BESIDES all the usual dreams young people move to New York to chase – singing, acting, sleeping with the governor – you can now add authoring graphic novels to the list.
Because of the higher media profile the medium has been given (mostly due to the explosion of comics-related movies in recent years), writing and drawing graphic novels is becoming more mainstream.
“Comics aren’t the embarrassing, basement-dwelling entertainment that a lot of people used to assume,” says Brian Wood, the Brooklyn-based writer-artist behind indie books “DMZ” and “Local.” “All these regular book companies are putting out graphic novels. It’s possible to have a successful career at a variety of publishers and not do superheroes.”
How to get started? Tomorrow the New York Center for Independent Publishing is sponsoring a daylong workshop, “SPLAT: A Graphic Novel Symposium.” Wood and other industry pros, including “Understanding Comics” author Scott McCloud, cartoonist Ted Rail and Marvel Comics editor C.B. Cebulski, will teach workshops. Tickets: $125 (nycip.org/graphicnovelsymposium).
In case you can’t make it or don’t want to sell your beloved copy of “The Incredible Hulk” No. 271, the first appearance of Rocket Raccoon, to help pay your way, Wood lays out his tips for breaking in.
* Publish something, anything: “Just get something into print. Then you’re proven. The next editor you approach sees that someone has already banked on you,” Wood says. If no one will hire you, print up your own copies of a book to give away as samples. “Not only does your work look the best in a printed form, it shows you can follow through on a project.”
* Have patience: “I went to conventions and gave away these self-published books to anyone I could find. It took three years until anyone called me back. You can’t get discouraged,” Wood says.
* Sell it before you draw it: “If you’re just trying to get an editor interested in you, you don’t have to fully execute your 100-page graphic novel. You can just do the first chapter.”
* Find the right editor: Look at the mastheads of books that you like reading and send your work to whomever edits those. Then mail a hard copy of your work. “Don’t e-mail. An editor can just hit delete on an e-mail.”
* Take to the Web: “That’s what everyone says is the next big business model,” Wood says. Many aspiring artists have been offered work by putting samples of their stuff up online.