Something I have said and written about many times in the past needs to be written about again.
At past comic events I have seen the hopeful artists show their portfolios to editors or publishers and be quickly dismissed with a "Needs improvement. Buy our books and look at what we publish and the art style."
Those editors are there for free ego boosts and lunches and since 1984 I have seen very few who will take more than 3-4 minutes talking to a want to be artist. I have seen some great art pages that 'editors' described as needing to be more "professional" -most comic companies including Marvel and DC have published less than professional art in the past and present. The "Marvel style" is a joke since it was meant as a guideline not "You MUST copy Jack or John" -Marvel was recognised for its use of artists with varying styles -a comic company that published 10 comics drawn in a Kirby style would become stale and pretty boring after a short time.
A company that has editors or a publisher that does not recognise varying art styles or how a creative artist will stick to script but stylise the page is not representing a creative company. Yes, you want a well drawn comic because you are in business and need to make money to pay the bills and artists/writers but I recall one Marvel UK editor in the late 1980s showing me a draw full of art pages sent in by people hoping to get work and he rejected some who had turned in some great art because the pages were not what he liked. One had a signature and address in Spain on the back of the rejected art page Carlos Pacheco.
For every new artist who comes along it is likely 200-300 have been rejected and I have seen artists get work at conventions because they either kissed-the-ass of the editor or bought them drinks in the bar and got promised a job and that is even in print somewhere but I was told by told UK editors that is how they 'hired' particular artists: "No skin off my nose I'm not paying him the company is" -anyone guess who those now rebooted and legendary editors were?
Here is the thing; in the old days of the 1970s-1early 1990s artists and writers practiced their craft in Small Press zines -the Who's Who of those people is lengthy indeed from Moore, Davies, Mark Millar and on and on. These days there are no anthology Small Press zines that accept contributions so people create their own zines and that does not get them to a wider audience even if it does improve their art or story-telling skills. It is, however, the only alternative to getting experience and building up a reputation.
Then there are people who just want to draw but will never be the next Kirby, Byrne or whoever you think is the current greatest artist. That just does not matter if you are doing this to have the fun of creating a comic of your own and building up your own little universe. Go for it. Anyone says "This isn't very good is it?" ask to see their comic or artwork -you'll probably be told they "don't do comics" and you need to take idiotic comments in your stride BUT if someone does offer genuine advice LISTEN. The problem is that too many artists have egos bigger than their talent and will not listen. Others will even if only grudgingly.
Example one: a creator sent me their A5 sized comic. Excellent printing and production but every -EVERY- art page was blank (white) on the reverse side. I pointed out that this might be why his book was not selling as it was priced to cover 40+ printed pages (yes, blank pages ARE counted) when it was only 20 pages. He took my suggestion of correcting the problem as well as a couple other tips and I heard nothing until 6 months later when he contacted me and explained that he had made all of the changes and his books were selling.
Another self published creator I talked to at a convention for a good while (he was attracting no customers) showed me his comic. Black and white art that looked very good and yet, as he explained, the comic did not sell. My advice was that he change the black and white cover to a colour one and the cover text which looked a little amateurish. He was not happy but listened and we parted with his attitude of "Yeah. Sure. I'll do that now sod off". After his next convention he sent me a copy of the same book but with improved cover text and colour cover and he actually thanked me and said he had not been intending to follow my advice but then thought it was worth trying rather than have a stack of unsold books. The new version sold out after two events.
Others I have advised because despite what anyone thinks I want to see a good creative -albeit small- comic community and I have promoted the Small Press in the UK, US and Europe and well beyond since the 1980s. Have a loose knit community of creators who have fun and, maybe, earn a little extra cash is the way to keep comics alive particularly in the UK.
So make comics and enjoy making them even if you may never become the next mega comic star!
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