meltblog

Aside from blackmail, it’s no easy task for a writing man, with his eye on creating indie comics, to find a suitable, willing artist and collaborator. “How do you find an artist?” is one of the most common questions I hear from writers scouring the Internet in search of the next James Jean (who is hopefully down to work for free). Naturally, there’s no handbook for this sort of thing. Each person has their own methods and ideas. Admittedly, I’ve only recently started dealing with this. But I do have some things to say.

Finding an artist, cold, on the Internet is difficult. I have a friend who has had some success with this approach, but he’s an absolutely relentless bastard with a clear vision of his story and dozens of scripts already written. That said, it’s no surprise that the artist he’s had the best collaboration with lives locally. Forming a collaboration is a delicate thing. I think it’s generally a better idea — at least while you’re starting out — to try and find someone in your community first. Somebody you can grab lunch or a drink with. Contacting an artist on another continent, who has never seen your face, doesn’t exactly breed a sense of loyalty or dedication. Of course, when you’re doing work for hire jobs, collaborating with an artist that isn’t local is pretty much commonplace.

If you want to create comics, live and breath comics. The passion has to be there. Become part of your local comic book community. That means going to events, chatting with retailers, attending conventions, etc., etc. Meet people who are walking the same streets that you are, asking the same questions, bleeding for their art. I met the artist that I’m currently working with through an artist friend. Another artist I’m working with I met at an event at Meltdown Comics. It’s all who you know? Well, yeah, of course.

Also, never settle. Find an artist whose work speaks to you. Chances are, if you’re responding to a persons art it’s because you’re both interested in similar things. I immediately connected to Brandon Graham’s art when I read the short stories he was doing for the Meathuas anthology He works in naturalism, and so do I. We both love the quiet moments of a narrative. Two people with coffee and conflict. Urban drama. Ordinary characters dealing with life and love (it also doesn’t hurt that he draws some of the best looking women in comics). As it turns out, I ended up pushing for him on a comic book project I was involved with for a big Internet brand. The project fell through, but Brandon and I stayed in touch and cooked up a little something of our own. Work begets work. Now we have a comic story in development called Down Time.

I’ve studied Brandon’s work intensely and I’m writing to his strengths. In a successful collaboration each creator will make the other look good, and create some glorious comic art along the way. But you have to hustle to get that point. When you search deep down, you know whether or not you’re doing all you can. So, how bad do you want it?

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*Addendum*

It should also be noted that artists who have the misfortune of coming across Dirty Hollywood-type who is only creating a comic book as a movie pitch have a responsibility to kick that person in the face.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Roundtable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.