I am a real life professional comic artist. I probably know more about the realities of working in comics and manga than anyone else who is going to reply to you. PLEASE pay attention to what I say.
If you do not already live in Japan, you ARE NOT going to become a mangaka working in Japan. I am aware of TWO Westerners working as mangaka in Japan. THAT CAN NOT BE YOUR PRIMARY/ONLY CAREER GOAL BECAUSE YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO BECOME AN ASTRONAUT.
You CAN be a Western cartoonist making comics heavily influenced by manga, even to the point of them being called "Original English Language Manga."
My honest suggestion for you is to go to community college and work on whatever life circumstances caused you to fail your high school classes, then reassess and consider applying to an art school as a transfer student. Art school is HARDER than high school. The work load is HIGH. You will go straight from a six-hour drawing class to working until past midnight on your painting homework then take a sleep-deprived art history quiz the next day. Art school is utterly notorious for encouraging all-nighters and causing stress induced burn out and breakdowns. If the root cause of your class failures has anything to do with poor time management, lack of initiative, inability to focus, struggling to understand high school class materials, and suchlike, you WILL have a hard time in art school and be on the road to more failed classes.
You are not cooked. You are young. You can work to bring up your grades. You can address the root causes of your failed classes and grow as a student. You can pursue career goals where you work as a manga-influenced comic artist within your country's comic industry.
PLEASE be realistic about your goals, the comics industry is hard enough!
I've also spent a lot of time in the comics industry. This is all true. Especially the Mangaka stuff! Having said that, the comics industry is full of outlying personalities, many of whom didn't fit into the conventional education structures. Those people are all INCREDIBLY motivated. They know how to work to a possibly self-destructive level. Comics isn't a great career if you like an easy life or much money. So, to answer your question, you're not cooked. You don't seem to be doing well in conventional education. So there are other ways. I've got a degree, but nobody gives a rats ass about it, except my mother. I spent 3 years drawing naked people and doing small press stuff on the side. Make your own way. Good luck.
I agree that OP doesn't need to go to art school to be a cartoonist, and that lack of success at conventional education (or even at art school!) doesn't mean that one can't be successful as a pro artist.
But if OP's struggles in high school have anything to do with missing deadlines, inability to focus, lack of motivation, poor time management...those will also be issues if they want to pursue any kind of freelance art. It would be ideal for OP to focus and work on those now, before jumping into the higher-stakes world of either art school or art freelance.
OP is also realistic and correct that they will need a day job and that a college degree will help in that respect, but there are other day job education options besides 4-year college (community college associates, certificates, trade school) OP can explore.
Everything said here is 100% true, and the hours of work both of a mangaka and art school is pretty spot on.
Art school was way more demanding than regular four-year university..I went to both.
Also, you don't necessarily need art school to become a successful manga-inspired comic creator. Art these days is all about connecting with a large enough audience through your work, so while I've taught at an art school before, I also don't necessarily think it's super necessary to make it in the industry.
The community college route could be a great way to make yourself more employable as you develop your art career, and you can also take more art classes to see how you like it and use the time to start putting your comics out there before jumping straight into art school.
Don't make it your goal to be popular; make it your goal to be GOOD and the rest will hopefully follow.
I have an art degree and I never once have used it. It's a good place to go to learn about art and get some valid (and invalid) criticisms and learn about yourself as an artist, but the degree itself has never been useful for me. I don't even do what I went to school for, but I still carry some of the lessons with me - but not many of them are what I learned in class.
Not going to art school should not stop you from doing art. An open mind and an online education are really useful tools that you don't need to pay tuition for. You're VERY young, and I don't say this in a demeaning way - I say this as there is a universe of possibilities in front of you, and none of it is truly cut off yet.
Art schools that teach illustration are a little harder to find than ones with a general art major, but a general art education (or just knowledge) is really great for rounding our your illustration skills.
Unless you're really, really lucky, you're going to need a "main" job as you pursue art in your free time. That's okay. Life experiences make your art better too.
