Howdy, folks!

Sorry about the delay between my first column and this one. I probably would have written sooner, but every time I get an idea for a new column, I find yet another person writing eloquently about the same material. In the meantime, the hard working people of WHOOPs (the World Headquarters Of Oni Press) attended the New York Comic-Con, which was a fantastic show. While in NYC, I presented my “How NOT to Break into Comics” panel (along with the talented Jonathan Hickman) and attended several panels focusing on the ins and outs of trying to get and sustain work in the comics industry.

Seems like every comic book reader wants to be a comic book creator. I once heard a professional comic writer say, “There are no comic fans… just people who want my job.” I always thought it was just a funny little glib statement, but it sure seems accurate these days.

The simple fact is that not all comic readers are going to be able to work professionally. The reality is that not everyone has the talent, skill, or professionalism required to succeed in this industry.

If you are reading this column, I can assume you have some passing interest in working in comics. So you have to ask yourself, are you the William Hung of aspiring comic book professionals?

That may sound like an odd question, but one of the things that has never ceased to amaze me when looking at portfolios and submissions is the hazy cloud of self-delusion that so many aspiring creators seem to be living in. At least 95% of all pitches I look at SUCK. I mean, they are instantly laughably bad. I am not trying to be cruel here, but if this column can help wake up aspiring creators to this fact, then it may help people achieve their dreams.

There is often a great deal of passion in these projects, but just because you are passionate, doesn’t mean you are good or that the material is marketable as an artistic or commercial endeavor. The problem is that people get so caught up in their passion and enthusiasm that they never step back and honestly evaluate their work. Who knows? It may be that people simply can’t be honest about their own work. Sure, you may show your work to your mom or friends, but they aren’t necessarily going to be giving you the most constructive criticism.

This is the William Hung problem. I am sure Mr. Hung thinks his singing is fantastic. He probably thought he had an honest shot at succeeding on American Idol. But the guy was absolutely delusional. Everything about his tryout was so horrifically bad. So bad that he became a nationally-known phenomenon. Yet the guy was earnest and genuinely gave it a try.

I applaud anybody working hard at achieving their dreams, but you have to be able to honestly evaluate if you are on the right track to reaching your professional goals.

What has been said time and time again to artists is that you should hold your work up to something currently being published and ask yourself, “Is my work as good or better than what I am looking at?” Does it look as good? Is it as professionally finished? How does my page construction and panel layouts compare to the quality work I respect and admire? How is the storytelling and narrative flow?

Being a comic book professional requires constantly honing your craft. If you want a long career, you will need to constantly be improving on your skills in the pursuit of excellence.

A few years back, somebody scanned and posted the critique Alex Toth gave Steve Rude. Here was one comic great critiquing another. Steve Rude was already an established working professional who has obviously had a successful career. Yet he solicited Toth’s criticism, and boy did he get it. The validity or merit of Toth’s critique isn’t as important as the fact that Rude was wise enough to understand the value of genuinely constructive honest criticism.

Everybody should give it a read.

Interesting side note:
When I first saw the clips of William Hung, I thought there was something seriously wrong with the guy. But after looking at his Wikipedia page, it turns out he is actually pretty darn intelligent. He immigrated to America when he was 10 years old and eventually ended up at the University of California, Berkley where he was an engineering student. Since his appearance on American Idol, he has released four CDs, been in numerous commercials and television shows.

But the question you need to ask is, do you want to be remembered as the terribly delusional guy everybody laughed at or do you want to be respected as a valued and viable creator in this creative industry?

As I always say, working in comics requires three basic things: talent, professionalism, and persistence. I should add perspective to the list. If you don’t have an honest perspective of your work, then odds are you aren’t going to be able to cut it professionally.

In our next column, we’ll be looking at the subject of pitching the appropriate material to the appropriate publisher and how people can be just as delusional about the subject matter that they are excited about.

In the mean time, if you have any questions or suggestions for future columns, please post them in the comments section.

Until then, never stop trying.  The world needs more art, more stories, and more talented voices.

Randal C. Jarrell

Managing Editor

www.onipress.com

Howdy, folks!

Welcome to Sequential Parts, my new column here at Blog@Newsarama!

