I've been
surrounded by comics since Day One and I began creating my own books not long
after I was old enough to hold a pencil.
My creative skills have matured since then, of course, but my career in comics
began to form when I was taken along to several comic-book conventions after an
unexpected event dropped 7000 comic books into our home. Almost immediately,
we began working the dealer’s room on the convention circuit—and in the Artist’s
Alley, I found many people who were making their own mini-comics with little more
than pen, paper and a ton of ambition…so I thought--why couldn’t I do that?
On the first weekend of February 2002, at age 14, I began creating and selling
my own mini-comics at conventions--Yojimbo (a science fiction adventure with
Japanese elements) and Slice of Life (a romance comic--big in the 1950's but rare
today). Although my work was well-received, I knew that I had to keep
progressing and not just coast along by selling the same product. Sales from my
book, combined with other outside jobs including work as a caricature artist,
provided enough cash to finance a professional printing for one of my comic books.
What began as a dining room table art project now has spread into several
rooms and has its own dedicated laptop computer – which I bought with my
working money, thanks.


One of the most difficult parts of having my business has been being taken
seriously. When people visited my table at the Artist’s Alley, many of them often
assumed that the person sitting next to me at the table was the artist, and for some
reason he or she had been stuck with babysitting!
I have always worn as well as sold my work, and some kids have teased--even
some of my family have been teased--but it’s the way marketing is done: wear your
work, show your workroom, talk about your work
As a homeschooler, I’ve had the opportunity to learn at my own pace and work
with many professionals in the comics field. I've mentored with Sid Couchey, best
known for his work as an artist for Harvey Comics (if you’ve read Little Lotta,
Little Dot or Richie Rich, you’ve seen his work) and Stan Burdick (a political
cartoonist and curator of the Ticonderoga Cartoon Museum), in addition to
attending a five-part course on sequential art taught by Joe St. Pierre, a commercial
illustrator who was eager to share his experience with story format, structure and
creative design. Along with working on the artwork and story for my own books, I
am also providing the illustrations for Zera’maya--Jumping the Creek, a work-in-
progress by writer and homeschooler Julia Biales.

http://www.paperdragonfarms.com/

http://lulialee.blogspot.com/

http://yojimbosharpteeth.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/yojimbosharpteeth

http://www.cafepress.com/browncoatvalley

you can email me at
www.nick.biales@gmail.com