Comic World News | 12 Step Program

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A Cautionary Tale

A man's got to know his limitations

Some of you may have read on the different internet comic sites that the artist known as Milx had disappeared. He was working concurrently on Silver Surfer for Marvel and Wake the Dead for IDW. The Silver Surfer book had a lot of hype around it and Wake the Dead was written by Steve Niles and has already been optioned as a movie; so Milx was thrust into the spotlight, a place that every up and coming artist would kill to be in. The first issue of Silver Surfer came out and critic were raving about the art.

Then things turned strange. A report came out that Milx had gone missing. Neither Marvel nor IDW were having any luck contacting the Malaysia based artist and months had passed. Both companies had to move on and make an artist change. Marvel had to push the second issue of Silver Surfer off two months and IDW had to bring in an artist named Chee to finish up the first issue of Wake the Dead.

Just yesterday Milx resurfaced with an email directed towards the editors and writers of his respective projects. The email was reprinted in whole on the net. In the email Milx apologizes for disappearing and explains that he was overwhelmed by the work and basically ran from his responsibilities. He wrote the email in an effort to make amends and to face the ramifications of his actions.

Milx is a very talented artist who got his brake by posting his work on Steve Niles message board. (And let�s put an end to the �Marvel discovered him rumor� since he was working with Steve first.) The problem is that Milx story is not unique� it just happens to be one of the most publicized. I have worked with many artists over the years and have seen this happen on more occasions than I care to remember.

The really sad thing about this story is that the odds of Milx getting another shot are slim. Tom Brevoort, the editor of Silver Surfer, has no reason to give Milx a second chance. Tom probably has a stack of art samples on his desk right now with the next hot artist a few inches down the pile. It takes very little to get �black listed� by a publisher and it�s almost impossible to get off the list. I�ve seen some very talented artists who get the reputation of being a flake and have an incredibly difficult time finding work.

Anyone trying to break into the industry should look at what happened here and learn an important lesson. Doing a comic on a regular basis is not easy. If you�ve never tried working on a deadline then suddenly you have two, the odds of being overwhelmed are enormous. Besides practicing your craft, you need to practice your speed and working on a deadline. You have to know what you are capable of before you get into a spot of taking on assignments. If Milx knew that two books at a time was too much he could have dealt with the reality of the situation prior to it becoming a problem.

If you are a writer, you need to know not only how long it will take you to write a script but to come up with the plot as well. Some writers can only do two books a month while others wouldn�t blink at five. What�s the fastest you can put a script together from scratch? Can you work on multiple scripts at the same time? Can you work on multiple genres at the same time? Can you do both full-script and Marvel style of writing? These are questions you should have answered before you start looking for writing jobs.

As an artist it�s even more important to know what you are capable of. Can you do a page a day? Will you life let you work on a page a day? Can you get 22 pages done in a month? What about 44 pages? Do you draw in different styles? Do you know your speed for each style? If the book is very detailed will that slow you down too much? It�s my honest opinion that no artist should accept a paying gig until they have completed a 22 pages script in 30 days.

It�s time to figure out your abilities. Writers: pick a genre at random then sit down and plot, layout and script an entire 22-page comic over a weekend. Then do it again. If you have success this way, then you are ready for anything that comes your way.

Artists: get a five-page script from someone and draw the whole thing over a three-day weekend; then a ten-page script in a week and finally a 22-page script in 15 days. If you can get up to that speed without losing quality then you are ready for two books a month.

So in closing. I wish Milx the best and hope he gets a second chance. He is a very talented artist who just got in over his head. And I urge everyone to heed this example and avoid taking on too much. Know what you can do before it becomes an issue. In other words:

To quote Clint Eastwood, �A man�s got to know his limitations.