Old Dogs and New Tricks
I learned a valuable lesson this past weekend: I can't work for anyone.
Okay, that may be overstating it a bit. Clearly, I can teach under a principal and such. But I went to a portfolio review given by a well-known editor of graphic novels this weekend, handed over my Solution Squad book, and they thumbed through it for about 20 seconds before telling me that I'd be better served by making a nonfiction math graphic novel. I visibly flinched. I know I did. And before I could stop myself, I told this person very plainly that as a math teacher with three decades of experience, that respectfully, there was nothing worse I could imagine than a nonfiction math graphic novel.
I was told that kids would want character-driven stories in which math was used. I responded curtly with, "That's exactly what this is." Then came the final straw. They condescendingly said, "Have you ever heard of Gene Luen Yang and Nathan Hale?" I almost laughed out loud. I turned the book over and pointed to the two blurbs on the back cover of my book by...Gene Luen Yang and Nathan Hale.
"You mean these guys?"
I ended up walking away after standing in line for an hour with a new perspective. I may not be the best-selling author in the world, but just because someone works and is known in the industry, it doesn't make them an authority on everything in it. On the other hand, they may be completely right and I'm wrong. But I'm not going to spend the rest of my life making books I don't want to make. I won't be working on comics for this person, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to work for anyone else, either. I've spent enough years listening to people who know less about what I do than I do, and having to do what they say. If I fail, I will fail because of my own actions, not because someone wants me to be the next Gene Luen Yang or Nathan Hale. I love those guys and everything they do, but I'm never going to be them.
I'm going to be the best Jim McClain there is.
Okay, that may be overstating it a bit. Clearly, I can teach under a principal and such. But I went to a portfolio review given by a well-known editor of graphic novels this weekend, handed over my Solution Squad book, and they thumbed through it for about 20 seconds before telling me that I'd be better served by making a nonfiction math graphic novel. I visibly flinched. I know I did. And before I could stop myself, I told this person very plainly that as a math teacher with three decades of experience, that respectfully, there was nothing worse I could imagine than a nonfiction math graphic novel.
I was told that kids would want character-driven stories in which math was used. I responded curtly with, "That's exactly what this is." Then came the final straw. They condescendingly said, "Have you ever heard of Gene Luen Yang and Nathan Hale?" I almost laughed out loud. I turned the book over and pointed to the two blurbs on the back cover of my book by...Gene Luen Yang and Nathan Hale.
"You mean these guys?"
I ended up walking away after standing in line for an hour with a new perspective. I may not be the best-selling author in the world, but just because someone works and is known in the industry, it doesn't make them an authority on everything in it. On the other hand, they may be completely right and I'm wrong. But I'm not going to spend the rest of my life making books I don't want to make. I won't be working on comics for this person, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to work for anyone else, either. I've spent enough years listening to people who know less about what I do than I do, and having to do what they say. If I fail, I will fail because of my own actions, not because someone wants me to be the next Gene Luen Yang or Nathan Hale. I love those guys and everything they do, but I'm never going to be them.
I'm going to be the best Jim McClain there is.
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