Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

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ProFile: Ed Brisson

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ProFile-Ed-Brisson

Ed Brisson is a comic book writer who’s has been published by Image, Marvel, BOOM! and IDW. Before getting being published by others, Ed spent nearly two decades creating and self-publishing his own comics.

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

I don’t remember a time where I didn’t want to work in comics. I’ve been reading comics since I could read and probably started drawing my own not long after. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.

Initially I wanted to be a comic artist and only started writing them because I didn’t know anyone else who could. This was before the internet was around, so I didn’t have access to scripts either. Slowly, and over a long period of time, I realized that I enjoyed the writing more than I did the illustrating and gave up the latter to focus in solely on writing.

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

I’m not sure. I tend to be pretty scatter brained and have a lot of trouble focusing in when the time comes. I takes a lot of effort and is thoroughly exhausting. I need a nap after I’ve written four or five pages.

Another thing I have trouble with, something that I rarely hear people talking about to aspiring creators, is making sure that I have downtime. I mean, you work hard for a long time to “break into” comics, to have people notice you and when they finally do, the offers will come flooding in and you have to be aware of how much you can handle and making sure that you leave some time for you. Otherwise you’re going to burn out.

I *try* to leave my weekends free for me time (which means mostly spending time with my wife and daughter), but still generally end up working through them. I’m working on it though.

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

My advice would be to jump in, head first, and just start creating comics. Stop talking and start doing. I know too many people who have a “great” story they want to do, but never put rubber to road. Just start. Now. Start with 5-10 page stories. Build to single issues and then focus on doing longer stories once you have that down – once you’ve discovered your voice. Scrap your idea for a 200 issue epic. Start small and grow.

Follow Ed’s work at http://edbrisson.com/

5 great online resources for comics creators

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You can spend hours, days, even months scouring the web for information or resources on how to make comics. Here are five good places to go (other than this site, of course!)

Jimzub.com

Comics writer Jim Zubkavich (Samurai Jack, Skullkickers) dishes out a ton of great advice for aspiring writers and artists, both on the craft and the business side of comics. I interviewed him for the podcast at New York Comic Con 2013 on why he creates these tutorials and gives away all this valuable information – and trust me, it’s gold.

Blambot.com

A good comics font can be hard to find – and even harder to create from scratch – but the folks at Blambot have done the hard work for you! Their fonts are not all free. Some are license, so you pay a one-time fee, usually $20-25. A good deal for something you could end up using daily.

iFanboy makecomics podcast

Short podcasts about the craft, featuring Andy Schmidt (no relation!) of Comics Experience. The podcast sound quality isn’t always great, but there’s a lot of food for thought for creators, both newbies and seasoned pros. I sat on a panel with Andy at this year’s SDCC and he was every bit as smart and nice in  person.

Remind blog

Writer/artist Jason Brubaker shares his experiences and tools for creating his comic reMIND. Brubaker started the site Making Comics as well, where I did a few guest posts, but I would recommend going to remindblog.com first and devouring all you can.

Posemanics

A great online resource for artists who don’t have access to life drawing classes is pose maniacs.com. There are tons of reference models on the site and a timer function for doing 30 second sketches from random images. There is even an app for it and the resource is FREE.

ProFile: Jeremy Barlow

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ProFile-Jeremy-Barlow

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: 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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Q & A at TAW

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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!