iPad for Life . . . in General

Ok, finally I got around to getting an iPad, snazzy new iPad 2 and iPad 3 just around the corner, anyway, after immersing my self with the iPad, I would like to shed some light on the matter. A lot of people have bought an iPad and really don't know how to use it. So here goes.

The first thing I thought of when I saw an iPad was wow - I can now have all my portfolio, including web site designs, video and everything else on this. In my head was this scenario, say I went to a job interview and there were twenty candidates sitting in the foyer, since this was a job for a creative role, all the other candidates were well groomed, dressed in suitable attire with polished shoes and such. In their hands were leather bound portfolios of twenty of their best works. Me, I just have a thing which looks like a big wallet clasped casually in my hand. So after all the interviews were done, guess who got the job ?

Ok this is just me using my imagination, I really wouldn't be waiting in a que to work for the man, but here's the reason why I would get the job. Well you see, instead of wearing polished shoes, I would be wearing my iPad in a very very fine and luxurious and oh so corporate Sena leather case. Trust me - Spend the $100 bucks or so on this case - it's worth every penny. It holds cards, my cheque books - I had to have the deposit book guillotined ( Westpac make smaller size deposit books ), a cloth to wipe the screen ( and my glasses ), any paper notes books and such, all the buttons accessible bar the front facing camera ( minor ) and a stand - it's looks the goods, cause it is the goods. Nuff said. Now when I got to the interviewing stage, instead of having my twenty best pieces, I handed over to the prospective employer, my entire world, all of it and not only that, he or she could interact with it, browse websites I've built, interfaces I have designed, videos which I have edited and creative which I have created and they are like wow - this guy is from another planet, we like the way you think, you got the job ! So number one - presentation, presentation, presentation. The ultimate No.1 accessory - Sena Leather Case.

Arrow Quiver

Now you do need a pen to write this stuff down, my only gripe with the Sena case is that - it doesn't have a slit / holder for a pen, no biggies I just cut one in the pocket bit ( OH NO ALDO !! YOU JUST CUT A HOLE IN A SENA CASE !!! - Aldo - yeah and ? ) and now my parker pen sits like a arrow in a nice tight quiver, ready to write out cheques or deposits and notes and drawings while I'm supposed to be paying attention in boring meetings.

Ok so this was all sorted, so I carried my iPad around in my hands for a week to see how it felt, how quickly I could whip it out for a presentation and set up the case with the stand, I went to bed with it, I even went into the toilet - sure beats trying to read a newspaper on an iPhone or a real paper for that matter !

The Pen is mightier than the sword

Then I began to get serious, my aim was to get rid of my enormous planner / filofax / diary or whatever the hell you people like to call those things ( I'll refer to it as my diary ). So in my diary, I could easily jot down notes and stuff, uh oh - can't do this with the pad, well you can, with your fingers, but really it just doesn't cut it ( I'm sorry Steve ). So problem number 1 the instant satisfaction of hand writing, found an app called Penultimate and problem solved, handwriting on the pad was now a reality ! But hang on a sec, you still have to use your fingers, trust me I tried to use my fingers, but it's totally unintuitive for hand writing, I'm not in kinder, I'm doing serious work here ! So began my quest to find a stylus. I tried them all, to the point of frustration where I went - stuff this - i'll make my own damn pen - but not the usual one with a capacitive sponge thing you see people make on youtube - trust me - I went to the umpteenth degree, researching capacitive touch, polymers, van der graf generators, electronic engineering, physics, magnetism and at the end of every avenue I cam to a dead end - why ? Well because even if you make a fine tip stylus that works with a capacitive screen - it is the iOs software that limits the registration of a touch - which is a minimum of 6mm - so the finest point you could possibly ever achieve with the pad is 6mm in diameter. Ok. Then I came across a Dagi pen - it looked good - I ordered one straight away, then Wacom released their Bamboo - I had to go through hell to order one of these - but eventually both these pens arrived a day apart - then I was awake for almost three days straight putting these pens through its paces - my verdict ?

