Collaborations: How Do Comic Book Artists and Comic Book Writers Work Together?
Collaborations: How Do Comic Book ArtistS and Comic Book WriterS Work Together?
The title says it all, the age old question…can you work with someone you’ve just met to make something long-term? It depends on a lot of factors, time, money, the project, the experience levels of the two creators, and luck. Here are some of my thoughts on collaborating with another artist and ending up successful.
Money - There are two types of projects, paid and unpaid…
Think about anything you want to do in life. There’s a cost-benefit analysis involved in whether you will go and do it. Want to go to the water park? The cost - money, time, sunscreen, possible exposure to urine. The benefit - adrenaline, relaxation, fun, a trip on a lazy river tube. Want to move to a new city? The cost - leaving your family/friends, losing a job, moving expenses, loss of connections/friends. The benefit - new job, new friends, new experiences, maybe closer to things you care about or dream about. Everything we do in life has a cost-benefit and that’s exactly how you should think of collaborations when they are paid or unpaid.
When they’re paid, usually that means the comic book artist is getting paid by the writer. Usually. Now and then an artist doesn’t know how to write the script and needs assistance with developing a story. That’s possible. But usually, there’s a writer who cannot draw and wants to create a comic book. This is either a project rate with an agreed upon number of pages, or a per-page agreement. The benefit of this arrangement is financial stability. Some of the other things we’ll talk about in this article will still pop up, but as Stephen King says “Money talks, bullshit walks.” When you’re paying someone there’s an incentive for them to complete the job. I know not everyone feels like the “can” pay, but maybe there’s a way to change your thinking about this. Maybe it’s time to “save up” or “earn money for” the project of your dreams. You may have to work for a couple years to save up for a project. That’s ok and also it is completely normal. There’s a lot of pressure built up by social media being a 24/7 share-fest that makes young creators feel like they need to churn out art every day. When really, if you’re passionate about getting your comic book project out into the world, settle in, because no matter what you do, the reality is it’s going to take a LOT longer than you first thought it would.
That brings us to unpaid projects. There’s NOTHING WRONG WITH UNPAID COLLABORATIONS! The forums, the boards, the reddits of the world will tell you this is wrong, that I’m a whack job nut on a tin foil horse schlepping bad advice to anyone who will listen. They’re wrong. There is 100% a time and place for unpaid collaborations. Usually it is when both creative partners stand to gain a lot of experience from working together. It helps if the project is not monumental in size where one or both partners will get burnt out. It helps if the project is fun for both parties. It’s also important that both parties wear 50% of the crown, meaning both partners need to be in charge of EVERYTHING. Unpaid collaborations happen all the time. Contrary to the artists who always discourage writers from even trying such a thing, there are actually artists in the world who want to learn to draw comics, or need more experience. There are lots of writers who do not know how to write comics specifically or have less experience in how it works. Finding each other may take a while, but this type of collaboration is mutually beneficial.
Whether your project involves money or not plays a part in the success of the project in a key way. While it’s nice to live in dream-world and pretend like money doesn’t exist and “art for art’s sake is the way” (this is the way), the problem becomes when money suddenly becomes very important for one person in the partnership. This might mean the person stops communicating because they have a new job, or an artist slows down on finishing pages because they need to work on paid projects, or in some cases, yes, ghosting may occur. Sometimes art doesn’t pay at all and you have to go work IRL. Everyone gets busy. Everyone gets family things. Art is like everything else, it may come second or third or fourth in importance at some point.
When this happens to a partnership there’s probably no good way to salvage it. But it’s frustrating. Depending on whether there’s a contract involved it will get very messy. Sometimes even when there isn’t a contract involved it can get messy. In my opinion, there’s always thing going on that you don’t know about it someone else’s life, assuming that your project with someone is being dropped because of you or because the other person is lazy is 100% incorrect. I’ve had successful partnerships fade away after a few weeks because the project felt bigger than it did when it was started. Maybe my partner lost interest or had something come up with their family. It’s always better to think of these types of disappointments with a pinch of “at least it didn’t happen after page 11”. At least the project wasn’t “almost done”. At least nobody was seriously hurt. You’ll get over it and find another collaborator. Or you won’t and you’ll quit. But probably best to just get over it and keep making comics, right?
