Epitaph # 3 - Night Pheonix Press

Kickstarter: Smaller Art Boards for the Modern Comic Artist

With the comic industry becoming increasingly fueled by indie creators and self-publishers, there’s always the risk that the industry will reach a sort of digital divide; in which those with access to superior technology will be able to get better results than the aspiring illustrator working on a modest PC.

Nathyn Masters of Chicago-based Epitaph publisher Night Phoenix Press has created a Kickstarter project that hopes to level the playing field for the digital comic creator: smaller 8 x 11.5 drawing boards designed with the standard-sized home scanner in mind. So far the project has been backed by artist Trent Kaniuga (Ghost Rider, Creed) and Aizan creator Shawn Alleyne, and received support from Dan Fraga.


From the press release:

Large enough to draw a four to five panel comic and small enough to fit in most average scanners, Panel Pages help upcoming and indy artist go quickly from paper to computer.  Panel Pages are comic art board designed by Night Phoenix Press lead creator Nathyn Brendan Masters that measure 8 x 11.5 with a non-photo border printed on bright white Vellum Bristol board.

“In the past comic artist and cartoonist drew mainly on 11 x 17 non-photo blue board. Now some draw at 10 x 14 or even 9 x 12. But none of those fit well on a regular scanner,” says Masters. “So a person working between mediums who isn’t originating digitally is out of luck if they don’t have extra money for a large format scanner which can cost anywhere from $200 to upwards of $3000 for the top models. They have to run to Kinkos and reduce the art, cut their own board or scan the top and bottom then connect the page in Photoshop. With panel pages artist can simply draw, scan and go straight in to adding their colors or effects. The the paper is real bristol board and they still have the non-photo blue boarder we love.”

Panel Pages measure 8 x 11. 5 and if artist reduce the art down an inch on all sides to 7 x 10.5, they have perfect size to be uploaded to popular comic book printers like Ka-Blam, ComiXpress or even Rink Printing for a standard size comic or they can reduce the page to their needed size for Manga or Digest sized. Each board can also be used as a comic panel in itself for artist who love deep detail. All the artist just has to make their background page in Photoshop. Ink the outer boarder on the art page, turn it vertical or horizontal, draw their art, then reduce the art down in Photoshop and place it were they want on the background.

The Kickstarter project can be found over at http://kck.st/YW7Yq8.

Epitaph # 3 - Night Pheonix Press

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