We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Luckas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Miraculously I HAVE managed to make this work! haha.

I think my journey into this was a an odd one that benefitted from a lot of luck. Fresh out of art college I tried to find comic work with any publisher I could. I was rejected and ignored for years and fell into a big rut of “I’m never gonna make a living with this”. I started selling art at anime and comic conventions in college, and after graduating, conventions became my main “thing” because it was the only kind of work I could get.

Thankfully this was around the time places like twitter and tumblr really started taking off in popularity. Even though I wasn’t making much money at conventions to start with, I was able to share my work online and was lucky enough to catch peoples attention. As my online following grew, the more people visited me at conventions and bought stuff! This moved into opening an online store to cover the months in-between conventions.

After years of saving money from anime conventions, I decided to take a risk and move out to Los Angeles. I still dreamed of working in comics, but it just wasn’t going anywhere. I thought about maybe giving animation a try, and I followed my animator friends out to LA. It was right about then that I finally started getting contacted for more commissions, freelance illustration, and even comics! Great timing, hahaha. But I was still finding more success in creating and selling my own work directly to fans.

Over the years I’ve lived in LA, I’ve been going to less conventions, and instead focusing on my Patreon page and online store. With the help of friends and a lot of luck, somehow this has been working out pretty well!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well I’ve always loved cartoons, animation, comics, you name it. So at a young age I knew that art was something I wanted to create for a living. It’s sort of the only thing I know, haha.

Sometimes I question if I’ve really “got into” any industries because I do a lot of this and that and never feel like I’ve been fully engrossed in any one thing. I do illustrations, sometimes for comics or games or soundtracks, I do private commission work, and I’ve even contributed to some animated series.

Like I said earlier, I think my path is an unusual one, that doesn’t typically work out for most people. What I mainly focus on now is creating.. well, anything I feel like. My Patreon and my online store have managed to be successful these last few years, and it’s freed me up to create things that I like. I make posters, stickers, collectible cards, keychains, standees, and much more, and I’m thankful that these things often line up with what fans and subscribers want to see and buy!

As for what I’d like to say to fans/followers/client/etc; I’ve made a TON of work, and I don’t plan to slow down, so expect to see a TON more. I’m never out of ideas and I’ve always got more to share!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Sharing something with people, or just putting it out into the world, and seeing that they liked it.

I love animation, comics, and games so much, and I want to put things out there that bring people the same kind of joy.

How did you build your audience on social media?

It’s hard to know exactly how it worked. Like I think so much of it just comes down to luck. I think it’s best to not focus on the numbers, care less about the notoriety, and focus on creating things that you like. Really think about what YOU wanna make and how to make it. Put in the time to develop your skills and share it with the world, and after a lot of time you’ll find an audience or the audience will find you.

Consistency can help too. Maybe try weekly drawing challenges or do one of those drawing-memes that will pop up on places like twitter or instagram.

Right now is unfortunately a very difficult time to grow an audience. Sadly a lot of social media sites have been making nonstop bad decisions… But it’s always worth trying at least.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.mikeluckas.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stupiddeadskullhead/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeLuckas
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/stupiddeadskullhead https://www.threads.net/@stupiddeadskullhead https://bsky.app/profile/mikeluckas.bsky.social