I'm a writer. Plain and simple. I can't draw worth a lick. In fact, I'd go further: I'm a novelist, or going to be soon... my agent is working on selling my first two novels. Writing a comic was a totally new experience for me.

That being said, I'll respond to mlai's comment: I agree, a lot of writers who are looking for artists are looking for people to do all of the grunt work for them. They want to send someone a short story and have them draw a comic of it. A lot of them are just looking to use someone, thinking that it's their idea, their vision, and the artist has the easy job of turning it into something pretty.

I was lucky enough to have my story idea catch the attention of a very talented artist, and we actually have established a great collaborative relationship. Don't sell all the writers short; some of us just do NOT have the talent to do it all ourselves. It's not that I wouldn't LOVE to draw my own books, personally, but even after MULTIPLE college art courses and years of practice, I'm at best a copier... I can draw copies of what someone else has already drawn. Anything else is no better than a talented third grader could do.

I think the difference is in what the writer expects, and what the writer provides. When I send scripts to the artist, it's not just a he-opened-the-door kind of scene description. I send tentative panel layouts, scene descriptions that go as in depth as possible (sometimes even including camera angles, but always including descriptions of body language, posture, facial expression, positioning, shading, and even emotional state). I try to paint as clear a picture as I can in words, since my paintbrush seems to have been broken since pre-school. And I'm not kidding myself, either. My story idea is good, it's a sellable idea, but if we make it in our attempt to get published, it'll be the art that carries us over the top.

Here's the thing, though: I want to be a professional in the industry. I want to write comics, specifically for one of the big two (and yes, I have my preference which). And a huge amount of the best work you see out there is from a writer/artist team that really click well together. In the pro world that I want to reach someday, it's rarely feasible for one person to do the writing and art chores for a monthly, or even bi-monthly, comic.

Id like to have people do both for me and I tell them what I want and approve of it upon completion..

lol, but only if someone would make my work into animated series.
I rather like drawing and writing.. In fact a friend once said recently that Ive become a slave to doing this comic stuff.

I would be more of the artist though... I always tried to draw the characters and stories in my head rather than write them... even now, I dont script my comics.. I just draw as I envision the page and the dialog is usually very spur of the moment which is why it's usually pretty bad.
Writing would probably suit me better though if I tried my hand at it. There's so much I want to tell and art takes so much more time to create than words.
Its taken over a year to do only 25 pages and one chapter of the Narou comic, but I probably could've written it as a rough-draft novel in that much time.
I was also pretty darn good at writing papers in my classes too. I could always find a topic that was otherwise stale and get a unique angle to present it in 5-10 pages.

I also did that writer/artist thing with a friend as my first comic.
We came up with a great concept, but it was a miserable failure ending at 12 or so pages when the writer lost motivation...
I ended up getting frustrated and starting my own projects by myself.

I'm definately an artist... I am a decent writer but I believe my art is my strongest point.

I consider myself both but if you ask me I believe that writers are taken for granted more than artists. While drawing is a skill that comes with practice, "art" itself is an abstract concept so what may be "good art" to you might be "terrible art" to me.

Good writing, though, is incredibly rare. Anyone with a word processor or pen and pad can call themselves a writer but it takes a long time studying prose (whether it's through a college system or opening your mind to various other books) that you become a good writer. While images are paramount to comics, good writing is the glue that holds the images together. Even a worldless comic like Gon (which is somehow twice as interesting WITHOUT speech) is carried "behind the scenes" by someone with good director skills.

And I wouldn't call "writing" easy, either. I can pencil a page of Early Game Monster in 30 minutes but it takes me twice as long to write it in script format because I'm incredibly picky about dialog and setting.

As far as collaborations go, writers have to realize that unless they specify EXACTLY what they wan't, they won't get their own envisionment. Writers just have to learn to suck it up and trust in their artist; either that, or specify clearly what it is they want.

I want to collaborate with someone but it seems everytime I try to hop on to a project, the writer quits which is kinda ironic. You'd think it'd be the other way around.

I'm with Ian.

You forgot Frank Miller, Garth Ennis and Bill Willingham, though. <3

Frank Miller's a weird case, because he used to do everything by himself, pretty much (with the exception of coloring when his wife did it).

I don't consider myself a writer or an artist in most aspects.

My job title is lead artist, but really what I do is layout and design, so I think of myself as more of a designer. I can't draw by hand, and I'm not a digital painter either. But I work a lot with design theory, and I know my way around the digital design/art software. You want me to design a page layout? Sure. Photo manipulation? Okay. Just don't ask me to create something out of nothing. :)

I can write okay, but script writing... I dunno, maybe I could, but I've never tried.

