Seeking A Comic Book Artist

Not sure what you're looking for.

Is it a writer to work on back-end, adapting your comic? An artist? Both? A publishers?

If you want an artist, check out deviant.com but you want to find someone who does sequentials and not just pin-ups.

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Scott Harper said:

Hello,

Sometime back, a comic book writer read my first two novels, “Winter’s Rite” and “Well Wishes”, and is now interested in penning a comic book adaptation of at least the first and quite possibly both.

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My question is why you aren't doing the adaptation yourself?

Axler said:

My question is why you aren't doing the adaptation yourself?

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I could take a guess.

What do you cut? Because you would need to make cuts, just like adapting a novel to a movie script.

You've worked on your novel mss for six months/12 months/two years, slaved over the world, the characters, the plots, the sub-plots, and you gotta boil it down to maybe 132 pages of graphic novel. Stuff has to go.

Which baby to you keep and which do you cast aside?

Pass that off to someone else and they don't have the emotional attachment and will cut to what is the most important. They'll probably do it faster too.

Finally, if you have something you self-published and adapted, it'll be a weaker pitch than something adapted by a comic writer with contacts and credits.

I'd say it's a pay off. You lose control, but you lose an awful lot of stress too. Horses for courses. If it works for you to adapt it yourself, you should. If not, pass that puppy off and work to your strength.

Another over-priced two cents brought to you by the type-writing monkey.

wordmonkey said:

Finally, if you have something you self-published and adapted, it'll be a weaker pitch than something adapted by a comic writer with contacts and credits.

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Assuming that's the case.

And if it is, seems to me the comic writer would count a few artists among his contacts.

My first impression is that if the comics writer in question doesn't have any workable relationships with artists and his name doesn't carry any particular weight with editors (if it did, why would you be the one seeking out possible publishers?), then it seems to me you're adding a complication to an already complex process.

My suggestion would be this--if the comics scripter you're dealing with has impressive credentials, then you should work out an agreement with him that allows him to submit the project to potential publishers.

Then, if you work out an arrangement with a publisher, they will be the ones to provide artists.

At the very least, the writer who has expressed interest in adapting your work should also have an artist in mind he wants attached to the project, which he can take with him when proposing the project to publishers. That would sweeten the prospect.

Axler said:

My suggestion would be this--if the comics scripter you're dealing with has impressive credentials, then you should work out an agreement with him that allows him to submit the project to potential publishers.

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OK, since I swim in the indie waters, am a comic book writer who has some indie contacts, lemme give you my take on Axler's advice.

I would be amazed if any writer who isn't a big-boy, with some serious credits, could sell a comic to a publisher without, at the very least, a penciler having done some sequentials. Not just attached, but with pages done and ready to view.

I have a couple of really good contacts, who are open to anything I wanna pitch them. They know my writing, they like it, they like me, they know I will bring them something usable. BUT they won't commit to ANYTHING I pitch, without art. And I mean REAL sequential pages.

These are not POD indies, they're decent sized, real players who work San Diego with REAL booths (not a back-wall just up from Artist's Alley). They have projects they put together themselves, from a stable of talent they have worked with, but if you're pitching, they want as much of the talent searching done as possible.

I also don't find it strange that your comic-writer has to do this. Like I say, once he's a big-boy, the rules change, but you can float around the indies, have a good rep, and still need to go the extra mile.

It isn't that worrying that the indie publisher would want to work on a back-end deal. There are some (that I'm in with) that pay page rates. But a lot will look on their initial investment as being the publishing, advertising and distribution and will split the profits with you are your team.

It depends on where you are with your career. I'd be willing to bet that someone with Axler's history wouldn't see much of the above as appealing, and that's understandable. But one would hope that with a history, one wouldn't NEED to deal with this kinda situation. But if you're breaking in, or are in with indies, none of what you've said is that strange, Scott.

