The higher education question

Mmh tough subject.

I have friends who are good after finishing their art school and other from being self-taught but the difference that I've seen is, the artist who is self-taught is often more doubtful about his skills than the student.
The reason is because the knowledge of the student is backed by professional while the self-taught artist relies on tips from internet which can be great but also really bad.
So imo, an art school is great if you want strong foundation (i'm only familiar with 2D/3D animations school for videogames, architecture and movies).

For me, if you want to focus on comic, 2D/3D animation schools are the best. Whether it is for a movie or a videogame, it's an art of telling stories through visual so the basics are all the same (storyboard, composition, know how to cut your scene, know how to write a story that fits the standard etc)
You will also be able to do your own 3D models that can help your process for your comics, you'll be able to do animation to promote your comic in a more exciting way. Heck, you might even be able to do a small videogame spinoff.
The possibilities are endless unlike art school that focused only on comic, those aren't that great.

I'm from france, so i can only speak from where I live but here, comic school are kinda eh. They teach only the basics because this is the only thing you need to learn for a comic. In comparison, you'll invest the same budget and time than 2D/3D animations for less knowledge (because 2D/3D animations will essentially cover the same topics as comic school).

Of course it all depends on the school, you should try to see their programs, see if it's worth it or not.

That's a lengthy post but a little about me, I'm graduated from a 3D animations school program in 2012 (in Canada) and right now I'm able to make a little bit of living from my comic work (only from commission mainly from people outside of france also not from companies haha), my 3D knowledges helps me to see potential avenue that can help the process of my comic but also creating different type of projects, i'm a bit more versatile while working on projects that I love

Okay, so to preference my unpopular opinion let me tell you a story about my life... haha.. ah..

I went to a 4 year private university in the US to major in Biology with the goal of becoming a veterinarian. It was $43,000/year for 4 years and most of it I took out in student loans. I graduated top of my class, got into Vet school, but then subsequently dropped out of grad school (goodbye $8000 non-refundable entrance fees) due to my father passing away. I spent almost a year unemployed with massive amounts of student loan debt, with a STEM degree that everyone touts should land you an awesome job. Eventually I got a crappy low paying job at the university and went back to school to get a Masters in Business and this time did it via tuition waiver. However, it took selling my house many years later to finally be debt free. (Happy ending I now have a fabulous paying job so things worked out in the end, but it took a really long time!)

What did I learn? Do NOT go into college without a financial plan. Art majors notoriously STRUGGLE to find work. Especially in the US. Some freelance artists do pretty well as graphic designers doing logos and branding or working for marketing companies. If you are super duper lucky you might work for Disney or a video game company. Almost no-one is ever hired on salary for a major comics publisher. Dreams of working for Marvel/DC? Not a good life plan when you have student loans that don't care if you got your dream job or not.

My advice, coming from someone who is much older than the average tapas user, is that it is OKAY to follow your dreams. But make sure you can financially support yourself as well. If there is a particular company you want to work for (such as a video game company), contact the company and ask them what sort of requirements they have for hiring. Do they want an art degree? Do they prefer marketing? Do they just want a beautiful portfolio? Then make a college plan. Make sure the cost of the degree is worth the potential job at the end. If you want to freelance, do some research about how much freelancers make in their areas.

Even better go to a University in a country like Germany where school is virtually free and you take away a huge amount of financial risk and it will give you more time to plan out your career and try different things. If you are in the US? Please don't go into debt without a good plan. Remember you can always minor in arts too if there is another degree that interests you. That way you get the experience of art school with a bit less risk.

Yes and no. I took out loans to cover my tuition, which would have been fine had I continued to pursue vet medicine, since vets in US get paid very well and jobs are readily available. People take out loans for a variety of reasons even in countries where the tuition is very low. You still need to have a plan in place to provide for yourself through your college years. For things like your living costs, food, supplies, books etc and most importantly your time. Loans are not bad if you have a way to pay them off, however I see students come through my office every day who regret it or at the very least wished someone had really talked about the investment before they made it. I do have a student from the UK, I'll have to ask them their opinion.

Just be very careful when you take your loans. Read all the details specific to your loan. All loans mature eventually, and you will have to pay them back one way or another. My loans had a deferment period, but eventually I had to start making payments. Also the longer you drag out your repayment period the more you pay in interest. If I had waited the whole 30 year period I would have eventually paid twice as much as the original amount!

I think the UK has a forgiveness program where you can teach in certain areas in your field for so many years and your loans disappear. Those types of things are good too. The US used to have a program like this, but it doesn't exist anymore to my knowledge and those who used it had to pay mountains of taxes since its considered income when loans are forgiven. All I'm saying is that the financial aspect is worth just as much research as the program you want to enter. Get all the information you can, especially from the administrator you are borrowing from. Know what the market will be like afterwards.

You can absolutely make a career out of art, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Just be as prepared as possible and armed with as much info as you can get and I think it will save you a lot of stress and heartache later.

In danger of sounding pretentious as hell, I think comics as any other art form deserves the recognition and seriousness that is the dedicated study of it and specialization, that I think is the purpose of a higher education.

But I don't think higher education is for everyone. Some thrive in a class room setting, other people wither and dies in them.

