Over the past year or so I've really tried to find out more about breaking into the comic book industry as a writer. I've spoken to writers, artists, anyone who was willing to answer the questions of a kid who really knew nothing about where to get started. I received a lot of vague answers peppered with some real insight on what steps to take.
Eventually I started to use the internet to my advantage by checking out various different publishers and reading up on how they handle submissions from new writers. Unfortunately, most of them simply don't. Unsolicited submissions from writers just isn't something that publishers, big or small, accept readily. I suppose it's because there are simply less jobs for writers. One writer can easily write two scripts a month, some of the more successful write up to four a month. Very few artists can do more than one book a month, lets be honest, some of them can't even do one per month.
So where does that leave the fledgling writer? Looks like its time to do it yourself baby! Many of today's top writers started from the bottom doing indie books or self publishing. Hell, some of them even drew their own books. What if you're artistically challenged like me? Well, then you need to start making some friends.
The internet has a lot of resources with talented artists out there, but make it out to your local convention if you have one in your area. You'd be surprised how many great artists don't make use of all this free virtual space. I love the con scene and love to take in the sites, get sketches, sit in on panels and all that fun stuff, but these days I just try to meet as many cool people as I can. The more people I hit it off with, the better my chances of one day getting published.
I know that sounds extremely self serving, but I believe it all depends on your perspective. I don't see artists as a meal ticket or a rung to climb to reach super stardom. I see them as someone who can aid me in my vision, a future collaborator. Artists that you hear me talk about and try to promote are guys that I believe in. I believe in their art and I believe in them as good people. Maybe one day I'll get to a place where I'll just be assigned to work with someone I have no clue about, but the nice thing about trying to do your own project is you get to make that decision, not have it made for you.
So with that I'll leave you with two very good resources that feature sequential artists.
Digital Webbing
Penciljack
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2 comments:
Hi Jon, I came across your profile from the Wildstorm blog. I wish you good luck pitching your scripts to udon at comiccon!
I'm in graphic design right now, but even that is not creative enough for me. I would love to write comics like you, but the market for that seems very hard to get into. It does seem the best way is to have an artist draw a story for you.
I've been to comiccon the past 3 years but I'm not sure if I can make it this time. Anyways, hope you have fun :)
Sal
Thanks for the well wishes Sal. I decided to start this blog in order to talk about my hobby but also to talk about my pursuit of a career in writing fiction.
I agree that the industry is really hard to break into. I do have a friend that's a fantastic artist. He's agreed to draw a 32 page one shot for me, I just haven't posted about it yet because we still have a lot of details to hash out.
Thanks for checking out the blog :)
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