As an artist you have to deal with criticism. However, for me my biggest critic is myself. I am very impatience went it comes to my art and I hate waiting for people to look at my art and tell me what they think. There is times I feel like I almost cannot breath due to the pressure of waiting to heard people tell me what they think.
I think it have gotten worst in past years for me. It have to do a lot with the many failures I have in my life. Such as getting an degree in Biological Engineering and never really working in my field. As well as having a divorce after 11 years of marriage with two children and losing my children in the process (which I have not seen my children in six years). I have this hidden pressure to be successful. I feel like I am trying to make up for the many failures I have experiences.
You may asked why I am talking about criticism. It is because I have to fight my own feeling that I may fail before I know the results of what kind of impact my art have on people. I was feeling so happy early today right before I release my latest chapter for Nocturnal Orphan. However, as the night went on and I got lost with my thoughts in my head that “Oh no, what if my art is not good?” “What if I did not do all I need to for the story?”
The only things that kept me from giving in to these thoughts is “what if I used this feeling for more content?” I thought of manga that I love very much call Skip Beat. The main character when though a lot of heartbreak and she was an actress in show biz. She used the painful feeling to remember what her face expression look like for acting. She used the hard times toward her professions.
I guess you could say I am writing this to talk myself out of allowing my feeling control my actions. I am not giving up.
You may have heard the term comicsgate which is thought to come from gamergate. However, it have another meaning. Check out the video below.
The most important thing to remember is to never give up on your dreams. If you want to create comics than you should do that. Just know like anything, it take work to be successful. And don’t let a few people on social media determine what path you take. That is your choice alone.
So recent I have choice to pull out of Zazu Zine + Comix Publisher in Oct 2019. This was not an easy decision to come up with, however, it did not sound good for my business. From the beginning, I kept hearing that we will not talk about sponsorship, distribution, and marketing until after we get comic done. As we where getting closer to the deadline for the submitting comic, we start to discuss sponsorship, distribution, and marketing a little.
The conclusion with sponsorship was that it was going to pay for start up cost of publishing and first round of prints of comic. I asked will we have continuously revenue coming in to pay for re-stock and marketing because if we divide up the revenue from sales to all artists, and publisher individual, than where will the money come for paying for re-stock and marketing? However, will you start up a company on the first project without investing money from product to keep it up? The answer I got was we will deal with it when we get there. That answer sound too much like “Lets wing it.” The publisher say that she will pull money from her other business to pay for marketing and more re-stock.
So I made the decision to pull out because I don’t think this will be any different than publishing myself. Yes, I would not pay for the cost of publisher if I do that, however, I would we be doing more work to promote this publisher and not get much out of it. I believe a company need to invest in it self from the very beginning or it will not be able stand on it own very long. I also believe that many investor would not support a company that is not willing to create it own revenue coming in to keep it running.
I have deciding to look into self publisher or another publisher company. I am working on writing out the first five chapter of Angie’s Adventures. My plan is to still plan for the release in Oct for Chapter 1. I will be looking at digital comics as well. I am hoping that I could get three Chapter done by Jan 2020. For I have plans to go to Mars Con Jan 2020 in Williamsburg, VA.
I would like to hear your thoughts on self publisher vs publisher company. I know there is more work and investing more money when it come to self publisher. However, I feel it is do able and I have the skills to market myself. Also, I would like to hear your thoughts on how long is a series you enjoy reading. I am looking into making Angie’s Adventure into a long series or break it up in parts. I am also thinking about making one shot comics for individual characters such as Fredrick and Alphonse background and Two-bit background. Fredrick and Alphonse story will be very different from Two-bit story. One will be very serious and the other will be more humor. One story will be around tragic and revenge while the other story will be around heart break and money.
The good news out of all of this, I will be bringing more content to the viewer than what I had plan previous. Which Chapter 1, I will be able to add more papers to it than what I original plan under ZAZU.
