The Rising Stars of Manga

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I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain more? -companies don't take submissions through the mail? ...most companies don't take submissions at all without some legalize and other stipulations.

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I mean they have a process you can go through to submit a comic idea to them through the mail, and I remember hearing from other companies that said they don't do that anymore. It's just easier to deal with than having to hit up a con or something.I know of someone that did it and she's supposedly working out a deal with them right now, and -at least artistically- you seem to be more capable than she is. If you're serious, I would go for that besides just entering the contest. http://www.tokyopop.com/aboutus/submissions.php

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Originally Posted by FuryFox

I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain more? -companies don't take submissions through the mail? ...most companies don't take submissions at all without some legalize and other stipulations.

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Most comic companies, Tokyopop and Image included, will allow you to mail them a treatment for a comic...an outline, some art samples, etc. If they like it they might meet to discuss the project further.

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I'm not exactly in Rezo's boat, as I don't live at home, have student loans to pay, and plenty of debt. I actually need to win for the money, as well as the opportunity, to make this worth my while. It would have been nice to find out sooner and work it into a normal work schedule...but then again, I really don't want another normal job either...

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Dude, you can't count on this to make money...it's not a business venture. They get at least over 1000 entries each contest, after all. Besides, only the top 3 winners get any real amount of money (grand prize is $2500)...the other 7 just get $500.

If you ARE lucky enough to get a book deal out of it, this is what Tokyopop expects: A story that will take up 3 150 page books. That's the book deal they give. As for how much they will pay you for that, I have no idea.

Needless to say, based on what I've seen of your work, you're a very talented artist, but you can't rely on winning this. Many times people don't place how they should...an example would be the winner of vol. 2, whose submission had no business winning at all. Vol. 3's winner, however, totally deserved it. That story fucking rocked.

As for your writing ability, I have no idea, but that will be a factor. When meeting with the editors, the main complaint they said they had with the submissions they were getting was that almost always, the art was great, but the writing was bad. Hell, read any RSOM entry and you'll see that. That's why they said my submission stood out to them, and why they wanted to meet with me. I had the exact opposite problem...they loved my story, but had problems with my art, which was crap because I rushed it. I wrote, penciled, inked and lettered it in just over a month WHILE working full time. It was hell. But they told me if my art was as good as my writing, I probably would have won! Man, I wish I had waited to submit my story for ROSM 4 instead of 3 so the art wasn't rushed. :cry: :cry: However, I think my story for my RSOM 5 entry is even better, so hopefully my art, with the extra time I have, will measure up this time.

So, remember, kiddies...it's not just about pretty art work. It's the ability to tell a compelling story as well.

BTW, here's a link to a RSOM message board...comes in handy. Check it, but mind your manners...unlike TNL, they're a little thin-skinned there:

http://www.pseudome.net/phpBB2/viewf...e33343fdd69579

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

Dude, you can't count on this to make money...it's not a business venture. http://www.pseudome.net/phpBB2/viewf...e33343fdd69579

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I know. I knew how the cash rewards worked out, and how many people enter each time, and I've looked over all the entries from every volume. My goal was to simply produce something that would blow away every possible entry, on every level (story, layout, technical skills, artwork, originality), no question. Based on what I've seen from previous volumes, I feel it does...but everything is subjective of course. I'm not trying to toot my own horn and be an ass or anything either, but I think it's better than most professional stuff on the shelf right now, too. I mean, that expensive college degree better be paying for something. :sweat:

It's not that I'm counting on the money, per se, but that's the mindset I had going in. Being published at all is a huge thing, but getting a book deal is the real goal.

I'll check out those boards though.

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I'm not trying to toot my own horn and be an ass or anything either, but I think it's better than most professional stuff on the shelf right now, too. I mean, that expensive college degree better be paying for something. I'm not trying to toot my own horn and be an ass or anything either

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Yeah, it's the rule of competition. Basically, whenever there's a tournament of any kind, no matter how many people enter, there are just a few that actually have a chance at anything, and those people are the ones that will compete with each other. Everyone else is just fodder to be picked off along the way. I don't think there's anything wrong with assuming that you're in that upper tier. Really, I don't think there's a point to bothering to make anything at all unless they feel they can put themselves in that position.

Since I have reservations about my comic I don't expect to get anything from this. =\ On the other hand, if things had worked out a little differently I probably would have sent the comic off feeling certain that it would at least place, and unless you're arrogant to the point of stupidity, I don't think there's anything wrong with that sort of "this is a winner" mentality.


grumble grumble

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Originally Posted by rezo

Since I have reservations about my comic I don't expect to get anything from this. =\

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Oh, at the very least you'll get a handy dandy certificate with your name on it thanking you for your submission, like I did. :D

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Originally Posted by FuryFox

I'm not trying to toot my own horn and be an ass or anything either, but I think it's better than most professional stuff on the shelf right now, too.

