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Yes, There Are Cliques in Comics

“How do I break into comics?”

There’s lots of advice out there for breaking into the comics industry, but the most popular idiom is “Are you making comics? Then congratulations! You’re in the comic industry!”

But thanks to a Twitter conversation I was a part of recently, I’m starting to approach this question from another angle.

The tweet that started the conversation was…

That’s something a lot of comic artists will NOT tell you. Because yes, there are cliques in comics, and yes, it can seem like there’s a frat-boy mentality going on.

This is especially noticeable if you are, or identify as, a woman, because some cliques will treat you very differently and talk to you in different ways.

For example, I was part of a circle for a while, and in this circle was an editor (who will remain nameless, as he’s not really in the comics scene anymore). I was talking about how to attract more attention to your table in Artist Alley, when this editor suggested, “Just show off your boobs!”

I don’t talk to this guy anymore.

There’s tons of stories like this, some mild (like mine), some nightmare-ish.

However, not every comics group is like this.

From what I have observed from conventions and conversations online, it seems that there are at least 11 broad cliques in comics. Yes. 11 of them. They are…

Tired Comics Veterans – you can tell who these guys are because they tend to be over the age of 40, still drawing superheroes, decrying the presence of cosplayers.

Enthusiastic Comics Veterans – few and far between, as many comics veterans are quite jaded. Those who are not, though, are an…interesting bunch.

Children’s Comics Creators – While I haven’t met very many people in this clique, they tend to be female (though not always). They aren’t afraid to branch into unusual products to sell with their comics, like plushies. These people tend to be the nicest.

Webcomic Creators – perpetually broke but love the comics medium, and will talk about comics with anyone eager to chat with them. They are also eager to please, and are easily amused.

Webcomic Creators That Make Money – the rarest unicorn in real life and on the Internet. They discourage anyone else from making comics because they KNOW it is a slow, soul-torturing slog.

OEL-Manga Creators – are slowly dying out and phasing into other cliques. Those who stay within this clique are hardcore and know little of what’s going on outside of their circle.

Artists for the Big 4 – The Big 4, in this instance, are Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse. Cannot be approached by mere Muggles. In fact, you’re not 100 percent certain they’re real, because you never see them and you only hear about them through podcasts and seeing their names on comic books. They might as well be Yetis.

Indie Comics Creators – the most nebulous bunch, as “Indie” is defined differently according to each person, and even each clique. The Indie crowd can be seen most often at small-press conventions and in Canada (why? No one knows, but there are many theories). Generally seen as standoffish and pretentious, and while many of them are, a few don’t mean to be.

Lonely Self-Publishers – think they are Artists for the Big 4, or even aspire to join that clique. Tend to gravitate towards places that Artists for the Big 4 hang out. Usually in desperate need of going to art school, but refuse to for a variety of reasons, none of which are excusable. Often do way more work than they should. They also hang out with…

Pin-Up Artists – draw all pin-ups and only pin-ups. Could not tell a story to save their life. Usually they have someone else do the talking for them, as they are too soul-crushingly awkward to talk themselves. But there’s a gem of a story within them that aches to come out, even if that story is a terrible one.

And finally…

Small-Press Zine Creators – a strange little group that branched off the Self-Publishers who don’t want to become an Artist for the Big 4, but tell stories too strange, personal, or downright awful to be considered an Indie Comic Creator. Small Press Creators tend to be hobbyists, and many of their works are passive-aggressive jabs at their day job, or autobiographical works.

Of course there are cliques within cliques. That’s what happens when people of like minds gravitate towards each other. There will also be groups of people who are just assholes. With this new-found knowledge, you must remember:

You cannot be friends with everyone, and you should not be expected to. You are the master of your choices, and you choose the people you hang out with. So choose wisely and thoughtfully.

So when I hear somebody say “I want to break into the comics industry,” do you mean actually making comics, or finding a clique that’s right for you?

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Conventions and Travelling for 2015

selfie at youmacon with jayne hat
A selfie at Youmacon.

Last year I did a few convention appearances. I appeared at Phoenix Comicon, Free Comic Book Day at the Apache Junction Public Library, Intervention Con, and Youmacon (where I only attended and didn’t sell any work or appear at panels).

