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Translation of Comics

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By D. Lynn Smith

Earlier this year, my friend Lorraine Watson started a discussion on Facebook about dialog. Since it was very interesting, I thought I’d give a synopsis of that conversation here.

Lorraine asked, “Do you know if word and/or bubble placement changes for comics written in languages read right to left?” I had to admit that I had no idea, but when you think about the popularity of Manga, it makes sense that the bubbles would be placed differently. Mary McFarland chimed in and said that Arabic and Hebrew were also read right to left. Mary describes herself as an Aramaic amateur researcher and a girl geek, so she was very interested in the answer to this question as well.

I went out to a board I’m on and that very same day, I had the answer courtesy of Laura Sneddon. She said, “Manhua, Hebrew and Arabic comics/cartoons are all read from right to left.  Japanese, Chinese and Korean were all traditional right to left vertical languages, though left to right is now more popular, and Hebrew and Arabic are of course, right to left too—all comics and cartoons in these languages are right to left.”

I never stopped to think about how my comics would translate into other languages.  My new colorist for Gates of Midnight, Sandra Molina, is a Spanish to English translator and has offered to translate Gates into Spanish. But that wouldn’t involve the kind of changes these other languages would entail.

So when Mary asked me how I would go about getting my comics translated into these languages, once again, I had no idea. This is where Chris Krone joined the conversation. Chris said he’d seen some manga which was relettered for English sales, the artwork had been flipped into a mirror-image before the bubbles were added.

So a new letterer would have to be hired to reletter the pages. However, that’s not what really struck me. When I was talking about writing each page, I talked about placement of some of the panels. The penciller does a lot of the arrangement, but the writer has a certain rhythm in mind—meaning I place things inside the panel in certain places for a story reason. To do a mirror image of the page, well wouldn’t that change the flow that the writer established?

I know this seems like a little thing, but it really got me thinking about the integrity of the work. Maybe the mirror image wouldn’t have much of an impact except in the writer’s mind. I mean, the pages would still be read the same way, right. But if you think about the bleed and the safety zone of the pages, how much you leave on the side so that art and words won’t get lost in the fold… I don’t know.  I think there’s a lot more to this than simply printing mirror images.

The conversation then moved on to how the deaf and hard of hearing community who use sign language might be depicted in comics. A friend of Chris’ gave him a great link to a web comic that does just that. You can see it here.

You can see that putting together a comic book is much more involved than one might originally think.

I’d also like to say that this conversation was probably the most fun I’ve had on Facebook. It’s amazing how we have all of these connections where we can get answers to questions that stump us in less than 24 hours. Thank you Lorraine, Mary and Chris for expanding my mind!

A Glimpse Inside the Comic Book Production Office – Part 2

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By Paul Daughetee

Last week I went over the hardware a production office needs to put a comic book together. Today we’ll be covering the software and processes involved in getting your comic ready to print or to submit to an online publisher.

SOFTWARE

Here at Kymera Press, we use Adobe products almost exclusively in the production of our comics. However, for all of the Adobe products I list below, there are applications from other companies that can do the job equally well.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CC – All of our freelance artists submit their finished artwork in a digital format—typically either Photoshop’s native PSD format or the TIFF format. Photoshop will likely be what you use to verify the submitted art meets your specifications. If it does not, you may need to use it to get the art to meet your specs . You’ll also need this if your production office is creating ads or other content for your book.

ADOBE INDESIGN CC – InDesign is the application you’ll be using to pull all of your art together in book form. It’s forte is the creation and layout of digital projects such as your comic book. When you’re done with your layout, you’ll use InDesign to export your book to a PDF document; a PDF being the preferred file format for most printers and digital publishers.

ADOBE INCOPY CC – InCopy is software used for copy editing. It feeds your copy directly into the layout you’ve created with InDesign. Although it’s not strictly necessary, it is quite useful as it allows copy editing without directly modifying the InDesign files; the InCopy files will simply be links that appear in your InDesign layout.

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CC – You’ll use Illustrator for creating illustrations using vector graphics that are scalable without any loss of resolution. This is very useful if you’re publishing online and need that ability to scale. You may find some artists prefer Illustrator as their primary drawing/painting tool and it is often used by comic book letterers.

