I’ll be signing and selling books in Artists’ Alley at Eternal Con in Long Island this Saturday and Sunday. The con looks like a blast — it takes place in the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City (in the actual museum!) and the guest list includes great folks like Larry Hama, John Romita, Jr., Amy Reeder, Sean Chen, Marguerite Bennett, Frank Barbieri, and Frank Tieri.
I’ll also have fresh-off-the-presses copies of The Princess Who Saved Herself to sell, so dontcha dare miss it!
I’ll be attending the awesome Special Edition NYC comic book convention on June 6 and 7, 2015. Here’s my schedule — hope to see you there!
SATURDAY
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Artists’ Alley! Table G9.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | Theater 2 | PANEL: The Princess Who Saved Herself – From Song to Children’s Book to Kickstarter
This March, “The Princess Who Saved Herself” became the fourth highest grossing children’s book Kickstarter of all time. Writer Greg Pak and Singer-Songwriter Jonathan Coulton will reveal all the secrets behind the making of the book. A hugely practical exploration of how the team adapted a song into a book, made the creative transition from comics to children’s books and ran a crowdfunding campaign for a book starring a multiracial, proactive princess – with nifty giveaways to lucky audience members!
1:15 PM – 2:15 PM | Theater 2 | PANEL: #BlackComicsMonth: Diversity in Comics
#BlackComicsMonth was birthed during Black History Month and spotlighted 28 days of black comic creators. After realizing that 28 days wasn’t enough, BlackComicsMonth.com has continued featuring black creators in the mainstream as well as independent comics community, along with black comic characters. #BlackComicsMonth was featured on AVClub, Buzzfeed and BlackSportsOnline. Dynamite Comics and BOOM! Studios donated free copies of Shaft #1 and Plunder #1 through Comixology. This BlackComicsMonth Panel will feature creators who have books that were spotlighted on BlackComicsMonth since inception; Indie and mainstream creators. These creators will discuss diversity in comics, show off their talented work and answer questions.
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Artists’ Alley! Table G9.
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM | Theater 1 | PANEL: Writer’s Unite: Pitching Creator-Owned Comics
Creator-owned comics have grabbed the imagination of the comic-reading community all over again and publishers are looking for fresh ideas from a new generation of talent. Listen closely as Charles Soule (Letter 44, Death of Wolverine), Greg Pak (Action Comics, The Princess Who Saved Herself), Marguerite Bennett (Butterfly) and Jim Zub (Wayward, Samurai Jack) discuss pitching their comic series to publishers and offer advice on how to traverse the treacherous submission mountain, along with comic writing techniques and amusing anecdotes.
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM | Artists’ Alley! Table G9.
SUNDAY
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Artists’ Alley! Table G9.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Theater 2 | PANEL: Representation Beyond Characters: How Diversity Bleeds into Work
It’s long been understood that an artist’s identity often finds its way into their work. There have been frequent and strong calls for more diverse characters and creators as of late. This Panel will talk to working creators about how their identities inform their work. Whether it’s autobiographical work or working on one of comic’s major characters, Panelists will talk about how this form of “sneaky diversity” has bled into what they do. As well as the ways they were inspired by seeing it in their favorite works.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | Theater 1 | PANEL: The New DC Universe – Are You Ready?
After DC’s Convergence, it’s a bold new world! Join some of the architects of that new future as they discuss what lies ahead for the DC Universe. Panelists include: Becky Cloonan, Ming Doyle, Brenden Fletcher, Steve Orlando, Greg Pak and Annie Wu.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Artists’ Alley! Table G9.
This is it, folks! Tonight at 11:59 pm ET, we cut off the guaranteed June shipping for pre-orders of The Princess Who Saved Herself, the children’s book I wrote and Tak Miyazawa drew based on the beloved Jonathan Coulton song.
Please visit the store and pre-order today!
The store will remain open, but the next wave of books may not go out until July or so, so please order tonight for the quickest delivery!
Hey, Dallas! I’m coming to town! I’ll be a special guest at the Fan Expo Dallas from Friday, May 29 to Sunday, May 31. I’ll have a table in Artists’ Alley, so please come find me there to get your books signed — and to buy signed books!
The con takes place in the Dallas Convention Center. Hours are Friday, 4 pm – 9 pm, Saturday 10 am – 7 pm, and Sunday 10 am to 5 pm. I should be there pretty much the entire time until about 4 pm Sunday.
Thanks so much to everyone who supported the “Princess Who Saved Herself” Kickstarter last month! And here’s some good news — we’ve opened a pre-order page that will allow readers who missed the Kickstarter to buy hardcovers of the book, which is scheduled to ship in June! The pre-order period will last until 11:59 pm ET, Thursday, April 23, so please do place your orders now!
“The Princess Who Saved Herself“ is a children’s book based on the beloved song by Jonathan Coulton and written by yours truly with art by Takeshi Miyazawa, colors by Jessica Kholinne, and letters by Simon Bowland. It tells the story of Gloria Cheng Epstein Takahara de la Garza Champion, an awesome princess who lives with her pet snake and plays rock ‘n’ roll all day to the huge annoyance of the classical guitarist witch who lives down the road.
Read on for a 10 page preview! And buy it today!
Last Wednesday, Jonathan Coulton and I launched a Kickstarter to print hardcovers of The Princess Who Saved Herself, a children’s book based on Jonathan’s classic song.
The book tells the story of Gloria Cheng Epstein Takahara de la Garza Champion, an awesome princess who lives with her pet snake and plays rock ‘n’ roll all day to the huge annoyance of the classical guitarist witch who lives down the road. Hijinks, conflicts, and a fun reconciliation ensue, all showcasing determination, bravery, and understanding. The gorgeous art is by Takeshi Miyazawa and colorist Jessica Kholinne and the letters by Simon Bowland.
