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Comic Book MarketingWant to get in on the cutting edge of comics with all the apps, and digital and smarty-smartphones? Of course you do.

Aquafadas is looking for a Marketing Assistant in their New York office. Aquafadas is not a new brand of spring water, though. They’re “an established international company that develops software for tablet and smartphone publishing.” They have a target audience of “Magazine, Book and Comic Book publishers who want to create apps for iPads and Androids.”

It’s a paid parttime internship and you’ll assist the marketing team “in lead generation, calling, setting mailings, database research, writing marketing copy, and office related tasks.” Of course, you’ll need all the usual stuff on your resume: “a bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications or PR...must know basic Microsoft Office, and knowledge of Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere is a plus.”

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Marketing Assistant

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ThIs Campus Is A Friggin' Escher PrintDavid Willis, creator of the popular webcomic Dumbing of Age, is using Kickstarter to raise funds for a collection of his strips.

This Campus Is A Friggin’ Escher Print will be “185 full-color pages with author commentary, character profiles, and behind-the-scenes material” promises Willis.

More than a year’s worth of stuff will be inside, from  September 10, 2010, to October 28, 2011. This includes storylines: “Move-in Day,” “Uphill from Here,” “Men Are from Beck, Women Are from Clark,” “The Bechdel Test,” “Media Rumble,” and “Yesterday Was Thursday.”

Click to continue reading Kickstarter: Dumbing of Age

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Lord Of The RingsWho wouldn’t want to work in New Zealand (that’s the place where Peter Jackson filmed Lord Of The Rings).

Oktobor Animation is now accepting “portfolio and reel submissions for super-cool digital concept artists for pre-production including character, prop, and environment design on interactive, transmedia and CG animation projects.”

That’s fine, but what kind of thing are they looking for? They’d “love to see fantastical and epic environments, creatures, stylized characters, robots, vehicles, etc.”

If that sounds like a lot like comic book work, you’re not far off. Concept art for movies, TV shows and animation looks a lot like comic book art. And what are comic book artists if not conceptual artists?

Applicants need to be self motivated, and able to adapt to different styles with a great sense of lighting, color and composition. But my favorite is this: “a strong knowledge of anatomy and proportion, human and creature.”

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Concept Artist

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Quincy's WorldMy local newspaper never carried Quincy by Ted Shearer, but I would occasionally see the strip in The Baltimore Sun when visiting family. I liked its “urban Peanuts” vibe, and I really liked Shearer’s artwork.

I recently snagged - thank you library book sale - a long-out-print copy of Quincy’s World, one of the type of once-ubiquitous reprint paperbacks that used to pop up in drug stores and newsstands back in the day. I read through it in one sitting and it was just as good, perhaps even better, than I remembered.

Quincy is a sort of “everykid” in the tradition of other comic strip archetypes like Skippy, Charlie Brown and Tiger. What makes him unique is his optimism, and his light-hearted outlook on his downscale urban setting. Quincy, the strip, is set in a city environment, in a low rent neighborhood populated by rundown buildings, broken fences, and abandoned lots.

Click to continue reading Forgotten Comics: Quincy by Ted Shearer


Comic Book Guy 3One way to get discounted printed comics is to actually work for a comic book store. And there's at least one job available.

G2K Games in Abingdon, Virginia is looking for an Assistant Store Manager. You'll be responsible for helping the Store Manager in every aspect of the store operation: "merchandising, inventory control, staff development, driving sales, ensuring company policies and procedures are followed in addition to providing exceptional customer service." You'll need a high School diploma or equivalent, and will need to be at least 18-years-old.

And, of course, a love of comics and/or video games is preferable.

Good luck, job seekers!

[Artwork: Comic Book Guy #3, from Bongo Comics]

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Build-O-SaursDinosaurs Vs. Dump Trucks! When it comes to moving earth, my vote’s with the dinosaurs, especially the ones called Build-o-saurs.

My pal, animation writer Richard Clark, created Build-o-saurs as an interactive book app. He’s Kickstartering to raise the necessary cash to make it a reality.

“They’re not machines,” Richard says, “they’re just special dinosaurs who are born to build!”

And they look cool, too. Clark, and his creative partner, artist and animator Richard Murray, have created delightful kid-friendly dinosaurs that look like they want to dig, crunch and get dirty on the job site. I’ve got young kids and they loved the character designs.

Click to continue reading Kickstarter: Build-O-Saurs

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Buzz LightyearWant to work for the vast Disney empire? And for the team that made Toy Story, Up and the upcoming Brave?

Pixar is hiring some folks for their Emeryville offices and while some of them aren’t exactly making comic books, people with comic book skills might be right for them.

One is Character Sketch Artist where you’ll be developing drawings that “explore the visual look of a film.” This includes characters, objects, sets, backdrops, all that stuff and from all angles.

Another is Story Artist where based on written/verbal descriptions from the Director (or Head of Story) you’ll “create quick thumbnail sketches through to finished detailed storyboard panels,” perform background research and illustrate script pages, coming up with story ideas yourself.

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Pixar

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Soulless“When you wake up in a morgue drawer with a hole in your chest the size of a cantaloupe, it's only natural to have certain questions.”

Now that’s a first sentence that grabs my attention and it’s from writer Logan Giannini in his pitch for Soulless, a new Kickstarter project that’s illustrated by a friend of mine, George Kambadais.

Neill is the star of Soulless and after waking up in the morgue he sets out to uncover not just himself but what happened to him as well.

As Neill searches, according to writer Giannini, he “learns a great deal about the true nature of the people around him, from his girlfriend Sarah (who, it would seem, didn't exactly wait for Neill to be dead to start seeing other guys), to Neill's vampire friend Bradley (a name he hates), to a young ghost girl (with questions of her own) who's accompanied by a large gorilla and a parrot...”

Click to continue reading Kickstarter: Soulless by Logan Giannini & George Kambadais

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The Avengers CastSo how many times are we all seeing The Avengers this weekend? And in how many ways is it the movie of the summer?

In honor of the new Avengers movie, Longbox Graveyard looks at the Kree/Skrull War, from Avengers #89-97. “Nearing the end of his iconic six-year stint on Avengers, Roy Thomas — along with artists Neal Adams and Sal & John Buscema — delivered what was up to then arguably the longest and most complex continuing story in superhero comics, as Earth became a battleground between the warring Skrull and Kree star empires.”

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Avengers, Overload, Don Bluth and John Cleese


Willoughby Spit WonderHe scuffed directly to the wire magazine racks and twirled them till he located the comic books. He found the least-wrinkled copy of Young Men, which contained stories about the Sub-Mariner Captain America and the Human Torch. He took a minute to study its thrilling cover before carrying it and some war comics to the cash register.
    The guy who rang him up said, “First one of those we sold all week. Nobody’s buying superheroes anymore.”
    “Not even Young Men?”
    “Not even Batman.”
    Glancing back at the rack, Carter said, “That’s bad, huh?”
    The guy handed him his change. “We’ll live.”

The Willoughby Spit Wonder by Jonathon Scott Fuqua (Candlewick Press, 2004)

Be sure to check out our other notable quotes!

[Artwork: The Willoughby Spit Wonder]


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