For those of you who follow our column on Twitter, you may have seen us tweet about comic books. We are huge fans of the medium, and often times when one of our articles goes viral, we’ll get a tweet from a major Twitter account congratulating us on our success. It’s always a nice moment, but it means that we’ve reached a wide audience, which is exactly what we wanted to happen. So even though this may be a bit of a tangent to your average journalism blog post, we thought we’d continue the conversation here.
The Pros
Anyone who knows us knows that we are huge proponents of comic books, and for good reason. The medium is filled with tremendous possibilities, both in terms of storytelling and character design. It is also one of the only industries that still pays reasonably well for those who can actually write and draw well. If you’ve got a background in literature, you may find that you can translate your skills to quickly move up the ranks.
But as we mentioned before, not all comic books are made equal. You must know how to properly analyze a comic book before you can begin to write one. If you are new to the industry, this may be difficult, but you can learn a lot from analyzing the pros. Below, you’ll learn about some things that make comic books special, as well as some of the things that can make you a better writer
The Cons
While there are many amazing things about comic books, there are also a few things that could trip up even the most seasoned writer. As before, this is a difficult industry to break into and even more difficult to keep a job in once you’ve got it. There are many cases of creators leaving the industry due to frustrations with the traditional publisher model. If you’ve got an eye for justice, you may find that this is the kind of job that you’ll enjoy, but for the majority of us, the pay isn’t great and the work-life balance tends to be terrible.
If you’ve got a background in literature, you may find that some of the genres available to you aren’t exactly your cup of tea. There is a wide variety of comics out there, and some may be a little more difficult to classify than others. If you’re looking for something more traditional, you may find that comic books aren’t for you. It all depends on how much you want to do on what to study, because the reality is that there isn’t any specific program to study animation or comics.
But as we stated above, the pay isn’t great, and it’s a very unstable industry. So while we can’t recommend that you enter this line of work, we can tell you that if you do decide to dive in, you may want to do so as soon as possible.
The Differences
Comic books are a unique and integral part of our culture. It’s been around for as long as we’ve been able to read, and it continues to grow thanks to platforms like TikTok, where fans can enjoy short-form comics (typically 3-4 pages) all day long. It isn’t all unicorns and rainbows, however. While it is true that society as a whole is beginning to embrace the medium, it isn’t necessarily the case within the industry. You may have to wade through a lot of bad reviews if you want to find the good ones.
There is a large overlap between the audience for traditional magazines and the audience for comics. Many of the same individuals read both, and according to some estimates, 90% of Americans know how to read a comic book.
The biggest difference between the two is that while traditional magazines usually take a while to find their audience, comics are often created with the audience in mind. The purpose of a magazine is to inform its audience of the latest trends and news. But in the case of comics, the writer is more interested in creating an entertaining story that will keep the reader interested.
If you can write entertaining stories that also make the reader think, you may find that comic books are the perfect fit for you. But whether you choose to write for magazines or comics, the fundamentals of good writing are the same.