We were so lucky to have a speech about comics from Sha Nazir who is the founder of “BHP Comics” on the afternoon of 16th November. BHP Comics is an innovative comic company which is based in Glasgow.
According to Sha Nazir, producing a comic book is more expensive than producing a fiction book, since you need to do the manuscript first then start to do the illustrations and colouring. Besides, the situation of comic sales in Scotland was not that good. So they came up with an idea to create a Glasgow Comic Con to sell their own products at 2011. Recently, there were 120–150 tables of different titles, all making their own content. In Glasgow, there are now 140 comic authors who create work. The trend of comics is like everyone making and creating their own work. Before, there was only one comic event in Scotland, but this year there were 45 comic events in Scotland.
BHP Comics publish “horror, romance, historical and academic,” almost everything except the superhero. And the reason why they don’t publish superhero titles is because Sha Nazir thinks that America is extremely good at creating successful superhero comics such as “Spider Man” and “ Bat Man”. Sha Nazir doesn’t want to try to do comics in the American way. Then he started to design his own unique stuff, such as Laptop Guy. This graphic novel is about a fast food worker Sha, who has a lot of enthusiasm towards his own comic “Laptop Guy”. One day he finds that his comic becomes a little real and influences his work, friendship and everything in his life. The really interesting thing is that the name of the main character Sha is from Sha Nazir. Actually, according to Sha Nazir, he totally doesn’t mind it. On the contrary, he quite enjoys having a comic character who has the same name as him, he thinks it is kind of like designer’s rights.
The things I learned from Sha Nazir are that if you want to be a part of comic book publisher and you are interested in illustration and design, you should put your enthusiasm into this area. Sha Nazir taught himself in design. You need to practice your professional design abilities in digital and hand-drawing. Moreover, you need to be active in join publishing or comic activities, such as London Book Fair, which is also how Sha Nazi got the chance to make more publishing contacts. The secret of success is to make connections with some formal writers or television people: it would be perfect if you could introduce yourself and make them remember you.
Therefore, you need to care about these kind of activities which will open your horizons and help you know more and gain some experience.
If you are interested in comics or BHP Comics, you can go to their website to find out more.