Old School (Part 15)

By: Brian Mah

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What advise would you give to anyone who wants to break into your industry?
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Patrick Macias: Study Japanese language, culture, and history and try to develop your own voice or vision using what you’ve learned.

Rikki Simons: Find a good school and make good friends and all that, but more over: love what you do and don't be a work-a-day stiff, even if you have to find a day job. A job is a necessity, sure, because of money, but there are many ways to make money, and you can always find a way to make money at what you love. Not because you're greedy, but because it gives you the power to make more of what you love.

Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons: Never give up! Try not to burn yourself out or get too overwhelmed, learn how to pace yourself. Being a successful artist takes time and complete dedication and you can't expect it to happen overnight. Also, don't be shy to show your art and try to network with fellow artists. The best thing for any starting artist is to get exposure and these days with the internet, the skies the limit with so many places like Deviant Art to showcase and critique your artworks. Most importantly, try not to get discouraged or bullied by what you're trying to achieve. There's a huge difference in a helpful critique as opposed to an insult. Give respect to other artists and try to learn from one another. You're never too old or too young to learn or enjoy something new or different. And there's always something new and different in anime and manga.

Jan Scot-Fraizer: Decide what you want to do, and pursue it with great conviction. The anime industry in Japan is in terrible shape so it's definitely not the time to move over there and go for it right now. The industry in the US is hurting terribly and it's going to change tremendously over the next couple years to survive. It might not even survive, being absorbed into much larger entertainment companies who REALLY won't care what fans think but I don't think that's likely. If I was running one of those companies I think I'd bail right now to be honest. I can't see a real solid revenue stream because of downloading and I can't see new products in a different format suddenly hitting big during a time of economic trouble. I think I'd close up and do something else until the economy swings back and something new that couldn't be swiped effortlessly was available.

If you want to make comics, start by making your own. If you can't tell your story with stick figures then it's not a good story after all...
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Living vicariously through your favorite artists is one thing. In order to be a great artist you need to live through the high and low points in life to achieve that goal. Hard work, creativity, and the ability to work with others is the key to be successful in any industry.