story
by Frank Santoro
Sunday, August 8, 2010
So I went to the bar the other night. Saw this guy who is trying his hand at comics. He’s good. Got a western sort of style. Gets faces and gestures without photos. One time he was there showing me his pages and you could tell he was proud. They looked great. He said the stuff was just pouring out of him. Then the other night I see him and he’s gabby. He asks me what “Marvel Method” was so I told him. We talked about different ways of writing stories. It was fun. Bar talk. Then I asked him how the work was going. He said it was a little tough with his day job taking up all his time. I said yeah. He said I wanna be like you and get a paycheck from drawing. Who? You. Me? I don’t make money drawing comics. What about Marvel he said. Yeah one story. A great job. Now I’m looking for another. How do you survive? I live in a house I bought off my uncle for one dollar. I live cheap. Oh. He sat down. Hadn’t taken a drag off his cigarette for awhile now. I could see his escape plan folding in on itself. I saw the thought balloon form above his head. It read I’m going to have to keep my day job in big letters. He was silent now. The bartender yelled last call. I ordered another round.
Labels: auto-bio
This is great. And true. And sort of sad. And I empathize with both of you.
Holy Shit I want to live in a house that cost me one dollar. Day jobs are the worst.
Night Jobs are worse.
Good story, Reality
That Wiki description of the “Marvel Method” is hysterical.
“Beginning, Middle , and End?”
How about…
CBA: “Did you actually co-plot on the Spider-Man books going into the ’70s? ”
Romita: “The only thing he used to do from 1966-72 was come in and leave a note on my drawing table saying “Next month, the Rhino.” That’s all; he wouldn’t tell me anything; how to handle it.”
The artists plotted the books. It was Stan’s job to layer on his Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Moose, level “characterization” and dialogue.
“Next month, the Rhino” would make a good addition to Brian Eno’s deck of oblique strategy cards.
Part two, Zombie Strippers.
This is not exactly scientific, but everything I’ve heard suggests a young graphic novelist who knows how to write and draw might actually have a better shot at getting his efforts looked at than an aspiring novelist or screenwriter, who needs considerable determination, charm, and connections just to get somebody “in a position” to glance at that desperately crafted first sentence.
Drawing skill, at least, announces itself more immediately than a writer’s ability does. There’s the web- not in a futurist raptured-up-to-the-iPad way, just a “get it looked at” way. I’m not saying any cartoonist has it easy. At all. But when I look at the quality on display in that section of the bookstore I have a hard time believing there are great graphic novels languishing unpublished out there.
The format doesn’t suit everybody. But if a great drawer doesn’t quite have a book in him, the recent appraisals of Crumb’s collaborations/adaptations are making me wonder if it isn’t time to revisit that alt-comics standby that quality comics are made only by lone cartoonists. I always supported that rather glibly, but now I’m starting to wonder if all that Marvel/DC product didn’t narrow our view of the potential of collaborations. Although the idea calls to mind a wilderness of craigslist ads.
I have a feeling some or all of this is going to get my ass kicked.
I don’t follow Alan here.
Crumb didn’t write Genesis.
If people find Crumb “illustrating” a book written by god to be lacking, how does that lead to wondering if the idea of a “lone cartoonist” should be revisited?
The point was made here that his collaborations with Pekar helped his work move forward…
And people have always prized Crumb’s adaptations, which are sensitive to the original but interpretive. That suggests some possibility for a more interpretive approach to the writing of a living, willing collaborator that might circumvent the problems of illustrating a script.
There may be a subtlety to your comment I’m missing. But for that collaboration with God, if you’re thinking of certain opinions at another blog, this was the summer I learned that some people do a fine job of discrediting themselves.
Folks always have a screwy idea of what cartoonists make. Even people in the industry can seem mystified.
People tend to think you’re either eating dirt or as rich as Jim Davis. They’ve read somewhere, like, in Parade Magazine or whatever, that some cartoonist makes an amazing salary, or they swing the other way and assume no one makes a dime. Of course it swings more towards the eating dirt end of things, unfortunately, for most of the ink-stained, but obviously a happy, relative few are in great shape, and there’s a lucky subset of cartoonists/comic creators who don’t have to make money off their art due to a trust fund or rich family or good fortune. I’ve listened to people assume out loud that the TV stuff we’ve done has made us rich (they should see our car), and I’ve had more than one person ask me “how do you live?”, albeit not in those exact words each time. I was asked that once as written, and that was from an person in the industry. It’s a great feeling.
