How to be a Comics Professional
At Comics Experience, we market our courses based on how they teach the creative side of comics, be it writing, art, coloring, lettering, what have you. But the truth is, we do a lot more than just teach the creative.
All of our courses are taught be working comics professionals who are active in the comics community. As such, our courses tend to veer into topics like how to break in, how to create an effective portfolio and why, what editors and publishers are looking for, real nuts and bolts types of topics like those.
This week, for the first time, we’re offering a course specifically on what I call “The Intangibles” or working in comics. You can check out the course offering for yourself. It’s called Professional Best Practices: The Art of Being a Working Comic Creator and it’s on sale this week for 30% off.
What’s unique about it is that it covers all of those nuts and bolts about being a professional. Many of the lessons apply to any number of businesses or industries, but so few comics courses or platforms really talk about how to solve interpersonal issues that arise during the collaborative process, or even basic things like how or when to submit an invoice.
I have seen so many talented and genuinely great creators fail in the business because they simply didn’t understand these intangibles–how to communicate effectively, how to make sure everyone is on the same page before a project begins, or how to effectively set deadlines for yourself or the project.
When we talk about breaking into comics, we start with three keys: 1. Talent, 2. Persistence and 3. Luck. But that’s far from the whole story. And it also doesn’t shine a light on how to GROW YOUR CAREER in comics once you’ve gotten your first breakthrough job or book.
That’s what this course does. It focuses on how to communicate, how to follow up with editors and collaborators, how to problem solve on the job and how to turn adversaries into allies. It goes through how to self-evaluate so you can be honest with yourself and your co-workers or partners.
Getting into an adversarial relationship with someone can be hugely damaging in this industry, and it’s often relatively easy to avoid, if you’ve been taught the skills to do so. Not knowing how to set deadlines for yourself is another huge problem. So many creators over promise and then under deliver. Not because they’re trying to deceive their partners, but because no one has taught them how to effectively under promise and over deliver. And there are actual concrete tools to do this.
Communication is a common problem. Many of us think we’re great communicators, but very few people actually are. I’m pretty good and I’ve been working on my communication skills, both written and verbal for about 30 years. I’ve still got a lot more to learn, but I’m way ahead of those who just think they’re naturally gifted communicators.
More disagreements come up because of unclear communication and misunderstandings than for any other reason. Learning how to nail down expectations and promises and deliverables, is massively important for a good working relationship with anyone but also as a great way to prevent problems that eat up your time before they ever happen.
If you’re serious about wanting to work professionally and be seen as a comics professional, making sure you’ve got these skills and all the nuts and bolts down is essential, even if you’re doing it on the side.
We’ve been helping people navigate their careers for years and now we’ve distilled a lot of those lessons down into a single course. And there are likely more similar courses to come.
And that’s my two staples’ worth….