The History of Champion City Comics - Part IV - The End of Paradise

The color cover for The End of Paradise

The End of Paradise was a project I developed when The Champion City Fire came to a complete halt during the end of 2009. Joe Haemmerle, the artist for The Champion City Fire, was in college and didn't have time to work on the webcomic. I put that series on hold and decided to start another story which became The End of Paradise.

This was my first attempt at recruiting a total stranger to be my artist. I spent some time during the beginning of 2010 looking for an artist and discovered two talented artists, Kav and Victor Pozzi. I couldn't say yes to one and let the other one get away, so I created a project for each artist. Both are my friends to this very day, which is something truly wonderful and amazing. Their work for Champion City Comics has been wonderful and their work has truly progressed over the years.

Kav was the artist and letterer for The End of Paradise, a crime noir revenge tale. I discovered him via Digital Webbing and was impressed with his work. Kav's artwork featured some crime themed projects, plus he was a fan of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal. How could it go wrong?

Before we move along any further, here's the synopsis of The End of Paradise: Nick Hamilton, a former small-time criminal, is on a serious revenge mission to kill Frankie Paradise, a notorious mob boss responsible for the death of an innocent man and his family. Joining Nick on his mission is Marshall Jackson, a weapons dealer, and The Kid, a teenage prophet and gun for hire. Nick, Marshall, and The Kid must take out Paradise's henchmen in order to get to their main target, Frankie Paradise.

It should have been a 50 to 75 page graphic novel, but it ended up becoming a 138 page monster of a story that was not even close to ending despite Kav's best efforts to have me "wrap it up, dude". Kav and I agreed to put a hold on the story nearly one year after stating our epic adventure to work on another project, which I'll write about in a later post. We never went back to the story to finish it, but we thought about starting over from the beginning with a new title, new script, colored pages, and digital lettering.

The End of Paradise is a very good story, and I admit as a writer there are some flaws with the script which are totally my fault. Kav did an amazing job with the art and lettering, and we did everything in our power to promote the hell out of this story. We even offered it to publishers and sadly we never received any responses. C'est la vie.

The End of Paradise was a story that I made up as I went along without any true plans for an ending. Yes, there was a rough outline and I pretty much ignored it because I had new ideas for the story popping up in my head on a daily basis. I'd write 8 to 10 pages, send them to Kav, and then he'd send me the finished pages asking for more. I'd write another 8 to 10 pages and the cycle went on for roughly 138 pages. By that point, Kav was ready to wrap it up or try another project as a change of pace.

Kav was - and still is - great at offering script advice. Working with him made me a better writer and he provided me with some tips that I still use today when developing a story.

If you're interested, then check out the epic crime tale that is The End of Paradise. You'll like it because it's awesome.


Tony Wright is the owner of Champion City Comics. Follow him on Twitter @TonyDougWright.

THE END OF PARADISE - PAGES 1 to 138 (ADULT LANGUAGE & VIOLENCE) by Tony Wright

The History of Champion City Comics - Part III - The Champion City Fire

The cover for our first issue

The Champion City Fire was the first webcomic/comic book project for Champion City Comics. It was initially pitched to comic book publishers as the first of a six issue comic book run, but a lack of interest led us to the world of webcomics.

My interest in writing comic books started sometime in 2004 when I was reviewing comic books for Silver Bullet Comics (RIP) and Erasing Clouds. My reviews mainly focused on small independent companies and self-publishers. Some of the titles were amazing while others were so bad that I should have scanned them, created a PDF, titled the thing 'How Not To Write Comics', and uploaded it to Scribd for the world to read.

If you followed the Erasing Clouds link then you saw the title of my column was Champion City Comics. I was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio, which was once referred to as "The Champion City" because it was the producer of the Champion Farm Equipment brand. Also, it works well for a comic book review article and it's even better for a comic book and webcomics community.

