I personally think that comics are a collaborative creation- writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, letterers, and editors are all a team.

If one creator gets more money, everyone should.  Royalties, bonuses, comp copies, whatever. Unless it’s a solo book, no one person is the book. Some creators’ names sell more books than others, and if they get a bigger piece of the pie that’s probably fair. But their comics wouldn’t get done without the rest of the creative team. Share the wealth.

On newsarama.com Image Comics’ Erik Larson was quoted as saying, “I don’t know of a colorist that moves the needle–so I don’t think they should get royalties–same with letterers. Sorry.”

Dave McCaig replied, “Print your books in black and white. Put your money where your mouth is if you think colorists are not essential to the team.”

I tend to agree, and other than Owly I don’t know many comics that can do without lettering, too. And every comic should have a good editor.

I’ve seen inkers save pencilers on a book.  I’ve seen colorists save inkers. I’ve picked up books because I really dug the colors or inks. I’ve also seen both butcher a book, too-and I’ve dropped a book because of bad inks/colors. Bad balloon placement and fonts can take a reader out of a story. And without a letterer and the credits how would we know who did what on a comic!

I’m not crazy that there’s a food chain in comics- and that colorists and letterers tend to be considered at the bottom of it.

Shame when they’ve had to pull a late writer or penciler’s fat out of the deadline fire.

Lin

I’ll be on Channel 3′s Live at 9 morning show this Monday morning talking about the upcoming MidSouthCon (March 12-14 in Olive Branch, MS).

I’ve been on before with Alex and Marybeth pimping my comic Bushi Tales. This time I’ll be pimping the art and comics programming MSC will have to offer sci-fi fans next month at the con.

This year’s con will have Kevin J. Anderson, Gail Simone, Billy Tackett, John Jackson Miller, and many more!

I’ll have at least one of my paintings there, and should be doing some sketching live.

You can see one of my paintings in an interview about the con on Fox13 here. (Thanks, Carlin!)

Lin

This news has some JJM and KOTOR fans saddened. Not to worry, John will return to the Star Wars universe later this year with a new comic series Star Wars: Knight Errant. If that’s not good enough for you, a novel of the same name will be released next year! You can read more about it from JJM here.

In addition to his comic duties for Dark Horse, he is also writing a series of e-books in conjunction with the Fate of the Jedi novel series by Del Rey.  The 3rd e-book, Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon, is now available for download from StarWars.com, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com (Kindle version).  You can download previous installments here and here.

And if he wasn’t busy enough, John also writes a webcomic, Sword and Sarcasm that you can check out here.

John will be attending the Midsouthcon this March 12th-14th. He was recently on a couple of podcasts- The Legion of Dudes and Fictional Frontiers.

Congrats, JJM!

I’ve been invited to participate in a book signing at the M.R. Davis Public Library in Southaven, MS on Sunday, January 31st from 2:30-4:30pm.

I’ll be singing/selling copies of my comic series “Bushi Tales“.

Other authors in attendance will include  Mark Grisham (John Grisham’s brother) and Daivd Donaldson- authors of “Bedlam South“, and Suzanna Maddox one of 150 teachers who contributed to “Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers“.

The library is located at 8554 Northwest Drive, Southaven, MS 38671, and you can get directions here. Phone number is (662) 342-0102.

Hope to see you there!

Lin

Writer Marv Wolfman posted this on Facebook today and I thought I’d share:

“My latest blog is the beginning of an autobiography of sorts. Take a look at: http://www.marvwolfman.com/todaysviews.html “

Met Marv in Metropolis a few years ago and got to have dinner with him and some of the Memphis Mafia. Got to talk Teen Titans, Nova, and more, and heard stories about him and Len Wein growing up and getting into the comics biz. Looking forward to more from Marv!

Lin

The second part of the interview Wonton and I did with Shawn Pryor and Jon Carroll for The Black Box podcast is now available. We talk more about digital comics, distribution, web comics, Jetta, Bushi Tales, my B/W art show and Comic Whore site.

Click here to go to the Black Box Podcast site.

I’ve got some news about mine and Nicki’s recent adoptions, last Friday’s art walk and George Hunt art show, Adam Shaw’s upcoming art show this Friday and more on my LinWorkman.com site. Check it out if you get a chance. Pics from last night’s Hernando Christmas parade will be up there later this week.

Type at ya later,

Lin

Denny’s favorite mantra-

“There is seldom any one absolutely, inarguable, unimpeachably right way to do anything.”

“There’s just the way, whatever it might be, that’s okay for here and now.”

A final observation from Denny: “Practice makes…well, not perfect, but maybe pretty good.”

Read more from Denny here.

I’ve got another Web Wednesday from Nicki for you, but I can’t find it on my computer. I’ll look again when I get home tonight. Stay “tooned”.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the latest episode (#3) of “The PKD Black Box” titled: “Roger Corman & The Memphis Mafia Battle Ninjas“. You can get it at http://pkdmedia.com, http://pkdmedia.com/thepkdblackbox, or via iTunes. Since we discussed so much Shawn Pryor split our conversation into two parts.

Lin

The PKD Black Box Podcast

Episode 3: Roger Corman & the Memphis Mafia battle Ninjas.

Oh, don’t forget to check out LinWorkman.com to find out more info on the First Annual Broad Avenue Holiday Art Walk featuring artist George Hunt!

Type at ya later-

Lin

It’s a podcast called Word Balloon with John Siuntres . He and his guest Vanetta Rogers discussed  fandoms  on Friday, November 13, 2009.

Twilight New Moon Fangirls, With Vaneta Rogers‏.

The Film Twilight New Moon opens next weekend, so it seemed like a good time to take a look at the Fangirl Invasion. Vanetta Rogers joins me as a Twilight Fan and Comics Fan , to discuss the similarities and differences of enjoying the hobby from the opposite sex’s perspective.

Here’s a link to her Newsarama articles on the subject.

We also talk about Vanetta’s transition from new comics fan to comics reporter.

Thought this went well with the discussion I had with Nicki last week about fangirls and women in comics.

Hope you enjoy it. John’s got a lot of other great Word Balloon podcast interviews, or as he calls them- “comic book conversations” here. He recently discussed with writer/artist Matt Wagner about superheroes and comic characters being timeless or time sensitive, and talked about Matt’s  Zorro and Madam Xanadu series and upcoming Green Hornet comics. Good comic talk!

I’ll have Nicki’s next Web Wednesday up this Wednesday and more about introducing new readers to comics and keeping comic current readers interested next Monday.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Lin

New Denny O’Neil blog up on BleedingCool.com.

Nicki and I have both been sick this week, so hopefully we can get back on schedule after Thanksgiving.

Thanks-

Lin