Our backers have blown our minds, hitting our first funding goal within six hours on the first day. They then hit our $50,000 stretch goal, which will allow us to make a digital Princess Who Saved Herself Activity Book, full of fun mazes, word searches, images for coloring, and drawing and storytelling projects, which will be delivered as a PDF to all backers.
Now we’re working towards our $70,000 stretch goal, which will unlock a digital Princess Who Saved Herself script book, which will contain multiple outlines and script drafts and provide “Making Of” commentary by yours truly showing how we put the book together.
Finally, we’ve also launched a Teespring T-shirt campaign so folks can get the PWSH tees they never knew they needed!
The Kickstarter ends around 10 am ET on Wednesday, March 25. Please do check it out, and feel free to spread the word, if you’re so inclined!
I hope you’ll get a kick out of it and thank you for your consideration.
The big New Year’s Sale at the Greg Pak Shop ends tonight at 11:59 pm ET!
All signed books are 15 percent off — including “Action Comics,” “Batman/Superman,” “Code Monkey Save World,” and “Make Comics Like the Pros” — just enter the discount code “2015” at checkout.
By Greg Pak
I spent more time than I care to admit the other week trying to come up with a title for a new comic book project. I thought I had the perfect title, but then the project changed in a great way, bringing a new element to the table that the title really should evoke. And it became surprisingly tough to come up with just the right replacement.
I was looking for two or three words that instantly create a picture and action in the potential reader’s mind. Two or three words that evoke a genre and create a sensation of forward motion and intrigue — while also being able to serve as a title for an ongoing series that stretches over multiple story arcs.
Tricky, huh?
So I made some lists to try to understand what makes good titles work, particularly for comic books and serial genre fiction. Here are the categories I came up with and what they made me think about:
Titles Based on the Main Character’s Name
Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Scott Pilgrim
Lone Wolf & Cub
Hellboy
Pretty straightforward, right? I’d love to embrace this solution and just name the book after my main character. But it’s worth noting that “Superman” and “Batman” only launched as books after the characters had debuted in “Action Comics” and “Detective Comics,” respectively. Before the world knew about superheroes, it didn’t necessarily make sense to launch a book with the name of a superhero. If you’re creating an unexpected genre or doing fresh worldbuilding, the character’s name alone may have trouble creating that image and effect you want in reader’s minds. Of course, in comics, the title will be rendered in a specific style and accompanied by evocative art, so the words alone don’t have do all the work. But there might be ways to help them along…
Titles Based on the Main Character’s Name… Plus an Extra Description
Nausciaa of the Valley of Wind
Elric of Melnibone
Hikaru No Go
Alice in Wonderland
Y the Last Man
V for Vendetta
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (etc.)
Sex Criminals
Turok Dinosaur Hunter
This may very well work for my project. The character’s name in my project is evocative but not absolutely demonstrative of genre — but combined with a tag of some kind, it can evoke the genre and action of the whole story pretty well. I’m realizing this is a technique used frequently for fantastical stories and can be a great way to clue readers into what’s so fresh about the story in just a few words. I have a few strong possibilities that fit this pattern.
Titles Based on the Story’s Key Event
Attack on Titan
World War Hulk
Star Wars
Old Man’s War
Escape from New York
Star Trek
Love these kinds of titles — used one myself with “World War Hulk” back in the day. (Marvel editor Tom Brevoort gets the credit for that title, by the way, as I recall — it beat out “Hulkmageddon,” which is probably a good thing.) But I’m developing a book that I’d love to see go on for years, and I’m not certain that an event-based title will apply so perfectly four or five story arcs down the line.
Titles Based on the World
Planet Hulk
Battlestar Galactica
DMZ
Sin City
Astro City
Again, I love these kinds of titles. They’re particularly attractive when you’re building a new world. I’ve been rolling some world-based names around, but just haven’t found one that clicks just yet.
Titles Featuring the Inciting Character, Antagonist, or Objective
Lord of the Rings
Aliens
Predator
Akira
Wizard of Oz
Princess Mononoke
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Princess of Mars
These titles are very interesting to me — they put the objective or antagonist front and center rather than the putative main character. But this doesn’t feel right for the way I’m building this particular story.
Conceptual Titles
Ex Machina
Fables
Powers
Saga
Tooth & Claw
Pretty Deadly
I love these kinds of titles and I had a few evocative, single word titles in mind for this project — but of course they were already taken. This is a problem — folks have been telling and titling stories for a long, long time. And thousands more stories are published every year. So it’s honestly pretty tough to come up with a one or two word conceptual title that hasn’t already been used.
If all goes well, I’ll reveal what the title is and how we picked it when the project actually gets announced some time in 2015. Knock on wood for me!
For more thoughts about the writing and comic book process, check out “Make Comics Like the Pros,” a how-to book I wrote with Fred Van Lente.
Big news! I’ve opened the Greg Pak Shop, an online store where you can buy signed copies of my books!
If you place an order by the end of day, Friday, December 12, we’ll do our best to get it to you before Christmas. Hot tickets right now include the signed “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel, available here for the first time in an online store, and signed copies of “Storm” #1.
Enjoy!
I’ll be a guest at the Comic Book Club live show in New York City at 7 pm on Tuesday, December 9. It’s at Fontana’s Bar, 105 Eldridge Street between Grand and Broome, and it’s FREE!
It’s a fun show that I’ve done many, many times over the years. It’s a talk show format, with lots of hijinks and laughs and audience participation and even a bit of serious comics talk!
I’ll also have copies of “Code Monkey Save World” and maybe “Make Comics Like the Pros” for sale!
Come see, come see!