And — a buck for a house –? I wish they had dollar bins at cons for those.
How rich IS Jim Davis?
Alan, No subtlety intended. I wouldn’t think there are people who liked Crumb’s Kafka, and disliked Genesis.
You are correct that in the instances of Boswell, and Kafka, Crumb is making more choices by picking which portions ot the text he will illustrate, rather than “every word.”
The point about “god” has to do with Crumb pairing himself with the “word of god.”
If a cartoonist had anything to gain by working with a collaborator, wouldn’t god be the ideal choice, especially if the artist chose to include “every word?”
If a person found Crumb’s collaboration with god wanting, I would have to assume the situation was hopeless.
Personally I think the book was a landmark in the history of comics art.
Tough love. Now we find out if he’s masochistic enough to be a REAL cartoonist, and keep drawing them anyway. Like a compulsive masturbator.
Crumb’s Genesis is overrated. He sure as hell’s no replacement for Peter Gabriel.
Hey Frank you weren’t hanging our at Belvederes were you? Is it still 110 degrees in there? Tell that guy to head to Kinkos now Fed Ex Office and make a zine and send it to cometscomets for review and then comiccomics will talk about it and then CMJ will talk about it and before you know it he’ll still be broke but at least he will feel special for 3 internet days.
Frank made a deal with the electric people and they only charge him a dollar for his utilities too. Pittsburg=Utopia.
Brian is referring to Belvedere’s the bar where Lightning Bolt played while it was literally an oven with raining clouds of sweat mixed in – how Mr. Gibson and Mr. Chippendale played through that heat night after night (Florida in July!) for 30 nights straight was like some sort of Triathlon / Ultimate Warrior feat. Now that’s a day job. Night job. Whatever.
That Day/Night/Sauna jazzercise/job allows me to not worry about making a cent off my comics.
Oh and I think there are some dollar houses in Detroit!
yeah, but you all aren’t mentioning all the other perks of being a cartoonist: it’s not just the money, it’s the adoration and praise one receives in this most noble artistic endeavor.
the CONSTANT, UNREMITTING ADORATION AND PRAISE.
You gotta admit it’s great for romance. My wife loves when I lock myself in my room every night and draw fantasy worlds where sweating, grunting men in tights roll around on the ground with other men and shoot sparks out of their fists.
Dynomite!
your wife loves that too? well, she OUGHTTA! she’s lucky enough to be MARRIED TO A CARTOONIST!! we make DREAMS into REALITY! or…not reality. or some damn thing.
you got kids yet? it’s really cool when they meet a new kid and say “my dad makes COMIC BOOKS !!”
(ok, i’ll drop the smarmy ironic tone– that IS pretty cool, actually…)
I was talking with Derik B about this yesterday. It’s not about money, it’s about “genius points”. The mythical “30 guys who actually care” on the internet control the entire market on genius points. Therefor, genius points > money.
do you get points for trolling?
I’m guessing it would be like the genius points equivalent of gambling or day trading. Live fast, die hard.
We also discussed the subtle differences between trolling and having a disproportionately oversized internet commentary presence.
like me and you, eh, Ian?
Sometimes it’s just about having a good day job. But I guess those are hard to come by.
That’s what I’m working on to support my music hobby. Cuz no-one gives a shit about your band anymore, especially here in Seattle.
so is the moral of the story….
…..get off the internet, get back on the internet, play drums for a month straight, get a good day job, have kids, draw comics while sleeping, bitch about them while awake?
okey sweet
yes
Never before has my martyr complex for wanting to make comics been more tickled.
I can’t get this story out of my head for some reason. I love the image of Frank being encountered by comics everywhere he goes. “While in church i noticed one of the altar girls drawing some manga styled comics, after service we sat in a pew together and I told her why her storytelling sucked.”
Then I asked her if she’d pose for a “Biblical” comic I want to do…
“Pose”?!? PLEASE tell me you’re not turning into Alex Ross, Frank!
She said she’d “hold it” for me while draw. The, uh, pose I mean…
…obviously you’d be stupid to turn an offer like that down, right?!? You’re too smooth, man! Urhh is it me or is this thread entering slightly dubious territory?!?