I have a huge respect for people who are artists and writers though. It's amazing to me to see what they're capable of, and I'm very envious. Not only am I entertained by what's created, but I literally can sit and watch my boyfriend drawing in photoshop/illustrator/flash and be awed. These are programs I'm very familiar with too, but the way his thought process takes him through the programs is completely different than mine, and the things he creates are way beyond any artistic skill I have.

I got around the drawing/painting thing with my comic by using a completely outside medium, which is simplistic, but works with the folk tales I'm telling. And has an added bonus, it's tons of fun, and I feel like a kid again. :)

I'm a writer. I pay people who know how to draw to do it for me.

RobertTidwell
I'm a writer. I pay people who know how to draw to do it for me.

True, as artists a writer might peg us with a lot of work, but we can charge the pants off of them for doing so.

"One page? One-hundred dollars!"

mlai
Don't get offended; I speak in generalizations when in a forum discussion.

I hold "writers looking for artists" in general contempt.

If you can't draw (and don't even want to learn/try), then go write fanfics. Don't bother artists with your stories/ideas that you don't want to put in the work to put into pretty pictures. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Most artists have plenty of their own dimes. Most artists draw comics precisely because they want to tell their own stories.

Collaborations where they all have input/output in both writing and drawing are another thing completely. Collaborations are fun, though sometimes frustrating.

Anyways, I can draw much better than I can write, even though I can write prose reasonably well (college creative writing classes and all that). By drawing, I also include "storyboarding," "screenplay," etc... basically I can tell the same story with more pizazz with comics than with words.

What bugs me about this post is this.

mlai
If you can't draw (and don't even want to learn/try), then go write fanfics. Don't bother artists with your stories/ideas that you don't want to put in the work to put into pretty pictures. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Most artists have plenty of their own dimes. Most artists draw comics precisely because they want to tell their own stories.

Now, this doesn't offend me, I just think its effing stupid. No offense. There are many "writers" who "bother" artists with story ideas. These are not real writers. These are would be writers who have a half baked idea and when pushed they aren't really connected to it. These people, can go eff themselves.

Real writers look for someone they can work with. They do something reasonable like put an advert on a website saying, "I will pay this much a page for this style of artwork, i write full script. email sequentials to blahblahblah@email.com" Notice the difference?

mlai
Most artists have plenty of their own dimes. Most artists draw comics precisely because they want to tell their own stories.

What about the ones who dont? Should I not put an Advert in a community where artists WHO WANT TO DRAW OTHER PEOPLES STORIES are looking for work because a person who really cares about the craft would learn to write AND draw? No. God no. I will never be able to draw as well as the guy drawing Ogre, so, since I want my book to look its absolute best, I hired a guy who WANTED to draw it.

We're not collaborating. Its my story. Its my ideas. He wants to draw them because 1. Its a good story, 2. I'm paying him a butt load of money. 3. It gives him a chance to push his creativity to another level. While he doesnt have an official voice on the story direction, his questions, comments and concerns get top billing simply because he gets to see it before anybody else.

Kohdok

RobertTidwell
I'm a writer. I pay people who know how to draw to do it for me.

True, as artists a writer might peg us with a lot of work, but we can charge the pants off of them for doing so.

"One page? One-hundred dollars!"

thats the name of the game too. If i expect something to get done I pay for it. Just like if I want my grass mowed(lets be real. I'm just fucking lazy. Mow my own grass?) or what ever. I make sure to tell the artist exactly what i want to see. Some minor changes are A OK, but mostly I expect them to follow what i said if they want to get paid.

I'm a total control-freak, meaning I would never, EVER have someone do my art for me, or write the script. I guess I'm bad at sharing XD

I definitely consider myself more of a writer (not that I don't consider myself an artist... both are very important!!) idk why, but language has just always fascinated, and as I'm a very daydreamy person, I'm constantly having new story ideas.

haha, today my sister and I were watching old home movies, and ten-year-old me was guessing what the presents under the christmas tree were. I grabbed one of the larger packages and said, "it's a thesaurus!! ooh ooh I KNOW it's a thesaurus, cause I asked for one! thesauruses are cool! groooovy!! neat!!!!" and my sister went "ew books... boring." XD XD!! (now why did I say groovy?? I really can't say.)

however, I'm getting better and better at art... I've been practicing that more than writing. I've really only been writing very short snippet-stories, and summaries, rather than REALLY writing.
so I guess....
60% writer
40% artist

I can't afford to pay someone to do the art on a project for me, more's the pity... thus I'm one of those that is left with "Writer Seeking Artist" ads. That's why I'm pleased that my concept caught the attention of a good artist, and that he wanted to try the collaboration thing. He's been doing it between his paying gigs, and I'm sure he can't imagine how appreciative I am for that.

