Indy Comics Writer

I received in my e-mail inbox this morning my first piece of happy comics news of 2009: A short strip of mine will appear early this year in MangaQuake, an anthology series published in the United Kingdom. This morning, I saw the final results of the drawn and lettered seven-page script.

Let me tell you, it’s fantastic. The artist, Triluz from Belgium, is amazing, and has turned in some fine-looking work on this script. I wish I could post a page or two here, but I won’t be doing that until the strip is actually published. I’m especially happy that Triluz is working on another of my short scripts, “Baby Button,” which will appear in a 2009 edition of IF-X, an anthology published by the Hamtramck Idea Men right here in the United States.

Finding Triluz has been a blessing. I’m hoping to have to her draw some of my other short scripts. We all know that it’s very difficult for writers to sell a comic script without any art attached. It’s even harder to sell a script when, in a fit of desperation, you hook up with an artist who isn’t really ready for prime time. (I’ve made this mistake. I’m sure many new comics writers, desperate to have at least some art with their scripts, have done the same.) But having a great artist illustrate your scripts increases your odds of publication in this field enormously.

So here’s hoping that my early happy 2009 moments bode well for the rest of the year. Last year was a tough one on the work front: I worked harder than ever, but ended up making a bit less money than I did in 2006 and 2007, my two best years of freelance writing. Of course, it could have been a lot worse. We’ve all seen, and many have experienced, the toll that the recession has taken on so many professionals.

I have my hopes, though, that 2009 will be a year we can all look back on fondly. Keep writing, and keep aiming for your goals. My friend, who works in the PR field and has to be positive all the time, says you only fail when you stop trying. So … keep on trying.

I’ve been writing for comics publishers for about two years now. I’ve had some success. One independent publisher has hired me to write four series, one of which, GEARZ, has already been published. I’ve also had four short stories accepted by anthology publishers, been hired to rewrite an artist/writer’s comic and wrote a graphic adaptation of Jules Vernes’ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for another publisher.

But with all this, I’ve not made nearly enough money. Most of my income comes from my non-fiction freelance writing. If I had to survive on comics, I wouldn’t even be able to afford Ramen noodles.

That leads me to this interesting story at the Pulse, a Web site covering comics. It’s an interview with Darren Davis, head of Bluewater Comics, the company that I’ve written four mini-series for.

In the interview Darren — who is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet in the comics business — bemoans the state of the comics industry. Specifically, he worries about the future of independent comics. No one’s buying them, he points out. And Bluewater itself has had to cancel several promising series because sales just weren’t high enough. He wonders how any independent can ever make a profit.

What do you think? Is it possible for an independent comics publisher to succeed today? I know some have, but the success stories such as Image and Dark Horse are few and far between.

Whether you agree with Davis or not, his interview certainly provides some food for thought.

Think having superpowers would be fun? Maybe not. Maybe, in fact, it would be a nightmare.

That’s how writer Brian Wood views things in Demo, a graphic novel published by AIT/Planet Lair. The novel includes 12 stories focusing on young people who have amazing powers. Problem is, they don’t quite know how to use them or control them, and there’s no Professor Xavier around to help them master such matters.

The novel presents a clear alternative to most of today’s superhero-themed comics and graphic novels. It never made sense to me that just because someone could fly or run at the speed of light they’d choose to don a garish costume and stop bank robberies.

In Demo, the kids blessed, or cursed, depending on how you look at, with superpowers aren’t foiling crimes. They’re struggling to understand their powers, rebelling against their parents and trying to fit into society. In short, it’s a far more realistic — if you can use that word when describing super-powered kids — look at superheroes.

If you’re looking for that last-minute Christmas gift, you could do worse than Demo.

I’m still getting the hang of this collaboration thing. As a writer who can’t draw, I have to work with other artists. Sometimes I get impatient and try to work with artists whom I know aren’t quite right for my projects.

It may be that they’re just not good enough yet. Or maybe their style doesn’t fit with my story. But because these newer artists are willing to work free, I jump at the opportunity to collaborate with them. Then, reality sets in. They begin turning in pages and the work is … unpublishable.

This has happened twice to me in the last two months. Both times I made the fatal mistake of taking too long to mull over my next move. I should have immediately written both artists and ended our collaboration. And I should have been honest about the reason: The work they turned in wasn’t of a high enough quality for publication. Instead, I hemmed and hawed. When I finally did spring the bad news, both artists were understandably ticked at me.

I think I’ve resolved both situations. Not exactly amicably, mind you, but at least no one wants to kill me. At least I hope not …

The lesson here is an obvious one: No one likes to be the bearer of bad news. But sometimes you have to be. And the sooner you get it over with, the better for everyone.

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.

I’m all for dreaming big when you’re building a writing career. We should all aspire to write the next Great American novel. We should all want to create the next blockbuster comic-book character.

But you have to be realistic, too. If you’re new to this business, if you’ve not yet proven yourself or if you’ve not even been published in the comics world, it’s probably not a wise use of your time to plan how you’d proceed if Marvel or D.C. gave you a call.

This is on my mind because of a recent thread at the Digital Webbing forums that asked the question: If Marvel or D.C. called, which of their characters would you like to revamp?

Now, it doesn’t hurt to fantasize about changing up Batman or Superman. And the thread is a fun one to read. But I seriously hope that no novice comics writers are actually worrying about one day tackling Wolverine or Spider-Man. The odds are extremely long that any of us will ever write for Marvel or D.C., even after spending years publishing in anthologies and independent publications. There just aren’t enough jobs at the big two for everyone who wants one.

