Our Visiting Artist this week was "Spike" Trotman. She runs a small comics publishing company, Iron Circus and is the Queen of Kickstarter comics with thousands of backers for each project!

I was completely blown away by this woman - she is a force of nature and I want to be like her when I grow up. Unapologetic, confident, hysterically funny, an incredible artist and a business genius. Yeh. My new hero.

Some of the great pearls of wisdom she shared about her biz success were:

• Draw what you're into. Don't get popular for something you hate doing.
• Pay your contributors.
• Find "Tent Poles" - big name artists/contributors who will bring their own audiences with them to the project.
• Find the Underserved Markets. Who needs books created for them?
• Yes - you can make money - and a living - as an artist. You just have to work really hard.

You can find her comics online at Comixology,

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