Bored Panda reached out to Mark Pain to learn more about him and his creative process. We were curious to know how his journey as a comic artist started. "Around 2005, I would read several webcomics every day. This was before social media had really taken off so unless you were into RSS feeds, you would have to collect a bunch of website bookmarks and go check them every now and then for new posts. My main go-to's were Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics, KC Green's Bee Power/Gunshow, Anthony Clark's Nedroid, Kris Straub's Chainsawsuit, and Nicholas Gurewitch's PBF. I guess after consuming so many webcomics over several years, I just wanted to try it myself and see if I could do it. I was hoping I could make a career out of it but didn't have that much success. At least I made a few bangers, in my humble opinion," the artist shared.
Creating comics is a fun and imaginative process, but ever wonder how artists come up with their brilliant ideas? What magical rituals or habits do they have to dive into a creative mindset? "A blank page is always the hardest starting point, but I found you can't really wait for an idea to come to you - you have to go find it, even it that means writing down your stream of consciousness until something stands out to you," Mark told us.
"I tried a lot of different methods, though, like asking readers to suggest a word just to have a starting point, or a prompt, I guess. Once I had a starting point, I would always have to shut out distractions and really focus on just thinking about whatever that starting point or topic was. Looking at it from different angles and imagining different people's perspectives, and look for a way to turn it on its head - that's usually what was funny to me; Presenting something the reader already has some expectation of, and then adding an unexpected twist. But I don't think there's any shortcut - you really do have to sit and stop and spend time *just* thinking and doing nothing else, which can be really hard."
"I always liked seeing a strip resonate with people. The validation of seeing something you spent hours making (in my case many hours because I was pretty slow) being liked and shared is an empowering feeling. It's a double-edged sword though, because that means you're constantly raising your own expectations based on metrics, and so having an update that flops can feel pretty bad. I suppose the healthier part of making comics is just the process of making them. I imagine it's the same for any craft - the act of making anything is full of peaceful, meditative moments, and I'd bet anyone who can keep themselves from fixating on results, and just make for the sake of making, would end up with better quality art."