These two pens are the Ultimate form of expressive hand writing you could hope to achieve on the iPad, the Dagi feels like a pen, a mechanical pencil, or a fine tip drafting pen, is light and precise, the elliptical tip doesn't seem to effect my depth perception or accuracy in hand writing. The Wacom Bamboo, very high build quality, much heavier than the Dagi in a very good way, this is the pen for artists as it feels like a lead pencil, marker or fine art instrument - hand writing is also very good with this. Really you guys ought to buy them both, together they are worth about $55 - do not buy a wacom bamboo off ebay for $68 - or $78, you can find one for its real RRP of $35 from heaps of places if you look hard enough, I think the Dagi they ship from Taiwan so shipping takes a while but it's worth the wait. My next purchase is going to be on the Nomad paintbrush, but this article is not about doing masterpieces on the iPad so I'll save that for another time. But really, these two are a pair and you really cannot criticise, totally different design on both and totally different feeling on both, if I only had to choose one, I'd probably go with the Bamboo - only because it versatile as a art & writing tool and has a bit of give on the tip which enhances tactile feedback  - the Dagi is for precision and well suited for writing, technical drawing and comic art - use them and you will see, you too will be rocking these two pens in no time.

The Finder and File Management

Now feeling very very happy that I can ditch paper for my cravings of doodling in my diary my next task was file management, in this section, the pad beats my paper diary by a mile. Goodreader is basically a finder and file management for your pad, not only that, it allows you to write on documents and email them, put them in folders and so forth, my only two annoyances with this at the moment is that you have to use iTunes to transfer your files to and from good reader, not only that but iTunes only allows you to transfer single files - that is one at a time - you can't drag a folder - this sux ! But I can live with it for now, a neat trick is to zip a folder and then transfer the zip file, you can open the zip file on your iPad in Goodreader. The second is how files are managed within good reader - you have to tap a " manage " button and select files then, tap a " transfer " button to put them in folders - where the hell is the drag and drop I say - this is a touch device - not a tap device. But aside from that its still pretty good me thinks, things only get better in the future.

RIP Dear Diary, Hello Organizer HD

The final nail in the coffin for my paper diary comes curtsey of a little app called Organizer HD, it took me ages to find this app, I really wanted to kill my paper diary but the freedom of being able to write a note in it was a strong point, I solved that with Penultimate, but yearned for a planner. I use iCal as a diary, but it's quite cumbersome on the iPad, I also wanted a diary app which I could write in with my new styli that I bought, I looked high, I looked low why was this such a hard thing to find ! Then after a week I came across Organizer HD, it had it ALL ! - we almost ALL. This app is literally like a diary / planner / filofax etc. The best feature of this is that it syncs with iCal - so you can manage and plan on ical on your mac, then sync and this will load all events into Organizer HD, you can create an event in Organizer HD and this will be synched to ical and visa versa, you have to configure the options in Settings on the iPad - but this is pretty much set once and forget. Now this has hand writing capabilities also, but it's not what I was really looking for, what would be really cool would be, if you took the handwriting from Penultimate and mated this with Organizer HD and iCal - so iCal events could encapsulate hand written notes in its events as picts or notes even through mail - but that is just wishful thinking at this stage. The new iCal on the pad under iOS 5 looks killer and makes it pretty much on par with the desktop version, I am so looking forward to wireless and iCloud synch, now everyone can synch with your events globally which is really cool !

Ok, so now I have got rid of my paper diary and all I have is a compact little folio with my Pad and my office things, literally, I am carrying my entire business in the palm of my hand, the only thing left is for me to be able to carry my entire accounting system in the palm of my hand but I am developing that as we speak, will let you know when it's available, something along the lines of iAccount - but not actually iAccount if you know what I mean, more on that later.

