2. It's A Lot Of Hard Work
SciFiNowThat might be the biggest lesson we hope to impart from this article: work hard. Work hard, and work often. Spend every spare minute you have working towards the goal you have in mind, or else you'll never reach it. There are some people who fall into jobs in the comics industry, but they were probably working their butts off in some other field before they got recruited; similarly, every writer and artist whose work you read will have busted their...cojones to get where they are, producing unpaid work independently or during internships, and even then they had no guarantee it'd ever pay off. Working in the comics industry is nothing like hanging out having a fun time with friends because you probably won't be with your friends, it's not like being at a convention because you've got stuff to do, it's not like being a fan because instead of sitting around all day reading comics and thinking silly thoughts you've gotta work extremely hard. It's certainly a privilege to work in comics, especially if you're a fan like Dan Slott, but let's make no bones about it: you're gonna be hella busy. And not 9-to-5 office worker busy, we mean busy busy. Like, your job never technically ends busy. At least for the creative types on freelance contracts, you're liable for organising your own time, and usually that time is precious. To make ends meet you'll probably be working on multiple projects at a time, and with an ongoing series where an issue comes out every month, that's a pretty sizeable workload. A fun workload, sure, but a bloody massive one nonetheless.