I'm In My Prime?
I'm In My Prime?
The glow-up of comic creators over 35 years old.
Long post coming up, but worth a read! BTW, just got this bad boy and it is GLORIOUS!
I have no clue what it is. Could be a sign of the era or just the culmination of experience and maturity working for years on the craft, but something magical seems to happen with a lot of comic artists over 35 years old. Not that greatness or career milestones weren’t achieved by comic creators in their 20’s. Hell, both Jim Shooter and Joe Maduriera were both working professionals in their teens. However, some of the most enduring work by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita Sr., and John Buscema began at or after they were 35 years old. Much while in their 40’s! It was a different era then for sure, but looking at their work history it feels like the stuff they had done in their 20’s and early 30’s was the training montage in a Rocky film and when they hit their 40’s they became fully realized!
Now, any artist worth their salt knows that there is no true mastery of the craft. Just more and more study. It’s because we’re ALWAYS learning and new challenges in storytelling and illustration present themselves regularly. You just get better at working out the challenges only because you’ve faced certain ones quite a number of times over several decades. Quite honestly, that’s a big part of the fun. We’re problem solvers and every artist has their own variation of how those “problems” get solved. So, imagine the amount of tools in an artist’s toolbox for solving different storytelling challenges who’s been studying four decades. Yowza!
As a 10 year old my cousin officially introduced me to comics. Specifically Conan comics. Specifically specifically…John Buscema Conan comics. At this moment and for the very first time while writing this recount of my introduction to comics, Conan, and Big John’s work I finally realized that my cousin was a huge John Buscema fan! Almost all his Conan stuff, from Savage Sword to Kull The Conqueror and more, were drawn by John Buscema. Heh. Took me 38 years to realize that. At any rate, Conan with the blue shirt was MY Conan and I was always trying to get my drawings of the Barbarian to look just like my cousins drawings of him whose drawings were damn near spot on like Big John’s. So, as it stands, my first biggest and life-long artistic comics influence was actually my cousin Peb…by way of John Buscema. R.I.P. Peb.
John Buscema was 46 years old when he drew Conan The Barbarian #25. His first Conan issue of that title. Savage Sword of Conan was released June 1974. I was born August 1974. The cover date of Savage Sword of Conan #1. Both titles and the character of Conan he would go on to be forever associated with. John would turn 47 in December of that same year.
Here It Comes…
Now, on to the real reason for this post! Two Fridays ago I turned 48 years old. At this point in my career, according to online sources, I’ve worked on roughly 70 (documented) comics since 2003. Since 2008, 28 of those comics were Marvel interiors. 33 including covers. The real number of total comics I’ve done in my career thus far is closer to 80 and you know what? In 19 years of this business 80 comics is just WAY too few for my taste. It’s a bit disappointing and I’m now inclined to do something about that. Why is the amount of comics I’ve worked on so important to me? Isn’t the quality more important? It’s because 80 comics in almost 20 years is roughly about 4 comics a year. Meager. That’s not even considering page count which I know would round out to about 15 pages per issue and 60 pages per year on average. True, some years I produced a lot of work and others almost nothing. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Life happens, you pivot to make adjustments based on what’s needed at the time and things continue to change. Hopefully for the better as you grow and move forward in life, love, & the pursuit of happiness. That said, I want more and I’m choosing to look at those 80 comics as MY training montage. Truth is I’ve ALWAYS wanted more, but what I valued career wise in my 20’s & 30’s is pretty different than what I value now. I wanted to be one of the rich Rockstar comic artists and be on Wizard’s Top 10 in my 20’s. My 30’s I was in constant hustle mode and wanted to prove myself as a comic creator who was willing to take on anything I was given. Now? I just want to tell as many great stories as I can at the highest quality I can with as many of the characters I’ve always wanted to work on. Especially ones I create or co-create myself while making a solid living and leaving a legacy for my kids and their (eventual) kids to be proud of. So, I’m reorganizing to strike a better balance between what I want out of my comics career versus what I need. I want to be able to do my own comics, but I also need for me and mine to live a nice life. As of now, all my decisions of who I work for and what projects I choose to work on going forward will be based on those priorities. Less financial risk. Not much more to say than that. Just to be clear, none of my personal projects are off the table. Only the scheduling will be altered to fit with the reshuffling of my priorities.
Real talk, making comics is HARD, time consuming, and EXPENSIVE! Those who know….know. If you’ve got financial responsibilities you’ll have to plan your life accordingly and work hard towards your goals. That said, there is a balance between passion and paid work. It’s up to each individual creator to define what that means for them.
This was just a little long, but I appreciate you sticking around to read it! Have a great week and make some comics!
-Ray