So, You Want to be a Comic Book Artist?

I got my copy of So, You Want to Be a Comic Book Artist? the other day from Beyond Words Press written by one-time Dark Horse editor Phil Amara, a revision of a previously published book. It's an instructional book for grade-school children about how to break into the business and features mini-interviews with artists like Eleanor Davis, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and J. Bone. I'm in it for my work in Nickelodeon magazine and my tenure on SpongeBob Squarepants. People who check out this blog frequently know I do both kids' work and work “blue”. The one good thing about Nickelodeon being canceled a few years ago is I no longer have the problem at conventions of children walking by my table, recognizing my art, and having to be told they can't buy the comics because of drawings of penises or whatever. Now the kids' entertainment I do is mostly drawn by others in a different style, and those kids are now grown up and able to buy whatever they damn well please.

Here is the interview I did for it where I'm not the pottymouth you all know and love:

name: Sam Henderson

age: 43

gender: M

from: Woodstock,NY

Where do you reside now: between New York, NY and Woodstock, NY

current job: freelance

comic books you've created or worked on: A series called The Magic Whistle, feature called 'Scene But Not Heard' for Nickelodeon 1993-2009, writer for SpongeBob Squarepants in 2001.

What was your first or favorite comic when you were younger?

I was into MAD and if a new one wasn't out I'd get one if its competitors. My mother worked for the local paper so I'd see all the funnies through that. Like most eventual cartoonists I especially liked Peanuts. My father saved all sorts of things most people throw away so as a result I saw all the comics he collected in the fifties like ECs before they were reprinted multiple times. From kindergarten to twelfth grade I'd rush home to see animation from the major Hollywood studios 1940-1960. A local store didn't mind me buying underground comics as a kid.

When did you know you wanted to make comics?

After seeing the above I decided that's what I wanted to do. I assumed everything I saw was known in every household and anybody who did a comic was famous.

What kind of things inspire your comic book creations?

Life around me. Like when I see my fan out of the corner of my eye I think of situations that would involve fans. Right now I'm working on a longer comic about my childhood and spend enough time in my hometown to remember specific locations from more than thirty years ago.

What tools do you use to create your comics?

Mostly Microns, which are kind of a combination of felt tips and rapidographs, You don't have to clean them like rapidographs, and they don't bleed or change point sizes like with markers.

What are great ways for kids to create comics, right now/today?

Keep a sketchbook with you so when you come up with an idea, you can execute it. The final comic is a more legible version of what you've done before. Computers are good now to scan the work and make files.

How do you use technology to create comics?

In high school and college, I used to make a xerox comic and mail it to 30-50 people, now you can put it on the internet and get feedback right away without having to buy stamps or go to the post office. You can also instantly fix it if necessary. If you're messy like I am, you can Photoshop it to clean up any smudges or erasures, and forget ever having to do color on paper unless you want to.

Why is telling a story with comics important to you?

For me, it's easier to communicate an idea using words and pictures without having to use either of those methods alone. It's also something possible to do without having to have people cooperate exactly the way you want them to.

how did making comics prepare you for a job writing for Spongebob SquarePants

When I worked on Spongebob, it was from seeing my comics that they decided they wanted to use my sense of humor and aesthetics.

How do you use social media to create or promote your work?

Facebook is good for publicity and get feedback so you'll know what people think. There have been times when I've redrawn something because of what somebody suggested and it turned out to be a better solution. It's easier to promote or show what your working on without having to pay money or wait until you can get together with somebody.

And here's a sample of Scene But Not Heard that was used in the book.

