--Or, rather the final days of the old one; as a drunk and stoned guy who stood behind me at the big fireworks show here in Toronto put it: "This is stupid!  The new millennium doesn't start until next year.  This is the last year of the old one. This whole party is a year early!  --The next 365 days are going to be like putting in over-time after the holiday office party!"  (Not bad for a drunk and stoned guy, I thought).

Regardless, though, of how big or small a deal it should be considered, this new year has started off with thrusters on maximum for yours truly.  There seem to be about a half dozen new projects flying about here at the illustrious, I Box Studios.

Off the top, I've just gotten into the poster biz.

That's right!

I write more extensively about this in the latest issue, (#30), which should be appearing on stands in a week or so, so I won't dwell upon it here at great length.  Suffice it to say that the two main problems in making posters have both been solved; that of not knowing which of my many paintings to make into a poster, and the fact that a poster run would cost easily $3000, (cash which I always seem to find a better use for whenever it becomes available).  But then it struck me a little while ago that large format printing technology has gotten really good in the last couple of years, offering qualities which boast bright, rich inks, exceptionally good detail and best of all, colors which I can control to my satisfaction.  --I'll have a direct hand in the color correcting phase myself!  (This is a big point for me.  One of the most constant headaches in making comics has been trying to get the covers to print the way I painted them.  A third of the time covers print in ways I did not intend.)

So with all of this high-end print technology at my disposal a mere bus ride away, I blinked and asked myself, "Why the heck am I not offering one-off poster prints?"

More than one reader has inquired over the past few years about how they might obtain some of my color work in a form other than a comic book cover.  While this is very flattering, up until now, I've always had to apologize and somberly explain my reasons.  But no more!  I can now say, "Ah!  But look at this!  I offer posters.  Ho, ho!"

Anyway, the best part about this is that I don't have to gamble.  There will be no risk of producing a poster which will not be to everybody's liking.  This way, every T&K image I've ever painted is now available!  -And I offer three different sizes, plus a couple of other options to choose from.  Designer prints!

Of course, there is the drawback regarding their cost.  A normal, "People can have any color they want as long as it's black,' poster,  I'd probably have sold for $20 bucks or so.  Large format print technology does cost more.  Although, it's surprisingly reasonable.  Based on the kind of prices I was paying for this very brand of graphics service a few years ago, I thought I'd easily be forced to charge in the neighborhood of a hundred and fifty dollars for a medium sized print, especially since they're of a quality so much improved over the products available five years ago.  Boy, was I was wrong!  As it turns out, I can price them FAR more reasonably.  Naturally, I was happily surprised by this and jumped into the project with vigor.  Indeed, I just found a good supplier who will be selling me the, "Cadillac of Mailing Tubes."  (In the words of the girl working their order desk.)  Having received damaged posters through the mail myself in sub-standard tubes, I wanted something which you'd have to back a car over in order to crush.  I was really excited when I found this supplier.  (I think it must be a sign of. . , well, of something when you find yourself really excited by cardboard.)

Anyway, that's something on the go.

And here's something else:  Concerning computer graphics. . .

It feels like I've been scanning now for about 24 straight hours!  (To get this latest up-date into gear.)  There was a piece of dust in my scanner sitting on the mirror/prism system, a little piece which was managing to refract a little 5 pixel wide rainbow which streaked all the way down the length of whatever I scanned.  I didn't notice it until I'd done nearly all of the material I was working on, and so I found myself having to scrap it all, pull the device apart in order to clean it out, and then do the whole scan job over again.  (At 300 and 600 dpi, scans take forever!)  Big fun!

But I can only blame myself.  The dust most likely got into the mechanism from the first time I'd opened it up in order to make the contraption work.  --This device, I should mention, is a new addition to the fleet of I Box Publishing hardware.  It's big.  It can scan images larger than 11"x17" and I am very pleased with it, particularly since I got the thing at a bargain; only $300.

(For those of you who aren't familiar with computer equipment prices, 11"x17" scanners are no longer available in regular computer retail outlets.  It's virtually impossible to find even legal sized scanners these days, (which can work with images measuring 8 1/5" x 14", only three inches larger than a sheet of typing paper).  The normal consumer, it was realized, only seemed to be buying the garden variety, letter-size scanner, and so that's where the consumer electronics companies put all their resources, not wanting to lose money in an effort to bring larger format scanners to the $100 to $300 market.  These days, for a decent 11"x17" scanner, a person can expect to spend thousands of dollars.

But I got mine for only $300.  And I didn't shop from the back of a truck.

Allow me to share my tale of shopping glory. . .

I found it in a Future Shop, (a big, evil, well stocked consumer electronics chain in Canada).  It was a display model which had long ago lost its packaging, driver disks, cables and manual.  Plus, I'd never heard of the company before.  The sales people told me the thing had been sitting on the shelf for ages; through two managerial changes at the store, and that it was now so old that nobody knew much about it other than it was taking up space.  Still, I'm surprised it was still there.  (Surely, there must be other graphic artists in this town who know the value of a great big scanner?)  Under normal conditions I would have hurled money on the counter right then and there, but decided instead that my grudge against the Future Shop demanded I try to talk them down from their already ridiculously low $400.

