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Thank you to everyone who has emailed the site in the last five years or so. Your feedback, ideas and comments are always welcome. Below are some of the questions that get asked most frequently. If your question isn't covered here, send us an email.
I was chatting to my friend Thom about comics. Lots of our teen students loved reading comics, so we wanted to make a comic that would help with studying English. I originally said the name Grammarman as a joke, but Thom liked it and encouraged me to draw some sample stories to send to publishers.
All kinds of places. I read a lot of comics and watch a lot of movies, which I think has helped my imagination. A lot of people have contacted me with their own suggestions for Grammarman stories. Often I have half a good idea and send it to Thom. He can usually add his own ideas and advice so we end up with a finished story.
How do you make the comics?
I start with a first draft of the
story, drawn in an hour or less on
A4 scrap paper. Then I do all of the
artwork with a pale blue pencil. When
I'm happy with the art, I ink it with
a black pen (Pilot V5 hi-techpoint 0.5).
I scan the inked art into the computer,
where I tidy it up and add colour,
shading, text, panel borders and the title.
I have to work on Grammarman when I get free time, which isn't often. From the first draft to the finished episode, it usually takes five or six days. That could be anything from one hour to five hours a day. The fastest Grammarman was episode fifty, which I finished in two days.
It depends what it's for. In the past, I've given permission for Grammarman to appear for free in school magazines and newspapers, and also on various websites. If you'd like to use Grammarman, send an email to the site.
I've thought about putting thirty or so of the comics into an e-book which people could pay to download. Maybe I'll still do that at some point. I'd also like to make some of the comics available as an app for hand held devices.
There are currently over seventy finished episodes, and a further ten or so that are drawn in rough drafts, waiting to become finished episodes. Added to that, my 'ideas pile' has enough material for another thirty or forty episodes. The ideas pile is a stack of A4 rough paper full of sketches and notes.
At the moment, the main income from Grammarman is via the comic appearing in newspapers and magazines. If all the episodes were available for free online, the newspapers wouldn't pay to print them. If you hunt around the site you'll find more than ten Grammarman stories.
Grammarman appears regularly in magazines and newspapers in various countries. If Grammarman isn't available in your country, why not send an email to your local newspaper or magazine and suggest they include the comic. You can also find Grammarman at www.onestopenglish.com
Right now, Grammarman comic is featured in magazines and newspapers in Thailand and Canada. You can find a list in our publications section. Previously, Grammarman has appeared in China (Crazy English Teens magazine), Brunei (The Brunei Times), Argentina (The Buenos Aires Herald), Malaysia (The New Straits Times) and other countries.
Grammarman is very popular with the ladies. There's something about superheroes that sends women wild. Maybe they love guys in spandex. Unfortunately, when your life regularly involves dangerous criminals it's difficult to have a lasting relationship, so Grammmarman is currently single.
My big dream in the beginning was for Grammarman to become my main source of income. I would also love to see Grammarman made into an animated cartoon, computer game or board game. A more manageable goal I have is to complete one hundred episodes of Grammarman.
Yes. I teach full time at British Council in Bangkok.
Whenever I can. I try to add new materials or improve the site at least twice a month. I'd love to be able to update once per week, but time doesn't allow. Grammarman's Facebook profile is updated daily.
That depends on two things - interest and time. Firstly, I'll keep making Grammarman for as long as people enjoy visiting the site and reading the comics. Secondly, I'll keep working on new comics and material while I still have enough free time.
Yes. I'm a millionaire and I live on a private island. Well ... in truth the comic makes enough money to keep the site running and not much more. The Google adverts you see around the site also bring some small income, so if you see a google link that interests you, give it a click.
