Being A Day Of Singular Focus
So What The Hell? Con was held in NoCar (as the kids call it) over the weekend, with a healthy representation of webcomics creators in attendance. From Temporary Fleen Field Reporter/Mafia Princess Brooke Spangler, we have the following report from the panel that contained webcomickry:
The panel featured guests from webcomics in addition to authors, graphic artists, and occult researchers. The questions tended to focus on how people in creative professions could make a living from their work. Short answer: you can’t. Long answer: you can, but it requires an unbelievable amount of time, effort, self-sacrifice, and networking with the right folks. Most of the guests, especially the professionals, were extremely pragmatic and tended to frame their experiences in terms of what their jobs cost them as opposed to what they gained.
After the panel, I asked several of the guests why they didn’t talk up the good parts of life as an independent creator. They noted the questions from the moderator and the audience tended to be personal and that if someone wants to know “How can I succeed in [creative industry]?” a very straightforward answer is “Develop a burning passion for ramen noodles and vitamin pills.” Jamie Robertson pointed out that twenty years ago, professional cartoonists and comic artists actively discouraged newcomers from getting into the industry for their own good because there were only so many slices of the pie and those were all spoken for. These days there are more opportunities for creators, but this still doesn’t mean it’s easy to succeed. Not the most upbeat message to take away from a webcomics panel, that’s for sure, but certainly a valuable one.
Thanks for the panel report, TFFR/MP Brooke Spangler! For other perspectives on WTH?C, check out the con report from woman of mystery Otter, which focuses on drunkeness with Ursula Vernon and porn star names. Yikes. No permalink, so read it quick. As long as we’re at Otter’s main page, I would be remiss were I not to note that a veil has been dropped, we are let into a larger world, and there are EYES there. Also noses and lips. Freaky.
Yep. Vendettas. Good times.
Hey Gary,
I felt that in the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I, your humble photobased webcomic artist, am Droop Hamlet, failed comedy porn auteur.
I fell under the influence of drunken marsupials, I fear.
LOLwut?!?
By mckenzee on 02.11.08 6:32 pm
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