A few story ideas floated around in my head, but I decided to do something that blended noir with vigilante tales. I was reading a bunch of Batman graphic novels at the time and was watching films like Blast of Silence, The Killers (1946), and Le Cercle Rogue. The Champion City Fire was a title that I wrote down in a notebook and it stuck with me for months. There was a story with that title and it took many synopsis revisions before I came up with a story that was good in my opinion.

I came up with a rough guide to a six issue comic book series c.2004 and a few months later I had developed a rough draft of issue #1 of The Champion City Fire. It wasn't easy, but I developed a twenty-five page script and eventually sent it to a colleague for review. Their critique of my script was blunt but diplomatic. It takes a special person to tell you that your story sucks. I re-wrote the script and my colleague found the changes to be an improvement. Then I was hit with a moment of inspiration, re-wrote the script again and sent it off for review. My colleague was impressed, and that mini boot camp of script writing was tough but necessary in my writing evolution.

Finding an artist was not difficult because my cousin, Joe Haemmerle, was a talented artist that graciously accepted my offer of collaborating on a comic book project. Joe must like me because he's still around some six years later. Also, he's still a very talented artist.

Let's talk about the story. The Champion City Fire is set in the mythological city of New Ravenwood, Ohio. Two time traveling vigilantes arrived twelve years ago and murdered ten of the most notorious criminals in the city. Detective Johnny Magnum was assigned to investigate the murders and discovered that all ten victims were in the proverbial doghouse of New Ravenwood's crime lord, Alex Empire. Magnum's top witness was an insane former used car salesman, but everything went cold and the cases were left unsolved. Fast forward twelve years and the time travelers have returned and are back to taking out New Ravenwood's infamous criminals. This is Magnum's last chance to solve the crime and figure out who was behind the murders.

I've re-written that previous paragraph plenty of times and have realized that my "hook" for grabbing readers might not have been solid as I wanted. At the time it was viewed by me as a golden script. No, it was a golden script plus it was in the running for an Eisner Award. I'm amazed that I didn't dust off some shelf space for the award I was sure to win.

I sort of cringe at character names like Johnny Magnum and Alex Empire, but I'm proud of the script. My earliest scripts didn't contain the hard-boiled inspired captions and dialogue. Those early scripts featured some seriously bland captions, plus a few captions were basically these horrible text bombs.

The artwork was also a work in progress. Joe and I knew that color comics were appealing to editors and readers, so we went with a style that looked incredible when we started the project. Below is the proposed first page of The Champion City Fire. Not only does it have the original artwork concept, but it features the early draft of the script which was heavily revised. This is what happens when you have a script that's not critiqued.

Not only did I revise the script, but Joe decided to give the story a new and improved design. The page below is the result of our changes. This is also page one of the story and you can see the differences.

The artwork by Joe Haemmerle is excellent and I love his minimalist use of colors. Joe's style is a great asset for Champion City Comics and I'm always excited to see what he brings to the table when we collaborate on a project.

Something I learned while researching writing a script is that you have the basic story people see on the surface but there is something else to your story that some readers may or may not recognize. The Champion City Fire is not just a story of time travelers and cold cases but it's also about how vigilante justice is basically an act of sheer folly. We're not talking a revenge tale, but the act of reactionaries serving as judge, jury, and executioner. It goes back to reading Batman graphic novels. Batman is one of my favorite characters and he's a vigilante. The inconvenient truth is that he's never solved the cycle of violence that plagues Gotham. Batman fueled the criminal fire and never put it out. The argument goes deeper than this statement and I'm sure an entire novel can be dedicated to vigilantes in comics.

I've embedded the story below for you to read and hope you enjoy the first twelve pages of The Champion City Fire. Yes, we only completed twelve of the twenty-five pages. It was always our intention to finish it, but we never got around to it, which is typical of some Champion City projects. I don't want that last statement to be taken the wrong way because I'm very pleased with our work. Some of our stories are completed, others are a work in progress, and some are in a state of development hell.

