Trying to Find a Comic Book Artist

Part 2: I Blindly Stumble into the Sub-Quest for an Artist

After waiting months to hear back from the publisher, I finally accepted that whatever happened, that deal was dead.

But the old dream was revived and the juices were flowing. I decided to try getting the sci-fi graphic novel produced myself.

(Looking back, if I had to do it over again, I would, but still: I did not understand what frustration would overtake me in the next step of the journey.)

If I could find an artist I could afford, I'd foot the bill myself, run it as a series on Arktoons, then get it bound in paperback and release it that way. Maybe I should finally try crowdfunding, sez I. The story’s based, seasoned with some red pills, but it’s set in a world that is not a metaphorical stand-in for the geopolitics of 2022 Earth, so IndieGoGo or whoever might not cancel it mid-campaign. And there was a new gunfighter in town, I heard, called FundMyComic which specializes in comic book crowdfunding, and respects the First Amendment.

I’m really glad now that I waited on that crowdfunding idea, rather than put backers in the position of waiting years (at least two-and-counting, now) for me to deliver a finished project.

Thank God my financial situation has improved significantly since the period I went through from 2005 to 2017. But I still don’t have money to burn, now or two years ago. This project requires a big sacrifice in precious resources that are needed for other aspects of life. I had to get the best bang-for-the-buck I could scrounge, and even then I would have to do a lot of scraping just to afford the artwork. I’m not a known creator in comics, so it’s not like I could just start a Patreon account and expect backers to appear and start contributing to an artwork fund. I’ve got 11K followers on Amazon, but you’d never know it from the number of reviews my books get. And how many of them read or care about sequential art?

I already had a Fiverr account; so I began searching...I decided to submit Page 3 this time, because it would give me a chance to see how the artist would do with some of the vehicles and other tech.

The artist who I contracted with repeatedly asked for time extensions, and I allowed them. After waiting 9 days, he finally submitted a rough sketch that he had obviously just thrown together in a matter of minutes. Here I was thinking 9 days should be enough time to draw and color 6 spectacular panels. What I initially got was no better than what I could doodle myself.

I was probably too patient in those early days. But after about three more artists, that ailment of excessive patience would be healed.

After more waiting, he finally sent me something that looked more like a comic book page:

It was like pulling teeth. The artist was lazy, sloppy, and ignored directions. Big glaring stuff, like in Panel 1 where I have the protagonist riding the airbike and the female character riding behind--he just didn't draw the protagonist at all and had the chick riding solo. He wrote the protagonist out of the story, essentially. Then the protagonist just suddenly appears in Panel 3. How did he get there—magic? Beamed down by Scotty?

Maybe the artist figured I should just change my story to what he wanted to illustrate. Not an uncommon expectation from an artist, I figure, based on experience.

The air/spaceport was supposed to be on top of the mesa. He put it next to the mesa. After repeatedly explaining what I wanted, he changed it so that the airport was floating in the air. Then he put it on the mesa, but had the mesa tipping over at a crazy angle from the ground. and the ground atop the mesa was something like the floor of a space ship, the way he drew it. So much other stuff that I'll laugh about some day; but is still really irritating now.

This page (below) was after asking for about 5 revisions. It was nothing like what I wanted; but the experience was just too aggravating and I cut my losses. After having my script, and explanations, and restated instructions ignored so many times and winding up with ONE FRIGGIN’ PAGE that still wasn’t all that great, I shuddered at the prospect of trying to work with this guy for 100+ pages.* I paid him for the page, but knew beyond any doubt this was not the guy for this project. And that money was wasted.

Just a fluke, right? Surely most other artists are not this difficult to work with?

And Mephisto thundered down from the 5th dimension, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, chump. And don’t call me Shirley!”

But wait…there’s more! Tune in next week for more Graphic Novel Follies.

*After torture from numerous comic artists, I now know that even if I was masochistic enough to stick with this guy for the duration of the project, he would have flaked after maybe another page or two, or ten, leaving me with a depleted project fund, to start over from scratch with art I couldn’t use.

While anxiously waiting for my next episode of misadventures, check out Henry’s Sneak Peaks, where I’m posting chapters from the first novel in my current time travel series. And subscribe, if you like them. Meanwhile, feel free to share this post and/or this substack with somebody. And drop a comment.