your reward

Gary Panter is best known for designing the set for PeeWee’s Playhouse. He’s also a comics artist (think surrealism rather than superheroes) and a musician. 

In an interview with Aaron Cometbus about comics, Gary Panter mentions money. Cometbus flinches.

Cometbus: Every interview seems to veer into a discussion about money …

Panter: … I get approached by young people all the time. ‘How can I have a career in art? How can I have a career in comics?’ Well, if you did the drawing, that’s your career. That’s it, your reward. You did the drawing, you got to do it, you were alive.

In other words, you better have a day job.

Still, there’s nothing fresh about saying that, and I would pass over yet another enjoinder not to depend on your art to pay your bills — because what’s to say? — except I actually find a little poignant Panter’s “you got to do it, you were alive.” Because doing these things for love, the art, that’s experiencing life. You get to be alive. 

source:

Cometbus #57 

by Aaron Cometbus

2016.