Without Fear

Was listening to the Nerdist Podcast with Jon Favreau on it and it’s a superb listen as Favreau talks about craft and comedy and career growth as a creator. Truly fascinating insights and one caught me and really rattled me in all the right ways.

Favreau talks of his career and how he’s had his flops. He’s certainly had his high points – making SWINGERS and IRON MAN will hurt no one’s career – but he’s also made ZATHURA and COWBOYS AND ALIENS and those didn’t set much alight. So he talks about these low points and he says at least he learnt from them. At least they still helped him get to where he would go next. You could probably argue Favreau doesn’t get IRON MAN without making ZATHURA. And you can chart his career and show an always upward trend.

This got me to thinking about making comics. In my head, I want everything to be better than the last thing I do. I don’t want to falter and make a misstep. But maybe those missteps are going to happen and it’s not the end of the world. Maybe you need to try things and fail but learn from it all. Maybe it’s all going to be okay.

I don’t know, it was comforting to know that the guy who launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the stratospheric success it is did a dud after it, and is fine with that, and he gets back up and keeps on rocking. And will keep on rocking onwards and upwards for a long time coming.

It’s important to realise not everything you do will be great, and not everything will land well (or as well as you want it to), and that so long as you are generally trending up while also taking risks, then you’re probably doing it right.

Oh, he also says one really important thing:

Favreau talks about wanting to be happy with what he does. Because he creates because it makes him happy. That’s a real key point. If you aren’t enjoying it, then maybe stop. And if you want to keep enjoying it, do stuff that will make you happy.

Seems simple, yet is always so evasive.

I know all the comics I’m making right now make me extremely happy. Here’s to only doing that moving forward, flop or not, let’s learn and make more and eventually not suck at all (much).