My favorite memory of growing up in New Orleans, LA is when I walk to and from school. Between my home and school was Archie Comic Studio. And it get ever better, my middle and high school was call Riverdale, the same school in Archie Comics. So of course, I read Archie comics. And it was easy available for me because they sold the comics in my groceries store next to my house.
I talk with people today and many people did not know that comics was sold in grocery stores. Today is sound like everyone think comic store is the only place to sell comics if it is not a comic con or anime con. In the past, comic was in book store, grocery store, and convention store.
So if you are looking for a good comedy and high school life comic, Archie is a good one to read. Today you still get buy comics such as Archie, you just have to buy them online.
Betty and Veronica are romance rivals for Archie. Archie like Veronica because of her money while Betty like Archie. However, Archie sometimes gives into Betty.
Archie have did series such as Betty and Veronica friends which is focus on the romance rivals relationship of Betty and Veronica for they both like Archie.
In the same world that was created call Archie, there was other fun stories such as Josie and the Pussycats. They was a high school rock band. You may have heard of the movie, well this is where the movie came from.
So if you would looking for comics that have more romances, comedy, and good old fun times than Archie is a good one to read. And who all cannot forget Jughead, the one kid who only thing on his mind is food. Judhead will do anything for a burger.
The video is a update on my business. I have been working a couple of part time job to make up for the missing income and for better camera equipment for more videos. I will be making video for online courses. However, right now I am looking for better video editor software. The current software program I have is not able to do what I want it to do. I want to be able to make fast speed video of me painting on canvas. I want to be able to show you my progress. It have been a learning progress figure out how to make that happen.
Also in the video I take about how I was inspired to make more traditional art from my comics series Angie’s Adventures. I feel like I have a lot of ideas for new painting ever since I starting working on comics.
You know I enjoy hanging out and talking with my older neighbors. Many of them are veterans like me. They have cool first hand stories from World War II, working on a Navy ship, when they talk about their college days, and more. Many of them have stories that they cannot say in public because they would have the military show up on their door step when they do public their story. However, I believe their is a way to tell their story in a way that it would not be giving names, detail in the story that would give them away.
The answer is telling a fantasy fiction story. You can tell many stories with fiction characters who are not human. You can change the problem in the story to something else. This is another way that fiction story can be used to help these who felt like they cannot tell their story without being stop by someone else. I would not be surprise that many people who creator manhua in China would be telling their own story in fiction stories. Manhua is the Chinese word for comic. Manhua are simply to manga which is comic in Japanese.
There are many cool manhua and manga that include worker class that tells the story from one individual that may cover fantasy, romantics, comedy, and etc. And it is not all written to kids, a good part are made for full adults who have real problems in the modem world today. The reason why I bring this as an example is because in the US we have many people who feel like they could not write, draw, or create anything cool. My point is that everyone have a story to tell and someone may love to hear your story. There is growing love for Japanese and Chinese culture in the US. I would not be surprise that many countries would like to heard individual stories from the US about US culture.
To concussion about my neighbor who have a cool story to tell, he will be talking to me for advise on how to change his story to fiction story that will not give away important detail that will get him in trouble with the military. It is not the military fault, it is just that their are jobs that are dangerous and the military does not want to scary off people from joining. We are in a society today who don’t understand that there are certain jobs in the military that key to our country safety.
I would love to heard your thought on this subject. If you have friends and family who keep talking about really cool stories they live though, encourage them to write and if they don’t want people to learn who they are. They can create a pin name and change the character to non-humans, change the environment such as outer space, or different time periods such as a the stone age.
As promise, I am doing another comparison of DuckDuckGo vs Google. This time I am looking at when you search for the word comics. Now the biggest different I found between the two search engine, is one use your location in your search and the other does not. Could you guess which one use your location? Of course you can, we are know that Google use your location for advertisement. Which can get in the way, if you are using search engine to learn about something. We all hear the phase, if you don’t know something, Google it. I guess you could say the best place to learn what a comics is by going to a comic book store. However, comic book store are usually Marvel and DC which mean, if you are not into heroes stories, than it just does not appear to you. Now there are some comic stores that have other publisher and self-publish comics, but it is best to call first before going to found out if they carry them.