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Nothing wrong with having some confidence. I hope you win. Good luck, dude.

Hey Dole, are you using the same story as the last time and just redoing the artwork? Also, what are the rules for doing this? What are the limitations and so forth. Because if you're not using the same story I'd like to read what you have done.

Also, if you guys are scanning your work or reproducing it the best way to do it is to set the resolution at 300 dpi. When you're scanning the product make sure you aren't getting mezzo patterns. If you've drawn on simple layout paper or blank paper you shouldn't have a problem. For printing you'd be better off using Illustrator or Quark Xpress.

Photoshop is not a printing utility, it's for manipulation. In Illustrator you can set your print area and see exactly where you'll be printing. I recommend Illustrator over Quark Xpress because Quark is VERY detailed and you could probably get lost if you don't know what you're doing. Illustrator is pretty simple.

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Originally Posted by Andrew

Hey Dole, are you using the same story as the last time and just redoing the artwork? Also, what are the rules for doing this? What are the limitations and so forth. Because if you're not using the same story I'd like to read what you have done.

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Brandon from Tokyopop told me that you can't re-draw and submit the same story, it's against the rules, sadly. He encouraged me to re-draw it in my spare time anyway, just for the hell of it, since he loved the story.

As for letting you check it out, hit me up on PM, maybe I can email a copy your way. Thanks for the interest.

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Also, if you guys are scanning your work or reproducing it the best way to do it is to set the resolution at 300 dpi.

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Actually, according to Tokyopop's submission guidelines, you HAVE to scan your work at 300 dpi (if you're doing some digital work on your story and then plan on printing it out), so you're right on this.

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Photoshop is not a printing utility, it's for manipulation. In Illustrator you can set your print area and see exactly where you'll be printing. I recommend Illustrator over Quark Xpress because Quark is VERY detailed and you could probably get lost if you don't know what you're doing. Illustrator is pretty simple.

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I agree, Quark is basically for putting documents together from scratch, not for touching up and printing whole pages of scanned artwork. I have run into minor problems printing things out from Photoshop, also. I usually just save the image as a .jpg and open it up by itself and print it out that way. Illustrator's print preferences are fine, however.

On my current submission I'm still doing everything (aside from lettering) by hand, though if I have time (and I should have plenty), I might add some extra shading and details via Photoshop. Just minor things, however, I'm all about the purity of my art and doing it all by hand.

As for the fonts I'm using the same as last time (Anime Ace from Blambot). The way I'm doing them is different, however. Last time I printed the text, cut it out and pasted it onto the originals. When I made the color copies at Kinko's the edges of the pasted test were invisible. It worked well, but it was annoying and a lot of work. I had little choice, however, as I didn't have access to a printer that was good enough to print out my copies at an acceptable level. That's changed, however, as we just got in a new top of the line laser printer at work recently. This time I can scan in the pages and do all the text in Photoshop, then just print them out. Thus, I have even more time for the art. :)

Here was my process:
1)conceptualize characters and script
2)write story (like a screenplay)
3)mockup each page on a scaled template, planning out the space of word balloons and that sort of stuff
4a)make a page template (for safety, trim, and bleed), since each page was done at 2x scale on 14"x17" bristol board
4)draw final pages, roughing with non-photo blue, and finalizing art with a mechanical pencil
5)ink all the pages
6)scan all pages at 600 dpi, re-assemble them in Photoshop (since I have a normal-sized scanner)
7)vectorize the inks, re-import into photoshop
8)paint all pages
9)import into a page template in Illustrator, drop in the balloons and lettering.
10)print out a 600 dpi
11)photocopy onto maximum brightness paper
12)paperwork, fedex, blah blah blah

I would have used Anime Ace (or some similar manga-esque font), but they're copyrighted, and can't be used in commercial publications (a la RSOM). I didn't feel like buying a manga font ($69-99), so I just Copperplate Gothic Light, which went with my fantasy medival setting. In a long term project though, I'd buy a license for a manga font.

I recommend using .tiff or .eps (if you're using illustrator). Use illustrator for your bubbles, avoid using Photoshop for typography of any sort.

Quark is a layout program. It's meant to handle huge bodies of type (magazines)

*sigh*...I'm depressed. I wish I had something ready to submit for this one...oh, well, I'll just concentrate on doing my best for RSOM 5.