Episode 17 + 18: Comic Artist, Leslie Hung

Jan 03rd

This week, my guest is the insanely talented cartoonist and illustrator Leslie Hung who is the co-creator of the comic book Snotgirl. Leslie has amassed over 162,000 fans of her drawings and illustrations on Instagram.

Key takeaways:

  • The best questions to ask yourself before you start your career in illustration.
  • The importance of having uncomfortable conversations before you begin collaborating.
  • How to turn the job you hate into your golden ticket.
  • How to take make your singular focus work for you.
  • How to find the right publisher for your comics.
  • Why it’s important to keep on drawing the same thing over and over to progress.
  • Why learning the art of great communication and compromise are your secret weapons.

In this week’s episodes, Leslie and I talk about what it means to make progress. In episode 17 she challenges the idea that if you’re not making an immediate and noticeable change, you’re not progressing. Instead, we need to focus on the time spent on getting better at what you love. The process is progress. I must say I agree with this sentiment. It takes a lot of hours to be good at something, and it’s hard to see the progress in the day to day grind. In addition to this eye-opening conversation, Leslie and I talk about her goals and vision for Snotgirl. We find out if there are still things that she wants to achieve with the comic. This leads to an incredible discussion on what happens after you reach all of your goals?

In episode 18 we had a little audio trouble, losing my audio so unfortunately, you may never know the fiery chemistry we enjoyed. Never the less this podcast is about you and not me so of course, I extract the highlights from Leslie. We talk about that dreaded feeling of being lost after leaving uni and what to do when you’re in that situation. The key is to ride it out. Leslie shares how she met the legendary Bryan Lee O’Malley and how he’s been a huge supporter of her and her work. Naturally, the talk turned to the more technical aspects of collaborating: the legal paperwork, the conflicts and the compromises and while Leslie hasn’t had to deal with disputes in the Snotgirl team, she does offer some wise words on how to prevent them.

Special Mentions

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