Jessica Abel is having a busy week.  With a newborn baby on her hip, she is reviewing submissions to the guest-edited Best American Comics series. She's been doing interviews and press for her new book coming out — one of the few textbooks for teaching comics, entitled Drawing Words & Writing Pictures (see also Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art). Jessica co-authored the book with her husband Matt Madden (they both teach at the School of Visual Arts). Her popular graphic novel, La Perdida, was just released in paperback and Life Sucks, a comic book about teen vampires, just came out through First Second. On top of that, she's also gearing up for MOCCA, a New York indie comic book convention, where she'll be selling prints, originals, and her books in person. Oh, and she's in the midst of selling her next book project to publishers.

And while this week may seem especially busy, I have a feeling this is pretty much her pace of life. Jessica is living the dream of many would-be fulltime cartoonists. She's figured out a way to make a living from her art while also supplementing it with related editing and teaching (I think she's got a project in the works adapting comics to movies, too...). 

I had the chance to speak with Jessica via phone and ask her to share some advice for emerging artists.  While she was speaking specifically about cartoonists, her words might shed light on the experiences of all types of up-and-coming artists.

Jessica got started making minicomics in the '90s in Chicago and was working day jobs for the first 10 years. For her, the minicomics served as a way to show her work to editors, like a portfolio. At a Chicago comic book convention, she gave Art Babe to the editors of Fantagraphics, and while she didn't get a book deal immediately, she learned something from the process.  True, it's really hard to make money from minicomics, but there's a value to self-publishing: with a whole lot of diligence, you can get the word out about your work. 

Jessica insists that there's a lot of interest in comics and graphic novels right now and that the industry is desperately looking for talent. In his book Reading Comics, comics reader and critiquer Douglas Wolk declared our life and times right now the Golden Age of the Graphic Novel.  Indeed, talk to any cartoonist right now about their chosen medium and they will undoubtedly get all excited about the unexplored territory of the art form.  Cartoonists see comics as an unfurling realm of new possibilities — and yet, because it is such a labor intensive and specialized practice — there just aren't that many people making excellent, challenging work.  So now is the time to develop a good piece of work, and then consistently send it out with each new issue.  Even if you don't hear back — and you probably won't for the most part, Jessica stressed — you need to keep sending your work out.  "Think of it as laying the groundwork," she put it. "If the work is good, you'll get noticed."

So is it all about getting a book deal?  Not necessarily. But a lot of artists struggle to create art on their own time when working a day job. Jessica worked a day job for 10 years and when it got to the point where she really wanted to take it to the next level, she decided to move from Chicago to the much more affordable land of Mexico for a couple years to focus solely on her art. Ok, what else can you do if you can't move to Mexico?  Unfortunately, selling the originals of your comics isn't really a viable option. In Jessica's opinion, the market for that type of work is undervalued. Many cartoonists do freelance work for hire as illustrators and some find success in selling prints and originals of that type of work. And these do even better as you start to make a name for yourself. Jessica pointed out that there's money to be made selling beautiful and unique work and comics at events like MOCCA, "especially if it's handmade in a really nice way, silkscreened covers and well-made." Of course, it sounds weird to be talking about art and money, but the goal here is to be able to support yourself as an artist and to get your work seen.

The web has also increased the number of venues where emerging cartoonists can show and sell their work. Jessica told me she's seen podcasts reviewing comics popping up all over the place, in addition to forums like The Beat, Drawn!, and the Comics Reporter (amongst many others — please leave your suggestions in the comments). Many established cartoonists sell through the Beguiling, and we're seeing more cartoonists set up shops on Etsy (either for their comics or for original drawings and prints). People are consistently publishing webcomics and blogging about their processes and inspirations, creating a direct dialogue with their readers. Even if there are drawbacks to that (Blogging?! That's time taken away from laboriously handlettering! Or what about the Marvel fan turned troll who loves to tell you how much he hates your take on the superhero genre?), having a web presence does increase your chances of getting noticed.  You also put yourself in front of an expectant audience — and thus on daily deadlines that might otherwise be will-o'-the-wisps for the self-publishing artist.

There's tons to think about when you're on the cusp of dedicating your life to your art. But the main point of Jessica's interview, to my mind, is discipline.  Even if you're a wily, creative genius, you need to be dedicated to your art and make an effort to get it seen...I know that makes it sound like, well... work. As Jessica puts it, "We didn't get into this because it's easy to be an artist. It's a tough life. But if the work is good, you just have to be diligent."

Further Resources:

• Jessica Abel's website
• Matt Madden's website
  
• Her DIY resources for learning how to make comics
• Best American Comics series
• La Perdida
• Life Sucks
• MOCCA
• The Beguiling
• The Beat
• Drawn!
• the Comics Reporter
• Reading Comics
• Comics and Sequential Art
• Understanding Comics