Just read The Champion City Fire. Thanks.


Tony Wright is the onwer of Champion City Comics. Follow him on Twitter @TonyDougWright.  

THE CHAMPION CITY FIRE (Pages 1 to 12) (Adult Language & Violence) by Tony Wright

The History of Champion City Comics - Part II - Discovering Webcomicland

The original Champion City Comics logo designed by yours truly c.2009 using MS Paint. You're welcome, Internet. 

October 2015 marks the six year anniversary of Champion City Comics. I've decided to write some rambling pieces about our history, which I hope you find to be somewhat informative and not too terribly boring.

My thought process for starting a webcomics page six years ago was something along the lines of "If you build it, they will come". Yes, I was pretty clueless when it came to the concept of webcomics, website development, site promoting, search engine optimization, and everything else affiliated with the undertaking. It would have been helpful if the 2009 version of me realized that putting something online does not mean it will easily be discovered by the billions of people surfing the web.

Researching webcomics at the time was very interesting because some comic creators were predicting the impending death of printed comics. Some are still awaiting that death. Webcomics were supposed to be the next phase of publication due to the rise in use of tablets and smartphones. Why pay for one overpriced comic when you could have access to an unlimited digital library for free or at the same cost? Also, webcomics did not impose a financial burden on creators, plus there was a great deal of freedom in the creative process.

Before I started Champion City Comics, I thought about printing my own comic books or graphic novels. There were a few eye-opening articles I read that put into perspective for me the hefty price tag for printing and distributing my own comics. A few thousand dollars was something I could not afford, so that's how I made my way to the digital wonderland that is webcomics. Remember, this was the pre-Kickstarter era of comics.

There were sites out there like Drunk Duck that hosted webcomics. What's nice about them is that you upload your webcomic pages, type in some information, and it's available for viewing. I decided against that at first because it would be a good idea to have a site solely dedicated to my work instead of being lost in a crowd of webcomic creators. Just because your webcomic is on a site like Drunk Duck doesn't mean it will have a hundred or a thousand instant hits. Those sites do have a history of becoming "good ol' boy networks" where you need to scratch some backs in order to get some views or get buried. Also, I had a few experiences with Drunk Duck where I could not find my posted comics. I'll write more on that later, ladies and gentlemen.

Politics and cliques didn't tickle my fancy, so that's how I ended up on Blogger. I knew some people that started blogs using Blogger, so that was my choice for hosting Champion City Comics. The financial cost of starting this site on Blogger in 2009 was ten dollars and that included the registration of our domain name. Setting my account to automatically renew on a yearly basis was simple. Although the cost was minimal, the platform I chose was not user friendly for webcomics.

A few quick searches provided me with some helpful tutorials for improving the appearance of my site. I immediately discovered that Blogger didn't really seem to be the ideal spot for my webcomics. Sites like Drunk Duck allow you to navigate easily from page to page of a webcomic, while Blogger doesn't have anything like that for webcomic creators. Blogger still doesn't have anything like that, which I find somewhat frustrating because catering to webcomic creators worked for hosting sites like WordPress.

I knew there had to be a way to have a successful Blogger page featuring webcomics. It took me some time to get it right, but the discovery of the embedded PDF seemed to be a lovely fit for Champion City Comics. Scribd and Issuu were two sites I discovered while doing some PDF research. If I had a twenty-two or twenty-four page comic, I could convert those pages into a PDF which would be converted at Scribd or Issuu as a digital file I could embed on my site. Take a look at Dr. Death vs The Vampire which was embedded using Scribd and The Champion City Fire which was embedded using Issuu. This would be a good time to mention that those comics have some spicy language and some violence which might not be your cup of tea.