DuckDuckGo does not used your location in the search for comics. Now DuckDuckGo will recommended places to buy comics but it is online . So on their first page, you have more link to other website. Google take up most of the first page for map of local comics store, alternate search topics, and topic stories about the topic of comics.
Google provide more source for comics about pop culture that is controversial. Such as one of the Top Stories is Dark Phoenix from a opinion digital news source that is very extreme left. Also, it provide more news blogs that are on the left when it comes to the political side such as the Washington Post.
If you click on a few of the links that Google found on the front page, they will take you to lots of comics that was at one point in newspapers that are call comic strips. At least four of them: Comic A-Z List GoComics, Free Comics – Comic Strips, Comics – The Washington Post, and Comics/ArcaMax Publishing. Now I don’t believe this is all Google fault for thinking that comics are all comics strips and Marvel and DC. There have been some debate in the comic industry that many who work in Marvel and DC have out right say that graphic novel is not comics. So this have rewrite in some people what comics is, because their are graphic novels that starting up popular shows such as Scooby-Doo. I have talk with people older than me ( I am 36) who are in their 40s and 50s, and back then their was no difference between what a graphic novel and comic was. They was the same thing and still is, it is just a few people in the comic industry will not recognize that is the case.
DuckDuckGo have one Ad post at the top. It have 13 links other than the Ad link. It give you more sources for you to look at on it first page. Now DuckDuckGo does have Washington Post listen twice, however, one of the post from Washington Post have describe of example of what comics title are. DuckDuckGo is playing it safer by having only links in their search, it is design different from Google. Google search engine have example of all their features on the first page. DuckDuckGo does have images and map features, you just have to click the tab on the top of the page to look at images and map.
However, I do found a few things great about DuckDuckGo. First their Ad link, Renta! Online – Manga Store, is manga which Google did not ever think was comics. Manga is the Japanese word for comics. Many people in the comics industry does not think of manga as comics;however, manga is growing more popular every day. Which means that DuckDuckGo is keeping up with the trends of comics fans. The second ad is to My Comic Shop which gives you a range of class comics such as Godzilla, The Walking Dead, DCeased (a DC comic), and Captain Marvel (a Marvel comic).
In the search with DuckDuckGo above, I look at around 5 pages under image to see how it look vision when you do the search. In the search, you get a good look at what comics have been over the years. Many of the comics that are not heroes, are pretty well know that I grew up with such as Archie, The Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny, Heathcliff, Futurama, Garfield, and more. These are great example of comics that are not subject around a hero and villain story. If you asked most youth today about these comics, but most likely they would not know they had a comic. The youth today in the US does not know that Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Spider-man came from a comic. When I say youth, I am talking about high school, middle school, and elem school children, the ones that comics was written in the first place for because they did not like reading without pictures.
In the gallery above is Google search in image. The first thing I notices there are a lot of memes mix in the search. Also there is a lot of comic strips as well. The search I did was the word “comics” not memes or comic strips. The second thing is most of the memes and comic strip are one side point of view from the left political party in the US. There are more political comics than anything in the search, many from left wing digital news media. The third thing is Marvel and Dc take up the spots that are not so political and Marvel and DC have political memes as well. I will say that they do have a little bit of non hero story comic in the search but you do not found any until the third page such as Archie. However, the number of non heroes stories are way less. You have to really scroll to found them and this is a problem for anyone who don’t have very good internet. Internet is becoming more expense and many families in low income housing usually depend on their government smart phone or have a low data base plan for their smart phone. My point is most people will go with the first two page in the search because if it become hard or take too long to load, people will go with what they can learn in the moment.
