You know you've made it as a comic book creator when...

edited February 2015 in On The Road
You get invited to San Diego. Congrats, Jimmie. :)


To springboard this into discussion, what other things might qualify?

1. Someone cosplays as one of your characters
2. Someone makes a stuffed animal or action figure out of one of your characters
3. Someone writes fanfic with your characters in them
4. You get invited to a large show as an expenses-paid guest
5. You get invited to pitch at Marvel or DC
6. An artist / writer you admire contacts you asking to work with you
7. Your co-creator gets poached by another company
8. You do a standing-room only panel at a convention
9. Your Artist's Alley table has a line of three or more people
10. Something negative about you makes it on to Bleeding Cool

Anything I missed? :)

Comments

  • edited February 2015
    Someone who HAS made it in comics says something nice about your work?

    Edit. No. 7 is the one that's happened to me frequently enough that I'm beginning to feel like the "Good Luck Chuck" of comics.
  • edited February 2015
    Been published by a top 5 (or even top 10?) publisher more than once?
    Interviewed by one of the major comics news sites?

    Ha! I've got 2, 3, 6, occasionally 9, plus Eric's addendum. But none of what I consider "major" qualifiers.
    I guess that means people like my work, at least. But I'm completely under the radar of the comics world. Even the webcomics world. 

  • Hah!  You guys are hilarious!

    I've hit 5 out of 10 on that list.

    For me, I still do not feel like I've made it. I guess because the orders for my books aren't really comparable to anyone *I* would personally consider who have "made it" (like Justin Jordan or something).

    I've lived so long in my lil' bubble of a universe where I am *just getting by* royalty check-to-royalty check, and hoping I have enough money in my bank account to stay above the monthly fees.  Haha!  I've been close to picking up a day job again.  Things have been rough, so it's hard to feel like I've made it anywhere.  My last comic series was cancelled due to low orders and I had to pay the colorist out of my pocket because the book didn't even make enough to pay him. My wife has helped a lot.  If I didn't have her financial help I would be doing some kinda work outside of comics -- just to get by.  But that's because she lives a certain lifestyle and I've hitched my wagon to hers.

    If I was still single I'd be living in some shack of a house with an empty refrigerator  (BUT I WOULD HAVE LOSS WEIGHT!)  I dropped a lot of weight when I was single.

    Anyway... making it, or not making it is a matter of perception.  Both public and personal.
    I'm just happy to make comics.

  • You've made it when you can make a living from it.

    That either means you get regular work or you have a massive creator-owned hit (or a string of not-as-massive  hits.)




  • My personal favourite is strange people running up to your table and asking you when your next book is coming out.
  • edited February 2015
    My personal favourite is strange people running up to your table and asking you when your next book is coming out.
    At least once per convention, and I've only done maybe a dozen, I get a person who walks directly up to my table, picks up a book, and says "I'll take this." No flipping through. No reading the back cover. No listening to my spiel or sales pitch. Just, "I'd like one of these."

    It is a strange phenomenon. I assume it's just someone that my mom paid to make me feel better.
  • edited February 2015
    6. An artist / writer you admire contacts you asking to work with you
    Does that count if you already know them ... like, on a message board or Facebook?
    10. Something negative about you makes it on to Bleeding Cool
    Only in reply to the comments I post there. [-X
  • You get tendinitis from doing your job, and have to dictate your response to this thread using your phone's speech to text function.

    Oh, and also: When you start having fans think it's funny/endearing to threaten you with physical violence because you aren't making comics as quickly as they want you too.

    These are the most recent milestones I've passed.
  • Can I add groupie sex to the list?

    I mean... I haven't had it and it would be y'know... like kinda neat if that was a prerequisite. Haha!
  • edited February 2015
    Can I add groupie sex to the list?
    I mean... I haven't had it and it would be y'know... like kinda neat if that was a prerequisite. Haha!
    I support this proposal.
  • Can I add groupie sex to the list?

    I mean... I haven't had it and it would be y'know... like kinda neat if that was a prerequisite. Haha!
    I have watched this happen. Once with a well-known Marvel inker and once with a very well known artist.
  • I've turned down groupie sex.

    So yeah, that's definitely a thing.
  • edited February 2015
    I think I'd probably turn down groupie sex, but I can think of a few folks I'd at least make out with on the strength of their comics alone. Double standard?

    For the list: Another creator compliments you to your publisher or editor behind your back.

