1. NEVER forget how much you love making comic books. When a deadline
is crushing in, remind yourself that you started drawing comics for free
and for fun. Getting paid to behave professionally is just a sweet
bonus. When you love doing something, you do it often with passion. The
more you do something the better you get at it. The better you get at
something the more fun it is, which increases the passion, etc., and so
on.
2. Clarity of story must come first. Fancy page
layouts and experimental innovation are swell as long as they don't
detract from telling the story.
3. Study the greats. If a creator from the past is held in high regard, try to figure out why.
4. Look
outside of comics for additional inspiration. Read books, watch
movies, TV shows, etc. Try to figure out why a story does or doesn't
work and how it can be applied or avoided in your own work.
5. Never stop learning. As soon as you think you're as good as you're going to get…you are.
6.
Revisit your past work from time to time. It's encouraging to see your
progress. Sometimes you might even discover that you preferred the way
you did something before and return it to your arsenal.
7. Don't
be a jerk. Instant Karma's gonna get you. I've found that if I treat
folks the way I'd like to be treated, with kindness and respect, it's
usually returned exponentially. Usually.
8.
Love life. Stay healthy. Establish a consistent diet, but treat
yourself every once in a while. Find an exercise you enjoy (anything,
even if it's just walking to the comic book store) and do it at least a
couple times a week. Get a decent amount of sleep. All of these things
will result in a clearer mind and more quality pages.
9. Write down what you do every day. Even if it's just a brief list of accomplishments. For instance, "Working on Madman
no.100. Penciled pages 5 and 6. Started inking page 2." I buy a new
little desk calendar every year. It only takes me a few seconds at the
end of the day to simply mark down what I accomplished, even if I did
absolutely nothing, but melt into the couch and watch movies all day. Over time it gives a very accurate account of my productivity, how long
something took me, what interrupted my progress, and when I
specifically did something. It's the next best thing to keeping a
journal. But it's brief, concise, and effortless. And very very
valuable. It's the key tool to the discipline of a monthly comic book.
It takes out all the guess work as to how to use my time.
10.
"Rock and roll all night and party every day." Or is it "Rock n Roll
all night and PART of everyday?" Just ROCK! It keeps you young.
You can view Mike Allred's work at: www.aaapop.com
You can view Mike Allred's work at: www.aaapop.com
