gailsimone:

Fanfic is a different thing, and if that’s what makes you happy, that’s great!

Certainly, the idea isn’t to make people do what they don’t want to do.

But I’ve been doing this for ten years, and have had literally thousands of people ask me how to break in, how to get started, how to make comics.

And I say, hey, look!

Here’s a publishing outfit called Tumblr, that charges nothing, that has a massive audience, where artists and writers already hang out and exchange art and ideas.

THAT’s where you break in, THAT’s how you get started, and THAT’s where people could be making comics.

Somewhat apropos, follow Scott Johnson (the Marvel artist) on twitter. Amidst the usual twitter stuff, he posts some gems on what it takes to be a professional artist. I’m saving them for one of my library customers who wants to be an artist, because they’re the rock-solid sense you need to hear if you’re going to work as an artist, not just do art because you like to draw (which is fine; I mostly write because I like to)