An Illustrator's Bible: Interview with Naniiebim

James: Do you have a job besides illustration?

Naniiebim: I used to wash dishes/ work in reception at a restaurant alongside illustration, but have worked freelance for a long time. I'd say I do half and half Illustration/ artist.

J: Do comic artist ever meet up for a drink during your cons? I’ve heard that for the San Diego comic con you have to burn the candle at both ends if you’re ever to see the editors.
N: I meet up with friends- mostly to chat, eat and hang, but have not bothered trying to get in with socializing purely to climb the social ladder.

J: A serious concern for me is that illustration isn’t seen as a respected profession. We live in a world where you hear terms like hipster and yuppie, very derogatory stuff. How do you maintain an environment that respects and supports your creativity?
N: It’s been much harder to work as an illustrator in the more recent years because the market is saturated with a lot of artists who are used to being paid much less than they ought to, it's a vicious cycle of people needing work, and having to take lower and lower pay because so many other artists will take the job if they don't. I have probably burned my bridges. I only really work with clients now who I work well with.

J: Have you ever lowered the price of your comics at cons in response to seeing the prices of other’s work? N: The books and going to cons have a certain overhead I have to cover which has been set in the price of the books to cover a number of selling possibilities- selling in the shops for example has a very high overhead to cover posting books to the shop, and to cover their commission charge for sales in store, which can be 30-50%.

I’ve lowered prices occasionally at a show when a customer has individually tried to haggle with me- usually this happens in exceptional circumstances- and I'll usually barter them a piece of their artwork for the cut price, or it has happened at the end of the day when they have expected us to lower prices- but don't know that as small publishers, if we lower the prices, we literally get nothing from selling them the book because of the costs involved involved.

J: It also seems very self-destructive that hobbyists and docile graduates are competing with proffesionals. Do you think the response to this is that many illustrators are now taking an entrepreneurial attitude to things? Making their own products and establishing an audience. To survive in the industry is it important for one to be independent and have that relationship with their audience at cons? Or is there another way for it to get better? E.g. in house studio jobs be it for games or cartoons etc.?

N: It’s a difficult and very complicated subject with a lot of factors. I can only really say that the development of my methods are individually decided over time and because of personal preferences. The situation has become pretty bad for both Graduates, Hobbyists and Professionals alike because of the lack of respect for art and artists in the industry- and it's ended up with all artists and illustrators undercutting each other constantly- the only ones who gain from this are the industries that use artwork.

I made the choices to work as I do because they work and are supportable by me as an individual, and unfortunately, freelance work like my job is pretty unique to each person doing the job. I've only gotten where I am by trying a lot of things, making mistakes and avoiding them in my next step.

As for being independent or inhouse, it really depends on which sort of life you can cope with!

J: You stated one perk of self-publishing was getting away with not having a title on front of the ZERO art book cover, so what are the pros and cons of making an official book (with registered RSBN) as opposed to something you crafted?

N: ISBN's get you into libraries and large distribution chains. Library lending means you can apply for PLR funding for you book. The number is needed to be entered into catalogues so shops can order your books to sell. The trade off is: You sell you books for a really low cost wholesale- when you fund short run printing yourself- you may only profit in pence per book for work you will have spent a long time on. You'll have to spend a lot more time dealing with multiple outlets for distribution- you will no longer have a personal hand in customer service. You book will have a shelf life- the distributor will only increase orders if you sell well, sell badly- and they'll probably drop you.

I was interested in self-publishing without joining mainstream. The trade-off is control and freedom, but a small audience and more PR work. It's more personal, harder work, but I get to go out and meet people on my own terms for doing so.

J: What’s the plan for Mephistos book 6 and the rest of the series?

I usually update news on my Patreon about the state of work I'm in, I'm currently in the middle of a longer period of work with a client than I first thought, and this has severely delayed a number of HBD projects I was partway through last year. I have to work my comics around my client work.

J: Would you allow your fans to influence the direction of the series albeit with fan service or are you a bit more precious with your own stories?

N: I don't mind people drawing fan art based on my work, that's always lovely, but would prefer if they didn't sell it and compete with me with my own IP (intellectual property).

J: If someone doesn’t have the time or money to attend your conventions, then what best way would they be able to purchase your work?

N: In general, I usually tell people that the conventions are the places to pick up the books, ideal for me and for readers. The second would be Etsy; although I feel very bad about the extra postage cost and the fees added due to maintaining the listing- this is a problem mainly affecting overseas sales though. The last would be in the shops- the postage cost, the large commission cost is entirely incurred by me- I can't really say what state the books get to the customer, I can't add freebies or

check they can get the full available range unless I spend a lot of time contacting the shops personally to check. I use Travelling man as they've been the only ones of a very small range of small press accepting shops who have looked after my stock and made efforts to sell them though- Astral Gypsy in Coventry are my other comic shop stocker I usually see them at cons and drop my stock of when I see them. They're a lovely little independent shop- and I thoroughly encourage you to buy from there is you can visit it!