The site was created and the comics were embedded as PDFs for easy viewing. It seemed to me that Champion City Comics was on the right path to success, but that was not the case. Not long after our launch, I discovered an article by Sean Kleefeld, a comic book expert and industry researcher, where he showed how the embedded PDF was not the best fit for creators. His 'Exhibit A' for the article was none other than Champion City Comics. Ah, fame.

I have more to write about webcomics and I'll put another article together for tomorrow. Maybe. I hope.


Tony Wright is the owner of Champion City Comics. Follow him on Twitter @TonyDougWright. 

CURSING IN WEBCOMICS

I was reading a thread on a webcomics discussion board about cursing in webcomics. Someone asked if they should have the actual curse words or replace them with characters like $@&%!. I do not have a problem with cursing in webcomics, and my advice to creators is to have some sort of heads up to readers that their webcomic does have adult language. It's just a nice courtesy because not all readers want to view a webcomic with profanity.

Another problem I see with some webcomics and comic books as well is that there seems to be a lack of finesse in how some writers use cursing in their work. I recall a line from A Christmas Story where the Ralphie as an adult narrator, Jean Shepherd said: "My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master." I've read scripts, webcomics, and comic books that have cursing just to shock the reader. When you use something unnecessary as shock value, then your work suffers.

As an example of finesse in cursing I've embedded the NSFW video clip of Alec Baldwin's speech from the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. This speech is filled with profanity, but this is a Picasso of profanity. This works because it adds to the intensity of the sales meeting led by Baldwin. He's trying to get these guys in gear and get some properties sold. You might think he's being a bully, but he is actually getting the salesmen to do their best.


Cursing is up to the creator, but my advice is to do it right and use it because it works for the character. Readers know when writers use profanity and violence for shock value. Do something for shock value and readers will not bother reading any further because they see your work as juvenile. 

COMIC BOOK AND WEBCOMIC WRITING TIPS: THE SUDDENLY APPEARING GIANTS

Aaron Schutz is a professor and a writer that created the Doctor Death charcater. He has provided me with plenty of great writing tips, and one of my favorites is his pet peeve regarding "The Suddnely Appearing Giants". This is Schutz's explanation:

In a well known fantasy series, giants appear half-way through the third book. And it turns out that all the characters in the books knew about giants, while the reader had never heard of them (obviously because the author invented them only half-way through book three). Don’t do this. This kind of clumsy world-building can shatter the illusion that the world the characters are in has any solidity of its own. If you want to add something later, figure out a way to weave it in earlier, or don’t add it.

This is something that I remind myself of when I'm developing a synopsis for a story. If there is going to be an encounter down the road with a radiocative gorilla then make sure you at least hint to the fact that there might be a radioactive gorilla. Yes, I'm still writing about radioactive gorillas.


TonyDoug Wright is the author of two webcomics titled The Red Devil and Day 165. Do him a kindness and check them out.

ALL CHARACTERS MUST MOVE THE PLOT

When you are working on your comic book or webcomic script, make sure that all of the characters you develop serve a purpose for the story. Your characters must move the plot forward and keep the story on track. I've read one too many comic books and webcomics that feature characters that serve no purpose whatsoever in the story. If you want a radioactive gorilla in your story then find a very good reason to have it in your story. It sounds cool, but I want to believe that it is necessary to have a radioactive gorilla.

Let's take a look at pages one and two from Dr. Death vs The Zombie below:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Our main character, Dr. Death, is in a convenience store trying to buy some beer, but they are out of his brand. This was not the first time they were out of his beer, so he decides to go to the counter and complain. This will not be an easy task because there is an unhappy customer at the counter yelling at the clerk because her credit card was declined. While Dr. Death is in line, his powers pick up the adrenaline rush of a bad guy that has just entered the store.

