Jeremy Biggs, Comics Writer and PublisherA conversation with

Artwork from Metal Made Flesh 4: Damnation. Subversive Comics.

Writing for comics

Background

Ed: You’re both a writer and a publisher. Those are very different things and while I don’t expect it’s uncommon for a comics creator to do (or at the very least, have an interest in) both, I am interested to learn of the unique challenges that can arise as a result. To start, I think it’s worth exploring each role independently, so let’s start with writing.

I’m going to assume you’re familiar with those pictures the kids (or old people in denial) share across social media, where there’s a grid of images representing a vocation organised by: my job, what society thinks it is, what my friends think it is, what I think it is, etc. Could you please describe ‘writing comics’ in these terms?

Jeremy: Hahaha, I’m not sure I can boil it down into quite that same format, but it would look something like this:

What society thinks it is: Picture of Stan Lee standing over the shoulder of John Romita as they talk about the latest issue of Spiderman.

What my friends think it is: Image of Red Letter Media’s Nerd Crew surrounded by 80’s toys wearing baseball caps.

What it actually is: Man resting his head on a computer.

Ed: How did this journey begin for you? Is this a case of a childhood passion never going away, something that’s been cultivated over time or the result of a seemingly random event?

And on that note, were you working a full-time job when you began writing comics? This has obviously grown to be a huge commitment and passion for you, so I’m interested to know how you initially balanced it alongside your immediate responsibilities at the time.

Jeremy: Writing was my first creative love. As a young kid, I was an avid reader of books and comics like Transformers, Spiderman, Hitchhikers Guide, The Tripods and I, Robot so it was a fairly natural progression to writing my own stories. Unfortunately I had a particularly discouraging teacher who put me off as a young teen and it wasn’t until many years later that I picked it up again.

From the age of eighteen I was always on the cusp of some form of success in the music industry but never managed to get quite over the line. For most of my twenties and half my thirties I lived a strange double life working soul destroying office jobs by day and then spending most of my evenings writing or occasionally performing music and djing. My biggest successes were exhibiting at the Tate Modern as part of the opening of the oil tanks, remixing one of my music idols, getting some music on BBC 3’s Lip Service and putting on wild, hedonistic fancy dress parties in London with some school friends.

Whilst working in Westminster, I used to pop to the library at lunch time and pick up DVD’s and books. One such book was Sandman by Neil Gaiman which reignited a love of comics. Next came Akira and then Watchmen.

A close friend of mine, Imran, served as an inspiration for dedicating myself wholly to working on writing full time. He had a very well paid job working for Channel 4 as a programmer and decided that he wanted to pursue something more spiritually satisfying and went on to pursue a career as a film composer. He asked me to help with his first feature film The Dead and I provided some short musical stings.

He’d been networking on the film circuit and had met a guy, Rob, who had recently returned to the UK from hollywood where he’d worked putting together film financing and reviewing the slush pile. He was writing scripts and a book and wanted to create an audiodrama based on his work.

Meanwhile my day job contract was coming to an end, so I ended up saving up some funds and leaving to form a company working on audiobooks with the other two guys. We produced about nine or ten audiodramas including a version of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter” which you can view on Youtube here:

We booked a table at MCM Comic con in London in 2012 to promote the audiobooks and, just for fun, I put together an 8 page comic to show at the show. This was issue Zero of Bearlands. The comic turned out to be a bigger smash than the audio-dramas and generated enough interest that I decided to produce a proper comic from this and Subversive Media was born.

Ed: What was your approach to getting started? I don’t mean in terms of the actual writing, so much as finding the time and motivation to write. I know a few people who would love to do this sort of thing but struggle to ‘make it happen’.

Jeremy: Procrastination is definitely a writer’s disease. I’d like to say I had good habits in that respect, but that would be a lie.

Being committed to writing definitely helps – if it’s your full time job then you have to do it or you don’t get paid!

Kickstarter has been a boon, though. If people are counting on you to deliver there’s no room to cop out. Backers will be on your back if you’re late or don’t deliver on time. That’s a great motivator.

You have to love writing, though. When you’re in a full flow state and the words are pouring out it’s a real buzz. The counterweight to that is that pushing through writer’s block is like pulling teeth. There are some days where even the most menial of chores looks more attractive than sitting in front of a blank page.

If I were to do it all again though, I would go to writer’s forums and participate in writing challenges to build up the basic skills. If I had known about these fifteen years ago the quality of my writing and the output would have been greatly increased far earlier. That epic novel about cloning in China would have been finished fifteen years ago!

There is no other way to learn how to write than by doing.

Super Robot Mayhem and Metal Made Flesh books from Subversive comics.

Ed: What other sort of practical challenges did you face? Were there any which surprised you going in? What was your approach to overcoming them?

Jeremy: Blimey, loads. Apart from the steep curve learning, the technical aspects of publishing (layout, formatting, colour management, paper choice, software etc.), just knowing the right questions to ask is essential to being able to plan ahead.

