My Comic Art Journey: Submissions and Rejections of My Comic Art Samples
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- In my first video • My Comic Art Journey: ... I talk about and show my earliest comic book art I did when I was about 10-4 years old. In this video (part 2) I jump about 10 years later showing what I mainly focused on: drawing popular Marvel and DC characters to send in comic art submissions to submission editors.
Key moments in the video:
A Marvel comics submission editors shows me who my 'competition' is: • My Comic Art Journey: ...
My best rejection letter ever, from DC Comics: • My Comic Art Journey: ...
From Marvel to DC, Dark Horse to Image (and a few other publishers in between) I learned that my work was never really ready for the big time. Clearly that did not deter me! I continued to work on my craft and dream of the possibilities.
There was not internet back then, or at least it was in its infancy and I really didn't access it or know how to. As you'll see with a lot of the rejection letters, everything was done via the mail. At times, I think I may have become discourage, but honestly, I don't remember those emotions. I just kept on drawing and submitting.
Watch this video and journey along with me as I chronicle the artwork I created in my overall attempts of becoming a "comic book artist". My artwork had improved over the work I did 10 years earlier. But my working progress was heavily dependent on reading and consuming more comic book art.
To this day, my 'journey' continues. Making the best comics I can while trying to improve my drawing and storytelling abilities. I hope you enjoy this video in "My Comic Art Journey'.
If you like this video, please like and comment, and and subscribe. You can see more of the work I'm doing at my website: www.renearreol...
And, you can download for FREE the latest comics I'm working for my Realm Ethereal universe here: www.renearreol...
And if you'd like to support my work further, I do have an online store I run myself at my website where you'll find print editions of my comic and other art books of mine: www.renearreol...
So cool that you shared this! I never even got up the nerve to send in submissions and now I see you have had so many rejections and just kept on going for it speaks volumes.
Thanks for watching, and yeah, I got tons of rejections...and I know lots of others did too. Just the way it goes. Nowadays, there's so many more outlets for people to be 'seen', that it's more 'noise' than anything. So, it probably is even harder than ever. That being said, I don't even think about submitting work to the big two anymore. I haven't in years. I have always had fun drawing and seeing what I can do, that I have always just kept on going for it. :) Event if "it" these days means continuing to work on my craft for the sake of doing it to improve. If in the process someone can see and enjoy my work, then it just gives me that extra little icing on the cake ;)
Man, that’s such a moving 40 minutes. I admire your dedication to the craft, and I wonder where you are as an artist today.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. And your own work is amazing! I'm currently working on my own comic, finishing it up as work allows: www.renearreola.com/the-dream-awakens/
Great work! I appreciate how you remained true to yourself and your style; the heavy influence of Jim Lee and Scott Williams created so many clones at that time. You sir, are a genuine artist!
Thanks! I think I tried cloning my art to be a Jim Lee, Image, et al. back in the 90s, I guess I just wasn't able to for whatever reason. I soon discovered that artists like Al Williamson, Alan Davis, Butch Guice, Steve Epting and similar styles is what really just caught my eye and inspire me to make my own work.
I've got a couple of Darren Auck rejection letters myself. It's fun to go down memory lane.
I look at these rejection letters maybe once every 5 years or so. They've never deterred me from making comics, even though at the time I'm sure I got a little bummed out.
Thank you for sharing your journey. I find your work amazing. Id kill to have one of yours OG framed on my wall and get lost in it.
Thank you so much! I do have an online store, but it's only selling my self-published works. I haven't thought of putting up any original artwork, but maybe that will change as I work more traditionally on my comic book series "The Realm Ethereal", as that series did start out digitally, but I'm more committed than ever to do the comic book artwork with good old pens on paper :)
@ReneArreolaArt my father threw my collection away when I was 14 because I needed to grow up. Comics taught me how to read and to love art. My best friend got the collection out of the trash and never told me for whatever reason. I had a bad art teacher in 9th grade who didn't consider comic art, art. So, I didn't do anything artistic until just recently. I'm in my 40s now. My friend gave my collection back about 3 months ago. This has sparked so much. Getting these old comics from 85 to 91 back. (1st deadpool, AMS 300, 1 gambit, ect.) He forgot he had them, but he also passed away shortly after. I've been drawing nearly every day since. I forgot how much I loved comics. I hope to see yours on shelves and plan to pick some up. The comic world is so different now. With so many cool stories that aren't just superheroes.