PROCESSES

SPECIFICATIONS – You’re going to be taking art that’s passed through the systems of numerous creative types and trying to fit it into your book’s format. To ease that process, it’s imperative that you provide your artists with a detailed specification that delineates exactly what you want from them when they deliver their files to you.

ART PAGE SIZES AND RESOLUTIONS – For Gates of Midnight, we specified that we want our pencils and inks drawn/scanned at 300/600 dpi and at 150 percent of the finished size. For us, that corresponds to a page as follows:

• BLEED: 10.3125” x 15.75” (6188 x 9450 pixels @ 600 dpi)
• TRIM: 9.9375” x 15.375 (5963 x 9225 pixels @ 600 dpi)
• SAFE: 9.1875” x 14.625” (5513 x 8775 pixels @ 600 dpi)

Our “Final Page Format” that will be sent to our printer for offset printing of the comic is as follows:

• Bleed:  6.875” x 10.5”  (2063 x 3150 pixels @ 300 dpi)
• Trim:  6.625” x 10.25”  (1988 x 3075 pixels @ 300 dpi)
• Safe:  6.125” x 9.75”  (1838 x 2925 pixels @ 300 dpi)

FILE FORMATS – Our artists typically are working in Photoshop so all artwork is in Photoshop’s PSD file format typically. As an alternative, files can be saved and uploaded as TIFF files with NO file compression.

LAYERS – The artists should be consistent with your policies concerning layered art. Ours are as follows:

• Pencil/Inked pages will have their layers flattened prior to submission.
• Colored pages may have their layers flattened prior to submission at the discretion of the colorist.
• Lettered pages will have all lettering in a single layer separate from the art to aid in changes, corrections and the translation of the comic into other languages.
• Cover art that is submitted should always include the various graphics (art, credits, titles, etc.) in separate layers. During the production process changes and corrections are much easier if the separate layers are intact.

COLOR CALIBRATION – We urge the use of a color calibrated monitor as we here at Kymera Press use color calibrated monitors and printers when reviewing submitted art.

COLOR MODE – Our artists work in either RGB or CMYK mode but we require all art to be submitted in CMYK. We recommended that the Gamut Warning tool be used in Photoshop prior to submitting the CMYK files for review. We use the tool and art that has out-of-gamut colors is returned to the artist to have the color corrected.

COLOR SETTINGS – We provide our artists with a color settings file (.csf) to be used with Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) when creating art for Kymera Press. The color settings file is based on the color settings advocated by Hi-Fi Colour Design in their book Hi-Fi Colour for Comics.

ASSEMBLY – So the creative team is done and now some assembly is required. Besides the twenty two or so pages of your comic, you’ve got a front cover, a back cover, a credits page and whatever pages you need to fill your comic book. The total number of pages must be a multiple of four as commercial printers assemble a comic book out of sheets that have two pages printed on one side and two pages printed on the other.

INSPECTION – The first step in the assembly process is to open each and every page and verify that it meets your specifications. If a page does not, either make the adjustments yourself or return the art to the creative team and let them decide how best to fix the issue.

DOCUMENT SETUP – Open Adobe InDesign and create and save a new document. Our setup is as follows:

Intent: Print
Number of Pages: 32
Start Page #: 1
Page Size: Custom
Width: 6.625 in
Height: 10.25 in
Orientation: Portrait
Margins: 0.5 in (Top/Bottom/Left/Right)
Bleed: 0.125 in (Top/Bottom/Left/Right)
Slug: 0.75 in (Top/Bottom/Left/Right)

DOCUMENT BUILD – At this point I have all of the art that’s going to go into the book in a single folder on our Dropbox site. All of the artwork at this point is in the TIFF format (no compression/no layers) and in the CMYK color space required by commercial printers. The content of this folder is a copy of all of the art that has passed the inspection process. I do not work with the original artwork as it might be altered in later printings and I want to be able to archive exactly what is going into this printing.

Open the folder containing your art and drag and drop the issue’s cover from the folder to the first page of the InDesign document. It should completely cover the white page and extend out to precisely fit the red lines that indicate the document’s bleed edge. If not, then there is a mismatch between the cover’s size and your documents settings. Go back and inspect your artwork and your specifications and adjust your InDesign document and/or artwork until there’s a perfect fit.

