Bill Nichols’ Prescription:
Comics 10ccs of the Process with
Greg Harms

What inspires you to create and keeps you going? 

I have stories I want to tell, art I want to produce. Once I decide on something I’m very tenacious about getting it done. Sometimes to a fault, I will hang on to, whatever it is, when it would be far better to just let go of it. My wife Kristi is a huge inspiration that keeps me going.

 

Do you have a set routine?  

Not really. I work at all different times of the day, but usually at night is when I am most creative. Days are usually for more business type stuff like promoting and advertising, networking, social media updates, talking to printers, prepress work, uploading files to printers, etc. Nights may include some social media, like podcasts, but are usually when I do most of my writing, drawing, inking, coloring and design work.

 

What kind of output do you try to achieve? 

It will vary depending on projects, deadlines and what medium I am working in, if it is personal, commission or job. My personal projects get more of my time. Do watercolor animals, those are fun for me. So they get whatever amount of time I want to make them look like I want them to. To some extent commissions are the same, but with a deadline and with jobs, I make them look as good as I can within the time given. 

When I was younger and starting work in the comic industry, I would set goals of how many pieces I would do each year, then break that down by month, etc. For example, when inking I would try to do a page to a page and a half a day. Depending on art I might could do as many as 5 pages a day. When I started working with Roman Morales III regularly, Roman and I could have done 2 books a month at one point. 

 

What inspires you WHEN you create? 

Just the fact that I get to create, that in itself is inspirational. I don’t feel right unless I do something creative every day. I also draw inspiration from other artist from the comic field, fine art, illustration, and even music and movies.

 

Music? Noise? Silence? 

Depends. Usually, a mix of genre music when I am in the zone creating. Sometimes “noise” in a movie playing in background when I ink or draw. Silence when I write or am doing spreadsheets and business-oriented tasks.

 

Who was the first comic book creator that influenced you to pursue this? 

It would have been those guys drawing comics in the late 70’s, that’s what I was grabbing from the newsstand at the local grocery store. They influenced me long before I knew their names, I essentially became a mosaic of those artist and the other influences that I came upon in my life. Bernie Wrightson, Adam Hughes, Charles Vess, Jim Lee, Marc Sylvestri, Todd McFarlane, Ernie Chan, Richard Schmidt, Marlin Adams are a few of the names I do remember. Roman Morales III. who founded Third Empire, is probably the biggest influence to me. I started working with him in 2006 and learned a lot from him. He passed in 2018. I miss him, miss his humor, his council and getting the artistic push that he would give me. 

 

When did you realize you could follow this path yourself? 

Middle school (7th/8th grade) My brother and I started selling my art to our classmates, .25$ to a $1.00 a page of art. We sold about $40 worth before we got shut down by the man. That’s a lot of art sold! We were trying to get money together so we could go see the Olympics, it was in the US that year. We didn’t get to make the trip, so we spent it on G.I. Joe and Star Wars toys. Soon after that I started writing and drawing stories in comic form. I would sneak into the teacher’s lounge and copy them off to give out to friends. 

 

What do you find to be a challenge in creating? 

Focus. Focusing on one project. I tend to have many things going at once. The other is prioritizing. We all have a limited amount of time that we will produce. 

 

What else do you have to learn? 

So much. I continually try to push and learn something new every day. Once we stop learning, we get stagnant. 

 

What keeps you motivated to get better? 

I constantly compete with myself. I always have. Yesterday me was who I wanted to be better than, and future me was my next goal.

 

Can you turn your brain (creativity) off (and on)? 

Yes. Since I wear so many hats I’ve had to learn to do that over the years. Sometimes it’s not fun, or easy to do. Part of being a professional is learning how to do that, especially if you are the brand, or company and produce the work and are responsible for all elements of it. If it isn’t treated as a business it won’t last and you will end up homeless. That must be balanced with the creative side, the side that is why you do what you do. The passion of it all and for it all.

 

Booster Shots 

 

What advice do you have for aspiring creators? 

Decide what and where you want to be, then find someone that has done that and reverse engineer a path for you to get to that point. Relationships and experiences are important, look up from the drawing board and live in that moment. Don’t take yourself to serious, it’s only comics. Only take to heart criticism from someone that you would take advise from. 

 

Do you ever worry about running out of ideas? 

No. I have stacks of sketchbooks and notebooks with ideas. I worry I’ll run out of time to get to them all.

 

How do you handle the slow times? 

The only slow times I have are the ones where I need to rest and recover, or I need to spend with friends and family. I turn everything business/art related off.

 

How do you feel about the industry? 

Being an indie comic guy, I think this is one of the best times to be doing what I do! 

 

Do you have a website you would like to promote? 

The main place would be facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gharms/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghosthillgh/

 

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed by the above creator are theirs. This interview may not 

be reprinted or reposted without permission.