MAKING MY OWN COMICS, PART THREE!

Making Comics, Part One
Making Comics, Part Two
Making Comics, Part Three
Making Comics, Part Four
Making Comics, Part Five: Motion Comics

Time to start making my own comics, by my self. Everything you see on these pages is an original work, copyright me, Sam Battin.

Here's the number three in this series that explains the important work of making comics.

Above is a photo I took while I was getting together my application to the 2015 Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. Each pile includes the original pages and inks of each of the comics I've made since I think 1999. This includes stuff like:

• Goony, the Rather Foolish Bird (1999)
• William Blake, Master of Action (2002?)
• Walls of Eryx (2013)
• And others...

In my submission to the Expo, I included the best five. I turn 45 years old next week, and getting all of my comics together gave me much pause.

This is it; this is my life so far in comics. There are a couple of other comics that weren't included in there (because I drew them in the 90s and they are really, really crappy), but these are all the comics I've made that I think are in the least print-worthy over the last fifteen or so years.

Pretty incredible. This is about 300 pages of comics, give or take. Each page took several hours. The artistry on each page (such as it is) was the result of many pages of sketchbooks and thought not shown here, each of these taking even more hours of my life.

And so far in my life, this is only a hobby, though it feels like a lot more than that. I haven't been paid for any of these; all told maybe eight or nine copies of my comics have been exchanged for money, but the dream of a publisher swooping down and saying " This stuff is totally it, baby! This is the wowzers! Sign here on the dotted line for millions and millions of green American dollars!" has not yet materialized.

I heard it several times, that the reward is the work. I don't do this for the accolades, or for the bread. The reward for doing comics is that I get to make comics. I gotta say it is a thrill to get drawing and then suddenly find myself feeling the feelings of the characters inside the panels. I hear their thoughts and I see the environment that surrounds them and for a moment I can sense just how very hard they are trying.

Who knows where it'll end up? Maybe with millions of green American dollars, or maybe 15 more years from now all I'll have is a bigger pile of comics. Whichever way, I've never encountered anything like the thrill that comics give me.

NEXT: Go read Making Comic Books Part Four or go back and read Making Comic Books Part Two!