Upwork Didn’t Work

By Ife J. Ibitayo

“That’s great and all,” he said, waving his hand in the air as if he was dispelling a bad odor. “But I’ve been in the comic book industry a long time, and there are three things people need.”

I was sitting across from a man I’ll call Ahmed who I’d been talking to about my vision of starting a company in the comic book industry. Fingering his palm with each idea he listed, Ahmed said, “One, they access to money because well…” And I nodded along, not needing him to explain why “starving artists” needed more cash.

“Two,” he continued, “they need access to publishers. Three, they need access to one another.” And he went on to describe how easy it was for him as an industry insider to find an illustrator for one of his projects but how difficult it was for everyone else. And something of that last idea remained with me as I struggled to find an illustrator for my own comic book project.

Working through Upwork

February had already rolled around, and I was beginning to grow discouraged. But I created an Upwork account, published a job post, and waited for the applications to start flowing in.

Within a few weeks, I’d received a number of proposals, and most of them were underwhelming. I ran into the same issues I’d encountered on Instagram, illustrators without the right style, the right experience, or the right attention to detail (you’d be amazed how many applicants apply to jobs without reading the job description!).

But there were two promising leads. The first was from a man I’ll call James. Talking to him felt like interacting with an alternate reality version of myself. He was a fellow engineer who’d quit his job to pursue his dream of telling “meaning-filled” stories. We even graduated from the same university within a couple years of each other!

Our chemistry was palpable, and the process of obtaining a sample page from him was seamless. But when I saw the final result, I was underwhelmed. The page was beautifully colored, but it just did not fit my vision for my comic book. So with much regret, I asked if I could reach out to him as a potential colorist and kept on searching.

The second artist, who I’ll call Alejandro, was the opposite. The quality of his drawings were unmistakable, but his sample page was simply confusing. I held up my script, compared it to his drawing, and struggled to reconcile the two. So, with great disappointment, I let him go as well.

Conclusion

So after burning a month of time and a molehill of cash, Upwork hadn’t worked for me. And I was beginning to doubt whether or not I’d be able to make this comic book vision of mine into a reality any time soon.