You're so—funny

Every once in a while someone shows me a sketch I did for them I forgot completely about. Such is the case for one I did for Suzanne Baumann in 2000. It was illustrating a yearbook autograph which said, "You're so—funny! I can't believe I missed Nathan freak out! Has 1st hour been the best or what? Have such a good summer! I'll see you at North!" Speaking of fan art, I still get some occasionally, like this strip that was done by Sam Spina last week in homage to my Scene But Not Heard characters. I remember joking long ago that eventually kids who read these strips in Nickelodeon as kids would eventually grow up, and it happened. Some are even running for Vice President. At long last, the collection will come out this Spring in collaboration from Top Shelf and Alternative Comics. I was also pleased when I looked at the late Covered Blog last year to see a piece by Dyna Moe of my Magic Whistle comic. I've mentioned her before on my blog. It turned out she had done the Mad Men art I made fun of (for my own amusement) long before that. Oh yeah, what does this have to do with anything again? Because I liked the art so much I asked her to do the back cover for the next Magic Whistle, to inaugurate what I'm doing from now on, that is to have the back cover with one of my gags drawn by an artist not generally known for doing comics. Instead of logrolling by having one of the 500 cartoonists I know do it, I want something with my sense of humor that looks as little like my work as possible. Artists who share the same trait as me of throwing their clothes away when they're done isn't necessary but it is a plus.

This is the first issue (#12) I've done in a long time. The last two I wasn't too proud of and much of the material seems phoned in out of desperation to have something out to keep me in the public eye. Actually, they weren't that bad, but not a good first impression either. That shouldn't be the case with this one. It's being sent to the printer this week and will be out in time for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival next month. Now that Alternative Comics has handed over the reins I intend to put issues out more frequently again. I've gone back to the 32-page format I did before. I know the pamphlet comic is pretty much dead but I was never much of a trendsetter. Comics are more deluxe and respectable than they've ever been, but at the expense of shutting out the casual reader. I want to make comics you'd put on your shelf but could loan to a friend and not be upset if they spilled coffee on them.

Here's the original version of the cartoon for comparison. And here's the latest of the films I've been putting up on YouTube. I've found out having more than 1000 followers on Twitter and Facebook doesn't mean they see everything you post, so here's my attempt in my own way to “go viral”. And while I'm promoting myself, I'll mention that I have original art for sale I'm putting up gradually, and have what's available through this link. If you don't see a particular piece, ask about it. It makes an excellent holiday gift and if you don't buy some the Pope will personally call you an asshole using those exact words and give out your address and phone number on international television.

Magic Whistle: The Movie. September 2012

Here's the latest of the “animations” I've been doing monthly... People have asked me where I got the laughing from. It's not from the traditional laughtrack I've used in the other videos. It was something called the Okeh Laughing Record from 1923, probably most famous for its use in Tex Avery's last cartoon. The propaganda song is from a World War II song called We Did It Before And We Can Do It Again. I have no idea why the image here is flipped. I think it has something to do with being done so YouTube censor robots can't detect things which could potentially violate copyright. You may recognize it from a lot of cartoons, like this one directed by Friz Freleng. (incidentally, his colleague, Chuck Jones, would have been 100 this past Friday.)

Sign of Aging

I'm all out of gazpacho

Last Minute Safety Valentine

If you didn't give her/him something last week, don't despair. Just say “Oh I forgot! I had this in my pocket and meant to give it to you!” and give them this with your own slogan in the hearts and a picture of them pasted in the lower left. Or if you hate holidays, you can be “ironic”.

Valentines for Creeps and my two cents

I drew these last year and the year before for Valentines' Day. Here are some new ones in addition to previous ones, this time made so you can actually print them and give them out.

And nobody gives a shit about my opinions, but it's my blog, and I'll do what I want.

If you're on social network sites like me, you know every day there's a new cause du jour. This weekend it's outraged comic fans talking about Marvel Comics.

As I understand it, writer Gary Friedrich has been forced to pay legal costs for a countersuit. He sued them initially over rights to the character Ghost Rider he created for them. They have a new movie coming out and they won't be giving him a cut. Marvel has a history of screwing its creators (or their estates) and forcing them to legally acknowledge that Marvel Comics, and not they, are the true authors of the works. From Jack Kirby to Steve Gerber to Marv Wolfman.

Legally, I don't believe he had a leg to stand on. He signed his rights away years ago when he created the character. I think Marvel used to even have the contract on the back of their checks so you'd have to sign it in order to get the money. If the checks were never endorsed, then the true rights would be questionable, though I doubt that ever happened. When you do work-for-hire, you sign your rights away. If you have a creation you want to own the copyright on, negotiate the terms or better yet, do it for another company more friendly to creators and lets you keep the copyright.

