Chris Beckett has been kind enough to write this amazing piece for his column, For Your Consideration, on the Pulse. Here’s the article in its entirety with the rest coming after the break:

Thanks a ton, Chris!

For Your Consideration:
Joe Infurnari’s The Process

By Chris Beckett

Joe Infurnari is the artist for Oni’s Borrowed Time, written by Neal Shaffer. With that book, he showed that he is an accomplished comic artist. But online, Infurnari is experimenting with style, pushing himself to evolve as an artist while pushing the boundaries of comic storytelling. His webcomic, The Process, is an entertaining experiment that is well worth checking out.

The 411:
The Process webcomic
Story & Art by Joe Infurnari
Color, b/w, collage
http://theprocesscomic.com

What It Is (with apologies to Dave the Thune):

At Joe Infurnari’s website (artist of Borrowed Time and Wasteland #14), the artist is experimenting with his art, with style, with storytelling, and with the process. The tale begins with a mad stampede of strange creatures barreling over the rolling dunes trying to stay ahead of a great storm that pushes them forward. Witnessing this mad dash is a scrit, a small land crustacean similar to a small crab that is able to curl into a ball and shield itself with its hard outer shell. Unlucky enough to be in the path of these wild animals, the scrit rolls itself up and manages to avoid being crushed. But the storm is close behind and the tiny animal moves off searching for shelter.

Hiding under an overarching leaf of a tall plant, the scrit does not avoid being drenched as the upper leaves of this same plant quickly fill with raindrops, the rush of water cascading down from one upturned leaf to another before reaching the one just above the scrit’s head, sending the crustacean sluicing along the now moist ground. Realizing the flora of this strange place will not provide the shelter it needs, the scrit scuttles off to a cave. There it is indeed dry and warm, but as the scrit moves further into the darkness it discovers another inhabitant residing within the cave. A young boy has already sought shelter there, and when the boy sees the crustacean he smashes the tiny animal with a rock, killing it instantly and bringing chapter one to a close.

Continue reading: the Process on the Pulse!

The irony of showing “behind-the-scenes” views of the creation of the main hall of a theater is not lost on me. Can you really show ‘backstage’ glimpses of the construction of what goes in front of the stage? Only on the Process can you achieve such a paradox, folks. It’s like using photography (a supposedly accurate representation of reality) to depict the theater in one’s own mind (the immaterial and imagined). Such are the philosophical conundrums that I am playing with here and before I let any more cats out of the bag, back to the business at hand:

Once again, here’s some sneaks of the theater hall I’m constructing. Things are moving very slowly as you probably already know but I think the results are worthwhile. The side wall will have a large reinterpretation of this famous alchemical illustration. The theater’s two balconies form three levels that correspond to Freud’s Id, Ego and SuperEgo. The lowest, floor seating area is the Id, the first mezzanine is the Ego and the top balcony is the SuperEgo. They are analogous to their terrains and fauna as well. The lowest floor is underwater and full of various sea creatures including a giant squid. The Ego mezzanine is on land and has a dragon and lion. Lastly the SuperEgo upper balcony is represented by air or sky and has an flying eagle. Here are a few more shots showing the latest progress. I’ll have more as it nears completion…

Tyler Chin-Tanner over at Broken Frontier has written about the Process in his column, Delusions of Grandeur. Here’s the article in its entirety.

Thanks, Tyler!

Studying the Process

As I said last column, many of the webcomics that exist at this time are actually print comics that are using the internet as an alternative means of publication. One of the biggest reasons for this is because it is no longer viable to publish a successful limited series that builds to a graphic novel. Too much of the target audience will wait for the eventual graphic novel. Thus the development of the webcomic to graphic novel publishing model.

One great example of this model is Joe Infurnari’s webcomic, the Process. This concept was created as a graphic novel, but chapters and pages of it are posted as a webcomic. What really appeals to me about this project is that while the concept is intended to be a graphic novel, there is a reason for it being a webcomic other than to just post pages as he completes them.

