Working with Collaborators, Why?

I think I work alone because I have already hoarded the two 'coolest' jobs for myself: script and pencils. Well, coolest in my eyes, of course. Although, digital inking is pretty fun, as is coloring... and special effects.. It's mine! Stay away from it! I want it all!

Kidding aside, story and art have always been hardwired together in my mind. I can't think of any story I've wrote that didn't have a visual element and I can't think of a single drawing that I've done which didn't turn into a story. Even anatomy studies turned into stories. So, doing both the story and art is just natural for me. I realize that doesn't translate into being particularly fast or proficient with either, it's just how my brain works.

Ok, this is something that I have a fair amount of experience in. Until I started NO-Earth, I had never worked on a comic by myself, having usually done inking, colours, and/or pencils for other people. Writing was something I came late to, and since I learned to write, it's something that I have been concentrating on, so that I am now capable of doing all of the standard 'jobs' in a comic.

But NO-Earth is being built on the idea of collaborations, and we are spending a lot of time and effort to figure out the best way to make these work in a setting of a shared universe and in the world of webcomics. There's a few things I've learned (and am still learning)

1. Leave the egos out of it. The fact is, this is the biggest problem that I see when dealing with collaborations. For the most part, unless a person has a name that sells comics, the ego is not justified to begin with. Even then, it's going to do nothing but interfere with the collaboration. Prima Donnas and Divas ruin more collaborations than anything else.

2. Have a goal and a road map to get there. If you are a writer, this means a script before you go looking for an artist. If you are an artist, this means concept, concept art, and a clear idea of the story you want written before you go looking for a writer.

3. Communication is key. A collaboration (as opposed to simple work-for-hire) requires a lot of communication between the people on the team. It requires openness and honesty concerning one's feelings about the project, and the various things going on as it evolves.

4. Compromise is important. In the most ideal situation, each of you are contributing ideas that build towards something better than either could do on their own, but that's the ideal. In reality what's more likely to happen is that some of your 'good' ideas are going to be replaced by the other person's 'better' ideas. There's going to be arguments about that unless you go in with the right attitude.

5. Remember than a collaboration is a time of growth. Use it as such, and not just a chance to stagnate.

Eagle
(Just some thoughts)

I work with an artist, because I can't draw very well. I started off trying to do my comic alone - in the form of a serial story but I much prefer script-writing to actual prose. I also love the idea of making my story a visual thing. A nice thing about working with somebody else is that they can bring their own ideas to the project as well - which I think every collaborative project should do, once two creators are involved it no longer belongs to one sole person I think.

My initial plan was to write and draw my own things, but a studio mate asked me to write their comic, and then another couple of friends did as well. I simply find myself much more in demand as a writer than an artist.

I like the collaborative energy. I still try to draw my own stuff whenever I can, but most of my time is spent on the writing.

For me, the secret of collaboration is knowing the strengths of your collaborator and their passions. If you write things they want to draw, they will always bring passion and joy to a project.

I write/and draw Whose World by myself because there's not much to do in terms of writing. I'm still open to the idea of doing a few strips with people if they have ideas and whatnot.

Whatever makes creating more fun! ^_^

I prefer to work alone mainly because the story I base my comic on was already pre-written a couple of years ago. I can't quite capture a story's vision unless it's illustrated, and that's why I draw comics in the first place, because I want to breathe life in to my writings. That and i'm a little bit of a hermit, I tend to work better alone :s.

I can totally see why someone would want to collab with another person though. Comics are a lot of work and having someone there that writes the story for you is like half the job (to me it is at least!)

the only thing i need help with is the coloring, man if i could find me a dope colorist id be churnin out pages by the truckload XD

It's standard practice to do everything by themselves here in Finland. Unlike with US mainstream comics or Japanese manga where artists have mostly uncredited assistants.

Buuut, there's also the fact that I have a stories to tell which is why I don't simply illustrate other people's. And art is my first passion which is why I really enjoy the drawing process and more I do it, the faster I get so it doesn't feel as big of a work load as it did at the beginning. I also don't have the funds to pay someone to draw the pages and I'd never ask someone to do it for free as it would basically be a second job time wise. And to be honest, I'd be far too controlling. :'D I love seeing fan interpretations but for the comic itself I'd have really hard time to loosen the reins and let someone take the wheel.

Doing a short collaboration with friends could be really fun and I'd be more than willing to work as an illustrator for others when getting paid.

We work more as partners. 8D It makes it so much easier for communication and trust. We both work on the script and both do our part of the illustration process for each series. It's good to have another brain for ideas and another pair of eyes to spot the mistakes. It's useful for motivation too.

