Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicky Rodriguez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nicky, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far would definitely have to be The Unlucky Ones and the Edge of Nowhere, my webcomic that I’m also currently adapting into a graphic novel. It was a story idea I started noodling around with right when the pandemic began, but that I hadn’t begun writing and translating into a webcomic until late 2020/early 2021. My friend Sierra, who just recently had her interview posted, was actually the person to convince me to start the project as a webcomic and see where it would take me. It’s been a wonderful experience wherein I’ve learned and grown a lot as an artist, and it’s also what landed me my agent. It’s a story about the healing powers of friendship, confronting change and the uncertainty that comes with it, and is a love letter to the Bay Area and all the adventures I had with my friends during my early 20s. During a difficult time, working on TUOTEON helped me reconnect with things I loved and inspired me to keep creating.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a queer, disabled, Puerto Rican artist who got into making comics when I began making zines in 2018. I’d applied to the MFA in Comics program at California College of the Arts in 2017 while finishing my BFA in Animation at CCA and through the faculty and cohorts I learned all about the Bay Area’s rich history with zines. The exposure to zine culture, and especially autobio zines, helped me feel confident about pursuing stories I wanted to tell and experimenting with narrative form. I still make mostly autobio zines in between my webcomic and other comic work, and they tend to be focused more on living with chronic refractory migraine and occipital neuralgia. Outside of my own comic practice, I also illustrate comics for others, flat comics, and color covers. The things I focus on the most in my artwork and that I want to be remembered for are the emotional portrayal of characters and my choice of colors. I LOVE saturated colors and a lot of my personal work is influenced by the colors of the Caribbean, so I’m always pushing how bright and expressive my colors can be and how they contribute to the story. I also love playing with the subtleties of body language and how to express emotion in very simple, silent panels to get readers to feel whatever it is a character is going through. I certainly hope all of that shows through!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society can pay artists what they’re worth. Across the board, whether it’s coming from a creative industry like comics or animation and the like or something like non-profit and education, no one ever wants to pay living rates and wages to artists. Artists struggle every day and are constantly juggling many jobs, or rely on support from community if they don’t have generational wealth or financial support from a partner. It prevents a lot of artists from reaching their full potential, reaching their goals, and very often makes doing these things that much harder. Regardless of whether someone got an art education, being an artist takes WORK and it is HOURS of work learning something, not to mention creating something for a client. Pay us! Otherwise, you will be forced to do the work yourself and every artist will know who to avoid working with.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Touching on the last question, I think a lot of non-creatives don’t understand — and are often unwilling to understand — the value of the work we do. The amount of authors and aspiring authors that reach out to artists thinking $200 is enough for a 25-page children’s book is asinine. Do your research! If we’re doing the work to learn the ins and outs of our industries and become better artists, you better be putting in the work to understand how to work with an artist, how the particular industry you’re looking to enter works, and what it costs to hire an artist. It’s not an easy journey; a lot of industries, especially with the rampant freelance environment now, are pretty secretive about rates and “ways to success”. This doesn’t mean the information doesn’t exist though. You can research and learn and build community to get the experience and understanding you need to be a stellar collaborator. Every artist does it when they want to take a step in a new direction, grow their audience, etc. so non-creatives need to step it up.

Contact Info:

• Website: artofnickyrodriguez.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/artofnickyrodriguez
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/nicky-rodriguez/
• Other: Where to read & support The Unlucky Ones and the Edge of Nowhere: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-unlucky-ones-and-the-edge-of-nowhere/list?title_no=637308 https://globalcomix.com/a/nicky-rodriguez/comics Ways to support & buy my zines: https://ko-fi.com/artofnickyrodriguez/shop https://globalcomix.com/a/nicky-rodriguez/bundles https://www.patreon.com/artofnickyrodriguez/membership