Artistic advice from Neil Gaiman

  1. Accept that you don’t know what you’re doing. Don’t listen to anyone who says there are rules and limits.
  2. If you know your calling, go there. Stay on track. Keep moving towards it, even if the process takes time and requires sacrifice.
  3. Learn to accept failure. Know that things will go wrong. Then, when things go right, you’ll probably feel like a fraud. It’s normal.
  4. Make mistakes, glorious and fantastic ones. It means that you’re out there doing and trying things.
  5. When life gets hard, as it inevitably will, make good art. Just make good art.
  6. Make your own art, meaning the art that reflects your individuality and personal vision.
  7. You get freelance work if your work is good, if you’re easy to get along with, and if you’re on deadline. Actually you don’t need all three. Just two.
  8. Enjoy the ride, don’t fret the whole way.
  9. Be wise and accomplish things in your career. If you have problems getting started, pretend you’re someone who is wise, who can get things done. It will help you along.
  10. Leave the world more interesting than it was before.

Le me = Komikš!

As part of my worthless effort towards making more and better comics despite the terrible working conditions and time schedule I currently have, I decided to send 4 colored pages to š!, one of my favorite anthologies in the world right now.

After they received the Fauve d’Angoulleme this year for their 9th issue, I figured there would be plenty of artists submitting material for their next issue, making the competition much fiercer than normal. I barely made the deadline, but managed to send the pages by the skin of my teeth.

Today I received the incredible news that my story has been accepted, to which I responded with awe, surprise, and honor.

It will be featured in š! issue 11, due July 2012.

A fool’s small victory.

You should not worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. You shouldn’t worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like. Prestige is just fossilized inspiration. If you do anything well enough, you’ll make it prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Just do what you like, and let prestige take care of itself.
Paul Graham

Warren Ellis insights

Warren Ellis is a peculiar influence on me. I haven’t read most of his actual work, but following him on Twitter constantly gives me food for thought on many subjects. The same could said about William Gibson.

Today he gave a twitterview™ about science fiction, writing, etc. I missed the opportunity to ask a question, and frankly I don’t think I would have one, because if I had questions that needed to be answered, I wouldn’t be stuck in writing the script of this comic that I used to call Leviathan but now I’m not sure about the name anymore and…

BUT ANYWAY… His answers were very useful to help me get into writing this story again, so here we go:

Start with a smile, I always say.

Genre fiction mutates, rather than bifurcates, in the long view.

The 3 best things about SF, for me:
1 - its use as a tool for contemporary social examination.
2 - its license for unfettered and often unhinged creativity.
3 - science fiction pulp magazines covers were great.

Rituals for writing/editing? Isn’t it hard enough to just get out of bed in the afternoons? oops I MEANT MORNINGS

Is the internet changing the way we think? *Everything* changes the way we think.

I hate the idea people have that humans are so lumpen and unadaptable that we have to even ask the question.

New technologies and ideas changing the way we think is The Way It’s Always Been. We adapt and grow. It is good.

Ah, the magic of libertarianism, and the idea that taxes are all that stand between us and owning robot butlers.

…being stuck on one planet that we’re using as a toilet while society breaks down into bubbling chaos all around us while everyone stands around wondering what in hell is happening…?

Google is more useful to me than Apple.

Cryonics is the worst ever bet against the future, but also the ONLY one

At the end of the day, I know that the major reason why I’m stuck in producing this comic is my personal problems related to my day job and my family—things I cannot change quickly, or with a mere change of attitudes. I hope this will all stay out of the way when my classes are over for this semester.

I have July to write and lay-out the first two chapters of the story. If I can’t finish this by August, I’ll just give up altogether and go back into being a happy couch potato who is unable to create anything but snarky remarks during the ball game.

* I just patented that word for twitter interviews, you can pay be 10 cents to use it!

Top