I was asked to talk to some high school students about my job. Usually when I talk to kids about making comics, I go in with high hopes of imparting some gems of wisdom upon eager ears, but it always turns into a ‘Can you draw me a Spider-Man?’ fiasco. But this was different. It was high school students! Passionate, budding artists on the verge of stepping out into the world and expressing themselves! I asked the teacher what they were interested in hearing about and I was told:

how you come up with your ideas for stories, how charaterization develops and how the drawing process dovetails into these.

Which was great. I could really have fun with this. I decided to just wing it when I got there, but in preparation I made a few quick notes the night before, just so I’d have some talking points if I needed them. Here are my notes:

- story ideas come from life, personal situations, watching life occur around you. Seeing something and imagining a story around it. Usually, these ideas start out as very grandiose but get whittled down into very specific, personal stories. Zombie movies, for example start out being about global plagues, but the actual story revolves around a person or small group of people and how they deal with conflict.
- How I come up with ideas for the comic. Wake up routine, etc.
- It’s all about giving yourself over to a sea of imagination that’s much bigger than you are. Tapping into a global consciousness of ideas. The best way to to make your ideas feel false and manufactured is to try too hard to come up with them. Let go. Let them come to you.

Characterization is key to a successful story. Each character is a facet of your own psyche. Often, as an author, you have no idea who your characters are until you spend enough time with them for them to slowly tell you. Some of my most successful characters have come to life on the page without my having any idea of who they were or why I was drawing them. They show up when they need to, whether the reason is to further the plot, act as a foil for the main character, or just change the tone of the story. You don’t need to know what the reason is, you just need to trust your instincts. Your subconscious knows why they need to be there even if you don’t, and your instincts are always right. Always.

The Drawing Process is unpredictable, but that’s a blessing. Happy accidents occur when the drawing on the page doesn’t match what you intended to be there. Rather than obsess over the technical shortcomings, try to see what the mistakes are telling you. You might need to add more black to an area or follow a line in another direction to make the finished page flow in a more natural, or more inspired, way.

Bottom Line: sincerity is the most important aspect of creation and expression. Turn off your head and let go.

I have never been met with a sea of more disinterested faces in my life. If it wasn’t so amusing to me I might have been flustered. Eventually I just turned on the computer and showed them stuff from my gallery on the projector and they came to life a bit. The ones who weren’t talking or flirting amongst themselves, anyway.

Oh well. Now I can give a talk on how to be an entertainer.