So I’d like to talk about how we start making comics, particularly when it’s the first time we’ve ever made a serious endeavor into the madness. I’m going work off the presumption that at this point it has already clicked in your mind that you want to do this for realsies, either for the rest of eternity or even just casually- between your day job and saving orphans from fires (!). Whatever the circumstance, we have decided, here and now, that we are going to make comics. And that is super rad. Except that when faced with the enormity of this task, it’s kind of.. hard.

At least it was for me. I know people who are natural producers, and I’m sure you do too (you might even be one of them! Get out of here, natural producing guy!). The people who have created their first online epic when they were still in high school and gone strong since then, and I salute them because their work is salutable. I, however! In high school I was stuck between this idea and that, and then in college I was just too busy making art to do comics because are you serious, comics? When there are social injustices? Bad scene for me. But halfway through I realized that comics are something I always loved, and wanted to do for the long term. “Fantastic,” said me, “Only– how?”

How do I discover the drive to put out work? The longest comic I had ever done prior to deciding I really wanted to do comics was six pages- six pages in a story of, oh, six thousand. Which is super daunting. I don’t really blame age 14 me for giving up on that endeavor. Nor do I blame the various mes over the years who tried that formula again and again and failed in turn- it’s a recipe for failure! A veritable stew of it! So when I decided for reals this time, for realsies, me- really, you want to do this, the first thing I had to do was set a limit for myself. The longest comic I had ever done was six pages? Alright, let’s do a short story that’s all of ten pages long. That wasn‘t so hard, so I tried for a story that was fifteen pages. Then thirty. Then infinity and beyond.

I think– for me, at least– so much about making comics, or art, or doing anything, really, is about tricking my brain into swallowing small doses at a time. Of course I’m not going to want to embark on a project that has no end! But if I serve it up into more appealing slices then everything becomes so much more manageable and what was once impossible very quickly becomes achievable. This probably sounds familiar because these are all lessons we learn in primary school. But when it comes to applying this stuff to real life as opposed to, say, math, it’s harder to remember what we’ve been taught. But that‘s okay, because the good news is that we already know what we have to do- we’ve had these lessons, they’re ingrained in us, we just have to re-evaluate how to apply them to our individual situations. I.e. — comics.

How do I make myself happy enough with my finished product that I can continually produce? Because I am very rarely ever completely happy with something once I finish it. There’s always something that can be fixed, or changed or redrawn to be better and I honestly think that’s a great thing. A truly maddening thing! But also pretty great. It means that even the act of making one more panel or one more illustration levels you up, so you can fight random battles with more finesse, hello, that went to a video game place, stop that, me!

What I’m saying is, the most important thing to being able to put out a product regardless of all the flaws you see in it, is to let it go. I read that once- an artist who had drawn this amazing epic back in the day wrote that she could only start the next update when she let go of the previous page, releasing all the flaws into the stratosphere. Arrivederci! And I thought that was fantastic, brilliant, exactly what I needed to hear. There are times when it’s alright to be a perfectionist but not when you’re stuck revising and keeping your readers/publishers/loyal fans waiting. That is the point where you need to let it go. Your audience knows you’re human and as long as you grow and improve then there’s no one whose going to judge your flaws. And honestly– if it’s really just bunk and you can’t live with yourself, you can always revise it for print. I’m in the process of doing that right now and I’m actually loving it, really glad I held off on the revision process til now!

How do I encapsulate myself, my persona, fully into this work? And the only reasonable answer to this is, don’t. I had an professor once who I didn’t see eye to eye with on, well, a lot, but that didn’t change the fact that he was an amazing instructor. And once he stood up and addressed the class- out of the blue, really- in his matter of fact tone, “You’re going to want to make something that completely captures yourself and your vision but you can’t. There’s no possible way that any person can create one thing which represents themselves fully.” This is just so- 100% true. 110%. 200%! There is never, will never, and has never been a way for you to incorporate every single facet of every single story you’ve ever wanted to tell into one piece so don’t even try. I have to struggle with this so much because I’m easily influenced by everything so if I read something truly badass / touching / sweet / cerebral I’ll want to incorporate All The Things into my one story and I have to remind myself to STOP. In fact I will usually try to boil down the essence of what I’m working on into one word and write it down somewhere so if ever I feel like I’m wandering I look at it to remind myself. The likelihood that you’re only going to work on one story your entire life is extremely slim- you can afford to spread your messages out among several different projects. In fact, you should! You don’t want to go down as a one hit wonder- it’s much less impressive if you’re not A-Ha.

