Comic Partnerships

[Hunterkirizaki]

I wanted to pose a question and see if you guys could offer me some advice on this; comic partnerships. I want to push ahead with my comics and such, but I always seem to have trouble finding artists that are willing to stick by the project and keep on working at it. I've lost most of my artists and only have one comic that I've ever had finished(at a total of 12 pages). I know I can't really work at trying to get bigger with my comics until I have one or two that actually UPDATE enough.

Mainly, what I need help with is...

* Suggestions on how to go about searching for artist partners
* How to work with my partners to keep them interested in the project
* How I should generally deal with missing or delayed page updates(I tend to approach this with a "life comes first" attitude since my artists work for free. Is this how I should be approaching it?)

[Pinali]

Honestly, unless your artist is getting money out of it, you probably shouldn't approach it like a business partnership. I won't draw a comic for someone who's only talking to me because they want me to draw for them, unless they're going to pay me. But maybe that's just me.
I think what you should do is just make friends, and some of them will probably happen to be artists. If you hit it off with one such friend and "hey maybe we should make a comic together" comes up in casual conversation, then you have a good partnership.

The problem with this is that the comic is your idea. Making your artist care and be involved with the idea is really important. They should feel like they have a say in the way the comic goes, not just that they're being given orders: "okay, here's the script for this week's page, bye." I'm not implying that's what you're doing or anything, just giving an example of how someone might alienate an artist. In general, you need to engage your artists creatively. Get hold of their Skype/MSN and message them, but don't bug them. Bring up the comic in a way that they feel involved: "How do you feel about the comic so far? Did you get a chance to look over that script I sent you? Do you like it?"

Delayed updates is a tough one, because yeah, if artists work for free they're under no obligation. You should definitely message them and ask them to be honest with you about whether they're going to be able to get back on track or not, though. Emphasise the fact you won't be angry at them if they want to quit.
A lot of beginner comic artists don't really understand what a big undertaking a webcomic is, and will lose interest after a few pages. That's very normal. I must have begun at least 5 comics that I dropped before I'd finished 10 pages when I was younger. Dedication to something without any consequences for not completing said thing is just something a lot of people find hard.

[eishiya]

Make friends. That's the best way to go about it if you don't have the money to pay an artist a proper page rate. I've worked on comics I otherwise don't give two shits about because they were for friends, and working with friends is fun.
I don't know about others, but I would probably avoid making "friends" with someone I know is primarily a comic writer because I'd suspect they were in it to get a free artist. That's something else to keep in mind and avoid. If you have any interest in doing your own art, expand on that. Many (most?) artists like having artist friends.

As Pinali said, don't make friends simply to use them later. Go into to just make friends. Don't bug them about art, and don't even think about having them as your artist. Let it come up in casual conversation. The same goes in the opposite direction, too - artists shouldn't befriend writers simply to milk them for ideas and writing help. That's not friendship.
And again, as Pinali said, let them get involved. Sure, you might have a specific vision, but if you don't want to pay, you'll need to sacrifice some of that vision. However, don't expect them to get invested just because you give them control. If they don't, just leave it be, don't push it.

Delayed updates are a problem even with artists' solo webcomic projects, it seems. I think the best thing to do is work up a buffer, or even get the entire story done before posting it online, if it's not too long. Longer projects would probably fail without going online soon, simply because reader feedback is such a great motivator, and lacking it is just as great a demotivator. Long projects are really difficult to get off the ground. Work with artists on shorter ones first, and see if any of them like you enough to keep going for longer stories.

[Gibson Twist]

Building upon what's already been said, and it's all true, the best way to find someone to work on a project with you without paying them is to make it a project you do together, rather than them drawing your idea for you. Another way is to find an artist who really enjoys your writing or a particular story and is interested in drawing a good comic. Find some method of showcasing your writing skills in hopes that it will make artists want to make comics with you, and maybe lead to one of the first two. I've done both, to varying levels of success.

I've been lucky enough that my art is passable enough that people forgive its limitations to enjoy the story, and that's drawn the interest of several artists far more talented than I am (actually, that's how I met my wife.) I'm not sure how you could make this work for you if you don't feel your artistic skill is good enough that people will accept it so they can read the story. Maybe a photo comic? Maybe you could post something more prosaic? Find a delivery system for your writing, and try to get that in front of as many eyes as possible.

