This is everything I know: a 24 comic about comics.

October 17, 2013 10:54 AM

"I'm a professional indie cartoonist, and before that I was an aspiring pro." Spike is the author of Poorcraft, a how-to-live-well-within-your-means comic that many many of us on the Blue really dig.
posted by Kitteh (22 comments total)

Wow, she's a great artist, I love her style. And I've never heard of her. This keeps happening--I must discover at least three-four amazing new artists a year. Even though I mostly limit it to women artists, there are so. many! My Twitter and Tumblr feeds are full of them. I hope they are all making a living, there are only so many t-shirts I can buy :(
posted by emjaybee at 11:13 AM on October 17, 2013

And I've never heard of her.

You are in for a treat. Templaraz.com for starters
posted by The Whelk at 11:15 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've seen her recently at both the Phoenix Comic-Con and APE. She's really out there hustling to promote her work.
posted by JDC8 at 11:21 AM on October 17, 2013

Mod note: added a link to Poorcraft. Carry on.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:23 AM on October 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'll make the pure-ego observation that I introduced Metafilter to Spike. I'm glad all the Kickstarter stuff etc. has gone well, but I really wish she hadn't functionally abandoned Templar, AZ :(
posted by nanojath at 11:26 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

We're never gonna find out what's Wrong With Ben, are we?
posted by The Whelk at 11:29 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Poorcraft is great and you should get it even If you are not poor. Know someone going to college? Get it for them.

The 10 year thing is so, so right. I was just talking about a bunch of "new" comics people on Twotter and all of them have been around that long.
posted by Artw at 11:32 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

This was great.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:33 AM on October 17, 2013

It's because of Metafilter that I bought Poorcraft. While we're not poor, there is tons of stuff you can apply to your life that will help you out, despite the fact it's US-centric (especially the healthcare stuff). Poorcraft is awesome.
posted by Kitteh at 11:43 AM on October 17, 2013

Yeah, The Whelk, when things were down to a page or a few a month I held out hope... even if it would be a year or two between volumes. But now that it's kind of serially been a page or a very small flurry of pages with months (most recently the better part of a year and counting) between I can't help but think it's a hopeless case.
posted by nanojath at 11:46 AM on October 17, 2013

Wow, this is pretty great!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:46 AM on October 17, 2013

This will sound stupid, but: what beautiful stick figures! I love them!
posted by mittens at 11:48 AM on October 17, 2013

A great cartoonist, good advice, especially the part about how it all might not work out.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:49 AM on October 17, 2013

Incidentally if you want current events for Spike she tweets. A lot.
posted by nanojath at 11:52 AM on October 17, 2013

This is brilliant, and the advice applies for many different creative paths.

It certainly applies for the public-radio world, in my experience.
posted by mykescipark at 11:58 AM on October 17, 2013

Written by C. Spike Trotman and illustrated by Diana Nock

This is a bit of a surprise. Spike is a talented and seasoned cartoonist/illustrator, right? Why hire this Diana Nock (who I confess I know nothing about).

And I just realized I've been following Templar's glacial storyline for nearly ten years now. Guh.
posted by sourwookie at 12:19 PM on October 17, 2013

Note: This is a 24-hour comic (the tag should be fixed, too).
posted by jjwiseman at 12:30 PM on October 17, 2013

Sourwookie, I think it was just for time reasons -- Templar was still active when Poorcraft began, and Spike always has a lot on her plate. Diana Nock draws an excellent silent comic called The Intrepid Girlbot.
posted by thesmallmachine at 12:33 PM on October 17, 2013

Came back just to add that I'm a big fan of Spike's, my sadness that Templar seems to be dead in the water aside. She is one of those rare artists who are superb creators and also great marketers and salespeople -- I have watched her work a con booth, and it is a sight I will not soon forget. She's also branched out into editing Kickstarted indie anthologies (a woman-friendly porn anthology called Smut Peddler and an upcoming horror book called The Sleep of Reason). If you like her work, you might also enjoy that of her friend Blue Delliquanti, who is featured in both. (As with Templar, you definitely want to start O Human Star from the beginning.)
posted by thesmallmachine at 1:46 PM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

My friend (and fellow MeFite sanspoint) interviewed Spike for my site -- and I know he talked about covering Poorcraft for it as well. But yeah -- that interview is from a while ago, pre-Poorcraft even being started, so yes. Hooray!
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 12:23 AM on October 18, 2013

It makes me pause to think about how many great artist we've never heard from just because they weren't great marketers and salespeople on top of being artists. Too bad, but them's the breaks, I guess.
posted by Harald74 at 3:10 AM on October 18, 2013

Yeah, I hear that. They're not necessarily related traits, and sometimes they fight each other when they do coincide.
posted by thesmallmachine at 7:53 PM on October 18, 2013