How do you break into comics?
I’ll tell you a not-so-secret secret…
Start making comics.
That’s it. That’s the big secret.
Creating and finishing comics is hard work. Harder than most anyone imagines, so anyone that actually creates and finishes making their comics has broken in.
Being able to demonstrate knowledge and skill set for your specific trade (writing, drawing, inking, coloring, lettering) and you need to show you can FINISH. So having completed comics is essential. It shows that you can follow through to the end, and it will also showcase your ability to tell a story and your strengths and weaknesses that go along with it.
If you can’t draw cars particularly well, keep practicing drawing cars and don’t avoid them, but maybe don’t take on drawing a comic about a racecar driver. Just an example. If you can’t do horses, don’t take on a western. But keep practicing horses until you can do them.
It’s good to acknowledge and know your strengths and weaknesses and it’s paramount to focus on improving your weaknesses.
You can table at a convention and sit next to a living comics legend with your comics to sell, and there’s a good chance that comic’s legend will have a conversation with you. When you almost certainly are going to be able to tell them about your comic. You may even get some great pointers from them if you’re cool and not obnoxious with them. It’s a great way to learn and get better.
No one is stopping you from creating and making comics. No one except you. If it’s important to you, you prioritize and make time for it. That’s the absolute truth.
Yes, other things will have to take priority, but you can and will still make time for what is important and you will make a comic. Slow progress is still progress, I say.
It’s really that simple.
Same rules that apply to making anything. If you want to write a novel, you have to write. Want to paint, then paint. So on and so forth.
The goal is to constantly keep trying to improve your craft, and the only way to improve is to do it and gain knowledge from others that you put into practice.
How do I get better?
If you’re an artist, take your pages and comics you’ve drawn to conventions and get critiques from pros and publishers. Get friendly and engage them at shows and even engage on their social media pages.
Social media is key these days. I’m already a dinosaur, so I struggle with consistently my social media presence. But putting your work out there on your page and in comic art groups can get you seen by many people.
I got a few coloring jobs by having my work on display with DevantArt back when DeviantArt was the premier art page. It’s still on but I don’t know many who still use it,. More people seem to be using ArtStation than DA these days, but personal social media pages are even more important. Companies view followers and friends as potential customers, so if you have 50K followers you are likely more attractive than equally good artists with 1K followers.
Something to consider.
But making comics is essential.
I’d encourage making some short fan fiction featuring known characters. Maybe a 4-8 page stories, that way you don’t invest too much time on something you can never sell, but it’s great for portfolios. Having established characters is easier to critique since known characters are recognizable and if you draw Spider-Man or Batman wrong it’s easier to tell than if you only have unknown characters.
But yes, make your own comic with your characters that feature different settings and types of characters.
Show that you can finish an entire book, or many books, and really give a sense of your storytelling abilities over a long-form piece and not just a short portfolio-designed 6-page story.
One thing I’ve come across lately, make sure you portfolio pieces are YOURS and/or represent your actual abilities and style. I was thoroughly disappointed recently hiring an amazing-looking artist after seeing his pieces on Facebook and Deviant Art, pinups, and pages. When he turned in the penciled pages of the short story I hired I’m for it looked like a completely different (i.e. worse) artist drew the story.
Not a single element looked like anything he showcased online. His reason was that he is now “drawing in a new style.” I don’t know if that was true or if he’s showing the work from someone else, but I still see him posting some amazing work online and I can’t come to terms that the work he turned in was the same artist in the samples.
Put your best work forward, but don’t misrepresent yourself.
As a writer, it’s harder in my opinion. No one, and I mean no one, wants to read a writer’s script for their comic. The exception is the other members of the creative team want to read the script to bring it to life.
Publishers and editors won’t read unsolicited scripts mostly due to legal reasons. Pros at shows won’t stop everything to read your pages of text and offer feedback because it takes too much time and that’s not really what they are there for. Maybe someone will tell you to send them something, but it’s rare because just like the publisher and editors, it can open a creator up to some potential legal issues. Nobody wants to read your pages of text for a comic script that is not already a comic.
So keep writing to improve, but most importantly is get your scripts turned into finished pages. The art can be black and white, or colored, but make sure there is art and make sure it is lettered.
That means you will have to invest in yourself and hire an artist. Maybe you have a friend that can draw and you team up, but be realistic. As yourself, is your friend who likes to draw as good as other comics you see on store shelves? Have they ever drawn a comic before, or ever understand how to tell a story visually. It’s important.