Ok business is the most important " serious " thing, and my story above is a basic overview of how one would utilise an iPad for " General " business day to day activities, really the main point of focus to make the iPad a viable alternative to lugging around a laptop was:

1) Instant Input with Tactile Response via a Input Stylus

2) File Management

3) File Input and Output

4) Planning and Organization

Communication

For communication, you can hook up Skype and have telephone conversations any where in the world, I also tried video chat over 3g and it works ! ( but it's pretty crappy over 3G - but good on wifi ) - But really we need better communication infrastructure - like 4g or newer, then you could use face time as it was really intended - so go and complain to your government to have a better communications infrastructure in place so you too can video chat from any mobile device just like they do in the space moofees ! My " iPad " " Plan " is with Telstra ( Australia ) - why Telstra ? Well they are not the evil overlords that many claim them to be, ( all other folks you can bitch about your own evil telco overlords in your own country ) really, there just used to be Telecom, then the others came on board later and really the others are leasing their communications from Telstra in the first place. Why Telstra - well cause they have the larger network coverage - which means that if I decide to go for a hike or drive out in the bush, I have my phone line and my 3g working all the time, not only that, you can get a 12gig data pack for $150 which doesn't expire for a whole year - so if you really use you pad for work rather than play - that is a LOT of data bandwidth, think about it, a lot of the time you will be on wifi areas, so 12 GB of 3G is a huge amount for sending emails and stuff and ok, you can even download some videos as well - but in moderation ! And it's really fast 3g !

So there you have it folks, how to use your iPad for business. Yeah, but what about life Aldo ?

Well ok, quickly here's a list of apps I use for day to day things :

• Banking - most banks have their own App which is really convenient, it's like having a bank terminal in your hand that doesn't give out paper money, but you can transfer funds, pay your employees and manage your money any where you are even from the throne.

• Social Media - Get you social media freak on and talk shit and waste company time talking shit while you should be doing work all conveniently from the palm of your hand - the usual suspects - FB / Twitter / Google+ etc. etc.

• Publications - Zinio - almost every magazine in the world available through this app on subscription, time , national geographic money and the rest

• Publications - Flipboard - Internet Articles, digested into Magazine like volumes and categorized, the latest info from all over the internet on literally any topic ! Excellent !

• NewsPapers - I think every news paper has got a app version and if they don't they really need to get with the times or get left behind !

• Books - iBooks - where the hell is the Comic Book category ??

• TV - You Tube & ABC iView is damn great ! I always miss The Gruen Transfer and great documenteries, but not any more thanks to this, just awesome ! The other free to air television stations should be taking notes from the ABC.

• Art and Design Tool Box - Sketchbook Pro | Brushes | Procreate | ArtRage | Mannequin | 123D Sculpt •

• Comics | Marvel |DC | Image | Dark Horse

• Sales | Ebay | Flowcart ( Thats my shopping cart software see here : Link )

• Games ( currently Playing ) | Touch Hockey HD ( I love this game I love this game !!! ) | Sprinkle | Space Invaders Infinity Gene | New Puzzle Bobble HD and others

• Other useful utilities - Australia Post App | Maps | Calculator

Well, thats my rig at the moment, I like to keep it short sharp and with just the useful stuff, no clutter, highly efficient, some other apps I'm waiting on, a story boarding app, so I can go and jam with the pixar storyboard artists . . . . well . . . and thats pretty much it, the rest of the stuff is being addressed with the iOS 5 update and with the release of iPad 3.

So you see from the basics of setting up you iPad for management, you suddenly realise that this is so much more than just a tablet, I purely looked at it from the perspective of how I would like to utilise this as a day to day thing and how this device could help me manage and organise my business first and foremost, before I utilised it for any leisure activities which is the life bit. Suddenly it dawned on me that I also no longer needed a laptop, for presentations or to work with clients, create ideas and concepts or do anything else that I needed a laptop for so far as presentation and client liaison goes. That is it's real power. Really, if there is something that you need the pad to do, chances are that someone, somewhere out there has developed something for that very thing, and hey, if they haven't then Apple has given you all the tools to make it do what you want it to do, by yourself or with like minded people and even earn a bit of crust or go all the way big time.