If the beer was in stock and the counter was not occupied by a bitchy customer then Dr. Death may have missed his chance at encountering the bad guy. Dr. Death is my main character, but the others moved the plot forward for the reader. As a writer, it doesn't hurt to think about having these characters appear again in the story as long as it moves the plot forward. Maybe I want the bitchy lady to show up once more and have Dr. Death think, "Oh no! Not this lady again." I know some of you are thinking I should have her eaten by the radioactive gorilla. It wouldn't work, but now you've inspired me to write Dr. Death vs The Radioactive Gorilla. 


TonyDoug Wright is the owner and editor of Champion City Comics. Read his webcomics The Red Devil and Day 165 because they're awesome. 

GREETINGS FROM WEBCOMICS LAND: HATERS GONNA HATE

Somebody will hate your webcomic. They'll hate the title. They'll hate your artwork. They'll hate your writing. They'll hate the colors you use. They'll hate the fact that it is in black and white and not color. They'll hate the type of digital lettering used in your panels. They'll hate the lettering you did by hand. They'll hate it because you have to scroll down on the web page to read the webcomic. They'll hate it because you have your webcomic at a site that hosts webcomics. They'll hate it because it is Manga. They'll hate it because it is not Manga. They'll hate it because it features zombies. They'll hate it because it features vampires. They'll hate it because it does not have zombies OR vampires. They'll hate it because you make Dungeons & Dragons references. They'll hate it because you made fun of Dungeons & Dragons.

Haters gonna hate and the haters are everywhere. When someone decides to dump a bunch of hate on your webcomic then just ignore them because hating is toxic. There is a difference between constructive criticism and bringing someone down to feel superior.

As a webcomics creator, I have done my best to not be a hater. There are times when I see a webcomic that does not appeal to me and I'll pull out my Haters Club card because their webcomic had five thousand page views in one day while my webcomic had five page views. "How the hell did they do that?", I'll think to myself. Instead of hating on the webcomic, I've learned to see what they did to get the five thousand page views.

Do they have their own site dedicated to their webcomic? Do they have their webcomic hosted at a variety of sites? Do they advertise at other sites? How do they use social media to grab new readers?  Do they attend conventions? Do they have a podcast? Did they sell their soul to the devil?

Stop hating on other people's webcomics and see what they are doing right as creators.  



Tony Wright is the owner and editor of Champion City Comics. Check out his webcomics Day 165 and The Red Devil at Tapastic. 

THE TAPASTIC EXPERIMENT

I'm back! Did you miss me? I hope all is well with you and your webcomic project(s).

I made an executive decision back in May to move some of our webcomics from Champion City Comics to Tapastic, a site that hosts webcomics. In the past we had posted some of our webcomics to DrunkDuck, another site that hosts webcomics, and DrunkDuck gave us more exposure than our Champion City Comics page, which was nice but also somewhat frustrating.

It was my goal from day one to get people to stop by Champion City Comics to read our webcomics. All of our titles are posted as embedded PDF files, and that has been the number one complaint from some readers. They did not like scrolling down an embedded PDF to read a webcomic, but I have provided tips on how to read our titles in a comic book format, which is better than scrolling. Somehow those tips were overlooked by the complainers. Zoinks!

Why did we move to Tapastic? We had success at DrunkDuck, but I wanted to try Tapastic because it was the new hotness in webcomics hosting. Also, I forgot my password at DrunkDuck and when I hit the FORGOT PASSWORD link at their site the page turns into a mess of HTML code. I clicked the link to email DrunkDuck directly and I have been waiting for MONTHS for DrunkDuck to respond to my emails for assistance. Thanks.

The first comic I posted at Tapastic was The Red Devil, which was our most popular title at DrunkDuck. The Red Devil has been at Tapastic since May 8th and has earned roughly 1,230 pageviews. We are gaining a following and our fans should be pleased to know that we are developing two more stories for The Red Devil.

Tapastic like DrunkDuck is very friendly to webcomic producers. Tapastic did reach out to me to join their Facebook page for webcomics creators, which has been a great experience. Tapastic like DrunkDuck has a great layout for webcomics, so they are easy to navigate. Take that, embedded PDF haters!