    (As an aside: I would freak out to the point of paralysis (in a good way) if someone cosplayed any character I wrote or made a toy of them.)
  • Of all the things on this list, seeing cosplay of my characters is easily the thing that makes me most happy.
  • You no longer qualify for any of the "new talent searches".
  • Yeah, cosplay of my characters warms my heart.
    So far... Enrique (from Five Weapons) and Bomb Queen.
  • 2-4 and 6-9 are things that have happened to me. If Dark Horse were included in #5, then I would've had that one, too.
  • I think we could amend #5 to "You get invited to pitch at a Diamond-Premiere publisher".
  • I've had 6 and 9 multiple times (more multiples for 9), and for the artists, maybe adding an addendum for number 5: being asked to do sketches/art samples for a specific title by a top 2 or 4 company.

    I've been asked to do character sketches for Marvel as a tie breaker between me and another artist for a specific title. And way back in the early 90's I was paid by DarkHorse to do tryout pages for one of their superhero universe titles. Still one of the best page rates I've ever received in comics. Didn't get either gig, though, so... there's that. I've been approached out of the blue to try out for other gigs as well.
     
    I've also had "fan" letters from big name creators. That's always kind of cool.

    Oh, and also: When you start having fans think it's funny/endearing to threaten you with physical violence because you aren't making comics as quickly as they want you too.

    These are the most recent milestones I've passed.
    I had someone send me a photo of a duct taped teddy bear with a threat that the bear gets it if I don't come up with the next issue. I'm guessing the bear got it.

    I dunno, I guess I'm old and jaded, but the only metric I really count is if you have the career momentum to MAINTAIN a career in comics and make a living. I've made a living from it, but was never able to sustain it longer than a year or two at a time. I'm sure I'll "make it" again someday, but at the moment I think of comics as a professional hobby, a creative outlet on the side of the soul sucking paying gigs. 

    That's any creative business though, unless you hit it out of the park and become a star. You're always looking for the next gig, and there are no guarantees. You could be doing a run on a top selling book, tv show, movie, what have you, and then never work again. It's a life of constantly re-"making it" over and over again.

    Do I sound tired and bitter? Blame it on the flu and doing the last storyboard on one show, and the first on the next show with an overlapping schedule. I'm reaching burn out and there's six months left to go on this gig! Happy to work, happy to work! :)
  • edited February 2015
    @Craig_A_Taillefer  Yup, that's some cold hard truth right there...

    It has irked me that I continually *make the team* but never hit it out of the park.
    I'm like a designated hitter, or a sacrifice bunt on a baseball team.
    I'm not a home run player, but I'm on the bench.
    Thus, the feeling that I still haven't really *made it* haunts me.

    And in a way, that's just as discouraging.
    You're invited to the party but never allowed on the dance floor.
    But it's a constantly morphing dance floor, so I guess that's okay.


  • edited February 2015
    Well, I've worked with some writers I've liked to work with, and had a few people standing at my booth from time to time. But I'm not sure its really what's meant in the list. So other than that, I've not nothing. Nevertheless, I have maybe 1500 pages of art published here or there, and have occasionally gotten paid so...

    I think that fact that not a lot of comics readers know my name means that I haven't made it. But at the same time, there are people in this little corner of the comics universe who will be happy to work with me, if only because I get the work done.
  • Yeah, I'd say the things on the list are good for little flashes of "Woo! Big leagues!", but the things that make me go "I've made it, I'm a comics creator" are:

    1. I can point to a stack of comics I've written/comics I'm writing.
    2. I basically just do the projects I want to do with the people I want to do them with.
    3. Money (which is the weakest leg of the tripod at the moment).

    Everything else is just (delightful) gravy.
  • "Groupie sex?" I don't know about *that*...

    ...But my girlfriend turned out to have read some of my comics before we met. And I met my last girlfriend because she was a "Witch Doctor" fan who came to a signing...
  • You no longer qualify for any of the "new talent searches".
    That happens LOOOOONNNGGG before you've made it though...  Some of those searches have a very low bar on what a professional is, disqualifying you, while you're still pretty damned desperate and unknown.  On the ego-boosting plus-side, I guess that means there are people more desperate and unknown than you...

    I was thrilled recently when another self-publisher/indie artist sent me fan-art of a character from my graphic novel - - that was pretty cool.

    "Groupie sex" - - damn - - I don't get to enough conventions  :-S  
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