But I think that’s a super misleading (and, honestly, rather dull) answer.
BUCKLE UP IMMA RAMBLE FOR A BIT:
The real way I ended up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean drawing comics about bathymetry has way more to do with slowly, slooooowly merging my various passions in the work that I do over the last six years (possibly more, depending on how you count it), and eventually building a body of work that connects me to more opportunities like this one—and submitting applications. That part’s still important.
Here’s me in 2008 (Little Babby Bellwood) sewing sails aboard the Lady Washington. This was pre-comics career, I was in the full-on throes of tall ship infatuation, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to merge my creative and maritime passions into a single calling—I couldn’t even imagine what it would look like.
In other words: I didn’t start out on Day 1 of My Career saying “I’M GONNA GO BE AN ADVENTURE CARTOONIST.” I started out on Day 1 (back in 2010) saying “Oh shit I’ve got five days at this workshop to draw a minicomic about something what on Earth should I draw a comic about OH WAIT I DO THAT COOL SHIP THING I LOVE COOL SHIP THINGS I WILL DRAW THAT.” And then six years of grueling work later here we are.
I think the consistent embodiment of passion is a massive asset in the creation of unconventional jobs like this one. It’s an ongoing process of refinement. For a while I was just a cartoonist. Then I started drawing more nautical comics so I was calling myself a “tall ship-sailing cartoonist” and I started getting more chances to work with sailing organizations as an artist. This year I realized I was doing all kinds of adventurous stuff so I started calling myself an “adventure cartoonist” and GUESS WHAT. I’m getting more opportunities to do adventurous shit and also draw comics about it.
But it didn’t start that way.
I was doing the adventurous shit because I love it and the comics were happening because I loved doing that, too and then eventually those things got muddled up in one another and became a sort of career brand.
I’m shocked these days to hear about heads of sailing organizations who are already familiar with my work, but then I realize that there aren’t many people who are doing this kind of thing (and I’ve been doing it for six years), so it makes sense that it’s relatively easy to get noticed. There’s also the self-fulfilling prophecy part of it. It’s that old Coleman Cox adage:
“I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
I think about this every time I encounter someone who has a super rad “OH MY GOD I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT WAS A THING” job.
Think about Emily Graslie, host of The Brain Scoop and Chief Curiosity Correspondent for The Field Museum in Chicago. Chief Curiosity Correspondent??? HOW COOL IS THAT. But read her FAQ. This is such a similar story: underlying passions, chance encounters, showing up consistently, being in the right place at the right time—all of these things add up to the creation of a totally unique job. Does she work hard? You bet your ass she does. But you can tell she’s also fueled by an enormous amount of underlying passion. You need to be to make up a job from scratch. It’s both incredibly difficult and semi-instinctual. It evolves. There’s no roadmap.
Take Brian Shiro. Here’s a dude who is genuinely passionate about space exploration and is making it very clear (both in his online presentation and in his studies—whether or not they’re directly related to space travel) that he embodies that passion. That’s no substitute for the massively rigorous standards imposed on potential astronauts (and he knows it—look at his course of study!), but he says some really smart stuff in this post about the underlying reasons one might want to become an astronaut, and how measuring success by the standard of whether or not one actually becomes an astronaut is a fool’s errand.
This struck a chord with me. People who ask me how to “make it” as a cartoonist are often interested in something I don’t even feel like I’ve found yet—a degree of success or reputability that always seems to be just out of reach. If I were measuring success based on the attainment of that ideal I’d be miserable. But the fact that I love ships, and the sea, and traveling, and sharing the excitement of new places with people who will also get excited and wave their arms in the air about new places: that nourishes me day in and day out.
So the real point I’m making is that if YOU are independently and consistently showing up for and putting out the kind of work you want to be doing, and talking with the organizations you’d like to be involved with, and nourishing the passions that drive you, there’s a damn good chance you’ll be able to turn that into some really neat opportunities down the line.
tinfoilparachute 