My name is Randal C. Jarrell and I am the Managing Editor of Oni Press, an independent comic book publisher based out of Portland, OR. Oni Press was established in 1997 with an emphasis on publishing creator-owned works. We have published over 200 graphic novels and trade paperbacks from almost every genre and for every age group. My job at Oni Press brings me in contact with every aspect of the business of comic book production.  In a nutshell, I work at the intersection of creative development, commerce, and logistics. I am regularly involved in portfolio reviews, conventions, appearances, looking for talent, approving pitches, reading scripts, scanning art, digital production and clean up, prepress, and whatever other stages are involved in getting a project completed, printed, and distributed. The fact that I have worked in virtually every aspect of comic book production gives me a relatively rare perspective on many elements to this business.

In this series of columns, I hope to educate some readers about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the comics industry. I’d like this to be an informative and educational resource for anybody aspiring to work in comics. Even if you don’t have any desire to work in comics, I would hope what I intend to write will give you an added sense of appreciation for the books you read and all the hard work that goes into nurturing a project from a simple idea all the way to a physical copy of a book you can hold in your hands.

The first few columns will focus on some of the topics I cover in a series of panels I give at comic conventions called How Not to Break Into Comics. These panel discussions focus less on the how to’s and more on all the goofy mistakes people make when pitching comics or trying to get work in this industry.

For our initial column, I’d like to address one of the biggest mistakes new talent often make when pitching comics – being overly ambitious in your pitch format.

I would say that on average, we receive about a thousand pitches a year for new projects. Most of these pitches are coming from creators who we do not have any publishing history with us and the vast majority of those are from people with no publishing history at all.

When you are new and trying to break in, your best bet is to start small. Don’t pitch a 70-issue space epic. NOBODY is going to green light such a mammoth project until you have become a proven commodity that can be trusted to meet the strenuous deadlines involved with an ongoing series. It would be idiotic for any publisher to green light such an ambitious undertaking from an unproven creator.

Bryan Lee O’Malley would be a good example for this. Bryan is most known for his Scott Pilgrim series of original graphic novels. But if this had been the first thing he had come to us with, we probably wouldn’t have approved the project. Bryan’s first project with us was some inking on the second arc of Queen & Country. He then illustrated a 4-issue Hopeless Savages miniseries. After performing admirably and professionally on these two projects, Bryan then pitched Lost at Sea, his first original graphic novel that he would also write. It was after Lost at Sea that he pitched us the 6-volume Scott Pilgrim series. As you can see, each project got a bit more ambitious but he started small and his ability was both proven and strengthened at every step of the way.

We once got a 250 page pitch from an unpublished writer. 250 pages of pitch material. This was going to be the creator’s sci-fi space-viking magnum opus. The pitch had detailed histories of alien species, schematics from spaceships, excerpts from “historical” documents, and page after page after page of star charts.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to create such a large epic. It probably just won’t be your first project out of the gate. Start small. Do some shorts in anthologies. Produce a mini-comic or two. Pitch a miniseries or an original graphic novel. Heck… if you want, pitch it so that if your miniseries does gangbusters, it can be the first volume in your multi-volume epic. Everyone has to start somewhere and if you start small, each of these little projects can help build up your resume. Then, when it comes time to publishing your epic, you will hopefully have a proven track record and a built-in fan base to buy, read, and appreciate your work. That is something every publisher is looking for.

And on the theme of starting small… that’s all I have for you today.

Till next time,

Randal C. Jarrell

I’M THE GODDAM MANAGING EDITOR.

www.onipress.com

If you are going to be at the New York Comic-Con, come visit me at my panel:

How Not To Break Into Comics

Saturday, February 7^th – Panel Room 10 (1A21) – 11:00am-12:00pm

There have been countless articles and panels on how to break into comics, but very few on how not to. Come join Randal C. Jarrell (Managing Editor at Oni Press) and other industry insiders as we discuss the common and often hilarious mistakes people often make when trying to pitch or get work in the comics industry. This unique inside perspective will help any prospective creator learn how to navigate the potential pitfalls that doom far too many in their attempts to break in to comics. If you want to work in comics, you do not want to miss this panel!