Welcome to the “About” page, where, uh, you can learn all kinds of things about Lead Paint Comics, like–
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
Lead Paint Comics is about the secret poisons and hypocracies of life, like a coat of lead paint around a child’s toy. It’s also about boobs, barfing meat golems and girls with time portals in their crotches. (We cover a pretty wide thematic berth here). If you want to see some examples, here are a few of our more popular comics:
Flux Capacitors Not Required
Not the Answer I was Looking for
Pilgrims Beware
Career Day
Tongueplay with Eliza Dushku
Hopefully the Similarities are Perpendicular
WHEN DOES IT UPDATE:
A new color comic is posted every Sunday. Wednesday means black and white, hand-drawn updates.
I’M PRETTY LAZY, HOW CAN I KEEP UP WITH YOUR COMIC WHILE EXPENDING AS LITTLE EFFORT AS POSSIBLE?:
You can join us on our Facebook and Twitter pages, where you will be reminded about new updates each week. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed with your preferred feed reader, something like Google Reader, if that’s your fancy.
If you don’t use any of this stuff, I don’t know what to tell you. Tie a ribbon around your finger, write a creepy lipstick note in your mirror, tell your cat to remind you, whatever works for you best.
WHO MAKES THE COMIC:
Lead Paint Comics is written by Mike Cornnell and Dana Wulfekotte. Dana handles all the drawing, and Mike handles most of the Web site.
WAIT. WHO THE HELL ARE THEY?:
Relax. I was just getting to that.
Dana is a professional animator and illustrator. She has been employed on various children’s cartoons pretty much since she graduated college, which I guess has been 4 or 5 years now. She currently lives in NYC, and with a decent running start, can throw a toaster the length of a football field. Her interests include enjoying the occasional fine nacho and having a radiator that sounds a lot like a clumsy rapist.
As for Mike, after years of having basically every menial job you can think of, the last one being a janitor at a large construction site, he finally landed a permanent gig as a writer at a Philadelphia B2B magazine about a year ago. He writes all kinds of things for them, but nothing the readers of this site would possibly be interested in, he promises!
OKAY, WELL, HOW DO I GET IN TOUCH WITH THESE DORKS?:
Mike and Dana can be reached at mail@leadpaintcomics.com, or through our Facebook or Twitter pages. They also read every comment posted directly on the site, and do their best to respond as quickly as possible.
Nice to see some writers can make it. I’m at the menial job phase in my life, hopefully someday I can land a decent writing job, how did you get yours?
Haha, oh god, first of all, I wouldn’t say that I’ve “made it” as a writer, though certainly I appreciate the compliment. That said, here are some things I did that I feel helped things work out for me:
-Get an internship at some kind of magazine or other publication. Don’t expect to be paid, but make sure they let you write a few things for them (for your portfolio). I did mine about two years AFTER graduating, as did one of my co-interns, so don’t freak if you’re a little late in finding one.
-Get what freelancing gigs you can. I know this can be very hard when you start out, but don’t stress and just keep trying to find someone who will let you write for them. The best way I’ve found is to know someone within a magazine/pub, or to aim for really small, local publications. Don’t expect to get paid a lot, if at all. Freelancing is important because it shows that you’re serious about writing and people actually want to print your work.
-If you’re still in school, apply to as many writing contests as you can (if your school hosts such things). Try and win them. If you’re out of school, maybe you can still dig up a contest someplace. As long as they’re not named something horrendous, like “the world’s shittiest writers,” the contest accolades will be a meaningful addition to your resume.
-Build a portfolio. You’re going to need 3-5 strong and exceptionally clean (meaning error-free) pieces of writing. Get a diverse collection together, something like a short story/opinion piece, a straight journalism article, and maybe some little, blurby copywriting-style things. Be sure to only send writing samples that are appropriate for a given job (no Saw-esque screenplays to Disney for example), and try to keep your samples short, as most places only take 1-2 pages per sample. Always send your BEST work. Have your friends help you pick pieces if need be (and while they’re at it, have them proofread your work for you too).
-Apply to EVERYTHING. Writing jobs are incredibly competitive, so you’re going to have take a lot of shots to have a chance to get in anyplace.
Aside from the above, I’m not sure what else to add. How I got my job today is sort of boring, I just went on the interview, they liked my work and decided to hire me. Nothing really special or tricky about it.
Hope this helps!
I really want to see Dana throw a toaster. You should do it, and film it. I volunteer my toaster for this endeavor.