Collaborations forum?

[K.E. Woolfork]

I have a few questions:

Would this be the proper place to post if I were interested in collaborating with a former CBI contestant?

What is the best way to solicit expected rates and availabilty from the contestants?

Being a self funded hopeful self publisher how should I approach them [artists] to get responses and perhaps schedule eventual collaborations?

Thank you.

Kevin

[Brandon Hanvey]

It would probably be best to contact the person directly via email. Check their member profiles here at CBR. Most of the time there is an email link listed.

[K.E. Woolfork]

I've tried that with a big fat goose egg in the replies department. I was hoping for some magical piece of advice that would help beyond the obvious.


Thanks Brandon,

K.

[K.E. Woolfork]

Are there any idols currently looking for projects?

K.

[Brandon Hanvey]

Not that I know of. Most of the finalist got a lot of offers during the competition. The two winners are working professionally now. Patrick is with Marvel and Carlos is the new artist for Shadowhawk.

[K.E. Woolfork]

Yeah, Seth Damoose appears in Digital Webbing Presents regularly and Larry Chy has a project solicited in March's previews.

Micah Gunnell [SonofDavinci] updated on his site that he's an aspen Comics intern.

I was really interested in Matt Childers at one point, but he seems to have dropped off the planet.

K.

[Brandon Hanvey]

Last I heard, Matthew was working on a a couple of projects with a friend and a project of his own.

http://www.matthewchilders.com

[K.E. Woolfork]

Matt was doing the art for Normal with Jason Latour, but that went the way of the Dodo. I've e-mailed him with no response so I'm guessing his plate is full.

What do you do actually? Since it's only me and you here we might as well get acquainted.

Kevin's the name. Writing's the game as well as hunting for artists, but I'm losing that one.

K.

[Brandon Hanvey]

I'm the mod of the Indie/Small Press forum here at CBR. I'm also a super-mod.

I also self-publish my own comics. Check out the links below.

As for finding talent, have you tried Digital Webbing?
http://www.digitalwebbing.com/

They have talent classified ads and forum where you can find pencillers looking for work.

[Belacaleb]

If you're looking to find collaborators, Digital Webbing is the place to go. I've found almost every one of my collaborators there over the years.

But there are other places to check out as well. Believe it or not I've found my last two artist collaborators at the failr low-traffic Across The Pond Comics boards, including Marco, whose work you can see in this thread (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=47535) and our most recent colorist came form the Image boards.

If you visit my site (http://www.calebmonroe.com) and go to the "Creator Services" page there's a whole bunch of links to places you can look for collaborators. It's a numbers game...I basically e-mail every artist I come across whose work I like and every few months someone bites.

[Belacaleb]

Oh, and I've also found that my site, which I only built a couple months ago, has helped tremendously. I've gotten many more serious replies to my queries to artists since I've been able to direct them to my site to see examples of my work. Plus I think it helps them realize how serious I am.

[K.E. Woolfork]

Thanks Bela,

I've been a member of DW for a while now; as well as Penciljack, LedHeavy, Artxilla and a few others. I've just not had any luck. Every now and again I'll get a bite, but largely they ALL fail to follow through. I haven't had a single collaborator finish a project and I was coming with character descriptions, designs and full scripts. In at least one case I'd even provided thumbnails for the story. Still nothing. When I was told it was probably a slight intimidation factor or devaluing the artist because all that was already done, I pulled back to synopses and character descriptions to better include the artist in the developmental process . . . still reeled in tires and boots so to speak.

Looks like you got a good one with Marco. Congrats.

K.

Why does your name seem familiar?

[K.E. Woolfork]

That's a damn nice site you have there too Bela. I wanted to get at least one book under my belt before posting a site. I'd just like to have an example of the service before advertising that it's available. Visibilit IS important though.

That's an extensive and useful links page you have there. I see myself referencing it a lot in the near future.

K.

When's that project with Ryan Sergeant going to be wrapped up? I saw the preview art for that sometime like last year right?

[Belacaleb]

Hmmm...my name may seem familiar because I hit the boards a lot. Or from when you saw Sarge's "Smoker" stuff. All the art is done for that proposal, but my personal life has kinda gotten in the way (getting married next month). But it should be in the mail to prospective publishers before the wedding. The first issue and a half is already written. Plus, I'm scaling it back from an origianal arc of 6 issues to 4. I think it will increase the chances of it getting picked up, and I realized I had a bunch of unecessary stuff in there anyway.

Something that I find works for me:

At any given time I have about 30 comic ideas. Short stories, mini-series, ongoing series, etc. When I approach an artist and get a positive response, what I will often do then is write them back and "pitch" 3-5 of the story concepts based on length and what I think will work well with their art. Then I let them choose what project they can artistically "feel" or which one sounds the most fun to them. I find they always do better work when it's a project they get excited about...and everyone gets excited about different things.

Another approach is to send script in to people that take them without an artist attached. (i.e. Across the Pond, MAINPublishing, Event Horizon, 2000 AD, Ronin Studios, etc. - all linked to at my site) Once the script is accepted, it either leaves you in the strong position to guarantee potential artists publication, or the publisher will match you with someone. I've begun many fruitful collaborations this way.

What length of projects are you trying to find collaborators for? I think it's easier for artists to commit their time to something short (8 pages or less) at first. It's a good way to develop a working relationship with someone without trying to launch a series. Start small.

Are you offering page rates or looking to find collaborators for free?

[Typo Lad]

Yeah, Seth Damoose appears in Digital Webbing Presents regularly and Larry Chy has a project solicited in March's previews.

Micah Gunnell [SonofDavinci] updated on his site that he's an aspen Comics intern.

I was really interested in Matt Childers at one point, but he seems to have dropped off the planet.

K.

Matt's in seculsion working on an Image pitch with myself. Sorry about that.

And when he's done I've got him for two more.