30yo+ Comic Hobbyists: Heed My Call

[TheVoidchildProject]

How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?
How long have you been at it?
Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?

I try to prioritises. Drawing and creating is demanding. So my lazy self has an innate resistance built in against such activities. but since I'm now 30+ (32) I'm grown up enough to know I'll be all the happier for it if I sit down and get over that initial hump!

I've been drawing and learning basics since February last year. I published my comic online March this year.

Like the poster above me I live in Sweden. Otherwise is love to meet. My grown-up drink of choice is scotch whisky!

[kambreapratt]

How do we budget time? Still working on that. We do our one comic, YouTube and podcasting. Plus we are working on some other things. And we have two kids. It's hard. We don't get out much. Lol. There are two of us and that helps. Money. We used to have a lot more to put into it but recession=job loss so not as much now. We are good at making it work on a shoe string. But it isn't so much just a hobby now.

How long? Well this comic has been up sine 2010 but started years prior. My husband had been doing art for decades. I have too but not in comics. I'm an art teacher.

We hit mostly East coast comic cons. If you see us say hi!

[AlanR]

How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?
I barely sleep.

How long have you been at it?
8 years on webcomics.
Before that, probably 2-3 years of participating in a web forum avatar battle royale via turn-based comics.

Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?
Busy with work in the day, spending time with family in the evenings, drawing/writing the next comic page late nights, and too cheap to pay for comic-con.

[Aloredd]

I shouldn't be on this thread since I'm 19....but "holy crap that's a big dog!" .... mind me asking what breed it is? It weighs more than I do >.< and I have a 50 lb dog and she's not exactly small....

[donathinfrye]

How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?
How long have you been at it?
Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?

Hey there. I'm enjoying my 30s so far! A lot more than I expected to.

Money/time is always the problem to be solved. I've consolidated my work week into two 15 hour days (Weds/Thurs) so that I have Friday to (mostly) relax and the rest of the week to work on comics. Before I launched publicly, I submitted grant requests to get some start up funding for my artist and I, which helped a lot. From there, I've worked hard to create revenue streams via Patreon, Ads, contract editing, basically anything (being a Mercenary) which is how I ended up being able to cut back to two (long) days of dayjob per week. The dream is to cut those out eventually, too.

I've been doing this for about 8 months now. It's been a huge learning process, for sure!

I feel like I'm going to be just a little shy of having enough material to sell at cons this season. So until next year, I'll probably just stick to visiting and chatting up folks at my local cons. There's a few great events here in Columbus, and I'll probably head to GenCon too. I do love a good drink and a hearty high-five!

Anyone who manages to do comics while having kids is a hero in my book.

Yes. This x1000.

[TheHollyStanton]

You'd be surprised how much they sleep and are stationary... it's when your little one starts crawling, then RUNNING everywhere (mine's about 17 months, and oh man, the running!), THAT'S when you no longer have time!
Not to scare you or anything;)
Enjoy the wee one - it's hard, but is more fulfilling than you'd ever imagine!

[TheHollyStanton]

Ah, let's seee....

Time: My strip (new artist still) takes me about 5-6 hours total, so there's a couple early mornings a week and 1 weekend day when my little guy is napping. I have a FT job that doesn't allow for much free time.
Money: What? There's money to be made in this?? Seriously though, I invested in Manga Studio and a Wacom Bamboo after waiting months for the right sales... under $100 total for both. And that's all I've spent. I don't make anything...yet;)
Background: Been drawing only for about 4 years, and doing my webcomic since November. I have to say my pencil/paper sketches are TONS better than my digital! But alas, time...
CONS! I'm in Colorado, so are you nearby? Is anyone? I LOVE just walking around artist alley all day, chatting with creators - I sort of fan-girl out if I get to discover a new comic that I fall in love with:)

Discuss: I spend half my day kicking myself for not starting drawing earlier in my life and the other half fretting over the lack of time I have to do it! When I get home I just want to play with my son (my hubby is a stay-at-home dad), so by the time he goes to bed, I'm ready for bed too:/ Will time somehow find me so that I have more time to improve?

[infectedbloodcomics]

• How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?
  I do my comics after my regular job for about 4 hours a day. Sometimes I keep drawing in the evening, too.So, it's a balance of an actual incoming wage and working out a decent schedule without my wife divorcing me

• How long have you been at it?
  Seriously? Less than 2 years. But I've been drawing and inventing stories my entire life.

• Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?
  Because I am a very private person and do not wish to meet other creators and/or readers in real life

[nickricci]

So many great replies, thanks everyone! We're a diverse group, to say the least. To those of you who I may someday meet, and to those of you who will never interact with their fellow creators beyond the glow of an LCD screen, I offer my sincere gratitude for the insights and advice. Especially the kiddo advice.

[Mercuryhat]

Continuing the discussion from 30yo+ Comic Hobbyists: Heed My Call:

I've been doing webcomics for about a decade. I started out in Comic Genesis so I've actually got a few friends from back then who still do comics and they're all in their 30s too, but it really IS a youth culture

Hey.

I've been doing stuff off and on through the years, but I didn't start my most recent project until last summer and I haven't been this excited about it since I was doing stuff in high school. I don't have any other time-consuming hobbies so it's not too hard to carve some of my afternoon time out for comics.

Of course, I'm putting off working seriously on my next chapter because I get sleepy at 5 pm but hey, it'll get done.

