Many many many people seem to want to help with the comics.
Personally, I can't blame them. It's fun. The only problem
is that I can do it quickly and easily by myself compared
to coordinating efforts with others, and my comics are my
own artistic expression. I can't easily bring others into
that, nor do I want to.
However, other people certainly have the talent and ability
to make some great comics, but don't have the means and/or
desire to create their own web sites, not that I would mind
if they did; I'm not concerned about competition right now,
since I feel that the amount of new comics being created still
falls short of everyone's hunger for them.
Anyway, the compromise that I have devised is simply this: If
you would like to make some comics, then do it! You can use
whatever means you choose to create them, but it must fit
within certain rules and guidelines in order to be posted here.
Also note that even if it does fit these rules, postings may
also be limited by disk-space, other rules I think up on the
fly, etc. Basically there is no gaurantee that your comic
strip will get placed on the site. After all, this is my site
for my comics, so I have the final say.
Before getting started on making your own comic strips, you
may wish to read my "comics tips and
advice" page.
Please read ALL of the following rules & guidelines.
You will be held accountable for it, and they may change at
any time without notice. In submitting comics, you agree to
to my terms:
- The filenames should be within the
DOS standard lengths (meaning the base-name
can not be any longer than 8 letters). If they are
sent as a ZIP file, then the zip file's name should
also conform to this. Not using the Windows-95 long
filename system will make things slightly easier at
my end in preparing the strips for being put online.
- The comic strips should generally be no more than 6
images in length (guideline). A maximum of 10 will be
allowed (rule), except maybe under extraordinary
circumstances. You should try to use as few images
as possible to get the point across. 6 is fine, 4 is
better, 2 is wonderful! (generally, more images
are fine if they're also small. Or you can have just
a few large ones. I'm concerned mostly about the
total number of bytes).
- Images should be no larger than about 30k each, though
prefereably smaller. (I've found that using Paint Shop
Pro's JPG compression level set to 25% works nicely,
as a 300x240 image can be compressed into 15k to 29k
depending on the image complexity). *
- Image-size in terms of pixels is not all that important
compared to the file-size. However, it is best to try
to make all the images that are in the same strip have
the same hight, down to the pixel. The reason for this
is that when listed out horizontally it looks best if
they all have the same height. Originally, I started out
with the sizes being determined mostly by the scene. Now
I make nearly all of the comics 300x240. *
- They should be designed to look as though they "could"
happen in UO. Certainly you are free to take some
artistic liscense like I have (such as having Diablo appear
as a punchline, or making the spell effects look a little
better than they really would). But for the most part
you should be true to UO. This means nothing "hand-drawn"
(meaning things like pencil sketches, since mouse-drawn
details are often both useful and necessary), and all the
speech should be in the UO font. (what this means is that
your #1 tool should be the screenshot method you use). I
want to keep all of the comics on this site consistent in
style. This is not a strict rule, just a guideline.
- There should be nothing vulgar or offensive. This one
is a judgement call (my judgement call), since irreverence
is OK within reason. After all, I already have some
womanizing in mine. :-) Cussing is OK, as long as it too
is within reason and is used appropriately (such as
shouting "aw shit!" after getting hacked to bits by a
liche, for instance). I don't mind things stepping onto
the line a little usually, as long as they don't leap
over it. :-)
- You are free to create your own characters and use the
pre-existing Ultima characters (such as Lord British),
however you may *NOT* use the characters I have created,
such as the chief guard, or the skeletons. You may have
your own chief guard or your own skeletons, they just
can't be Osso, Ossis, Bones, etc. :-) Of course, you
should realize that if you do use similar characters,
people are likely to think you're making a cheap
rip-off, so be careful.
- You can't interfere with my plot. You are free to develop
your own plot, just don't step on mine. For instance, you
may not have the lawyer come and beat up Lord British and
then expect me to continue from there. My plot will
continue to develop independantly from your work.
- Submissions may be e-mailed to me if they aren't large,
but I would prefer if you put them somewhere online, such
as at GeoCities, so that I may review them easily.
- Your work is your own. If you later decide you would like
it removed, or you would like to break away and use your
own work to start your own comics site, that is your
decision. Likewise, please respect my work, and not use
it in the creation of yours.
- Every submission should include a title for the web
page. I reserve the right to give them titles if
a title is absent. Likewise, if you want your name
displayed a certain way, or even omitted you must
tell me, otherwise I'll take the author-info from
your e-mail header.
- Bones is lord, Bones is master. What Bones says goes.
Defiance of Bones can result in removal of all of your
comics. :-)
* I reserve the right to crop/recompress those images
that do not fit within the pixel-size and file-size
limits. Please note that JPG's that are uncompressed
then recompressed look worse than if they were properly
compressed the first time, so please get it right.
When you're ready,
Submit Thy Comics
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(Bones' UO Comics (C) Copyright 1998, Ed T. Toton III, All Rights Reserved)