Get your show on the road. Get yourself the pad !

Wassup people in internet land, I'm now using Flowcart, by ThunderCloud Technologies - www.thundercloud.net.au ,
" the worlds easiest shop cart software " to sell my shit on the net ! Yep, printed comic books are on the way as promised,
as well as Benzina Apparel gear so stay tuned for news as it happens !

You can have an online shop in like less than 15 minutes - with NO Bullshit !

All sales go through PayPal, so it costs next to nothing in fees on sales - BETTER then paying Ebay fees I
tells ya ! You don't need to get a shopping system developed if you got stuff to sell rightaway,

literally - 15 minutes setup - bang - just sign up and you are selling online straight away.

Works on all mobile platforms e.g.. iOS /  Android et - so iPad 2's in da house !

Administration is a breeze ! Better than any e-commerce software out there and much much less complicated,
and believe me - when I say this cause I've tried em all, this just works the way you'd think an online shop SHOULD work !

It's light and very fast, it's light on features as well, but you really don't need half of the bullshit most e-commerce software has,
the developers say it's only going to get better with version 2.0 and I'm already impressed !

You should see, HOW it works - like fully like coverflow with drag and drop and shit, one click payment with PayPal or you
can pay with credit cards through Paypal as well. This is how iTunes should friggin work online or on your computer !!!

If you need a online shop without the BULLSHIT - CHECK THIS IT OUT FO SURE !!!

I don't recommend shit, if it doesn't meet my expectations and this just works !

Following on from tools of the trade, we will look at developing a story. Remember in english class when you you had those creative writing bits, where the teacher would ask you to write a story and then read it to the class ? Well that used to be my most favourite thing to do in english class. This tuition and these exercise are the basic fundamentals of developing a story and script for a comic book or movie. What are the basic things in a story ? A beginning , a middle and an end.

1) The Begining

The beginning of a story has to capture the readers attention, just like a good movie intro captures the audiences attention and drives them deep into the film. When we talk about a story, we can really translate this into a script, which in turn can be translated into a script for a comic book, or movie or both. A book, or novel in the entire story written in words, a script based on a novel or story is like a movie screen play combined with dialogue, a script for a comic book is similar yet, we are not shooting a movie, we are creating panel art, or storyboards which flow with a script in a manuscript which happens to be called a comic book.

2) The Middle

Ok, developing a story, going back to the fundamentals, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. The meat of the story is what actually happens in the middle, in writing terms this is called the climax, the pinnacle of  the story. This is the bit where " something happens " , that the start of the story builds up to, at the beginning this is the best way to develop a story, keep things simple. The climax is the result of the actions in the story, now this can be anything you can think of that has to do with your story, say your were writing a murder mystery ( Murder She Wrote ), the start ensures a detective chasing a murderer through all manner of obstacles and plot, to the point of climax which could be the detective has caught and cornered the murderer, or the murderer has murdered a significant character, this instance the story has reached a high point of tension in the flow, hence climax, what happens at this instance will result in the end, but this is the main point that the start builds up to.

3) The end.

What is that all ? Just kidding, no, the end of the story is very very important, in ancient greek literature and drama, the aspect of a play in theatre is classified as a tragedy or comedy, in simple terms, a sad or happy ending, so you have to decide when creating your story and plot, how you would like it to end. Now there are many different ways of telling a story, which effects the ending, you are the story teller, so it really lays in your mind how the story goes and how it ends, based on what happens throughout the story. Any story can have a happy or sad ending, if the outcome is a mystery, then the determining factor of the ending is determined by the actions preceding the end.

4) How to plot.

