I have learned through all three of my interviews that one of the biggest responsibilities in drawing comics for a company s knowing that it should not be treated as a career until the comics you create begin selling well, and you can maintain a steady income. While trying to achieve this, you may have to get another job that is guaranteed to support you and your art. Along with juggling a job and working on comics, another important thing to remember is deadlines. Getting a project in on time is essential in becoming a full-time comic book creator. Other duties include keeping a portfolio, reporting in to the office about progress or problems, and colaborating with artists or writers if you are not doing both. It should be expected to work on comics when you are not at work. There may not be much room for a social life if you want to get the first few deadlines met.
The basic work environment in the comic industry is very casual. For the artist or writer, it is the comfort of your own home. Comic book creators rarely come in to the publishing house to work. Like the represenatives of Slavelabor.com said "the creators of our books don't actually live here, and we don\x{2019}t see them too often. This means that if you work here, you won't be hanging out with Jhonen Vasquez or Roman Dirge; you will be stuck with us office folks, and we are a unique set of individuals. We don't mince words, we hassle each other constantly, and people who are sensitive are usually not happy around us (Slavelabor.com)." The usual set for working on comics is at a drawing board or desk, much like an animator's desk at a studio. Living arangements can be anywhere as long as comics get delivered to their publisher on time. If getting involved with conventions is a desired possibility, moving somewhere near the location of the event would be a good idea.
In order to create comics, the ability to draw and write are pretty helpful. Many people think that drawing is all there is to comics and try to persue a career without knowing much about story-telling. Taking a creative writing or script writing course can help hone your writing skills (Valentino, Interview1).
The best thing to help get started in just about any business is a good portfolio. You should know what comic book editors are looking for and know your specialty. If you can show that you have a knack for sequential storytelling, can draw convincing backgrounds and can convey emotions and drama within the faces of your characters, then you have a decent chance of getting published. Have about six pages of a sequential story drawn out and ready to present to your potential employer. Some smaller companies will only review a completed project, however (Slavelabor.com). Above all else, the greatest skill is originality. Drawing like Todd McFarlane of Spawn may impress your friends and family, but editors are looking for fresh and innovative talent, not a rehash of something they've seen before.
Having improved workplace competencies is very helpful in any working environment. The most important competencies in the comic world are quality and persistance. Without professional and personal quality, a comic will turn out terrible no matter how well it is drawn. The same thing will happen if you invest all of your quality into drawing and none in the story, or all in the story and none into drawing. Persistance is the best way to get a job in the business in the first place. There is much one goes through to get their project accepted. Like with written works, there is a good chance you will be rejected after your first try. Keep trying, no matter how many rejection letters you recieve. After drowning in self-doubt, if you are one who wallows in withdrawl after a few rejections, rejuvinate yourself by setting aside some time in your life for practicing with more techniques and styles. Keep researching markets, submit more work and eventually you will arise and sell your first piece. It will be sold for little or nothing, but you can still celebrate and use further rejections to encourage you rather than paralyze you. Without quality and persistance, you will most likely sell nothing, let alone have anything reviewed.
In the Graphic Design program, I will graduate with the knowledge of layouts, which I will use to set up each page of my comics, designs, which I will use to create the characters and scenery themselves and some extra practice with studio arts such as drawing, mixed media, painting and techniques. Developing my skills is imperative if I wish to become a great comic book creator. One thing I need to do in order to successfully enter this position, is to get another job to help pay for the material for my creations. The beginning stages of this job are not very lucrative. Other than trying to make ends meet, another thing that should be done is practice and studying techniques and styles. Showing off artwork and writings is also a good way to get some constructive feedback.
Internships in the comic industry are, in general, hard to come across. If you do not find any internships, one suggestion may be to find some local artists and writers to work with. They may be able to help you further and you will have more experience when you finish.
My plan for a possible internship is with the only publishing house I would ever want to work for: Slave Labor Graphics. According to their webpage, SLG is mainly looking for is in processing orders from distributors, retailers, and individual customers. For those who have practical skills related to editing, printing, web design, and book production, and are particularly skilled in computer programs like Photoshop, Quark, Illustrator, etc., you can send a resume that will be reviewed and filed for concideration. Unfortunately because SLG is a small company, they cannot pay people with these skills. "In general, we would encourage you to join our team because you love comics and related art forms, and would like the chance to work at one of the best and oldest independent comics publishers. What we lack in monetary benefits, we hope we compensate for in other things, like a fun environment and a place where your hard work can make an obvious difference in an industry you care about, or for creative talents you admire (Slavelabor.com)." Even if an internship in a publishing house office does not include anything personally pertaining to the development of your comics, you will still be exposed to the comic book world and will get to see the reviewing and publishing process.
Employment in the near future has a halfway decent outlook. Anybody can submit work to a publishing house, though only a few actually get published. The only reason there would be no open employment for myself in the near future is because I do not have the talent developed to the point where I could submit something. In fact, according to internet job searches, using "comics" and "comic strips" as key words, there are no job offers in the general Rochester area. My preference for employment is Slave Labor Graphics publishing house in San Jose, California.
Unfortunately, I never got a response from Dan Vado, President of Slave Labor Graphics, about any income of the creators. From what I have gathered from my interviews, creators make little to nothing at the beginning of their career. Tommy Kovac, creator of Skelebunnies, told me that he is not salaried, but started making 7% of the sales for his work, depending on how well his comics sell, and $5 dollars for every t-shirt sold. 1000 copies of a comic has to be sold before you get royalties (Kovac, Interview 3).
In order to develope a successful position in the comic world, I would need to learn to collaborate with writers or artists, if I am not doing both myself. I would definately need to work on my persistance. I am currently horrible at keeping up with my work. Through the interviews I have done, I have learned that there is no formal education one must take in order to succeed in the comic business. I have found suggestions to take writing classes to be a very good idea. I have also learned that comic book creators practically get paid in peanuts.
After a while of exposing my artwork through comics, a possible advancement opportunity this position can lead to becoming paid well enough to become a full-time comic book creator. There have been better advancements such as going into animation, like Jhonen Vasquez (JtHM, Invader Zim) did and Roman Dirge (Lenore) is rumored to be doing. From going to comics to animation, I would have to work very, very hard at making my comics well worth reading. Going to school for animation is almost completely necessary, though some people were practically born with such talent, like Voltaire: comic creator, singer/performer, and animator, who has been animating with a stop-motion camera since he was 10 years old. If you were to take classes, suggested classes to take would be Fantasy Illustration, which specializes in comic illustration, and a creative writing or scriptwriting class.
In summary, this paper has taught me that there is much work involved in getting a comic book published, and much more work to get money for your work. The only way this could become a wise career choice is if it became lucrative. Otherwise, in the meantime, it is a fabulous hobby that will most likely make me happy. It may not be such a wise choice at the beginning, but if I am persistant, I will succeed just like the comic artists I love.
Interview With Serena Valentino (gloomcookie)
Interview With Evan Dorkin (milk and cheese)
Interview With Tommy Kovac (skelebunnies)