Have you ever felt that sensation in your gut? An immovable pressure that prevents you from running through the same routine you know like the back of your hand? That overwhelming sense that your mind simply won’t push forward to take the next step in a journey of a million steps?
If you haven’t, you’re one of the fortunate ones because you’re still making progress in whatever creative endeavor you’ve chosen. For the rest of us who have had that feeling, we’re doubly fortunate because it means we’re ready for a breakthrough to a new creative level.
Before you back away, expecting a sales pitch for New Age crystals, I promise today’s Op-Ed applies directly to comics creators and the industry as a whole.
When you’re working on creative endeavors and hit a freezing point, that means your subconscious (if you prefer, your soul) is trying to tell you that it’s time to pivot. In religious circles, this feeling is known as Spiritual Pressure. All creative energy comes from a spiritual place, whether you give that place a formal description via religious teachings or if you choose to simply acknowledge the creative force agnostically. Creativity comes from a higher form of consciousness where imaginations are free to roam.
In the realm of comics, you can see the outcome of this Spiritual Pressure when it’s heeded. For example…
Have you ever seen a comics artist deliver mediocre work until suddenly, a spark pushes that artist into a new style of drawing that sets them apart from anything they’ve ever done before?
Consider the earliest works of Frank Miller before he began his seminal run on Daredevil. You can see (below) in Miller’s cover from ROM #3 (1980) the beginnings of Miller’s film noir style, but it wasn’t until he pivoted into something unique on Daredevil (which he started the year before drawing that ROM cover) that his creative genius took flight.
Have you ever read a comic story from a writer who had a distinctive voice that only seemed to suit one particular niche of storytelling, and then a pivot in the right direction placed them on another level of consideration?
Consider Alan Moore’s critically acclaimed career. The wizard of comics writers was mostly known for European comics and themes until his breakthrough with DC Comics. He took over the floundering Saga of the Swamp Thing and changed the direction of the character forever with the seminal story The Anatomy Lesson.
Have you ever seen a publisher roll the dice on a major initiative that hasn’t been topped and created a legacy that lasted for years?
Consider DC’s plan to reset the tangled web of overlapping character histories and conflicting versions of Earth throughout the multiverse by (almost) collapsing their entire lineup in Crisis On Infinite Earths (1985-1986). Despite the number of subsequent Crisis events, nothing tops the original for its complexity and impact on America’s #2 superhero comic publisher.
Now we come back to Comical Opinions and yours truly. We’re completely reworking our process to do more in (hopefully) less time. We’re expanding our reach into YouTube with video versions of our reviews (and soon expanding video into other platforms) to expose more comics fans to comics they might not know existed.
It’s a daunting challenge but a necessary one for a breakthrough. I know this because we felt that Spiritual Pressure forcing us to stop doing everything the same way and reinvent ourselves a little bit. We’re starting to see some results immediately, but others will take time. Regardless, reworking our processes is creating a breakthrough for new audiences that we wouldn’t have discovered if we didn’t feel that Spiritual Pressure to push into new ways of thinking.
Yes, this sounds like a lot of woo-woo New Age hocus pocus, but it’s true.
If you’re a creator and you feel that pressure that’s preventing you from repeating what you already know how to do, it’s time for a change. Don’t give up. Don’t ignore what your well of creative energy is telling you.
Take a step back, try something new, and break through.
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