Expert: Chris Brown - 10/27/2011

Question
I am a fairly good artist that has comic book characters with storylines to become a comic book, cartoon, or even movie! i need help to be lead in the right direction to bring them to life somehow. i would appreciate any help you can lend. the ideas are very original, even though all comic characters derive from an existing idea. trust me, i did the utmost to make them stand out in both background, origin, and powers.

please help!

Answer
Hi James

The comic book industry can be a difficult one to break into for artists, especially writers. It sounds like you draw as well, which is a big plus. That means you can easily show your work to a comic book publisher for a quick reaction. It sounds, though, like you have not actually drawn up one or more comic stories with your characters.

I recommend you actually draw a few stories that you can show to a publisher. Then you can mail copies in for them to look at. You will probably have more success with the smaller publishers than the big ones: Marvel and DC already have their own cast of characters and usually introduce new characters in the comic titles of existing characters. A small publisher is more likely to want to publish a new title that exists in a world independent of the rest of their stable of titles and characters.

Even better than mailing, you can go to one of the larger comic conventions and bring samples of your work with you. You can then go to various publishers' tables and get an instant reaction to your work. It might still be good to have copies as well that you could give them to look at later, as they likely won't have time to read a story in the middle of a convention.

Of course, you can self-publish as well. However, it will be much easier to get your comic distributed and advertised if you go with an existing publisher. However, if you do self-publish and are able to develop a clientele that are buying each issue, that would certainly be a big positive in a publisher's eyes.

Hope all that advice is helpful. You are welcome to follow up if you have more questions.

Enjoy

Chris