Now you can do the search on your own and see what you get when you search the word comics on both DuckDuckGo and Google. However, from a teacher point of view, I like DuckDuckGo better. It did put some comic strips and meme in the search but not to the point that Google did. DuckDuckGo put mostly titles of comics series in their image search.
I believe DuckDuckGo is a good alternate to Google as far as answering the question for what I am searching for. I hope that this was helpful to you and I would like love to hear your feedback on what I wrote.
Oct 2019, I will be release my first publish comic series call Angie’s Adventures. The main character is Angie, a elf. The story is about how Angie goes on a journey. The world I am create is where most of the population is human. Human have say no to magic and yes to technology. The human are living in a modern day era. However, there are magic in this world with magical creatures such as elves, dwarfs, warforged, neko races, orcs, changelings, and more. The world I am created is very much related to pathfinder RPG and Dungeons and Dragons.
In Oct 2019, I will be released the first chapter of Angie’s Adventures. The story have six main characters:
Angie, an elf, Sorcerer Draconic, chaotic neutral
Angie ancestor had a relationship with a green dragon to save the village from destruction. That is all what I will say about the main character because the first chapter will explains the details and background of Angie character.
Two-Bit, a gnome, Bard, lawful neutral
Two-Bit is about two feet tall and most of the time is mistaking for a 5 year old human child. He is very mysterious and his motive is very unclear.
Alphonse, a dwarf, Tactician, lawful neutral
Alphonse is usually clam and collective, however, when someone does wrong to his brother Fredrick. He blow his top easily. Note: some D&D reference say that dwarf cannot became tactician because tactician is for more intelligent race such as elves and humans. I found this to be a little racist and will used this in my story.
Fredrick, a warforged, Paladin, lawful good
Fredrick is a warforged who development AI intelligent in the last 1000 year war that was between the dwarf/warforged vs orges/aasimar. Aasimar are a race of beast cross with celestrials (They usually look like angel or tengu). After the war was over warforged live side by side with dwarfs as family members. Fredrick and Alphonse are not related by blood but their bond is stronger than blood relations. Fredrick is very timid tho he is a seven foot robot.
This is Yuri when he was five years old. This is one of the scenes from Nocturnal Orphan.
Yuri, a neko (cat people), Monk, chaotic neutral
Yuri was rise in a buddhist temple and learn the way on hand to hand combat. Due to his nature he never stay on the side good and help out his childhood friend Lynn by hiding her out from the people who want her dead.
This is Lynn when she growth to become an assassin.
Lynn, a changeling, Assassin, chaotic neutral
Lynn is nocturnal due to her being half hag and sea serpent. Lynn was drop off as a baby to orphanage and due to her being nocturnal and it was unknown to what she was growing up. The people rising her would give up on her and she would bounce from one foster home to the next until her mentor recruiting her to become an assassin.
I created Nocturnal Orphan to introduce my audiences to the world I am creating.
Lynn story of how she is rise is told in Nocturnal Orphan which you can found on Webtoons. I had to take a break for a month due to finance troubles. However, I will be continuing the story in the next two weeks from now.
It is a story that will cover how being different in a world when you are a minority. It is very much an adventures, fantasy, action, comedy, and maybe romantics story.
I would love to heard what you think of my world that I am creating. Also, this will be a large project and would love to found people who would like to join me in making great content comics.
Feel free to learn more at www.mariahargis.com. I do love comments so leave some for me to read and get back with you.
As an illustrator and comic book writer, I have been following the dramas on Twitter and YouTube of anime and comic culture in the USA. I starting following it after hearing from one of my writer friends getting accuse of harassment and it was his girlfriend they accuse him of harassing without knowing that was his girlfriend (it was third party looking in). And another friend of mine who is a cosplayer is getting stalk by a follower of #kickvic because he believe what they are doing is wrong. This is all due to the #metoomovement but this year it is worst than past years due to new hashtag on Twitter #KICKVIC.
