WWQ&A: Signing your work
February 14, 2008
Another question!
Ahoy, gentlefolk.
Just listening to the “Ding!” Podcast, and I figured I’d throw in on the subject of signing your work: back when JjAR had just started drawing Jump Leads, I showed the art to some friends. One of my friends recommended getting JjAR to sign his work - not as an “I made this!” marking but as a security measure against art theft. Now this may well end up being a moot point as the print edition doesn’t feature the signature on the individual pages, but that’s why we ended up going with signed work.
Have a good’n,
~Ben
www.jump-leads.com
I don’t remember if I mentioned it before, but I think a signature, small and inside the last panel, can actually act as more than a theft deterrent or a proof of credit. In “Starslip” I have no need to put a signature and I never had before, but to me it means a couple things:
1. It makes the strip look more professional. I think the strip reads differently with my last name scribbled on it. I think it looks less amateur.
2. It indicates ownership and pride. This goes with (1), but it’s important. I’ll come back to this idea in a second.
3. It’s actually a punchline cue! Most interestingly, the way I used to read the signatures in newspaper comics was almost the same way you receive a laugh track on a sitcom. It means, visually, “I’m done, here, that was for you. I have delivered the joke.” In that way I almost think a signature belongs to the punchline! It can actually function as a prompt. Probably not a strong one, but we are conditioned to expect it somewhere on a four-panel strip.
Ben, I’m interested in how you explicitly said JjAR was signing his work “not as an ‘I made this!’ marking.” Here is a story from my deep, dark past. When I was young, somehow the idea of “letting your work speak for itself” got confused to me with “putting your name on your work is the same as bragging.” Of course I wanted credit for the work, but if the important part was the work, then shouldn’t that take the whole spotlight? I mean, people knew what my drawings looked like, so that was enough of a fingerprint.
I can’t tell you how many things were stolen from me in high school. It took me a long time to get over my shoegazing, misplaced, quasi-modesty to start signing my work. It’s not bragging. You know what? Maybe it is bragging, but what’s wrong with that? Sign it! The art on Jump Leads is amazing, too. JjAR should be signing every panel twice.
Maybe that’s not how you meant it, but it was important to say. Sign it somewhere! You can make it small, but do it!
It feels weird to me to sign it. I mean, my name is already at the bottom, under the panels. But I guess if somebody really wanted to steal one of my comics, they could easily just cut that off. So I guess I’ll just have to come up with a signature that I like.
When I was in elementary school, I learned how important it was to sign. I used to draw comics and story books and then one day in a stupid act, sold like 5 of them for a dollar to someone who was in my class. The next day I found that he had signed all the books under his name! So in the end it got resolved badly, I got the books back and another dollar from him courtesy of the help of a bully, but after that I went full hog and signed every page and stuck little copyright symbols on all my books, been kind of doing that ever since.
Though in retrospect, he probably would have just scribbled over my signature and wrote his own anyway.
I thought this subject was fascinating when it came up before on the podcast, because I completely tune out signatures on comics. I had a very vague recollection of Dave’s stylized box-thing signature, and that was about it.
So, you know, go crazy! Sign it backwards! Sign it with one different wrong letter in your name every day!
“Most interestingly, the way I used to read the signatures in newspaper comics was almost the same way you receive a laugh track on a sitcom. It means, visually, “I’m done, here, that was for you. I have delivered the joke.””
There’s an old saying about how to do comedy, you’ve probably heard it before. I think it’s from Laurel & Hardy. It goes something like, “First, tell the audience what you’re going to do. Next, do it. Last, tell them it’s just been done.”
It seems sort of confusing and counter-intuitive, but it sounds a little like what you’re talking about. Anyway, just putting that out there. I really like this series!
Thanks for responding to my question, Kris. it’s appreciated
Back when i was doing my own art for my own comics, I did a lot of studying into what it takes to become a successful Comicsmith. I read a number of books, including many that are currently listed in the Halfpixel Book Club. One book I read - and I forget the title - retold an anecdote from a particular Comicsmith who is currently quite long in the tooth. I forget his name, but when he was studying Art in College, and before he even started his career in the comics, he had been commissioned to do some art for a local gas station. he ran the art he’d created by his Art teacher, and when he went to sign it his teacher stopped him.
“But Jim Davis signs his work!” objected the young man.
“yes,” replied the teacher, ‘And when you’re as successful as he is, you can sign your work too.”
Now the details of this story are slightly muddled - it wasn’t Jim Davis’ name mentioned, for instance, but I forget whose name was actually used - but this is more or less how the story went and it’s stuck with me since Forever. I never signed my own art when I drew Fried, and I’ve never encouraged another artist to sign theirs.
Hang on… “it’s appreciated”? Guh, that’ll learn me to type comments while I’m at work.
Personally, signing my work is a point for to say ‘I’m done.’ and that is the last possible thing I need to do before publishing, framing, selling etc of the piece. I also (for me) think it’s a mental thing, in that mentally I am finished with that work and can move onto something else.
I also thing it depends on how you work is both displayed on your site, and a big one with lots of webcomic site now, how it is delivered to others via ‘feeds’. if it’s solely the cartoon that is ‘fed’ somewhere away from your site, how would others know that the work belongs to you (if it’s a third party site that’s displaying your work etc? How do they contact you?
Just my two cents.
Hm.
I don’t mean to be off topic, but how does one go about merchandising? I think for any artist it’s probably a big issue when it comes to recieving income, besides advertising and commision, from their creative endeavors.
i’d have to agree with mr. frazer, that the signature to my signifies the conclusion of a piece of work i’m proud of. this is gonna sound corny, but it gives a sense of closure, “ahhhh, another orginal done!”
and i’ve never published anything before but i’d draw things for friends and undoubtedly, they would always ask for a signature. even they think it needs one to complete the work.
great site by the way. perfect for us newbies.
Sort of a shorthand for “Thankyou folks, I’ll be here next week”?
I don’t sign mine at this time because first it’s not that good, maybe not even art. Second, my signature sucks, just like my handwriting.
BTW, I really appreciate this site and you guys being so accessible to us “wanna-bees” out here in the ether. I can’t wait until my copy of “How to Make Webcomics”, I ordered it 3 weeks ago, I guess I should have ordered it without autographs.
BarryB