Back to Gary Friedrich, not only did he lose his lawsuit against Marvel, they sued him back forbidding him to call himself the creator of Ghost Rider at any appearances, similar to how Clayton Moore was not allowed to wear the Lone Ranger mask. People like Lou Ferrigno are allowed to cash in on their involvement with Marvel's characters, but Gary Friedrich is not. No surprise that he lost the lawsuit, because that's what corporations do, dick over employees. Companies often don't just have lawyers on retainer to protect their trademarks, often they hire lawyers to look for suit-worthy situations they otherwise wouldn't know or care about. In this case, Friedrich not only lost the lawsuit they filed against him, he's forced to pay their legal bills to the tune of $17,000. Now the internet's exploding with a call not just to boycott the upcoming Ghost Rider movie but saying that Nicolas Cage, who's starring in the movie, should pay the legal fees, chump change for him, if he has any conscience.

I'm all for that. Corporations may legally be in the right to fuck over creators, but morally I feel they're in the wrong for building an empire an individual created for them. The comics are basically an ad for the movies and merchandising. They don't have to, but giving a creator a piece of the pie is the right thing to do. If corporations are people, that means they should have feelings.

For the most part, I've been boycotting Marvel since 1987. But only for the same reason I “boycotted” the Superbowl or the Top 40. I just don't care about them anymore. I still buy some of their product when they reprint old stuff or to see how someone like Peter Bagge handles the characters. They're not exactly for me. I'm an adult and the comics are for kids. I have a fondness for a lot of what they did in the 70's not because they were better then, but because I was the right age at the time. I like the first three Star Wars movies only because they were a part of my childhood. I wouldn't expect anyone over 50 or under 30 to see them the same way, though. People always argue when something like Mad, Saturday Night Live, or anything long-running was at its best and I always counter that often things don't jump the shark, your tastes change as you get older.

If you choose to boycott Marvel, I support you, but only if you go all the way. Don't just refuse to buy their comics, refuse to buy anything at the store that sells them. Marvel is a subsidiary of Disney, so you should also boycott all other subsidiaries, and any trademarks like the Muppets. It's not enough to refuse to see any movies with their characters, boycott everything the studio makes or anything starring those actors. And any theater showing their movies. Otherwise it's not really a boycott, it's just venting.

My own stand on this? I strongly side with creators on owning what they create, but it's a smaller issue than bigots running for President and people who believe in ghosts having a say in reproductive health. I'll support a smaller business and not a chain when I have a choice, but like I said, screwing people over for maximum profit is nothing new, it's what corporations do.

Recent Sketchbook Pages

I posted these on various social networks and here they are for you. They're all from 2010 and 2011. I put up high school and college ones a while ago. I haven't changed much since then.

Nancy Meets Garfield

I thought I'd post this before SOPA is passed and allows the federal government to enforce United Features Syndicate's copyright and shut down Google.

It's from the upcoming SUSPECT DEVICE which features different cartoonists doing strips that begins with a panel from Nancy and ends with a panel from Garfield. It will be in black and white but here's the color version.

Comics: What's Up With That?

Here's my anti-comics manifesto, which it turns out is actually not one.

I wrote this thing a while ago and it seems to have gotten a response. It's one of my many rants about comics which includes a lot of what I've said here.

So I just did this convention. The people who organize it are great and it's always good to see old friends again, see what's new in the world of comics, and have conversations more than 140 letters. It wasn't like most comic conventions that smell like fast food full of guys without social skills, and the pageantry of conventions you always see on TV was thankfully absent. I'd do it again in a second.

BUT (you were waiting for that, weren't you? The word that negates everything you just said. Instead I'll surprise everyone by saying...)

THAT SAID, there must be more than seeing the same 200 people for the past 15 years. There has been some new talent and new fans in the intervening years, but it's few and far between. For the most part, everyone in comics I know now was in the twentieth century as well. It starts out like a fraternity hazing then eventually gets to be like Groundhog Day. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the company and often the work of all these 200 people, but it seems so limited, not branching out, too much of a ceiling. Someone just said “You can't be responsible for the scene. Just keep doing what you do.” That's completely true, though doing what you do can sometimes be frustrating in a world where the audience doesn't change or expand, and it won't get any bigger than it's been.

