“So what does an agent do?” another inquiring mind wanted to know on the phone today. “Don’t you just hand out jobs? I mean, I can show my stuff to Marvel and DC myself.”
I dealt with this subject a year ago; now, with a new Creating Comics Seminar around the corner, it bears repeating:
What does an agent do?, indeed. To begin with, it varies from talent to talent — and from agency to agency. (That’s right, Glass House Graphics is not the only comics agency out there. And while we DO represent 117 talents, as I see on my roster today, comics are only part of what we do. Animation, design, photography, sculpture, copywriting, and so on fills up the other half of our business.)
Unlike most other agencies, Glass House Graphics does a LOT of training. At one location in Brazil, we have an honest-to-goodness art school. At another Brazil location, we teach all-day-Saturday comics art classes at an art school. So it should come as no surprise that other agents there like to try to poach our people, because it’s a lot easier than training artists themselves.
Heck, here at our Manila, Philippines location, we do continuous training right in our offices, all week long, every week, in addition to our periodic Saturday seminars with guest speakers. We’ve even been asked to design a practical comics art curriculum here for a major University. And I spend countless hours working online, through Emails and IMs and videoconferences, training artists in India, Indonesia, and Europe.
Plus, of course, I fly throughout the USA, Brazil, the Philippines, Canada, etc., to teach seminars about creating comics at art schools, colleges, and conventions. We also teach online seminars, where a small group of artists all sign on at once, and everybody gets to view art or color creation right there on their computers, in live interactive presentations that connect our artists in the U.S., Brazil, England, the Philippines, Chile, Australia, Indonesia, and India.
What’s more, we do all we can, to help artists through personal situations. We’ve found that some need a place to live and work. Some lost their homes in the typhoons late last year, and we opened our offices to whichever artists could make it here, offering shelter and food. Some come to professional comics never having earned a decent living before, and we coach them about budgeting their incomes as freelancers. Many don’t have their own computers; some have never used a computer or a scanner. We provide ‘em and teach them how to use them. Some don’t even have legal ID’s or bank accounts, so we help them with those, as well. Heck, I bought a cell phone for one the other day so he could reach us each day with his reports.
It doesn’t end there. One client is so very late paying, we’ve had to advance over $14,000.00 to artists so they could pay bills.
Much of this stuff, of course, happens even BEFORE we help artists plan and craft their portfolios — and that’s still a long way from our trying to land their first jobs for them.
So let’s say we’ve worked with an artist for days, weeks, months, whatever it takes to turn an “almost ready” artist into a saleable, professional artist. They came with a desire and an ability to draw. We’ve taught storytelling, style, professional attitude, market realities, dependability. Then what?
THEN we start agenting: Chasing after jobs, analyzing markets, mailing packages, schmoozing publishers, publicity, website creation, convention/hotel/airfare arrangements, original art sales, money collections, international brokering, translations, reviewing layouts and art, negotiating contracts, and everything else a professional agent does to earn a commission.
“I can do all that,” an artist says. Yes, you can. Can you AFFORD to do all that?
How much of your time will be taken up with making all those calls and sending all those Emails looking for jobs, and making those art photocopies and cover letters and preparing envelopes and running to the post office to send dozens of packages every few weeks to every editor or publisher who writes checks? How much time and expense will you spend flying to New York to visit Marvel and DC and Harris? And what about New Jersey, Georgia, California, and Oregon, all of which have important publishers?
How much time/effort/money will be spent hitting Comic-Con (in San Diego) and New York Comic Con and Wizard World Chicago Con and others, to stand in line and show work and schmooze? How much of your time will you eat up listing and selling your original art on various websites and schlepping it to Conventions? And if you’re manning your table at the Con to sell your art, how can you be over there in the portfolio line trying to show an editor you’re better than the 300 other hopefuls also armed with portfolios and a dream?
Where do you find the time to study all the comics out there, to understand publisher needs and determine which ones you’ll draw samples for, to prove you’ll fit there best? Who exactly do you chat with to learn which publishers pay very late — or don’t pay at all?
Have you made the time building relationships with so many editors that some will tell you what’s really going on with their publishing plans and invite you to editorial summits and business planning meetings, so that you’re involved with strategizing certain projects from the ground up?
When do you find time to build and maintain a webpage to promote your work, correspond with fans, and arrange private commissions? When might you find time to write and send out publicity releases about yourself, once you start getting work, so readers and editors can learn more about you?
Do you really have years of contract experience to know how to handle that 20-page contract they’ve sent you, knowing what could and should be removed, what terms you can ask for given your value to that publisher, and so forth? If not, how much time will it take you to research contract law — or hire an attorney to review it for you?
And once you’ve carved out time to do all this, plus pester the slower publishers for your money, and deal with translations and/or banking fees and complications if you’re internationally based…
…when will you have time left actually to DRAW the books you’re hired to draw? And still have time left for your families?
What’s more, if the comic book market dries up, with no work coming in, will you have the strength left to do most of the above, all over again, for the commercial art markets?
And if your scanner goes down, or your internet’s out, or your computer’s hard drive gets fried, what then? Or what if you’ve fallen behind on your job through whatever personal problems, family emergencies, or whatever? — wouldn’t it be good to have someone looking out for you, who can get you assistance so that you meet your deadlines with high quality despite all odds? Or what if you and the editor just don’t see eye-to-eye and there’s a lot of friction?…who is watching your back to step in and smooth things over?
A GOOD AGENT DOES ALL THAT — leaving comics artists free to do what they set out to do in the first place: BE COMICS ARTISTS.
“What DOESN’T a good agent do?” — That might’ve made a shorter blog entry.
