One of my newer patrons sent in a request, asking if I could share some details of how I broke into comics and some tips on making the whole thing work as a career. I am here to help you amazing people any way that I can, so today I will oblige! Please note that what follows is my own personal experience with breaking in and staying in. My methods may not be suitable for everyone, and some of the things I did might seem completely absurd to you, but this is the truth of how I grew my comics career!
It was about 4 years ago that I quit working day jobs. Cold turkey. I came home one night from a stressful shift at a local warehouse, and I broke down crying on my bathroom floor. My day job was leaving me completely unfulfilled and unappreciated, and I needed out. I needed to find a way to express myself and make a living at it. So, in my desperate emotional state, I vowed to never return to work at the day job.
This would not have even been an option under normal circumstances, but my partner having a full time job, good health insurance for both of us, and a LOT of faith in me was the perfect recipe for being able to take the risk. Her parents thought we were crazy. My parents thought we were crazy. Fuck...WE thought we were crazy, but it didn't matter. I had to TRY!
Making comics a full time job allowed me to focus intensely on studying the craft and sharpening my skills. I worked 12-14 hour days just reading as much as I could about writing and lettering. The books that helped me most were:
The Elements of Style -
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404930935&sr=1-1&keywords=strunk+and+white
Panel One: Comic Book Scripts By Top Writers -
http://www.amazon.com/Panel-One-Comic-Scripts-Writers/dp/0971633800/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404931035&sr=1-1&keywords=panel+one
Comic Book Lettering: The Comicraft Way -
http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Book-Lettering-Comicraft-Way/dp/0974056731/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404931078&sr=1-1&keywords=comicraft
I would write up a script for an idea I had, and then I'd letter from that script. I'd make black dots on a blank illustrator document, and pretend those were mouths, then I'd letter as if those were the speaking characters. This was enough practice to help me get comfortable with the basics of lettering. My first gig came from a local anthology comic here in Columbus, OH called Nix Comics Quarterly, which I found through a local arts website. It was a low-budget, self published rock and roll horror comic with very limited distribution, but it paid! I asked a friend of mine who was an aspiring comic artist at the time if he would be interested in tackling the story with me, and we made it happen. I wrote and lettered the thing, he drew it, and we both got a small chunk of change for it.
I went on to contribute to another issue of that book before I was approached by Renae De Liz to work on the Womanthology book. Renae and I became friends on facebook when I was just starting to build my social network. She was a lady, and she was making comics, so she instantly become someone I wanted to know. Anyhow, she put out the call for a female letterer to help her with this big anthology project she was putting together, and I was the only lady to answer. I ended up lettering HUNDREDS of pages of comics in a very short time, which caught the attention of several of the editors. Editors from well-known comics publishers! My hard work and dedication to the craft was earning me a reputation!
Renae urged me to join twitter, suggesting that it was a great avenue to network with other creators, editors, and publishers. I was reluctant, but I signed up. Within a few weeks, I had gathered a modest following (thanks to Jim Lee for tweeting about me and my involvement with the Womanthology book) and I continued to grow it from there. Since comics was my full time job, and social media seemed key to getting jobs, I made it a priority. Half of my work day was spent on facebook and twitter, getting to know people, and putting my name out there. I got a few jobs lettering pitches and smaller projects, but there were no offers to write, which is what I REALLY wanted to do. This was because I didn't really have any significant writing credits to my name.
I decided then that I would simply write my own comic series, and see if I could get my work out there that way. Seeing the success of Womanthology on kickstarter, I decided I'd give it a go and see if I could fund an issue of a self-published comic. I found an artist on DeviantArt and paid them out of pocket to draw three pages of my story, and that's what I presented on kickstarter. That comic was Anathema, and it managed to raise $8,000, thanks to that nice little social network I had built up. Are you starting to get the feeling that social networking is important in this business? I hope so, because it is.
I went back to Kickstarter after the success of the first issue and raised the funds for issues 2-6. I shared samples of my books through social media, and sold them through my webstore. I took my work to big conventions like C2E2, HeroesCon, and Baltimore, and pushed them right along with the industry professionals. I knew that any value I would have as a creator at this point would be gained from how I valued myself, so I decided to act like I was worth just as much as any other Joe at the convention. I ACTED like a pro, and people started to see me as a pro.
I continued the trend of lettering books for a modest page rate, writing and producing my own books, building my social network, and getting out to as many conventions as I could. I was consistent, and I treated the whole process like a real job. Act like a pro, think like a pro, BE a pro. With this pro attitude, I had an editor from Blizzard Entertainment approach me to write expanded lore. I got paid well for that. I was approached by ComiXology to help launch their Submit program with Anathema. I was asked to come and speak in San Diego at Comic Con International on self publishing comics in the digital marketplace. I was putting myself out there, and people were taking notice!
I pitched Anathema around to publishers, and even had editors seek me out at conventions to pick up my books, so I was starting to make the right contacts. I took advantage of this and decided to start small by pitching to the editor of Creepy at Dark Horse. After a few rounds of pitching unsuccessful stories, I finally had one accepted!
Bitten by the horror anthology bug, I decided to stretch my editorial muscles and put together In the Dark. I recruited a bunch of my friends in the industry and took the project to kickstarter. Since you're a patron, you probably know my work, and you probably know all about In the Dark. If not, go search for it on kickstarter, and come back when you're up to speed.
With the success of Anathema, Creepy, and In the Dark, I was really picking up steam and getting noticed by editors. The group editor of Vertigo, Will Dennis, approached me one day, said that he'd bought and read Anathema, and wanted to meet with me at my next big convention. We hit it off, and that lead to me writing for the CMYK quarterly anthology. That brings us to the present!
I'm currently working on finishing up Anathema, putting together volume 2 of In the Dark, and still lettering a FUCKING SHIT TON of books every month. Let's recap what we've learned from my experiences, shall we?
1. Big risks yield big rewards.
2. Building a social network is absolutely vital.
3. You will have to invest a lot of money into self-publishing and paying your way into conventions in order to promote yourself and your work.
4. You have to value yourself before anyone else will see any value in you.
5. Act like a professional and people will see you as a professional.
6. Self-starting is important. Nobody told me I could be a writer, editor, letterer, designer, or publisher. I told MYSELF I could be those things, and I put in the work necessary to make it so.
And that about wraps things up here. If there's something I didn't touch on that you'd like me to cover, let me know in the comments and I'll make sure to drop some knowledge bombs on that ass.
SUPER EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to Thomas Boatwright for the awesome illustration in this post. Check out his Patreon here:
http://www.patreon.com/boatwrightartwork
