Trying to Find a Comic Book Artist

Part 3: The Manga Artist

If you haven’t been following my sad saga about trying to make graphic novels, you can catch up by reading about how the old comic book bug was first rekindled, then my frustrating experience with one artist. Not being a masochist, I cut my losses, paid him for wasting my time, and regrouped.

Back to the drawing board. Pun intended.

I found another artist with a page rate I could swing; and he seemed to understand English pretty well. He was a Manga artist, but said he could draw American-style comics. Since I wanted a more classic, simplistic style anyway (remember: I thought it would be cool if it was a similar style to Milton Caniff or Alex Raymond), I thought it could work out.

I decided to have him try Page 1, and do it in black & white to see if the style was a good fit before thinking about color.

The same kind of issues haunted me as with the previous artist. I literally had to give him the same directions 5 times before he would follow them. Going through that for every panel on a 90-page graphic novel is something I just don't have the patience for.

After 14 days. he had this, which is much closer to what I wanted:

The artist’s Manga background helped him come closer to the simple, elegant style I thought would fit the sci-fi adventure.

Some stuff I just had to let go. Two of the characters are supposed to be older; but after telling him this over and over and over and him ignoring it, I figure he's probably never gonna do it for whatever reason.

I wasn’t going to give up; but I was done with Fiverr and maybe even trying to hire artists.

One reason I had been ready to sink thousand$$ into this project was because time is such a precious commodity and drawing is extremely time consuming. Learning how to draw, then drawing, takes even more time. But that appeared to be the only way this was gonna happen, now.

“I have to draw it myself,” sez I.

I began with some crude storyboarding to see if I could get back the hand-to-eye coordination I had when young. I’m not gonna subject you to what I came up with. But a few lessons were readily apparent:

• I no longer had the patience for drawing I once did.

• I no longer had the raw talent I once had.

• I did still have all the bad habits I had as a young, self-taught artist.

• My storyboards revealed I wasn’t planning panel composition beforehand.

Well, I just had to put in the work. Practice makes perfect, and all that.

I would eventually move on to more refined, finished artwork, sez I. Then I would have to re-learn how to form noses, mouths, and eyes.

There were also tools available now that could help speed the process. Clip Studio Paint was one of them. And with Blender, I could build 3D models of hovercraft, aircraft, pulse rifles, etc., and quickly reproduce them at whatever angles I needed so I wouldn’t have to draw them from scratch every time and risk inconsistency. I ordered “For Dummies” books on both programs and would just have to find the time to learn how to use the software.

This was how it was going on the sci-fi adventure graphic novel. Meanwhile, I had started on my series of superhero graphic novel scripts. And I should probably tell that story, too…

I’m posting free chapters for your reading pleasure over at Henry’s Sneak Peeks. (It’s #FICTION!) It is also sci-fi, from Book One of my bestselling Paradox Series. I’m trying to grow my audience by making this available on Substack. YOU are invited to come along on the adventure.