Most people think of comics as heroic fantasy for teenage males. That is the bulk of the product. There's also another side, kind of the equivalent of independent cinema. I find that too to be similarly marginalized in its own way. While I like mopey comics about leaves falling as much as the next guy, I still find it stifling regarding my own status as a cartoonist.

I do silly surreal non-sequitur humor. Granted, the death of the periodical comic has kept me out of the public eye and I'm not as prolific as I once was, but I never left. People like what I do and it means a lot to me when someone tells me how it influenced their life. When someone says they've shown my work to other people. It has sometimes opened doors many of my peers are jealous of. I can see how it can be insulting, though, to someone who spends months working on a graphic novel and it gets the same attention as something I've spent three minutes on, sometimes directly in ink. It's not something in anyone's top ten canon when they think of comics, though.

I'll admit it, I can't draw for shit. What I do relies more on sense of humor and intellect and not skills. It's still legible. Nobody has ever said they can't tell what something is, only that it's not drawn as well as it could be. That doesn't matter to the general public, though. Walking out in the street, I see dozens of hipsters and every one of them would appreciate my cartoons if they knew they existed. No offense, but more so than something fully rendered with more substance. There are those like Chris Ware, Seth, and Daniel Clowes, all exemplary cartoonists I envy, but having a fine art and literary aesthetic I don't think would resonate with the general public. I find more of an affinity with people like Michael Kupperman, Tony Millionaire, and Johnny Ryan, all of whom are better than me at draftsmanship yet people who don't quite fit in to the general consensus of what “indy comics” are. The average person (I'm talking about our own circles, not red-staters that shop at Walmart) doesn't care about that kind of thing. They're not going to gamble with a $25 hardcover when they can take their chances with something for $4. Anyone who's seen Sullivan's Travels knows that people don't want to watch an arty picture, they want belly laughs.

I'm often told when I pitch projects that this is not what the market wants. I never tell them, but I don't think that they don't think it will sell, it's just that they don't want to be the ones to deal with it. I think ultimately it's a polite way of rejecting me. I don't blame them, since what I do is neither blockbuster material or prestigious. But most of all, it's not what the market wants mainly because they don't know it exists.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... I need an agent.

It seems to have been misunderstood as an anti-comics manifesto or declaration of my quitting comics. If anything, it's to get more people reading comics. I include myself as one of those “same old 200 people” and want to stay in that world. I'm only speaking for myself when I feel my own work is more comedy in comics form than “comics” and think there are venues other than the comics world. Think outside the pull box, if you will.

Going back to the incestuous world of comics, the eleventh issue of Smoke Signal has been published, with a cover by Charles Burns. There's also a six-pager from Michael DeForge and Benjamin Marra in material by Tony Millionaire, Kaz, Bill Griffith and Harvey Pekar, Zak Sally, Matthew Thurber, John Porcellino, Julie Delaporte, The Trubble Club, Jonny Negron, Travis Millard, Gary Lieb, a color centerfold of Michael Kupperman's
Moon 69, a back cover by Tim Hensley, and myself.



Sometimes I get weird unsolicited things in the mail. A few months ago I got this painting:


The return address is from “Scott Boyd” but the cover letter was from “Jimmy”. I don't know if they're the same people, but maybe he/they want to keep it that way. I'll send him/them a copy of FREE ICE CREAM.


But that doesn't mean you'll get one, though. Remember they're only $3 and make the perfect stocking stuffer. You can get it by clicking three buttons instead of one, but in the future you'll be able to order things through thought transference.

Squilliam's Yacht

People seem to think because I worked on SpongeBob, I'm rolling in cash. Sometimes they think I have something to do with the merchandising. It's not the case unless answering yes will benefit me.

I do some writing occasionally for the comic, though. It's one of the only non-superhero periodical comics still being published, and one of the many projects my former Nickelodeon editor Chris Duffy in the wake of the magazine's demise.

