U9 Lesson 3 & 4

Lesson 3 & 4

Publishers and Companies

• Many different publishers in the comic industry 
• Two of the most popular, taking up almost 80/90% of the market are:

DC Comics (Owned by Warner Bros) and Marvel (Owned by The Walt Disney Company) are often referred to as ‘The Big Two’

• Others include Manga Entertainment, 2000 AD, Fleet-way Press, Image Comics, Dark Horse
• Smaller publishers have started to build a big presence in the comic book world and are growing - pushing the boundaries of comic book content and creator owned content (e.g. Image comics and ‘The Walking Dead’

DC Comics - Superman

Marvel - Spiderman

Manga Entertainment - Akira

2000 AD - 2000 AD

Fleetway Press - 2000 AD

Image Comics - Savage Dragon

Darkhorse - Cloaked 

Independent & Self Publisher

• Independent Publishers - Almost all are creator owned (the creator keeps the rights to the characters and stories they create), and some of the topics may contain mature content:

Fantagraphics

Kitchen Skin Press

Top Shelf

• Self Publishers - Generally run by the people who make comic books. They handle most if not all of the duties of making the comics, from writing, and art to publishing and press. The quality can vary drastically from publisher to publisher and the dan base is usually local. Due to the internet, however, many of these self publishes have been able to market their comics to many others. Some have even found some success with self-publishing such as American Splendor (now with DC)

Halloween Man

Altered Fates

Coffeegirl productions 

Target Audience

• Who is going to be interested and why?
• Is there a backstory? Why do characters have different personalities?
• What’s the development?

Design

• Panelling, text, story line, structure, visual narrative, iconography, use of formal elements (e.g. line, tone, colour), speech, thought bubbles and box placements, symbols and sound effects 

Meaning - Consider how meaning is created through:

• Content and style (e.g. colour, language, text, images, props, costumes)
• Connotations 
• Techniques (e.g. cropping, sizing, use of captions, choice of fonts, angle of the drawn action and characters)