Over at his Rainbow Orchid site, author Garen Ewing has some very, very sensible comic making advice for everyone. Seriously, if you are out there and making comics, this would be a very, very valuable 10 minutes of your time. Maybe print it out and stick it above your desk.
May I respectfully point out these that particularly resonated….
The UK comics scene is small. When someone has a success with their comic, it is a success for all comics.
You can learn from anyone, no matter what their level of expertise, no matter what their age is. Stay humble and be generous.
People are fond of saying how comics are great for slow readers to hook them into reading. Then they complain when comics are seen as dumbed-down kids’ stuff, useful only as a stepping stone to ‘proper books’.
Wherever there are awards, there are arguments.
Everyone thinks there’s a clique and that they’re not in it.
Isn’t it time we moved beyond the idea of girls’ or boys’ comics?
There seems to be this idea that there’s a tiny room called ‘Comics’ and only a few privileged souls can fit in it. Actually ‘Comics’ is a universe, and it’s bigger than all the comic creators in existence, many many times over.
And finally, on a personal note, I’d like to highlight this one….
Don’t respond to bad reviews of your work. Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t don’t.
Well, I’ll add a personal addendum to that one. Garen’s advice is the ideal. But if you do get a bad review please try and remember that it’s not a personal attack, merely an opinion. Personally attacking the reviewer in forums, twitter, wherever is just rude and stupid. If you want to respond talk about the work, the review, the criticism. That’s fine. It wont really change anything, but hey, your opinion, our opinion.
And if you’re responding to something here on the FPI blog do remember that we always try to keep to a simple credo – we’d rather spend time telling the world about good comics, and we’ll always try to find the good in things. If we do point out faults, perhaps it would be best for you to stop and take a look at your work. Maybe, just maybe, we’re pointing something out that you simply can’t see?
Oh, and thankfully this has only happened once, but it did amuse us for the sheer wrongheadedness of it … if you do send us comics for review and don’t like the review you get, please don’t email and demand that we take the review down.
January 5th, 2013 at 10:49 pm
That is a good post.
Thanks for linking to it.