One of the stories I wrote was written in comics form rather than script form. It looked like this:

Rather than use the symmetrical Kurtzman/Stanley format I usually use, the layouts were changed, and this was the eventual result. The name of the story has also been changed to Squilliam's Yacht

The layouts are by co-creator Derek Drymon, art by Stephen DeStefano, coloring by Scott Roberts, the lettering will eventually be done by Comicraft. My former writing partner Jay Lender saw this without the dialogue and said “I don't ever want to know why SpongeBob is in Patrick's mouth. The explanation could only be a letdown.”

Viacom is strict about enforcing Spongebob's copyright on YouTube, so it's interesting what gets by. Here are the search results for the episode Rock-a-Bye Bivalve I worked on ten years ago.




And I didn't know this, but another episode, Just One Bite, has a scene which was deleted from reruns, presumably because of “imitative behavior”

SPONGEBOB COMICS #4

I've said before I hate it when one thing you do is at the expense of everything else, but I had to give a plug for one of my paying gigs, even though it's work-for-hire.

Editor Chris Duffy, formerly of Nickelodeon magazine that was my bread and butter for so many years, has brought the people he's worked with along with him for this when he can. This cover, for example, was conceived by Graham Annable and colored by Mark Martin.

Besides them, there are also Spongebob comics by James Kochalka, Corey Barba, and former co-editor Dave Roman. Future issues will have Tony Millionaire and Hilary Barta. I've heard Jules Feiffer and S.Clay Wilson will be doing pages.(*)

R. Sikoryak, best known for his chameleonic skills, gets to do the contents page in his own style, in addition to conforming to the “house style”. He's imitated me many times before, but it's weird now to see him imitating me imitating someone else. Did I just blow your mind?

I drew the back cover for this issue. I originally did it like this.

Chris and creator Stephen Hillenburg said they didn't want every page to look the same and wanted me to use the flat style I usually use. Union rules forbade me from doing my own lettering.

Even in my own style, I had to be on model somewhat. My first draft had Spongebob with no eyelashes or stripes on his socks, and Patrick didn't have spots.


I have stories in future issues. I did a six-page story to be drawn by Stephen DeStefano. The title has been changed to something like Squilliam's Yacht.


I'm not sure when this other story, in which the characters go bungee jumping, will be printed, since the stories are stockpiled months in advance, and approval and editing has to be coordinated between New York and LA and then between Hillenburg's people and Nickelodeon's. I've done a few more stories I don't expect to be approved for another few months. It's because they're so overbooked I haven't pitched stories in a while.

Ironically, even though I was one of the writers on the show for a year, that was ten years ago and I haven't watched it as much since then. As a result, I have no idea what's been done with the characters since then. Luckily a Wiki has been made so I can check. I also decided to stop thinking along the lines of “What would they do?” and just do strips I would normally do when I pitch them. Almost every Scene But Not Heard strip I did for Nickelodeon could have been done for this.

Any show that outrages the right is okay in my book. Especially one they're too stupid to understand.

For some reason, people seem to think I created Spongebob despite any publicity material only making a passing reference to having worked on the show. Maybe it's because I have the same initials. My stock answer, if they have a sense of humor, is usually, "If I were, would you be talking to me?"

And it would be remiss of me not to mention that Spongebob Squarepants was created by Stephen Hillenburg and is TM and ©Viacom International, Inc. Any look at this blog shows I almost always hide behind fair use and squatters' rights when it comes to posting other peoples' material, but I know how vigilant lawyers for both parties are in this case, and as a penniless cartoonist I'd rather not face the possibility of going against a billion-dollar juggernaut.

(*)Not really. I just want to spread a rumor that it was going to happen.

Grilled cheese sandwich

Dyna Moe covers Magic Whistle

I think part of my Achilles is constantly complaining about not getting recognition, even though I sometimes do. (I could be a multi-trillionaire from my comics and still find something to complain about). This is why I was pleasantly surprised when looking at the Covered blog to see my own comic being done. There's proof that despite conventional wisdom, people still think of a particular comic that's mostly humor and gags after ten years. Even though I've been at this for decades, when you spend 90% of your time alone doing comics for yourself sometimes you wonder who sees what you do. I do anyway. It's even more flattering when someone you've heard of but never officially met is a fan, let alone acknowledges your existence.