My approach was to generally get stuck in and make as many mistakes as possible, hahaha. Each mistake is a learning opportunity. To a certain degree, they have to be calculated mistakes, not the kind that destroy your cashflow.

We made two big mistakes at the very beginning: incorrectly calculating the postage for our first kickstarter for Metal Made Flesh, and making the wrong choice of printer for one of our books. Those were particularly bad errors. It’s always worth having a range of suppliers to choose from, in case one goes under.

Other than that, reading up as much as possible from others; speaking to other publishers and artists at conventions and trying to stay abreast of industry trends.

Ed: Keeping that in mind, would you do things any differently if you could go back in time in terms of how you dealt with these things? For example, were there any occasions where you rushed into a decision which in hindsight, would’ve benefited from greater consideration?

Jeremy: Appreciating why industry standards exist is a big one. We produced Super Robot Mayhem in A4 format as we wanted to showcase Javier’s incredible detailed art, but it was difficult to get comic shops to fit these on shelves alongside other floppies.

Ed: You see, that’s an element I expect a lot of people would overlook – making sure your product doesn’t just meet your audience’s needs, but also your distributors’. It must be incredibly frustrating to make a conscious decision to really maximise an aspect of your work that you know the audience will appreciate (in this case, the art) only for it to become an obstruction for those responsible for getting it to that audience. You’ve mentioned abiding by industry standards as being a good method for avoiding this, but are there any sort of ‘unwritten rules’ about working in this area that you think a newcomer might be completely oblivious to?

Jeremy: There are unwritten rules in respect of the comic’s medium. US or UK single issues have a definite individual size, as does Manga – a dedicated printer should tell you these.

There are all kinds of rules that big publisher’s like DC use – number of words per page / panel, number of people able to speak in a panel and so on – Dennis O’Neill’s DC Guide to writing comics is a good primer on that.

Then there are unwritten rules of story – etc.

A large portion of knowing the rules comes from reading widely, keeping an eye on trends and knowing the market.

Subversive comics t-shirt design concept

Ed: Bringing all these things together, what would your advice be to someone who finds themselves in a similar situation; wanting to become a comics writer but having existing commitments that limit their available time? What specific things would you suggest they be prepared for that they might not otherwise expect?

Jeremy: My advice to new comics writers would be to assess your skill as a writer. If you haven’t written much then get writing, critiquing and learning the ropes. Set aside an hour a day to just write. Listen to couch to 50k and follow some of the exercises they set. Build a habit of writing.

When you’re ready, partner up with an artist looking to build a career in comics and start a webcomic. Use this to refine your craft and build an audience. Platforms like Webtoon.com are great to refine your craft.

Decide what kind of comic writer you want to be – Marvel? DC? Indie? Manga? Follow their output and get conversant in the niche you want to occupy. Learn all the conventions and traditions in each Niche. Know who the top writers are. Go to conventions, meet them and establish a connection. Network. Take full advantage of comics forums.

And read, a lot.

Ed: Obviously this isn’t something you wander into completely on your own. There’s a huge community around comics with lots of indie writers. How much did you lean on this when you started out? Was the community accommodating? Did you have any preconceived notions about how it might respond to first-time writers?

Truthfully, not as much as I could have done. I’m a jump right in kinda guy, and learn by mistakes. But I often analyse how others are doing things and am always on the look out for what works.

The comics community is a bit of a double edged sword.

At its best, it’s a network of talented individuals who are all doing something they love. Everyone is more than willing to help and they’re often full of great advice. Creatives are usually nice people who love art more than anything. They’re passionate, original and interesting to talk to. Camaraderie runs high at conventions.

At its worst, it can be a bit of a crab bucket and it’s as rife with office politics as any traditional office. Opportunities are scarce and competition is fierce. People can be jealous of success. There are strong personalities that like to assert dominance. People who are resentful that success has passed them by. Art and fandom arouses strong opinions and people who question or don’t conform to the clique’s group think are often marginalised.

The kind of people who organise comic communities tend to be community organisers (unsurprisingly) and have a Trade Union type spirit, for good and ill. Often they have the ear of convention organisers and can help to make conditions better for exhibitors, but this can lead to stifling of competition or innovation as the prevailing tendency is towards cutting the tall poppy. I think this might be a British tendency – not sure how things work across the pond.

Ed: We’ve talked about the practical challenges involved with becoming a writer – but what about creatively? We’ll get into the specifics of how you write shortly, but I’m interested to know if the whole process of just ‘becoming’ a writer had any impact (positive or negative) on your creativity?

Yes, definitely. The more you write, the more you pick up a feel for idea generation and structure. There are lots of tricks that can help you generate ideas. Writing workshops and challenges are great for this.

Metal Made Flesh artwork concepts.

Ed: I think that’s extremely important for people to hear. There seems to be a common misconception that ‘motivation creates action’, that you can’t do something until you’re motivated to and that motivation is difficult to cultivate if life is littered with other obstructions/responsibilities. In my experience, the opposite is true. The more you do something, whether it’s an hour at the weekend or ten minutes every evening, the more momentum and motivation you generate as a result.

