Breaking In through Indpendence

Yesterday I went to Ithacon and attended a panel called "How I Broke In," where people including Roger Stern (Marvel writer) and Will Dennis (DC/Vertigo editor) talked about how they got into the comic book industry.

One of the most resonant ideas during this panel was that of working independently. Times were different in the '70s when some of these guys started, and even in the '90s. Comic books have largely been dominated by Marvel, DC and a few other giants up until recently. If people wanted to produce a comic and have it read by more than their friends and family, they had to constantly be sending samples to these few dominant companies in the hopes that they will be hired.

One of the panelists, Storn Cook, talked extensively about what has been happening today in the art world. He was urging artists to just work and post their work up online for free. Because of the Internet and the ability to post things online for little-to-no cost, the independent comic industry has boomed.

Instead of the few publishers that existed up until the aughts, there are now hundreds of small little publishers and even more people putting their work up online. Cook was a freelance artist for several tabletop game companies but is now currently teamed up with Justin Evans and creating his first comic book with the help of Kickstarter.

I met several other writers and artists outside of the panel who were working independently. One was Camilo Nascimento who gave me a free signed print of one of his online comics, which is available for free at ArhantaComics.com. Not only can he post his work for free online and get people to view it, but he can also expand the medium of sequential art into something much greater and more diverse than was ever possible on paper. This comic has dynamic coloring on the panels as you hover over them and a track that can play to fit the story.

There are so many parallels that can be drawn between the comic book industry and the journalism industry thanks to the Internet. Working independently on something you love is now a completely viable way to sustain a living, whether its through an online comic or a blog, whether revenue is made through advertisements, donations, merchandise, or all three.