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Tom Donaldson Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2013 Posts: 24
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Posted: 30 March 2015 at 5:38am | IP Logged | 1
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JB et al, In the ST: New Visions thread, JB mentioned a lag time of 6 months between production of a book and publication. Is this from completion of pencils or from inception of the issues (story meeting, plot, or wherever the issue began the production process)? In this era of "growing roses" we all know that issues can take a loooong time to b produced, but what was the shortest turnaround from inception of an original story (as opposed to pulling an existing story from files to cover deadlines) to release that you have heard of? Any specific examples?
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Steven Legge Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2012 Location: Canada Posts: 866
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Posted: 30 March 2015 at 6:44am | IP Logged | 2
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The shortest turnaround I've read about was Human Torch #5 (the second #5, not the first, there was a typo on the cover numbering.) where Human Torch and Namor battle for "60 thrilling pages"! It took about a dozen guys, but they managed to crank the entire comic out over a single weekend and it went directly to the printers.
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Erin Anna Leach Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 February 2006 Location: United States Posts: 746
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Posted: 30 March 2015 at 8:52am | IP Logged | 3
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Tom, this is gonna be a little different from one artist to another. Right now I am working on a humorous book of my own creation, I write, pencil, ink, and color this book myself. It takes me between 20 and 25 days to complete one issue, some days are faster than others. That is working on a humorous book and me doing everything on it. When I have worked on adventure/ super hero books, I pencil and ink a page a day. I agree with Steve Legge, that Human Torch issue is the fastest turn around time on a book I have heard of that was in the production schedule. Every year there is a contest held where many people create a comic book in 24 hours, but many of these books don't see print.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132134
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Posted: 30 March 2015 at 9:15am | IP Logged | 4
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When I got into the Biz, the basic (and therefore variable) formula, was that the writer, penciler and inker each got one month, while the letterer and colorist each got a week. So that's about three and a half months, with some office/production time factored in bringing it up to four or five months. Ideally, the further completion day is from the day the finished book has to go to the printer, the better.When I was at Marvel, ideally I would turn in my pencils about 5 months before the book hit the stands.* _________________ * This simple fact seems to elude many fans. I have lost track of the number of times someone has written to complain about something in, say, issue 142 and then, when 143 comes out and the "problem" has been "corrected" write again to take credit for it. "Glad you took my advice!" What's missed here, of course, is that when those letters came in about 142, I was already at work on 147.
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J W Campbell Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 June 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 353
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Posted: 30 March 2015 at 9:17am | IP Logged | 5
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I lettered the 'Superior Charity Special' in 2011, which (from Mark Millar typing the first words of the script to me saving down a press-ready PDF of the completed book) was 20 story pages plus cover in 11 hours, 19 minutes and 38 seconds, but that was a deliberate attempt at a record and not an attempt to meet a deadline crunch.
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Andrew W. Farago Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005 Location: United States Posts: 4067
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Posted: 30 March 2015 at 11:23am | IP Logged | 6
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Turnaround's incredibly fast in the digital era, especially for the publishers that deal with a really high volume of content. It seems rare for an artist to be a full month ahead anymore.
Modern editors can be in constant contact with their artists and can receive scanned artwork as soon as the ink's dry, which speeds things up, but editors have just about no lead time anymore, the bigger companies have more people up the chain of command examining and micromanaging content, and editors seem to be handling more books than ever. There's a lot of burnout in that job.
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