarah Glidden!