How do I, with such little experience, make My Epic everything I want it to be? Oh, um, well, you see, here I think– I think maybe you shouldn’t make Your Epic. Not yet.

If you don’t know what I mean when I say My Epic, although I’m sure you do but indulge me anyway, it’s what I call that one shining story that everyone has, usually developed in middle/high school which is just chock full of all the things you loved at the time. My Epic (really, mine) is an amazing story about fate and raging against the machine and betrayal! It’s been a work in progress for going on ten years now and after so much time spent together I consequently got way too attached. So many of my first false starts came from trying to put this comic down and hating every line because nothing could compare to the grandeur I had built up in my head. And that’s just way too much pressure to put on the first comic I would have ever drawn. In my entire life. So I realized, after years of anguish, that I had to change my approach. I couldn’t just dive in to the Single Greatest Thing I Will Ever Do, I had to go about this differently. I had to think tiny.

I know that the phrase is dream big and that still holds true- I believe that you should dream bigger than big, you should dream HUGE. Galaxies! Cosmos! But when it comes to your first comic you should think so much smaller. I firmly believe you should think up an idea you don’t love. Please note, this is not to say that you should do something you don’t like. I think you should always do something you like- baring unforeseen and unglamorous circumstances like, you know, making rent.

The thing is you should think of something that is fun, that is a little challenging, that is something you would want to work on. A story that you really want to tell because you want to share it with others. But it should be a story that you’re not so attached to that you will fall to pieces if the smallest thing goes wrong. If things are totally perfect, if you draw that one character’s mouth a hair’s breadth off kilter or can’t quite nail your dream landscape, it won’t be a world crushing event. You will merely shrug it off and keep going.

How do I keep producing on a regular schedule? SET DEADLINES! I don’t mean this as in, practice for the real world or professional courtesy or whatnot I mean that if you don’t set deadlines for yourself you will literally never get shit done. I know for a fact that I won’t! Why do you think schools and the workplace have due dates? It’s because we wouldn’t do anything without them! But as a cartoonist, writer, illustrator, crafter, any kind of person who wants to make money off their own efforts- we need to set our own due dates. Particularly, especially, most importantly when we’re just starting out, because when there’s no one to disappoint it is so easy to stop drawing and re-watch Futurama for the twentieth time (just, an.. Example..) because who cares, right? Except you should. YOU should!

So, now that I’ve figured all that out… well then the world is your oyster! Listen, it worked for me- and while I’m not a professional, or a teacher, results may vary etc etc I sincerely, truly, and utterly believe that the most important item in your repertoire of skills is your attitude. What does it matter if you have a bachelors in painting or a degree color theory if you can’t convince your brain to use them?! It doesn’t matter how much or how little experience you have, everyone starts at the same place. And as far as I’m concerned, that starting place is adjusting your attitude to be the most productive you can possibly be.

SO! To sum up, Starting Your Journey 101:

Decide upon an appropriate length for your first comic, something longer than you usual do but short enough that you won’t panic.
Trim down your message to something palatable. Resist the urge to infect your story with all your politics/religion/belief structure/family trauma/leftover plots from final fantasy games. Is that last one just me?
Ditch your epic (we’ll come back to it), try on an idea that’s shiny, new and a little bit exciting.
Set deadlines.

Perfection, bellissimo! Of course everyone has their individual hurdles, BUT, these are the four that I really had to focus on. Once these walls were knocked down things got so much easier so hopefully if you’re in/have been in the same place as I was this has helped. Although! There are about a million and a half (roughly) other tips to getting up and going so if you’ve got any other pointers I’d lovelovelove to do a part 2 to this, sooo, you know, suggestive eyebrow wiggle, call me.