If You Want To Get Into Pro Comics Start at The Bottom

 

Sadly, Independent comics do not sell and so the writing, drawing, editing and lettering as well as making print ready files and then the publishing I do unpaid. It is not great and certainly more sold in the 1980s-2000 than they do today.  

For people starting out, however, it is a great way to get experience in putting a comic strip together to show what you can do. It also means that if you ever approach a mainstream paying publisher you can accurately state how many pages per week/month you can produce to a good standard. Publishers want to know that if they give you a 20 pager to draw that you CAN do it and to a publishable standard.

It is rare in comics to draw your own characters so working on scripts that do not involve them shows you can do the work. One piece of advice: NEVER make changes to the script or change characters names. I've had some really good newcomer artists do that with me and it creates a lot of tension and very few recommendations. 

I wrote a four issue series in the 1990s and the publisher liked them so the artist was new but had all four scripts. After a month I received a package and the art looked great. I phoned the artist and said I hoped he had found time to at least work on our project? I was told that the pages I got WAS our project. Character names had changed and rather than contemporary scenes it was very Judge Dredd -the artist thought he had improved on the script! It made no sense turning it into a sci fi story as that would mean re-writing parts 2-4 AND the fact that the name of one of the characters was to turn out to be a significant clue... was gone. Apparently he tried similar when given a script by 2000 AD -his career ended. And before anyone asks: the publisher who was interested told me "No. This is not the story or series we approved" so that went out the window.

If you thought "I'll give it a go" what benefits are there in drawing for Black Tower other than gaining experience?  Firstly, the art (not the characters) is yours. You can sell it to make some money or just to add to your portfolio. 

Do not think that changing a couple names and a strip title that you can sell the story/characters to a publisher. I had three artists try that and since the internet came in you can be found out quickly. I got a call from an editor one day who asked who a certain artist was so I told him and "So you thought making some changes and having him submit the work instead of you might work?"  I had no idea what he was talking about but within 30 minutes an email arrived with the altered pages -my credit removed.  The editor thought he was being taken for a fool and told me "His name is not blocked in future -how do I know he won't take one of our projects and do this?"  

The artist? "Oh, I thought you were out of comics" which was a bloody outright lie and did he think that meant he could steal any potential earnings from me? Another one who vanished.  But that situation has arisen a couple times. You need to be honest and play it straight.

If you draw something that gets published by me you get 5 copies of the title the strip is in. Pass around your family. Sell to make some money or, again, keep it as part of your portfolio.

One thing, however; if you are not having fun drawing a comic or comic strip then stop. You have to enjoy the challenge of what a script gives you whether it is sci fi, horror, detective or super hero (I once watched a very talented new artist destroy his potential career. At one of the old UK Comic Art Conventions in the 1980s he approached a DC editor who happened to be talking to a Marvel editor. They were both impressed but one said "DC and Marvel want more artists to draw super heroes -do you have any samples?" the artist replied and my thought immediately was "oh ****".  "No, I'm not interested in drawing super heroes. I would never do things and go Marvel. I'm looking for sci fi or horror" The Marvel man just turned away while the DC editor closed the portfolio and said "You may need to change your mind if you want to work in comics".  The artwork was fantastic but never saw the fella again.

Oh, and "Yeah I'd a couple days behind cus I went on a pisser with my mates over the weekend and then Monday was hung over" is not something any editor or publisher needs to hear because going on drunken binges when you have a deadline t6hat you are already late for...

If interested send me scans of 5 pages of your comic work and we can take it from there. Or if absolutely not interested because "My work is shit hot and I'm heading for Marvel!" (genuiine quote) then ...well... don't email me!

hoopert1957@gmail.com

Welcome to real life in comics! 

Browner-Knowle Volume 2 Number 3

 

Black and white

A5 (Digest) format 

56pp

£7.00 GBP

Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout.

https://www.paulashleybrownart.com/browner-knowle-volume-2-number-3

A further narrative salvo of  poetic , melancholy stories and observed moments fired over the head of  the UK comic book landscape. 

Tales of memory, grief, loss, hope, discovery, fear, love and late night Columbo re-runs. 

Get issue 3 and continue the fun you never had in this double-sized bumper issue.   And he is not joking about this being a bumper sized issue -although I admittedly misunderstood when he said "Tel, I got a lovely big one to give you!" 

First thing top write on a Christmas Day is that people need to make images available as well as page counts rather than have you warm up the scanner and then thumb  through to count the pages. Who that particular person is I shall not mention as I am a professional. Just need to calm down and think of....something. I dunno. 