You may have written the next WATCHMAN, but if your artist isn’t at a competent level your story will suffer for it.
Comics are a visual medium, and I will firmly and adamantly state when it comes to making good comics, ART is more important than STORY. I’ll write about in another entry, but bad art will keep a great story from ever getting off the ground, while good art can make a bad story a success.
Hire competent artists with a style that works for the kind of story you want to tell.
HOW DO I MAKE COMICS FOR MARVEL AND DC?
First of all, you must have made comics before you will ever have a chance at writing, drawing, coloring, or lettering one for any of the big companies.
So, go back to my original statement on how to break in, and start making comics.
The very rare exception being an outrageously successful writer/creator in some other media and MARVEL and DC are trying to bank on your name more than your ability to make comics. For instance, the recent-ish stint of Marvel having JJ Abrams and his son write Spider-Man mini-series. JJ’s name was attached to sell comics. I’ve never really heard anyone talking about it so I can’t imagine it being some seminal Spidey story. Was is ever finished? I have no idea. JJ was the director at the time and it was a way to try to move books in a new way.
You won’t find an artist who never drew a comic drawing for Marvel or DC, that seems limited exclusively to writers. That’s because it’s easier to “fix” writing mistakes than trying to shape an artist not known for comics into the visual story telling language of comics
I’m going to be realistic with you right now because no one ever seems to think or acknowledge this fact.
There are fewer jobs working at MARVEL and DC than there are professional athletes. Think about it. How many teams are in the NBA and how many players on each team? How many NFL teams are there and how many players? NHL? MLB?
Think about it.
And almost every one of those teams and franchises has minor league or semi-pro affiliates, not to mention alternative leagues like CFL and XFL and so on.
Yes, there indie publishers, but this section is about working at Marvel and DC which is often a lot of artists and writers dreams when they start making comics.
Let’s do some simple math for examples. These aren’t exact numbers but I’d say are in the ballpark though not entirely accurate.
Even if Marvel and DC are putting out 50 unique titles every month, not counting any reprint material, many of those projects have a writer that may be doing anywhere from 1-5 of those titles at a time.
A penciler may be inking themselves or maybe a book is working from straight pencils and there is no inker.
There aren’t 50 different colorists (one per title). I personally was doing 3 different projects at once, plus an online exclusive project with DC/Wildstorm at one time. When I was with GURU-eFX we typically had at least 4 books a month with Marvel plus covers, and as many as 8 in a single month. Jordie Bellaire is on record as having colored 14 issues in one month! Not all of those were with a single publisher, but several issues with each company she was working with.
Editors do multiple titles, or entire lines of books and more.
Letterers are the same. There’s likely only 10-15 letterers for the entire line at Marvel or DC at this time due to digital lettering. Please note, I have not looked to verify, but REALLY GOOD letterers can do a single issue in a day, and lettering rates are low enough that VOLUME is essential so a single letterer will do many books each month.
I’m pointing all this out to demonstrate that even when Marvel or DC put out 50 titles in a month it’s not actually 50 x 6 (1 writer + 1 penciler + 1 inker + 1 colorist + 1 letterer + 1 editor) and likely more accurately depicted as 50 x 3 or 4.
200 creative positions at Marvel and 200 more at DC. (Give or take).
Most of those jobs are going to be penciler/complete artist jobs.
Inking is becoming less important these days with modern coloring and technology and the companies looking for ways to cut costs.
As a color artist, I prefer inked pages, but working straight from pencils is fine. I’m less a fan of straight pencils just due to having to clean up the artwork and spending more time ensuring it looks as good as possible and there isn’t a lot of extra graphite and smudging that often accompanies pencils. That takes more time and nobody pays more for the extra work, so I prefer inked pages as I don’t have nearly as much clean up to do.
Think about it, that’s maybe 400 creative positions at Marvel and DC combined.
That’s a handful of editors and letterers. A few more writers, inkers, and colorists. And then pencilers or artists who pencil and ink themselves.
Again, this is a very rough estimate and could be either higher or lower at any given time. I’m using general numbers to illustrate my point, but it’s going to be close-ish.
The NFL rules state a team can have up to 53 players, but only 46 can suit up for a game.
There are 32 teams in the NFL.
That’s almost 1,700 PLAYERS in the NFL, not to mention the enormous amount of support staff that accompanies each team.
The NBA only has a maximum number of 450 players in the entire league, and only 390 actives at any time. And then all their support staff.
You’re MORE likely to be a paid player in the NFL than you are working for Marvel and DC creating comics.