Thanks for listening, and I'm excited to keep seeing your work.
@@noahbodhi8657 My Mom threw out my collection when I was a kid because I got caught playing with matches and fire..but that's an entirely different story altogether!! I love your story about being able to rekindle your joy for comics, the art, and making your own artwork again. And yes, there are comics for every one, different strokes for different folks :) Anyone who can't appreciate what art is anymore has lost the fire within them, especially if they are an "aritst" themselves, just my humble opinion. And I do know that burnout is real too. So is the frustration of feeling like never "really made it" with "my art" for whatever reason. Thank you for sharing your story, may we all continue to evolve and grow.
Brooooo! This is awesome!
Thank you!!!
this takes me back... I still have my Marvel turn down letter framed and hanging on the wall and mine wasn't even in color. It was an actual copy machine copy of a turn down letter.
Oh, wow, I'm pretty sure I have a few of the Marvel rejection letters in black and white too!
Silver chair yeh bro!
😁
Thanks so much for sharing your amazing journey
You're welcome, thanks for checking it out :)
Your journey and experiences are very similar to my own. So much hard work and hope. Exciting yet challenging times.
It seems like that all the time for me. The work it takes as a side hustle to create, to craft, just a single page of my own comic. It's actually the story of my life :) I say that with a little smile, but the hard work and hope is what keeps it exciting for me.
@@ReneArreolaArt Same here. Comic pages are a lot of work. The minute you stop you regress. Always needing to stay active to stay sharp and maintain the proper art quality. But as a side hustle, its always a struggle to fir it in. To make it as your one job and source of income is very tough as well. I think you, like me, need it in your life, despite the hardship it represents.
these are incredible 🙏🏽
thank you!
I am make a comic your work has really inspired me
The way you flip that paper around like you don’t care if you ruin it makes me nervous.
Dude I really like your art....you could of made an awesome outlaw comics artist....
Pages look good. How long did you take to pencil one page? Thank you
Thank you! Looking back at those old pages specifically? I don't really remember...but I sure did a lot of them back then. I want to say each page probably took several days. I was mostly either still living at home going to school, or in college, or just moved out into my own place, which at that time I am working full time job, of course. So probably couple days for each page.
Considering how much crap art marvel was producing at the time you were submitting I'm shocked that you never got a chance to show what you could do.
The work the submission editor set you to "aspire" to was not to the standard you were producing.
However in my opinion your inking leaves a lot to be desired.
I appreciate it, I would have been so stoked to have got a chance back then with one of the big two. But, I also look back and realize how fearless I was in making submission after submission back then: read into that as "I don't know what I don't know". Today, if I were to get a shot, I would probably over think stuff and probably I'm still not ready today!! But that's ok in my book. I honestly just love making my own stories. As for my inking, that's fair, and what can I say, it's always a work in progress. For better or worse, on my own indie comics, I am the writer-penciler-inker-colorist-letter-butcher-and candle stick maker, or something like that ;)
I will share this: on one of the few conventions I attended, I did get a chance to sit down with an editor. His name was Bob Schreck. I remember going to see him at, I think, the Dark Horse Comics booth? It's been so long, I don't even remember which show. Maybe it was Big Wow Comic Con or San Jose Comic Con (before it changed its name to SiliCon)? But I went to see him on a Saturday, and he told me to come back on Sunday. So, I did that, and he gave me like a 1/2 hour portfolio review. I remember I created two 3-page samples: one featuring Thor and the others a mash up of Avengers but with Superman appearing. Anyway, I don't fully remember the details of his critique this many years later, but I do remember his saying that my work at the time looked better than 80% or 90% of the work he's seen that weekend. Granted, it was probably all a bunch of amateur artists like myself. Still, I just kept working on my craft through out all these years. But you know what was interesting after that meeting? I don't think I ever submitted again to another publisher. For some reason, and It makes no sense, I just stopped submitting work. I guess I should have been stoked, but after all those years submitting by mail, then getting a live critique from a real editor, something happened. I just stopped submitting and instead just focused on my own characters. Go figure.