Thought Bubble 2015: Creator Owned Comics

Sean Murphy, Matt Schol, Was Craig, Bengal, Jerome, Remender

Most on panel left jobs that pay more than comics b/c excitement of ideas, working with friends etc. Bengal - almost every comic in France is creator owned. Less rewarding there - harder to stand out. Wes worked in games, but just wanted to do comic books. Nice for name on cover, a real personal statement. Matt - less big studios in Italy - a lot of schools of comics - waiter etc while working on own stuff. Never had to pick between comics/anything better. Done some small anim concept stuff. Marvel = constant work, was asked by image to do comics instead. Murphy DC for 7 years - didn't 'fit in', did some Vertigo and some at Image with Remender too. Rememender - inspired by TMNT etc, realised 'oh, anyone can do this' and followed Robert Williams to Zapp comics.

Wrote own comics when very young. Jerome - 6 - Indonesia for a year, started to read comics. Made him want to make them.. Craig - French translations of American comics, B+T. Sort of started with Akira, Teen Titans. Teen Titans turned him into a collector but Eisner's Spirit made him want to do comics. Matt - started with American comics, Italian and manga at the same time. Parents didn't want him to read a lot. Anime Saint Seiya got him wanting to draw as well as Fist of the Northstar and Dragonball. Murphy - Chris Ware, Karl Baker, not gavitating to superhero comics but saw some B+W - tried to so smilar with m/DC style to pay the bills. Remender saw Murphy's Hellblazer comics and asked him to do a creator owned one - initially said no. Remender and Murphy wanted to do a book together, took 3 months of throwing ideas around. Probs a year after taking elements they liked and giving life to. Was 4 1 book b/c style and interests work for plot. Matteo for worlds and things coming together seamlessly. Remender - very little time to read other stuff etc. Looked at some when Matteo - working sometimes 18 hours a day before so couldn't read others, now has free weekends to read books - work is better for not constantly worrying 'what am I doing next?' Murphy - not always a burned bridge when swapping from dc/marvel to creator owned.