Obviously, some degree of motivation is required to instigate that action but I think people often expect/demand too much of themselves in this respect. They’re incredibly hard on themselves if they don’t magically find 4 hours every night to deliver work that’s consistent with what full time professionals are doing. I’ve long argued squeezing five minutes every day toward a practice will (to my mind) do your progress and motivation more good than double the cumulative time once per week. I’d be interested to know if this is something you agree with and area able to reflect on, but also – what can people do to avoid losing motivation? We’ve spoken a bit about what you can do to find and generate it, but what are some common pitfalls that people do that cause it to decrease? Importantly, how do you think these can be avoided?

Jeremy: Yes, I do agree. I had an artist friend, Mark Rathmell, who used to force himself to write for fifteen minutes a day. It was surprising how much he managed to produce from just that small window. He would have “bets” with himself – incentives that motivated him to keep at it, regardless of the quality.

Incentives are a great help – even the possibility of winning an online competition is good motivation to write.

Pitfalls – generally, for me, they revolve around self criticism. When you start writing you tend to have better taste than you do ability. You can get trapped in thinking what you write doesn’t measure up to your own standards. Young writers need to learn to turn off their critical faculties in early drafts, then turn them on again when editing. They also need to learn when to draw a line under something and move on.

I think creating space for play is good too. Just experimenting. If every story just follows the rules it can get staid very fast, you have to be able to have fun with it. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll naturally do it often.

The war of art

Ed: Clearly art plays a huge role in what you do. What’s the process like for finding an artist to work with?

It’s pretty simple really – either from Artstation, DeviantArt or facebook. Other than that – real life. Conventions are great for finding artists!

Ed: How separate are the two processes? Do you tend to work independently, consult and milestones or work closely with your artists?

It depends on how the artist likes to work. It can be one sided – an artist can send a piece through that inspires a story, or collaborative where you bounce ideas off each other. Some artists like to be told exactly what to draw. Others want free reign to interpret it in their style.

The important thing is to establish upfront how an artist likes to work and tailor your script to their preferred way.

Artwork for Metal Made Flesh by Simeon Aston.

Ed: In a similar vein, how often does the art affect the writing? Do you ever find yourself going down paths in response to a specific style, or must the artist very much be guided by the writing?

Oh all the time – Super Robot Mayhem was very much influenced by sketches that Javier was sending me in the beginning and throughout. Zombie Bears wouldn’t even be if Bakki hadn’t made me laugh with her concepts. And Simeon has had a huge input into the writing – the first Metal Made Flesh book was very much drawn from his original story “hunters”.

Ed: Have there ever been great artists you wanted to work with but couldn’t because their style didn’t fit the tone?

Jeremy: Loads. I’d love to work with Riccardo Federici but he wouldn’t be suitable for Zombie Bears!!

Ed: What are the main challenges you’ve experienced working with artists?

Jeremy: Honestly, mostly it’s been great. The most difficult challenge I’ve had was trying to balance an artist’s need for perfection with trying to keep the project on time and in budget. There are times you have to make a call on something in order to finish it where if you had unlimited time and money you would have done it differently. It’s always painful.

You can have creative differences, and the way I deal with that depends on the relationship. If it’s work for hire then I’d want an artist to do it as I described it to them. If the problem is caused due to my fault – the page isn’t working because of the script – then you have to refer to the budget to see if you can fix it.

With collaborative work, if you can’t agree then we tend to seek advice from backers, other creatives or customers. That’s pretty good for generating social media engagement, too.

Super Robot Mayhem artwork.

Ed: Have you ever had a situation where the artist just wasn’t capturing what you had in mind? If so, how do you determine whether this is because they’re incapable, not listening or it’s potentially down to how you’re communicating the goal in the first place?

Jeremy: Yes, it has happened. Usually you can tell if they’re listening from their other work on the same project.

You have to be open when working with an artist that they are interpreting your words, not the image in your head. Oftentimes too, the image in your head never works on the page, so you have to look at what you have as objectively as possible and not be too wedded to individual images.

The important thing is that the page conveys the tone and story, not that it looks exactly like how you imagined. There are basic things the artist should know – allowing room for bubbles, not crossing the line, staying on model, knowing how to create the mise-en-scene etc. So long as the unwritten rules of the medium are adhered to and the tone and words work together then you’re golden.

A lot comes out in discussion before working on the story, too – so you can set ground rules for feedback and so on.

Working with professionals like Gary Erskine, you know they will produce great work on time just from speaking to them up front. Their whole attitude and work ethic reflects the high quality of their work.

Ed: As a writer, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give another prospective writer about finding, choosing and working with an artist?

Jeremy: Look at their body of work. Is it already in the style / genre you like or will they need to work out their comfort zone. Have they already produced several books? What is their reputation like? What are they like to talk to? What level of English do they speak?

Ed: Similarly, from a writer’s perspective, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give an artist about finding, choosing and working with a writer?

Jeremy: Ask yourself what work have they achieved? Are they paying you or are you collaborating? What do you expect to get from the collaboration? Does what they’re creating resonate with you, or would it be just a job?