Shouting Fox
Wow. After a couple months of trying to integrate into the comic creators scene 'round here and not getting noticed, I've realized that all it takes is one ill-received comment and people will be chompin' at the bits to get to you. ******** lovely.
And now you'll know better than to say something so stupid ever again.
Quote:
You're absolutely right, sir.
For future reference, I'm a woman. But "sir" is fine.
Quote:
In my experience, a person only needs to draw on six sentences-- two statements-- before that person can accurately sum up what a person
is or
isn't. The ability do so as concisely as you do must be oh-so-handy. Has it occurred to you that one hypothetical statement is not the end all, be all of my opinion of creators' rights or breaking into the comics industry?
You either stand behind what you said or you don't. Since you're backpedaling so wildly, it's safe to assume you've thought better of your previous statement. Good for you. Because it was ridiculously wrong.
Quote:
My ultimate goal is to make
doing what I love to do my career, hopefully one capable of supporting my girlfriend and her children, and I understand that constraints put upon my life can possibly put me in a position where I may never get the chance to make my own comics and work with talented artists.
If you want it badly enough, you'll make it work.
You may never reach a level where comics can support your family. I'm not psychic. I don't even know how well you can draw or write, or how willing you are to improve, so I can't say. But if you want to make comics badly enough, you'll
make comics. You'll sit in the basement on a sunny day while your kids are running through the lawn sprinklers. You'll refuse to leave the house on weekends and skip parties. You'll
make comics. Maybe a page a week. But you'll make them.
Quote:
If it meant getting my name out there, and if it meant a career by which I can support me and mine, I would do all of the above. I'd try a Kickstarter, and making comics for the Kindle, I'd submit to Digital Webbing Presents or variations thereof (because I'm pretty sure that's all gone to s**t), I'd hand out comics at conventions that I've printed through Comixpress, I would submit to publishers with staunch pro-creators' rights views-- yeah, that's great. If it didn't? I'd let Dan Didio and Stan Lee run a drug-fueled train on me while Disney and Warner Bros. execs watched if it meant a crack at my dream job, because doing what I love to do and making a living from it can't be any worse than doing what I
don't love doing for a living.
You don't "get your name out there" by allowing yourself to be exploited. You do it by making comics. And you don't have to make comics for people who want to exploit you. Not now.
We don't live in that world anymore. Anyone who
volunteers to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous publishers in this day and age only establishes themselves as a sucker willing to work for a pittance. The industry is full of them. They're bitter, and they're petty, and they still have day jobs, and I guarantee you don't know any of their names.