Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, kickstarter, rumble moon, skuds mckinley

Skuds Mckinley Is Rocking Rumble Moon

By Hannah Means-Shannon

Pennsylvania-based indie comics artist Derek Skuds Mckinley Jones (known as "Skuds" to friends) is Kickstarting the print volume of his second anthology Rumble Moon 1, including a reprint of his first book, I'll Take You To The Moon & Leave You There in the hopes of getting the volumes ready for sale at the Locust Moon Comics Festival in Philadelphia this October. Skuds' first book was a seriously impressive venture, printed in strikingly high quality oversized format with shocking pink covers and containing a festival of ink set loose on a morphing, psychological, yet recognizable landscape of human experience. Skuds, who describes himself as an "alternative illustrator" produces album and t-shirt designs for heavy metal and punk bands as well as pursuing comics, illustration, and design work on commission.

He's setting out to raise 1600 dollars to bring both already completed books to print and the pledge rewards for backers start at the 5 dollar mark for digital downloads with copies of the new book combined with art prints from 10 dollars and upwards. His first book was so much in demand that it quickly sold out, so it'll be a relief to his fans to hear that both his first book and his second are included in this venture. I'll Take You To The Moon & Leave You There is a 56 page volume in lavish black and white, and Rumble Moon 1 weighs in at 44 pages, so as he points out, that's a grand total of 100 pages included in a comparatively modest campaign.

But what's his philosophy? He shares some thoughts with us;

Hey dudes and dudettes, it's Skuds Mckinley here and I'm going to talk about my upcoming book, Rumble Moon. The Kickstarter I'm running to get this printed (and my first book reprinted), and some tips on getting your work as a comic book artist out there in the world.

Being an illustrator and a comic book artist is a hard life to live. This is a field where you have to work your butt off, and taking days off are out of the question soldiers.

First off, get a website together and keep it simple. Have a portfolio page be the first page that comes up on your website and make sure it showcases up to date work. No one cares about the drawing of Spider-Man you did five years ago. They wanna see what you did today. Keep your blog up to date. Its hard to do, believe me, its something so easy to forget because you're thinking about drawing or filling out invoices – but you have to! At least try to keep to a schedule. Maybe blog 3 days a week and keep it personal and fun. People love to see how you really are as an artist. Open yourself up to your fans, let them in.

Draw everyday!!

4 to 6 hours every day. No excuses! If you want to be a comic book artist you have to do this, you have to be fast and be cognisant of deadlines. Draw things that you really enjoy. If you love manga or Spider-Man, draw that stuff!! Don't just draw things that are popular, it'll come off as fake. Push yourself to the limit to be a good artist. Learn perspective drawing, learn anatomy, learn how to draw vehicles. Draw everything! This will put you ahead of the guys that draw the same crap over and over again. Try not to spend so much time worrying about a style or comparing yourself to others, you'll just be shooting yourself in the foot. Just focus on being a good artist who can draw anything thrown at them. Over time your style will start to show itself.

Social Media!!!

Get on it! I use Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest, plus a website. This costs me a whopping ten dollars a month and that's only for the website. You have to be everywhere on the internet. It is not your enemy, it is your best friend – especially when used right. Post everyday on all your social media platforms, retweet, find anything you think is interesting and repost it. Talk to other artists on these platforms, make friends! Even if people don't respond right away, they will eventually as long as you keep up to date with posts. Once again just be yourself, vent your frustrations but don't make that all you talk about. People will just get weirded out. Ask your fans questions, ask for their input on your work in progress. You have to engage with people, so that means if you post something and one person responds to it, respond right back and just talk. Social media is integral to you building an audience and is the quickest and cheapest way to bring fans your way.

Forums and blogs are another great way to engage and bring people your way. Weigh in on topics that blogs post about. Give your opinion. Most blogs make you supply a link to your website before posting and if someone likes what you said, they'll click that link and hopefully like your work. There are so many blogs out there that are always looking for new and upcoming artists to talk about, so don't be afraid to contact them. Just send an email, make it professional, no spelling errors and keep it simple and short. Just introduce yourself and say what you're hitting them up for. If they like your work they'll help you out. My advice on blogging and trying to get featured is to just hit up as many blogs as you can. That way you're not getting hung up and bummed out when your favorite blog doesn't respond to you.

Conventions!

Go to them! Bring a portfolio with you and ask all the publishers if they'll look at it. Most of them will say no which you should be understanding of. They are there to sell books and push new projects. They're hard working people who don't have a lot of time on their hands. So if they say no, just smile and say thank you or ask if there is a way to get a card from an editor to contact.

Do not get frustrated. I've gone to tons of conventions and I always keep a portfolio with me.

You never know if a publisher will be cool and say sure kid I'll take a look. If you're trying to break into comics, do not go to a con dressed up in cosplay. No one will take you seriously at all. You're trying to get hired not get a compliment on your outfit.

Meeting stars in the field…

When you meet your favorite artist or writer, be cool. Don't approach them acting like they're gods walking on earth. They are people, NORMAL people like you and me. You want to come off as a professional first and a fan second. If you don't act like a peer, they won't think of you as a peer. It's all about what you project. That doesn't mean walk up to them and just start talking about yourself or showing your ego. Just introduce yourself and say hey I really dig your work. Talk to them but be weary of social queues and if there's a line keep it short. If they look like they don't want to talk keep it short and move on. If you do happen to have an awesome convo with them, ask if you can exchange emails. If they say yes, cool… if they say no, cool. If you do get their email, be respectful and do not bug them. You want to be a professional, so an occasional question is cool but everyday you're asking them questions, you're going to weird them out. Just be cool and build the relationship, let it come on its own, don't push for something.

