A Year of Making Comics - Update #16

It's been a little while since I've posted one of these "Year of Making Comics..." updates. My thinking with these semi-regular posts is that I could document how things are essentially going for me in terms of, well, obviously, a year of making comics. However, for a couple of reasons I lost a lot of steam.

The first reason was that it's getting much harder to write short cartoon essays and find homes for them, particularly ones that pay, particularly now that The Nib has folded. I kind of have some editorial contacts at a few places, but definitely not the same kind of great relationship I had with the folks at The Nib. I feel fortunate that I've gotten in the door at the NYT Book Review, but making work for them is not a fast-turnaround, you-can-live-off-this-money kind of a situation. In my last "Year Of..." update, back in May, I posted panels from the graphic review I'd sold to them, responding to the novel Now Is Not The Time To Panic. That cartoon was supposed to run this past August 13th, but at the last minute got put on hold while they sought the blessings of everyone on the NYT masthead that it was OK to run, on account of much of the artwork having been generated by AI. I'm still waiting to hear if it's going to get the go-ahead. I really hope it does.

Reason two was some additional upheaval regarding my household budget. I feel like I've been reasonably candid when called upon to acknowledge that the reason that I am realistically able to work as a "full-time" cartoonist is because my wife has a job that provides a steady income stream. I make some money doing this, but it just isn't steady and reliable. And, without going into details, there were some unexpected road-bumps a few months back in terms of financial steadiness and reliable work. It seems to have settled, I took a temporary full-time day-job (another reason I've been quieter here) and focused more than ever on arranging workshops and school visit assemblies, since those have become a much more reliable source of income than selling editorial-type cartoon essays. It doesn't hurt that I love doing that kind of work, and I think am actually extremely well-suited to it, but it's definitely been more where my head's been at lately.

But, as I said, things seem to have settled. My wife landed squarely on her feet, I've been working and teaching, but, even better, last week I finally sold a new graphic novel. I'm going to hold off on details, the contracts aren't yet written, let alone signed, but the coming months are more than looking up in terms of making comics.

It's funny, trying to make it work as a freelancer, you've got to constantly be juggling different parts of your brain. In my case it's a constant juggle between thinking up cartoon ideas, trying to write them, trying to sell them, and then on the other side trying to make contact with new schools and new libraries, and also to keep trying to think of new ways to grow this and make it more sustainable. My Fine-Arts school didn't reach me a thing in terms of business, my coursework was 100% exclusively the pursuit of my own self-expression, so anything I've learned about doing any of this stuff I've learned from trying, failing, and trying again. I have never felt so backed into a corner in terms of what I do for a living as I have these past few months, when you get to my age, there are decisions that lay decades in the past that lead you to where you are, for both good and ill. It's something to learn to live with. 

The image up at the top comes from my graphic novel pitch. I think it's going to be a beautiful and special book, and I can't wait to start sharing more details with the world.