Today’s the day!

Treat yourself to some pre-Christmas monster mashing with the season’s joy that is Skullkickers #4, in comic book stores nationwide today!

Special thanks to Game Designer/RPG Guru Robin Laws for providing role-playing game stat bonus content in this issue. If you’re a fan of Dark & Deadly tabletop dice-chucking fantasy games you definitely don’t want to miss this extra material.

Ryan Schrodt at Weekly Crisis has an extensive trade paperback review of Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki (which arrived in stores this week) and he enjoyed it cover to cover.

“Writer Jim Zubkavich is clearly aiming to be as accessible as possible while keeping the book all-ages appropriate” … “The characters themselves are highly engaging and don’t come with any unexplained baggage. Lapsed Street Fighter junkies, devout followers, and even those completely unfamiliar with the franchise will all be able to pick up and read the series without any problem. If the goal is to appeal to as large of a potential fan base as possible, than Zubkavich does a tremendous job.”

Edwin and I are flying in to Boston this afternoon as part of a day and a half event being organized by retailer Larry’s Wonderful World of Comics. If you live in the Boston area you should attend!

Friday night is a Skull’kegger’/Street Fighter tournament and Saturday is the Woborn Warehouse comic show.

Larry’s Comics sells a series of exclusive comic variant covers promoting titles he feels are hot or up-and-coming for the comic industry. Soon after Skullkickers #1 came out he contacted Image about getting a variant produced for his store. Usually the variants are just line art or recoloured versions of the regular issue’s cover but I wanted to make sure it stood on its own as a different pic. Edwin and Espen delivered a beauty:

SK #1 Retailer Variant (limited to 1000 copies)

It’s an exciting day trip right before the holidays really kick in to gear. Wish me luck!

Possibly my favourite Skullkickers Quotes ad so far.
Ryan Ottley’s words are golden:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betsy Gomez
510-644-4980 x 26
betsygomez@imagecomics.com

HIGH FANTASY AT A LOW PRICE
First volume of SKULLKICKERS will sell for only $9.99!

Berkeley, CA – 16 December 2010 – What would you pay a couple of mercenaries to crack some skulls?! In March 2011, you can take a couple of the baddest monster-mashing mercenaries home for the low price of $9.99!

SKULLKICKERS, the new skull-smashing hit series from Image Comics, is getting its first collection. Written by Jim Zubkavich with art by Edwin Huang, Chris Stevens and Misty Coats, the SKULLKICKERS, VOL. 1: 1000 OPAS AND A DEAD BODY TP will collect the first five issues of the ongoing series along with the short stories from POPGUN, VOLS. 2 and 3.

“We’re having so much fun making this book,” says Zubkavich. “We wanted to make it easy for new readers to join the adventure and to be ready to dig in to the next story arc that begins with issue #7. At the same time this is also a special ‘thank you’ to the fans who have supported us so far.”

Image Publisher Eric Stephenson adds, “People are always lamenting the lack of ‘fun’ comics in today’s market, but Jim & co. have come up with a great formula for SKULLKICKERS that combines high adventure with humor for a violent romp through a well-worn genre they clearly love, but never take too seriously. Every issue is a blast!”

SKULLKICKERS is an action-packed series that turns fantasy tropes on their ears. Two nameless monster-killing mercenaries are caught up in an assassination plot and won’t let anything get in their way. Each issue released so far has gone through multiple printings and the series has accumulated rave reviews from readers and critics alike. At $9.99, this collection is a great way to discover the excitement or find an issue you missed the first time around!

SKULLKICKERS, VOL. 1: 1000 OPAS AND A DEAD BODY, a 144-page full-color trade collecting the first five issues of the action-packed series along with the POPGUN anthology tales, will be in stores March 9, 2011, for the amazing introductory price of $9.99. Keep up with the exploits of our heroes at www.skullkickers.com.

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

I received an intense two screen long message sent to me last night from someone who wants to work at the UDON studio. I thought about sending back a typical “we’re not looking for anyone right now” response but that didn’t feel right based on the length of their message and expectations.

I wrote this all up and figured I’d repost it here because it’s advice quite a few applicants and students could stand to hear:

—

You obviously spent some serious time typing this all up. I appreciate that you are driven and are working hard to build your portfolio and contacts.

You are correct that we receive dozens and dozens of portfolio submissions from people of varying skill levels. You’ve asked for serious feedback/advice so I’m not going to pull any punches. Instead I’ll just tell you straight about some industry stuff you may not know and my thoughts on your work at this time.

UDON is not hiring. Not just because the portfolios sent to us aren’t good, the majority are very weak, but also because we’re at a point where we have more than enough artists on hand to take care of the work that comes in. I have some artists who I’d love to give more work to that I can’t keep employed full time because there aren’t enough projects coming in and out to keep them busy that whole time. These are people who have stellar quality, great work ethic and deliver on time.

We keep our core crew as busy as possible and then, beyond that, we have another tier of artists who I send freelance work to when the main gang is overwhelmed or we need a specific style. That’s it. There’s no point in us bringing on even more people if we can’t keep them employed. No matter what else I say about your work, the reality of that situation doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon.

Your artwork is not as good as you think it is.

I know that’s incredibly hard to hear. Like many portfolios I look at, you are focused almost entirely on drawing cool characters and pin-ups instead of rounding out your skills with strong storytelling and more variety.

Your background/environmental drawing is a glaring weakness. Many of your pages lack a solid sense of perspective and, even when it is there, it looks rushed, sloppy and is clearly not something you enjoy or spend time with. Even when your character work looks professional, the environments they’re placed in usually look quite amateur in comparison.