Also the best place to talk to other artist are the after parties. This is where the fun really is! It's where the vibe is cool because no one is worried about selling books, they just wanna chill and get drunk and have a good time. This is where you get to meet people and maybe make some friends. Word of advice though, watch how much you're drinking! I made the mistake of getting too drunk at SPX last year and ended up insulting Dan Clowes, totally mispronouncing his name a bunch and just being dumb.

When you're doing a Kickstarter, all the tips above will help you infinitely. Don't be a control freak either. Get help! Ask your friends if they'll repost for you! Don't ask them to be the one to buy your work, ask them to help with promoting. Same goes with your family. You want your fans and people who don't really know you to get involved with this. Post about your project a few times a day, but don't overload your Facebook and other social medias with the same link. People will get pissed and delete you. Also, don't sign up for a bunch of forums and have your first post be about your Kickstarter. People on the board will destroy you! Do your research on Kickstarter! Before I did my first one, I researched for about two months reading everything I could about successful projects. Study what they do. There's now a Kickstarter school filled with tons of information on tips and tricks that will help you along the way.

Do a video, keep it short. I like videos that are about a minute to 30 seconds long. Just talk about your project and what your trying to accomplish with it. Keep your incentives cool but affordable to you. Prints are always a great thing to offer because they're pretty cheap to get made. Screen prints are another thing to consider. Its a little bit more expensive to do but it adds a human effect to the print and in itself is a work of art. T-shirts are good, once again a little expensive but they grow cheaper if you order a large quantity. Stickers, keychains and sketches are always good as well because they're something that no one else will have.

Start your Kickstarter goal at your bare minimum. Think about your fan base in numbers and gauge how much you yourself would pay for something. If you don't feel comfortable paying $15 for a 24 page book, don't offer it. Do not start a Kickstarter if your project is not done. This is the thing that is killing Kickstarter because people want to start a 300 page graphic novel and have no pages done, then they quit because this is their first time doing a book and they thought it was going to be easy, but it's not! And then they walk away with a bunch of peoples money, leaving them empty handed and disgruntled. Factor in all of your costs for everything you have to pay for. Kickstarter takes a cut and so does Amazon – and let's not forget about shipping. Those bit me in the ass on my first Kickstarter because I was in such a hurry to get it out there.

These are some tips that I hope will help you all out, they've worked for me but a lot of this was through trial and error and finding what works and what doesn't. Just stay strong and always be open to trying something new.

So, now lets talk about my new book and the Kickstarter I'm running for it.

Check out the link to my Kickstarter:

Rumble Moon is my second one man anthology styled comic book. Three new stories that are not (and will not be) on the web, so this is the only way you're going to be able to read them. I went in a totally different direction with Rumble Moon. Everything from panel layouts, to style and design were completely new for me. I wanted to do a book that was a fun and funny read, something I think is missing from the independent scene. I really tried to take myself out of this book and make stories that weren't from my personal life and add a more escapism feel to the work. I also concentrated on making my artwork and writing tighter as this is something I also feel gets overlooked sometimes when it comes to indie comics. I want people to look at the art and just feel amazement and inspiration.

The first story in this book follow two kids who are ex space pirates searching for vinyl in a deformed city. Fighting and robot suits come into play. Also lots of dick jokes and talk about vinyl.

The second story follows a stressed out college dropout who has a very crazy night at a party.

Weird stuff happens and I think it adds an interesting take on something that really happens at parties.

The third follows a space being whose job it is to fix dieing planets by summoning a gigantic robotic beast. He's depressed and has an interesting talk with an alien.

I'm offering up this book and a reprint of my first book, I'll Take You to the Moon and Leave You There Vol.1, which can be read for free on my website, www.skudsink.com.

There are a ton of prints, including a limited edition 5 color screen print, and a limited edition 2 color screen printed shirt, only available through Kickstarter. I'll also be doing sketch cards and 14×17" original drawings and watercolor paintings.

I've recently added an exclusive incentive for Bleeding Cool readers! ****What is it?****

So thank you for your time and help, and I hope I helped in some way. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to hit me up.

Never give up on your dreams.

He describes some of the three short stories and one longer piece contained in Rumble Moon 1 as "kids turning into robots and fighting for vinyl records" and "a planet crafting god who is alone and depressed". You'll find plenty of sci-fi elements in Skuds' works, but also a great deal about relationships, and the ways in which the "ordinary" quickly becomes the extraordinary to reflect emotional states. His artwork truly speaks for itself, though, so have a gander at his worthy pages below. You can view 7 pages of the new anthology from his Kickstarter page, as well, of course, as watching his promo video. With any luck, the Locust Moon Comics Festival will be able to boast a new Skuds book and a new tide of boundary-pushing indie comics goodness will be unleashed on readers whether they can attend the festival or not. Biding your time until you can get your hands on what promises to be another mind-bending collection of comics in Rumble Moon 1, you can also follow his projects on Facebook.

Hannah Means-Shannon is a regular contributor at Bleeding Cool, writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org, and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress. Find her bio here.

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