Repeat this step with each and every finished page that’s been created for your comic book. Save your work along the way and pat yourself on the back when you’re done. You’re close to having a finished book.

 

Next week we’ll  have the final installment of our series, How Many Artists does it take to Make a Comic Book, with part three of A Glimpse Inside the Comic Book Production Office.  Don’t miss it.

Comic book editor Valerie D’Orazio opens a window into the industry

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By Autumn Daughetee

For weeks, we here at Kymera Press have been exploring the different professions necessary to create a comic book­—from the writer to the inker. Last week we explored the role of the editor in the creation of a comic book. I’ll continue that exploration with my interview of the editor for Gates of Midnight, Valerie D’Orazio.

ValerieValerie give us a peek into her editing process and then goes on to detail her experiences within the comic book industry. She talks about the challenges women face in the industry and why she thinks it looses talented women to other industries and professions.

When did you first decide to pursue a career as a comic book editor?

“I’ve always been a big fan of comic books since I was a little kid, so becoming a comic book editor seemed like a natural progression for me.”

How did you go about it? Do you have formal training?

“I was offered a job as an assistant editor right out of college; I just sort of dived in the ‘deep end of the pool’ and picked it up as I went along. I have a degree in English Literature and prior text editing experience, but a lot of comic editing I had to learn ‘in the field,’ so to speak.”

Can you describe the editing process for Gates of Midnight?

“Well, the process of making a comic book is broken up in several parts—there’s the script, the art, the coloring, the lettering, etc. So I focus on one of these parts at a time as the book comes together.”

“I read through the script for ‘objective’ edits like fixing spelling and formatting…and also ‘subjective’ edits like, does the plot or piece of dialogue ‘work’ for me, and how could it (in my opinion) be improved. Then the art: does the visual storytelling make sense? Did the artist follow what was in the script? If the artist added/subtracted from what was indicated in the script, is it something that could be seen as an improvement or added-value, or does it need to be adjusted to fit in with the original vision?”

“As you can see, my notes as an editor for Gates of Midnight or any other comic book are going to be broken up into objective edits (something is not right and needs to be fixed: coloring mistake, spelling, formatting, etc.) and subjective edits (here are my opinions on things where there really isn’t a definitive ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer: my opinion on the plot, if the art in a particular panel emotionally resonates with me, etc.).”

“And I think it’s important to keep these two types of edits distinct from each other because as editor you’re not a dictator. You’re working with Artists (and I mean all creative types here) with a capital A. If there is something subjective that you think should be changed, you work with the Artist, get their feedback, come up with a synthesis between what you think and what they think. It is, in the end, a collaborative effort. Or, at least, it should be.”

What is your favorite part of the process of creating a comic book?

“I think it is working through little ‘bumps’ here and there during the process and smoothing them out to produce the final product. Reworking a problematic scene with the team and then getting it just right…and then, much later, just looking at the finished book and feeling a sense of satisfaction.”

What are the most common errors you encounter during the editing process? If you could pick one thing that you could advise comic book creators not to do, what would it be?

“The biggest thing…I wouldn’t call it an ‘error,’ per se, but an issue that needs to be worked on…is being sure you are writing or drawing in the most effective manner for the specific medium of comics. Comic book storytelling is a medium all its own, and what might work for a book or a movie or a static piece of art may not work in comics. And yet, even with the number of excellent books out there that can ‘teach’ how to write or draw comics…in the end, you only really learn by doing the comics yourself.”

“That’s why I don’t call it an ‘error.’ It’s just a learning process.”

If you could give advice to someone aspiring to become a part of the comic book industry what would it be?

“Develop a wide range of skills and interests outside of comic books. Do this so you bring added value to your employer/projects—and do this because the truth is that the comic book industry has a limited amount of paying jobs. You may always be working in the comic book industry once you get in, or you may have to take jobs that are unrelated to it until the next time there is a job opening.”

“So for example I have a lot of marketing experience on my resume—that’s really helped me a lot, both in terms of getting work between comic editing gigs, and as a comic editor myself.”

What comic books have you worked on?