The plot of a story is developed through brainstorming, you know, you have this idea in your head, you grab  a piece of paper and write down this idea, then you write other things that pop into you mind about this idea, don't forget to add the nice fluffy clouds in your brain storming effort, once you have you brain storm, you create a synopsis, which is basically a paragraph of text that is a scaled down version of your story. A synopsis can be as simple as a couple of lines to begin with. Think of it as creating a television commercial, you basically have 15 or 30 seconds to tell a story, with a beginning, middle and an end, and also sell a product - but in this instance you are not selling a product , the story is the product.

5) Characters

Every story has characters, they can be anything and any one, character development is very similar to developing a plot for a story, which should be a part of your initial brainstorming initiative, once you have a set of characters, combined with your story plot, you can put your characters to work in the timeline events, the characters don't move the story, rather the over all story - which is the idea, is the substance which incorporates the characters and gives them direction for action.

6) Creating a timeline

A time line is a great way to plan your story in an analytical fashion, its simple, just get a sheet of paper, draw a line, plot the start point and end point and then create nodes with notes that plot out your story, so from the start to the end, a time line is great because it helps you visualise your story across time, you can move story components along a time line until you have a rough time line of events which occurs in your story, you can even add subplots to this time line to spice things up, but we will not get on the subject of subplots at this stage. Your time line becomes like a map of events which occur throughout your story, it is a very useful reference material for writing your story, in-fact as you progress, you may be able to combine, your idea, brainstorming, plot and characters with just a time line alone.

7) Alchemy

Now that you have thought of an idea, did a brainstorm,  written a synopsis, created a plot, a set of characters and created a timeline of events, you can get down to writing your story, as with the timeline, you can incorporate the story and the script into one medium for added efficiency, basically for a comic book, one script page per page of comic art is sufficient. You have to think how a comic is constructed, which means you have to visualise actions, then translate them into poses for characters, add backgrounds and other subtle things to bring your story to life in 2D. Now bake. If you have used the timeline then your story plot is pre plotted, what you do it take a node from the timeline and turn those notes into the script for a page, panel by panel. You can add dialogue, in the script pages as you proceed, panel by panel, you can also add action cues for characters. Once you have did that for 25 pages of a standard comic book format, you have written your script, you have the entire story planned thanks to the time line, so you can continue to write the next script for your next book.

That is pretty much how I can explain how I develop a story, it may not be a text book method but it works for me. Before I go, the MOST important thing for developing a story is to have imagination. Break away from confines of reality and limitations, imagination has no limitations, think grandiose, as I said before, it's your story and your are the creator. I have exercised my mind to the point where I can do pretty much all of the above on the fly, think of it as watching a movie in your head and recording that movie with your hand in text and pictures. The timeline helps you to achieve this manner of thinking and mindset, once you do it a couple of times, you will see how easy it can be. The other important thing is to research the elements in your story as a matter of detail, once you have the detail, then you can experiment with imagination. In your mind, no one says that the sky is blue. So from this post I have hoped that you have learned the merits of utilising a timeline in story development.

After all is said and done, there really is no formula to write a story, you just have to use your head, what I have described above a merely tools to help you realise and materialise  your story, I think dreams are a good starting point for a story more then people tell you, dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer . . . you got your hand on your head, oh no ! Dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer . . .

Up Next, Drawing the fun stuff

Getting back to production, so I had sorted the method in which I was going to go about developing this comic book, I had finalised that the fasted way to create it would be by hand, this time round I had to set up a workflow. So I had to create my DEPARTMENTS of the publishing work flow which I didn't have the luxury to have . . . just yet.

Department 1 - Script Writer - yeah, I did this, the story is in my head, the safest place to keep intellectual property.

Department 2 - Pencils - Vintage Rotoring Tikki from Germany, Staedtler  Clutch Pencil 2H / HB, Pacer eraser, Soft eraser block

Department 3 - Inking - Chinese / Japanese Brushs, Indian Ink, Tachikawa pen holder with custom grips, G Pen, Saji, Maru Nibs, Vintage Rotoring Variant Tech Pens from Turkey & Germany ( which I brought to do engineering drawings with ages ago . . . ) , Adobe Illustrator - Thanks to my mate Rant over in Japan who sent over some of the Brushes - Thanks Rant !

