We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ann Drew. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ann below.

Alright, Ann thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

I had always wanted to attend a tabling event at a zine fest or comic con, when I was in my last semester of Graduate School and fresh off of the high of finishing my first comic book, I decided to give it a shot. I applied and was accepted into Tucson Zine Fest where I table with a fellow grad student in my program. Since it was more of a last-minute thing and I didn’t quite account for shipping time I didn’t have my brand-new comic book in hand with me to sell. I did, however, have a slew of prints and character sheets that I was all too happy to peddle to the masses. My work emulates vintage pulp covers and stories and I had astutely noticed that a lot of older pulp had prices on the cover mostly around the 25-cent range. Cheekily I thought of how funny it would be if I had a “price” on my covers of “$1”. To my absolute surprise, the first sale I had at this zine event was when a woman walked up to my table, looked at my work, reached into her purse pulled out a single dollar, and walked away with one of my nice 18 in x 24 in prints (of which I was selling them for a minimum of $10 at the time). I was too stunned to speak or even chase after her. She wasn’t wrong I did have a “$1” sticker on the image but I thought most people would see that as satire. I was wrong. I have been battling the “$1” sticker ever since and have vowed to never put that on any of my pieces again. A lesson learned and a single dollar earned.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been making art my entire life, there isn’t a time when I don’t remember at least having a sketchbook. In high school I threw myself into the creative arts field, I worked on school plays doing set design and painting backdrops. My first after-school job was working as an unpaid intern at a local gallery in my small Midwestern town, all I really did was clean and keep people from stealing ceramic pieces. But, that job allowed me to insert myself into the local artisan community and experience what life could be like as a working artist. I was irrevocably hooked. I then went on to study Art in college earning a BFA in both Illustration and Graphic Design from the University of Central Missouri, I then went on to earn an MFA in Illustration from the University of Arizona. These programs not only taught me my fundamentals but they also gave me the ability to forge strong connections in the art world. My degrees gave me the space and tools to dive deeper into my practice and figure out what kind of work I was interested in making and what kind of audience I wanted to foster.

For me the end goal I think has always been comics, I have had a deep love of comics and reading ever since I was yong. As a child growing up with dyslexia, I found reading to be difficult at times and migraine-inducing at others. But, comics in most formats have much easier-to-read fonts, clear action, and bright poppy colors that were able to grab and hold my attention. When I entered graduate school I was encouraged to do more research on my interests and what I wanted to make at the end of my three-year tenure. I started with Lesbian history and an all-consuming search for community, I then muddled my way through the 1950s pulp erotic movement, which I then connected to science fiction pulp covers. These connections and covers inspired me to start writing my own science fiction stories and comics. I wanted to see myself as a dashing hero on the front page of some trashy story saving the alien princess, or kissing some bug creature as I helped save her and her people from total annihilation. I realized that I wanted science fiction to be more inclusive and how it could be so much stranger and weirder than I felt like the mainstream media was allowing it to be.

Through my first comic Ether Quest, I feel like I threw too much at the wall it is hard to read sometimes, and on other pages, I don’t think even I know what I was trying to say. My second comic Venus and the Apis is much more legible, it has a clear story of my main character leaving one place, getting lost, ends up somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be, but has a great time because of it. I’m so proud of both of these comics for different reasons, both have taught me a lot about myself and my creative process. Both comics showed me how obsessive I can be when working on a big project, showed me new techniques and storytelling abilities, and showed me that there is an audience out there for my work. That last one is the most important part of it all, thank you, to everyone who has read and enjoyed my work. It means so much to me! I feel like all of my dreams have already come true and I haven’t even really gotten started! I still feel I have so much to do and offer this wild world.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think the main thing I hear is, “I could never make something like this.” Lies. You totally could; it just takes a long time and a lot of determination. People look at artists and assume that they have some unique ability and talent that they are born with. Some are, but I sure wasn’t. I have a love and interest in the arts, and I was encouraged to grow that interest. When I went to college, I considered myself a raw beginner, and I wasn’t the best illustrator, painter, or maker. I knew nothing about color theory or how to set up a page in Photoshop. But I worked so hard; it was long hours and many late nights. Also, there was a fair amount of tears and breakdowns. I knew I wanted to be an artist, so I dug my heels in and refused to give up, I am just stubborn enough to make it happen. When I get frustrated with a project or mad at a client, I remind myself, “You chose this, you wanted this, and you’re finally doing it! Shut up and try again”. So when I hear someone say, “I could never make something like this,” I want to shake them and say, “Oh yeah!? Well, five years ago, I couldn’t have either!”. Maybe this all sounds a little Woo Woo or too idealistic, but for me, my ‘success’ never comes down to skill it comes down to grit and desire to make something because I have to. I can’t sleep otherwise.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It depends recently, it has been my students. I had fallen out of love with teaching for a long time, but I recently took up a new job position at my undergraduate university. I am teaching in the very same classrooms that taught me. I am beginning to see how rewarding this work can be, sure it has its own set of unique frustrations. But, I am starting to feel like the biggest cheerleader when I watch a lightbulb turn on in a student’s head or watch them struggle with a project and then finally conquer it, it’s such a good feeling. I even have come to enjoy the desperate late-night emails of “I AM SO STUCK ON THIS COMPOSITION PLEASE HELP”. Teaching makes me view my work differently, I have to explain why I make something, why I am making the compositional decisions, or why I choose this font over the other. I love leading critiques and hearing about each student’s unique interests. Teaching has also been pushing my limits of what I originally thought I was capable of in my practice; it makes me want to work even harder and create even more work. Sure, I am exhausted by the end of a full day of teaching, but I feel fulfilled and creatively satisfied.

The other side of the coin is a final project; I go through phases where I fall in and out of love with projects while working on them. Each comic has a phase where I hate every. Single. Moment. And. Piece. Of. It. All. This happens every time. I have to allow that phase to happen and push through it, the other side of that intense hatred has some of the most creatively unique images I feel like I have ever made. By the time I am done with a project, I am normally on the upswing of being back in love with it. Give me another month or two, and I hate it again and begin to see all of the little flaws and things that need to be fixed. Another four months after that, I get over those flaws, see them as teachable moments, and move on with my life in a state of kinda loving, kinda hating my final piece. This sounds strange, but honestly, it is the best place to be as an artist, not fully loving your work but not hating it either, this makes you try new things and see your work in a different light.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sapphicscifycomics.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sapphic_scify_comics/?next=%2F

Image Credits

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