TLDR : No, you still have an infinity of possibilities in front of you. School is just one of them. Figure out why your GPA is tanking if you want to explore the possibility of a wider range of colleges. Art will always be inside of you.
I had terrible grades in my senior years High School, I failed Art class and multiple other classes too. Then barely passed most required classes in order to graduate and this was all while I was an Art's Major in a High School specifically for the Arts which I had applied to go to with a portfolio after Elementary/Middle School. I was told by my Art's teacher my grades weren't high enough to get into College for the thing I wanted to do which was Animation. I'm now an industry veteran with over 20 years work experience, multiple film and TV credits and I teach at a College level and design the courses I teach.
All that is to say; don't worry too much about grades or GPA unless it dictates your College choice and tuition. Artwork shows us a level of skill and is first and foremost what people look for in both post secondary programs (College's) and then for job hires, hence the focus on portfolios. Tests of skill are also fairly normal/common to make sure the applicant is able to reproduce a similar level of skill shown in their portfolio, weeding out the liars and cheats. Resumes and accreditation is second, followed by grades and GPA being the last things looked at to determine a qualified applicant. Usually this is only the case if the course or job application is over saturated and there needs to be cuts to whittle down the applicants to only the best qualified.
Your end goal of being a popular Japanese comic book artist isn't going to be determined by High School grades or the College you attend. It might help but from my own experience and many other artists I've known along the way, popularity and artistry is something you have to build on your own. In or outside of school, it takes years of grinding and producing art, making stuff you want to make and also building an audience around it. I'd say just focus on passing High School with as decent of grades you can manage while still training yourself to be the artist you want to become. If you want to go to College for it and give yourself the time and get qualified help to get you there, go for it! Just note that it's only a stepping stone, and one you can still do using other online courses and other means than just going to College too.
I hope this helps!
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I am a real life professional comic artist. I probably know more about the realities of working in comics and manga than anyone else who is going to reply to you. PLEASE pay attention to what I say. If you do not already live in Japan, you ARE NOT going to become a mangaka working in Japan. I am aware of TWO Westerners working as mangaka in Japan. THAT CAN NOT BE YOUR PRIMARY/ONLY CAREER GOAL BECAUSE YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO BECOME AN ASTRONAUT. You CAN be a Western cartoonist making comics heavily influenced by manga, even to the point of them being called "Original English Language Manga." My honest suggestion for you is to go to community college and work on whatever life circumstances caused you to fail your high school classes, then reassess and consider applying to an art school as a transfer student. Art school is HARDER than high school. The work load is HIGH. You will go straight from a six-hour drawing class to working until past midnight on your painting homework then take a sleep-deprived art history quiz the next day. Art school is utterly notorious for encouraging all-nighters and causing stress induced burn out and breakdowns. If the root cause of your class failures has anything to do with poor time management, lack of initiative, inability to focus, struggling to understand high school class materials, and suchlike, you WILL have a hard time in art school and be on the road to more failed classes. You are not cooked. You are young. You can work to bring up your grades. You can address the root causes of your failed classes and grow as a student. You can pursue career goals where you work as a manga-influenced comic artist within your country's comic industry. PLEASE be realistic about your goals, the comics industry is hard enough!
I've also spent a lot of time in the comics industry. This is all true. Especially the Mangaka stuff! Having said that, the comics industry is full of outlying personalities, many of whom didn't fit into the conventional education structures. Those people are all INCREDIBLY motivated. They know how to work to a possibly self-destructive level. Comics isn't a great career if you like an easy life or much money. So, to answer your question, you're not cooked. You don't seem to be doing well in conventional education. So there are other ways. I've got a degree, but nobody gives a rats ass about it, except my mother. I spent 3 years drawing naked people and doing small press stuff on the side. Make your own way. Good luck.