For DC Comics I’ve worked on Justice League of America, The New Frontier, Batman Black & White, Identity Crisis, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, Aquaman, Supergirl, and a bunch more. For Valiant/Acclaim Comics I edited Magnus Robot Fighter, Shadowman, Classics Illustrated and some Disney comics.”

What do you think of Kymera Press’ mission to publish comics created by women?

“To be honest, my opinion on creating women-specific publishing imprints and groups and comics has fluctuated over the two decades I have been in this business. For a long time I have believed that by separating females from an already male-dominated industry, this would hold back rather than promote their success within the industry as a whole.”

“And yet, when you look at the actual numbers of women working in the mainstream comics industry—and a website called BleedingCool.com has a monthly feature called ‘Gender Crunching’ that literally does this—they are still so ridiculously small that there seems, in 2015, to be no ‘excuse’ for it. I’m talking about females making up less than 20 percent of certain aspects of the mainstream industry…sometimes less than 10 percent. How did this happen? This is worse than in the 1980s, when I was a kid. So I’m open to any solution at this point.”

“Additionally, there is the issue of creating a ‘safe space’ for females within the industry. And when you read the words ‘safe space,’ you either completely ‘get’ what I mean, or you don’t—I’m not going to go into details here. But it’s needed. I hear the argument all the time (sometimes from women themselves, and I’m sure I’ve said this once or twice myself) that women just need to ‘toughen up’ and not let all manner of sexist slings and arrows thrown their way bother them.”

“However, I’ve seen too many instances of everything from sexual harassment to unreported physical assault to cyber bullying/death threats to just being constantly being passed over for promotions kill the joy women have had working in the comic book industry.”

“And so, at the age of 41, that’s the number one thing I’m against—comic-loving females having their innate sense of joy being crushed. And if a place like Kymera Press can provide a space and opportunity for females to express that joy, that’s a great thing.”

As a woman working in a male-dominated industry, have you faced any difficulties?

“In general, it has been the pervasive sense that I have been seen/judged as a female first, not objectively as a comic book editor (or writer). This has certainly not happened with all the men within the industry who I have worked for. But it has happened enough. And so you have issues that have absolutely no place in a business setting—issues of gender and sexuality and just sex in general—mixed into the nuts-and-bolts of the job itself.”

“And then from there this continues into the larger sphere of fandom and the Internet, sometimes in a manner of the most depraved savagery where you end up with women getting threatened with rape or murder. For example, I was threatened with physical violence after I wrote a one-shot for The Punisher and I stopped going to comic conventions—period. To this day, because of that experience, I feel uneasy about attending a show where it has been pre-announced that I will appear at a certain time. It can be argued that male creators occasionally face this same situation with angry fans and whatnot—but the sad fact is that more often than not, the negativity that is specifically directed at females have an aspect of, frankly, sexual violence and sexuality in general.”

“See how heavy that is? ‘I just wanted to write or edit a comic book. Just a comic book! You know something fun and entertaining. Why are all these other issues coming up? This is so exhausting to deal with…I should just find another industry to be in.’ And that’s what happens…I just watch these other really talented women leave the industry one after another.”

“Once, a professional in the industry publicly stated on social media that women have exactly the same opportunities in the comic book industry as men—that it is completely and objectively a merit-based system. And, within the context of the discussion, it was implied that if there are markedly less women than men in the mainstream industry, that this was somehow reflective of their skills as comic book creators and editors and so forth. And that’s a viewpoint I’ve heard for a long, long time—and it is a Big Lie. It is a big, inexcusable lie, and that type of mentality needs to stop.”

On a lighter note, I’ve asked all of the other ladies who worked on Gates of Midnight this question. It’s just for fun. If you were a comic book character who would you be?

“Howard the Duck.”

Do you have any role models within the comic book industry?

“I think anyone who has managed to survive within this industry for a long time and has genuinely tried to make it a better place for everyone is my role-model.”

What does a Freelance Comic Book Editor Do?

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By D. Lynn Smith

As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t have an editor on issue #1 of Gates of Midnight, and I made mistakes that weren’t caught until my husband read the finished pages. We then had to go back and make corrections, which meant paying my artists for additional work. That convinced me that I needed to find an editor, and that’s how Valerie D’Orazio came to be working for Kymera Press. We’ll talk more about her credentials next week when we publish an interview with her. In the meantime, let’s talk about what an editor does.