The cover is by Dyna Moe, probably best known for the Mad Men app that everybody was using as their Facebook avatar a couple years ago. I'm familiar with the feeling of one's most famous work being something you're proud of, but at the expense of eclipsing everything else. I didn't ask her but I'm guessing this may be the case. She's also done several illustrations, and videos for Channel 102 and Funny or Die, which can be seen perusing her site. If I was still doing The Magic Whistle as a regular series, maybe I'd ask her to do a cover.

Here's the original.

My drawings are done quickly and it shows, but makes people think anyone can do it. I spend more time getting the dialogue and pacing right and then when I'm finished I think of how I could have done it better. My originals have paste-ups and white-out all over them (except the ones for sale). In this case I spent a lot of time drawing straight lines from everyone's eyes to the main guy's shorts in pencil so I'd get the eye contact just right. The original sketch is long gone.

I've been working a lot on Hippie Days. It's not that much of a departure from what I've been doing all along except it doesn't have things like talking animals or people spontaneously combusting or anything supernatural like that. It'll appear regularly on Act-I-Vate, which seems to get a lot of traffic, including publishers and editors, so I'll be posting it there every Thursday instead of here from now on.

With the periodical comic dead I need to work on something full length to keep staying in print. Publishers are loathe to invest in something that would cost $4 when they can make at least 5 times that with a longer book. Paperbacks less than 150 pages don't cut it anymore. Some people say I'm “slumming” continuing to do comics, but I consider higher-profile work just another job that pays better. Anonymity is a double-edge sword. With comics at least I don't get relatives thinking I had anything to do with the merchandising.

Even having done comics for more than twenty years and being printed everywhere I still feel new to comics. I'm told people don't want to buy anything with the hodge-podge of stories, gags and short bursts I've been doing all my life, despite my belief that in the long run those type of things sell better than most “graphic novels”. I hate that term, it's like a pimp calling himself an “adult recreational consultant”. It's a necessary evil, though, since it's a euphemism that keeps artists and readers from being ridiculed. I'm also told people prefer Spiegelman-inspired comics rather than straight-out humor. I like all that stuff too, but I don't expect a lot of it to be remembered in ten years. Chris Ware and Dan Clowes are but two exceptions. Ask a random person in the street to name the most famous comic of all time off the top of their head, most likely they'll say Peanuts. Or if they don't know we have 50 states or that WWII came before Vietnam they'll say Garfield. And what genre are they?

There are only seven non-comedy comic strips in syndication right now versus the hundreds of others. I'm told people like Tony Millionaire and Johnny Ryan's books don't sell as well as they used to, but it seems they resonate more with the general public. I'm glad Michael Kupperman is doing well, though his success seems to ultimately be from the comedy world. Maybe telling me humor doesn't sell or saying “I like it, but...” is just a way of turning me down politely. Do humor comics sell? Like the great George W. Bush once said, “Only time will tell about my legacy.”

It doesn't have too much to do with hippies. I just like the pun. Even if nobody under thirty will get it. Years ago, a girlfriend had a niece visiting. She was watching something like Law and Order with Henry Winkler as the guest star. Walking by, I said “Hey, it's the Fonz!” and she said “Who's the Fonz?” It was my first experience feeling old. Maybe I should have said “It's the guy from Arrested Development” instead.

Yes, I was actually “walking by” the TV. Drew Friedman once pointed out that in his class, Will Eisner used to always say “I was walking by the TV when...” without ever acknowledging he was sitting down and watching it.

Chickenator 2065

After I scanned this in and cleaned it up and everything, I noticed one mistake. See if you can find it.

Dirty Danny wins by a landslide!

Believe it or not, I actually do pencil most of my catoons. I drew this freehand...uh, except for the first panel, but anyway, during the election I had this idea, so here it is...

HUSTLER Humor

I had no idea they were still publishing this. I've been told they have limited distribution. The editor was apologetic about them paying so little, but I said it was okay since what I gave them was something I had already done for an anthology and was paid even less. They have a lot of the same contributors as they did when I was 12, so I guess it's mostly reprints. If you care, look for this at an adult bookstore near you.

that's the way it's been

If you're not on my Facebook page, you wouldn't know about this but here it is $2 postpaid.

nobody told you it would be easy