Evolution Breakdown

How I yell at the wall when no one is looking

It’s a confusing time for a cartoonist. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Do we just remain happy having the opportunity to make comics, to make stories that form in our heads and become real, visual experiences? The thought of one person being able to make a production like this will forever be exciting. But, who will read it? Who will purchase it? Is it good enough? Is there an audience for it? If so, how big and how do you find them?

The original mission evolves into a two-headed beast - love of the game or practical sustainability. It’s a difficult choice. I think we all want people to see our work. We spend days, weeks, months making these books. Once the work is done, it’s all easy from here, right? Nope. The decision tree only gets more complicated.

Do we sacrifice art production for marketing production? Do we cut say 3-4 hours out of our limited, weekly art time to film and edit a video? Perhaps more? An even better question, is doing this a chore? Suddenly, the cartoonist turns into a part-time drawer, part-time digital content creator. A few years ago, it was enough for an artist to make a drawing, snap a picture of it, and post it to social media. Now, the same action will only be seen by your mom and the squirrel who watches you draw from your studio window. The marketing role continues to expand, and that worries me. The act of yelling at people to “look at me!” is hard enough. Now you must actively create produced content to even begin yelling.

My own personal goal is to find the balance. What brand of work fulfills my passion for creating stories and characters, but could also find a sustainable audience? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to do exactly what I want to do, all the time. For the most part, that’s what my books and comics have been thus far, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Luckily, some amazing people have found and appreciated my work. It has been great for my artistic growth.

Now the question becomes, how can I expand the growth? How can I connect with more readers while still giving them a story in my voice? It’s an exciting challenge. Maybe this is how cartoonists survive in the current landscape.

The creators you look up to have the success stories that you want to achieve. It’s hard not to say, “hey, this creator, who greatly inspires me, did this thing, and that’s how they became a mainstay in the industry… why can’t I do the same?”

The hard truth is that the comic industry (and the art industry in general) rapidly changes over time. It might even change on a weekly basis. The tricky part is understanding how to adapt with it and move on from methods that may have worked in the past.

There are so many things to think about. It’s not just drawing, or painting, or making comics anymore. It’s a damn confusing time for a cartoonist.

Ewok Bait

The Night After Endor, my very own Star Wars comic, is progressing nicely. It will be a 20-page story, and I have about four pages left to complete. There are major spoilers in the book, so I don’t want to preview too much before the book is released. The unofficial feedback that I have received about the comic so far is “this is the best Star Wars comic of the year”. Star Wars fans, be prepared. I think you’ll love it.

I have a new thing that I’m constructing as well. The working name for this project is The Big Pivot. It’s very different from my already released work, but it also makes sense in a lot of ways. It’s too early to talk details right now, but it will be a long form thing and very exciting.

Paint-tober?

The 1st of October has arrived, which means that it’s also Inktober season. It’s a cool event in the art community, but it’s also a very dedicated one. I’ve been inspired to paint a bunch more lately, so I guess it’s more of a Paint-tober for me? I dig it. Here’s a few from this week.

The Change-Up

As you regular readers may have noticed, I took a couple weeks off. Over a year ago, I made it my mission to send out a newsletter every week for one year. I went over the year mark! That’s pretty awesome. Thank you all for tuning in.

I wanted to sustain the pace, but in all honesty, it can be difficult finding the time to put out meaningful posts. I’ve also noticed that the readership has been steadily slumping over the last couple of months, so something is happening, and I need to recalibrate this operation before the point becomes moot. It could be due to an overabundance of posts. Content in general is hard to keep up with these days, so as I said in the first part of this newsletter, adapting to industry change is important.

So, I’m going to take this newsletter off the weekly schedule for now. I think that I will just go monthly, but that can change if I see reason. This will also free up a weekly block of time for me so I can focus more on my project queue.

Sorry to the weekly readers! I wish that I could keep rocking along. I need to find a new approach so that this Substack is inviting enough to keep everyone engaged. I’m just not quite sure what that looks like at the moment. Any ideas/suggestions are completely welcomed!

Thank you all for reading, and as always, thanks for your time.

Nico