 Anyway, considering this is a pro printed book away from the Hell that is print On Demand it looks really good. The solid blacks and cross hatching, etc all come out nice and crisp. Even better it looks as though it was printed on a nice thick premium stock paper.  Also, my scfanner does not do the front cover justice.

The contents page tells you everything you need to know about what you are buying -and the sales mean you better hurry before these are out of print. Anyhoo the contents:

 Untitled

Hauntology

Anne In The Garden At Night

Peter Falk Is....

As If!

Broken English

That Friday Feeling

Remembering A Yesterday

Poptones

Fork In The Road

Through A Small Window A Big Sky

Bread

See, that's what you can come up with if you have a degree in something-or-other. After reading Untitled I was ready for a double bill of The Two Ronnies Christmas Specials. Hauntology got very surrealistic and stepped up the cheer (that's me being very slightly sarcastic). Details in the background could teach a few of the "new generation" of zinesters how to draw a comic strip.

Peter Falk Is can be described as a sad middle aged (I am being generous) man sat watching TV in the dark while eating a Fab ice lolly at 2 a.m.   Come on -we have all been there!

oh gods....Broken English reminds me of a Polish fella who stopped me to ask where a place was as he had an interview there. I spent 40 minutes going him around a trading estate while trying to find out where the place was as the Polish fella had only gotten blank looks as he tried to explain.  Which has nothing to do with Mr Brown's rather bitter sweet story or, for that matter his That Friday Feeling -here is a man in need of some "Uppers" (whatever they are).

Poptones ended with Mr Brown's passport description "a know nothing, ham-fisted sham splashing and slapping acrylic on paper" -he had to write a lot of that in the margin. Methinks Mr Brown needs to be reminded of the great Tony a rather disaffected office clerk who donned his artist's smock, and set to work on work on "Aphrodite at the Waterhole" every evening!

Fork in The Road was thoughtful. My own mind thought of a mince pie and some canned whipped cream.

Joking ( I think) aside the big story in this bumper issue was  Through A Small Window A Big Sky Brown's tour de force.  Don't misunderstand; there is some excellent black and white artwork using some techniques that appear to have been forgotten in the age of "slap it out on the slap top"  (eurgh) but in this 25 pager we see that while "Old Slow Hand" takes his time carrying out his work it is worth the wait.

We have the solid blacks, the line work and the underwater swimming page must have taken ages to complete -and some well drawn and effective backgrounds when Gillian (the feature character) gets to travel abroad.  The ending was quite shocking to me...an happy ending? In a Browner Knowle?!?!?!    Also, after Broken English it is the only strip to use speech balloons.

Overall it was an interesting read for Christmas Day and is, as usual, highly recommended but be quick if you want to get a copy.

Me? I am now off to find something featuring big muscle men  in colourful costumes fighting.

No Breaks For Newcomers?

 

Something that annoys me even though it's what I expect.

Another comment on one of my blogs was going on about how new artists do not get a chance to see their strip work in print and how most small press publishing is all ego promoting.

Since the 1980s if someone sent me sample art and asked if I had a script they could draw to contribute to one of my publications to see their work in print and if they are enthusiastic and at a reasonable level I usually do work with them. They get a couple copies of the book their work is on and I get to fill a book.

I have made that same offer since 1995 on so many sites and not one taker. However, over and over again there are the complaints "No one will give me a chance".

On a number of occasions I have responded with "Send a few sample pages over" and...."How much do I get per page?" I even had one artist who was not that good say he would never work for free as in a year he'd be working for Marvel or DC. Never heard from again.

Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Brian Bolland and many other creators started drawing strips in the small press to get experience and practice.

The internet created a generation of whiners.

I Screwed Up Big Time With The Covers

 

To everyone who has had copies  of these books the one thing they comment on is how refreshing it is to see books that have contents of super heroes, giant robots, gods, alien invasion, etc.,etc to see them with covers that are more artistic and well designed rather than the usual battle/fight scenes.

But did I wrongly assume that comic readers would appreciate covers like this? Should I have gone with the standard fight/battle scene cover and would that have attracted more sales?

I have lettering to do and some research papers to sort out but, in 2026, I am seriously contemplating redoing the covers to be more standard comics like. The whole project started in 1987 and there are hundreds of pages so I do not want to see the work ignored (I almost died three times during the course of producing these four books!).

I am not keen on drawing covers but I am in this of my own free will (I swear it -I am!) and having chosen publishing I need to suck it up and do my job. I have the idea for the Return cover but I will mull over ideas for Green Skies 1-3. 

Pity as I thought the covers were eye-catching but I did make the mistake of thinking people interested in comics would be interested in novel cover designs. My bad.