Philly Comic Con: The Do's & Don't of a Career in Comics

Hello Infinites! Welcome to another convention report. It's Broken Infinite (former CBC) EIC Frankie Rodriguez. You know. The guy that almost killed Stan Lee. *sigh*

    Anyway, I mentioned that I had attended some of the panels during the Convention. Here is one of them. The Do's and Don'ts of a Career in Comics was on Friday night and it featured three artist: Carlo Pagulayan; most notably known for his art during Planet Hulk; Harvey Tolibao; currently artist on Green Arrow; and finally  Stephen Segovia;who is mostly known for Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates.

    As I sat down, the moderator gave the three artists the floor and allowed them to introduce themselves and their current works. As each of them talked, fans were excited to listen about how these men all broke into the comic book industry. After some comical antidotes from the trio, particularly Segovia chirping in to keep the audiences attention, they opened the majority of the panel for questions.

   After a fan how each artist learned to draw as the artist all pitched in their answers. Pagulayan stated with, "We're all self taught. We all didn't go to school for this. I would deconstruct Joe Quesada, Marc Silvestri . . . practicing all their styles while coming up with my own. . . I put in my first submission to a talent search in 1997 but it was lost in the mail."

 Segovia added, "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a sketch artist. . . I drew children's comics because there really wasn't any super hero comics in the Philippines."

And Tolibao chirped with sound advice to potential artist, "To be a comic book artist it's to be a comic book artist for life. You can't stop believing in yourself. I wanted to be a comic book artist since I was 4. If you want to be an artist . . . you need someone to who is in the industry who knows their stuff and tell you honestly about your artwork."

 Pagulayan continued more of Tolibao about being an artist and how to make it as a comic book artist. "You will have to take criticism and be your own worst critic. If you are aware of your own short comings, than work on it."

 "If you are gonna be an artist, buy comics. Study comics. Copy and learn the work of others and let that help you with your own work," replied Segovia.

   As more questions about breaking to the business were given out, the three artist shared stories about their experiences that many felt were good, inspirational ideas. Just before the panel closed, Harvey Tolibao left the attendees with these words:

  "If you want to make it in comics, you need to be comfortable. You have to love what you are doing."

After that, the panel wrapped up with fans thanking the artists for their time. It was a great panel with a lot of solid advice for any artist who wants to be in the comics industry.

   Ah ... that was fun. Hmm . .. what is next?