Editors

05-13-2016

I like to watch documentaries about other artists, especially comic book artists, and one of my favorite of late is the one about the origin of Image comics. In case you didn't know: before the early eighties, there were only two major comic book companies artists could work for, Marvel and DC. And both of them had kind of a strangle hold on all their artists. Whenever a writer or penciller came up with a new character, it would automatically become the companies property. And although there was a massive marketing apart from the comics, like action figures, T-shirts etc., the artists wouldn't get a dime, even if it concerned marketing based on figures the had invented. Now, to cut a long story short: at the beginning of the eighties, seven of Marvels top artists had had enough, and left to start their own company: Image.

I won't go into details here. My point is: the thing that pushed the leading man of the revolution over the edge, was that he had to deal with overbearing editors all the time, who told him: don't do this, or, that character wouldn't do that (even though he had came up with the character in question himself). And I think that's quite understandable.
But here's the thing: I don't have an editor. I have to be my own editor. And lately, I had something of an artists block: I couldn't get anything decent on paper for a while. (For my fans: nothing to be worried about, this happens from time to time, and in the end I always snap out of it)
In the end, I made this drawing, and musing about it I thought, gee, I used to do this more often, years ago. First think of the predicament, then of the person in it.
And then it struck me that lately, I have started with the person in mind much more often, thinking about what to do with her after that. Now, all I'm saying is: as much as I love Image comics and their artists, and as much as I understand their reasons for leaving Marvel, I could have used an editor who told me: hey, here's some of your old stuff, maybe it's time to change directions a little bit. I don't think of the editor as a burden persé. I think it's like everywhere else: there are good ones and bad ones, and everything in between.

COCO

Apart from this drawing in New, there is a new story in the Short Story files: enjoy,
CBAP