How To Become a Comic Book Artist: Artist’s AMA Events Breaking Into The Comic Book Industry

Pow! Bam! Thwack! I’ll start today’s blog with one important information for all comic lovers! The mind behind classic comics from Jack Frost to Spider-man, Iron Man, Hulk to the X-Men and many others (who’s still publishing, btw!) today celebrating his 95th birthday!

The impact that Stan Lee has made on Marvel and superhero storytelling cannot be overstated. And it is certain that he is a model for all those who try to find their place in the comics industry today. And he inspired us too … therefore, in honor of his birthday, we have a special treat — an ultimate guide for all those future comic book artists! So, enjoy and… Happy birthday, dear Stan!

A comic book can take many forms — from self-published zines, hand-stapled fresh from the photocopier to the slickly produced work of major publishers and webcomics. Also, there are also many ways of creating comics, from pencil and ink to digital pens and pads. The comic book, graphic novel, manga, and anime industries are some of the fastest growing areas in all of literature, and the demand for great artists continues to grow with each passing year. Simply put, the comic book market is hot!

With the rise in comic-book-based movies over the past decade like Deadpool, Ant-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy, the comic book industry has witnessed an all-time high not seen since 1997.

There are a million paths leading into the comic book industry but becoming a comic book artist is not the easiest profession in the world and you should be prepared to overcome a large number of challenges in order to become a recognized. Before you start sending your work out into the world, let’s start with a breakdown, in no particular order, of some of the roles artists within the world of comics may take on:

Penciler

A penciller (or penciler) is a collaboration artist who works in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations. Their job is to take the comic script and give them life in a way that makes sense, to move the story along with a consistent quality.

Inker

The inker takes an artist’s pencils and goes over them in ink, turning the image into a finished piece of work. The dark ink line makes the art jump off the page and adds depth and dimension.

Colorist

Simply put, a colorist’s job is to apply color to a comic book. Logically, right? The colorist helps the comic book to become a finished piece of art. The job is broken up into two parts, flatting and coloring. In the flatting process, the basic areas of color are blocked out so the colorist knows what spaces to color what. In the coloring stage, the colorist applies not only the color but also adds lighting and shading to help give the three-dimensional feel that comic books are known for.

Letterer

A comic book letterer provides the text in such a manner that makes it easy for the reader to follow the story as well as designing word balloons, dialogue, sound effects, and more. It certainly takes a lot of creativity for this job — great lettering is an art form, not an accident.

Creator / Writer

Not all comics have multiple artists working on them, and some have artists in multiple roles. This includes creators and writers. Many well-loved webcomics, for instance, are run by a single person, only involving others in marketing or sales.

Cover Artist

Much like being an illustrator for book covers, the job of comic book cover artist is pretty exciting since your work will be the first thing that will be seen by consumers, something that will entice them to open your comic book and buy it.

Want to know how to become a comic book artist? Depending on your passion or interest, you may also specialize in specific genres such as superhero comics, manga, alternative or esoteric, actions and adventures, adult, horror, humor, science fiction, and children’s comics. However, talent and passion are not sufficient to succeed as a comic book artist. But do not worry; we have created a great guide that can help you in your first comic book career steps! So, let’s begin!

Learn the Basics of Comic Book Art

Learning the basics and focusing on anatomy, figure drawing, and storytelling is a good start for creating a dynamic comic book. There are plenty of books available on those subjects and the learning will always continue on how to make yourself a better artist. As a comic book artist, you really need to learn how to draw just about everything.

One artist may create only the key figures in the comic, while another artist or artists create the backgrounds, and a writer or writers write the script. It’s also worth noting that these roles can be interchangeable, and an artist that draws a character may be brought in to write a part or the whole script. You should find yourself and first decide which role (or roles) in the world of comics is best for you.

Learn the Essential Skills & Techniques

Although most anyone can become a comic book artist, a comic writer needs many skills to be successful. For sure, the most important skill to have is the artistic ability and a natural talent for drawing, whether through formal training or at-home practice.

