Posted in: Comics | Tagged: cleave, Comics, HRL, kickstarter

Making 'Cleave' Happen: Creating A Comic When You Know Nothing

Published Sat, 15 Jul 2017 11:00:02 -0500

Fletcher Helle writes:

I've never been good at finishing things. I'm great at starting them, some might even say the best. I've picked up more hobbies than I could count, enjoying them for a time before casting them off into a growing pile of woodworking tools, paintbrushes, and sketch books.

In February of 2015, I decided I was finally going to finish something. It had always been my dream to create a comic book, and with a nice Christmas bonus check in hand, it seemed the right time. I started a script for a fantasy sci-fi mashup that had been knocking around in my head for some time. After a handful of revisions, I had a finished product, but no artistic talent.

At all.

I set out to find an artist that would do my story justice. DeviantArt was a great place to start, but it seemed all the artists were either too expensive or not experienced enough. The sweet spot of "good but within budget" eluded me. Ultimately, I happened upon a Facebook group with the goal of connecting writers to artists, the appropriately titled Connecting Comic Book Writers and Artists.

After my first post, Davide Pozzoni from Italy replied, and that was that. His art was perfect for Cleave, blending the sci-fi/fantasy elements with the easy-going tone I was looking for. Character concepts, storyboards, and sample layouts all passed in a whirlwind. He also helped me realize I had accidentally put a double-page spread on the wrong pages. Whoopsies.

After half the artwork was done, we went on the hunt for a colorist. The Facebook group had worked out, so naturally, I just posted there again. In no time at all, David Alonso had joined the team. Because they were both overseas, with the time difference we only had about two hours to all work together. It helped that they had more experience than I had, and the truth of the matter is that in all likelihood there was only two hours for me to get in their way.

Once the art and colors for Cleave were done, I found my letterer on Kickstarter: Ken Reynolds in the UK. One of the rewards for his book Cognition was lettering work on another book. Easy-peasy!

That's it. That's how I made a comic book. I found people smarter than me to take care of the tricky stuff. Davide, David, and Ken gave me advice when I wanted it and recommendations when I needed them.

So, if I were going to give advice to people that want to make a comic book, it would be to save up enough money to pay your creative team what they're worth, then hire absolute rock stars to make something magical.

Cleave is currently on Kickstarter going for a published run. The book is already made, we're just aiming for a print run so we can sell physical copies.

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