Creator Spotlight: Patrick Trahey

This week’s Wednesday Spotlight interview is with Patrick Trahey, author/producer of Sol Comics, which includes a project or two that our artist Seba has been working on 🙂

D: Patrick, first, will you tell us a bit about yourself?

P: I’m writer, and a Chicago native. I enjoy regularly destroying my hometown in apocalypses of the biological, supernatural, and technological.

I studied fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago. I graduated in 2010, and started writing The XII in 2011. I have a day job and I’m happily married, and building Sol Comics has been a labor of love up until now. I write stories because it’s hard to imagine not writing them. The stories come into head and the urge to put them on paper is sometimes irresistible.

But, as a writer, I produce zero art. All of the artwork for my stories comes from fantastic artists that I’ve contracted to work on my stories. It’s a tough road, and there’s been a lot of setbacks along the way, but seeing the scripts that I write turn into beautiful artwork is so rewarding.

D: I took 1 creative fiction writing class and enjoyed it a good deal. How was majoring in it?

P: I enjoyed it, and it made me a better writer. It helped me establish a routine, allowed me try out a lot of different styles, and read a lot of stories I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. The greatest skill I learned was critique. It helped me look at the components that make up a story as opposed to just seeing it as a whole. It’s something I can’t turn off, even when I’m really enjoying a story. I just can’t help but dissect stories. I’m always analyzing pace, character development, world-building, dialogue, etc. As a writer, I know that there are dozens, if not hundreds of different ways my story could have turned out, so when I read or see stories unfold, I always wonder why the author chose that route, for better or worse. Wow, I’m not sure if I answered your question. I guess the point is that majoring in fiction keenly focused me on the elements that make up a story.

D: So what do you do for your day job? Is it related at all to the craft?

P: It’s not related to my craft, unfortunately. I work in accounting for a hotel in downtown Chicago. I did go to a lot of trouble to get a solid job that’s flexible and allows me to pursue my career in comics, but it’s not directly related. It pays well though, which is helpful (and leads into your next question). I would like a job in the comics field, but I’m more focused on building up my webcomics at the moment.

D: Tell us a bit about Sol Comics.

P: The heart of Sol Comics is The XII. It’s the series that acts as the backbone to the site. You can find a detailed synopsis here. I wrote the first book of The XII thinking it would be a one off graphic novel, but upon completion I realized there was a lot more story to tell. I decided rather than exploring a traditional narrative, I would explore the backgrounds of each member of The XII. I outlined the story, wrote two more books, and realized I had a webseries on my hands.

But the reason I didn’t just create TheXII.com and start from there is that I had several short stories running through my head. I considered pursuing these short stories as prose and focusing on The XII as my sole comic (no pun intended), but to be frank, I prefer writing comics. I had several stories that I had written during my days at Columbia, so I transformed some of them into comics. Then a few more ideas began to form and suddenly I had a whole array of short story scripts.

That’s when I realized I needed a brand to unify my series and my short stories, and Sol Comics was born.

There were a ton of setbacks and delays, but having both The XII and my short stories helped me stay focused and keep going. Now I’m at a point in my career where I have several great stories and I just want to share them.

D: I’m in the same position with TDA, ideas and writing but no artistic skills. How do you find and fund your artists?

P: Finding artist is easier now. I place ads on Deviant Art and Digital Webbing Forum. DWF is my favorite though, as I feel like the quality of the artists there are generally higher. The first time I placed an ad I got dozens of responses, some good, some bad, and few amazing. I ended up higher Sebastian Piriz, who, as you know, is a pleasure to work with and extremely talented. So I was sold on that route.

Before that however, I had no idea how to find artists. I posted ads at my school, and although I got some responses from people who were decent, it wasn’t a great experience.

As for paying them, it’s all been out of pocket so far, which is rough. That’s why I like to think of my day job as part of the plan. I spaced out the production cycles and budgeted things pretty well. Now I’ve reached a point where I’m able to sell my work at conventions using print-on-demand, and I just recently launched a Patreon campaign. My main focus is building up the Patreon backers, slowly but surely. I’d love to reach a point where the Patreon helps me sustain my comic’s budget, but I’m not under any illusion that will take a long time.

So up until now, it’s all been a labor of love. I spend my leisure money on making comics. Occasionally I’ll splurge on a videogame, and I do buy books, but most of my money goes to comics. It’s worth it though, and I believe in my stories.

D: Could you share your thought process that led to switching from novels to graphic novels/comics? I’m curious how similar it is to my own.

P: I took a course on writing for comics while I was in college, and it was the first time I had ever written a script. I loved it. At the time, I felt that one of my biggest weaknesses as a writer was writing exposition. I hated writing descriptions of how people and places looked, and writing scripts allowed me to focus more on plot and dialogue, which I considered my strengths.

But when I look back at my older scripts I cringe, because the exposition is so bad. It’s seems crazy that I didn’t like writing description before, and oddly enough I think comics have made me better at it. I used to imagine a scene unfolding, then I’d imagine how I wanted to look on the page, and I’d try to write exactly how I saw the page in my head. My panel descriptions were littered with things like “He turns left and see that she’s looking at him with her brow furrowed and he cheekbones slightly elevated.”Now when I write, I try to think of how the artist will read and imagine what I’m writing. I focus more on a few key details and what’s happening. I know now that if I’m working with a good artist, I can trust him/her to take those few details and turn them into something great.

I used to hate writing exposition, and my stories were so heavily dialogue oriented. I gravitated towards comics, and now I’m better at descriptions. Maybe I should give prose another try. I’d probably be better at it.

D: What is your goal with the website? Are you planning on physically publishing The XII at some point?

P: I want to build a fanbase. I want to share my stories, and I want a community that gets excited about them. I used to look at my day job and be content with it because even though it’s not my dream job, it helps pay the bills and it’s integral to my plan. But now I’ve reached a point where I just wish I had more time to write and promote comics. I really do love it, and I just want to share that. I’ve always been a creative type (although when I was a kid I wanted to work on video games, and kinda still do), and I want that to be my life. Writing great stories, reading great stories, and talking about great stories.

I print The XII via POD, but yes, I do hope to publish it with a major publisher some day. I want to gather a bit of a following before I start submitting it though. I want to test my mettle, prove my chops, earn my stripes so to speak. One of my goals with the website was always to parlay any success I had there into a larger career, so down the road I will be submitting.

D: Thanks for sharing, Patrick!  Insightful and similar to my own thoughts in many ways 🙂

Links to Patrick and Sol Comics: