In the last few months, I've had a few people ask me if I'd be interested in teaming up on a comic. The lack of actual new devs by me is a sign that I haven't taken these guys up, mostly because I feel I'm getting scripts that don't interest me or ones I can't support.

This Journal entry is basically to help clarify stuff I'd like to work on, and somewhere I can direct people to insted of having to constantly explain to people why I'm not interested in taking up their offer, and why I am in others.

This isn't me being arrogant or anything because I'm not even near pro standards or anything art wise, it's just some common frustrations I'm encountering and I'm looking to save time in future. For the most part this is actually aimed at people wanting to team up simply for the aim of building our comic making skills.

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About me

I'm 20 years old and in my second of three years studying a degree in Politics and Economics in England.

That's my primary concern because I'm paying for that education. While I'd love a career in comics, know that my degree comes first, because it provides me with a fall back and because I've worked very hard to get there. I also work and actively do sports also, so if I'm going to work on a project, I'll be looking to do the pages in my spare time around that. A professional artist can dedicate eight hours a day to the work, I will be fitting it in around my other commitments.

I draw my work digitally. This means I pencil and ink my own work. I do not provide colour, although I am looking to adding Lettering as a skill.

My art appears high contrast, and so I've attracted alot of darker and adult scripts, but just to claify some of my favourite comics are much lighter and are as follows:

Amazing Spider-Man (particularly John Romita Jr and Straczynski's run.)
Justice League International - Booster Gold and Blue Beetle = Some of my favourite comic moments ever. Guy Gardner even more so!
52
Nightwing (Except under Devin Grayson!)
Green Lantern Vol 3 Early Issues featuring Guy Gardner
Teen Titans Vol 3
Invincible

While Superheroes is my favourite genre, I certainly don't limit myself to them.
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Guidance to writers

1) If we're working as a team, I'd like to know more about you first. I've had a tonne of people come to me, immediately telling me a story they think I'm perfect for; without doing the basic part of introducing themselves properly to me.

Even when I've attempted to ask for more information they seem to feel this knowledge is unimportant and continue on rambling.

I like to know who I'm working with. A small introduction will do.

I'm not going to want to work with you, if I have no idea who you are!

2) I'm a part-time artist. Therefore I am not interested in your 24 issue series as I don't have time to work on that, nor do I have the experience. I'd only take such a huge committment if your name was Marvel or DC comics and you were offering stupid money.

At most you can approach me with a maximum single 22/23 page comic. i.e. The story is self contained. This will help give me faith in you as a writer too. If you want to do a story that's shorter, that's fine. Ever read Batman Black and White? Those stories are just 8 pages!

The reason being Editors do not employ beginner artists or writers to do more than a single fill in issue of a comic and more likely a back up story. This also prevents the project looking weird, because I'm sure as a beginner the stuff I do on page 23 will be 10x better than page 1 given the steep learning curve.

3) I will not do any comics involing scenes of a pornographic nature. Usually what you don't see is better than what you do anyway.

I will not do ones promoting immoral or illegal acts. This does not mean they can't be mentioned, I'm not trying to dumb comics down, but it's the manner in which they are handled. Alot of the scripts I've read seem to have these included just to make their scripts more "adult" or "real" without it having actual depth.

The use of religion in an offensive way.

4) I'd much rather work with someone who provides solid yet standard writing, knowing he wants to develop his scripting skills than someone who comes to me telling me their idea is so original and great that I should work on it.

99% of comics/tv/films aren't original. The concepts are similar but some are just told better than others. We do not need a script of Santa Claus being a secret terminator just because it's something new if it's at the expense of writing a better "less new" story.

5) I don't like stories with limited range. A script that continually piles on the drama after drama is never as effective as one that has comedy in it as well, because there's no contrast between the two scenes. It'll also benefit you to try out different things too.

I also have no problems with non-superhero stories, as long as they're written well!