About the author
Start early and often.
Yes. Yes! At 6 rather than lemonade, I sold drawings from a box beside the curb. In grade 7 I was selling art for the cover pages of my fellow students presentations making money for gravy with my ill-gotten fries! [it's a long story]. I drew often and early.
Despite these seemingly obvious hints, I fancied a career as a rocket scientist. But that didn’t work out. So I kept drawing. I thought maybe a forger! How fun! But then I got sucked into drawing comics, In the end they won.
I got started publishing zines through the 80′s, and by the early 90′s was working professionally as a comic artist at Marvel drawing Night Breed, Saint Sinner, and assorted 2099 tittles. While it’s been bumpy at times, i’ve been lucky. In the 20 years since then i’ve spent much of my time drawing both commercial, and creator owned or underground comix. Along the way i’ve also paid the bills as a designer for animation, and as an illustrator.
Nominated “Best Emerging Talent” for the 2005 Doug Wright Awards for my personal anthology project RevolveR, in 2007 I drew Therefore Repent! with collaborator Jim Monroe, and have work in the Eisner winning anthologies Comic Book Tattoo, Popgun 4, and in Awesome 2: Awesomer.
In my spare stolen moments I founded and publish the comics news metablog Sequential.
Salgood Sam is I, is Max Douglas. Backwards. And I no longer know what I would do without art.
salgood@gmail.com
You are luckier than most I’d say to have a career base on what you love doing. Or is luck something you believe in?
I read somewhere that Van Gogh said that art was secondary and really there are so many other things to do.
Thoughts?
Hi Jesse!
That Van Gogh said a lot of things. Nutty guy, was a street preacher in England for a while you know?
It was very intentional, making a living at it. Luck is part of it, but you kind of have to make it. It’s not the fall in your lap kind of luck. It’s hours and hours of work and hustling and craft, making you eligible and able to do something when the opportunity strikes.
But it’s making art, not saving the world. Of course there so many other things to do. Can’t do them all though. I chose this for now.