How to Make It in Comics . . . from Someone Who's Been There

Here is my definitive answer to how to Make It in Comics, in three easy steps:

1. Get a pen, pencil, or computer.

2. Start a story. Use art to tell the story.

2a. If you do not have a story or cannot tell one, find someone to help.

2b. If you cannot draw, find someone to help.

2c. If you cannot find somone to help with either a or b, then go ahead and just do it yourself.

3. Convince someone to read it.

"Wait," I can hear someone saying over the electronic pulses of the internet, "that's how you Make Comics, not how you Make It in Comics."

Ah, gentle reader, I understand the confusion. But see, you will never Make It in Comics if you do not Make Comics. There is a big difference.

Many people want to Make It in Comics. Fewer, though, are those who want to Make Comics.

Have I "made it"?

Yes.

Wanna see when?

http://www.geocities.com/communitycomics/pagecover.html

That was the project where I stopped talking about Making It in Comics, and actually made a comic. It was a huge day. A turning point in my life. A complete paradigm shift occurred.

I got off my butt, took stock of what was important to me, and decided telling stories was one of those God-given urges I had been granted. So I made time and did it.

Almost as simple as that.

Almost.

But I had finally Made It in Comics. And no one can tell me differently. However deluded I might be.

~ Ben