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[Comeekz]

To be honest, I hadn't read your blog posts until you asked, but I'm glad I did, because they add a great deal to the site. I especially liked your assessment of modern comics and your entry on Speedball pens and other classic artist's tools. A regularly updated blog can also draw visitors to your site, as I understand it, if you occasionally mention names and topics that people may be searching for.

[The Ghost Man]

Thanks, that's very valuable information that I've been trying to get feedback on for a while. I appreciate your response and you are correct about a regularly updated blog driving more visitors to the site. The problem for me has been time, as I'm actively engaged in illustration studies as well as developing the creative and production infrastructure for an independent publishing company. Mind you I'm not complaining at all, but between those two massive time-consumptive endeavours as well as managing the website, tending to home maintenance/repair, family, gardening, exercise in addition to a full-time job, it's been a struggle to fit it in.

I'll manage somehow and hack out some time to dedicate to a new post. However, outside of yourself, visitors have been silent as church mice for the most part and I don't receive hardly any feedback nor comments. Feedback is a vital component as it aids in the informational direction and collaborative environment I've been trying to foster there. Plus it let's me know that there's interest and that I'm not wasting my time or putting out information that no one actually gives a toss about.

It took research and work but the site's Search Engine Optimisation is rock solid and comes up in all major search engines, it has an A rating for speed, performance and accessibility (by contrast, Marvel got an F). As of January of this year, it has a powerful Content Distribution Network so that content can be delivered efficiently and near instantaneously no matter where you are located in the world.

Cheers, and sincere thanks for your time, the visit and your feedback.

- TGM

[SuperScrounge]

Found another Writer's Digest article about writing for comics back in 1941. https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1941-10_21/page/38/mode/2up

Not as colorful as the last one, but I thought you'd like to take a look at it.

[SuperScrounge]

Oh, he had another article in the next issue with some script samples. https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1941-11_21/page/34/mode/2up

[The Ghost Man]

BRIILIANT!! SuperScrounge, these are a Godsend. Valuable Golden-Age comic writing information is in these forgotten magazines, and I thank you for uncovering and posting them here. I added the first one to the TVIA Library and will do the same with these. It's vital to share this with all who are interested in learning these techniques. AP can tell you, I've been looking for this exact information for a few years. I envision a brighter horizon for fan and supporters of the comic book medium and I've been working to resurrect, reinvent and deliver something epic.

Please keep them coming, truly great stuff here.

Cheers, TGM

[SuperScrounge]

You're welcome. 

Here's a third article from the same writer, this time on the text stories that old comics had to run. https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1941-12_22/page/24/mode/2up

[The Ghost Man]

Just keeps getting better and better. Sincere thanks again friend, this is excellent! All 4 PDF's of these have now been uploaded to the TVIA Library

[SuperScrounge]

Another Writer's Digest article about comics. Not quite as in-depth as others, but it does have a page of script and the penciled & inked page. https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1946-01_26/page/12/mode/2up

[The Ghost Man]

Exceptional find, big thanks SuperScrounge!

[SuperScrounge]

And now we come to, probably, the most well-known Writer's Digest article on comics writing... Stan Lee's There's Money in Comics. https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1947-11_27/page/10/mode/2up

By the way, Ghost Man, do you have a time period that you don't want to see these types of articles?

This one is from November 1947, so still within the Golden Age of Comics (more or less), but I'm not sure when you consider the making of comics to have changed too much from what you want to feature.

[Captain Audio]

It occurred to me that during the 20th century for most American children and young adults for that matter, comics , followed by pulp fiction ,were their only real inspiration to develop their reading skills.

[The Australian Panther]

It occurred to me that during the 20th century for most American children and young adults for that matter, comics , followed by pulp fiction ,were their only real inspiration to develop their reading skills. 

Quite correct. and given that, in this mobile phone age, most won't and don't read books and have an average attention span about the same as that between two sets of ads on free-to-air TV, they still are. These statistics are verifiable.

The current generation is predominately visual and audial when it comes to ingesting new information.         

[Captain Audio]

It occurred to me that during the 20th century for most American children and young adults for that matter, comics , followed by pulp fiction ,were their only real inspiration to develop their reading skills. 

Quite correct. and given that, in this mobile phone age, most won't and don't read books and have an average attention span about the same as that between two sets of ads on free-to-air TV, they still are. These statistics are verifiable.

The current generation is predominately visual and audial when it comes to ingesting new information.         

Several years ago I read that literacy rates were higher in the Northern states during the 18th and 19th century than they are in the 21st century.
Even in Medieval times it was considered a duty for even the lowest commoner to learn to read and write, to some extent anyway, and generally the local churches were tasked with teaching them.
Universities in Europe were open to worthy commoners , probably requiring some sponsorship of some lord of course.
You couldn't very well have a thriving economy if no one could read bills of lading and such and proclamations went unread.
Anyone with a head for numbers was worth his weight in gold, or silver perhaps. But then 16 stone of potatoes would be a small fortune to a peasant back then.

[The Ghost Man]

SuperScrounge:
"And now we come to, probably, the most well-known Writer's Digest article on comics writing... Stan Lee's There's Money in Comics. https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1947-11_27/page/10/mode/2up

By the way, Ghost Man, do you have a time period that you don't want to see these types of articles?

This one is from November 1947, so still within the Golden Age of Comics (more or less), but I'm not sure when you consider the making of comics to have changed too much from what you want to feature."