[Gaspode12]

I'm 31 but only been at this lark for a few months, not counting a brief stint in my 20's. It can be hard juggling work and family commitments. I luckily don't have children though so that helps. I tend to spend a lot of my evenings working on my comic, when I'm not out with friends or doing stuff with the local amature dramatic society (I'm actually writing this on my phone backstage at a musical right now!) which tends to take up a lot of time! I live in Wild west Wales so getting to cons is pretty much impossible most of the time 😢

[sincerely]

Yeah, we both had comics on CG in the early naughties! Times have changed but you know not really that much...

[demthorshie]

I'm 29 right now, currently about to kiss 30 in less than a year!

I budget my time and money specifically for comics by not having a vast social life like many in my circle. I do have a group of girlfriends that I hang out with on the weekend who also happen to be occupied with their own geek related stuff during the week, but the weekend is the only social time I have, like ever!

I've been at comics for 13+ years now!

I frequent the con scene quite often, we probably haven't met because i'm usually stuck at booths or too busy hosting panels. I want to attend a con so I can specifically focus on my comics and comic love in general one day :S.

[keii4ii]

She's an oversized Alaskan Malamute. She looks small to me XD It feels like she didn't get any bigger; the rest of the world shrank!

[Shanny8]

I still buy the monthlies(just started back buying comics like 3 years ago. I know that volume collected editions & graph novels are cost effective, but I cant wait months until a series is done to buy the bigger books.

My movie & comic buying budget fluctuates. The only thing that has helped me out IS me turning to digital rendering. I still got a stash full of traditional tools, but the most expensive thing that I will ever buy digitally(aside from hardware like a new laptop or a better tablet) are fonts(pending on the time of the year). PS and CSP brushes are relatively inexpensive.

[agentfink]

How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?

30+ here!
I don't think I budget my time well (so says my husband!) And he's right-- after work I go directly to work on my comic. Trying to find that sweet spot in my work/life balance... We just came back from a mini vacation-- and I haven't touched my comic in about 2 weeks (just to relax and recharge before starting the next chapter). My husband and I really don't out much and when we do, it's pretty low key.

I work as a full time artist and live pretty close to home (I pay for it-- but I feel having no commute is worth it for a few years... so I can freelance and comic!) As far budget, I try to invest as much as I can towards my comic. I figure, any expense that helps make my comic is also promoting me as an artist-- tax write off!

How long have you been at it?

I've been trying to get a few projects off the ground for a few years now... but concept of The Pale started back in 2013 and has been the one project that was most promising (as in, I can actually take this to the end!) I am heavily invested in the characters and story.

Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?

What cons do you go to homie?! I actually really only go to SDCC, and a few around Los Angeles... but I am hoping to expand that. We hope to share The Pale at different cons! Let's meet for drinks first-- THEN high five... I'm one of those social introverts!

[quakeulf]

How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?
I took some time off from work when I started in 2012 to see what I could get done and develop a style. Then I really like what I saw and I got really inspired and decided to develop it further and make a full long story out of it. Then some indie publisher saw it and thought it looked cool and wanted to print it and publish it for me, but when we couldn't acquire the funding for it last year the whole thing fell through.

How long have you been at it?
I first got the idea when I was 15 years old and I decided to slowly build on it. I really like sci-fi and 2001:A Space Odyssey so much I wanted to make a sci-fi comic on the realistic side with little dialogue and mostly action over long scenes. Since I am so bad at drawing I didn't reach the point where I could start drawing this until 2012. From 2015 to now I have been on and off working on it in between other projects and it's almost done. You can read the first 1/3rd of it here: https://tapastic.com/series/lemonade

Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?
I'm too poor to travel far and I live in Oslo, Norway so it's highly unlikely I will meet any of you, with the exception of those I know from the area that are on here, though.

[scythe]

On a workday I draw/comic from about 5 in the morning until about 8, and depending on how tired I am, maybe another hour at night after work. I try to get some more hours in on the weekend, but between the wife and kid and other various commitments, it's always a balancing act.

I've been maintaining this schedule for over a year now and it's been fine, actually, I feel much better getting up and working earlier, although every now and then 8pm hits and I just crash. HARD.

Why haven't we caught up for a drink? Without knowing exactly where you live, it'd probably be because I live about as far away from everyone else as possible in a land down under.

[BenBD]

I'm 31... or 32? Not sure. Probably more 31.

How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?
I aimed for the easiest/most flexible/best paying job I could find. In other words, the job I'd be the most naturally good at, because a lot of my energy goes to my hobby. Now I work from home, which gives me extra time to work on my comic and the money to support it. I don't rely on my art to live at all, which gives me a lot of freedom. I also have a daughter, which reduces my aforementioned freedom to "not a lot". But it's still manageable.

How long have you been at it?
I've been making comics since my childhood; I've always been an avid reader of European graphic novels. It came naturally. I can't imagine my life without making comics... OMG what a pointless existence it would be! The webcomic format is not my favorite to be honest, but it's a lot more rewarding than working on huge graphic novels for months, rushing it because you have no time, getting rejected by multiple publishers, giving up, and making no money at all. Plus, it keeps me on my toes as I have to post every week.

Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?
We haven't met at a comic-con because I only leave my house to buy wine.

[noonecomicsve]

**How do you budget your time and money in pursuit of your comic hobby?**

im a mess to be honest, I put some time to projects as a hired gun and on my own projects I move at a very slow pace, I do have a lot finished so thats good, this year my goal is to focus on my stuff full time, fingers crossed

**How long have you been at it?**

I started as a kid, then theres a break when I was about...20 years, came back at 28 and still going strong

**Why haven't we met at a comic-con for drinks and high-fives?**

because we live in different countries, thas a good excuse.