Indy Comics Writer

I’ve been working at writing for comics for about two years now. Hard to believe. Here’s the number-one thing I’ve learned: If you actually find someone who pays you what they promise when they promise, hold on to that client for dear life.

In my short time in this industry, I’ve seen more than five artists I was working with suddenly disappear. No messages, no phone calls, nothing. They just left in the middle of working on a project with me. I’ve run into one artist who had such an overinflated view of his own talent that he couldn’t believe it when I told him I didn’t want to work with him anymore. It took me months to finally get him out of my hair.

And then there are the publishers who go out of business without a word to the talent they’ve been working with. This has happened three times to me already, all three times after these “publishers” committed to running one of my short stories in their anthologies.

So, yes, this is one tough business populated with flakes, wannabes and scammers.

That’s why when you finally do find someone who does exactly what’s promised, you keep ‘em. That happened to me late last week. I’m rewriting a comic for an artist. He promised to pay me half my fee after I turned in the first half of his rewritten graphic novel. He did just that. And for the amount he said he’d pay. It was a minor miracle.

Hopefully, when this project is done, I can work with this artist again. It sure beats dealing with the nuts out there.

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