Making Comics - Part 1

'The Zombie' by Brian Smallwood

My interest tend to be all over the place. Whether that be guitar, drawing, painting, writing, photography, film making...and on and on it goes. But the one common thread that holds them together is they are all creative outlets. Multiple uses of expression.
Of these creative outlets, drawing, and in particular penciling I would like to make a career of. Even though I'm open minded to having success in any field, this particular area of interest is where I wish to focus my attention. In particular, Comics.
So finally I get to the point!

Comics is a passion I've carried with me since childhood. It was in the 3rd grade in Elementary School  that I decided that I wanted to be a comic artist. Deciding this is half the battle, become one is where the true work begins. There is so many hoops to go through, trials and tribulations, and disappointments to endure, but if you truly love something then it's worth it. And it's worth it to me.

One big hurdle is getting your foot in the door in the comic industry, just getting people to notice you and your work. And there are so many talented people out there that your competing for the same audience that it makes it difficult to get noticed. So becoming comic artist, in my opinion, is a war of will and attrition. How bad do you want it, are you willing mentally to suffer for it, and how long are you willing wait?

The thing I've learn is it takes a long time to break into the industry with the major publishers. They get hundreds of packages from people like (or you assuming you draw) and they don't sift through them all. Most only look at your portfolio's only at comic conventions. So what do you do?
Artist Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon, Amazing Spider-man, Defenders) has the answer: "You draw comics". Really?!? Is that all it takes? What does he mean when he says  'draw comics'?  Well without hunting the direct quote down, he is basically saying stop making your main focus trying to work for the big boys (Marvel, DC, IDW, Darkhorse...etc) and just draw your own comics. Make up your own stories, your own characters, and just make your own comics.

Can it be that simple? Yes. These days more artist and writers get noticed and hired by the Big Boys for the work that they had done on their creator owned stuff. And lets look at this way. If your just drawing 5 pages of sequentials (drawings that tell a story) and just hoping to get noticed as well as get critiques, then you can only get so far. What are you going to do if you do get hired and you have to draw a 22 page book in a month when your only used to doing 5 pages at a whack?
See what I'm saying?
So Erik Larsen is right. You (assuming you draw as well as myself) need to make the main focus on drawing your own original stuff that is around at least 20 pages and hopefully impose your own deadlines for when you finish each project.

Another great example of the value of doing things yourself is in the figure of Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy, Shadow Hawk, Publisher of Image Comics). Jim in the early 90's was talked into leaving Marvel Comics to found a new comic company where creators retain the rights to their creations and have the potential to make more of the money they deserve. Of these creators to leave with Jim was Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarland, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, and Jim Lee. Together they would found Image Comics.
Valentino unlike most of the Image Founders had experience creating and publishing his own comics. This experience became valuable and asset to the Image Founders later on or at the very least Valentino himself.

Jack 'the King' Kirby drawing, inking, and coloring at his work desk.

Drawing your own stuff is only going to make you better. You will learn a lot for your going to have to constantly figure out ways to draw things your not familiar with (assuming your challenging yourself and going beyond your comfort zone). Maybe your make believe hero is flying over water but you've never drawn water before. So, you figure it out. You find references and doodle. That's how it's done.
The advantages of drawing your creations is your going to get faster at draw, get more confident that you can do it, get more experience at drawing different things, and start to build a good portfolio. All these things are null and void though if you do not challenge yourself. You must always challenge yourself. Because that is not only how you grow as an artist but also as a human being. Draw things your not comfortable with. Draw things you've never drawn before. Don't just focus on your strengths but challenge your weaknesses. That is how you get good at your chosen craft.

No matter how many 'how to draw' books you have, no matter how many 'how to draw' dvd's you have, no matter the connections you make, no matter how well you promote yourself on social media, all is pointless unless YOU DO. Be a do'er.  These things that I've mentioned will not magically make you a comic artist. The bottom line is you must draw and draw a lot. That is biggest advice you will get from comic artist.

One of my favorite authors, Louis Lamour, was constantly writing. He didn't care if any of his stuff got published or not (though I'm sure he'd prefer to have it published) for he was focused on writing. He wrote. He wrote for the love it, he wrote to figure out new ways to write better, he wrote out of habit, out of boredom, sometimes he forced himself to write when he didn't want too, and of course sometimes he got paid to write. Though I'm sure if this is a quote, I believe I read somewhere that he said something to the effect of  "If you want to be a writer, you write".

There is a overlooked movie by Sean Connery that came out around 2000. It is called "Finding Forester". Now this movie isn't that great but having said that it is good and worth watching. It was on Netflix there for a while so you might want to give it a view in light of this article. Finding Forester has a similar theme to the movie "Goodwill Hunting" (1997) except one of the main supporting cast is helping a brilliant mathematician in Goodwill Hunting, where in Finding Forester it is about helping a writer realize his potential.

 In Finding Forester, Sean Connery plays this recluse who lives in an apartment in a rough part of the city. A seemingly urban kid breaks into his apartment, almost gets caught, panics, and leaves in a hurry leaving behind his backpack. Inside this backpack is his journal or essays (can't remember). Long story short the two become friends. Mentoring one another. Sean Connery helps the kid become a better writer and the kid helps him assimilate back into society. About mid way into the movie Connery challenges the kid to write in his apartment everyday. To which kid replies "What do I write about?" Connery ain't having his shit. He tells him to write about anything. The kid don't know what he wants to write about. So Connery slams a book in front of him and says "Here, copy this." After a bit of a back and forth of the merits of it Connery eventually explains that the kid needs to copy his words until he can FIND HIS OWN WORDS.
Now I've seen this movie on tv probably 4 times in my life, but for some reason that line finally stuck out to me. If you have to copy what someone else is doing word for word, line for line, action by action, frame by frame..etc...then you do it. Other wise you will always be sitting there trying to figure out what you should draw, what you should write, what you should do....etc.
Ain't got no time for that.

So the kid copy's the first couple of paragraphs and eventually he did find his own words and wrote 20 or 30 pages of his words. All it took was to get in 'the groove' , in the habit of being a writer.
Well my friends, no matter what your passion is get in the habit of doing it. Whether it's copying someone else's work (as long as you don't claim it's your own) or doing something original or derivative, it don't matter. YOU MUST DO.  So go out and find your own words my friend. I know I am trying to find mine.

Well this challenge is to myself and to those of you that draw too (or whatever else); if you want to be a artist, you draw. It's as simple as that. After all the talk, all the day dreaming, and networking, it all comes down to you drawing. That's it. Whether that be for a hour a day or 10 minutes that's up to you. Whether it's everyday or every other day that's up to you. But if you want to be a comic artist and you want to get good you have to put the time and effort in  it. There is no substitute.
I encourage you to please re-read this post. Maybe over time you will find new things to gleam from it that you missed or maybe just wasn't ready for yet. I know in 'Finding Forester' after casually watching the movie 4 times over the years I missed that important lesson of finding your own words. But I am grateful it finally came to me.

In summary, this post will be part of a series on 'Making Comics'. Of course this is part 1. I don't know how many I will do. I could do 5 or 10 or 30....etc. It really depends on if I find anything worth sharing or talking about. For the most part these post will serve to document my journey as artist, writer, inker, and whatever and the evolving process I go through. Maybe you can gleam something from it or at least find it interesting.
Here's to 'Finding your own words' (lifts Pepsi can in the air).