About filthandgrammar.com

Welcome to your new favorite landing page, FILTH & GRAMMAR: The Comic Book Creator’s (Secret) Website. I’m Shelly Bond and I’ve been editing comics since The Cure released Disintegration. Comic Book Editing is much more than taming typos and tangents. It’s knowing how to pace stories, use transitions, art direct, manage schedules, juggle talent, and troubleshoot when things start to fall apart. It’s about time management–whether you self publish or work with a six-person creative team on a monthly series. And setting high standards as you get your work to the finish line.

Through a series of biweekly dispatches chock-full of examples of red pen edits and "What Can Possibly Go Wrong," video clip interviews with artists and writers, and a monthly F&G digital digest, you'll get neck-deep into the nitty-gritty of making comics, which starts when you leave your ego at the door, trust your instincts, and go for broke.

The goal of this site is to demystify the arcane knowledge that I was lucky enough to absorb and accrue when I was an editorial ingenue in the late '80s and early '90s working my way up the corporate ladder and beyond. I hope you'll join me and a handful of brave creatives who agreed to be a part of this Comic Creator's (Secret) website. Because the best way to learn anything is to roll up your sleeves and start throwing red ink. Or in this case, riding shotgun.

Contributors:

LID THOM
OLIVER MERTZ
ASIMINA HOLLINGWORTH
PHILIP BOND
PIPER JANE

What do I get?

Weekly:

Tuesdays: Standard and Deluxe Subscribers Dispatch from F&G HQ
Thursdays: Deluxe Subscribers Dispatch from F&G HQ

Dispatches will include:

For Standard & Deluxe Subscribers:

·      A Drive-By: Anatomy of a Page
·      Process: Before, During, After, and What Can Possibly Go Wrong?
·      Repeat Offenders: Mini Comic for Every Stage of Making Comics
·      How to Break In: Get Visible, Do Your Research, Timing is Everything, Pick your Moment, Follow the Forward Imperative
·      Random Selection: I close my eyes and pick a single issue of a comic and talk about it from every angle. Secret history, best panel, lessons learned, etc.
·      Annotating the Trilogy:
Throughout the year, we’ll take 4 months to annotate each of the graphic memoirs and proffer up more examples of how to level up your editing skills and make your own comics and graphic novels.
January through April: Filth & Grammar: The Comic Book Editor’s (Secret) Handbook
May through August: Fast Times in Comic Book Editing
September through December: i-Doppelgänger

Final Friday of the Month: F&G Digital Digest featuring a summary of the salient points of the month plus regular features:
·      Editors Assemble: I ask the questions and editors I admire from the corridors of DC/Vertigo come back to haunt me.
·      Hey, Gobby! Letters page where your questions go under the lights. Some rules apply.
·      Bonus Beats: Playlists for every editing occasion.

For Deluxe Subscribers Only:

· Riding Shotgun: We follow a 4-page comic book story from idea to execution with writer Oliver Mertz. We discuss the pitch, edit the script (art direction and dialogue), hire the rest of the team, art direct the thumbnails, pencils, lettering, inks, coloring, proofread and go over corrections digitally. You’ll be there, too.
· A Deep-Dive: A 15 to 30 minute video with a special artist/guest from famous cover painters to up-and-coming cartoonists who’ve been working with me in recent months.

Second Saturday Live on Zoom: From 11 – noon PST. Over the course of the year we'll rotate from AMA, discussions on crowdfunding, curating anthologies, and my personal favorite, Finish The Bloody Thing Already.