Now, working with someone who's not as close probably wouldn't be much of a problem for either of us (although less enjoyable), as long as the other party does their part of the job. They don't always, or don't do it correctly/well enough. In those cases, I'd rather do it myself. <_<;

I've collaborated in the past but will only think about it again if the pay is good and the work is short. Ironically, the best collaborations were with complete strangers; they turned out punctual, upfront with the money part and credits.
On the other hand, I've had one of the worst experiences collaborating with someone who used to be a friend. We pitched our joint project to a tiny indie publisher and got a year to do a 100 pager GN. Profits were half of the sales we made. For this purpose we booked a booth at a big UK convention (we live in Europe but nowhere near the UK). Long story short the ex-friend gets flaky, slacking off on the joint project while working on other stuff with their other friends (which was all completed in time for the convention I might add). Deadlines come and go and it's pretty obvious this thing is going down the drain, with convention fees paid, flight costs paid, the works. In the end, I said eff it and booked a hotel in London instead and treated myself to a vacation for one. So far as I know we sold 0 copies but I don't give a shit since I've long since cut off ties.

Now, I'm obviously still bitter about it (mostly about the time I've wasted that could have been spent on my own projects) but I'm recounting this trainwreck to anyone who might be interested not only to vent but also as a caution tale. Never, ever work with someone who cannot keep a deadline. Yes, sometimes emergencies happen but if someone is habitually inconsistent and cannot manage their time to save their lives do not work with them! They will cost you time in the end and time is too precious to waste on flakes.

I tried to draw my first couple comics by myself but at the end of the day I decided that the stories I want to tell were too complex and my drawing skills weren't up to par--specifically my speed. Also working along is just... lonely.

My first attempt at collaborating went very, very badly. I just did not have any chemistry with the person who was drawing the comic. I shelved it after three chapters but I should've given up after two or even one.

My second attempt was kind of an accident. I met my current artist on deviantart and we put together a story idea over a couple of weeks of brainstorming and screwing around, both contributing ideas and characters and then I wrote a 300 page love letter to her and now we're creating it together! I do most of the writing (with our combined ideas), we do thumbnails together, and then she does pencils and inks while I do colors and it's great and we're going to finish the book before the end of the year.

I want to write other stories, and I can't rely on serendipity to find artists to draw them for me, so I dunno what the future is going to bring. I'm putting together a script for a graphic novel (series) right now and I'm going to have to pitch it eventually and I have no idea what to expect, but I know that I love collaborating. I love sharing ideas and writing for a specific art style. I love seeing how my artist interprets my script sometimes in really surprising ways. I love everything about it.

I work by myself because I want all the credit and I don't like having other people's ideas in my work.

I just recently hired an editor, but she's my best friend of four years and she only edits the writing. I come up with everything. Otherwise the majority of the reason is that I just don't trust most people. If I'm going to have partners, they are people I've been extremely close friends with for years.

I don't draw other people's stories because I have my own stories that I'm passionate about. I will never love someone else's characters as much as I love mine.

I don't let other artists draw my stories because people who can draw them better than I can... tend to charge a lot more money than I can afford. XD; And the very idea of having this story drawn by someone who doesn't love the characters as much as I do? The thought of it saddens me.

(EDIT: I don't mean to imply that those who prefer to work with others are less passionate about their work. There can be different ways of being passionate, and this way is the only way to "max out" for me.)

If I were rich, I might hire assistants, but that's about it. I'd remain the main artist and writer. So the production model would be a lot like how manga/manhwa are produced. I grew up in Korea, reading those things; I grew up dreaming of being just like those who made my favorite series. So that's probably a big part of the reason why I naturally desire to do it all.

I think when someone buys a brand new Batman comic just because it's Batman, they're not buying it for the story. They're buying it for the franchise. They don't know if the story is actually going to be any good.

And I wouldn't say manga readers go mainly by the creator? I LOVED Fullmetal Alchemist. When that was over, and the creator launched a new series, sure, I checked it out. But I didn't keep up with it because it didn't keep my interest. Me giving it a chance in the first place isn't too significant in the context of monthly/weekly anthology magazines because you're probably gonna be checking out everything that's in the magazine.

Now, if you're Miyazaki, then that's a different story... XD

I work primarily alone on my comic, however my partner and I work together on story development and they also help with script editing. I also have a few trusted friends that I'll look to for script feedback.

Working with a team makes sense for the rapid-paced world of mainstream comics, but for indie comics and webcomics, I find a lot of people work solo.

Most of all, I always find that if you want something done a particular way, you're better off doing it yourself. And I'm extremely particular >_>; But my partner is invaluable in helping with the story development; I need someone else to provide me an outside perspective or a new angle I might not have thought about. I am however hoping to find a colourist down the line, because while I want my comic to be in colour, I don't have the time to do it myself. Aaand I kind of hate colouring, haha.