Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

New York

Case study: THOMAS ALSOP

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I met Chris Miskiewicz at the MoCCA Festival in New York in early 2011. The Devil’s Concubine was set to be published in the US that year but wasn’t out yet. I carried a print-out of the book with me, as well as a sample of my upcoming book STILETTO. I was blown away by the response. I wasn’t used to that kind of praise, and for the first time, people seemed to really GET IT. It felt like I’d been in a box for ten years and now someone had finally taken the lid off. I didn’t know what to expect from the show but I certainly wasn’t looking for work.

I met Chris as he and Dean Haspiel were setting up a booth. Chris and I clicked immediately. He gave me a copy of his Everywhere! anthology booklet he had printed for the show and asked me if I would consider doing an episode. We exchanged numbers and continued to chat for almost an hour. I walked back to the booth this Danish cartoonist had set up in the corner of the con floor and started reading the booklet. I texted Chris 5 minutes after we parted ways: “I’m in.” For a guy who wasn’t looking for work, I was totally failing after just one day in the country.

We stayed in touch over the next months via e-mail and texts. Chris sent me a great script for Everywhere! episode, a heist story that was more or less written with my taste in mind. It was a great experience and Chris continued to bring up Thomas Alsop, a concept he had pitched me on the con floor that first time I met him. I still figured it had nothing to do with me, not ready to commit to anything that major and not sure how to go about it.

Later that year I heard of New York Comic Con for the first time and figured I would try to fly over for that. I’d already been to San Diego Comic Con and did a few signings on the West Coast. I reached out to Dean and asked if I could come sit at his studio for a week or so before or after the con and he said sure. I went and got to know both Chris and Dean a whole lot better.

Scripts and photo references for Thomas Alsop started filling up our Dropbox and we did a little teaser episode for Trip City called The Case of Dead Uncle. Google it, I’m sure it’s still out there. Again Chris was smart enough to lure me in with something short and doable rather than a full script for 8 issues.

Chris had already written the entire 8-issue arc before I even drew a single page. It was crucial to have the ending (and wow, what an ending!) in mind even as I was working on issue 1. Whether it would ever go anywhere was still in the wind, but when Chris spent his own money creating a live action trailer (viewable on the front page of thomasalsop.com) I was floored. It looked like a million bucks! This crazy New Yorker meant business and he clearly knew what he was doing. 

In July of 2013 we pitched Thomas Alsop to BOOM! at SDCC. We’d bumped into a friend of Chris’ on the con floor who introduced us to Matt Gagnon and we chatted for like 20 minutes. Only after parting ways did we realize he was the editor in chief. 

BOOM! eventually picked up the book and I started breaking down the script and drawing issue #2. We did hit a small snag when the publisher suddenly wanted to discuss a key point in the story revolving 9/11. If it had been a minor element we would have probably obliged to change it but since it was in line 2 of the pitch they bought and was a crucial focal point of the whole series, Chris and I stood our ground. We eventually agreed to a add little essays as back matter, making it clear for the readers that Chris was not just some douche exploiting a national disaster but was himself a New Yorker, born and bred. The book went forward and the controversy never happened. On the contrary, the respectful handling of 9/11 in the story seemed to land us an even more committed fan base and the book was dubbed Best Mini-Series of 2014 by USA Today. So even though BOOM! decided not to do a second series due to lack of commercial success, we still have a book we can be proud of out there. And who knows, maybe some day…

Lessons learned:

If I have any regrets in my career, it is not going to a US con sooner. Where the US has an actual comics industry, Denmark does not. I learned a lot from working with Chris, and found out I don’t necessarily have to be the one behind the wheel to enjoy the ride. 

This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers – Pre-order now on Amazon.

Bonus Video: A Most Productive Year

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If you thought I was lying on a beach somewhere, you are thoroughly mistaken! Here’s part of what I’ve been up to this past year or so. Probably the busiest time of my life ever – and still is. Watch the video to find out why.

ProFile: Kevin Colden

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ProFile-Kevin-ColdenKevin Colden has written, drawn, colored, and lettered all sorts of comics over the last decade including Fishtown, I Rule the Night, Yours Truly Jack the Ripper (with writers Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale), and helped IDW Publishing relaunch James O’Barr’s The Crow in 2012 with writer John Shirley. His most recent work includes a digital one-shot adaptation of Robert Bloch’s Pumpkin with writer Steve Niles and colors for Dynamite’s GRIMM digital series, as well as his own upcoming series Ἀντιόχεια (Antioch). He lives in New York with his wife and their three-year-old son/personal assistant.

