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

Moy, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

The beginnings are always difficult, especially when you’re trying to build a career as a comic book artist. Anyone would think that once you get your first commission, everything else falls into place, but that’s not the case: you soon realize that you have to keep pushing forward with the same determination as the first time. I got my first professional project at the age of 23, and from then until I was about 26, the jobs were very irregular. Just as things were starting to improve, the pandemic hit, complicating everything even further.

From that point on, I gradually discovered that it was more sustainable in the long run to work with writers and individual clients rather than established publishers, which most often offer sporadic and one-off jobs to emerging artists just starting out. From there, I began to build a solid client base that allowed me to pay my bills while giving me the flexibility to accept larger commissions from established companies when the opportunity arose (these help build a reputable author image and enhance your professional portfolio).

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?

I am an artist from a small city in Spain with almost no connection to comics, which forced me to move to a larger city (Barcelona) to study and develop creatively. It was challenging due to my family’s difficult financial situation, but somehow, I managed to make it work and was able to train in the Comic Course at Escola Joso, where I am now a teacher. There, I had the chance to learn from the knowledge of my peers and professors.

Through a great deal of persistence (and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT), I managed to carve out a path as a comic book artist and attract the attention of companies like Marvel, Hasbro, Ubisoft, Boom! Studios, Dupuis, and DC Comics, with whom I currently work.

I strive to develop a drawing style that blends elements from both manga and American comics to bring dynamism and excitement to the pages I create, as well as to approach the scripts I receive in the most creative and engaging way possible. There’s a very complex system behind the construction of a comic page—a unique language that is difficult to fully master. However, I aim to convey it to readers as effectively as possible, so they can enjoy the stories we tell and perfectly grasp the message that the creative team seeks to communicate.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My professional goal has always been to draw superheroes. When I turned 25, after spending an incredible amount of time trying to catch the attention of Marvel Comics editors through unsolicited emails, I finally managed to catch the eye of someone who gave me an opportunity. That was, of course, a dream come true, and from that point on, I began collaborating with them regularly.

However, shortly afterward, I fell into a deep depression, which I experienced very intensely. I decided to prioritize my mental health over my dream. My relationship with the editors ended amicably, with the promise of resuming our work in the future. But months later, when I was ready to reconnect, the Covid pandemic hit… and obviously, it was a bad time for everyone, including the comic industry. Many doors closed during that period, and eventually, when I tried to rejoin the fold, it was too late. My relationship with the editors faded over time, and all that hard-won progress disappeared as if it had never existed.

I don’t hold it against them—I’m fully aware that’s how things work, and I don’t take it personally—but it still hurts, inevitably. From that moment, I had to explore new markets to survive and secure new projects, many of which didn’t even fulfill me artistically. Even though I managed to capture the interest of exciting companies and worked on IPs like Power Rangers (Hasbro) and Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft), I felt I was drifting further away from my original goal.

I’ve talked about Marvel, but my ultimate dream has always been DC Comics. Their universe captivated me from the moment I picked up one of their comics. I still remember that page in Infinite Crisis where Nightwing is surrounded by OMACs—it was a revelation. I tried tirelessly to catch DC’s attention, and although they responded to some of my emails, things never progressed beyond that point. Finally, after many years, I decided it might be time to let go. Maybe it wasn’t meant for me, and the signs were clear.

I even considered leaving comics altogether and exploring other directions. I was dedicating myself full-time to it, but it no longer fulfilled me. A colleague suggested I draw a Batgirl fanfic written by him, and I decided it might be a fun last attempt—a farewell. Surprisingly, those pages ended up in the hands of my current writer, who asked me for a test page. Apparently, they loved it. They shared it with the editors, and one day, I woke up to an email asking me to be the artist for one of their new series…

DC was asking me to work with them! On a Nightwing series! I couldn’t believe it.

When you struggle so much to achieve a goal, there are countless moments when you’re on the verge of giving up, and I can’t blame anyone who does. It takes immense mental strength to endure the constant rejection and emotional exhaustion. But when the moment comes and you finally get the opportunity you’ve dreamed of for so long, you realize that all the struggle was worth it.

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 believe that, very often, people associate the abilities of a creative person with a “gift,” something innate, a sort of superpower that you have magically obtained and been born with. Evidently, we all have certain aptitudes for one area or another, but specializing in fields like music, literature, or, in my case, drawing, is a task that requires many hours of work, effort, and study. Learning to draw and tell a story is an acquired skill that demands a great deal of time spent in isolation and hard work. You could say it’s almost a monastic endeavor.

I tend to trust that people don’t express themselves with the intention of being hurtful, but saying that an artist has achieved what they have simply because they are “talented” in some way undermines all the hours of work that have gone into our development. At the same time, I’m aware of many cases of highly skilled professionals in their respective fields who feel entitled to opine and criticize artistic processes they know nothing about, merely because they perceive our work as something minor, easily acquired, and even more easily critiqued—often because of what the work itself represents. That is, we make “little drawings”—how serious could such work possibly be?

However, despite their lack of respect, many of these same people want to be part of artistic processes simply because such work fills us, as trained creatives, with joy and satisfaction. But they are unwilling to sacrifice the things that creatives often give up—more free time, better salaries, or social recognition. The rise of generative AI seems to me a perfect example of a tool that could be a powerful companion for creatives, but is instead being used by people with no capacity for effort or creative learning to feel as though they have the same resources and knowledge as those of us who have fought for years. This is an absolute falsehood: AI does not democratize art; it only democratizes mediocrity.

I believe people need to learn to respect our place in the world, stop looking down on us, and start recognizing the importance of our work. We are everywhere: from the fun illustration on the cereal box you eat at breakfast to the latest Hollywood blockbuster. And as such, we deserve to be on the same level as other professionals—no more, no less.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://moy-r.jimdosite.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moy.r.art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moy.rodriguez.315
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moy-r-4b8446170/
• Twitter: https://x.com/Moy_R_
• Other: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/moy-r.bsky.social