As far as "collaboration" goes, I think the artist and I have a good understanding. The story ideas are my own creation, and the direction of the story comes from me. I'm very open to his input, though, since he has more comic book experience than I have. But when it comes to layout, when it comes to pacing, if he were to say to me hey, this doesn't work... try it this way, or do it that way, or just give it another try, he's got my full attention. If he doesn't like some wording, or some way a scene or panel is described, I'll most certainly listen to his input and give it a lot of credence. And I think he's happy with that arrangement; he's told me a couple of times that it's pretty cool to not have to worry about the story, or the scripting, but just draw what he gets from me, and just concentrate on letting his art be the best it can be. And, if at any time he ever expresses dissatisfaction with the way things are, I'm more than open to him having more input.

What it comes down to is, while the basic idea for our story came from me, and the scripting and basic layout so far has all come from me, the project we're doing will go nowhere without this talented artist. And if (when) this project ever reaches publication, I absolutely believe that both of us should be billed as co-creators. His creative process has been at least as important to the whole thing as mine has.

I am... a visual storyteller.

Fancy name for Artist first, writer second. I've always considered myself far more of artist than writer. In fact when I started, I sucked so bad I teamed up with an writer, from whom I learned a lot. And then just through trial and error, and later when we parted ways through practice, talking with writers, getting my writing looked at and critiqued. gotten to a point where my writing is... acceptable. The art is at a level I'd consider good, the writing is passable. I can do a lot of storytelling through art ( hense the visual storyteller thing) probably more than a lot of writers think about. I know when I've worked with writers, they like a lot of dialogue which results in too much 'talking' when it comes to comics. I constantly battle to cut dialogue when I work with writers, because its not nessisary when you are drawing out the pictures. Letting the pictures speak is something that a lot of writers entering into the comic medium don't understand or get right off the bat. And a lot of people who can't draw try to make up for that lack of skill through dialogue or narrative.

I've moved towards a form of storytelling/writing that is highly visual in nature, which works extremely well for comics. I've also learned some of the finer details of pacing and sequencing through workshops, studying others, reading, and just trial and error. I'd have to say that writing for comics is quite unlike most forms of writing. And while I can write for comics, being a visual medium and with that in mind, I probably would have great difficulty writing something like a novel. I tend to forget to describe thinks or omit things in writing I would normally express through art.

Just a note on the hiring artists things...
As an artist, I've found it refreshing every now and again just to pencil or ink for someone else's writing, so I can focus on just the art. But I'm a bit demanding as an artist. I'll take direction, but I expect, if you hire me as an arist, you respect my judgement, talent and style enough to give me sufficient freedom to do my job. There has to be some trust and quarter given both ways if the artist is to do their job right. They have to have room for their vision of your writing. It might not be what you expect, but who knows? it could be better. Artists are highly creative people. Making them slave without any freedom or say is just rude. Even when an artist works on an established property they get some leeway to put their own 'style' into that character. If nothing else, its just how they draw. I mean, that is why most people hire a particular artist is because they like their style and skill level. Unless of course you are working with a volunteer artist, and at that point, beggars can't be choosers. You have to give the art 'stock' at least in terms of visual pacing and look/feel of character and enviroment design so that they don't feel overburdened by your 'direction'. The best stuff comes out of a syncronization of both the artist and writer's visions, not just a once sided dictatorship.

EHJones
I can't afford to pay someone to do the art on a project for me, more's the pity... thus I'm one of those that is left with "Writer Seeking Artist" ads. That's why I'm pleased that my concept caught the attention of a good artist, and that he wanted to try the collaboration thing. He's been doing it between his paying gigs, and I'm sure he can't imagine how appreciative I am for that.