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

Comics have been a part of my life since I can remember, and until I was about twelve or thirteen years old, the only thing I wanted to do for a living when I grew up was write and draw comics. When I was a teenager I got very serious about music and theater, but I came back to comics when I decided not to pursue acting. My reasoning was that if I went to school for visual art I could always find work as a graphic designer if nothing else, but if I went to school for acting I would end up working as waiter or a clown at children’s birthday parties or something like that. I also hate auditioning, so I picked the fallback career that I liked more. As it turns out, that was a good idea, because it took me about eight years after graduating to be able to make any kind of living wage from comics. The reason why I picked comics as opposed to illustration, animation or design work probably comes from the fact that I like writing and telling stories as much as I like drawing. What I love most is when I’m able able to craft a complete piece of work from beginning to end and have people engage with it directly from me to them, with as little as possible in between. You can’t really do that with film or animation because there are so many other people involved. You can’t even do that with most comics if you want to make a living. So I guess it’s a little bit of an ego thing after having tried a few other disciplines that were more collaborative.

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

From a creative standpoint, I find the amount of time involved in drawing to be very frustrating. For a long time I was known as a guy who could do good work really fast, but that was mainly because I’m a little impatient, possibly a little ADHD. Nowadays I take a lot more time with the work, but it can be excruciating to realize that it’s taken me a month to do ten pages – until I realize that I’m doing full grayscale hatching and coloring it as well. Still it’s hard to accept that the reader is only going to spend a minute with a page that took three days to create. From a business standpoint, I’m not a huge fan of the standard business model as a creator in American comics. I’ve never really been all that keen to follow instructions, because no one has ever done anything creatively interesting by following the rules. I like to know those rules, for sure, but – as an example – if I’m making my own comic and need to promote it, where is the money coming from to go to six or seven conventions a year? Breaking even at a con is nearly impossible even if you’re very popular or are able to charge a lot for sketches. That’s not sound business to my eyes. So I prefer to find fun ways to work outside the system and then let everyone else run to where lightning just struck.

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

Spend a lot of time trying different genres and styles, and when you find something you love and that you’re good at, focus on it. If you start hating it, start all over again.

Q & A at TAW

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TAW-students-making-comics

As you may know, I taught a comics course at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark last week. I’m planning a podcast about the course, that will probably go up later this week, but I also got some questions from students that I thought I would answer here. Perhaps there is some value in it for the Comics for Beginners community.

Q: When you’re working on a comic, don’t you ever want to change or ditch your story completely?

A: Yes, absolutely! Every time. But if I listened to the voice inside my head that tells me it’s not good enough, chances are I’ll never finish anything. I may decide NEVER to use this pen again or NEVER to make that same story mistake, but rarely do I change horses in the middle of the stream. That doesn’t mean I have no sense of self critique (at least I hope not), I just try to act like a pro and get it done. And whatever I learn, I take with me to the NEXT project.

I talked a bit about my collaboration with writer Chris Miskiewicz. I feel very fortunate to have met Chris and we get along very well creatively, with complete respect for each other’s work and a common goal to make the end result even better. When I described our working relationship, I got this question:

Q: How do you find a partner like that?

A: It’s probably different for everybody. First off, you don’t meet anybody if you just stay at home at your drawing board. You have to get out there. I met Chris at the MoCCA Festival in New York and we got along instantly. AND I liked the work he did. He lured me in with a smaller project, a short comic for his Everywhere! anthology on Act-I-Vate. Doing a little something together is probably a good idea to see if you’re on the same page. Test the waters. Meeting in person (and getting drunk together) is also something I would very much recommend, as it just takes the relationship to a whole other level than an online friendship. It frees up the communication.

Another question that was asked was about making a living as an artist and starting out:

Q: When did you decide to become an artist?

A: I didn’t, really. For a looong time I didn’t even ALLOW myself to think it was possible. I didn’t know anybody who made a living drawing, and my parents certainly didn’t either. So like the good parents they were, they persuaded me to get an education and/or a REAL job. Well, I botched thatcompletely. Never got a degree, but was working on illustration, comics, fanzine production while pretending to be a good student at the university and later the school of architecture here in Copenhagen, Denmark.  It wasn’t until I met Peter Snejbjerg (artist of Books of Magic, Starman, Preacher and numerous other US books), that I realized being an artist could be a profession and not just a hobby. Starting at Gimle Studios alongside Peter and a bunch of other pros made me what I am today. If not for them, I probably would have given up. So finding a peer group and a studio spot was key for me. AND running out of money, so I HAD to make it work!

It was a great experience to meet all the talented young  people in Viborg. Thanks to Aske, Fie, Kristian, Muir, Bob, Maria, Emil, Cathrin, Siri, Jacob, Eydi, Jam, Albert, Mathilde, Line, Clara, Julie, Nilas, Mette and Sofie for the opportunity to offer some guidance. Soon I’ll be asking YOU for advice!