Teaching Comics (3)

Following Cerebus #1 Backcover (July 2004)
Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:

I found it disheartening (as I always do) that so many of the samples I was asked to review consisted of pencilled pages only. I take care of this in the convention context by telling people that I review only pages which are pencilled, inked and lettered. One guy finally told me that I was the only one who ever said that. Mainstream editors (evidently) want to look only at pencilled pages. An inker can always be assigned and the writer can just fit the words in where's there room - after that it's the letterer's job to cover up faces and arms and have people talking out of sequence in the panel. Goes a long way towards explaining why mainstream comics are unreadable. The compromise I reached with most of the students was to photocopy their pencilled pages and save the photocopies to show editors. After that letter and ink them so you are continuing to develop ALL of the skills that go into a comic-book page. Face it - you're going to get tired of being treated like shit EVENTUALLY and at that point you're going to want to do something on your own, and ten years later it's a little too late to learn how to ink and letter.

In 1995 Dave Sim spent two days at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) teaching sequential art, via workshops, portfolio reviews and lectures. He summarised the experience in his essay 'Misunderstainding Comics' printed in Cerebus #194 (May 1995).