San Diego Comic Con, Thursday, July 14

Today was the first full day of Comic-Con International: San Diego. I rushed through breakfast and then hit the DC Talent Search Orientation. DC holds one each day to prep people for their review process. It's changed since the last time I attended one, for the better I think.

Old method: Attend orientation, receive ticket (maybe) to go have your work reviewed by one editor.

New method: Fill out form, attach to photocopied leave-behind of your best work, drop leave-behind in curious little slot in DC booth. Editors representing all of DC's lines (e.g. Vertigo, Universe, kids) look at all the work, then if any are interested, your name will appear on the meeting schedule the next day, posted at the DC booth.

The upshot of the new method is that you don't have to come back repeatedly, they get to quickly prescreen people who obviously don't make the cut, and your work will be seen by an editor from each branch, so there's a greater chance that someone in a position to like your style will see your work.

Notes from the Orientation are below.

My collaborator James Nguyen showed up around 12:30. He dropped his portfolio leave-behind at the DC talent slot then we hit the Portfolio Review Area.

How to get a portfolio review

Show up early, then wait. The signup sheets for portfolio reviews are put out half an hour before the start time for a given review, and they fill very quickly. Thus, you need to be lurking around before the sheets go out to have any chance of obtaining a reasonable slot and being reviewed. We came at an odd time, so we basically waited until 1:30 and James signed up for Sony, then we lurked for a while.

While we were waiting, we were interviewed by a reporter from San Diego CityBeat. She was interested in the portfolio review process, what it felt like, etc. We were sitting next to another writer-artist team who, like us, had just met in person for the first time at the con. She said that was definitely going in the article. She asked a lot of good, intelligent questions -- I like her "What's your best-case scenario?" question. Hearing that James was putting stuff into consideration for DC, she asked us to email her if he was accepted for the next-stage interview (or if he heard positively from anyone, really).

We'll see.

Sony turned him down, indicating that they're looking more for animators right now, though everyone from Sony loved his work. The reviewer thought that James would be a good cleanup artist for animation, once he learned more about animation.

Before James arrived, I also signed him up for a portfolio review tomorrow (Friday) with Disney's publication wing, as their signup is done at their booth and is first come, first serve. They're interested in original concepts, so I figured we could put Inhabit in front of them and see what they think of it.

We were also able to check on someone we've had email correspondence with, which was handy. As our last event of the day, we attended the Adult Swim "How to pitch to us" section. I'll just dump my notes here. The DC Orientation notes follow.


2005-07-14
Adult Swim Panel -- "Touch Us, Like You Did the Last Time: Pitching Television Shows to [adult swim]"

Nick Widenfeld -- head of development, Adult Swim
Peter Gerarty (PG) -- Minoriteam
Funny garbage
Adam DeLaPena (ADLP) -- Minoriteam
I'm with Busee
Todd James (TJ) -- MInoriteam
Dino Sematopolis (DS) -- Moral Oral
Mr. Show, TV funhouse
Lauren/Lorn Bashard (LB)
Kim Manning (KM)

Can contact NW for submission information form, etc.
Will go through pitch process for Adult Swim.


What to have when pitching them
A really amazing show
A show bible
Show concept / description
Main character descriptions and designs
Some secondary characters and designs
Description of the environment
Some springboards, episode outlines (four or five)
We want this thing to go on forever.
This is what many people leave off.
More thorough is better if you've never had or worked a show before

What not to have
A fully written plot
Marketing plans or strategies (DON'T)
Branding concepts or products
"It was so slick, and it was so...not important."
"Then Adam and Peter came in with just a posterboard."
"That was really it. And show ideas."

What not to pitch (Red Flags)
Defunct suphero shows
Harvey Birdman, Spaceghost
Repurposed classic cartoon shows
Barbarian shows/medieval shows
Redneck shows
Squidbillies
Satirical reality TV shows / Behind-the-scenes shows
Mafia shows
Everybody is pitching...
Kids shows gone wrong shows
Anthology shows
Zombie shows
Every one of these shows could be with zombies
Shows that compare themselves to other shows
What not to do
Roommate shows

What little advice we do have
Be flexible
Format
Writers
Artists
Be collaborative
Visual gags
Shorts -- on the kid's side, they'll start doing that
They'll post on the website once this is up and running
But not on AS
Don't be too slick or too polished
Do you really want this to be on AS?
Not the most lucrative
Not slick

4 Questions
Could this show work on another network?
Then pitch it to another network
Why does this show have to be animated?
If this is funnier live action, then it really, really, really should be live action.
Could it work as a kid's show?
If you could make it a kids' show without losing integrity, then it's not right.
Is it really cheap to make?
We have shows that are five thousand...

