Advice For Those Wanting To Draw Comics

 

 Let's be very honest here. If you want to become a comic book artist the chances are that you have a 75-80% chance of failing.  

I have told the story before that as an artist and writers agent in the 1990s I would get 40-60 packages a week and on a number of occasions 100 or so. The artwork ranged from unpublishable quality with the artist building up in a covering letter how good he was and how friends and family said he was fast and produced "great work". 

Then you had the artists whose work you looked at and ask WHY they had to resort to having someone try to represent them since their art was of a high quality. Some of those artists I worked hard to get work for and apart from one who said thank you (Jon Haward) there were no thanks and guess what? Not one kept the contract deal we made (I ought to point oput that companies in my experience broke deals all the time and this was because they knew an artist with no money could not afford to hire a lawyer in the US and sue. In the UK...no contracts. Good luck!).

I tried to work out how many of the artists who finally got their break in comics through me are still working. I had an estimated total of 300-360 writers/artists sent me samples and the writers were a big pain at times but I'll get on to that in a moment. Out of 300-360 only 10 got into comics and from what I just found in a search about 5 are still working in the medium. Some found that having to actually draw 20 pages in a month was far too much and too hard a work schedule. Others enjoyed nights or weekends out in the pub and suffered hangovers and were unable to work for a couple days.

If you cannot complete 20 pages in 30 days then you are in the wrong business. Can you produce an issue on time guaranteed? Can you manage to keep up the quality of work? There are DC and Marvel artists that can't😂 and certainly writers who cannot keep to a schedule. It is why both are in a mess and Marvel more so than DC although the problem runs throughout US comics. I was watching a You Tube review last week and the reviewer said they had forgotten about a title until they had seen issue 2 - the first issue was out over a year before!

The one reason I insist that any project is fully drawn before even publishing or offering it around is because of this. I had so many first issues drawn after which the artist either went silent or just said they had gotten out of the "drawing bug"!

I once received a 22 pager, fully drawn and lettered from an artist. I told him it was okay but how long would it take him to finish the script I had sent him over a month earlier?  "You've got it!" was the response. All of the character names were different and one was changed from male (he had to be male for later developments in the story) and since it was based in 1989 why were there hovering cars and Judge Dredd attired cops?? Apparently, he thought that the character sex and name changes worked better and the rest he just added in. After a discussion during which I told him that he had to draw what was in the script and character descriptions he said he was "not happy" to do so. I therefore told him I could not use him let alone represent him. Imagine him being hired from Judge Dredd and turning the character into a leather skirt wearing blonde. 

I had a similar problem with two other artists and I explained that if they got work in comics then they had to stick to a script given them. That is how it worked and even if that was a bit boring doing that work is what paid the bills. Both joined the growing ranks of the "Well, I am going to pursue my own comics and make the big time" team. All vanished.

Some of today's best known names like Bolland, Gibbons and even Mark Millar started out in the Small Press which is unpaying but gives a creator the chance to develop their skills and also build up a portfolio which is essential to prove to an editor/publisher that they have the skills and staying power to do the pro work.  You may well think that if you produce your own small press comic that will do the trick but how long did it take you to draw it all and did you stick to your script?  I was once told by Archie Goodwin at an old UK Comic Art Convention that he had someone who seemed to have the talent and produced his own comic but when given a tester script had changed things and eventually sent the five pages back after a year. "That person never got work in comics" I was told.

Even though I was publishing my own Small Press comics I contributed to Steve Lines' Creepy Crawlies and so on. It put me out of the "comfort zone" and having to produce stories for others. Same with scripts for Marvel UK, Fleetway/Egmont and other companies; I had to work to what they wanted even if it bored the crap out of me -it was paying work.

Today there are no real zines to get your work into whereas up until the early 2000s there were a lot! People want to try their hands at comic work then I give them the chance but make it clear that whereas they OWN their own art not even I get paid (unless there is a sales boom!).  Draw for fun or to develop your skills and, yes, have a goal you want to aim for but never lose sight of the reality: comics can be a nasty, grubby and dishonest business.

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