Pen Holders and nibs were sourced from : www.mangaarts.com.au - Thanks Keiko !

Other Nibs were sourced from : www.jetpens.com - Thanks Jet Pens !

Department 4 - Finished Art - Scanned images @ 600 dpi / Line art, Toned in Photoshop

Department 5 - Lettering - Type Set in Adobe Photoshop with Blambot fonts, effect type created in Adobe Illustrator

Department 6 - Desktop Publishing - Layed out in Adobe Indesign

Department 7 - Legal - Lots of reading, copyright etc.

Department 8 - Output - Digitally published document ( Epub ) with Adobe Indesign 5 / XML editing in Apple Text Edit

Department 9 - Distribution - Apple iTunes iBookstore ( TBA )

Marketing 10 - Viral Marketing via Internet / word of mouth.

All work carried out on Apple Mac platform - so thanks Apple !

So there you have it my departments and tools of the trade. My quick, ten easy steps to self publishing, I'll elaborate in detail on each of the departments later on.

What about the paper ? Ok trying to find Bristol Board ( traditional cold pressed illustration board ) in sheets was a nightmare !! Drawing pads from art supply stores are horrendously expensive ! Buying them off ebay is not much better, THERE IS NO SHEETS - you only find PADS - mostly in A4 - A3 is harder to find and way more expensive ! I eventually tracked down a art supply store in Mornington ( Melbourne, Australia ) ( a loooooong way from where I live ) that still bought in sheets of bristol board - but I had to buy bulk sheets, which then had to be cut down to the required size, approx. A3 size, at $5.80 per sheet - I was like NO THANKS ! Then I read . . . and read . . . and read . . . and read . . . hmmm . . . I found something even better, it's called ivory board - but no one brings this stuff in either - the difference ? Nothing at all really, except that bristol board comes in smooth or vellum . . . wait a minute . . . so does ivory board . . .  heeeyyyy, wait a minute . . . so thats how I solved the paper dilemma. I'll set up a section on this very site where you can buy this paper a bit later on.

So basically, these are the tools of the trade, I won't tell you how much these overheads cost me in time and materials, lets just say that the research bit cost way more then the materials and we'll leave it at that.

Up Next, Developing a Story

Ok, guys and dolls, this is the one you have been waiting for, it was a long time coming, but I had to do a lot of things in order to get here. Years and years of work, sacrifice, meeting, thinking, creating, talking,  to build up to the occasion, not to mention timing the event when technology had caught up to allow one to create. I thank Apple® for giving us the iTunes platform and the new iBook store, which has truly democratised publishing.

A lot has happened in the past years, some saw me as hiding in a cave, broken or dead. Some saw little progress, all I got was , " Aldo you know all this shit and you're working in a factory ?, you should be making a lot of money ", yes in an ideal situation. Saying something is very easy, but to put it into action is a lot more difficult, there are many many factors which try and govern, persuade or even down right shape the path you are travelling, but destiny is not predetermined as most think, you are born an empty vessel and it is by your own choices and actions which determines your destiny. You have to overcome all these obstacles, clear your path, wipe aside and separate the truth from the bullshit and only then will the path which you wish to follow materialises. Then you think, in retrospect , " I should have done  that back when " - but no use dwelling on the past, it's like a kid crying over spilt milk. Move on, the path is clear now and besides the time was not right, you had to do all of the above to arrive at this point, read above about destiny and making choices.

So here I sit at the end of 2010, exhausted, with a comic book in my hand, the culmination of over ten years worth of experience and living life, god knows how many packets of cigarettes I have consumed and how much money I have spent on said cigarettes, at least I haven't lost any hair over all of this.

Over the course of time I asked many many people to partake and share the development of this series of books, to the point where I rounded up the best and brightest minds which I had access to, to teach them the ways so as to create a team of super talented specialist who could be called upon, but as the story goes, this never eventuated to anything, as we know, we are all individuals and we all have individual thoughts, there were other factors influencing what I was trying to create, but lets just put it down to human error instead of other things I could go on about.

