Traveling man Panel - 'Breaking into Comics'

Although it was a brewing idea we had for a while, we did not go in to a course named 'Digital Film, Games and Animation' wanting to create comics, however this is what we decided to do by the end of last year. We had this idea to create our own fiction world, and tell it through the comic medium, but to do this, we needed to learn more about how comics are created, and how to break into the industry. So when we heard Travelling man's panel called 'breaking into comics' with Richard Starkings, Peter Dohety, Tula Lotay and Tim Perkins, which was held in Leeds on Saturday the 13th of September at 4pm, we knew we had to go. 

The artist starded with how they as individual broke into the industry, starting with Peter Dohety, (far left) who is well known for working on the 2000AD series. He broke into the industry when showing a potential employer his portfolio, something we have been doing often already. John Wagner, creator of Judge Dredd, coincidently passed his work and liked it. He was then hired to illustrated Wagner's new series, 'Young Death.'

Tula Lotay famous for the Supreme blue rose, started up by using Instagram, where she started getting positive feedback from her work, Someone high up saw her work, and then asked her if they could send it on to Vertigo comics. 

Tim Perkins (far right, who has worked for Marvel, DC and 2000AD) broke the industry by applying for a slot to show his work in 'The Mighty World of Marvel', which was non-paid, but a great opportunity. Artist Barry Kitson (coincidentally, the first professional I ever showed my work too) then contacted Perkins and said that he had a tight deadline and offered for him to take some work. So he stayed at Kitson's house for the weekend and helped finish his comic. His name then became known by artist and editors.

Richard Starkings famously got into the industry with lettering.

Tips given.

Throughout this panel,  these four artist talked and gave the audience tips on how to get into the industry and life was like working in the industry.

- Tim Perkins: 'You are instrumental for you breaking into comics. There are loads of artists working in the industry who live in the North of England, including Duncan Fredrigo, Peter Dohety, Richard Starkings, John Smith, Brain Talbot, Lee Gallagher and more so don't be worried about where you live.'

- Both Peter Doherty and Tula Lotay all agreed that going to conventions, and getting to knowpeople in the industry and getting your face known is half the work. When people know you're friendly, trustworthy and reliable, you are more likely to get work.

- Richard Starkings: 'Be new and original. Don't compare yourself to hundreds of other people drawing Spiderman or Batman, because they could be better. But if you have created something new it is seen with enthusiastic and fresh eyes.'

- Tula Lotay talked about the importance of working with or in close proximity to other artists, because you can bounce ideas off each other and feed off each others enthusiasm. 

- You can be two of these to get a job in the industry: Fast. Good. Easy to work with. Often artist who work fast produce worse work, but the fact it gets out quickly balances the pro's and cons.

Lastly we had the opportunity to ask the panel questions. One audience member asked about the pros and cons of self publishing. Something we were very intreseted in learning about.: It is alot of time, effort, and very costly. Tim Perkins tried self publishing for his new series 'Worlds end' and said 'its a five figure sort of price'. But in the modern age web series and digital publishing can get your work seen by a wide audience, but not in a traditional book.

Stuart asked the panel "If you wanted to pitch a new original series your working on to a publisher, which publisher is best and why?" Tula Lotay said: 'I think Image comics would be the best for you, as they have been for me.' most agreed and this seemed to be the all round strong opinion. Richard Starkings said: 'Image isn't like a publisher, its like a bank. They give you the money to produce your story, and when it sells the get it back with extra.' Perfect for what we want. He continued 'They also don't own your property, you still own all the rights to your work and creations. Unlike selling to Marvel or DC, But this does mean everything is down to you. Art, Lettering, Logo, Script, everything.' This is exactly what we wanted from a publisher. He also mentioned that Boom Studios is a good strong option, but they hold a none creator own policy, more a creator share one, meaning you share the rights to your work. He also said Dark Horse is a very good option. This is something we will have to look into more closely.

This panel was very helpful and informative for our future, as well as being a great insight to something I thoroughly enjoy. I learnt that Image comics is the ideal publisher for us. Their publishing style allows freedom and were highly recommended from their own employee's. Once I heard that Eric Stevenson (Editor at Image comics) would be doing a portfolio review at Thought Bubble I was given a business card of Martha Julian, Project Co-ordinator, with how to contact her to secure ourselves a place to see him.