I have little hope of ever working for either company. But that’s not the end of the world. The world of independent graphic novels and comics is growing. Other large publishers are also recognizing that kids and teens like graphic novels, and they are expending their own graphic-novel publishing arms.

It’s OK to dream of one day writing The Avengers. But it’s far more realistic to dream instead of one day seeing your own creation hitting the comic-book shelves, a creation more than likely published by someone other than the big two.

If you, like me, are trying to make it as a writer of comic books you’ve undoubtedly realized something by now: Even if you do get published, it’s awfully hard to actually get any paychecks at all from your comics writing.

Many of the projects I’ve taken on have been back-end deals, meaning I get paid from a comics’ profits. That usually means I don’t get paid anything at all. That’s OK, for now. I’m trying to build a portfolio of work large enough to actually land jobs that do pay upfront.

That being said, it’s still a thrill when you do receive actual money. And that happened last week. I received a check, albeit it a tiny one, from an anthology publisher that printed one of my short comic stories earlier this year. Now, that check will barely buy me two meals at McDonald’s, but still, it’s something. (Actually, if I go off the dollar menu, I could get four or five meals!)

Paychecks are rare for new writers in this industry. I did receive one four figure paycheck early last year. Surprisingly, or not, that company has since gone out of business, and the graphic script I wrote for them will probably never see the light of day. Still, the check didn’t bounce, and it bought a lot more than McDonald’s.

So when you do get paid, however infrequently that may be, for actually being a comic-book writer, savor the moment. You never know when it’ll happen again.

I always hate opening my newspaper on major holidays and seeing the artists on the comics page cheat. You know what I mean: Garfield and Odie will be sitting in front of turkey dinner and grinning back at the reader. Above them, a banner will say “Happy Thanksgiving.”

And that’ll be it. Not exactly a cartoonist flexing his creative muscles.

So I vowed to never do the equivalent with any of my blogs. (I don’t want to compare myself to Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield. I don’t think we have quite the same number of regular readers.)

Today, I shall break that vow. Why not? Why resist the urge to be thankful on Thanksgiving?

So here’s what I’m thankful for today. I’m thankful that I have a wonderful wife and two wonderful sons. I’m thankful that my wife supports me in all that I do (within reason!) and that our 9-year-old son is a sweet little guy with loads of imagination and creativity to spare. I’m thankful that our 14-month-old son has given our household a shot of energy this year. You see, we adopted this guy from Ethiopia. He’s turned our home upside down, in a good, good way.

I’m thankful that I’m able to make a living as a writer, even if I don’t always get to write what I want to. And I’m thankful that my first published comics — the four-issue mini-series GEARZ, pick it up today from Bluewater Publishing — hit the shelves this year. They even received some nice reviews from online comics sites. (There were a few reviews that weren’t so nice, too, but I’m not all that thankful for them.) I’m glad, too, that Bluewater will be publishing three more of my comics mini-series in 2009, and that six different publishers bought either my short fiction or short comics scripts this year. Hey, I even received a check today from one of the anthologies. You can’t help but be thankful for that.

Of course, 2008 has had its share of challenges, too. The rough economy has forced me to write more non-fiction stories than ever just to tread water with my monthly income. The publisher where I work as a full-time, part-time editor has struggled to fill its pages with ads. We lost a dear family friend to cancer recently. And my wife suffered a rather serious leg injury — though she’s A-OK now.

On the whole, though, there’s much to be thankful for. Heck, if all that we accomplished in 2008 would have been completing the lengthy, frustrating and incredibly expensive process of adopting our youngest son, the year would have been a great one.

If you’re a fan of comic books — especially those not in the mainstream — the odds are good that you’ll be a fan of superhero fiction, too.

Think of superhero fiction as comic books without the art work. The best of it looks at superheroes in a new way, avoiding the massive fights common in comic books and replacing them with more introspective looks at the way superheroes survive in today’s grimmer, angrier world.

Like all genres of fiction, there are bad stories and good ones. The good ones make you look at superheroes in a totally new way.

A good place to get a feel for this type of fiction is A Thousand Faces, an anthology that comes in both print and online versions. I’ve sort of met the publisher, Frank Byrns, who writes his own superhero fiction, through e-mail. He’s even printed two of my short stories in his publication, of which I am grateful.

So drop over to Frank’s site. You may find yourself becoming a fan of superhero prose fiction.

What’s the most frustrating, challenging thing for a new comics writer? Well, if that new writer happens to be one who can’t draw, it might be the long, often infuriating search to find a good artist with whom to work.

There’s a thread just starting now at Digital Webbing that addresses this. It’s from a writer wondering why so many artists he’s worked with simply disappear long before a project is done.

It’s a good question. Most times, I’d wager, the answer is a simple one: We new writers don’t want to pay artists. When the work gets intense, the artists bail because, after all, there is no pay coming in. The solution, then, would seem to be for us writers to commit to paying the artists we need to bring our visions to life.

This isn’t easy, of course. Good comics artists aren’t cheap. The cost to a writer to have an artist produce a 22-page script can easily run into the thousands of dollars. Most new writers don’t have a lot of extra money laying around. It’s a major hurdle for writers.

I’m fortunate in that I’ve found work with an independent publisher who handles all the challenges of finding artists. I just turn in the scripts. I’ve also been lucky enough to have had some of my short comic scripts accepted in anthologies whose publishers are also connecting them to artists.

I do have some projects, though, that are languishing largely because I don’t want to spend the money to hire an artist whom I know would finish the job and do it well.

Money, of course, won’t solve every problem between comics writers and artists. There will still be times when both artists and writers ditch projects, even when money is involved. But you have to admit, dollars make the creative process flow a lot more smoothly.