If you want to work for mainstream and sci-fi comics you need to be able to draw figures, faces, and guns, but if you’re doing more personal work, like Persepolis, you can develop a more individual, naïve style. You need to be motivated and reliable and above all -you must believe in your ideas, so you’re confident when you pitch to editors.

Practice drawing, and try to form a personal style that isn’t superhero cookie-cutter. Look at the kind of work publishing houses are producing and see if your work tallies with that. Go to comic book conventions, show your portfolio around and send out samples of your work to magazines. Be determined — if you really want it, then you’ll get it.

If you decide to be a freelance comic book artist next to your regular job then you should be a self-starter who can multi-task, meet deadlines, be and be disciplined. These are not things for which everyone is capable, so you should consider that too.

Write a script

Before diving into writing a script, you really should write an outline first. Outlines are a way of organizing your thoughts so that you can write your script. List each idea as a bullet point, then revise it to find a logical flow of the story. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to approximate the number of panels needed to pull off each bullet point.

A comic book artist needs to be able to tell a story. It is hard to make a comic without having something to tell, so the first step is to come up with some sort of series of events. A series of loosely connected single images won’t cut it. A single fantastic panel is useless if it does not convey the story to the reader and your art should tell the story without the need for dialogue.

Plan the layout

When working on the layout, your goal is to keep the reader interested. One way to do this is to end each page (maybe not all, but some) with a cliffhanger. Draw the reader in! Let them know something interesting is about to happen, but don’t reveal what that is until they turn the page.

Draw the comic

Now that we have written down all the actions we need, it is time to turn words into pictures. Try drawing the actions from your script using simple stick figures. Don’t worry about making it look good — what is important is that your story can be understood in pictures just as well as in written form. Draw the same figure dozens of times, from every conceivable angle. The character should be recognizable and distinct every time. To make it in the comic book business, an artist must draw the same characters hundreds if not thousands of times, and the reader must be able to immediately recognize these characters.

Build a Strong Portfolio

Think about it this: you are literally going up against hundreds, no, THOUSANDS of others all over the world all trying to get a shot with a company. It sounds scary, right? Yes, but it’s true. You need to go into your portfolio preparation with that in mind.

First impressions count, so you have to make sure you do this right if you want to be taken seriously. The first thing you need to do is to create a portfolio of your work to show your employers what you bring to the table as a penciller, inker, colorist or writer. Unlike other jobs where you simply put your credentials and work experience on a resume, in comics you need to prove you can actually do the job with hand-drawn work.

In the not-too-distant past, aspiring comic book artists had to painstakingly create physical portfolios that they’d lug from convention to convention, sometimes waiting in line for hours, hoping to catch the eyes of an intrigued editor. Over time, technology has made it much easier for artists to share their work with the world, allowing them to attract more potential patrons and publishers.

Selling and marketing

Where should you go to sell your comics? How do you get the best price for them? And how do you ensure they’re going to a good home? In relevance to marketing, be it online or not, the first thing we recommend anyone to do is researching. The goal is to research on the best and most effective marketing strategies or approach. The best ways to market your comic artwork is to look for possibilities and option that works on both online and also offline (real-time). Look for more than one solid marketing method or plan as you can use one and keep the others at ready should they be needed (serve as backup plans).

Also, try your local comic store: many stock back issues, and might be interested in your collection to top up their sales. Comics are popular right now (and hopefully will continue to be for a long time), so you can get them in more shops than ever before: it’s worth giving a second-hand bookshop a go.

Marketing online is one of the cheapest and cost-effective ways to boost awareness of your comic work as well as increasing traffic to your site and business (if you are selling stuff on your website).

Crowdfunding to promote your comic book

Just as the hosts of our AMA Events do it every day, crowdfunding is a great tool to spread the word about your work. Sites like Kickstarter, Patreon, and Indiegogo are popular (and really awesome) sources to use to get your passion comic book project funded.

