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How Do I Become a Comic Book Creator?
The options available to become a comic book creator are varied, and while some art skills will help, they are not always necessary. You can, for example, be a writer who writes a story line for a comic book, then coordinates with a penciller and an inker to create the artwork. If you happen to have all the skills necessary to become a comic book creator, your pursuit may be easier if you are willing to do all the work yourself. Before you begin, however, you may want to consider funding for the project and develop a plot line for the story.
Once you become a comic book creator, you may be responsible for the actual production of the artwork and text, or you may simply be a coordinator between the writer, penciller, inker, and others involved with the process. You should determine your role in the process early on to avoid conflict with others involved in the process and to ensure you do not get bogged down with excess or unnecessary responsibilities. It also helps to determine a budget early on to ensure the entire process can be completed without a funding hitch. Be sure to make clear to others involved in the creation of the comic book how much they will be paid for their services, and pay them on time.
If you want to become a comic book creator simply to see how the process works and if it is something you will enjoy, you can do so at home with little or no real budget. You will have to write the story line and create all the artwork yourself, and you may even be able to do the printing yourself. Most comic book creators will outsource printing, however, and some companies focus exclusively on comic book printing, thereby ensuring a high-quality finished product that will be impressive and easy to read or otherwise view.
It is certainly possible to become a comic book creator as a career, but the process can be difficult. It helps to build a portfolio by creating comics on your own for several years; once your portfolio is well developed, you can show that portfolio to potential employers and enhance the likelihood that you will be hired. Include only your best work in the portfolio, and be prepared to talk about the creation process as well as the difficulties and successes you encountered over the years.
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![Comic book creators often develop characters who face challenges mirroring the creator's challenges.]()
By: alphaspiritComic book creators often develop characters who face challenges mirroring the creator's challenges.
Discussion Comments
@pleonasm - Comic book creating should be fun. I wouldn't ever want to work for a big company, to be honest, because you don't get much say over what you write about or draw. I'd rather just make low level stuff over which I have complete creative control. And there's some fantastic independent comic books out there right now. It's a good time to be going into it.
@KoiwiGal - That's not the only two options. There are people who have done well on collaborations with friends or family. And there are writers who just decided to make their own art. Some of them might have simply gone along with simplistic art, or they might have improved as they go.
There are plenty of webcomics out there with examples of either one of these scenarios.
Getting a professional comic book job is extremely difficult, because it's a very popular career. People work for years just to get to the point where they can apply to work at comic book companies.
If you want to work on comics, you'd almost be better off becoming an artist yourself, than trying to get to the point where you can work for a company.
Over and over I come across writers who want to write their own comic book series but have no artistic ability. They always wonder how they can convince an artist to draw for them without paying them anything.
The answer is, of course, that you can't. Anyone with any kind of talent at art is going to need to be paid to do the tremendous amount of work that goes into a comic book. You can't tell them that they will get exposure, or a percentage of the profits because they would have to be foolish to work with no guarantee for pay.
Comic book writers need to either get a job with a real company or make up their mind to pay the artist themselves.
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