{"id":2449,"date":"2014-10-07T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2449"},"modified":"2024-01-08T15:28:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T23:28:07","slug":"maggies-world-022-comics-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-022-comics-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie\u2019s World 022: Comics Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World 022: Comics Careers<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A recent University of Wisconsin workshop focused on the business of comics, and I was able to attend, as host James Danky introduced and interviewed Milton Griepp and Denis Kitchen. They began by noting their beginnings in the field: Milton as a dealer at comics conventions and Denis making and selling his own comics. Milton focused primarily on making clear the economics of today\u2019s world of comic-book marketing; Denis addressed the challenges of finding a career in the field of comic-book creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came away from the information-packed session with one challenge topmost in my thoughts: How does anyone get work in comics these days? Attendees had seemed primarily to consist of young creators considering whether to find a career in the field, and Denis had urged them to find a way to publish their own material, tailoring it to appeal to the people they knew. He spoke of his initial approach: creating cartoons that had appealed to his friends and fellow students at the University of Wisconsin\u2014Milwaukee and then selling collections of those cartoons in comic-book form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He hadn\u2019t been alone in taking this route. Don and I first saw Gilbert Shelton\u2019s Wonder Wart-Hog<\/em> when it ran in The University of Texas\u2019 The Texas Ranger<\/em> in the early 1960s. And such paths to professionalism continue. Dan Vebber\u2019s Adventure<\/em> ran in the early 1990s in The Onion<\/em> in Madison (whence we picked it up for Comics Buyer\u2019s Guide<\/em>, bringing it to a national audience long before he wrote a couple of my favorite episodes of Buffy<\/em>, even before he went on to Futurama<\/em>, yadda, yadda).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was that Denis\u2019 challenge resonated with me. As I had waited for the event to begin in the UW building, I\u2019d noticed a poster for a UW poetry collection: not my thing. In fact, I confess that you\u2019d have to pay me to read a college poetry anthology these days. On the other hand, a comics anthology? I\u2019d grab it. So, I bet, would other Madisonians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Understand that I\u2019m not knocking poetry\u2014just indicating an aspect of the potential commercial impact of the two art forms today.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Denis Kitchen
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Would the attendees be interested in participating in a comics anthology? Denis urged them to consider it. If the contributions were limited to, say, six pages per participant, it\u2019s something that could be produced during captured moments in a busy academic schedule. (One of the attendees had filled a notebook page with spirals in the course of this single event. Somewhere in my attic languishes a \u201cGreen Turtle\u201d comic-book story I composed in a notebook during a semester\u2019s English Comic Masters<\/em> seminar in 1964. College is all about multi-tasking. Just saying. Hey, how many underground comix masters did<\/em> begin their careers by doodling during one or another class?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If these young creators were to put together such a publication, each could establish and retain his or her individual copyright. (That\u2019s something with which the meeting did not deal, by the way\u2014and it has occasionally caused disputes. If I write the words and provide thumbnails and rough character design, and you use those basics for your art, who owns what? It\u2019s a question that could\u2014and should\u2014be established from the start.) An anthology could form a focus for those interested in the art form in a work-to-learn environment. No university credit\u2014except, maybe, for the person putting it together\u2014because who cares? But, if academic life is publish or perish, here\u2019s a publication that could lead to careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wouldn\u2019t be the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Come to think of it, Don and I published the earliest issues of Comic Art<\/em> while I was still attending Oberlin College. And at least the first one was published using the Oberlin mimeograph set aside for student publishing. It was the start of a career that didn\u2019t turn a profit for the next couple of decades but that eventually paid off beyond our dreams.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge is for those who hope to enter the field of comics creation (and for those who hope to help them do it): Do you have buddies who share your interest? Or are you on your own? And where are you in the course of preparations for a career? (Not that you have to give up creative hopes, if you\u2019re long out of secondary education. Don and I prepared for two decades for an industry job that didn\u2019t exist till we were hired to do it. And the field is evolving even more swiftly today.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help out at a convention or a comics shop. Form a comics club. (We did it in the 1960s. It\u2019d be even easier these days.) Entry-level jobs were the focus of some questions. If you want to work in the industry for an existing company, consider moving to a city in which that company has an office. Is your biggest yearning to be a creator? Are there studios that are hiring interns or assistants? Can you network with people already in the field?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider taking advantage of the evolution of pop culture. The combination of words and pictures can be tackled in any of a number of ways. I\u2019m not sure how Matthew Inman would have brought him an income in earlier decades, but Wiki estimates his The Oatmeal<\/em> site brought him about $500,000 (from merchandising and advertising) in 2012. By 2014, he\u2019d added a calendar and books to his output. Allie Brosch\u2019s art, which few might have appreciated last century, adds powerful impact to her text in her Hyperbole and a Half<\/em> site (and its book spinoff). If you\u2019re uncomfortable with a pen, brush, or stylus? These days, you could make your own fumetti, what with digital cameras and electronic typesetting, combining set-up photos with balloons and captions the way Harvey Kurtzman did in Help!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And consider your eventual goals as well as current job opportunities. Peter David began with a hobby as a fanzine writer and publisher, went to work for Marvel in its promotions department, and ended up becoming a fan-favorite pro. Paul Levitz began with a hobby as a fan reporter and publisher, went to work for DC, and \u2026 you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you plan to start? What do you hope to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maggie’s World by Maggie Thompson appears the first Tuesday of every month here on <\/em>Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Maggie Thompson<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n