Stumblebum Studios Archives
  Archives Home
 
Don't Call It A Comeback by Josh Dahl

Last week I tried really hard to make the point that, despite illusions to the contrary, the comic book industry is not for the young.

I stand by that statement. Based on my observations of the comics industry, it takes a long time to get to a position where you can comfortably say “I work in comics. I am a comics professional.”

The trouble, though, with first-hand experience is that it can only tell you about the past. You know, stuff that has already happened. Sure, you might be able to extrapolate patterns and makes guesses about what is yet to come, but all you really know for sure is what has already gone by.

And, thus, you run into the problem that is built into a column like last week’s. I can tell you all about what was, but does that mean it will continue to be that way?

Maybe, but (and this is where it gets interesting) maybe not.

The conditions confronting a young man, whether he realizes it at the time or not, that I described last week were the conditions that I faced when I was that young man ten years ago.

Things change.

Things have changed.

The comics business of the past was a confusing morass with no obvious entry points and an every-man-for-himself attitude. Depending on where you are standing, these can still seem to be the prevalent conditions. But, there is light dawning through the mist.

Previously, anyone entering comics had to boldly chart his own course. It was unknown territory. Sure, folks had blazed their way in before, but have any of them ever returned? The lessons of how to get there had to learned again and again by each successive generation and individual, simply because there was no real way to get that information out to those who needed it.

Times change.

Comics are gaining acceptance and recognition in all areas. It is no longer the shadowy, backwater, industry it once was. You can now express an interest in the field and be met with approving curiosity. It seems like a small step, but it isn't. It is a big deal. A career in comics no longer has the same stigma of quitting your job/school to start an artsy rock band. You can say that you want to work in comics and people might ask you “Really, do they have that program at your school?” instead of just nodding at you and inching away.

It is a shift in mind-set.

And once you have your feet set proudly on that path, there is much more guidance to be found now than there was ten years ago.

The internet provides a constant stream on insight and experience. Cynical as it is, someone is reading of my experiences and learning from them. That is, maybe, one small step that hat person will not have to take on their own. And this column is just one small ice chip on the side of a massive iceberg of available knowledge. Warren Ellis's web community “The Engine” seems designed to specifically meet this need. There are resources out there for those that want them. Look at the brilliant collection of articles and information that Jane Irwin has assembled on her web site. Why have they done this? Just to make it easier to make your own comics.

Newsarama, CBR, and The Pulse all have sections for creators who are just starting out. You can find some great first-hand knowledge there, from the guys who are on the front-lines right now. Of course, this wisdom might never be as useful as that which is handed down from the folks who made it through and lived to tell about it, but just sharing what you are going through is incredibly valuable. It used to be that the only time you got to compare notes with people in your same boat was at conventions, when they were your direct competition for a finite number of dollars. Support, sharing insight, pooling resources, promoting, and just telling war stories, all of these are things that were largely unavailable before the proliferation of the internet.

Back then, there was time and money pressure on you to get all that you could out of your convention weekend. But now, the internet has turned every coffee shop, library, dormroom, and office into a 24/7, free, comic con. Everything that small pressers and newbies had to fight tooth-and-nail for is now laid out for the taking, all day and all night. All that that encompasses will likely be the subject of a later column, so I don't want to exhaust the subject right here.

Email, message boards, and web pages have brought small time upstarts into direct (almost) contact with pros and publishers. Your web page can now act as constant open portfolio. Open for review, critique, and possibly even recruiting. Though I am sure they don't know exactly who I am, I have personally used the internet to ingratiate myself to Warren Ellis, Brian K. Vaughan, and Joe Quesada among others. No, these people are not my friends or anything, but now I have an 'in' that I didn't have before. When I meet them in person I won't have to be stuck with “I love your work....sir”, now I can start with “Remember when...” or in some cases “I believe this next round is on you.”. It isn't a ticket to the top, but it is a resource that I did not have before. It is a little bit, and every little bit helps.

Web comics are an art and an industry unto themselves. Just thinking about them makes me feel like the old guy at the punk show, shaking his head in disappointment at all those kids who can't just settle down and enjoy the music. I am not an expert on web comics, not at all. I don't feel terribly qualified to discuss them at length, too much of an old dog. I do know, however, that they are a way to get your work and your name out there to a world wide audience. They are a new resource and medium that simply could not have existed back-in-the-day.

The fact that I am so woefully ignorant on this subject leads me to the main point of this column. The old order dictated that the young learn the way of comics through the protracted process of shedding their youth and gaining wisdom. Now, those of us who have been toiling away at that very thing may have found ourselves on the horns of a scary new reality. It could be that all that time spent entrenching ourselves in the-way-things-work is keeping us from understanding and benefiting from the-way-things-will-work-from-now-on.

Hopefully, one of the strongest lessons we have learned is that you must adapt and evolve. If we have, then we can reap all the rewards of new technology, techniques, and attitudes, and we can all work together and for the betterment of comics in general. If not, then I guess those damn, upstart, wipper-snappers will just run us down on their mp3-powered flying Segways. Because, after all, comics ARE for kids.

Visit Josh Dahl at his website www.monolithllc.com