Also, I am fully aware that I’m writing this blog on GoCollect’s website… where you can find great information on just about any comic book, including fair market value. Trust me, I had my own website for a while and I have no idea what I’m doing. Some free, some for a price, but how do you know which one to use? Anyone can make a website. I had to come to terms with the facts that I wasn’t going to get to re-enjoy one of my favorite magazines from childhood and I was officially never going to win the Wizard scavenger hunt. So, as I began thumbing through my boxes and pulling out comics that I thought might have gone up in value, I discovered that not only was X-Force #1, not a collector’s issue as was clearly stated on the cheap bag it came in but also there was no Wizard Magazine! There wasn’t even a website! Wizard Magazine was gone. One month is better than twelve months, right? The dated price quote problem had been mostly solved. A monthly price guide that was also pretty slick looking. It was slick looking, it legitimized comic collecting by putting it right there on the shelf next to Newsweek and it had comic prices right there in the back of the magazine. When Wizard Magazine popped on the scene in the early 90s, I was hooked immediately. So, maybe the answer never was Overstreet and maybe I should’ve tried to talk that guy at the comic book store down a few bucks for my TMNT #4. I don’t know the process, but I’m guessing plenty of those prices were dated on the day the guide came out. Actually, it showed what that comic was worthwhile that particular book was being entered into that year’s draft of the guide. It really only represented what a comic was worth when the guide went to print. I count two problems with Overstreet in that last paragraph I wrote. That guy saw my 13-year-old pumpkin pie face coming from a mile away…but I digress. Incidentally, it took many many years before it got even close to what I paid that shop for it.
So, I’d usually just thumb through it at the book store to see what my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 first printing was worth whenever I saw a new guide had come out.
It was a little pricey for me at the time. The point is there’s no one way to break into an art career if that’s what you really want.Since the moment I picked up my first comic ( Tales of Asgard #1(1984), well maybe not that exact moment, but soon thereafter I knew that THE place to go to find out how much a comic book was worth was the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. But again, that’s me! A lot of cartoonists I admire have gone to art school and found it invaluable. Even though I don’t work in that field now, it was an important period of my life and I think that experience has made my work stronger. In the meantime I got a social science degree because that was something I was also interested in. They were my peers and the people who kept inspiring me and challenging me to get better at what I do. I went to comic shows and zine fests, put comics online and made friends with lots of other cartoonists my age (some in art school, others not).
I personally did not attend art school, but I kept drawing comics through my college years and that was my arts education. This is a complicated question, because the answer will be different for everyone! Some people really thrive under the structure and environment an art school provides, others not so much. I’m in high school and not sure if I should apply to art school. If you’re interested in publishing, I also recommend finding an agent! Having someone who knows the industry will help you immensely in finding a good home for your work and make sure you’re not taken advantage of. Having people in your life who inspire and support you will carry you through all the harder parts of being an artist and challenge you to keep improving. Another thing I recommend is finding peers in comics, either online or at local comics or zine fests.
You learn who you are as an artist, what tools you like, what parts of the process are easy or hard for you. Almost everything I do in my comics now is something I learned while drawing webcomics as a teenager and have built on or improved over the years. The important thing is to develop your own voice, and the way to do that is to get started. It’s fine if you’re not the most technically proficient artist or most natural writer yet. What advice can you give an aspiring comic artist?Īnyone can do it! IMO cartooning is one of the most egalitarian mediums out there.
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