New Column on Comic Publishing: Mike Luoma's "Making It Up!"

[Brother Zag]

Making It Up! By Mike Luoma

New Column on Comic Book Publishing!

Get insights into the creation of a comic book from the ground up… peek over the shoulder of Writer and Artist Mike Luoma as he puts together his Four-Issue Mini-Series “Panthea Obscura: Deifornication”.

“I’m just figuring all this out,” Luoma admits. “I am, indeed, ‘making it up’ as I go along! I hope that what I’m learning can help other would-be creators, or maybe give readers some idea of everything that goes into the creation of a comic book.”

The third installment is up now at http://cosmicbooknews.com:

http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/mlmakingup3

Catch up on the first two columns:

http://cosmicbooknews.com/mlmakingup
http://cosmicbooknews.com/mlmakingup2

[stingerman]

Great articles, Mike!

So, regarding shopping around your comics and books and getting turned down, was this more motivating or did you feel sort of slighted?

How has your experience been putting it out digitally, as opposed to print (so far)?

[Brother Zag]

Great articles, Mike!

So, regarding shopping around your comics and books and getting turned down, was this more motivating or did you feel sort of slighted?

Putting out the comics has been a very motivating experience, as comic fandom is very supportive. The idea is to hopefully learn from rejection :evilangry: and I'll be writing more about that next time.


How has your experience been putting it out digitally, as opposed to print (so far)?

I've made the book available in both print & digital versions, Stingerman, but it seems the digital versions have gotten a lot more readers (the digital versions are free...). I find the print versions sell locally, where I have a presence in the local comic book stores. My first printings of the first three issues were originally done through Lulu.com, which gave me high quality printing, card stock covers and heavy, glossy pages... and a prohibitive cover price. I'm now selling through IndyPlanet.com at a more reasonable $2.99 cover price, but I haven't really pushed those printings too hard yet, as I'm gearing up for issue four and want to make a big push when that releases. I was able to offer the first two books as FREE pdf downloads through Lulu, however, and to date I've seen over 900 downloads. I also have the comic up over at Drunk Duck (http://www.drunkduck.com/Panthea_Obscura/) where the first three issues have seen over 58,000 page views.

[Brother Zag]

Just got new pages for Panthea Obscura #4... can't wait to start showing this book off!

[stingerman]

Cool! Part 5 is up!

http://cosmicbooknews.com/articles/mlmakingup5

[Brother Zag]

I'm working on part six right now!

Just put up another new page of Panthea Obscura today:

http://www.drunkduck.com/Panthea_Obscura/

Page Four of Issue Four is up today!

[Brother Zag]

My column about the process of creating my books continues over at the comic book site "Cosmic Book News". Just got the sixth installment up! Get behind-the-scenes and see how pages go from script to completion, stuff like that:

http://cosmicbooknews.com/articles/mlmakingup6

You can read my comic book Panthea Obscura for free. New pages go up every Wednesday and Saturday:

http://www.drunkduck.com/Panthea_Obscura/

Mike