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Meet Tania del Rio

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Tania del Rio.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tania. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I’ve been a storyteller since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I still have a stack of illustrated stories and comics I made when I was six years old, but my primary dream growing up was to be a Disney animator. Even though drawing was my first love, I really enjoyed writing too. I wrote my first novel by hand in middle school. CRYSTAL FANTASY was over a hundred pages, and it was basically thinly veiled FINAL FANTASY fan fiction, but this was before the internet, and so I had no idea what fan fiction was.

I was also heavily into comics and read everything from ELF QUEST to X-MEN to RANMA 1/2. I continued to make my own comics just for fun, but I was determined to get into Cal Arts, which I was convinced would be the best way to get my dream job as a Disney animator. I was so used to being the best artist among my classmates and winning so many local art contests that I’m afraid I had a bit of an ego when it came time to apply to schools. I could draw cartoons and comics quite well, but my life drawing skills were sorely lacking.

Unfortunately, the alternative middle and high school I attended didn’t offer any formal art classes, so I never learned the basics. I was stunned when I didn’t get into Cal Arts, and it was a real wake up call for me. However, I was accepted into my 2nd choice, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I liked it because it offered both an animation and a comics program. At the time, not many schools had a comics curriculum, and MCAD had one taught by actual professionals in the industry, like Peter Gross, Barb Schulz, and Gene Ha, so this was an exciting bonus.

I had a great time in college working on my 2-D animation skills and met a student there named Will who was a brilliant artist and also passionate about comics. We started a comics company called “Steelriver Comics,” and we attended local conventions to sell our books, which was really fun and a great way to meet others in the industry. As much as I loved comics, I still regarded it as a hobby, since my laser-focus was still on being a Disney animator.

But the year I graduated, 2002, Disney shut down its 2-D animation studio, and I was devastated. 3-D animation was becoming the new thing, but I stubbornly had no interest in doing computer animation and refused to learn. (I wish I could go back in time and tell my 22-year-old self a few things!

After college Will and I moved to New York where he got a great job as a cover designer for a major publisher. I struggled to find work in 2-D animation. I managed to get a few short commercial gigs, making animations for things like Church’s Chicken and Vegas slot machines. But it was a far cry from the dream I had of working at Disney, and I wasn’t happy.

I ended up getting a job at the mall to pay my bills, and I was feeling really depressed and uninspired. During this time, I was still an avid comic reader, and I was especially into manga, which was going through a boom thanks to publishers like TOKYOPOP! which were translating tons of titles from Japan and Korea and bringing them to the U.S.

I learned about a contest they were holding called “Rising Stars of Manga” where they were looking for artists and writers to create original content. On a whim, I decided to come up with an entry and submit it. It broke me out of my creative slump, and I was pleased to learn my story was selected as a runner’s up and would be published in an anthology.

This led to a local Westchester newspaper running an article about me, and this led to Archie Comics, which happened to be based in Westchester, contacting me directly, inviting me to pitch them on a new, manga inspired, SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH.

The next thing I knew, I had a job writing and drawing the series, and making comics for a living and going to conventions and store signings. It was such a great job. They gave me a lot of freedom to tell the story I wanted to tell, and I wrote and drew 42 issues over five years.

Will and I married and moved to Los Angeles, and my Sabrina run ended with issue 100 shortly thereafter. I was really sad to say goodbye to the series, but I admit a part of me was relieved because I was starting to feel burned out from drawing comics every day. I still worked for Archie, writing stories for their various digests, as well as doing the occasional freelance gig for Marvel or Dark Horse comics as well as smaller, independent publishers.

I also came to the realization that I was enjoying the writing process more than drawing, and I began working on a couple of novel ideas I had, including a collaboration with Will called WARREN THE 13TH based on a character he created in college: a twelve-year-old toad-faced Victorian bellhop who lives in his family’s ancient hotel.

My new dream was to become a published novelist, but it was like starting a new career from scratch, and far more difficult to break into than I anticipated. In addition to my freelance comics work, I also began exploring other avenues such as web and logo design. I learned a lot, but I didn’t like it, and I wasn’t that great at it, either.

Will and I eventually split, but we remained good friends, and years later he told me he had a connection with an editor at Quirk Books, and that we should pitch them WARREN THE 13TH. It turned out they loved the idea and bought a three-book series in 2014.

The first two books, WARREN THE 13TH AND THE ALL-SEEING EYE, and WARREN THE 13TH AND THE WHISPERING WOODS are out now, and the third book in the trilogy comes out early next year. I write them, and Will illustrates, but we continue to collaborate closely with the overall plot and character arcs. I may never have reached my dream of being a Disney animator, but I feel so lucky to have not one, but two, dream careers as a comic creator, and novelist.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve been very lucky in many regards, but it hasn’t always been easy. I think one of the hardest things any artist has to deal with is rejection. Artists are especially sensitive, I think, and I’m no exception. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed a thicker skin, but I still avoid things like reading reviews of my own work.

Another difficulty I face are insecurities like impostor syndrome, feeling like I don’t belong, or that I’m just “faking it” while everyone else is doing it “right.” I’m a total introvert, so it’s really hard for me to network or go to industry events and introduce myself to other artists or writers, which is funny because so many of them are socially awkward too.

A third challenge I’ve faced throughout my career is depression and feeling burnt out or uninspired. When I’m depressed, it becomes so much harder to create anything, and my insecurities get even worse. Thankfully, I’ve been feeling much happier lately, and I think it’s because after over a decade of freelancing I finally got a day job at an art studio. I’ve been there for three years now.

So much of my mental state was tied to anxiety over money and barely scraping by. As much as I loved making comics, it doesn’t pay well. Being a published author doesn’t pay well either. I used to be so stressed over having nothing in my bank account and worrying about when my next check would come.

I was stressed over not having health insurance, and not being able to go out with friends and pay for a meal. Having a steady paycheck has done wonders for my mental health. On the downside, I have much less time to devote to my own creative endeavors, but I’ll take the mental health over my creative projects anytime. I just make the most of my weekends and the time I do have in the evenings.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I don’t have a business, per se, but I do continue to take on the occasional freelance project. I love doing pet portraits and superhero commissions, and even the odd comic project. Drawing people and animals is my favorite thing, and I’ve developed my own style over the years. I’m proud of the fact that I’m fast and my work is expressive thanks to years of animation training.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I feel integrity is so important- meeting deadlines, being communicative, and delivering quality work that isn’t rushed or “phoned in.” Working in comics, I had to adhere to a tight schedule in order to keep up with the fast-paced comics publishing world.

Even though traditional book publishing is a much slower machine, I still have to make sure I submit my manuscript and edits on time in order to keep things on schedule for everyone else down the line. The art world is actually quite small and well-connected, so if you keep dropping the ball, word gets around, and people won’t want to hire you.

Another thing is staying productive. I had to learn this after working from home for so many years. It’s so easy to get distracted whether it be with the internet, pets, or with errands like laundry. If you work from home, you really have to treat it like a job with office hours to be fully productive.

Pricing:

  • Pencil Sketch (one character)- $30
  • Inked drawing (one character) – $50
  • Inked, colored drawing (one character) – $100
  • Comic page rate (pencils and inks) – $200

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