Thread by @alexdecampi

Kieron Gillen and I used to self publish a trashy ‘zine called Commercial Suicide and then he & Jamie pitched Phonogram to Image (after both had done some anthology work for Eric S IIRC) and Kordey & I pitched Smoke to IDW

https://twitter.com/JuddWinick/status/1034453358973612032

But it was basically as Judd says — we all wrote books on spec and found friends to draw them and hustled and did anthology work and helped each other out with intros and tried and tried and tried

& then this year I got to publish friends in Twisted Romance and that was awesome

Also, hey, remember “pitching to Epic”?

Congrats to anyone I just induced a full-body shudder from 🙌🏼

Here is what I know about “making it” in comics:

1. Nobody will do the work for you. You have to do it yourself. All of it. And again.

2. The most important people to befriend aren’t actually folks like me, it’s the people at the same stage as you, the tribe you come up with.

3. Talent is suprisingly common. What keeps you in the game is kindness, and an ability to keep standing up after you’ve been knocked down. Lots of writers & artists start strong and then implode because they’re bad people, and this biz doesn’t pay enuf to work with assholes.

4. Comics is big, and you are small. It’s easy to get lost in it. Always be trying to figure out where you feel most at home in comics: superheroes? webcomics? middle grade? bookstore graphic novels? art comics? And aim for that.

4 1/2. It’s okay for this to change over time

5. You may struggle with feeling overwhelmed, being broke, and crippling FOMO & insecurity throughout your career. When it gets really bad, just try to do ONE thing per day for your project: send one email. Do one page of thumbs. Do a tiny, achievable task and then stop.

6. Your experience of a WFH gig is 90% based on how competent the editor is. A good editor makes any project fun; a bad one makes any project unbearable.

7. It sounds cliche’d but: your only competition is yourself. Don’t try to be other people or do what the “market” wants. Be your best self and tell the stories you feel most passionate about, the ones that scare you deep down to commit to paper.

8. It’s a hard life, but via comics I have met & continue to meet some of the greatest folks a gal could ever wish to know, & also last month I wrote Judge Dredd sticking up Santa Claus so most of the time it’s 100% worth it.

~ the end ~

feel free to add ur own advice below

Oh also buy my books & c, and free comics under the hashtag #hkmc

link to buy via @comiXology: m.comixology.com/Alex-de-Campi/…