We were lucky to catch up with Scott Hilburn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Scott, appreciate you joining us today. 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?

100 % of my income comes from the creation of my comic. I had a day job in the telecom industry before becoming syndicated. After getting noticed by my syndicate in 2007, I was offered a developmental contract. About a year later, in April of 2008, my comic launched into newspapers, calendars and greeting cards. From my understanding, that’s pretty much a whirlwind launch – and 6 months later I left my day job and have worked for myself doing nothing but my comic ever since..

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 suppose I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t (which is pretty weird). Around high school, I’d realized that the odds were pretty slim at getting syndicated and while I didn’t give up on my goal, I did accept that I’d better find a career to fall back on until I could become a cartoonist (or, conversely, in case I didn’t become one). Later, I went to college, got married, had kids – all the things that people do. But that left little time to pursue my dream – until I suddenly found myself divorced which left me with a lot of free time back on my hands.
I knew that life was giving me this opportunity and I didn’t want to waste it.
I did the investigating and found out what the submission requirements were for the 4 or 5 syndicates that were out there. The requirements were 4-6 weeks worth of samples. Instead, I put in the homework and created around 8 weeks worth, choosing only my best 4 or 5 weeks of work to submit. I was only giving myself one shot, so every panel had to be as close to a homerun as possible. Then I submitted and waited for the responses to roll in.
When the replies came, they weren’t great. Rejection after rejection… Except for one syndicate – and fortunately it was the one I wanted to work with most – Universal Press Syndicate (Now called Andrews McMeel Syndication, named after the company’s two founders).

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Ugh. This. This is the bane of my existence. Because I work from home and because my job is being creative, my friends and family think I sit around all day doing nothing. It’s true that the actual inking/drawing part of my job isn’t particularly time consuming but I spend days, not hours, working on ideas, writing, thinking up silly thoughts, etc that can, at some point, be reduced to paper in a coherent, cohesive, funny and relatable way. I suppose to most people that looks like I’m doing “nothing” all day. And while it’s fun work, it’s still work.

It’s also frustrating when friends and family think that, because I work from home, that I can spend my day running errands, making phone calls, handling non-work related business, etc. I mean, I can do those things to some degree, but having the freedom to rearrange my schedule doesn’t preclude me from putting in the necessary hours to get my work done. It just means I’m doing my job later into the evening because I took time out of my day to do other things unrelated to work.

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

That’s easy. Nothing beats hearing from readers who appreciate my work and my humor. Getting paid to do what I love is awesome. Being my own boss is great too. But I think, for me (and I suspect for most creatives) it’s watching or hearing someone else get enjoyment from what I do. I suppose there’s a little bit of ego stroking at that point but even more than that, it’s knowing that I’m making someone happy, even if it’s just for a moment. For a few seconds, someone is seeing or reading something that I created and smiling. THAT’S awesome.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_argyle_sweater/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheArgyleSweater.ScottHilburn/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/argyle_sweater
• Other: http://www.theargylesweater.com