100 Proof.
My first language is English; I swear it is…so imagine my horror today when the editor returned the lettering script for ‘Sacrifice’ with a SHIT-TON of changes in 90% of the dialogue. Jesus Christ. It’s all grammar, style, and punctuation…there’s spelling errors here and there. >_< Out of 128 pages of comic with text on it, all 128 pages had something wrong—or needed to be changed to sound more natural. Gyah. I feel like an idiot.
Revisions are just another part of the process of making comics, like writing, inking, toning, or lettering. In manga, since the artist and or writer/artist team, often does everything on their own [so assembly line system of inker, pencils, letterer, etc], we’re the ones that end up getting those proofs back with corrections and change requests. Not all companies are like this. Some have to utilize the freelance assembly line because they use foreign artists or studios that fit their budgets, so if you’re just the writer, and are expected to do nothing else but sell your script, then pubs will make you do the revisions dance before they hand you a contract; but if you’re in on all aspects of creating the book, then you’re also responsible for any changes the editor needs after proofing.
I can attest from my editors, that dealing with me as letterer of my own work is always a MOUTHFUL OF JOY. I’m problematic because I end up changing some dialogue here and there, to make it sound better, during the lettering process. When my editor gets the art back, she’s often ready to strangle me. This has happened on two different projects for two different pubs. Sure I can laugh about it, but it’s not a happy time for editors. For Sacrifice, I’m grateful to have an editor that saw me coming from a mile away, and insisted on going over a ‘lettering script’ with me, and having me make changes to that–and of course, is keeping me away from the actual lettering. In the long run, she thinks this would best serve the title. 0_0.
Oh I don’t resent that at all. >.>
In other news, Katze is drawing a new cover for Sacrifice. She wants the cover to feature Alaire, Alba, and Styrr. I posted a sketch up in my personal diary…I like it, I do, but this is about the fifth piece of color art she’s done for this title. One thing’s for sure, we’ll have plenty of ’swag’ [postcard, web, ad] art for this series. (^_^)
December 28 is the sale date. Volume one goes to print in October; here’s hoping that Createspace is really all it’s cracked up to be.