I don’t say this to discourage anyone but to put this in perspective.
Making comics is HARD.
Making comics for MARVEL and DC is mercilessly relentless. There are no holidays. There are no sick days. There is no vacation and there is no retirement. If you can’t produce your book each month because you get sick, the books won’t be delayed for you. Someone else will finish what you can’t and hopefully, you can get back to the next issue when you’re better. There are exceptions, but those are typically special circumstances.
There is a ton of turnover for these jobs.
Lots of artists can’t cut it and quit. Or they aren’t offered more work for one reason or other. There are always new artists cycling in and out, and the last I heard about page rates is that they have gone down, when the price of everything has skyrocketed.
So while I made the numbers sound pretty slim, there is a chance to get a shot at drawing for Marvel or DC. But drawing AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, X-MEN, BATMAN, etc. There is a constant stream of new artists cycling through Marvel and DC, so there is always that opportunity, but it’s going to be a hard long road that requires lots of time, dedication, and consistency.
I want to make it clear, it has been a few years since I have worked with Marvel or DC so I don’t know what all it happening now. I know most if not all of my former editors at DC have moved on or retired and at Marvel I worked there as a part of GURU-eFX. I have been personally requested by artists to work with them at Marvel, and the last time that happened I was told the editor did not want to do the paperwork to get me setup due to the short deadline. I’ve never bothered to follow up again and have been content with my current work situation.
HOW DO I MAKE A LIVING AT COMICS?
This is a MUCH harder question to answer.
I’m going to say that being a comic artist and living in the USA these days is incredibly difficult.
If you are just starting out, it’s going to be a long time before you will earn the higher MARVEL and DC page rates, and that’s only IF you ever get to that point.
It’s why you continuously see the same high-profile artists float between Marvel and DC on the bigger books because there are very few offers on the higher end of page rates (hundreds and even thousands of dollars per page).
Mostly you can expect to get anywhere from FREE-$200 a page while you hone your craft and move your way towards Marvel and DC. ($200 is on the high end too).
This means you are going to need at least a part time job to supplement income, and that can be from anywhere. That can be traditional jobs like McDonalds or you can earn from story boarding, commissions, conventions and any other odd art job you can find.
But you have to HUSTLE.
When you secure one job you have to constantly be trying to line up and secure the next job and develop multiple income streams like conventions and personal commissions.
Being young and living in your parents house with their support and understanding is probably the easiest way to grow a full-time sustaining comics career. Or be independently wealthy to begin with.
If you’re married and have kids, I would avoid trying to become a full-time comic book artist for Marvel or DC if you aren’t already doing it. You’ll be better off, and happier, if you focus your energies on making your own creations.
As I’ve stated, making comics is hard and having a family and those obligations makes it even harder, so you may as well try to create and grow your own content. You will love it more, you will be less jaded or broken by the merciless schedule for monthly comics and actually get to spend time with your family. Plus, if you create something and you can manage to sell it or market it into other media, that’s going to be how you earn more money.
Don’t go into comics for the money.
Don’t go into comics trying to sell your movie script or animated series.
Make comics because you love and enjoy comics. If you want to make a movie, comics can help visualize the idea for pitches, but so can investing in key art. The only people I know who ACTUALLY managed to use their comic to make their movie aren’t superstars. Their movie isn’t talked about, they even had a sequel film made. They aren’t rich. There movie was even decent. It doesn’t really change anything.
Comics CAN generate money. Comics can even make some people rich.
But it’s super rare.
It’s easier if you concentrate on making great comics and then they are turned into some other multimedia content. And at the very least you will always have a quality book you can be proud of, even if a crap movie or show is made, your book will be awesome and that won’t take anything away from you. Does anyone think less of Mike Mignola after that last Hellboy movie reboot?
Comics are amazing. Make comics.
Making comics can lead to other surprising opportunities.
Do you ever wonder what happened to a hyper-successful creator you loved but you don’t see them make comics anymore?
They almost certainly still make art, but they have likely transitioned the skills they made from comics into film, animation, advertising, video games, or toys. All of which pay better and almost always have better hours.
The ones I personally know didn’t set out to do any of those things.
They were comic artists who loved making comics.
I’m sure they still do, but sometimes unexpected opportunities and/or obligations arise that lead to new paths that are creatively fulfilling and offer fun new challenges.
This is a really long way to say, if you want to make comics you have to start making comics. And to get better you have to make more comics. It’s fun. Have fun. But it’s harder than most people expect it to be, but that makes the reward of the completed book all the better.