Ara Tome 1: Le Cercle de Pierre
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 09:01AM I think it is fair enough to admit defeat against this blog after 3 years between updates...but I'm going to give it another try :)
So...I have been working on this fantasy book over the last few years, and have had many adventures that may be cause for an excuse to not blog. But mostly I probably have a tendency to avoid, for lack of a better word, jinxing projects by talking about them endlessly ( or in this case, at all) before they are finished.
The book in question that has consumed me for the last 2 years is Ara.
The first book Ara Tome 1: Le Cercle de Pierre ‘A Circle of Stone’ is due out today (August 25th) in France. Published by Ankama Editions.
I'm asked a lot if there will be an English version. Eventually I’m sure there will be. It was written in English and I have the pages ready to go. It remains to convince publishers to let it be so. I am keen to put it out digitally if I can, but that's another story altogether.
There is a 28 page preview in French and English up on this site, for those who wish to at least get a taste of the story. It is 102 pages all up.
Or here is a slideshow which might work in some browsers. (it breaks for me in chrome for some reason)
Links to PDF and .CBR versions as well.
Most of the concept art I did for the book (which is included at the end in an 8 page sketchbook) is already up online in my gallery. I'll post the rest soon. as well as some more development and process work. If anyone has a question about the process or development let me know and I'll do my best to answer on here.
The Amazon.fr link for the book is here
http://www.amazon.fr/Ara-Cercle-Pierre-Tim-McBurnie/dp/2359101889
If anyone living outside of France wants to get a copy I can recommend Amazon France. I have bought plenty of stuff from there in the past. I think you can maybe log in with your amazon.com username too (?). If you order a few items the shipping ends up pretty reasonable (which with the huge range of great French comics out there won't be hard once you get looking!)
Many thanks to my good friend David Chauvel who helped out with the project a lot. He Translated and adapted the book into French and helped greatly (even greatly is a huge understatement) finding a publisher.
I'm very happy with the job Ankama Editions has done. The book printed nicely and has a good finish. I especially like the paper they use (very geeky I know...but the paper matters to me).
Obviously the book is my first experience as a writer, and only my second as an artist; so there were many things to learn along the way. But I feel good about the final result.
Many apologies to all my readers in France, my French is not good enough yet to make much sense. I hope you can navigate this site ok.
Ara, Le cercle de pierre, Mcburnie, T1, Tim Mcburnie, Tome 1
Reader Comments (12)
been waiting for this, love your art.
can't wait to look at it.
Hi,
Just finish the reading, great job sir !
I was really happy to see some draws that i've never seen before, really.
I love your work, so i'll just say that i'm expecting for new draws all year long.
I'm sure i'm not the only one who loves your work and want to see new things.
apologies for my engish, if I use rude words, I'm just not really good at english.
See you, i'm waiting for new draws.
A french fan.
Wow, the book looks absolutely fantastic! A good reason to learn French if ever I saw one :)
I'm in the early stages of trying to get a book together myself - anything vital you've learnt along the way that you would care to pass on? How did you get started with the publishing process, was it a case of passing a sample of the book to publishers and then completing it once it was picked up or did you have book ready to go and simply had to find a publisher?
Can't wait to see more of this ;)
Kickass pages - congrats - all the best for a brisk sellout ...
Wow, its finally here. It looks great! Hope to see it released in the rest of Europe at some point. Could you share some of your coloring process, I'm really curious how you do it?
These are beautiful. The color and environments are so gorgeous and come alive, fantastic.
I've been taking a look at it at my comic book store for two weeks, finally bought it, the art is seriously awesome!
Congratulations! I can't wait to get it!
Congratulations. It looks great. I live in the UK, so I'm really tempted by this on Amazon France...but, I would really love the English version. Any plans to release one? I know Ankama is a French company (and pretty unique, so I doubt there is a UK equivalent), but any chance would be fantastic.
I'm trying to pull together the time to produce my own comic, so seeing the the work you've put in to develop the characters and setting is fascinating. If there's any advice you have from your journey, I would value your input. I respect what you've achieved and have found this site really inspiring.
That is an awesome work,-
2 years well spent I'd say.
Hey, thanks for all the comments. I appreciate everyone who took the time to tell me what they thought of the book.
Dante: Thanks, I'm happy to offer whatever advice I can to people wanting to get into comics. send me an email or comment here with specific questions or requests and I'll do my best. the more specific you can get about what I can help you with the better (from my point of view anyway). That way I can get a sense of where you are at and what you are wanting to know.
I want to get an english version out, but it might take some time. as I mentioned in a recent post, if you have got the French version and want a translation hit me up via email and I'll sort it out.
George: I had already done a book in the French market before this I got Ara up and running through my Editor (on 7 Pirates) David Chauvel. We got to know each other over the course of doing this first book and then I had the opportunity to work with him a bit in developing the pitch for Ara. So it was not a traditional pitch process as I had an inside track.
With that said, to show something to an editor/publisher in France you need 1-3 pages of finished Art (what the book will look like) and either a full script or a full storyboard (to show the whole story) and as much character and other development work as you feel is necessary to fill in the gaps; make sure all the main characters or what you think is going to be great about the book are realised and included in the pitch. The more polished the package is the better your chances.
It's also a good idea to have a quick overview or synopsis of the pitch. And maybe a single pitch image or cover style image that you can show someone (an editor) very quickly if need be.
Unless you are a big name it would be hard for a publisher to sign a contract without all those things.
If you are wondering how I got to do 7 Pirates in the first place. The Editor contacted me based on my online folio and an interview I had done somewhere saying I wanted to do comics and was working on my own stories. So I don't have great advice for how to replicate my entry into the French market...
viramz: Sure, I'll do a post that covers my process on the pages.
Such a huge fan of your work! It has been so long since the release of this and I still havent seen and in english -__- please tell em this is going to happen soon! If not ill just buy the french version to slobber over