Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

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Self publishing – print or digital?

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I’ve had several people ask me about self-publishing and the pros and cons of digital comics. I am by no means an expert here, but luckily the very talented Becky Cloonan just did a post on this very topic!

Cloonan is an Eisner-award winning artist and writer of creator-owned books such as Wolves and Demeter. In her recent post she breaks down her self-publishing experience, beginning with the toils of living with boxes of comics everywhere and constant runs to the post office:

The time it started taking out of my schedule was almost too much as well. One full day a week was spent filling orders, putting envelopes together, and mailing them out. I’d enlist my friends’ help carrying boxes to the post office. It got to be a bit much, and honestly I remember almost giving up a few times.

I did some self-publishing here in Denmark some years back and remember that state of constantly putting books in envelopes and orinting invoices. A luxury problem, for sure, but I hadn’t calculated shipping costs in my cover price, so it actually ended up costing me money every time I sent off a book! Between that and retailer discounts, I think I lost quite a bit of money on a fairly succesful book. I still have quite a few boxes in storage and no real plan to unload them. Putting money down for print and handling distribution is NOT something I feel like doing again any time soon.

Today I would definetely prefer digital over print, if I was to self-publish. The cost is lower and distribution is completely hassle free. Cloonan was lucky enough to get into the digital publishing platform Comixology, which makes it even easier and it’s still valuable to have a big player involved that can help handle logistics and marketing.

Cloonan continues to describe her experience with digital publishing:

DIGITAL COMICS! Yay, I have no idea what I’m doing! Submit was perfect for me, I got to choose the prices of my books, and they held my hand through the whole process. Now I know how to buy ISBNs like a boss, and format digital books. They did some great promotion for DEMETER too, and really pushed the book as part of the Submit launch! I have nothing but praise for ComiXology.

To read the rest of Cloonan’s run-down, go to her Tumblr. For me, the conclusion would be, if I can get digital distribution taken care of through another vendor, I wouldn’t mind digital publishing (Bonus info: You can buy my book, The Devil’s Concubine on Comixology as well. It’s not self-published, but I still get a cut, so… Appreciate it!), but I think just putting a book online as a web-comic and build the audience for a print or digital copy is really a better plan. I have way too much on my plate right now to bother with selling and shipping books.

What are your thoughts on self-publishing? Anyone have experience they want to share? Let’s hear it!

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Related post: Are printed books going away?

 

Drawing Every Day – Comics for Beginners podcast episode 17

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In this episode I share some tips and suggestions for becoming a better artist. Drawing every day and everywhere is one thing, but what if you find yourself hating the end result? How do you get good at drawing and make it a habit? Well, click play and find out!
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ProFile: Jeremy Barlow

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Jeremy Barlow is an Eisner Award nominated writer and editor whose graphic novel credits include Mass Effect Foundation,Dethklok: Metalocalypse, and R.I.P.D. City of the Damned. He lives in Portland OR, and is a member of famed Periscope Studio.

 What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?

Comics have always been my first love. I grew up reading whatever comics I could get my hands on, and that passion has carried through my life. There’s something about the way comics work on your brain that’s totally unique; how the visuals and the text interweave, how your mind creates motion and context in the juxtaposition of static images — it’s like a magic trick. A great graphic novel can punch you right in the heart.

What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?

The stupid, unjustified self-doubt. Despite all I’ve accomplished, I still approach every new project feeling like I have no idea what I’m doing, that I’ve forgotten how to write a script, that I’m gonna blow it and it’ll be the last job I ever get. Typical impostor syndrome. I know it’s not true, and I always push through it to get the work done, but, man — it wastes a lot of time.

Beyond that, my professional life would be so much easier if I could draw my own stories. Working in a visual medium without a visual skill set is a little bit crazy. I have stories I’m burning to tell — and I can see how great the graphic novels would be if they existed — but without an artistic partner to help me execute them, they’re just folders on my hard drive.

It’s just a fact of being a writer in this medium, and I’m not alone in it, I know. It’s all worth it when you do finally establish a collaboration and put it all together. It’s totally worth it.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?

Give yourself permission to be terrible. For a while. Getting good at anything takes time — you have to put in the hours and get the crap out of your system, because we’re all terrible when we start out. I know when you’re starting out the drive is to make it a career as soon as possible, but you’re better off in the long run to spend the time developing your voice and your point of view. And the only way to do that is to do a lot of crappy work and to learn from your mistakes. God knows I’m still learning.

It’s okay for your first drafts to be awful. They should be! No one’s going to see it, so stink it up! Because no one gets it right the first time, and the real magic happens when you’re editing or revising your work, so just get it out. You can’t fix something if it doesn’t exist.

However, don’t lean on that on an excuse not to up your game. It’s okay to start terrible, but don’t stay there!

website: jeremybarlow.com

Twitter: @Jeremy_Barlow

Periscopestudio.com

ProFile: Scott Hampton

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Scott Hampton (born April 10, 1959) is an American comic book artist well known for his painted artwork. He is the brother of fellow-comics-creator Bo Hampton. Working as a freelance comic book artist, Hampton has illustrated such iconic properties as Batman, Sandman, Black Widow, Hellraiser, and Star Trek in addition to work on his creator-owned projects such as The Upturned Stone. His works include Spookhouse, released in 2004 by IDW Publishing, in which he adapted his favorite ghost stories into sequential form, Batman: Gotham County Line and the creator-owned series Simon Dark with writer Steve Niles for DC Comics.

What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?

My older brother, Bo, introduced me to comics and it was love at first sight.

What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?

Pacing. Telling a story smoothly I find quite challenging.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?

Learn the craft of writing as well as drawing. Tell your stories. Don’t give up.

More at http://scotthamptonart.com/

ProFile: Arvid Nelson

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Arvid Nelson lives in Western Massachusetts with his loving wife, an angelic son, and a large television. He’s written for all the major publishers, he believes in the Oxford Comma, and his biggest claim to fame is Rex Mundi. Follow him at arvidland.com.

What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?

I worked on a couple of movies after college, and I quickly discovered film wasn’t for me. Movies involve a lot of logistics and fund-raising. The artistic process inevitably gets garbled. Comics seemed like a great “shortcut”, a great way to tell a big-budget story for practically no money. So I guess it was a cynical, calculated decision in some ways – I mean, I can’t say I have a burning passion for comics – but at the same time, it was in pursuit of telling the best stories I could, without making compromises.

What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?

Depending on other people! For instance, a key team member on one of my stories fell ill and stopped producing for a year. A year, Palle! He’s okay now, and that’s by far the most important thing, but it really hurt our momentum. Imagine waiting for a year in between episodes of The Wire or whatever. It breaks your heart.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?

Well, two things, and they’re related – persistence and forgiveness. By “forgiveness” I mean “forgive yourself for failure”. The more you forgive yourself, the more you’ll improve. And that leads to the other thing – persistence. You will pour your heart into a comic and then let it loose on the world with hope bubbling in your soul… only to be completely ignored. That’s okay. It happens to everyone, or, at least, I hope so, or I’m a total jerk. But if at first you don’t succeed, fail, fail again. Failure never gets any easier, but if you keep at it for a few years and then look back at where you started… you’ll say to yourself “Wow, I have really come a long way”.

Hard Choices with Palle Schmidt – Comics for Beginners Podcast episode 16

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Last week I taught a comics class at the Animation Workhop in Viborg. This week’s podcast is a summary of some of the things I taught – and learned myself! The main theme is choice: what kind of choices you need to make before you start drawing, and what you can do to make the process easier for yourself. As usual, your host is writer/artist Palle Schmidt.

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