Some Thoughts on Freelancing and Drawing the Line (Patreon)

Obviously, when you're a freelancer you get used to not getting jobs, or having projects fall apart. Well, you don't ever really get used to it, but you get used to the idea that it happens. It sucks every time, and for every dodged bullet there are five missed opportunities and at least one great paycheck that you never stop thinking about some days. It's part of the business, and, on the whole, my batting average has been pretty solid -- maybe because I avoided so many situations out of fear or a lack of confidence --but let's be positive about it and just say most of the things I've worked towards actually happened. Yeah. That's a good way to look at it, right? Yes, it is.

There are projects you become involved with where you never expect anything to really happen with them because of the nature of the game – things like animation pitches leading to a pilot, or a pilot leading to an animated series. Sometimes something gets canceled and it isn't your fault (the Metal Man series I was doing with Mike Allred that was dumped by Dan DiDio at DC). Sometimes it is your fault, like when I froze up and ruined the follow-up pilot project to Welcome to Eltingville, not revising simple elements of the bible for the Tyrone's Inferno series (see: imposter syndrome, self-destructive, etc).

Some things crumble because you realize they're just not for you, like the Marvel 2099 pitches I didn't follow up on (I've posted about them here before, in case you missed it, Black Panther 2099 and X-Men 2099). Sometimes the right job comes along at the wrong time for you, which is why I didn't write the Batman Elseworlds I pitched after World's Funnest (good idea and opportunity, DC wanted to know who I wanted to draw it, a good paycheck, but I was burned out and the Eltingville pilot was either happening or about to happen, if I remember correctly).

Sometimes a new regime comes in to a company, and the whole chess board gets tossed. It happened to a small degree with Didio canceling my book, it happened on a larger scale when Seventeen Magazine was sold in the 90's and the editor that had hired Sarah and Elizabeth Watasin to do a monthly comic for the back page lost her job – along with most of the staff . Obviously, there went the comic before it could even start – and it was a gig that would have made life a lot easier for us because the check was solid and steady. It really does seem like good-paying gigs that can potentially change your life are always the ones that blow up, but that's probably a bias. You tend to remember the ones that got away.

Sometimes I just don't want to work with someone or some outfit for one reason or another. BOOM is cheap and exploitative of young creators and I don't like the guy who runs the company (although I really like a lot of people at the company, which is a bummer). I dropped out of an IDW one-shot because I wouldn't work with Craig Yoe (see earlier post). Between that and two other situations I wasn't happy about at IDW (an editor ghosting me after asking for a written story pitch that was verbally accepted, and another avoiding Sarah and I after a project crumbled – it wasn't their fault, but they wouldn't let us know what was going on – we figured it out ourselves, it was pretty easy to do. I'll post about this one some time, with the story pitch itself). Add that up with IDW publishing those two great humanitarians, John Byrne and Dave Sim, and I've been more than okay with not working with the company. I won't work with Dynamite Comics, but that goes back to my not wanting to do a signed edition of World's Funnest with Dynamite Productions back in the day, and then you have the thing with Comicsgate and, well, no thanks (not that they've asked, but after the World's Funnest thing I think Nick Barrucci knows I'm not a fan).

Do I have issues with companies I work with? Sure. I draw the line somewhere, and sometimes it's a shaky line, and sometimes the pen runs out of ink. I'm human and I like to eat almost as much as my kid does. I do the best I can threading various needles in the comics industry, and I have unhappy feelings about it sometimes just like when buy something from Amazon or remember that Instagram is part of Facebook and everything is corruption and death and I suck. I'm unhappy with things Dark Horse has done and with people they continued to work with after the meat went bad enough for everyone to find out about it (and been vocal about it privately, in a few cases, which, maybe I'll talk about someday when I'm closer to death). I did a Marvel job last year despite believing C. B. Cebulsji should never have been given his job after his Akira Yoshida bullshit. Let's not even start with Ike Perlmutter and the pink elephant on parade in the room that is Disney. Like most people, I'm someone who has to work somewhere, some time, for some people and some companies. I do the best I can.

I stopped freelancing for Marvel back in the 90's because of the sales department pushing shops to not order independent titles. It felt hypocritical to me to work for a company that was working against my interests – and my friends interests – as a small press cartoonist. But I could afford to do that at the time. If I was broke, well, I dunno what I would have done. Probably tried to get more Marvel work, I'm pretty sure – just like I gave up on boycotting doing variant covers until I couldn't afford to. I try not to think about the money I lost spitting into the wind while shouting into the void, money my family needed. I'm human. That DC/Mad crossover cover alone that I turned down -- twice. Like I said, I'm human. That was a great gig, not including selling the original to a DC fan. Nobody cared, and now I wish I did it. Sticking to your guns doesn't work if you can't afford bullets. Or something like that.