As far as "collaboration" goes, I think the artist and I have a good understanding. The story ideas are my own creation, and the direction of the story comes from me. I'm very open to his input, though, since he has more comic book experience than I have. But when it comes to layout, when it comes to pacing, if he were to say to me hey, this doesn't work... try it this way, or do it that way, or just give it another try, he's got my full attention. If he doesn't like some wording, or some way a scene or panel is described, I'll most certainly listen to his input and give it a lot of credence. And I think he's happy with that arrangement; he's told me a couple of times that it's pretty cool to not have to worry about the story, or the scripting, but just draw what he gets from me, and just concentrate on letting his art be the best it can be. And, if at any time he ever expresses dissatisfaction with the way things are, I'm more than open to him having more input.

What it comes down to is, while the basic idea for our story came from me, and the scripting and basic layout so far has all come from me, the project we're doing will go nowhere without this talented artist. And if (when) this project ever reaches publication, I absolutely believe that both of us should be billed as co-creators. His creative process has been at least as important to the whole thing as mine has.

Word, don't get it twisted. Thats a great way to work. If i could have found someone to be more collaborative with, I would have. The artist I'm working with is giving me a huge break on the price, I pay less for pencils, inks and colors than most people pay for just pencils, and I owe Renzo the world for working on this story with me. He's a brilliant fellow. Great to work with, very clever and ambitious. I couldnt imagine working on a project this important to me with anybody else.

I would actually say that I'm neither, I stuggle with coming up with stories that are interesting so I'm no writer. I am also no artist because I'm really difficult to collaborate with and have already made a few writers throw up their hands and leave in general frustration. Honestly I'm terrible.

I'm definitely a WRITER who wishes he were a better ARTIST.

Great topic here!

I'd say Im more of an artist then writer but I want to draw *my* stories. Not others, unless I fell in love with it and have nothing else to draw.

Although I like writing stories, I prefer to draw even more. My stories can get so complicated and complex that I don't even know what's happening. I like using other people's stories and portraying it in my art. But I guess that's why my friend Sphynx and I are writing our story Educen [digital-dust.net] together. But you know what they say, two heads are better than one... or something like that. Plus at least if one person doesn't know what they're doing... the other person can keep that person on track. lawl.

I think i am a slightly better writer than i am an artist, but i love to draw just as much as i love to write. It's strange. But i hate drawing to my own writing. I'd rather have someone else draw my scripts and i'd rather draw to someone else's scripts. I just think working with someone else on a project brings more to it, but this isn't always the case. Sometimes i'll have a tale i'll want to tell and i'll know exactly how i want it to go, so i'll do everything myself.

For anyone who reads this, if your interested in working with me, get in touch.

Dan

StaceyMontgomery
But what about everyone else? Are you a writer who also draws? Or are you an artist who happens to write as well? If you were offered a chance to write for a great artist or to draw for a great writer, would that make sense to you?

This is a very interesting topic. Kudos!

I view myself as an artist first. I blame that on my childhood. I read "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way." And that's how I write my comics. Thumbnails. Very bare plot outline (Page 1, Superchum does this. Page 2, Sidekicks show up at the Hall of Friendship ... etc, etc, etc.) I then fill in dialog last.

The weird thing is, I think my ability to write what I draw is one of my strongest assets and sets me apart. I really like writing my own material. I enjoy trying to be funny and clever.

Lately I've had the pleasure to do some collaborations though. Work for hire. And just working with a writer friend where all I do is illustrate. It's been interesting. I found it actually kind of liberating. I no longer had to worry about fitting the dialog into my art. If the script got too wordy, it just went back to the writer where I'd get the chance to relax and say "I followed your panel suggestions and drew all the things you told me to, but now your words cover it all up, so please edit this to fit."

Whew. I felt like I was on easy street!

Right now I think it's all too new to me. So I enjoy drawing other peoples' writing. But I will always feel the need to do my own thing. My own stuff. I am a storyteller at heart.

So I find this topic very fascinating. Because here I am, the opposite in how I view myself (artist first, writer second) but I too have this desire to be a storyteller with what I do.

I started to write ever since I was little. I love to tell stories, write poems, ect. Around 12 I started to draw and mash the two together. I write and draw my comic and I don't think I could have it any other way. I like to do things myself :D. I would bother my to have someone illustrait my writing or illustrait someone else's story.

There's just something about the way I like to do things that I don't think someone else could emulate. I consider myself a writer and artist (sometimes my writting is stronger, sometimes my art is). I wouldn't have things any other way D:

Writer all the way. It's my official job too (aside the education specialist part). Considering that I have been published as a writer, I'd say artist falls under the 'hobby' category just yet. I see drawing as an aid to telling a story I specifically designed to be a comic (yes to me there's a difference between a story-for-comics and a story-for-book and a story-for-short story). But it's a fun aid I love cultivating!