So there I was, sitting, with the burning urge to create, the task at hand was akin to a individual looking up a very steep mountain top to reach the summit, a lot of research, testing and so forth had to be carried out, which I did, trying this, reading that, doing  little experiments, I came to the conclusion that this was like the story of the Little Red Hen. So the task seemed daunting at first. More research was needed to be carried out. I read and read, trawled through forums, how did companies like Marvel, Image and DC create, what I uncovered was that they had teams, there were specific people for each tier of the project involved in creating a comic book, much like a movie production team, there was a person who wrote the script, there was a person who did pencil drawings and then there was a person who inked the pencils, a team to colour the inked drawing on a computer, there were type setters who did the lettering, a publishing department which laid out the book, an art director to over see all of the production and then a prepress department and finally the publishing and marketing teams with all the business mumbo jumbo. Yes, the mountain peak seemed even more difficult to access.

As I sat and thought, all of the above were a luxury for me, so what I HAD to do was improvise on the fly, I would have to make super efficient ways and production systems in which a lone person could cover the tasks of over 4 teams and a couple of directors, then more research, then putting the research into a experiment. Everything had to be sourced from nothing. I read specifically about manga artists in japan who create massive amounts of material alone, I thought, yes this is the way to go about it from their example. The most difficult aspect of creating a comic is the story, but more importantly the style - yes the style. The style is the key element which gives the material a consistent look and flow, this is the most difficult part, this took me over six months to create the style. After which market research was carried out, a showing of a a couple of finished pages to professionals and general public, Facebook was great for this. The feedback was great. I had hit the nail on the head. My favourite comment ? " Dude, this looks bitchin ! "

To computer or to not computer that is the question & the business.

During my research and developing of the style, I experimented on utilising the computer to illustrate the comic on, unfortunately, the look and the traditional style which I was trying to achieve just didn't cut it digitally. Aside from that, it was more time consuming to create on a computer for some reason. Some more experiments followed, until the conclusion yielded that if I were to be efficient in production workflow, then the ONLY way to go was to draw traditionally - an aspect which is shared unanimously by industry professionals and the dinosaurs. So luckily in spite of the mostly digital workflow of modern times, I had always set aside a little time each week to keep my traditional skills intact, which now paid me dividends in time management and creating me that workflow. I had to go back to the drawing board ! ( Sorry )

I treated production in a business sense, I had to know what was costing me, so in the work flow I managed to calculate that on average, it took six hours to create a page from pencils to finished art, pretty good considering Jim Lee from Marvel and Image fame considers eight hours to be an average time for one page to be produced. I allowed my self  to do a page in six hours due to the style. I went right back to the old school, black and white baby, I borrowed a little from how manga artists produced their work, line work and shading with letraset tones - this was in fact one of the elements of the style which helped me achieve the look I was after. I dwelled on this for quite some time, to the point of frustration, until I drew a page and finished it did I realise my style. My thing is to do a piece of artwork, leave it on the drawing board, go to sleep and wake up the next morning and look at it with fresh eyes - if the drawing gives me the same feeling of satisfaction at the time I created it and finished it the night before, then it has passed my test. When  I show the said drawing to people for feedback and they give me back the same comments, then I know that I have hit the nail on the head and that I am on a winner.

So production time had been settled. So thirty two pages should take me approximately  192 hours or if I did a page a day, 32 days. Happy with that. So if I paid myself as an artist alone at the standard industry rate of $55 per hour, it would cost me or rather I would be paying myself $10,560 per issue for development. Why is this so important ? Well self producing a comic book is an investment of your time and we all know the old saying of " time is money " . A comic book is commercial art, so the business side of it is most important to understand.

These are just some of the things off the top of my head about developing the basics of a comic book. There is much much more to it than that. Over the coming months I will share more thoughts and information on this page and I will be selling my services in the digital publishing section for people and companies who wish to develop and produce content for Digital Publishing in epub format, so stay tuned.