My Tapastic experience has been going well and am in the process of adding three more webcomics to the site. If you are a webcomics creator looking for a site to host your work then look no further than Tapastic.


TonyDoug Wright is the owner and head writer at Champion City Comics.  

SO YOU WANT TO BE A WEBCOMICS STAR: A FEW TIPS ON DEVELOPING YOUR OWN WEBCOMIC

I want to start off this post by stating that what you're about to read is my own personal opinion and should be taken as advice and not gospel. Also, what you're about to read is based on my personal experience developing Champion City Comics into a webcomics community that went from less than 5,000 page views in 2010 to 100,000 page views in 2011.

I hope that at this point you have a concept for your webcomic(s) project. If not then that is fine and I hope this article sheds some light upon the world of webcomics.

As far as web hosting is concerned, I do recommend Blogger but there are also other sites to consider like Drunk Duck or Webcomics Nation. That is the tip of the hosting iceberg and I encourage you to find a site that fits your budgetary needs and your HTML skills.


You're interested in developing a webcomic. Are you motivated?

If you want to have your own webcomics site then you better be motivated because I've seen one too many webcomics sites out there that were developed and then abandoned shortly after their launch. Also, I have seen numerous sites post five, eight, or ten pages of a webcomic and call it a day. There are webcomics sites out there updated on a weekly or daily basis. Those people are highly motivated and if you have dreams of working in the comics industry then you better be prepared for the work required. I work two jobs, I have a family, I have plenty of to-do projects around the house, and I find time to update this site on a daily basis.


Consistency is key.

If you update daily then you better update your site daily. Readers are irritated when sites do not live up to their expectations. This is a world where people with short attention spans are looking for a new site to add to their list of favorites. If you deliver then you're golden. If you fail then you are doomed. If you choose the weekly route then set a day and time so that people know when to stop by your site for your weekly update.

Do not think that posting ten pages of your project is good enough to have on the web for a few months or even a year. That shows people you have no motivation and are not taking this seriously. Remember that industry people might check out your site and they are looking for people who can meet monthly deadlines and not someone who can crank out ten pages and call it quits.      


Can you handle a tough crowd? 

Your skin better be thick because it's a tough crowd in the webcomics community. I've learned the hard way at times not to let comments get to me, but I feel I've learned some lessons about improving my writing and managing this site along the way. Remember that there are critics and there are "critics". Know who's opinion is worth a damn and in the words of Kris Kristofferson, "Don't let the bastards get you down."    

Also, you need to allow comments on your site. I'll admit that it is nice to see a positive comment but it is tough reading some harsh comments. Allow to people to be heard. If they see you're not afraid to have bad comments then they'll have some respect for you and your site. 


If you build it, they will NOT come.

I was of the mindset that if you develop a webcomics site then thousands of people would stumble upon it while surfing the web. Wrong. You need to get to the forums and bring the people to your site. Where can you go? My suggestions are the forums at sites such as The Webcomic List, Comic Related , Comic Book Resources,  and Top Webcomics. Go there and introduce yourself and your webcomic(s) but be prepared for some criticisms.

Advertising is a must and you can check out comic book related sites for advertising rates or advertise at other webcomic sites by checking out Project Wonderful. You can also work out deals with other webcomics sites by having them provide a link to your site if you provide a link to their site.

Also, knowing a thing or two about search engine optimization (SEO) is key to your success. Knowing what keywords to use will bring people in when they do a search at Google or Bing. I've found ways of bringing in traffic when someone does a search for "Adult webcomic" or "Cool webcomic". You might get one or two people a day that way but you'll more than likely make those people a fan of your site. 

I'll have more tips for webcomic developers soon. I hope this was helpful to you and best of luck in your webcomics conquest.

TonyDoug Wright is the owner and editor of Champion City Comics. His webcomics include Dr Death vs The Zombie, The End of Paradise, and Day 165.