I really want to get an education in comics. I learn well in a structured school setting, and I like getting assignments and such, otherwise I have a hard time getting out of my comfort zone and prioritize what to work on.

There is a school near where I live that I have had my eyes on for years. In Denmark (where I live) we have The Animation Workshop. It's an internationally renowned profession bachelor program that has three branches each at four years length: Computer Graphic Arts, Character Animation and their newest, Graphic Storytelling, that includes storyboarding, comics and other sorts of visual storytelling.
It's a state funded school, but you have to pay for materials. You learn both the artistic parts of the craft but also the marketing and business aspects of it. The course is quite popular and have a low acceptance rate, mostly because GS is very new. The first graduates just came out this year. What I have heard there were 60 places for 400 applicants last year, so you have to be good before you even get in. Competition is fierce.

Every summer The Animation Workshop also have some one week courses for everyone to attend, and I've been there the past three years. They are amazing! They offer classical drawing and animation and this year they also have a comic course I'm looking forward to attend! (There are a lot of international people that attend, I can give you a link if you are interested) (No, I'm not sponsored, I'm just a fangirl of this school, it's like my dream holiday destination)

I have been told from several sources that I have the potential to get in, unfortunately my health does not agree. I can barely hold a work week of 16 hours atm (late diagnosed autism and prolonged exposure to stress does horrible things to your brain), and the school requires full time plus homework. It has been a bitter pill to swallow, that I might have to give up on my dream of getting into the school.

Personal bitterness and crushed dreams aside, I have been seeking alternatives. At the moment I just seek information where I can. The internet is your friend.

I've also started looking into a one year course in Malmö in Sweden, Serieskolan, that may be easier on me to complete. There is also a school in Copenhagen, can't remember it's name, and don't know how long the course is. I just remember someone mentioned it to me.

Ehhhh it's basically the cool kids hangout/ "have studied there" of the swedish comic industry. I was eyeing it myself and applied but got rejected, unsurprisingly But I've heard that it's really good. Over the years they have had several professional comic makers as tutors in there, and they have strong ties to the publishing business. If traditional publishing is your goal, it's a good place to learn from those who are in it, develop your skills among likeminded people and tie some valuable contacts that could get the ball rolling for your comic carreer.

As for me, I found out with time that the oldschool/traditional publishing industry in sweden isn't very positive towards manga. There are a few manga titles in it but the attitude is generally negative. One of the most (if not the most) popular swedish manga creators in Sweden runs their own publishing. There is obviously a huge demand for manga here and general publishers want to procrastinate on recognizing that for as long as they possibly can.

As I said, school vs no school depends on intent as well as culture. I am not willing to change my artstyle just to get into swedish publishing culture, and I don't get anything out of aesthetic education. I did 3 years of aesthetic classes and in terms of my art development they were a waste of time (full of stuff I already knew or was already in the progress of figuring out myself and understood better when learning on my own time). My friend on the other hand felt she learned a lot in those same classes, and improved on what she did already know. She isn't better or worse at art than me, just different. Learning is just different from one person to another.

My stuff doesn't appeal to the swedish comic industry. Too bad, so sad, it does well online instead. One or the other isn't better or worse, just different. Therefore, I feel that the "Is higher education better or worse?" discussion is sort of... not gonna go anywhere because it differs on a case by case basis.

How long is a string?

Also tangent but... this is also why I get a little annoyed when people complain that their comic isn't doing well on Site X or that Site X isn't doing enough to promote Genre Y, all they ever see is Blabla romance and BL or whatever people complain about, and that the site should do Z to make genre Y more popular on the site.
Like mate. There is a medium out there where genre Y FLOURISHES. Move yourself over to wherever that is and give it a try. It's the realization I came to and the thing I did. Why ya gotta come over to the one place where people like me can flourish and tell us it has to be like all those places where we already got rejected??

You don't see me walking into that comic school shouting WHY THE FUCK U NO LOVE MY MANGA-ISH GAY ART
Like no I just move on and go where the people who will love my gay-ass art are hanging out. Everybody wins.

Tangent over I suppose

Well, my degree almost never discussed comics. However, a narrative is a narrative, and anything you can write into a short story or a novel you can write into a comic. So, those are very transferrable. However, if you really want to focus on what can transfer, studying film scripting is a great start.

Comics actually came after my degree. So I can't say that there was anything I did to particularly focus on them during.

That being said, many of my colleagues were interested in graphic novels (and my make this distinction from 'comics' on purpose). Graphic novels take more cues from traditional writing than old style serial comics do. They have recently become very big where I live (Canada), so there have been courses developed at my university to specifically study their style (thought not many).

If you want to do creative writing, I'd say go for it. It may seem peripheral, but it's not. Knowing how traditional storytelling works and what the historical tropes are is very important to constructing any style of narrative.

Well, my main teacher only wrote literary fiction, which I hate. And she hates fantasy, which I love. But it still worked out for me because my peers loved what I wrote...

I think it's all about what you make of it. Just go in to network, find a group of like-minded peers. Even if your professors aren't that great, you can still learn something from them. I just think you lose if you don't go, no matter what. haha