Share the Wealth, Comic Pros -

[Mr. Visions]

Hey guys. I love the fact that CA is getting a great flavor of comic book professionals more and more everyday. I didn't get to go to the Comic Con, but I have had the pleasure in the past of talking to a couple great artists from different backgrounds about the comic world, and I'd love to get more feedback. I want to ask those on CA who work in the field some general questions: How was it for you first starting out? How has the industry changed? How big is the market for pencilers and cover artists? How has it effected your relationships, if you have one? Is it onsight work or can you work from your home? Is there any advice for those trying to tap into the industry (not trying to pull an Art School Confidential) ?

I know this might be a loaded question, but it would be greatly appreciated. If you could just share your own personal experience, I'm sure many aspiring comic creators could learn from what insight you have to share. Thanks alot guys -

- Visions

[Mr. Visions]

Bump - ouch, that hurt

[jcaffoe]

well, I'm not a professional, but the majority of my professors are, so I've heard these questions answered a few times.

Comic work is mainly freelance, so you work from home, but if you're working for a company like Marvel you can get very consistent work. I've also heard that while you mainly work from home it's a very good idea to stop in the office on occasion to check in, it keeps you in the forefront of their mind and you'll get more work that way.

As for the other questions, I'll let someone with actual experience answer them, as they seem to be more personal.

[Mr. Visions]

Thanks Tiger, that's some good feedback to get this ball rollin' - I know George Pratt works at home from what I gathered. I know he's always pulling crazy hours.

- V

[Marko Djurdjevic]

I can only talk about how it worked out for me.
I posted some X-Men redesigns in the Finally Finished Section, that caused a lot of hate by hardcore fans.
A week later I got a call from Marvel Comics and they asked me to work for them.
I agreed and after the first couple of gigs they offered me a 3 years-exclusive contract that I agreed upon :D
The workload is incredible, right now I have 10 Covers in the pipeline till September and more is coming in almost weekly.
I'm starting my first sequentials for them somewhere in october I guess.
The work is homebased, as long as you have your studio somewhere, you can work from anywhere in the world.
That's as much magic as there is...

If you want to tap in produce good work and draw attention. Not much more to it.

Take care

[Mr. Visions]

The wonderful irony, thanks Marko and congrads. How often are you making trips over to their office, or has it all been an email/phone call basis? I remember in Montreal you talked about thumbnails. Are you having to to send WIPs, or do they trust you to do what you do?

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Uhm...everything is working over email and phonecalls.
I deliver 2 Thumbs per cover and when they decide on one I make the painting and send over the finished file. They've never asked me for any WIP's or anything. I somehow managed to gain enough trust from their side that they rarely even give me descriptions for the covers. They just say, do something with Prof.X this week and I go draw my ideas....:D

M

[SillyLing]

I have a question that I would like to add to the topic.... I hear alot about people doing comic works for comic books.... It never really occur to me... How does one get thier work published in the comics sections of the newspaper and magazines?

[Blue]

Wow, Marko. All this from a posting in the finally finished section? Thats pretty crazy.

[Alday.J]

Hello, Folks !
I don't know if that could help or made sense [and I apologies for my bad english], but here some sample of my brother portfolio, as colorist... Something like 2001-2002, I'm not sure.

At that time I went with his portfolio at Angoulême's convention [french equivalent of San Diego conv'] because he was in the French alpes and can't leave his job, even for the convention itself. So I show my brother's stuff to two differents AD [Delcourt & Soleil]... The two ones he made colors for in his portfolio. Two weeks after the convention, he made two tests for both... And fail. I have to precise the two AD want him work on a realistic stuff, what he was not confident for [you can compare on the following links]. It was hard for him [plus he kept his full-time crap job during the test ! :x]...

Two month after, AD at Delcourt contact him again, but on a short-storie, more cartoonish style. He was initially choose by the drawer who like his colors a lot and ask the AD itself for do the test to Maddy. he finally got the job, with the drawer's benediction [the drawer's decision on the colorist choice is important in France, don't know if that's the case in usa]. So for that reason, I think that the choice of a "target" [DSIllustration own's words... Will keep them in mind, Dan ! ;)] is very important. In the case of my brother, it was cartoonish or realistic comic-book. If he have worked on a 100% cartoonish portfolio, maybe he will had a test directly linked to his skills and tastes ? [hope that I wrotte sound english, lol].

The book he worked on is allready published, at Delcourt... I'm not the first Alday of the familly who put his name on a book, crap ! Well, done my bro ! :) He was 21 at this time, with only 6 months of photoshop stuff [but a strong classical education, not a secret, he ?]

Here some samples of the 2001-2002 portfolio:

"Le Chant Des Stryges", [Corbeyran/Guerineau], Delcourt Publishing.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/Jujubox/Stryge-3.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/Jujubox/Stryges-1.jpg

"Atalante", [Crisse], Soleil Publishing.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/Jujubox/Atalante-1.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/Jujubox/Atalante-4.jpg

[Mathieu Alday for the colors]

I think you see that he was more confident with the two last ones.

Generally, a French comic-book is 46 pages [but 52 start to be the standard] and have to be made between nine months and a year. I wonder what are the american standards... Thanks for awnser.

Well, hope that's helpful or interesting.
Sorry for my bad english. :\
Julien.

[Alday.J]

And by the way, bravo Marko ! ;)

[Victor B]

Congrats marko! its great to hear you're starting on seqentials, and have an exclusive contract! All that hobo sacraficing paid off!

[Mr. Visions]

Julien, thanks alot bro for that insight. You're one heck of a brother to do all that, I'm sure he's incredibly thankful. There's definately a huge improvement from the first links onto the second. I wish you and him well.

Does anybody else have experiences with going to get a job at comic conventions, positive or negative. This is all great stuff to read about. Perhaps people who went to the one in San Diego have some stories to share. I saw the thread and all the awesome pics. Did anyone submit a portfolio?