The podcast by indie comics creators for indie comics creators gives advice!
Over on the Digital Webbing forums, Nick asked writers and artists: "What do you wish someone had told you when you first started making comics?"
In this episode, Dan, Shawn, and Nick podcast live during the final days of the Fleeting Pages bookstore in Pittsburgh, sharing their own responses to that question as well as reading their favorite answers from the creators that responded on Digital Webbing.
From writing to drawing to lettering to printing to conventions, nearly all aspects of indie comics creation and promotion are touched upon as the Sequential Underground crew gets thoughtful and shares advice.
thing i'd tell my younger self: go into business school instead.
haha well you can always ask Neal how that's working out for him...
i don't think there's anything i forgot to cover in the show that i really wanted to say, but i don't know if i stressed certain points as much as i'd like to have done.
i think it's important for a new self-publisher or indie artist to know that they're not the exception. when i started, i seriously thought i was. i thought everyone else was just thinking about things wrong, and i had the right mix of fresh perspective and sound business to succeed in ways other indie creators could not. i was sooooooo wrong. and while that brave ignorance probably pushed me thru my first couple of projects, it was sobering over the next couple of years to learn as i went.
i also think something that a lot of newbies don't expect is the general apathy of comics readers. fact is, in most cases, the majority of readers just don't care about your comic. and chances are that you won't get many comments on your blog or interaction with people reading your comics when you're starting out. you really have to seek out that interaction and foster it because it rarely pops up on its own.
i think i'd tell my younger self to go to college and get into anything other than art. :/
but seriously, i guess what i'd most like my younger self to know is to just do comics because it makes me happy, and look at is as a hobby/something i like doing, and not worry about getting paid for it or garnering a following or acclaim, because that takes all the fun out of it. and to not get my hopes up. haha, i would have been a real buzzkill to younger me. XD
AudioShocker Shoutouts!
i agree with ross and kaylie, shoulda went to plumber school but hey i dig comics (now if it can make me scrooge mcduck rich...preferably) i know what should of told my youger self, is don't be afraid to show your work to publishers,whats the worst that can happen.
i think having a little bit of a buzzkill would have been good for me. i'd rather pleasantly surprised than unpleasantly surprised.
true nick true
AudioShocker Shoutouts!
I think maybe more important than an editor is doing multiple drafts, which it seems few people do.
I've had a script go through 7 artists before someone drew it. It just happens, but people shouldn't commit to things they can't do. Along that lines also is giving each other appropriate deadlines. That includes yourself. I do think I've had a problem with holding on writing scripts until I find an artist & then the script never happens. Also it's good to write a ton of scripts even if only 10% become comics as you get better at what you're doing.
yeah, good points, Brian. one thing i don't do enough of is taking my huge library of story ideas and just scripting some of it out for practice. i need to do more of that!!!