The thing is, you have to expect the shit to hit the freelancer from time to time. If you're lucky, you don't end up with your movie shut down in production when some congolmerate absorbs another and spits out the bits they don't need (RIP Mouseguard). REEL FX had Beasts of Burden in pre-production but there was no shock when they stopped making their own features after The Book of Life (a pretty decent movie but not the blockbuster they were hoping for, especially after the expensive cold mess that was their first picture, Free Birds). I can't imagine what it would feel like to have the plug pulled while things were actually chugging along and all the overpriced office chairs and computers and coffee machines were bought. I'd cry tears of blood.

Which leads to the real reson for this post, not that the babbling before it wasn't intentional. I know from your comments that you kids like the babbling. But the pre-show babbling is over, and the main point of business babbling has begin. Feel free to go run out to the bathroom or the kitchen if you have things to do. But this part isn't all that long, just FYI.

I've posted before about my taking a step away from working on direct market comics for a while. And I've also mentioned that I had one remaining freelance writing job, which was not for print, but for an online project. It was an excellent gig, the work was fun, it was up my alley, and I was working for and with some swell people. Recently, the first phase of the project ended. And wonder of wonders, there was a project expansion and the opportunity for more work. Which was exciting news and timed wonderfully, because I have serious jitters about trying to sustain the household on commissions, art and shirt sales and this here Patreon (Hi, everyone! Thanks for being here, by the way!). And unlike the comics work I'm used to doing, it looked like the rates – which were healthy in the first place – were going to actually go up. Fucking insane, right? Too fucking good to be true, right?

Well, kind of.

Long story short, there's a component of the project that involves NFTs. If you don't know about them, I'm not going to get into it here. I already spent half a therapy session filling my therapist in so she could better understand the situation. I knew the project had a collectible aspect built in, but I didn't know the full details on NFTs or blockchains at the time. More recently there was a lot of noise on art Twitter about NFTs (people were stealing other people's art and making NFTs of them for profit), and that discussion leaned into the awful environmental angle, and I was, like, "oh....fudge". Except it wasn't "fudge". Because I realized the job wasn't happening.  Even with talk of cleaner and safer ways to go about making NFTs it's just not something I'm comfortable with, for a number of reasons.

Which is a fucking bummer. It was a great gig, with people I like, making fun comic book stuff. And I had to disappoint people who had treated me like gold and gave me work when I really needed it. And despite my reputation, I try to avoid even the tiniest bit of confrontation (which is why I understand –if not condone – editors who ghost freelancers when something goes pear-shaped). That's why i ended up discussing the situation in therapy (more than once). Ugh.

So, yeah. I'm now technically job-less. But commissions and sales are work, and I have that. And I have this, and, at least for the time being, I have you folks. That's not passive-aggressive bullshit, by the way. I listen to NPR fundraisers and don't give them a red cent. There are years I can't donate to the WFMU fundraiser. I only give that dollar at the cash register a few times a year. I don't give out spare change as much as I used to (partly because I barely have any these days, it's all cards). I'm backing a Patreon and I goofed up and donated more per month than I meant to (per episode, not per month, stupid, read the damned thing like a contract, gah) and feel guilty that I'll likely have to scale it back. We give and back and donate when we're able, and when we're moved to. And we can't always do that.

Still, if you all quit on me tomorrow I will cry reddish tears of Funnyface Loud Mouth Punch. Oh, god, I wish I could produce my own Funnyface drinks from my eyes.

On a happier note, I'm sure I'll have some "regular" comics work again, when I can do the work under circumstances that I feel make it worth doing. I'm talking to another creator about a possible Beasts of Burden crossover. I'm talking to Veronica Fish about the future of Blackwood, etc. I might have a cover gig or two for some folks coming. We're chugging along okay.

More soon later.

P.S. I got my first Pfizer vaccine shot on Thursday. I've been under the weather, very achey and sleeping a lot and can't seem to eat anything. But no fever. I'm happy to have been vaccinated. Second shot is on the sixth of May. The rest of the family also had their first shot. So, there's that. Hurray.

P.P.S. Hope you're all safe and well and doing okay.