But I would have thought if your comic-writer HAS worked, he would have some art contacts.

wordmonkey said:

I also don't find it strange that your comic-writer has to do this. Like I say, once he's a big-boy, the rules change, but you can float around the indies, have a good rep, and still need to go the extra mile.

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In which case, you make my point...Scott is adding a complicating element to an already frustratingly complex process.

Scott, it all boils down to the reasons why you want your work adapted to comics in the first place.

Frankly, if the comics writer you're dealing with doesn't have any significant contacts with publishers or artists, it would make more sense for you to study the comics scripting form and do the adaptation yourself, particularly since you indicated you're doing all the important leg-work yourself.

Unless there are salient details to this arrangement you haven't mentioned, the writer seems like an irrelevant middle-man.

Scott Harper said:

The writer who wants to do the adaptation of “Winter’s Rite” and “Well Wishes” is really just starting out, too, and is working with the independent companies.

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Yeah, I sorta figgered that.

Scott Harper said:

Maybe I do need to get in touch with the writer again and try to get him to find and artist if he’s really serious about wanting to write this.

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Like any other creative field, comics attract a lot of what I call "Pie In The Skyers," folks (most often well-meaning) who say "Wow, that would make a great comic" much like people in film say about comics: "Wow, that would make a great movie."

When it comes to follow-through....well...bridging the gap between the theoretical and the practical is rarely accomplished with any degree of efficiency--if at all.

Trying to break into the comics field is a pretty frustrating exercise, particularly since most of the independent companies nowdays are really only names on mastheads for the publisher's own work.

As I suggested, if the writer in question has no more significant contacts in the field than you do (and "significant" is the operative word), it's probably best to adapt your own work yourself.

Here's a hint that might be somewhat helpful...go to Comicspace.com and in the search feature, type in "Florida" and see who and what comes up.

Having lived in the Tampa Bay region for many years, I know there are a number of professional comics artists in your general area.

In which case, you may have to set your sights considerably lower than a professional artist with name recognition.

There are bound to be many aspiring artists you could talk to about working on your project, gratis, at least as far as putting together a proposal for submission.

Like I said...it all depends on why you want to do it in the first place.

Scott Harper said:

For me, the comic adaptation would mostly be an advertisement.

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Wellllllll....

Putting together a decent comics adaptation of most anything is so labor-intensive (and certainly not something that can be done quickly), as well as expensive, it would make more fiscal sense for you just to advertise your novels in Realms of Fantasy, Locus or other venues.

Unless you have well-known, bankable names associated with the comics adaptation, I seriously doubt most publishers would invest in such a project.

Axler said:

Unless you have well-known, bankable names associated with the comics adaptation, I seriously doubt most publishers would invest in such a project.

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Well known and bankable don't always go hand-in-hand, and even if you find one who is one or both, they had to start somewhere an an unknown loss-leader.

If the book is good and there's a market, indies will consider the book regardless of who is involved. But you MUST get kick-@ss artistic talent that will be backed-up by the writing.

You wander around the comicbook store, do you look for the names on the cover, or the cover art?

it would make more fiscal sense for you just to advertise your novels in Realms of Fantasy, Locus or other venues.

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Could you tell me more about that? I have a script everybody keeps telling me should be a comic book. (Instead of telling what I want to hear..which is that they will buy it and film it.)

One thing I did find out. If you put an ad on Criag's list, you will be bombarded by artists...some of them very good professionals.

Well, you can engage in forensic hair-splitting until the Comics Code Authority goes back in business.

If you're going the independent route, an unknown, uncredentialed writer teamed up with a well-known artist is enough to get somebody to take a serious look at a proposal.

Among the independents, a well-known artist with solid credentials is always more bankable than even a very talented unknown artist.

As for Javili's question...

If a comic book is being created as an advertisement for a novel, it makes more economic sense to take the money that would be spent on putting together a comics adaptation and take out ads to promote the novel itself.