I hope this has shed some light on what it takes to create something from nothing. Oh wait. You want the story or synopsis ? I've told you heaps but I have told you nothing ? Sure I have told you something, how to make something from nothing. My greatest inspiration to do this cam from a man called Edward Leedskalnin, who built the Coral Castle in Florida USA, my favourite quote from Ed ?  " It's easy if you know how ". If he can build a castle by himself, then why the hell can't I build a comic book by myself.

Most people which I have spoken to in many aspects practice what I call the " self defeat syndrome ", like I said, when looking up at the mountain top, don't be daunted that it's too far and dangerous or " IT'S TOO HARD " - I really hate that saying, rather THINK, HOW you can get to the top, use your head and a complex issue suddenly becomes a trivial matter.

More next . . . The tools of the trade.

The iPad. Ok, there seems to be much confusion about this device. Before the tech heads get their nickers in a knot,I will tell you why this device is going to be successful and why people will buy it and why once again, Apple has defined a new key segment and a new market with a new device.

So Red Siimons sold his ipad when he came back to Australia and the Age has been giving it pretty big rap, probably cause they are intimidated by it's presence, infact all news paper companies would be intimidated by it, as well as book publishers etc. etc. Even Apple loyalists are asking questions and now they say that Apple is the next Microsoft. Ok Then.

Lemme break it down to ya'll, the KEY feature of the iPad - IS NOT that it's a big version of the iphone, or that it's a ebook reader replacement or even a portable computer ( cause it doen't run a proper operating system ), or you can watch movies on it or that it doesn't play flash, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH !

The iPad is designed for people who are not computer savvy. That could mean you mum, you auntie, your dad, grand dad, grand mum or whatever. It is SPECIFICALLY designed to bridge the gap in technology with the old and young generation. To the younger crowd who are all technology savvy, the iPad may appear somewhat lame and retarded in the features. If you are used to the latest gazillion mega herts processor and video card run of the mill pc or what ever and you reckon that the ipad is crap, THEN it means that the iPad is not designed or intended for you. But you can still have one if you want.

Think of how easy an ipad is for non tech savvy consumers, like the older generation, who can pick up this device, write a letter, or send an email, sort their photos and all of the other stuff with relative ease, there is like, four buttons on this thing so you really couldn't stuff it up if you tried. Add in the touch interface and you make a easy system even easier to use for the novice. Aside from defining this market, they will expand upon it, why ? Well I just told you, people who would have a phobia of a computer or computing device will suddenly be able to pick up the ipad and just use it to do what they need it to do. Well how about that ! gandmomma is with the times and all it took was this little device and a little bit of ingenuity.

But, you can still use it even if you are a tech savvy dude or dudette, so aside from all the blah, blah, blah and what it can and can't do, LOOK at how and WHY it is designed and for WHAT purpose, before running at the mouth. No one says that you have to buy one. But you can even if you are a die hard windoze person and use it in secret, I won't tell a soul.

The bottom line. The iPad IS NOT a substitute for your laptop or your PC - even though I'd love a REAL 17" mac tablet ( Hint Hint ! ) I will wait until Apple make one or if I get really desperate, I'll shell out the horrendous price for a 15" Axitron Mod Book in the mean time. So now you understand where the ipad really fits in and what purpose it serves. See, they look at the big picture and you guys are accusing Apple of becoming like microsoft, Apple is the company M$ aspires to be, not that there's anything wrong with that. See they really do, Think Different, and as far as their policy of protechting their name and brand, jeez, ask yourself, you'd do the same damn thing if you were in that position. Don't kid yourself. If you really want a mobile PC with a OS in a small form factor and with touch stay tuned for my review on the Hanvon Touch Pad - which I have been playing with for the last couple of months and I'll tell you how good it is ! Oh, yeah , I've been every where man, I've been every where man . . .