Time - This Project Could Take Years…
Collaborating on comics is going to take time…unless you’re doing a single three panel daily comic for a newspaper…in which case why are you reading this and so worried about such a short collaboration? Time is a commodity. We’re all losing it all the time. But some projects are worth the time investment more than others. When you’re on your own staring into the abyss of a seven volume graphic novel, each longer than the last one, all meticulously plotted out on a one thousand word outline…sure, you can move forward with that project. You will finish it. Don’t give up. You can do it! Go go go go go. But also, know that you will be spending the next 20+ years of your life drawing and writing that graphic novel. But if you have that same project, you’re not an artist or writer and you need to collaborate one, then you might hit a wall. Why? Your idea is the next Lord of the Rings. Your idea is the next Harry Potter series. It’s better than Spiderman. Why don’t artists/writers want to collaborate?
First of all getting this out of the way, if you’re a multi-millionaire willing to pay someone to work on an epic graphic novel with you, then by all means, I think you’ll find that there will be some interest. If you’re not… here’s why your project is dead in the water:
Truly, I mean this from the bottom of my heart, get over yourself. You may actually have written the next Lord of the Rings, but you’re targeting the wrong medium to achieve that. If you’re an artist with an outline or a writer with an outline and you need the other person (not even to mention the ink, color, lettering…etc) you’re asking someone else to commit that same 20+ years to your project. That’s a huge ask. Everyone has their OWN project. You may be able to convince someone to make your project their project, but if you do, expect that they will probably want creative control and I’m guessing if you think you’ve written the next Lord of the Rings, you’re not going to be ok with that.
Time is an important part of collaboration. Working with someone else needs a deadline, or at least a point at which “renegotiating” a collaboration can be discussed. Paid or unpaid, this is an issue when working with other artists. The “leader” gets the creative say and that can end in some resentment. It’s a natural feeling. We’re all opinionated. Break up your epic into parts, or else do what is unthinkably easier: START SMALL. You’ll build up connections, friendships, ideas, and collaborating will become exciting. Starting small could mean a short comic, a single issue, or sure, a graphic novel depending on who’s involved, but mostly it means making sure your partner knows that they are not investing an absurd amount of their time on this Earth with you (in case you’re awful…not saying you are…just in case!)
Experience - Are You Experienced?
Jimmy Hendrix wasn’t messing around. This is a super important question when entering a collaboration. If you’ve never made a comic before, even reading this post is adding to your experience creating comics. Just reading this sentence in which I mention that every shred of information out there that you can digest will make you a more desirable creative collaborator, will make you a more appealing creative collaborator. Keep finding opinions everywhere. The more you understand about how others are making it work, the better prepared you will be when you finally enter into the fray.
If you’re experienced and the other collaborator is experienced, it’s kind of like when musicians start to jam together in a garage. You’re not sure what the music will sound like yet, there is some tug and pull, and then BAM out of nowhere there’s a distinct sound. There’s a distinctive signature to any creative collaboration. Some will work, some won’t. That’s life. Even experienced creators bash their heads against each other sometimes. It’s cliché to mention this is like dating, so I’ll just say it’s like finding a lid for your fountain drink when there are six different size lids in front of you. Some of them won’t fit. Throw them out. Don’t try and force it, or you’ll end up with a mess!
Luck - The Stars Must Align!
Truly this is a factor. Maybe the perfect collaborator is not available right now. Maybe you’re broke at the moment and you need some money. Maybe you’re busy on a project and can’t draw the one that was just pitched to you.
Collaborations rely on luck.
Everyone involved is critical to the success of a collaboration. Whether one person is paying the other or not. That’s how it works. When you add more people to a creative project, you add more factors that may make it fail. You also add more factors that could make it succeed. History is filled with famous collaborators who completed each other so well they were able to make one functioning human being that produced creative projects. Good luck with that.
Final thoughts:
Remember when entering a collaboration, paid or not paid, experienced or not experienced, you’re entering into a relationship with another human. You’re going to need to communicate, share, learn, give, take, and sometimes magically shower in gifts this person to make it last. If you’re not willing to treat a creative collaborator like a partner, you’re better off doing the whole project yourself. There’s a million reasons that is a good idea too, even when you don’t think you can do certain things. If you are ready to have a productive collaboration, then I wish you all the luck in finding the right artist for you!
By the way…
If you’re a writer searching for a comic book artist and you want to start small, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Fiverr. This is how I started, and while I did not always use Fiverr artists, I did learn how to collaborate with them on the platform and I also DID meet one of my favorite comic book artists on there as well. I’d suggest reaching out to a couple of them and getting a test page done to see if you like their interpretation of your work.
Here are a few of my favorite artists on Fiverr right now: