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Jetmac
March 27th, 2010, 09:51 PM
This ad is in search of artists to produce serialized graphic novels for the web. This will be a collaborative effort; full scripts will be provided and artists' comment is encouraged. In addition to the artwork, the artists will be expected to aid in character and world designs, marketing material, and contributions to merchandising (posters, prints, signing books, etc).

UWS Publishing, LLC will handle script production and coordination, all marketing costs and the marketing strategy/campaign, website creation and hosting, and merchandising costs (production, shipping, store management, etc), in addition to publishing (digital, mass market paperback, and limited edition hardback).

Here are the particulars:

Job Description:

The artist will create full color sequential art pages according to the scripts of the storyline they choose to support. The artist can work alone (preferred due to streamlined accounting and communication), but a separate colorist is certainly acceptable if the penciller has a partner in mind.
In the case of all books, the intended pace is 2 colored pages a week. Lettering will be handled by a separate party.

Currently, we have three books in need of artists:

SOLDIERS. “Following a disastrous event in Afghanistan, ten failed prototypes of a government super-soldier program re-enter the civilian world, trying to make peace with the mental and physical changes they’ve experienced.”
SOLDIERS was the test platform for our serialization strategy, and can be found at www.soldiersthecomic.com. It proved highly successful, gathering nearly 700,000 page views in only a few weeks – enough for us to understand our data, refine our approach, and decide to continue the effort. We will proceed forward using traditional full page comics in an artistic style similar to that already established.

The Guard. “This series follows the exploits of the various members of the Guard, an immensely old galactic peacekeeping organization, after learning that their organization was not created to protect planets, but rather to groom them for conquest. This revelation results in armed revolt and civil war on a galactic scale.”
The Guard is a science fiction comic told in a far galaxy rich with alien races and cultures, spacecraft, architecture, weaponry, drama and excitement. The intended artistic style is a slightly stylized realism.

Neo Victoria. “Three children at the center of a war are guided by extraordinary mentors as they grow to adulthood in a steampunk era.”
Aimed squarely at the young adult audience, the intended artistic style is “Ameri-Manga”. The world is rich in Victorian details (architecture and dress), with locations in urban, natural (camps in the forest) and highly fantastical (flying base) settings. The technology has a heavy steampunk influence, including not only mechanized contraptions, devices, and weapons; but also tanks, mechanical horses, and a style of personal flying machine.

Compensation
The artists will have a 60% share of the net profits (gross revenue minus marketing and merchandising costs). If an art team (penciller and colorist) takes on a book, as opposed to a single individual, they will split the 60% upon lines they decide for themselves.
Revenue will be generated through advertising, merchandising, and book sales. Advertising will be through paid slots on the website and in the digital applications. Merchandising will consist of apparel, novelty, artwork, and special print editions. The artist has the option of selling their original artwork through our storefront, in addition to prints and reproductions. At the conclusion of each story arc, hard copy books will be printed and sold through the web as well as bookstores/comic shops.
Artists will be granted ownership of the intellectual property based on their duration/term with the book. If the intellectual property is licensed by a third party (movie, game, etc), the artist will receive royalties based on their percentage of ownership.
Due to the current market regarding digital publishing, it is difficult to put hard numbers to these amounts. However, the better the art quality and the more regular the production, the larger and faster the audience will grow, bringing with it higher profits.

Deadlines
The artist and/or art team must provide two complete pages every week. Once ten pages are completed, we will start public web serialization (this allows us to create a solid buffer). In order to maintain continuity, we insist the artist/team agree to a three month (12 week) commitment.

Usage
The artwork will be used in the creation and promotion of the comic it supports. It may also be used in merchandising, promotion, and any other usage for generating market share or revenue. The original artwork will remain in the ownership of the artist.

Contact Information
Please send an e-mail to uwspub@uwspublishing.com with a link to your portfolio. Please do not send files of your artwork. Links will suffice. If you have a preference for one of the stories listed, please let us know.