I asked Joe if he would help explain the Process:

JI: If my ideas and work are going to be presented in a medium, namely the web, it should make use of the things inherent to that medium (interactivity, updates as-you-go, and endless editability). I had the idea that I would try and involve people in its creation and thereby benefit from testing it in front of its audience. Readers are participating in an art project that is about creating a graphic novel. They should be encouraged to comment because that’s how things will get better. I’m showing them a lot of what goes into its making so that they can see the creative process at work, gain a better appreciation for it and participate in it.

So in other words the Process is a webcomic that invites the reader to view the process of creating a graphic novel all while reading a story that involves the creator as a character interacting with the story he is in the process of creating while the audience is in the process of reading it. Have I said ‘the process’ enough yet?

I’ll let Joe continue:

JI: That’s something unique to this blog and web medium where visitors can drop in and out of this digital diary of a comic’s conception. They get insights into how I do things and what I am thinking as I create these pages. Ideally, readers would also participate as well by telling me what works and what doesn’t. Out of all of this, there will be a comic that’s been market tested with a lot of the kinks worked out prior to publishing.

The strength of Joe’s webcomic lies in the fact that it is a very engaging look into the creation of a graphic novel and how he works as a creator. The design of the website makes the story particularly interesting to read, and it doesn’t hurt that the art is fantastic either. Its weakness, though, is that for such a long and involved story, it comes out so infrequently. This contradicts one of the cardinal rules of successful webcomics.

As Joe puts it:

JI: Regular updates are important. Visitors to the Process know that I am lousy at this but it is an important aspect to keeping readers engaged. If they can count on your comic being up every week or day, then you’ll have a devoted following.

As a result:

JI: The economics of this has been a hard nut for me to crack and I still haven’t been able to make any significant money from it. A webcomic, a medium that most people experience for nothing, is harder to generate an income from in my experience. Until it has a huge following, a webcomic is hard to get paid to create. I sometimes feel that frequent visitors to these free content sites who enjoy what they are getting should donate or contribute in some fashion. If I only got 50 cents per unique visitor a day, I would have a nice little perk every day! Contributing in whatever way possible is a way to ensure that you get your fix and it’s just plain the right thing to do.

For what it’s worth, I think Joe should take heart in the fact that the purpose of his website is to promote a graphic novel. He’s getting exposure and reviews that usually come at a cost. While he may not be making any money, he’s saving on costs that would normally go into promotion and printing. Plus, the idea is that the eventual graphic novel will sell well based on the quality of his webcomic. It would certainly be nice for webcomics to bring in money from donations, but realistically, you can’t really expect that.

The only way I know of that webcomics generally make money is by having such a regular following visiting for consistent content that advertising generates a substantial revenue. In my opinion, a creator is better off choosing either to use a webcomic to promote their graphic novel or to use their content to promote a regular webcomic.

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Tyler Chin-Tanner started his own publishing company, A Wave Blue World, and writes and draws layouts for Adrenaline, its flagship series.

© 2008 Tyler Chin-Tanner. All rights reserved.

Email: tyler@awaveblueworld.com
www.awaveblueworld.com

Things are moving a little slow thanks to a large construction for the next page. So, I thought I’d give you a little peak at what’s to come—boxed seats! You may be asking yourself, “but where are the seats?” and my answer to that is simple. This already finished seat was made to be photographed separately and to be added later when needed. I’m obsessive and meticulous but not so much so that I would make every individual seat in this cardboard theater! No, just meticulous enough to construct half an elaborate theater out of an inane and obstinate material for just one panel of the next page!

Stay tuned as I’ll likely be posting more images as this comes closer to completion. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to do, vote for what free giveaway you’d like to get in the poll!

Below you will find the first ever the Process poll! I’ve been thinking that I would hold a draw for email subscribers and I wanted to find out what people would like the most as a prize. The following poll has six options for prizes. ANYONE CAN VOTE! Choose the prize(s) you would most like to see offered and click ‘vote’. Please participate, people! This will help me out in two ways. It will tell me what you, the reader, values most and it helps me prepare a drawing that offers the most wanted prize! This poll will be up until I feel I have a healthy number of votes from which I can truly draw a consensus. So c’mon people now, smile on your brother (me), everybody get together, try to love one another, VOTE NOW!
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

UPDATE: The final hours! Only a few short hours remain before we’ll have our prize decided. It looks like the original art has a commanding lead but anything’s possible on this here internets. Stay tuned for the official announcement.