Broken Frontier

Building a team is one thing, keeping it together is something else all together. Luckily, I have never been in the situation where a team has broken down. I also admit to having limited experience of working in creative teams, but I am going to do my best to tell you how to manage the minefield of bringing a handful of different people together to make something wonderful!

There are many things that can cause conflicts within a creative team, the topics below are by no means exhaustive, but these are some of the issues I want to explore. Don’t worry, this won’t all be doom and gloom, I will be offering some solutions as well!

Competing visions

As a writer, this is my biggest fear. What do you do when you and your artist don’t see eye-to-eye? I have a very clear mind’s eye; a perfect vision in my imagination of how my characters or a certain scene in the story should look. I pride myself on being a good communicator, on knowing how to get the message across, but sometimes clarity gets muddied on the way from my mouth or my email to the artist’s pencil.

Another concern of mine, one that I have yet to face, is when the writer and the artist have different takes on the story entirely; it’s one thing to have characters come out looking a little different to what you originally envisioned, but when the pages come back with a completely different story; then you are in trouble.

No offense to artists, but often when this occurs it is a reflection on the artist’s storytelling abilities. When you don’t offer any money at all, or when you can only pay a small amount, you are not going to get Jim Lee working on your comic. You might get the next Jim Lee, but he won’t have years of comics penciling behind him (or her!).

What is in the script sometimes doesn’t appear on the page as you hoped because different people see different things. You and I could both be looking at an oak tree, but if we both draw the tree or write a description of it, both interpretations will be very different.

This is the reason why comics are a truly collaborative medium. You can’t just hand the script to your artist and then get in touch with them one month later when the 22 pages have been drawn; you need to work together. As a writer, you shouldn’t be afraid of telling an artist that something doesn’t work, however never shy away from giving praise either. Even if you can’t pay in cash, you can pay in compliments. Approval doesn’t pay bills, but it does go a long way to building your friendship with an artist – close team members get great work done.

If the clash between your vision and an artist’s execution (or conversely if you are an artist who has hired a writer) becomes too great, you need not pull the plug on your partnership. Sometimes bringing in an Editor to build bridges between members of the creative team is the way to go.

Experience vs. Wet behind the ears

I can’t afford to pay any artists an upfront page rate to work on my projects. I am always honest with artists when we discuss working together. Laying all of your cards on the table at the beginning saves time and trouble later on. So, as alluded to above, if there is no money involved, chances are that a high profile, published creator is not going to leap at the chance to work on your book, even if you are convinced that your story is the next Kingdom Come or The Ultimates.

What this means for you as an artist or a writer is that you are more than likely going to hire a newbie, someone who is untested in the quality of work they produce and in the time it takes for them to make it happen. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If this is your own project then there are not really any hard and fast deadlines; I would rather an artist or colorist take a long time with the outcome being a high quality piece of work, instead of them rushing to produce crap. After all, my name is going on the book too!

Often when agreeing to work with an artist, you have seen little of their work before your project begins. Here is a little tip to my brothers in pencils; stop drawing pin-ups and covers! You can draw pin-ups to match Alex Ross or covers to match Bryan Hitch? I don’t care! I want artists who can tell stories. Myself, many other writers and publishers want someone who can draw paneled pages; after all, that is what makes a comic a comic. So, if you are an aspiring artist, heed this advice “panel practice makes panel perfect!”.

There are dozens of places on the internet where artists can find sample scripts, hunt them down and start drawing!

The last point I would make is that you will be amazed by the level of talent out there in the world of ‘amateur’ creators. Believe it or not, there are people who pencil like McFarlane or Bagley, write like Bendis or Millar, color like the rainbow; you just have to find them! Try Digital Webbing (www.digitalwebbing.com), Pencil Jack (www.penciljack.com), Scryptic Studios (www.scrypticstudios.com) or even Comic Space (www.comicspace.com). Good hunting! 

    

Minutes to Midnight

There is nothing like the pressure of an impending deadline to cause cracks in the façade of your team. Firstly, if you are not paying anyone on the team, then there is no monetary incentive for people to pour blood, sweat and tears into the work.

However, if your comic has to be on the printing press by a certain date to ensure that you have something to sell at your artist’s alley table at the local con, well, there is your deadline! Maybe you have a publisher and you have a deal to be paid a percentage of sales (a back end deal) once the book is on the spinner racks. So, you have no money to pay people upfront, but the book has to make it to the shelves in order to earn some money so that you can pay your team! That folks is what we call a Catch 22!

To date I have only had one project produced as a full comic and my team came onto the project ONE MONTH after the other teams had started the process. Being four weeks behind with a hard and fast deadline rushing towards me is the most pressure I have been under in the world of comics. However, this was all easy for me from one point of view; I had already written the script and my work was done. I was still relying on an artist, inker, colorists and a letterer to hit their marks – to make it happen.

None of these people got paid, so I didn’t really have any whips to crack. Instead, I motivated people with praise and thanks and we got the job done – ahead of some other creative teams who had started before us!

The key to working to a tight deadline is to be upfront and honest with the team about the time frame and what you expect from them. Offer rewards when people meet their timelines – thanks, praise, complimentary comics or trades or hard covers, movie tickets, action figures, or buying some of the original art are some things that you can do in place of paying people for their work– sometimes this is a great way of firming up your friendship and providing some small reward.

Together forever?

If you get on well, produce great work together and get a great reaction from readers maybe it’s a match made in creative heaven? If this happens then you have a decision to make; do you do it once and do it right? Should you embark on another adventure together? As you head down a new creative road, you will be hoping that you can catch lightning in a bottle … again!

Collaborating a second or more time around certainly worked for Lee and Kirby, as it has for the likes of Millar and Hitch. You really have to make a decision based on the experience of your first project; if everything went smoothly and you enjoy working together there is no harm is tackling another story.

Cash and Prizes – dealing with success

From no money to swimming in buckets of it, the other side of the coin brings its own form of troubles! Who gets how much? When do they get it? Who owns the original artwork? Who owns the intellectual rights to the property? Who gets to do the signings? Who has to pay for the convention space? Who pays for the website? Who does the interviews? How do you handle it if a large indy or even one of the Big 4 come along and poach one of the members of your team while everyone else continues in the near anonymity that exists in the world of small press comics?

Again, this hasn’t happened to me (yet!), but we all hope to be successful in the world of comics. So when fame (and maybe even fortune) come knocking on your door, you better be ready for it!

Coming up in The Story Factory I will take a closer look at some members of the team!

Next: Understanding Writers.