In order to show you how it looks in a real-life example, we’ve collected some of our AMA Events and rounded up the best tips from the hosts that jumped into the world of the comic book industry. Pick up the best of their experiences and get to know our heroes IRL!

Meet Marcos Gratão, a Puerto Rican graphic designer, illustrator, comic book artist, and writer. His comics and illustrations have appeared in several local independent publications in San Juan, such as Pernicious Press and La Marginal online magazine. For all those who were wondering which program they can use to start their career, in Marcos’s AMA Event we learned that there is a free digital painting and comic creation software called Medibang Paint pro that includes everything you need to illustrate or make comics. At first, he wrote everything down — words, names, powers, places, characters, guns, accessories… Everything. Then, he came up with the idea of the main character: powers, personality, visuals, and the possible adventures he could live. After that, he creates the secondary characters that would be interesting to the story.

“After that, I came up with the idea of the main character: powers, personality, and visuals. Then I think about the possible adventures he could live and I create the secondary characters, which would be interesting in the story, interacting with him.”

So, maybe this is a good approach that will suit you too. At the end of his AMA Event, he gave us perhaps the most valuable advice that says:

“Make a drawing every day and mirror yourself as an artist you enjoy.”

So, don’t forget about it.

Meet Toy Spears, self-taught writer and co-creator of the graphic novels, Sword of the Shadow Moon, Bushido Gun, Gunmetal Gray and The Ranger’s Disciple. He currently running a Kickstarter campaign for Issues he has with The Ranger’s Disciple. You asked him all about his campaign, essential tools in creating a comic book and many other things. And when it comes to the sales and online marketing of his production, here’s what Toy says:

“Right all the sales and marketing is done by myself through the website www.wicked-comics.com. I use a few social media outlets as well like Facebook and Instagram but that’s about it for the moment.”

Wouldn’t it be cool to meet a high school teacher by day and a freelance semi-pro comic colourist by night? Here he is! Meet Sean Ellery, a guy who picked up coloring comic book stuff as a hobby to stay sane after a day teaching the kids at school and managed to become reasonably good at it. He has worked mostly on people’s independent projects but also has done art refurbishment for Marvel and an ongoing monthly cover gig with Zenescope Entertainment for the past 5 years. In this AMA Event, you can read his tips and tricks for all who want to become freelance comic book artists. The most important advice is:

“Keep practicing and color as much as you can from a variety of artists and styles and then when you think you’ve practiced enough… practice more. I’ve been pushing out a new picture every 2 weeks on average since 2001 and posting them online in as many places as I could find.

Anyway, most people need to push out a variety of sequential interior pages showing different styles and environments. Show how you can use color to create a mood and feeling for the page to enhance the story. If you can get a number of consecutive pages that tells a whole part of a story then that’s great, but it’s also hard to do, so not essential.”

When it comes to building portfolios and marketing that we talked about, Sean said:

“Attending comic cons if you can is useful as well. It gets you face to face with other artists and if you’re lucky, with editors as well. It can lead to work…maybe, but I wouldn’t want to depend on it. Still, you never know who you’re going to meet or speak to, so do you really want to miss out on that potential?

Sending in portfolio solicitations to the major names is not really worth the time. They don’t look at them. If they want new talent then the editors will trawl the art gallery sites and forums, or have a talent search/portfolio session at a comic con and also ask people that are already working in the biz…”Hey, do you know someone who…?” That’s where all the online networking and attending of comic cons can become worth it!”

In the end, how fast you made a page matters only to you. You want to make something awesome for your audience. So don’t speed for the sake of speeding, but know your process inside and out so that you can figure out what parts can be separated, what parts can be automated, and what parts deserve some extra time.

Now go make comics!

Written by our genius blogger Tina based on advice from our great Hosts in www.ComicsAMA.com and originally published on www.AMAfeed.com