Imagine, if you were an aspiring comic book writer or artist, and you were living in 1980, what opportunities would be available to you?
Around this time, the local komiks industry was still doing well and if you worked hard enough, knocked on the right doors, you could get yourself published.
If you wanted to work for Marvel and DC Comics, then it would be best that you already know certain people working for those companies. You could try and send a cold submission via air mail (or if you could afford it, via FedEx).
What if you wanted to create your own comic book character and publish it yourself? Well, that was almost unheard of back then.
Jump-cut to 14 years later.
Imagine, if you were an aspiring comic book writer or artist, and you were living in 1994, what opportunities would be available to you?
Around this time, desktop publishing software was becoming more affordable. Photocopier machines now produced better copies. Colored Xerox machines also started to arrive in the country. We ever-so-slowly connected to the world wide web.
During the late 80s, comic book stores started to bring in comic books other than DC and Marvel Comics. Turns out, there were comic books made by independent companies and not all their stories were about guys in spandex. Turns out, there were comic books from Europe and Japan. (Japanese comic books? They’re just like the cartoons I’d watch on TV but it’s in black-and-white! What is this thing called -- manga?) Vertigo Comics spun from DC Comics. The Image Comics’ creators broke away from Marvel. (What are these shiny-gold-foil-covers?! I must have one!)
Fueled by all these strange, wonderful stories and ideas, several aspiring comic book creators started to work on their own stories. While most of them self-published their books, one or two of them got lucky and found publishers willing to take a risk with their crazy idea. Most of the others self-published their books. One title lasted three issues. The other title only released their No.1 issue.
Then there was that one comic book store who decided to start organizing events that would feature these new local comic book titles. The yearly events only last three years. Thankfully, another comic book store that allowed local comic book creators to have events at the store whenever they had a new issue.
Jump-cut to 14 years later.
Imagine, if you were an aspiring comic book writer or artist, and you were living in 2008 what opportunities would be available to you?
If you want to get your story published, you can do so by going to the nearby photocopying place and get a couple of dozen reproduced. There are also digital small press shops that allow you to print a hundred copies at an affordable cost. And if somehow have the funds, you can easily go the usual offset printing press and get a thousand copies made.
If that’s way beyond your budget, you can still reach hundreds, if not thousands of readers, by publishing your works on the web. Uploading your story is now made easier thanks to sites like Blogger, Multiply, and DeviantArt. You can even upload your comic book on Friendster or Facebook, if you wanted to. You might even make some money out of it by attaching GoogleAds on your site. And if you’ve already done enough stories to fill up a hundred pages and you can show a publisher that you get thousands of readers every month, then that might make for a very convincing pitch to get your work published.
If you don’t want to go the web route and want your work to end up in the traditional printed format, then send your work to publishers like Visprint and Adarna. They may have only published two to three graphic novels in the past couple of years, but they’ve done more than any other company in the past 14 years ago.
Anvil has recently launched their Anvil Fantasy imprint. Even though Anvil has mainly focused on prose work, what’s stopping them from getting into graphic novels as well? Maybe they just need some convincing? Maybe they just need to see the right material that will make them venture into comic books?
Summit’s KZONE, which used to only have American comic strips, now contain locally created stories like “Bakemono High”. Summit recently released the compiled version of “Foldabots” which first saw print in KZone. Maybe they just need to see the right material that will make them produce more locally created comic books?
In the past 14 years, we’ve see more people try to get a regular comic book series going. Companies like PsiCom, Culture Crash, Mango Comics, Nautilus Comics, MangaHolix have tried and some still continue to create. When the next company comes along, they might be looking for new writers and artists. Will you be ready with your portfolio?
In the past 4 years, more and more events and conventions have been organized. There seems to be a big convention every quarter where you can sell your comic book and get to meet other people who want to do the same thing.
You now have more opportunities compared to the writers and artists 14 years ago, compared to the ones who tried to get into comics 28 years ago.
So, all you have to do is write that story.
All you have to do is draw those pages.
Get the story done.
(I know, that’s the hard part)
Then get to work on getting your story into the hands of your readers.
Looking forward to read your stories.
Around this time, the local komiks industry was still doing well and if you worked hard enough, knocked on the right doors, you could get yourself published. If you wanted to work for Marvel and DC Comics, then it would be best that you already know certain people working for those companies. You could try and send a cold submission via air mail (or if you could afford it, via FedEx).
