Starving Artist's Soap Box

Death of the Superfan

You haven't been back home in a while. You moved out to the city for work and have gotten used to the Thai food, the busyness, and a new local comic shop where you make regular visits for the latest "Saga" and "Resident Alien." But now because your little sister graduated, you're in your hometown, and decided to check out the comic store that's near your parents' house. You stand outside and you recall what your first time here was like...

You had the hawkish owner/ manager (you're still not clear) who greeted you at the door. He wore glasses, a tucked-in, checkered, collar shirt and seemed like he wouldn't want to answer you're stupid questions. Scattered throughout the store  are isolated men, with the exception of the two engaged in a conversation over Warren Ellis's Planetary and a young couple, perhaps just really close friends, pawing and laughing over the latest X-men.

 And then there was Paul.

You mustered up the courage, and asked the manager where you can find the Doom Patrol comics. You were right; the manager didn't feel like answering you question, especially since he doesn't know what you are talking about. You started to describe it explaining that they were a team like the X-Men with a guy in wheelchair, similar to Professor X. 

"Actually, the Doom Patrol came before the X-Men, So really Professor X is like Niles Caulder, your "wheelchair guy." says Paul glancing up at you intently. His angry eyes above his hair filled cheeks, daring you to challenge his knowledge,

"Doom Patrol started in My Greatest Adventure #80, in June 1963, and X-Men started in September 1963," he continued unsolicited. "You shouldn't be reading it if you don't know about it..."

...

You enter the old, disheveled shop from that memory and you trip over something. You turn around and to your horror, it's the body of Paul, the former resident expert, with blood and  self-significance pouring out of an open wound.

Who? Who could have done this, you think, your mind quickly races towards the list of suspects.

Suspect #1 is the internet.

A plethora of accessible searchable data. Anyone who is deigning to learn something about anything can certainly learn it within instants. People can read all about the books they are interested in checking out before stepping into a comic store. People can read the book they are interested in without stepping into a comic store. There is no clear guideline on where or how to look up that information, however.The only thing that absolves the internet is that people like Paul know how to package that information to best view it, and access it for themselves.

Suspect #2 is Image Comics
Another way people have been putting it is, the rise of the Indies. More creator owned work, means less shared universes.

Suspect #3 Retroactive Continuity
The suspect also goes by "Retcon." It is the process of adding material to an already published or existing story. Though a new word the technique goes as far back as ancient times. For example, the poet Virgil was instructed to construct a story that links the Roman empire to an ancien

Marvel hasn't done a Handbook in about 10 year's, and DC hasn't updated Who's Who in twice as long. These were all company encyclopedia's that gave you detailed information of every character of remotest relevance short of Willy Lumpkin, the Fantastic Four mailman. If you had a favorite character their pages helped you track down their appearances. The unintended effect of things like this is that new or potential fans were afraid they needed information like that in order to enjoy the comic, or worse they felt like they had to read more comics to enjoy one. Paul did all that, by the way, and he approached these books quite fearlessly
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARTISTS ARE LIKE DRUMMERS

When Gryphon Knights first got their start around 2011 it was fueled by dreams and idealism. It was this tingling excitement that drew almost 2 dozen people to the company for that very first meeting. However after many shared what their hopes and vision for this group would be, it became quite evident that at the time we didn't have the organization resources or the manpower to bring to fruition the fictional universe we imagined. In the end many lost steam and it wasn't until a few years later that things kicked off again and we started small.

However, in all that ruckus one thing stood out. It was very difficult to find artists.   

Moral of the Story: Dreams and Idealism is bad fuel

Not that they were impossible to find, but it was gaining the talent of an artist and then retaining them, a process that was made daunting for 3 reasons:

1) THE MONEY: It was difficult finding an artist who would work for a percentage of the profits of a produced work. At the time that's all we could promise people as any assets were fueling the company. This is not an unreasonable thing when you garner a little bit of cynicism and actually see how many comic book projects are out there. It can be daunting putting in the amount of work for you to succeed, and often you have to have multiple releases before you get any attention at all. Additionally we were just starting, its hard to garner attention when all you can promise someone is a percentage of potential. Many artists would be happy simply to have the exposure, but again we were a no name company at the time, so our exposure was 10 people (including mom, dad, and the dog)!

2) RELIABILITY: Even if you do end up finding someone that's willing to work for a promise of glory its often a cointoss whether they are consistent or just blowing steam. Actually its more like a dodecahedron toss that has to land on 4 whether they are consistent. Even finding an artist it can be difficult for them to follow through. This could be because they are occupied with too many other life tasks or responsibilities or it could be they are just flaky. George once said "To get anywhere you have to be stupid and just love creating, because most of the time it won't take off." Another friend of mine who is a graduate from SVA and writes for a living said to me that she only knows two other people who graduated with her that are actually working in an artistic field. Its tough and to do it you just need to love doing it.

3) DIVERGENCE OF VISION: So you have someone working with you and they are fantastic. They make deadlines, they are consistently creating and investing in the work but suddenly you hit a roadblock. They don't like your story, or they think something needs to be different. That's the problem when someone is working for free: They get emotionally involved in the storytelling, because that is the thing they are most invested in. How many times do you hear people parting over creative differences? Well its not much different when there is no money involved, there is just no press about it. That's why sometimes people will have contracts at the beginning  so they can retain sole creative rights over a project.

So what do I do?

Well my friend, if you keep hitting blockades in trying to build a creative team, the only thing you can do is keep putting your work out there, telling people your stories, and one day you might meet someone that says "Wow... I'd really like to draw that."

If it kind of sounds a lot like dating it is. You really have to meet a variety of people to find a compatible creative team that shares a passion, drive, and vision with you. You can meet artists by joining clubs, going to conventions, or even find a bunch at www.deviantart.com. Another thing I found is if an artist's ability is still unrefined, but they are a beast at consistently producing work, you want them! If someone is consistently creating there is no way they won't improve, especially if they are open to critique, and they will appreciate the chance to work on something (Sounds kinda like the plotline of strictly ballroom).

Another way finding a good artist is like dating... If you have money, it becomes easier.

Sir Thomas J. Griffin is an artist and reluctant writer that has had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinking days. He has been too busy creating books like WOW Signal for GRYPHON KNIGHTS COMICS to go shopping.