What is this web comic thing?
If you hit my blog with any frequency, you know I've been going on about a graphic novel/web comic project, Saltwater Witch. I've been posting 3 -5 pages every week (Monday's) since November. It's the story of one of my characters from my novel Seaborn (Juno Books, 2008), with the events taking place about five years before the events in Seaborn.
And it's free. I want anyone who likes fantasy, comics--any graphic forms of stories, the ocean, magic, or just a good story to check it out, grab the PDFs and share them. I have a lot of work licensed with Creative Commons licenses of various kinds, but I haven't placed Saltwater Witch under one yet. I'm still deciding.
So, what's this all about, and what am I getting out of it?
Okay, I'm after readers, lots of them, and I'm not going to cover up the fact that I really want you to buy a copy of Seaborn--and if you already have one, buy one for your local library.
But there's more to it...
I'm giving Saltwater Witch away for now because I also want to build up my comic art skills. (Give me some feedback!) Readers--and consequently (or maybe it's the reverse) libraries and bookstores--are buying more graphic novels and comics, and the market isn't going to get anything but bigger.
I want to be a part of that.
You've no doubt seen the graphic versions of stories from Laurel Hamilton, James Patterson, Jim Butcher, Cory Doctorow, and so many others. This is the big time, this the direction things are going, and as a writer who has some drawing and painting skills, I want to do anything I can, expand in every direction that will make me and my work more marketable. That's the key. I think so, anyway.
How long do you expect Saltwater Witch to run--in pages?
I couldn't tell you anything but a guess. It'll obviously be much shorter than the actual novel manuscript, which is under consideration with a publisher. No word yet on where that's going, but these are tough times, and editors have to make bottom-line-affecting decisions--and I'm an author with one published novel and a couple short stories out there. On the other hand, no one gets anywhere without taking chances, or looking to the future. So, maybe it's a great time to be an author with one published novel?
Oh yeah, I just posted pages 50 through 54. Check it all out here:
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch/
Let me know what you think--comment on any individual page or email me at chrishoward.author@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!
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