While I chose long ago to use only for the forces of Good, my somewhat impressive powers of haggling, I also long ago lost all sympathy for Future Shop sales people after learning just how badly they regularly misinform and over-charge their customers.  (The fact that I'd once been taken in by them, hook, line and sinker, way back when I bought my first computer probably has something to do with my unceasing desire to swindle them into the ground at every chance possible.)

One of the great evils in life, I believe, is the system which produces sales people who are paid by commission, and are rewarded by their bosses when they sell a large number of $70, one year warranties and really expensive extras to people who don't realize that an $8 printer cable is just as functional as a $38 dollar printer cable, and that every component in a new computer is already under warranty, and can thus be replaced or fixed free of charge by their various manufacturers.  --I'm currently on my third CDR drive, my second hard drive, and a repaired printer, all of which at no cost to me, were quickly dealt with by apologetic companies eager to deliver good service.  And I didn't have to give the Future Shop a dime.  --Naturally, I can understand how some people might not be knowledgeable enough to identify which part of their computer system has failed, and who would be more than happy to let the retailer who sold them their system deal with those problems.  But my hackles always rise when I recognize the greedy glint in the eye of a sales clerk who knows that knowledge is power and who instead of sharing, would rather be slick and misleading.

So anyway, after some tinkering, (including a fair bit of re-working the cable layout inside the printer, which I am sure must have been some sort of discontinued beta model), I got the derelict 11"x17" scanner up and running.  And disregarding annoying bits of dust on the mirror/prism system, it now functions marvelously.  I am able again to draw at full-size.  --I'd been drawing quite a bit smaller since issue #20, when I Box first went digital.  (A small legal sized scanner had been the largest I'd been able to find back then, --just before the industry phased those out).  So T&K for more than a year, was drawn at 8 1/5" x 14".

Yes, yes.  Those of you who know might ask, "Why didn't you just draw at full size, scan your artwork in two parts and recombine them in the computer?"  Yes, well smarty-pants, while it is possible to stitch together two half scans on a small device and thereby continue drawing full size, it is a very difficult process with B&W artwork.  Color work is fuzzy by nature, and so such recombining can be done with only moderate effort, but B&W work demands a precision which is almost impossible to achieve on a consumer level scanner.  And so I drew whole pages at a smaller size which could be scanned in one shot.

Needless to say, I found the new, smaller size frustrating and cramped, and it took a great deal of work to make sure that pages retained the same feel and quality that pages from earlier issues had maintained.  (I am pleased to report that nobody seemed to notice the size change at the time when I switch over to digital.)  But now I've got a giant scanner, so I'm back working on my big 10"x15" sheets of Strathmore.  And honestly!  It was like stepping outdoors to take a deep breath after having weathered a cold and bitter winter inside a small cabin.

Let's see. . .

Oh yeah.  It looks like I might be moving again in another couple of months.  (This is a very complicated turn of events, although a strangely relaxed and amicable one as well.  Tara Wells and I broke up recently, and though there are some qualities about the scenario which, if I may be so conceited as to say, I think may be fairly unique in the oft-traveled terrain of the relationship, I think however, as fascinating as it is, I'll avoid writing on the subject other than to mention it in passing so that the News from the Studio is more or less complete.)

What else. . .

Oh yeah!  The first three volumes of Thieves & Kings are now available in Indigo Books, (one of the big book store chains around Ontario).  Mother Pickle distribution is to be thanked for this.  They tell me that the other big book chain, Chapters, is expected to be placing an order shortly.

Of course, I'm quite pleased by this, althuogh while I haven't yet visited an Indigo location to see what they've done, I am told that the T&K volumes are stocked shoulder to shoulder with the Tolkien and Star Wars graphic novels.  I'm not entirely ecstatic about that placement, as I would have preferred that T&K be among the regular all-text fantasy novels as I'd always hoped it would be, but what can you do?  From the outset, I knew T&K was a round peg and that it would invariably be hammered into some square holes from time to time.  (And the graphic novel section of any contemporary book store is often quite square, in my opinion.)  And Star Wars graphic novels?  Ugh.  Is it just me, or has everybody else had quite enough of the Big Gouge marketing push from Lucasfilm?  --I am informed that the Phantom Menace will be released soon on VHS.  They'll have the lame pan-scan version generally available, but if you want the widescreen edition, then you'll have to buy the tape inside a big $60 box with a book and some other materials nobody asked for.  Is Lucas even aware of what his marketing division is doing, or did he specifically request that a bunch of ex-Future Shop employees be hired to hawk his wares?

What else. . .

Right!  I've just finished penciling a couple of Quinton Strips, which I'll be posting sometime soon.  As well, there are plans for a reader's art section, where I'll post some of the many drawings, comics and paintings sent to me by those of you who also love to draw.  There's some really great stuff in this pile, so check back in a week or two!

Let's see. . .

Oh yeah!  I'm making wooden ten-sided dice the size of apples.  (Like I said, it's been busy around here!)  But I'll explain about those some other time.  This News Section is quite long enough for today!
 

Take care all!
 

-Mark Oakley, 
January 24, 2000
Toronto