This year, since I have moved from Arizona to Ohio, I’m hoping to make more appearances at some Midwest conventions, particularly those in Columbus.

I’ve been approached by one convention, and there’s one I’m hoping to get to down in Savannah, Georgia, because a friend of mine (Chloe Rose, who’s attending school there) wants to go.

However, in between convention planning and making comics, I’ve been writing, particularly in Claire and Tracy’s story.

Well, a lot of the stories I’m writing recently (especially their’s in particular) take place in places I haven’t visited in a long while. Like Chicago. And Pittsburgh. And there are even some that may take place in New Mexico or Tennesee.

So I’m wondering…should I take some time away from conventions…so I can go on research trips?

Another friend of mine, Suzy, did a research trip in lieu of conventions, and that has inspired me to consider doing the same thing.

I have quite the travel bug, and I would love to do more of it so I can see new sights, meet new people, write about new things, and share more of my experiences.

Either way, whether I do more conventions or more research trips, I intend to write about them here on this blog.

Have any suggestions for places to go? Travel tips? just have something you gotta’ say? I would love to read about it in comments.

Thank you for reading and I will see you on Monday.

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I Was a Librarian

librarian selfie with books art sketch
(Click to enlarge)

Yep.

My first ever paid job in high school was being a librarian. Technically, I was a page, so my job was to re-stack books, DVDs, CDs, and other stuff people checked out and returned.

The cool thing was I was a page at a time when libraries just caught on to the idea that graphic novels were cool. So the graphic novel section was growing and getting all kinds of cool additions. This was how I was exposed to works like Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker (which I reviewed here), Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa, and (most importantly) Making Comics by Scott McCloud.

I, as a page, was also supposed to clean up small messes. I have found many strange things in my time as a page, from abandoned wallets to an ash tray that was ripped out of a truck. But that’s a story I’m going to get into…right now.

I was sorting in the large print section when I found this aforementioned ash tray. And I was really confused. So I took it to the sorting room and approached the other librarians, saying “I found this weird ashtray. What should I do with it?”

My manager in her corner office said “BURN IT!” But one of the other ladies said she would hold on to it until someone claimed it. After all, it was an ash tray that belonged in a car. Someone should get it, right?

Ten minutes later I’m back in the large print, moving onto Non Fiction next to it, when a greasy guy in a leather jacket approaches me, looking nervous, saying, “Uh…did you by chance see an ash tray around here? It’s for my truck.”

True Facts.

Anyway, I was a page for two years until I graduated high school and went to college.

For a semester I had a minor in Pop Culture (because Bowling Green State University, my alma mater, was one of the few schools that offered classes in Pop Culture studies).

While I was studying this oddball field, I worked at the Browne Popular Culture Library.

Yes, this was a thing.

It was a very cool thing, too. It carried all manner of comics and graphic novels, and they even had dime novels from as far back as 1910. There were movie scripts, posters, and a ton of Star Trek memorabilia (I heard the library has the largest private collection of Star Trek memorabilia carried by a library in the United States). There were also pulp magazines, though they were rarely, if ever, read… The pulp was so old they were kept in special boxes so the light would not damage them, and if they were ever handled, it was with gloves, so the oil on your fingers wouldn’t damage the pulp paper.

The library even carried copies of the original elvish dictionaries written by J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

So with all of this awesomeness within our walls, you would think we were slammed with people.

But there was a catch: The Browne Popular Culture Library is what librarians call a “closed-stack” library. That means everything was kept behind closed doors, and if you wanted to check out anything, you had to fill out a form and a librarian (like me) had to run back and fetch it.

We had our catalog online, which is how you can find books in the Pop Culture Library in the first place. But once you got the book, it wasn’t allowed to leave the floor.

So…no, there weren’t a lot of people clammoring for the books there.

My time there was short, but I enjoyed it. It was the job that got me into comics as a cultural force, rather than comics as throwaway entertainment.

Because the cool things was: I saw a ton of old AND new comics in that library. I saw the original pulp magazines and dime novels.