Much sincere appreciation for finding these and sending them over SuperScrounge I posted the one before this to the TVIA Library. I count all of these as rare and grand additions with solid gold information. I'm not bound by any conventional time periods so anything you find that contributes to the knowledge base of writing professionals is absolutely welcome.

Cheers for these finds as well as your time,

- TGM

[The Ghost Man]

I agree with AP and Captain Audio's statements on the history of literacy, the current deficit of attention span and the changeover to almost exclusively visual and auditory inputs today. What I'd fancy to hear from is a member of the younger generation raised in this digital environment, to ascertain why that is. Is it true that they find these "antiquated" literary mediums outdated, boring and obsolete? Or is it that this information is not circulated within social media circles to attract attention to it? Does the information have any relevance for them? Of course suffice to say, there's no intent to generalise groups of people as people's individual diversity of interest varies widely.

I can say that there is an active public campaign to groom and manipulate ideas, inputs and perceptions to follow certain driven agendas. Perception management and the manufacture of mass consent seem to now nullify the value of cognitive reason, critical thinking and individual interest and personal opinion. The great irony is that politically couched tolerance is weaponising intolerance for divergence of opinion and is used as a cancellation tool for the censorship of divergent discourse.

[SuperScrounge]

Okay, Ghost Man, if I come across any more I'll post a link and let you decide. 

As for the argument about shorter attention spans, I've heard that for a loooooooooooooooong time. "TV is ruining people's attention spans!" "Rapid fire comedy is ruining people's attention spans!" "Email and Twitter are ruining people's attention spans!"

Problem is the Harry Potter books prove it wrong. Give someone something that catches their interest and they'll put in the time to read it.

[The Australian Panther]

Problem is the Harry Potter books prove it wrong. Give someone something that catches their interest and they'll put in the time to read it. 

Well, they bought them but did they read them?
I was a bookseller for a number of years and found out that when a book gets a lot of publicity  or wins a prize, the title becomes a best-seller because people like to display it on their coffee-tables for the status. We employed someone who was an expert in getting people to do just that.
And the Harry Potter books ate now almost a generation old. The current generation knows Harry Potter from the films and the internet. As a bookseller, I can assure you that the Harry Potter phenomenon was very much about genius-level marketing.   
Also, look at the history of publishing. Books and Magazines boomed during the 40's and 50's and began to drop off after that. And now we have the era of eBooks and audio books.
Publishing is a dying industry.
Cheers!       
 

[Robb_K]

Problem is the Harry Potter books prove it wrong. Give someone something that catches their interest and they'll put in the time to read it. 

Well, they bought them but did they read them?
I was a bookseller for a number of years and found out that when a book gets a lot of publicity  or wins a prize, the title becomes a best-seller because people like to display it on their coffee-tables for the status. We employed someone who was an expert in getting people to do just that.
And the Harry Potter books ate now almost a generation old. The current generation knows Harry Potter from the films and the internet. As a bookseller, I can assure you that the Harry Potter phenomenon was very much about genius-level marketing.   
Also, look at the history of publishing. Books and Magazines boomed during the 40's and 50's and began to drop off after that. And now we have the era of eBooks and audio books.
Publishing is a dying industry.
Cheers!       

Yes!  We traditional comic book artists and storywriters are losing jobs and clients right and left.  Both of my employers (Dutch and Danish Disney Comics), are continuously cutting down their production, each year.  Soon, it will be all over for paper issues.  And the amount of e-books and pages will probably be a lot smaller than the paper pages we have now, unless a LOT of new customers will be willing to pay for e-books on their own, without sharing their content with friends.

[Comeekz]

I can say that there is an active public campaign to groom and manipulate ideas, inputs and perceptions to follow certain driven agendas. Perception management and the manufacture of mass consent seem to now nullify the value of cognitive reason, critical thinking and individual interest and personal opinion. The great irony is that politically couched tolerance is weaponising intolerance for divergence of opinion and is used as a cancellation tool for the censorship of divergent discourse.[/font][/size]

Well put! As for generating interest in the classics, even in this era of ever increasing competition for peoples? time and attention, I think there will always be room for interest in the classic comic books.

[SuperScrounge]

Another Writer's Digest article on comics writing, Comics Are Big-Time!

[The Ghost Man]

Most appreciated SuperScrounge! Writer's Digest has been a true gold mine for these forgotten instructional and informational nuggets. Cheers for the exceptional effort in mining these out.

[SuperScrounge]

Harry Harrison wrote an article for Writer's Digest called Scripting for the Comic Books.

There's also a one page article about 3-D comics, but while that is an interesting article about the faddish nature of publishing it doesn't really have any how-to info in it. *shrug*

[The Ghost Man]

Apologies for the belated reply SuperScrounge I've been exceptionally busy this week. I'll check out the link and I much appreciate your time and consideration in bringing these to my attention. Thanks to your efforts TVIA's Library on comic book scripting is now robust and thriving.

Cheers,

- TGM

[SuperScrounge]

You're welcome!

I understand that sometimes life gets really busy so not a problem.

I'm glad my finds have helped your comic book scripting section. 

[SuperScrounge]

The July 1957 issue of Writer's Digest, in its Cartoonist Cues column, has a little article on drawing perspective.

https://archive.org/details/sim_writers-digest_1957-07_37_8/page/62/mode/2up

Might be a little simpler than some other drawing perspective articles, but I thought you'd like to see it.