Valerie started looking at the thumbnails (see post on penciller) of issue #2. She not only helped me find mistakes in the way scenes were set up, but she also helped me figure out how to fix the panels. She made sketches to show me and Amelia how the panel could be set up to tell the story better. This not only helped the issue in the long run, but it also was a great learning experience for Amelia and myself. We both grew, and continue to grow, as artists with Valerie’s help.

SPOILER ALERT:  I’m going to use a plot point from issue #4 here as an example. If you don’t want to read it, skip down to “SAFE TO START READING HERE.”

During the inking process, I would try to describe what I wanted to show. For instance, I have a place in issue #4 where Alex casts a shadow image of himself. It got a little confusing with two of him on the page; we couldn’t tell what was happening. Valerie suggested that we lighten the lines on the “ghost Alex” and add some cloudy swirls around him. This problem persisted to the coloring stage, because it really was the colorist’s job to make this scene work. Here are some of the actual notes Valerie gave on a set of pages for issue #4 to help the colorist.

Page 1 panel 2: should the effect around the creatures be a little more “wispy” so it is clear that they are not really in the sky?

Page 1 panel 3: inside the “portal” should have a little more depth?

Some other thoughts she had on subsequent pages.

Page 3 panel 2: the stuff “grabbing“ the stone should be a little different in color or “tone,” because it looks like now that it’s a static part of the same whole.

Page 6 panel 4: again, the ambulance needs more depth. She could achieve this by playing with some of the grey tones and shading.

As you can see, as an editor Valerie was able to not only point out what was wrong, but was able to suggest solutions. Here are the before and after pages for the “ghost Alex.”

Editor #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editor #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAFE TO START READING HERE

When it comes to lettering, Valerie goes through the script and bolds words that need to be bolded. This is something I really can’t do as in all of my other writing it’s not something I would do. She makes any grammatical/punctuation changes that are required and helps me figure out where to place dialog bubbles when they need to be changed.

When it comes to editing the script, she makes sure that what I’ve written is clear for the reader and the artists. Here’s an example of notes she gave me on script #5.

Page 1: Great opening!

Page 2: Be sure to remind Amelia that Eric and Raven have just come out of the fight in the last issue, and are a little worse for wear with cuts and whatnot.

Page 3: Be more specific about Marie’s facial expression for Amelia. I assume that she is not surprised that Raven and Eric were in the fight, and yet must put up “appearances” for her guests.

Page 4: Good banter between Marie and Raven as the cut is being dressed.

Page 5, panel 6: This would be a great place to direct Amelia to make visually more dramatic. You could ask her to do a close-up, and really describe the emotion on these characters’ faces. Marie feels like Constance could be a threat to her daughter—bam! Bring out all that maternal protectiveness and fury visually.

Page 15, panel 6: a good place for Bub to be large in the foreground, zooming forward towards the reader dramatically, with Raven in the background watching.

Page 16: I’d have very subtle shading on Rain’s hurt eye. We don’t want to give it away, but also don’t want it to look like suddenly in close-up she has an eye injury.

As you can see, all of these notes were about clarity of purpose in each panel.  And Valerie does the most important thing an editor can do, she tells me what is good about the script as well as what problems need to be addressed.

Finally, Valerie has also given me feedback on artists as we went through the process of hiring for Kymera Press’ next comic book series—Pet Noir. Looking at an artist’s works requires a skill that I call seeing. My husband and I are scuba divers and have spent a lot of time on Maui. He used to talk about the wind line on the water—he could see where the wind picked up and where it wasn’t blowing. I couldn’t see it. But then we moved to Maui and during that time, I learned to see the wind line! It was like a veil had been lifted from my eyes.

It’s the same with looking at a penciller’s lines, an inker’s details, a colorist’s shadows. You have to learn to see. When I was hiring my artists for Pet Noir, the inker didn’t want to commit to a price until she saw the penciller’s portfolio. The colorist didn’t want to commit to a price until she saw the penciller and the inker’s portfolios. Luckily, they were all impressed with each other!

So this is my experience of what an editor does.  I subscribe to a great blog from Heather Antos, an editor at Marvel. If you’d like to read more about what an editor does, check her out on tumblr.

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