Steve Perry RIP UPDATED
on May 28th, 2010Steve Bissette has more remembrances of his good friend Steve Perry.
The police have released an official statement that the remains found in Zephyrhills, Florida are that of Steve Perry. The sad news was shared among some in the comics community days ago, but we were asked not to speak of it.
I hope you’ll take a moment to read Steve’s impassioned post. Here’s an excerpt:
Finally, a word of caution to us all:
We’re going to read a lot of spins about Steve’s final months, weeks and days in the press this coming week and thereafter.
We’re going to read it coming from those responsible for this hideous crime.
We’re going to read it coming from their defense lawyers.
We’re going to read it coming from those who find Steve’s fantasy and comicbook writing somehow alarming, ripe with horrific portents or a clue to his final days.
We’re going to read it coming from many, many others who want their version of the past year or more of Steve’s life to be the only version of Steve’s life accepted as ‘the true story.’
I’m already reading people (who should know better) claim that Steve “wasn’t lucid” in his final months.
I’m sorry, but the man was lucid to the end in his emails to me. He was lucid in his many, many email exchanges with the many who reached out to him to help he and Leo since August of last year.
Once again, I ask you to please give what you can to the Hero Initiative, an organization which aids veteran creators in need.
And for aspiring professional creators, I beg you to please, please understand that the comics industry is a business. Please make the time and give your business serious consideration and effort.
No matter how much you love comics, comics does not love you. It is not your boyfriend/girlfriend, it is not your buddy, it is not the crowd that will will love you when all the kids in high school didn’t, it is not the parent who approves because your antecedents didn’t.
It is not the place you hide in dreams.
It is balance sheets, and sales figures, and taxes, and contracts. It is lawyers, and retailers, and distributors and more people who do not buy your book than do.
The only time it isn’t a business is when you are at your drawing board, or behind your keyboard, creating.
The minute you step away, it’s business.
If you are not creating fast enough while you are at that drawing board or keyboard, you’re killing the business.
If you are not creating what other people want to buy, you’re killing the business.
Val Trullinger has excellent commentary on the reality of the freelancer life here. Read it all.
You can write or draw anything you want, you can live any way you want, you can do anything you want. But most people can’t monetize a life of whatever-you-want.
There is no guarantee anyone will want to buy what you have to give.
There is no guarantee that they will want what you have to give for decades at a time.
There is no guarantee that you can monetize your creations, now or in the future.
There are no guarantees.
That’s business.
A reality check from THE BEAT:
Stat from BEA: 7% of books published generate 87% of book sales. And 93% of all published books sell less than 1,000 copies each.
For the record, A Distant Soil sells a helluva lot better than that, so go me.
Sobering words, and good advice.
I’ve been following this, fearing it would have a very sad ending.
What you wrote is reality. To make a living out of something like Art and Creativeness is very hard, takes discipline, strong working ethics, and a lot, a lot of good luck.
This sad case, the demise of Mr Steve Perry is a bitter lesson for many artists, budding artists, and all those who will come in the future.
I was crying when I read what might have been his last written words to Mr. Bisette: “If I end up dead and the dead have any influence on the lives of the living, as a ghost or something, I will exert kind and wonderful things in your life. If death is blackness, nothingness … well that is that.”
I hope, in the afterlife, he becomes a Muse.
Wow… that’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and many of them are ablaze…
I’m beginning to think that any art major should first take a Business of Art class, where all of the harsh realities of being an artist are exposed. (Prof. Doran, can you please include the above link in your course materials?)
I don’t have the discipline or the self-confidence to be a creator. Yes, I can be creative, but could not make my living doing it.
At best, it’s something I do on the side. This happens a lot in New York… you have a day job which funds your passion. If one is fortunate, one’s day job is directly or tangential to your passion. (Me, I get to catalog new titles for Barnes & Noble. Some of those titles are graphic novels. I also see lots of review copies at the home office, and I network with people in the industry.)
Torsten — I agree; I wish more places taught a Business of Art class. It’d be damn useful.
It occurs to me that certain art schools would rather not teach Business of Art classes since way too many art schools are diploma mills which will take anyone who can make marks on paper.
If the students start thinking critically about money and resources, they might realize that those school job placement stats include data that indicates that most of the schools don’t actually place graduates in art jobs.
Hmmm… perhaps we should start a “Xenogenesis” tradition at comic book conventions.
We won’t call it that… No, we’ll use something positive like “How To Become A Comics Professional”. Then, when the room is full, we lock the doors and lay low the low down on everything they should know but were afraid to ask (for good reason).
If we make them cry (or release other bodily fluids), then we will have succeeded.
If it becomes too popular, then we rent a bar, have an open-mic, and charge people to attend.