Ingredient Challenge #1!

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Tre

Yesterday I asked for 3 random ingredients, with the intent to make something out of them. The idea is from the first chapter of “I’m Just Here for the Food” by Alton Brown. I’ve always stuck to recipes without deviating, but now I want to take the next step. I want to learn how to cook, and like any skill, it takes a lot of getting out there and doing it.

Today’s ingredients are: Spinach (@Charnanigans co-author of The Peacock King originally suggested Swiss Chard, but my store didn’t have any, because it is lame), cheddar cheese (Suggested by @Indochinee, and carrots (suggested by @heykidzcomix)

I played it crazy-safe, and decided to try an egg wrap with them. I also considered making a couscous dish as well, but I didn’t have enough time.

I jumped right into it, forgetting to put a bit of cream into the egg mixture, but they turned out OK.

I wasn’t sure how to prep the veggies, so I made two wraps, one with raw spinach and carrots, and another with sauteed spinach and carrots. I did not melt the cheese, I was hoping to keep the taste light. I chopped them into short strings.

I added a touch of mayo, as I said, I wanted to be very safe here.

I wrapped them up like a roll, and chopped off the sloppy sides, hoping it’d make it look less sloppy.

Taste Test

I tried the raw veggie wrap first. I liked the crunchy texture the veggies brought, but the cheese and egg taste stood out the most. I think instead of mayo, it needed something added to give more of a bite. With the mayo, it tasted very boring. But, apparently not that boring, I finished most of it.

The cooked veggies wrap was next. The cooked spinach smell was strong (But I love spinach, so I had high hopes!) but whoa, did not like chewing it in my mouth. Took a huge bite to make sure I had a bit of everything, but the spinach was in the front seat, with a bit of cheese here or there. I couldn’t finish it, the texture was too gross.

I think with a rework of something else to the mix might have saved it? I wish I had a vinaigrette to mix the raw veggies in, but with cheese, that didn’t sound very appealing.

However, I’m happy to have dipped my toes into making something myself without a recipe. I can’t wait to try again next week!

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Ra Comics Direct mini-comparison

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Tre

My paper sample arrived from RA Comics Direct! The paper quality feels and looks very nice. Back in my fanbook days, these papers both interior and cover would have been perfect.

When I emailed their rep for information on black and white printing and getting a hardcopy printed, he suggested 80 lb opaque offset. It’s really firm paper! I think for my hardcopy I’ll go for the 60 lb. I think a floppy would feel better with less stiff interiors.

They mention on Twitter they don’t have separate machines for black and white. They use the same machines like their color counterpart. I’ll admit ignorance that I’m not sure if printers do use separate machines for color or black and white, but I have a feeling this is why their black and white is not less expensive than it’s color option.

The site only mentions 300DPI required, but they’ll accept up to 1200DPI.

I’m still a bit iffy on the price. Just a bit. I’ll compare with Ka-Blam, since it was the last POD I’ve used.

At RA Comics Direct, you must buy at least 25 copies. (No set-up fee) Ka-Blam, at least 1. (And no set-up fee as well.) So by going through Ka-Blam, ordering 25 books that have a standard color cover and 24 pages of black and white interiors, going by their most fast expedited shipping option (Shipped within 11 days) is $93.85. Through RA Direct, using 60 lb opaque interior paper, 80lb uncoated opaque color cover with their NORMAL turn around of 3-4 days is $81.90. That I find not too bad! (EDIT: I find it not too bad at that speed. Ka-Blam’s normal month-ish turn-around is about $53) But once you hit 40 page+ and perfect binding is where it starts sliding around.

I published the FKMTverse anthology through Lulu. The book is 200 pages, and the last time I checked, was $10.50. Trying to emulate the same size and type at RA Comics, the price (When divided by 25) is $15.22! YOWZA. But to be fair, at Lulu I cheated because I wasn’t using their comic book prices, I went with a text book size/template. Lulu’s comic prices are stupid-high as well.

I can see RA Comics has a fast alternative to Ka-Blam. We’re not sure if they’ll have horror stories that Ka-Blam and Comixpress share yet, but they are a division of Robinson Anderson Print, a larger printer. For our next book, I’m definitely going to give these guys a shot. But… I’ll keep the awkward method of ordering FKMTverse at Lulu for now.

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Digital publishing ramble

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Tre

I’ve been so focused on Kindle comic publishing I haven’t thought about other publishers, namely those who make apps for devices. Last week, I signed up to Graphic.ly and Comixology. (I prefer Graphic.ly overall, feels more friendlier.) This morning in a Graphic.ly newsletter, I learned they’re available on the Nook. I wasn’t aware the Nook Color used apps! Reading the Nook device page, it does sound a lot like a skinny tablet. The price, the low battery life, bright monitor, and it’s not a reader-alone puts me off. I’m not looking to replace my Android.

However, the comics I know I’d want to read and try (I’m very curious about Viz’s manga app on iPad!) are on tablet devices, so I’m trying to change how I think about them. I’m waiting and seeing what the next generation Kindle will bring. I also want to wait to see how comic publishers will handle the new waves of color tablets that-are-not-iPad.

There’s a lot going against comics on the Kindle! I think the biggest “ouch” factor is the consequences of file size.  I used to wonder why some comics cost so much, or why the pages would be designed to be much smaller than they could be. Amazon charges a “delivery” fee of $.15 per MB. Some of the Kindle comics I have are over 22MB! That’s a lot of money lost! I am now far more understanding of why comics are priced $5+ or why ComicLoud’s format is strangely small.

GC test on the Kindle!Despite the Kindle not being very comic friendly, I enjoy reading comics on it, and curious what’s the best way to go about publishing on it. The official conversion software is a pain to use properly at first especially if you’re not used to text command. It was neat to test a few pages from the con book to see how it looked! I tried to size the images as low as I could. But even after that, 5 pages was 1MB! That wouldn’t be good for a 200-ish page book! Still more playing to do.

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Posted on April 12, 2011 by Tre

Just have one more page to draw out and the next “Being A Friend” comic will be complete! If you didn’t have a chance to get the first one, (which is full of warm fuzzies), you can learn how to get the minicomic here.

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Finishing stuff up this week

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Tre

Prize illustration!

Prize illustration...?

Aah, finally finished this piece for @Blymeyaoi for a certain sumthin’-sumthin’ in the future!

The post office lost the first version of this illo. Argh, I learned the hard lesson that tracking and insurance is *worth it.* I’m sorry it took so long! Looking at the old sketch and compared to this, I noticed my style did change a bit.
With this piece, the Tachigawa School G-pen I wrote about in the last post worked a lot better. Maybe I learned how to use it properly? Either way, it was fun to use. But the lack of line strength really holds it back as being perfect. However, I can see this as a perfect pen if you’re drawing comics print-size! Something I’d like to test out in a few months when I finish the second donation comic.

I’m also rushing the new “Friend” comic before Alice leaves for MoCCA this weekend!

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