What they're working on

Dethklok
Brendan Small and Tommy Blacha
Spinal Tap meets Scooby Doo from Norway
Pilot in development
Norwegian death metal bands meets Scooby

Super Jail
From the makers of Barfight
Hardened criminals imprisoned on the moon
Pilot in development

God's Country
Williams Street
William Faulkner meets Arrested Development
Pilot in development
Family still believes it's the nineteenth century

Korgoth of Barbaria
Aaron Springer (Sponge Bob)
Conan the Barbarian
Pilot in production

Saul of the Mole People
Writer for Foster's
An ultra-patriotic Land of the Lost in the center of the Earth
Pilot in production
Live action?

Lucy: Daughter of the Devil
A woman will agree to bear the child of the devil in exchange for a Datsun 280.
The preview was pretty entertaining.
The devil's daughter moves to SF and meets a ahndsome young HIspanic DJ named Jesus.
CGI.
1/4 pilot in development

Moral Orel
Davey and Goliath meets South Park (DS)
10 episodes in production
Done by the production team that does Robot Chicken

Minoriteam
"From key talent behind Crank Yankers"
A group of superheroes that use racial stereotypes to defeat their enemies
One of the evil minions -- The Standardized Test

[adult swim]
Attn: Nick Weidenfeld
1065 Williams Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30309


DC Talent search notes, 14 July 2005

About one hundred people here.

DC has definitely slicked up their approach since I last checked in on them. This time they have an evening prescreening of portfolio photocopies, with appointments lisDan Didio the next day. From the bottom of the doc -- "Artists may only submit once to DC TALENT SEARCH at any given convention."

Okay. Now we're going.

Dan Didio. Vice president, DC.

Ron Perazza -- director of creative services.

Dan Didio
This is a talent search. This is not a portfolio review or a class. It is a job application. They are checking your portfolio to see if you have the skills needed to work at DC.
Great diversity at DC comics. Not just one section, have many sections. Always looking for artists. This allows each artist's material to be reviewed by everyone [good!]. So one editor from each branch will review your work.
How it works -- you fill out a form. "Your best work."
Looking for --
Ability to tell sequential storytelling
Tell a story
Move a camera around

Ron
There's a slot to drop stuff off at the DC booth today
Tonight the editors review everything
Tomorrow, posDan Didio on monitors which people get face-to-face review
If you're posDan Didio, an editor is interesDan Didio in your work

Dan Didio
You have to convince them that your work is better than the stuff they have right now


Ron
If you drop it off, it will be looked at. You don't need to drop it off two or three times.

Dan Didio
Q; What about writers?

What he likes to see is prepublished work, whether it's a self-published comic or something. Would like to see that a writer is published first -- don't want to see DC as a place to break in new talents. He also wants to avoid problems with scanning through possibly similar storytelling ideas.

Q: If you do have published work?

Send it to Dan Didio at DC Comics (attn: him). He scans through three hundred comics a month looking for new writers and artists.

I love this Q: How many artists are you looking for?

A: All of them.

This is a failure-option question. It's hoping to be not good, but good enough and ahead of the curve.

"Quality is quality."

Q: If we do get lucky and chosen for tomorrow, what will we talk about?

Your interest, speed, ability, what you could work on down the road

Ron

The quality of your work is only part of the business of comic books. We work with the people we do because they have a relationship with the editors, and are reliable.

Dan Didio

Your job is to make our lives easier. We're looking for the people who are going to save our ass. Go-to guys. Break in, develop a rappor, become someone they can count on. We have to put the books out, they have to be good, and they have to be on time.

Ron

One of the worst things you can do is say, "It'll be there Friday" and it's not there Friday.

Q: What about dressing to impress?

A: No. It's comics.

Dan Didio

Q: Are there industry standard references about page rates?

A: There aren't a lot of standards across the industry, but DC has its internal standards. Realistically, it depends on sales -- there's also a royalty system built into DC which is based on sales.

Today's editors

Chiarello
Schreck
Shelly Bond
?
Dan Didio ?

Ron
We're assuming everyone in the room here as a sketchbook full of figure drawings and all the basic building blocks needed to make a page. We want to see that page.

Q: What if you have very different styles?

A: Could stick it all together or do two separate subs. Either way.