I think your figure drawing is focused on a singular semi-cartoony comic style that is hurting your ability to get work. It’s too cartoony for most publishers but isn’t confidently stylized enough for them to appreciate either. It’s not ‘American’ comic style and it’s not anime, which is a really hard sell in this market. Instead of having a solid understanding of drawing the figure from life and then building a style on that base, your work looks like a copy of a copy of other artists who understand the figure and solid form more fully. Your work doesn’t have the finish of Mark Brooks, Joe Madureira or Humberto Ramos, just some similar stylistic aspects that are under developed and derivative. Simple line work can be elegant and look great, but it has to be built off of core drawing basics you’re not showing. It’s all frosting without any cake.

Your sequential pages lack adequate space for word balloons and sound effects, leaving them feeling claustrophobic. Almost every panel jams the characters in to them as large as possible because that’s all you seem to want to draw.

Your colours hurt the majority of the pieces you’ve put together. The light sources are unclear, the colour choices are garishly saturated and the majority of rendering and effects you have look like they’re all done with a soft airbrush tool regardless of what the surface is or particular lighting conditions are. You are lacking an understanding of basic colour theory – what colours get used together and why. Your colours, by and large, are very weak compared to what we expect from our artists.

Your work doesn’t look like anything being published by UDON. Look carefully at the work in our gallery. You’re a fan of our books so you must realize that stylistically your work doesn’t fit with typical Capcom products or what we do. If that’s not clear then you need to be much more careful in your analysis. Yes, there is a range of stuff we do but, within that range, there is a look that people have come to recognize as UDON. Your artwork doesn’t exhibit that.

Even if you submitted a pin-up for the upcoming Tribute book, there’s no guarantee you’d even get in, let alone grab our attention enough for us to think about asking you to submit other work for the company, if we were looking for new people, which unfortunately we’re not. Your assumption that the Tribute book is not a good way to showcase your skills to us is mistaken. Even in one quality pin-up it’s easy to tell if someone has a solid understanding of the basics and if their gallery is worth digging in to further.

Your message is not professional. Attitude-wise it’s a bad idea to talk about how other people who are doing the work you want to do are weaker than yourself. Even if that’s how you feel, all it does is leave a really bad impression that you’re cocky and going to be a pain in the ass to work with. Do I think there’s published work out there that looks like crap? Absolutely, but I try to keep my mouth shut and focus on making sure my own work, and the work of our studio, is as strong as possible.

You have no idea what each of those artists that you think suck have done to get where they are. Was it their contacts? Maybe, but it could be all sorts of other things and maybe they’ve pitched in to help when shit hit the fan and they’re working their butt off to get better just like you are. Assuming that you’re superior or that a lucky break is all you need is the wrong attitude.

You stressed that you were sending a very serious e-mail and, in turn, I’m giving you a serious response. From the standards we look for in artists you are not ready and, even if you were, we are not looking for more artists to add to our roster.

I know reading the above must feel like a punch to the gut. I really do. When I left college I sent a few desperate e-mails out to professionals asking for critique/help and any replies I got back slammed my work because I had an inflated sense of where my skills were at. Even now, I am fully aware that my strengths lie more with organizing and managing projects over doing artwork day in and day out. That’s reality.

I don’t know you. I know the above critique may feel like a personal judgment on you, but it’s not. I’m sure you’re a wonderful person who wants this more than anything else. Just remember that it’s the same for every person who brings their portfolio up to us at a con or sends a submission e-mail. Maybe it will all click within a year and you’ll be rocking your way in to big name comics and can tell me to screw off when you see me in person. Maybe you’ll take the above as the final straw and give up drawing. I’m not here to tell you what you can be or where you will be, just what I see right now and the work currently in your gallery.

In any case I honestly bear you no malice and wish you all the best with your creative pursuits. I mean that.

Sincerely,
Jim

—

This isn’t the first time I’ve done this kind of critique… check out these older posts:

How to Really Break In to Comics:
http://zubkavich.livejournal.com/165953.html

Everyone’s Got Ideas:
http://zubkavich.livejournal.com/277041.html

Portfolio Desperation:
http://zubkavich.livejournal.com/242685.html

Convention Advice:
http://zubkavich.livejournal.com/255191.html

Movie mega-site Ain’t It Cool News has put together an extensive interview with me all about Skullkickers that includes exclusive art (the first look at the trade paperback cover) and much more!

Please go check it out.

Look what arrived on my doorstep this morning!

Issue #4 will definitely be in stores on December 22nd. Buy a few as Christmas gifts for your fantasy-loving friends.

In a market not known for consistency, we’ve shipped 4 issues back-to-back on schedule and kick butt. 22 pages of rockin’ art and story, fun bonus content, all on time for $2.99.

Believe it.

This Wednesday, December 15th, the collected trade of the mini-series I wrote earlier this year finally arrives. Street Fighter Legends Vol.3: Ibuki TP collects all 4 action packed issues, plus three related bonus stories.

Order Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki on Amazon.com

I’m excited to have the story all in one spiffy book for people to read and enjoy. If you haven’t checked it out yet, now’s your chance! Even if you’ve never played the games or read a Street Fighter comic before, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how accessible this can be.

The big UDON news is live! After a year hiatus UDON is back with a brand new Tribute art book!

MEGA MAN TRIBUTE

Mega Man, the legendary Blue Bomber of video gaming, is our focus this time and we have no doubt this contest will mobilize artists from all over the world to join in our celebration and be a part of Capcom history.

Click on the cover art for all the details