Comics/ Phil's Bubble

A Kick in the Pants

By Philip Schweier
Jan 7, 2009 - 17:15

"What she needs is a good kick in the pants." – Grandpa Joe, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971

And so do I, as evidenced by my recent completion of transcribing a tape of a panel from a convention held LAST YEAR! Why did it take me so long? Not because it was so hard, but because just getting started was something I never seemed to be able to do.

And we’re all victims of it, promising ourselves to write that novel or go skydiving or paint the living room. There’s always an excuse, that getting started means going to the store to pick up some item that may or may not be needed to get things under way. POPPY-COCK!

So let’s say you’re like me, working on some project or another. In my case it’s a number of partially finished writing projects, mostly comics related. Once I sit down at the keyboard, it’s not hard turning thoughts into words. Once the process starts and the momentum builds, things roll along fairly easily.

Doing it is never the hard part; the hard part is getting started. There’s always an excuse, that it’s your bowling night or your show is on. The biggest stall is deciding to turn off the TV and get off your fat butt and do it. No more excuses, no more lying to yourself about why you don’t have the time.

But you have to WANT to do it, and reap the rewards of your labor. Fear comes into play, mostly fear of failure. We all want to get it right the first time, but guess what, chumley – YA AINT GONNA! So the best way to get over that fear of failure is to embrace it. Acknowledge that your first effort is going to fail miserably.

But it’s a start.

Take that horrible thing you’ve produced and put it in front of someone who can offer a legitimate critique. Not your parents, not your friends. They’ve got an emotional investment in you and are less likely to offer an honest opinion for fear of hurting your feelings.

If you have access to an informed opinion, take advantage of it. If you’re in high school and you want to write comics for a living, ask an English teacher for an honest critique of a short story you’ve written. Don’t be intimidated by the teacher; they’ll probably appreciate knowing a student is striking out a tiny bit on their own.

You may not always have access to somebody who knows more than you about what you’re trying to accomplish, but that’s okay. There’s a lot to be said for the opinion of the man-on-the-street. It may be you’ve taken some things for granted, and this will be pointed out by someone who doesn’t know as much as you do about the subject at hand.

As I said, you’re not going to do everything perfect. If you do, you’d best hustle that manuscript over to Geneva for the Nobel Prize for literature. So be prepared for criticism, hopefully the kind intended to make your work better. It helps define your strengths, boosting your confidence in things you’re doing right, while at the same time isolating your weaknesses. Once you’ve figured that out, you’ve nowhere to go but up.

In those areas you find yourself lacking, look to those professionals whom you admire. Study what they do and how they do it. If you would be an artist but continually struggle with anatomy, then seek out artists whose work you appreciate. I’m not suggesting go knock on their door, but if you should meet them at a convention, ask them how they overcame their own hurdles, and what recommendations they can make to you.

At the very least, read everything you can about them and their work. The internet abounds with articles in which comic pros offer insights as to their methodology and education.

Ultimately, it boils down to you and your work. As an editor once told me, you may be a terrific writer, but no one will ever know it if all you do is sit in a room banging out stories that are never read by anyone else. At some point you have stop polishing that turd and get it out there and be prepared for some harsh criticism.

Early work byAdam Kubert, c. 1990

Everyone has to begin somewhere, and there are any number of comics pros who can cite early work that they are less than proud of. Perhaps the best that can be said about it is it wedged that door open a crack, enabling them to get their foot in the door. Maybe it wasn’t up to professional standards, but somebody saw potential in their abilities to help them raise the level of their work.

Even guys whose parents were in a position to give them a leg up had to pay their dues. I speak of the Kubert brothers of John Romita Jr., for instance. Certainly dear old dad helped open some doors, but if anything, the bar may have slightly higher for them.

Nobody ever started at the top. Not Neal Adams, not Alan Moore, not John Wayne. It’s never any fun being at the bottom of the ladder. But that provides the incentive to start climbing.

It may not be much, but it’s a start.

Praise and adulation? Scorn and ridicule? E-mail me at philip@comicbookbin.com

Last Updated: Jan 7, 2012 - 7:41
Join the discussion:

Comment Script Join the discussion:

A Kick in the Pants

Comments