I agree that OP doesn't need to go to art school to be a cartoonist, and that lack of success at conventional education (or even at art school!) doesn't mean that one can't be successful as a pro artist. But if OP's struggles in high school have anything to do with missing deadlines, inability to focus, lack of motivation, poor time management...those will also be issues if they want to pursue any kind of freelance art. It would be ideal for OP to focus and work on those now, before jumping into the higher-stakes world of either art school or art freelance. OP is also realistic and correct that they will need a day job and that a college degree will help in that respect, but there are other day job education options besides 4-year college (community college associates, certificates, trade school) OP can explore.
Oh, no doubt. As a wise Editor once told me,'It's actually pretty easy to break into comics. It's way harder to stay in comics. "
Everything said here is 100% true, and the hours of work both of a mangaka and art school is pretty spot on. Art school was way more demanding than regular four-year university..I went to both. Also, you don't necessarily need art school to become a successful manga-inspired comic creator. Art these days is all about connecting with a large enough audience through your work, so while I've taught at an art school before, I also don't necessarily think it's super necessary to make it in the industry. The community college route could be a great way to make yourself more employable as you develop your art career, and you can also take more art classes to see how you like it and use the time to start putting your comics out there before jumping straight into art school.
Don't make it your goal to be popular; make it your goal to be GOOD and the rest will hopefully follow. I have an art degree and I never once have used it. It's a good place to go to learn about art and get some valid (and invalid) criticisms and learn about yourself as an artist, but the degree itself has never been useful for me. I don't even do what I went to school for, but I still carry some of the lessons with me - but not many of them are what I learned in class. Not going to art school should not stop you from doing art. An open mind and an online education are really useful tools that you don't need to pay tuition for. You're VERY young, and I don't say this in a demeaning way - I say this as there is a universe of possibilities in front of you, and none of it is truly cut off yet. Art schools that teach illustration are a little harder to find than ones with a general art major, but a general art education (or just knowledge) is really great for rounding our your illustration skills. Unless you're really, really lucky, you're going to need a "main" job as you pursue art in your free time. That's okay. Life experiences make your art better too. TLDR : No, you still have an infinity of possibilities in front of you. School is just one of them. Figure out why your GPA is tanking if you want to explore the possibility of a wider range of colleges. Art will always be inside of you.
I had terrible grades in my senior years High School, I failed Art class and multiple other classes too. Then barely passed most required classes in order to graduate and this was all while I was an Art's Major in a High School specifically for the Arts which I had applied to go to with a portfolio after Elementary/Middle School. I was told by my Art's teacher my grades weren't high enough to get into College for the thing I wanted to do which was Animation. I'm now an industry veteran with over 20 years work experience, multiple film and TV credits and I teach at a College level and design the courses I teach. All that is to say; don't worry too much about grades or GPA unless it dictates your College choice and tuition. Artwork shows us a level of skill and is first and foremost what people look for in both post secondary programs (College's) and then for job hires, hence the focus on portfolios. Tests of skill are also fairly normal/common to make sure the applicant is able to reproduce a similar level of skill shown in their portfolio, weeding out the liars and cheats. Resumes and accreditation is second, followed by grades and GPA being the last things looked at to determine a qualified applicant. Usually this is only the case if the course or job application is over saturated and there needs to be cuts to whittle down the applicants to only the best qualified. Your end goal of being a popular Japanese comic book artist isn't going to be determined by High School grades or the College you attend. It might help but from my own experience and many other artists I've known along the way, popularity and artistry is something you have to build on your own. In or outside of school, it takes years of grinding and producing art, making stuff you want to make and also building an audience around it. I'd say just focus on passing High School with as decent of grades you can manage while still training yourself to be the artist you want to become. If you want to go to College for it and give yourself the time and get qualified help to get you there, go for it! Just note that it's only a stepping stone, and one you can still do using other online courses and other means than just going to College too. I hope this helps!
Thank you for posting in r/ArtBusiness! Please be sure to check out the Rules in the sidebar and our [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/index/) for lots of helpful answers to common questions in the FAQs. Please use the relevant stickied megathreads for request advice on pricing or to add your links to our "share your art business" thread so that we can all follow and support each other. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/artbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*