Damn it!
It breaks my heart every time I read about a comic artist finding it difficult to make ends meet, especially when they are extremely talented and were at one time among the elite creators in the field.
Welcome to the Arts!
I guess this means that comics have finally arrived as an art form. There was a time when a job in comics was just a bottom feeder stepping stone to a more lucrative career in advertising or other creative fields. Now artists are begging for a career in comics. Who would have guessed?
It was not long ago when Dick Giordano feared that the talent pool in comics was about to be extinct prompting him to create an apprentice program at DC in the late 1970′s. Around the same time Joe Kubert’s school became a fertile environment, producing numerous great talents. Other teachers like Will Eisner and Burne Hogarth also brandished brilliant torches, shining a bright light on education of the medium.
Comics now have joined the respected ranks of music, dance, literature, painting and sculpture where legions of practitioners strive for success yet only a rare few ever achieve stardom and tremendous financial reward.
Joe Kubert, Will Eisner, Burne Hogarth
Does this mean that if you are not one of the supremely talented or lucky you should just pack up the pencils paper and ink and give up? Hell no!
Artists in general have a strange sense of entitlement. Growing up, most are made well aware of their talents by doting family and friends that hail their giftedness. Stars in their own small circles, many are not prepared to face the challenge of competition in the larger arena of the real world. They expect the commendations and glories that they always knew and become disenchanted when it requires significantly greater effort to achieve success.
Success in any medium requires hard work well beyond talent and this is especially true in comics because of limited opportunity. Other than publishing yourself, there are so few publishers willing to pay reasonable fees for the work. There are also fewer projects by major publishing houses which will become an epidemic as the digital market grows.
The Big Two’s bean counters will surely realize that the seventy years of content that they already posses will be enough to saturate the digital market. Their money would be better spent digitalizing the classic material than spending it on new work that might require royalties and other forms of compensation not to mention costly editorial and production expenses.
So what’s a comic artist to do? What else? Get creative! Pave your own road to success by marketing, networking, publishing, teaching and creating comics, just like every other person that calls themselves a professional artist of the medium of their choice.
Superstars in every creative field are rare but plenty of creative folks support themselves and their families while doing what they love by digging hard into the trenches and working it. Just ask any wedding singer, music teacher, production artist, variety entertainer. How many musicians are there in a garage band performing locally that have dreams of being a big star? Plenty.
The environment for creating comics and profiting from them has never been more full of opportunity thanks to the Direct Market, digital printing, the internet, and digital distribution. Any one can make comics and have them distributed around the world in no time. Not everyone will get rich making comics but, like every art field, the cream will rise to the top and others will find levels of success to meet their personal efforts and some will simply give up their dream.
How To Be A Supervillain by Rachael Yu
One thing is for sure, like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play. Last week a graphic novel written by a fourteen year old girl, Rachel Yu, was number one on Amazon’s Kindle Fire, outselling any graphic novel by Marvel or DC! The playing field is as even as it is ever going to be regarding distribution and the comic creators have the upper hand when it comes to being able to create and control exciting, fresh, new concepts.
Check Out Occupy Comics
2012 has already been tagged as the year of the artist-entrepreneur. It most definitely is! If you have been following the Occupy movement you may be in anticipation of a revolution. If you are a comic creator you are in the middle of one! Now is the time for comic creators to unite and take control of the digital market and ultimately the Direct Market, simply by producing the best new comics available. Let the big guys bury themselves with reboots of tired old characters.
CO2 Comics is just one collective community of comic artists with an eye on the prize. We have a track record thirty years in the making, of jumping into the ring with the heavyweights and backing them into the ropes with speed and agility. We are lacing up the gloves again as proud supporters of creators right’s and the talents of the little guy. If you want to be in our corner, contact us, show us what you got and get prepared to deliver an uppercut. The big guys are going down!
It may not seem right making comparisons of art and war but this is a matter of survival. Comic creators have an opportunity to set an example. We have a chance to prove that as a community we can make a difference. We can pull ourselves out from under the thumb of corporate giants that have dictated this industry for decades and establish new standards for the creation of comics that will make them better for everyone.
Oh, and if you don’t think this is war you better educate yourself about SOPA and realize that there is a covert attack on our creative rights happening right now. Implementation of SOPA may as well be the implementation of martial law on the internet and we are in danger of losing all the benefits and freedoms of the systems of distribution that we are counting on for a bright future for comics. We must do what we can, now, to stop SOPA.
Carpe Diem!
Celebrating Thirty Years of Comics History!
Gerry Giovinco
My theory of relativity was tested when I read the recent web post 
Distribution of comics is also changing thanks to Mr. Jobs and company. Just as Apple redefined how music was heard around the world with the 2001 introduction of the iPod and iTunes, the iPhone and the iPad are quickly becoming the place where people read their comics with apps purchased through the App Store. These of course are not the only options for digital comic distribution, but as with the introduction of GUI and the Macintosh personal computer, Apple seems to always be the innovator of record.
The true long-term potential of comic book characters and how it may affect the coffers of the comic book creators did not seem to be such an issue until the technology in film developed to the point where we all believed that a man could fly. The first Superman movie opened the doors for the comic book blockbuster and ignited the first significant challenge from the creators of the character that had sold their rights away decades prior. Over thirty years later that battle is still not completely resolved and may never be.