If you have not heard there is a war on social media around the subject Vic Mignogna vs Funimation and a few voice actress/actor. I don’t normally care about Hollywood or celebrity dramas, but unfortunately these people have a huge follower who going out to attack people who disagree with them. This does not effect most normal people; however, if you go to comic con or anime con, than you will be dealing with this drama indirectly. Such as voice actor/actress cancel events because they don’t want to be at the same comic con or anime con as the person they don’t like. And some of their follower will troll people at con that disagree with them or they just out right hate the person. Also, on looking who see what is going on with #KICKVIC think to themselves “hey, I could do the same thing to my rival,” meaning other writer, voice actor/actress could be target with false accusation. For example, it is just like a famous serial killer break out on the scene, there are copy cat who want to copy the crime and get their five minutes of frame.
Most of the force that is pushing this is people in power who ego have gotta so big. I have staff at some anime con. I have learn thought staffing that in the last few years, that voice actor/actress charge like $5K or more depending on their celebrity status to be a guest at comic con or anime con. However, it was not like this several years ago, because in recent years, anime have made it way into pop culture and is very popular in the US. The anime english dub industry have little to no pubic relations, because people who work in the the field, say whatever they want on Twitter ever if it is harmful to someone else.
I will be following the law sue Vic vs Funimation because I am hoping the court will change our Twitter culture and stop some of the harmful campaign that is in our culture. There is one positive thing about this, this does open the door for anime con and comic con to explore at invited small publisher companies, authors, illustrator, cosplayers, and less known voice actor/actress as guest. I am a big believer when the people up top gotten too big for their britches, they can be taking down a peg by a new comer.
Now if you are wanting to be a comic writer or artist, you will have to face some of this. However, I feel like this is very similar to dealing with an ex-husband. You just have to practice good organization and be out spoken. I believe when you are outspoken and show to the world that you are confidence than people will think twice before they decide to mess with you. You will just have to learn by trial and error like everything else in business.
If you would like to follow me on Twitter, my Twitter username is @hargis_maria. You can follow me on Facebook as well at Maria Hargis Art and Instagram at @mariahargisart. I am also on YouTube, my channel is Maria Hargis. I sometimes go live on Facebook and I will be setting up live stream on YouTube.
This last weekend, I learn a lot at Kigacon. I have decide that I will be looking at running panels at conventions in the future. I want to show that it is possible to create comics without using Adobe products. I have been using Affinity Photo and Designer instead of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I also used a free software program call Medibang Paint Pro.
Kigacon was a college con and very low turn out due to it being small con. However, many people who came did not have money to spend on vendors. Also, I feel like many was shy to talk with artist with their own work instead of fan art. I did get some feedback that $10.00 was a lot to spend at a vendor table, many of the people their was looking to spend $2-5.00 on items. And there was a lot who did not take 5 seconds to look at a table, and when I say hi, they ran off.
After having my table setup at four conventions, I have came to conclusion that many cons goer wish that they could do what I do but don’t know how or believe it is not possible for them to do so. From my personal experiences, I know that many people who go to conventions may only go to 2-3 con per year. Most con goers are millennial that work two jobs and have little time off during the year. I believe that this is effecting how they spend money at cons and many of their spirits are breaking. I am not saying millennial are not the only ones who go to conventions, I am just saying most are millennial.
This is why I believe that I would have a bigger impact on my business if I run panels at conventions on the base on how to create comics on Webtoons and the importance of networking in your local community. If you have watch how Hollywood have just keep remaking movies and old ideas, you will see that our country is in need to new ideas. Movies and shows on TV usually start from writer and book author. I know their are many anime fans and heroes comics fan who enjoy writing fan novels on fans formal websites. I believe these fans have talent that could create original work that would bring about new shows on TV and movies. I believe we have talent in this country that we have not use to their full potentials. I know I could uses some of these talent people help, for I am looking to build a team for my comic series. That is the other reason why I am looking to run panels, I am hoping to recruit others to help with my comic series. A successful comic series takes a team of talent people.
Little Elf in big Pond of Drama, The Comic Industry USA 