And yes, the popularity of mediums changes. Dime novels aren’t really a thing anymore, and digest comics like Archie, I’m sad to say, are starting to lag.

But though the popularity of storytelling modes might change, the constant thing is that there are stories, and they are there, waiting to be read.

It’s fascinating to see the arc of popular culture history, seeing what was popular and what faded in favor of the next fad, and why the next fad was so huge.

Comics are, I dare say, the new fad in storytelling, because their potential is being rediscovered. Back in the 1950s, comics in the U.S. took a giant leap backwards (that’s a VERY long story I’ll save for next time), and since then comics as a medium in the U.S. has been playing catch-up with the rest of the world.

Comics are reemerging as a fad, and I would say that’s a good thing. It’s an artistic medium that deserves to be created with, studied, and read.

How long will that fad last? I don’t know. Tell me what you think in comments.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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The Superhero Ladies Series Returns!

A while back I wrote a post about how I wanted to do a series of illustrations showing Superhero Ladies, dressed and posed like human beings, not like…whatever comic books thinks is sexy.

While there are ladies in comic books and graphic novels that are in charge of their sexuality, and there are superhero ladies who are clothed, they seem to be the exception, rather than the rule.

Thus, I came up with the idea of the art series Superhero Ladies: a series of illustrations showing superhero ladies dressed and posed like…actual people.

sojourner superhero ladies art series
Number 1 in the series.

I put it on the back-burner, though, because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to exactly tackle this series.

But then I wrote about my Goals for 2015. And one of my goals is to make more eBooks full of sketches.

So I had the idea, “How about I make my first eBook of sketches be the Superhero Ladies series?!”

So that’s exactly what I’m doing.

This actually ties in well with another one of my goals, which is to draw two sketchbook pages a day. So I’ve been drawing quite a few superhero ladies this week already.

Here’s a peek at just one of the new ones:

mary wildfox superhero ladies art series sketch
Mary Wildfox (Click to enlarge).

I forgot to mention that the Superhero Ladies series will feature entirely original characters.

So, no, I’m not going to be doing re-designs of famous superheroines like Spider Woman, Power Girl, Captain Marvel, or anything like that. That can be addressed in a different series of sketches altogether.

Nope. This series will feature only original characters, costumes, and (hopefully) powers.

I’ll post more sketches occasionally. I don’t want to post them all online because I don’t want to spoil any surprises I have in mind for the eBook.

Speaking of books, though, Johnson & Sir have a book on pre-order. I talked about that in this post.

I’m working hard to make sure there’s new prints, books, and more for you. If you have any suggestions or ideas of what you would like to see more of, leave a comment below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Writing Claire’s Story

claire comic post apocalyptic zombie fighter
(Click to enlarge)

So one of my New Years Goals was to write 1000 words a day. Which sounds pretty lofty, but really I can accomplish that in about an hour. Sometimes less.

In writing 1000 words a day, I’m actually getting a LOT of writing done.

It’s not just blog posts either.

Thanks to my 1000 words written a day goal, I’ve revisited an old script of mine, and am now in the process of writing it and continuing off of it.

I’m talking about my post apocalyptic lesbian love story with zombie-killing, starring Claire and Tracy.

claire and tracy in work in progress

I finished editing Chapter 1, and I powered through Chapter 2. It’s a GREAT feeling knowing there’s progress finally being made on a project that’s been on hold for months.

I’ve been revisiting this project in my sketchbook, as well.

claire and tracy comic work in progress art sketch
A Work in Progress (click to enlarge)
claire and tracy comic work in progress art sketch of environment
Sketching out an idea of the world they explore. (Click to enlarge).

And I’ve been doing some sketching to flesh out their world bit by bit.

I’ve also been looking at this list of post-apocalyptic tropes to avoid and what hasn’t been done yet. I’m hoping to add elements of things rarely done in post-apocalyptic stories, pulling inspiration from this list.

Like bike-riding. Oh my shit there need to be more bike riders after cars become useless hunks of metal.

What are some tropes of the post apocalyptic genre you can think of? What hasn’t been done in a zombie story yet that you can think of? Leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear about them!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.