It helps to be flexible as far as story goes. Just recently, I answered a post in the Collab board, tossed a bunch of ideas at the artist, we talked back and forth about this thing and that thing until we came to an idea that we both liked, and now we're developing that as a comic. Neither of us had preconceived ideas about a specific story, we just started talking and honed-in. Not that I've paid a huge amount of attention to your correspondence with artists, but peripherally it seems you have one idea that you're trying to do. I might be wrong, apologies if I am, but if not, try being more open, or maybe find an artist with an idea that you can both work on together, and use that to let yourself shine.

You could also try working on shorter pieces, stories that don't require as much effort from a single artist. In Pictures of You, I've worked with about 10 guest artists and am going to work with a half-dozen more soon, all drawing little shorts that I write. It's much easier to find someone who'll draw 3-5 pages for you. You could start an anthology comic doing this, and maybe one or more of the artists would be willing to do more with you, and you can develop longer projects based on that.

And just like Pinali and Eishiya say, make friends...or more to the point, get to know artists. When Ben Steeves and I started Our Time in Eden, we knew each other through the local comics scene, but we weren't best friends or anything. I liked his art and he liked my writing, so we talked about the idea of doing some work together. I gave him a couple of scripts I had, one being Eden and the other being Pictures of You. He picked Eden mostly because it was shorter, though between you, me and the internet, it's also the better story.

Don't just rely on the internet, though. If you have a local comic shop, go down to your local comic shop and ask them if they know any artists who might be looking for a project. Even if you don't find an artist, you'll probably meet other comickers that you can talk shop and compare projects with, maybe even get a comics scene going and entice other artists to come hang out.

I guess the bottom line that everyone is saying so far is to build relationships, but don't get bummed if they don't all result in collaborations. The other benefit is that you can find someone you'll enjoy working with, which is more important to the success of a partnership than I could say.

[eishiya]

Something I just thought of:

Don't be afraid to approach professional artists and artists who would like to do comics professionally. In fact, you might even have better luck with them. An artist seeking professional work will want to be sure that they can work with others' scripts and they will want a wide array of projects under their belt to serve as a portfolio. An artist who only does comics for fun on the other hand, no matter how dedicated they are to their own work, probably doesn't care to do a whole lot of side projects.
Don't pass for-fun artists up either, of course.

[Hunterkirizaki]

The main comic I had in mind when asking for help is a story that I have a lot of ideas of my own about, the Imaginary Sister comic that I've been trying to find an established comic for for ages. Thing is, the fact that it's long and that I already have the first few chapters scripted up means that a lot of it isn't too open to debate and a partnership would be entirely dependent on an artist showing interest and loving the story as it progresses.

Most of the time when I get story ideas, I really can't imagine them as shorter stories since my ideas are so broad. I've had a few short-story ideas, one of which I've finished and another that's in the works. I'm planning to try and work more on them(I'm working on a sequel to "Sulks to Smiles" that I'm probably going to work with d2k on again). One thing I'd absolutely love to do is just work with an art friend on a from-scratch short story. I've tried to pose the idea a couple times, though, and nobody ever takes to it.

I think I'll try and put more effort into working out some short stories; try and put a little more effort into them. Close down my add for an artist for Imaginary Sister and try and get out some completed stories to showcase my writing skills. I'm gonna send a message to the artist I've been working on Beat of the Rain with; hopefully she'll come back and finish up those last three pages. Going to try and fiddle with some of my older stories to see if I can provoke an idea out of them.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I appreciate it.

[eishiya]

One thing I'd absolutely love to do is just work with an art friend on a from-scratch short story. I've tried to pose the idea a couple times, though, and nobody ever takes to it.

You're proposing too early, most likely. I know I wouldn't work together with a writer unless I really wanted to do a new comic, and had a lot of trust in that writer - and that's something I could only build through friendship.

[Gibson Twist]

I know I wouldn't work together with a writer unless I really wanted to do a new comic, and had a lot of trust in that writer - and that's something I could only build through friendship.

Mine is a slightly different take on this. None of the folks I've worked or am working with were friends before we started talking about collaborating, just people whose work I respected. I think this is most important in a collaboration. With all of them, though, we made sure we had an open communication and respect for each other before we moved ahead with the project, and created friendship out of that.

I would say that you should definitely look for someone with a more professional or aspirational attitude. Hobbyists tend not to like schedules or obligations, and a lot of them will just flake out on you. Be clear what each of you is willing/able to give to the project before you start, which will help keep you from being disappointed later.