Posters at The Comics Journal show that all those rumors about indie cartoonists secretly wanting to work for Johnny DC and Wilhelm Marvel? All true:
“I’d like to make the big bucks drawing covers for DC and Marvel. Should I just build a wicked rad portfolio chock full of AWESOME Batman and Thor pictures and then hit all the big conventions? Or should I put together an even radder collection of Lobo and Wolverine drawings and go directly to New York, walk into Joe Quesada’s office and watch his F****** JAW HIT THE FLOOR when he sees my tightly rendered WOLVERINE holding up his claws in a cave and saying, ‘LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, BUB?’ Seriously, though…I want cash. Who’s tried getting work with the big companies?”
“I tried this unsuccessfully for a while before realizing I didn’t really want to draw superheroes badly enough to do this much spec work. From the experiences of friends who’ve actually worked full time in the business, here’s my handy-dandy instructions for getting work at the big two: 1. Polish the hell out of your basic drawing skills – know anatomy back to front, and 1, 2, and 3 point perspective. Learn how to tell a story or at least make a decent photo collage and trace it well. 2. Apply that to the style that is selling at the moment and do five sample pages. Right now Marvel and DC are media companies, and they are generally sticklers for having their characters look and act the way they want them to. Don’t get too creative (that statement might actually be the only instruction you need here, period). 3. Meet as many big two editors as possible and get every possible excuse from them about why they won’t hire you. Keep calling them anyway, sending samples of books that they work on every few months for several years, and they may eventually hire you for a one-off job. 4. Continue to keep in touch so that you might actually get a second job (this is freelance, remember). 5. Don’t quit your day job. Unless you literally s*** gold from your fingertips, it will usually take a significant amount of time to go this route.”
“Blow Quesada.”
“’1. Polish the hell out of your basic drawing skills – know anatomy back to front, and 1, 2, and 3 point perspective. Learn how to tell a story or at least make a decent photo collage and trace it well.’ What a strange suggestion, and entirely untrue. There are less than five mainstream comic book artists of the last ten? 15? years who know the slightest bit about anatomy, or proper drawing for that matter. If anything, good drawing will cause you to get less work.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but there is truth to what you say. I hated the ‘shrunken head’ phase of superhero drawing, for example, but artists were regularly getting paid big bucks for such freakish work. Also, a cartoonist need not to be an anatomy expert to be successful as an independent, non-superhero artist — as anyone can see with only a cursory examination of some of the popular recent books.”
“1) Create a quirky indie film that leads to a string of successful mainstream movies involving yourself and your stoner friend. Work comics into your movies and wait for the phone call. 2) Write for a FOX teen drama and make one of the characters a comic book nerd who gets all of the cute chicks. Wait for the phone call. 3) Perform stand-up on Comedy Central and produce a series where you and your stand-up friends travel through the country stopping at comic shops. Wait for the call. 4) Blow Quesada. I wouldn’t wait for the call. Turns out I was wrong on this one.”
