The Life of the Long Distance Cartoonist – Evan Dorkin
In recent days, comic book creator Evan Dorkin, of Milk & Cheese, Bill & Ted, Eltingville, Dork and Beasts Of Burden has been posting about his lot in life. Especially regarding the much-delayed Beasts Of Burden series with Jill Thompson. but also about his career and his time of life. It has been shared a lot with many supportive comments.
As a long-time fan of Evan's work since Pirate Corp$, it makes for depressing reading, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. On Twitter he posted;
I always used to say I'd never quit comics but I also said I'd never do variant covers and I caved on that one. I'm getting too old to live this marginally, especially when I have a collaborator comicblocking the most profitable project I have going. I'm just tired of all this.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I should have just gotten an agent and tried to do animation stuff full-time when I had the chance. We had better credits than a lot of full-time animation people. But I was fearful and resistant to change. I should have left SLG a decade earlier, but I was loyal and fearful etc.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I should have chased money and stopped pushing my own work bc the 90s are long dead. It's okay for me to live a cartoonist's life, and your partner makes the crazy choice to be there, but your child doesn't. I'm tired of still having to convince people to buy my stuff, 30 yrs in.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I don't make GNs and there's no place for my humor stuff in the direct market. I'm down too deep to become a webcomics artist. I'm a comics writer now, I have no time or reason to work on Dork or anything like that. At least I have Beasts of Burden, working around the co-creator.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
KS and Patreon isn't for everyone and/or every situation, btw. I can't drop commitments and add ore on just to make some gag comics. Maybe the time is just over for that side of my career, for a while, at least. Times change, I didn't. Dinosaurs die.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
The only things that have really made us solid money have been outside comics. Magazine/book work, illustration, animation writing/design/pitch bibles, and the thing we did this year which we can't discuss yet. But stupid me, I concentrated on comics because that's my heart.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
The only things that have really made us solid money have been outside comics. Magazine/book work, illustration, animation writing/design/pitch bibles, and the thing we did this year which we can't discuss yet. But stupid me, I concentrated on comics because that's my heart.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I joke about not ending up like Wally Wood, and yet I go wasting my life on comics. No life, money always a problem, feeling like the pages I ache over get tossed into a well. Then Beasts of Burden is successful — and the co-creator won't finish a 5-yr old script It's a joke.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I don't think many people understand that when someone throws a project under the bus, It's not just that the book sits. There's a domino effect. No second GN income. No foreign rights income (7 eds), no third and fourth GN. I can't write/get paid. I have to find work.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
If you think I — and people at DHC over the years — haven't done all possible to resolved this, think again. I've pleaded, cajoled, listened, walked from the book, walked back, brought in a new artist on side stories. There's no dirt. No fall out. Also no new pgs/movement.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
ON a positive note, the collaboration between me, Ben Dewey, Nate Piekos and DHC on the Wise Dogs material has been the complete opposite experience. And we're doing more. But until things get smoothed out, the main series storyline will not move forward, as it hasn't in years.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
If you think I feel great venting like this, let me tell you, I don't. It's as stomach-ache-inducing as having someone throw you and your favorite project under three buses. I have written scores of e-mails, made calls, talked to editors, publishers and therapists. I'm exhausted.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
PRO TIP: ALWAYS HAVE A CO-CREATOR AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND COLLABORATORS ON A CREATOR-OWNED BOOK. EVEN IF ITS A GOOD FRIEND YOU'VE KNOWN FOR DECADES. Because you don't know what could happen, and without one, you're fucked. I learned it the hard way.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
If you still support this book, I thank you. No one should have to wait nine years for a second volume. That goes for the people working on it, as well, especially as it affects our incomes and lives, and sometimes our emotional well-being.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I'm just very unhappy these days, for a lot of reasons, and some of it is comics, and lot of that is what's been going on w/Beasts. Life in comics is marginal enough to be dealing with people who were supposed to be on my side. I'm not willing to put up with this anymore.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
And I think part of my problem is I need to maybe get off Twitter. I enjoy talking w/you all here, and appreciate your being here. But I'm often here for the wrong reasons (OCD, boredom, avoidance, need for attention). I'll be on IG more than here, at least that's the plan.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
I just want a regular night's sleep away from this. I have my own problems, and my own anxieties and fears. Plenty, in fact, thank you very much. Making a comic book shouldn't be one of them. If my work has to be something to take to therapy, let it be for me, not someone else.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
Here's to a better tomorrow for all the important things, and a few not so important things like some stupid guy's dumb comic book about magic fucking dogs.
Good night, good bye, don't take it personally if I don't reply.
— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
To clarify:
– Not quitting comics, just reassessing.
– Not in desperate need, just feeling desperate. Most of us are on the edge, not a new story.
– Not fishing for compliments (but thank you).
– We've done everything we can re a certain someone to no avail.
So long for now.— Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) November 28, 2018
View this post on Instagram
I'm in a bar. It's dark. I'm three sheets to the wind. I need this.
A post shared by Evan Dorkin (@evandorkin) on
Ethan is also using his Instagram to show the hardcovers he is selling. And those that he is keeping. He's not entirely sure how he came by it all…
Those who do want to show the love, in any small way, Evan Dorkin's store with Sarah Dyer, House Of Fun, can be found here, and he has an Amazon store too.
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