So Wizard World Chicago-Con is once again Chicago Comic-Con, reverting to the name its previous owner bestowed upon it years ago. With its new name came a smaller show, with Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and other always-there publishers missing in action at last week’s show. It set a strange vibe for a lot of convention goers.
GHG did have its usual space. Besides hanging out with some really great friends in the evenings, enjoying deep-dish pizza and the Brazilian restaurant, I met with various editors and reviewed a couple of dozen artist portfolios.
I’m not certain what he hoped to accomplish, but one of them wrote this to me last night:
Dear David —
My name is Freddy…I was the artist that you reviewed on Friday afternoon at the convention. During the review of my work, you never asked, so I thought I’d let you know.
I didn’t get to give you much background on myself. I’m a graduate of the College of Art and Design. I finished in 2006 and have been working in comics since as a freelance comic artist for a variety of sites, private commission artist and recently finished storyboards on a movie the major film festival circuit.
While I did appreciate your review of my work I felt there were several statements and comments made about it that seemed a bit “below the belt” and uncalled for. I know you most see a lot of work and have to be pretty upfront to artists. However during the course of my education and working career I’ve never received such a review that honestly made me want to throw away my work and look for a new line of work.
One thing I value however is that I’m not a quitter. I always see projects though and would find it wasteful to throw away years of my life and education solely on the review of one man who had just met me and hadn’t seen the evolution of my work over the years.
I got several other reviews that weekend from many artists, including J. Scott Campbell, that mirrored a lot of what you said, but were in a constructive manner and didn’t make me feel worthless at the end.
I will take into heart into a lot of what you said and will only make my work stronger in the end. I’ll admit, what you said to me made me very upset and angry. But I’ll use that to improve my art and storytelling so you can see how good I’ve gotten.
So I wrote back:
Dear Jesse —
I don’t have your art in front of me as I type this, so I have no immediate reference point — and I reviewed dozens of samples across those four days of conventioning. I don’t recall anything I said to any artist that was “below the belt” or should make someone “upset and angry,” though you are certainly welcome to feel however you want, and GET whatever you want, out of the time I spent with you because you asked for my feedback.
One thing I will not do is lie to an artist. If the artist chooses to take something as harsh, then he takes it as harsh. If he takes it as something smart to learn from, then he learns from it. I’m not there to be anyone’s friend, nor to give information that’s less than valuable — as I’ve seen many professionals do — nor to give the kind of generic, sometimes false, hope I’ve heard other people give.
I was having a discussion with someone at the Con that, in general, many people seem to have lost the ability to process real criticism. It’s as though every time a person uses the word “honest,” they seem to want to tack the word “brutally” in front of it, as in, “David will give you a brutally honest review of your work.” When did being honest become brutal? At what point did telling an artist what they truly need to know, from the point of view of someone who since 1982 worked as an agent, editor, writer, publisher, and who deals daily with essentially every major and mid-range publisher on the map and knows what they’re looking for, become a negative thing? I think so many people tip-toe around the truth, rather than simply telling it, that it’s a shock when it’s really heard.
Like the GHG artist who for three years kept fighting me and fighting me on my advice. He kept saying, “I’m just a manga artist! I can’t do what you want!” I kept telling him, “I see it in these bits of your portfolio…if you do this, you will become a major artist at Marvel or DC!” Finally, he stopped fighting it and began listening and DOING it. Now, instead of “just a manga artist” working on low-budget manga projects, he’s an incredible Marvel artist, under exclusive contract there, drawing everything from Wolverine and The Mighty Avengers. I knew more of what he was capable of than he did. That’s my “super-power,” that’s what I bring to the table.
I have been teaching Creating Comics Seminars across the USA, Canada, Brazil, and the Philippines for 16 years, discovered talents as varied as Ed Benes, Roger Cruz, Joe Bennett, Mike Deodato, Al Rio, Cliff Richards, Will Conrad, Fabio Laguna, Bong Dazo, Stephen Segovia, Harvey Tolibao, Joe Pimentel, and many, many others — someone once counted over 200 artists I’ve brought into the business, trained directly, and who knows how many I saw only once or twice who took the advice I gave and turned it into a career.
One thing I will say, if anyone gives you GREAT feedback and says you deserve a job right now: Do they actually GIVE you a paying professional job, and then actually pay you a professional rate for it? And then do they like it enough to follow with a second assignment? THAT’S the goal, that’s the plan — to get you to that level.
Take what you learn from me, from J. Scott Campbell, from anyone who will give you feedback on what you do WRONG or not well enough — and build from that. What you DO with that information, how you inspire yourself to do better and better, is what really counts here. I hope you hit those goals and go on to great things.
All my best with your efforts and endeavors,
— David
