2652: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I haven't really seen Comic Party so much as endured hearing Chars watching the dub [because he'd already seen the sub and is very unsnobbish about it], yet there are times in the past months I've felt myself slipping into Kazuki's situation. The dilemma is that, although I do want to draw a comic, I don't want to do it enough, and that's not going to justify the time spent on it if I'm just doing it to be doing it. I'm hesitant to take the "I'm going to make doujin for a living!!1" route for many reasons, but mostly because--if anything--I prefer to be the Garry Trudeau or Bill Watterson type, rather than any sort of active participant in the fandom [y'all know which one], and that's going to be an uphill battle, if con experience has shown me anything.* Even though I'm not active anymore, I still see signs of it if I look in the wrong places, and that's mildly aggravating.
*I mean, I've seen both sides of the spectrum, the successful businessperson artist as well as the starving artist barely able to cover the cost of attendance, but the reclusive artist that's nonetheless successful is so rare as to be unheard of, since the best way to advertise is by getting window-shoppers at a convention.
The most common offense** is complaining that a comic has gone on hiatus or is planning to end. Part of the problem is believing that anyone who has any material must have an endless supply [I don't by far, but it seems I might since I lack the energy to cement it into semi-permanent form], but most of it is the fallacy of believing a comic can and should continue endlessly a la the not-so-greats [open to the comics page: any one older than ten or fifteen years that's not Doonesbury, basically] and that it's selfish of the artist to just give up on it. Sure, fans have the easy job: check the comic every [update period] and either like it or not. It's a whole other story on the work end of it.
**besides the "u maeke me somfin 4 frees???/" bullshit that's a whole other can of worms itself
I can't sympathize with the fans--on most accounts, but on this in particular. I gave up for the most part on comicking because I prefer quality over quantity. If my web comic(s) had kept going from the point when I started them, they would have deteriorated into crap long ago, and I would hate almost all of it. I have trashed most of my older stuff in favour of refining the one or two gems in the muck, and I haven't even finished the books I churned out during Nano because they're only late until they're done--bad is bad forever.
Unless I trash it =p but then, why the rush, just to make something I'll just trash?
Similarly, a comic should not be churned out if it's just going to be crap. There are churned-out comics that are good, and those are outstanding, but they're rare by comparison. By that token, hiring someone to take up the pen when the original artist can't is insulting, because it suggests the pace of material is more important than its quality--even worse if the material is filler as it is. I've been asked if I would hire/otherwise proposition someone to draw my stuff if I couldn't get around to it, and it makes me so mad to think of it. Every detail I put into my work that turns out as I wanted it is that much more special, and everything someone hijacked from me [what little of it as there was] made me feel devalued, that I couldn't finish my carefully-laid plans because someone else had spent five minutes and made their own gaiden bit that, if I just ignored, would make me feel rude for it somehow.
[Take the last bit with a grain of salt: pictures and such from fans are awesome, but I mean literally trying to put words in my mouthlines on my sketchbook, as it were. This is another reason I prefer a finished whole to serial installments, that someone can't change my narrative before I can do the next bit. It's much less a problem now, being away from art communities, but I'm still a little sore about it. There's this Mars-esque stigma I have against redoing something that someone else has done, even if it was originally mine, because the image is sort of tainted after being fixed improperly. Like, if I miraculously got Chars to draw my comic for me, then I decided I wanted to do it after all, well... too late, everyone has already seen Chars' version, right? Plus, I'd feel bad trashing all his hard work, even if I paid him for it. No, I'd rather just do it all myself, when I can.]
Also, I keep coming up with new ideas, often ones that negate prior cannon. I feel much more comfortable throwing away my own work than someone else's. Granted, that's prolly solved by finishing a whole, THEN hiring someone, but then that defeats the idea of "hire someone to keep the thing going when the original artist runs out of steam" =p ...and the cycle begins anew!
Your bitter lengthy rant for the month.
*I mean, I've seen both sides of the spectrum, the successful businessperson artist as well as the starving artist barely able to cover the cost of attendance, but the reclusive artist that's nonetheless successful is so rare as to be unheard of, since the best way to advertise is by getting window-shoppers at a convention.
The most common offense** is complaining that a comic has gone on hiatus or is planning to end. Part of the problem is believing that anyone who has any material must have an endless supply [I don't by far, but it seems I might since I lack the energy to cement it into semi-permanent form], but most of it is the fallacy of believing a comic can and should continue endlessly a la the not-so-greats [open to the comics page: any one older than ten or fifteen years that's not Doonesbury, basically] and that it's selfish of the artist to just give up on it. Sure, fans have the easy job: check the comic every [update period] and either like it or not. It's a whole other story on the work end of it.
**besides the "u maeke me somfin 4 frees???/" bullshit that's a whole other can of worms itself
I can't sympathize with the fans--on most accounts, but on this in particular. I gave up for the most part on comicking because I prefer quality over quantity. If my web comic(s) had kept going from the point when I started them, they would have deteriorated into crap long ago, and I would hate almost all of it. I have trashed most of my older stuff in favour of refining the one or two gems in the muck, and I haven't even finished the books I churned out during Nano because they're only late until they're done--bad is bad forever.
Unless I trash it =p but then, why the rush, just to make something I'll just trash?
Similarly, a comic should not be churned out if it's just going to be crap. There are churned-out comics that are good, and those are outstanding, but they're rare by comparison. By that token, hiring someone to take up the pen when the original artist can't is insulting, because it suggests the pace of material is more important than its quality--even worse if the material is filler as it is. I've been asked if I would hire/otherwise proposition someone to draw my stuff if I couldn't get around to it, and it makes me so mad to think of it. Every detail I put into my work that turns out as I wanted it is that much more special, and everything someone hijacked from me [what little of it as there was] made me feel devalued, that I couldn't finish my carefully-laid plans because someone else had spent five minutes and made their own gaiden bit that, if I just ignored, would make me feel rude for it somehow.
[Take the last bit with a grain of salt: pictures and such from fans are awesome, but I mean literally trying to put words in my mouthlines on my sketchbook, as it were. This is another reason I prefer a finished whole to serial installments, that someone can't change my narrative before I can do the next bit. It's much less a problem now, being away from art communities, but I'm still a little sore about it. There's this Mars-esque stigma I have against redoing something that someone else has done, even if it was originally mine, because the image is sort of tainted after being fixed improperly. Like, if I miraculously got Chars to draw my comic for me, then I decided I wanted to do it after all, well... too late, everyone has already seen Chars' version, right? Plus, I'd feel bad trashing all his hard work, even if I paid him for it. No, I'd rather just do it all myself, when I can.]
Also, I keep coming up with new ideas, often ones that negate prior cannon. I feel much more comfortable throwing away my own work than someone else's. Granted, that's prolly solved by finishing a whole, THEN hiring someone, but then that defeats the idea of "hire someone to keep the thing going when the original artist runs out of steam" =p ...and the cycle begins anew!
Your bitter lengthy rant for the month.