What if you wanted to create your own comic book character and publish it yourself? Well, that was almost unheard of back then.
Jump-cut to 14 years later.
Imagine, if you were an aspiring comic book writer or artist, and you were living in 1994, what opportunities would be available to you?
Around this time, desktop publishing software was becoming more affordable. Photocopier machines now produced better copies. Colored Xerox machines also started to arrive in the country. We ever-so-slowly connected to the world wide web. During the late 80s, comic book stores started to bring in comic books other than DC and Marvel Comics. Turns out, there were comic books made by independent companies and not all their stories were about guys in spandex. Turns out, there were comic books from Europe and Japan. (Japanese comic books? They’re just like the cartoons I’d watch on TV but it’s in black-and-white! What is this thing called -- manga?) Vertigo Comics spun from DC Comics. The Image Comics’ creators broke away from Marvel. (What are these shiny-gold-foil-covers?! I must have one!)
Fueled by all these strange, wonderful stories and ideas, several aspiring comic book creators started to work on their own stories. While most of them self-published their books, one or two of them got lucky and found publishers willing to take a risk with their crazy idea. Most of the others self-published their books. One title lasted three issues. The other title only released their No.1 issue.
Then there was that one comic book store who decided to start organizing events that would feature these new local comic book titles. The yearly events only last three years. Thankfully, another comic book store that allowed local comic book creators to have events at the store whenever they had a new issue.
Jump-cut to 14 years later.
Imagine, if you were an aspiring comic book writer or artist, and you were living in 2008 what opportunities would be available to you?
If you want to get your story published, you can do so by going to the nearby photocopying place and get a couple of dozen reproduced. There are also digital small press shops that allow you to print a hundred copies at an affordable cost. And if somehow have the funds, you can easily go the usual offset printing press and get a thousand copies made.
If that’s way beyond your budget, you can still reach hundreds, if not thousands of readers, by publishing your works on the web. Uploading your story is now made easier thanks to sites like Blogger, Multiply, and DeviantArt. You can even upload your comic book on Friendster or Facebook, if you wanted to. You might even make some money out of it by attaching GoogleAds on your site. And if you’ve already done enough stories to fill up a hundred pages and you can show a publisher that you get thousands of readers every month, then that might make for a very convincing pitch to get your work published.
If you don’t want to go the web route and want your work to end up in the traditional printed format, then send your work to publishers like Visprint and Adarna. They may have only published two to three graphic novels in the past couple of years, but they’ve done more than any other company in the past 14 years ago.
Anvil has recently launched their Anvil Fantasy imprint. Even though Anvil has mainly focused on prose work, what’s stopping them from getting into graphic novels as well? Maybe they just need some convincing? Maybe they just need to see the right material that will make them venture into comic books?
Summit’s KZONE, which used to only have American comic strips, now contain locally created stories like “Bakemono High”. Summit recently released the compiled version of “Foldabots” which first saw print in KZone. Maybe they just need to see the right material that will make them produce more locally created comic books?
In the past 14 years, we’ve see more people try to get a regular comic book series going. Companies like PsiCom, Culture Crash, Mango Comics, Nautilus Comics, MangaHolix have tried and some still continue to create. When the next company comes along, they might be looking for new writers and artists. Will you be ready with your portfolio?
In the past 4 years, more and more events and conventions have been organized. There seems to be a big convention every quarter where you can sell your comic book and get to meet other people who want to do the same thing.
You now have more opportunities compared to the writers and artists 14 years ago, compared to the ones who tried to get into comics 28 years ago.
So, all you have to do is write that story.
All you have to do is draw those pages.
Get the story done.
(I know, that’s the hard part)
Then get to work on getting your story into the hands of your readers.
Looking forward to read your stories.
Comments
Thanks for the perspective Budjette. I've loved your Trese work and I hope that when I get around to doing comics work, you'll like what I'll have done just as much. ^_^
Yup, Whilce's school was one of the things that later contribute to the added growth of comic book creators in the late 90s and early 2000. Take a look at the people who are now organizing Komikon and the guys now drawing for Marvel and DC. Some of them came from Whilce's school.
Great change can happen in 5 years :)
Might even happen in less.