Faith Erin Hicks, "Friends with Boys" --and a blogpost about how she supports herself financially drawing comics.
The last couple weeks have seen similar posts from a couple of creators (Ryan Estrada had a cool graphic last week) about how they earn their living in comics, and how much. The truth seems to be that some can earn a living in comics—but through more-or-less constant work (creating secondary product, constantly going to shows, commissions, etc).
Towards the end of her post, Hicks says,
“I think as long as I am able to live my poor-but-not-destitute lifestyle, with the health care safety net, I will be happy even as I grow older. I think so. I don’t know how it would be if I became genuinely poor, if I burned through all my savings and could barely cover rent and food. For me, at this point, poor is a choice because I want to draw comics for a living. I suspect if my financial situation became desperate, I would perhaps return to animation. Hopefully it would have me.”
(Yayyy Canadian health care system—making it possible for comic book creators to live happily and healthily in poverty!)
kateordie:
The best thing I’ve done so far today? Read the first 34 pages of Faith Erin Hicks’ upcoming book FRIENDS WITH BOYS, which is being put online as we speak! With an update every single day of the (work) week!
Faith is a friend and an amazing artist. I talk about her book War at Ellsmere quite often and she probably thinks I’m a dork for it, but it really pushed me towards making comics. I remember reading it and thinking ‘I could do this. Not now, but with practice, I could do this.’
Her latest project is about a girl with three brothers who is entering high school after being homeschooled all her life. We all know what a sucker I am for teenage girl stories! This looks amazing, the art is so fun and wonderful.
What I’m saying is GO READ IT. Thanks!
Everyone in my family reads comic books or SF/F, except my 10yr old daughter who only likes ‘real-life’ books (as she puts it), but they have to be about girls, generally 12ish and up, and it has to be some sort of story of the girl’s day to day life. Given that my girl has three brothers, this book sounds like it will be perfect. Gotta go read and see what I think…
