Tricks of the Trade...?

[Lobotomous]

Hello all,

just joined the site because I entered the Top Cow Talent Hunt.

but I noticed you have a pretty lively forum here... so figured i would access your experience and knowledge... if you felt like lending a hand

I have been working on my comic projects for over ten years... only publicly since 2010... i was big on deviantart but got chased off by trolls who targeted me for a pinup contest i held and some remarks i made about elitism on the site. i returned to devart a few months ago and re-uploaded all the commissions for my comic universe characters. i have been super lucky to commission some amazing talents... like Dave Ross, Vince Sunico, Geof Isherwood, Nelson Daniel, Brett Parson, Paulo Barrios... and more. I love art and maybe it is fueled by my own total lack of talent in illustration and painting. I just focus on my writing.

I recently sent queries out to most of the top comic publishers and filled out official submission forms where needed... it was about three months ago. I had two comic books to shop - a sample for a mini-series and a full star wars comic for something I was really hoping would get more attention than it has. i haven't heard back from any of the bigger publishers and only heard back from one of the smaller ones who was interested in one of my comics (the mini-series). My star wars story is about miscegenation in the galaxy far far away (something george lucas never allowed... hybrid species) and i was hoping it would get more traction since the property has shifted hands recently.

i chatted with CB cebulski at fanexpo in toronto last year and submitted to the talent scouts at marvel and DC at fanexpo. never heard back. cebulski said be persistent but dont be a pest. i did send a follow up letter to him a few months later, but still no reply. not sure what constitutes being a pest. in the past, i have worked with computer programmers and some of them seemed to find it pestering to be contacted once a month if they hadn't replied. hard to know the threshold. different industries foster different personality types... so do different companies.

here's the rub...

maybe it is the work itself? i don't know. I feel that my two scripts that I am shopping right now are pretty damn good. the art i commissioned for the comics is pretty damn good too. just feel like maybe i'm lost in the shuffle... any good way to get found?!

this is where you can find material for my two comics... if you feel like checking it out.

http://www.lowbrowsing.com/comic-books.html

and this is an example of a comic script i wrote in 8 hours with basically no prep time.

http://www.lowbrowsing.com/comic-scripts.html

and here is a link to my website for my comic book universe...

http://fanexpo.us

and my devart is lobotomous.deviantart.com

maybe there is something i could change to attract more attention. the 50,000 page views on devart hasn't meant dick! lol i realize it is a super competitive industry especially now with rampant piracy. but i can't roll over and die. so if you guys have any productive advice to pass on, i would super appreciate it. i really need to break through in the next 6 months or i will have to go back to the industry i used to work in... which would really tie up a lot of my time.. when i just want to write!

i'm sure there are some real experts out there... and i know that requests for help can irk some, especially when i just showed up here and provided nothing in exchange. but if you guys helped i would be happy to try to give back to the community whatever way i could.

[Mighty Roman]

Hi Lobotomous. Welcome to CBR. Your ideas are really good, you've just hit a roadblock that nearly every young author hits. And in a world of 7 Billion people it's pretty difficult to gain recognition. That said, there are ways around your problem.

Firstly, trolling on Deviantart was to be expected. However, that was a great idea to get yourself promoted. You've got to get your work out there-but it's all about persistence. If you're good at redesigns, send some of your work to Project Rooftop, if you're good at scripting, send your script to a writing competition. And when people find your work, they'll look for your other work, and said recognition can also result in good feedback about your work too.

As for finding your publisher, the same advice goes-you're not going to get a 100% success rate, but again, 'shop around'. Send your work to a variety of publishers-a variety of indie companies are looking for writers.
Also, a good way to reach your audience is to publish some of your work as an Ebook-some companies can hire writers to distribute their work on appstores.
And what to do in your downtime? Write. Practice. Rewrite. You've got the talent. Also, it helps to ask from feedback from friends-I find that it always helps with my writing.
Now I'm no expert (none of my work is published, I just write as a hobby), but from writer to writer all it takes is passion for your story-if you're engaged about what you're doing, and how you're doing it, your audience will be to.
Also, I'd recommend reading tips from famous Comic or Book authors. Mark Waid has given some great advice for budding authors.
You can even look for artists and get your writing out there on this section of the forum! Plus, if you're looking for more advice (from an actual expert) comic book author Cullen Bunn (Deadpool,Lobo, etc) has his own forum where you can ask him questions: http://community.comicbookresources....31-Cullen-Bunn
Best of Luck.

[Lobotomous]

brilliant! thanks so much for all the great tips and the positive feedback. i will check out the bunn forum for sure. yeah i guess chin-up is the only way to approach this thing.

[Jonny Cannon]

I cannot for the life of me remember where I read this, but a pro writer suggested that demonstrating reliability and timeliness was also important to breaking in. A good tip from an Erik Larsen talk is building tension by remembering what's on the left and right pages. (Robert Kirkman also recommends building tensions through the use of inset panels.)

Your work looks really good! Please share your hints too.

Good luck,

Jonny

[square]

I find Devient Art more conducive to certain kinds of art than others (known properties and porn-ish stuff seems to do best). I wouldn't trust it for building up much of anything.

Tumblr has much more likelihood of catching people's eye. If you can make some images that people like, they will reblog, and your work can get a little viral. DevArt only has faves, so it can't become viral in that way. Another suggestion to making your work more viral or to get more subscribers to your page is to do a little fan art here and there. If you post a knock-out Sherlock pic, it's way more likely to get reblogged, and there is a chance to have people check your page. Do a cool X-Men page that Brian Michael Bendis reblogs, and you could get lots. I much prefer original ideas to using characters, but it is a way to game the system.

It's very hard to break into comics, even if you're very talented. A friend of mine was working on Image and Top Cow books at one of their studios in Toronto 20 years back, and the only work they gave him was hourly pay to draw backgrounds, since the main artists either couldn't or wouldn't. No credit. But he was technically a 'pro'.

It's important to have realistic goals. If you go back to your main work, your free time will shrink, but never quit your art. Your art looks great!