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

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Learning to play music was done at an early age but learning to be a musician is, and will continue to be an ongoing process. I take inspiration from as many sources now as I can find. When I was younger I was striving to adhere to one genre of music or another. I would draw from one musical source or another but I rarely left my genre and looked for inspiration elsewhere.

As an Illustrator of comic books, I should have gotten started sooner. Imposter syndrome and self doubt over my abilities still plague me in my work to this day and if i had it to do all over again I would have endeavored to start in the field much earlier.

David, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised in Austin, Texas so I am what they call a “Unicorn” in some circles. With a background in printmaking and a degree in the subject from UT Austin, I have applied what I know to all sorts of things throughout my life. As is the case with most art students, I found myself in many jobs that were desperately uncreative. I bartended for years before opening my own gallery with my wife called Gallery Black Lagoon. We were open for about seven years and functioned as a sort of alternative hub to Big Medium and all that that entailed at the time. With the collapse of the arts in 2016, I found myself working construction remodeling people’s bathrooms and kitchens. This lasted until recently when I decided to try my hand at illustration. I have two titles of my own that have been moderately successful and three or four more in the works that were written by other people. Beyond that, my bandmate and I opened a small print shop in 2022 called Fox Box Printing where we screen print both textiles and paper stock.

Clients have ranged from AISD to screen writers and novelists based out of Australia, and the last few years have been a wild ride as I dove back into both printmaking and illustration. With illustration, clients often have an idea of what they want but no real way to achieve what it is they are thinking. I provide that, along with everything else that happens in comic book making. There is a tendency to divide the labor into many categories; pencils, inks, colors, letters, layout, covers, etc but I do all of those things so clients don’t have to find and hire several artists to make a complete product. With screen printing, I also do all the design work for shirt layouts. Rather than farm the work out to a graphic designer, I have the skills to both generate the image in a way that will translate to print and to print the thing on the stuff.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was working as a carpenter building structures and doing finish work. I had just remodeled an entire kitchen top to bottom with all that entailed and had moved on to making a little storage shed in the client’s backyard. Whist framing a wall with my gun, a piece of wood exploded and sent a full size framing nail through my middle finger on my right hand. I couldn’t hold a pencil, a pick or drumsticks for three weeks. It was then that I decided the money wasn’t worth it if I wanted to have the use of my hands for the rest of my life.

How did you build your audience on social media?

On Instagram follow about thirty or so people everyday that actually engage with other artists like yourself. Unfollow about fifty or so. This will do two things: it will make other people aware of your page and what it is you do and it will slowly get rid of that huge number of people you follow who don’t follow you back. It will also hopefully find people who might actually engage with your posts etc. Remember the eventual goal is to sell something to someone. Social media is not for doom scrolling unless you are a teenager.

On Twitter, block as many political things as possible from both sides of the aisle and focus on finding other creatives in your genre. For comic book related stuff there are basically sub-reddits that tailor themselves to the comic community specifically. Comment with your art or what you are selling and like these posts, the robot overlord will hopefully send you more posts like these and you can continue to build an audience that way. Also follow, again, people who actively like the posts and things that are most in line with your work. this is like handing out a business card. DO NOT DM people with spam.

Facebook is anyone’s guess and Tik Tok may prove to be a huge wast of everyone’s time.

Youtube is a great place to post process videos and do live sessions and interviews with other creatives.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://neridacomic.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/neridacomic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neridacomic/
• Twitter: https://x.com/neridacomic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpwSiawYGRxmcgoisg_wMmg
• Other: https://mailchi.mp/1f25bf54fa78/nerida-comic-newsletter