From Ronin Studios:
The news from New Orleans and the states hit by Hurricane Katrina are horrible. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, but Ronin Studios wants to do more than that.
After releasing the HOPE volumes benefiting the Red Cross in the relief effort for the victims of the Tsunami of December 2004, Ronin Studios is now in the process of putting together another volume of HOPE to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina via the Red Cross.
Started after the suggestion of inker Jeffery LaJaunie, the response from comics creators has been overwhelming so far. Over three dozen writers have already signed up to contribute short stories. The list is expected to grow further. Artists are especially welcome. You don't have to be a professional, though it certainly would help. Names sell books, which in turn would create more money for the Red Cross.
Please visit the HOPE forum for more information and sign up in this thread if you want to participate.
About Ronin Studios:
Frustrated with the seemingly impossible task of breaking into the industry, Noble Larimer founded Ronin Studios in March 2004. Ronin Studios is a place for like-minded people to come together and just do what they want to do, creating comics. Whether just starting out in the business or already an established creator, Ronin Studios welcomes everybody wanting to tell their stories, helps put together creative teams and prepare submission packages for projects to be signed by publishers.
I found them through the on-line comic publisher, Comixpress. My first batch of on-demand printed comics arrived today and they look great! This model completely removes the antiquated model of an artist slogging across comic convention floors in search of an "established" artist or agent to grant them an audience.
An artist can now go from concept to script to pencils to final draft to electronic file to representation in a quality on-line store.
This is very healthy. It broadens the diversity of work out in the world in terms of styles, stories and audiences.
The only problem? Comixpress has found vast market that has overwhelmed them with positive response. On their homepage they have announced:
Due to the amount of work that is coming in, in addition to an already daunting backlog, we are unfortunately going to have to put a temporary hold on accepting new print orders for the time being. While we hesitated to take this measure, we feel this is the only way to get caught up and finally be able to offer the kind of turnaround and customer service that has always been our goal.
In time, they will perfect the publishing and distribution model, or more players with greater capacity will enter the game to open up options for the extremely long tail of comic creators out there.
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