Closing
Understand that this is a collaborative effort, which means you will not be paid in advance. Compensation will be based on revenue achieved, not forecasted, according to the percentages listed above. For this to be successful, the artist or art team must be dedicated, highly skilled, and ON TIME. It does not matter to us if you are old or new, previously published or not. We will be accepting artists based solely on the talent demonstrated in the links received.

SwallowPoint
March 28th, 2010, 01:47 AM
Gentlemen, As the daily notifications from ConceptArt come in the form of two e-mails--nightly after midnight, I am reading yours now. I have just viewed your Flash episodes of Soldier. (two episodes) It seems you artist is "heavy handed" with an "anonymous" appearance to the characters, even though they have names. But possibly that is your intention. Since every offer on ConceptArt is totally different, one from the next, I don't have a link for all the styles and "concepts." If you are serious about this, you will put out a hypothetical and a time limit and choose the best artist for your purpose. In fact what best describes your "comic" style in your series--Soldier is STORYBOARDING--as though you were filming a movie. Comics usually play with perspective in a way filming cannot. --Eric Westhagen--"Swallowpoint"

Jetmac
March 28th, 2010, 06:09 AM
Eric,

Thank you for your interest and comments.

We did not feel that the artistic style of SOLDIERS was anonymous, but everyone has their interpretation and viewpoint. We describe the STYLE of SOLDIERS as more of a realistic comic style, perhaps even a traditional comic book style (as opposed to a Manga style, for instance). For those looking for a comparison to well known comic artists, consider Travis Charest, Doug Mahnke, Darick Robertson, or Paul Smith -- all of these have a style within the boundaries of what we are looking for regarding SOLDIERS (and The Guard, for that matter).

The FORMAT we chose to display SOLDIERS digitally was single panel, which we felt would show best on websites and transfer the easiest to digital devices. However, as we said in the original post, we are changing to a traditional FULL PAGE layout, as a result of evolving mobile device hardware and software. All three of the books above will be in a full page format.

As for our "seriousness", we are quite serious about this effort. The decision to utilize serialization is the result of nearly 2 years of research and testing. If you want to make money in the digital age in comics, this is your best route. Unfortunately, the youth of today don't value intellectual property the same way as previous generations. Having grown up with free content, they have come to expect all of their content to be free. Newspapers are struggling with this, as are publishers. People are buying less books and the average age for e-reader buyers is over 35. Paid digital downloads of comics through iphone/droid are exceptionally small in comparison to print. The best path to success is to embrace this trend and provide a quality product, free for viewers, and capitalize on advertising and those items readers will pay for (signed artwork, limited edition prints, special editions of hard copy, etc).

The deadline for this ad is "until we find what we're looking for" -- just as with nearly every other ad posted in these forums. When we select the art teams for our books, we will post a notice closing this ad/thread. If you wish to apply, feel free to submit a link to your portfolio via e-mail.

White-Tean
March 28th, 2010, 07:39 AM
Hello, this is not a reply directly to the job lister (though hello to you too!) as I don't think they're interested in being involved with arranging pair-ups — but I am looking to cut my teeth as a colourist on a project, and I would be interested with pairing up with an artist for any of the three projects. I work fast, have all the necessary programs and I don't have any plans within the next three months that would interfere with my ability to get work done quickly.

Here's my website (http://teganhooper.com/) — I apologise that there's not much work there, I'm still working on setting it up. While most of the work there currently is more rainbow and chirpy, I'm flexible and can use colours and textures to create a variety of moods, and I can easily do something like the example art (or something else entirely). If there are any talented artists who would be interested in having another hand to make light work, please let me know at:
contact@teganhooper.com

black_fish
April 10th, 2010, 02:29 AM
This is not a paid-project but a profit sharing scheme so this ad should be posted in the Non-Paying projects section of the website.
You will have more chances to find people interested there.

Jetmac
April 27th, 2010, 10:34 PM
We've gotten a slew of great artists and the three positions are filled. Thank you all for your excellent submissions!

Administrator: Please consider this thread closed.