Expert: Chris Brown - 1/20/2011

Question
Dear Sir,

I'm a young student and a fan of comics. My dream is someday to write the script for those books.

However, I don't know how to draw. Is this skill essential if you just want to write the story?

My sincere thanks for your explanation.

Answer
Hi Fan

No, it is not necessary to be able to draw in order to become a comic writer.  Many of the most popular and respected writers in comics history, like Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Alan Moore (just to name a few) never drew anything.

On the flip side, it is much harder to break into the comics field as a writer than as an artist.  There are less opportunities for writers since many of the artists write their own material.  Furthermore, an artist can readily produce a portfolio or even draw several pages of comic art to show to potential employers.  Writers, on the other hand, generally have to just submit scripts to the publishers and hope that something gets accepted.

One way that some writers get hired is to collaborate with a specific artist, possibly one that has not yet become famous.  In that way, your work can be more readily shown to publishers in finished form--that is, by the two of you creating a complete story to submit.  Writers are also sometimes hired after having some other success as a writer, such as publishing short stories in magazines.

I hope this has been helpful.  Good luck!

Chris