Hmm. Draw 150 pages for free?

 "Are your characters copyrighted to you?"

"Can I use one or two of your characters in my own book?" 

 Do I get asked these questions? Yes. A lot.

 I've even has US small pressers try to reprint some of my 2000s material as "Public Domain". That got stopped pretty quickly. One email. No response?   Do you know who handles Intellectual Property theft in the United States?  The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center -p-art of Homeland Security. I had no idea but report a copyright theft and the thief stops pretty fast.

Am I ever going to loan out any of my characters to someone else with no control over how they will be used and no contract?  Even with a contract offered NO    

Create your own characters and be creative with stories. "That character looks cool" well; create your own design. If you cannot design a costume for your character then you are in the wrong business.  I have been asked to design costumes for people and when I ask questions about the character I have had "It's a blank slate. Once I see the costume I'll put it all together" -again;you are in the wrong business.

"I love your retro style. Are you working on anything currently because if not I have a hot graphic novel idea I'd like you to draw -around 150pp" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Sorry. Repeating that always makes me laugh. A new creative team, maybe two friends, working on a graphic novel is fine. Contacting a stranger and asking them, without contract, without any sort of deal let alone publisher who has shown interest is just a hobby project. I need to eat and pay bills (both badly). There are other problems.

When comics became a temporary hip fad everyone was going to be a "graphic novel" author (not realising that 95% of these are trades; a series gathered under one cover. In fact they had no idea about comics but it was all on The Big Bang Theory so how hard was it? There were two people I am aware of who got artists to draw at least three (each) graphic novels.  There was an excuse and the artists never heard from them again although they were sensible and refused to send all the original art.  Did those two ever submit or try to interest a publisher in the book? Who knows because they vanished.  These were very likely two individuals who can say to their pals "Yes, I wrote a graphic novel once" and show the completed work and then bitch about the industry not being ready for the concept.

I have had artists who tried to sell off a joint project as their own to publishers behind my back -the  publishers all contacted me to ask what was going on.

Always create your own character and know what that character is about and his/her back story.  Small publishers cannot afford to pay $150-200 per page and if you want to get into comics remember that.  Years ago creators started out in the small press and then went to independent comics and that route led to mainstream comics. 

Today everyone thinks they are a star with that multi million dollar comic character/idea. Dream on.