endcomic:

I have a background in classical animation, and on the first day of my first class in my first year, my professor, who was also the program administrator, sat us down and told us the most important thing that we would learn in the years to come: KILL YOUR EGO. This sage advice made enough of an impression that, even though I don’t work in the industry, it still sticks with me a decade later.

This sentiment isn’t exclusive to animation, and I have met many professional illustrators and designers and even graphic designers that use it as some sort of secret password to an actually not existing underground club. We wink at each other as it leaves our lips while we watch someone else have a public melt-down, and walk away shuddering as we remember those first days of college or university where our assignments were taped up on the white board while the entire class huddled around them and picked them to shreds. It stung at the time, but it laid the foundation for the tone that I feel every aspiring comic artist should take.

The idea behind KILL YOUR EGO is this:

Whatever sense of self entitlement you had growing up, being that one kid in class who was the best at drawing, getting compliments and validation from every adult in your young life and admiration and envy from your peers—this is what causes you to lash out, to feel hurt or insulted every time someone looks at your work and says “Meh, it could be better.”

This is what causes you to lose your mind every time you receive unsolicited critique, and you NEED to get rid of it; that one public outburst could become a big internet joke, and it could cost you jobs or freelance work. That one kid that you decided to take down a peg to feed your own ego? Won’t YOU be surprised when you sit down for a job interview and he’s the one flipping through your portfolio five years down the line—it’s the same on the net. That one kid that you tore down on SmackJeeves could be that weird overnight internet sensation who starts rubbing elbows with other internet famous people, and they might love to tell all their new friends about how much of a dick you were to them. Letting your ego run free and rampant burns bridges. You don’t need it, and you can bet that your peers won’t need you if the first thing they do every time your name comes up is giggle and recount that one time you totally lost it on someone who tried to give you advice.

Art is hard work. Getting good at it is even harder. Most of the people who continue to do it today had endless encouragement as children and got the full special snowflake treatment from others that other kids were getting for sports or grades. I get it, it was your thing—it was my thing, too. The issue with this is that when you enter a field like animation or illustration or even webcomics, everyone around you, every single one of your peers, is that kid. They were the YOU of their school yard. Their friends were in awe, their teachers were gushing, their parents proud. We all go from being that one special kid who is good at drawing to just one more face in a sea of people who are trying to do the exact same thing as we are, and many of whom are doing it better.

While you may argue that no one is giving out webcomic jobs, people like Ryan North and Ryan Estrada and Spike Trotman might beg to differ. As the years pass and with the event of the creation of websites like Kickstarter, projects like theirs that require many artists and offer paid work are becoming more common and more viable as sources of income and notoriety. Now is the time to make sure that whatever notoriety follows you is nothing but glowing, positive anecdotes and references on what a great person you are to work with.

Go forth and be nothing but awesome, at least in public!