Milk and Cheese
1. What do you find most satisfying/least satisfying about creating
comics?
The most satisfying thing is the ability to create whatever you want, whole cloth, using nothing more than paper and ink. WHatever you can imagine, write and draw can be put down on paper, directly from the creator to the reader. It's a wonderful medium, which can incorporate prose, dialogue, visuals, non-narrative imagery, it's writing and art, and anything can happen. The least satisfying thing about comics, besides the moronic business and marketing practices of the industry and the terrible attitude the general public has toweards the medium -- is the time it takes to create a comic. I have a lot of ideas in my files that I wish to work on, and I'll be dead before I can get to most of them, Creating narrative comics is like writing a screenplay and then drawing everything in it. Drawing comics is incredibly time-consuming, and I have a bad drawing hand, so it takes me longer than ever to get my work done. Even so, I have always refrained from using assistants in my artwork, there's a certain pride in doing your own work, even if it means you get less work doen over a lifetime.
2. What education/training would you suggest to someone interrested
in creating comics?
I couldn't possibly lay down any kind of absolute path for anyone who wished to enter comics professionally, mainly because there's a lot of ways to break into comics, and also because my own experience wasn't exactly a textbook example of how to get into the field. I do suggest that aspiring cartoonists look into getting some formal training, if nothing else, to give them a fundamental education in the basics, to get their chops, to learn about materials and approaches and techniques, etc. But I don't recommend anyone ignore liberal arts courses in their pursuit of an art education, as many folks I know who concentrated solely on their art training ended up with nothing to say when the time came to draw their comics. All technique and no substance makes for bad comics, no matter how well drawn they are. Too many cartoonists hone their drawing chops without working their writing chops, so I suggest people look into writing courses if they want to work in comics -- dramatic writing, screenwriting, literature, etc. I took filmmaking courses in college, mostly writing and animation, and I do regret that I never really had any formal art training. However, I am glad i took a range of liberal arts courses such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, literature, etc, because these came into play while I worked on class screenplays and later writing assignments. Cartooning is tough because you have to balance the writing and the artwork, if you want to do both, you'll have to balance your education to some degree as well. The only other thing I'd add is to not back yourself into a corner when you study or when you work, if all you train for is to be a comic artist, or a superhero comic artist, you are limiting your potential, your abilities, and the number of hats you can wear professionally.
3. (I find this question kinda rude, but this one's manditory in my
paper) What salary range could I expect to start in this feild?
It depends, if you're breaking in through the small press you could literally make nothing. If you snag some work with the bigger mainstream publishers you get a page rate for each job you do on a project (writing, pencilling, inking, etc), and you earn based on how many pages you turn out. Page rates vary and increase after some time spent with a company or if your name value increases for whatever reason. When I was starting out I earned a poverty-level income doing comics, and had to have other jobs to support myself. At one point I was doing comics, working in a comic shop and also working as a barback in a punk/new wave club, it took me several years to be able to quit my other jobs and do comics full-time, and that was only after a few lucky breaks. These days I have good years and bad years, financially, as all freelancers seem to have, and I make less than some folks doing this full-time because I still do small press projects that pay relatively little or nothing. It's really hard to nail down an income level, because it's not like an office job, you're paid based on sales, time put in, projects completed, etc. All I can say is that there are people doing this for a living, some folks are making terrific money, some make good money, most make decent money or not very decent money. It's an entertaibnment/art industry, and a dying medium, so many of us are doing it because we want to, and you do what you can to balance out your love for making comics with the reality of having to pay the bills. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from getting into comics, but I do dissuade people from getting into comics to get rich. It can happen, but so can an invasion from Mars.
4. What other companies had you worked for/concidered working for
before Slave Labor Graphics?
Very few, I drew a 13 page "New-Talent" (or No-Talent) story for DC Comics that was never printed, drew two issues of a book called Phigments for Amazing Comics --who ripped the writer and I off, because at the time I was naive about the financial aspects of the business -- and I then wrote and drew my own book, Pirate Corp$!, for Eternity COmics. I also wrote a book at Eterntiy called Wild Knights, which was not very good. NOne of my early work was very good,a ctually, but when Pirate Corp$! was cancelled I went looking for a publisher and Dan Vado of SLG decided there was something to my work and gave me a chance, for which I'm still grateful. I pretty much considered working for practically any publisher at the time, I just wanted to make comics and improve.
5. What are the biggest challanges you face in this feild?
The lack of resources to promote the entire medium, the fannish, unprofessional, tail-swallowing industry business practices, the miserable direct market clubhouse comic book shops, the public perception of all comics as kidstuff (not that kidstuff is necessarily bad), the chronic pain in my drawing hand, trying to improve my art and overcome the fact that I'm self-taught and am years behind where I should be, trying to improve my writing, trying to balance paying work with work that's more personal to me, not having time or money to promote my work, the fact that we're all mortal and there's only so many hours in a day.
There you go, hope that suffices. Any follow-ups, let me know.
best,
evan dorkin