“Art should be free from compromise” is a refrain you may occasionally hear.

Sure. And flapping your arms and believing hard enough should be able to get you to fly. I think it is safe to say, though, that in all cases I’ve ever run across it is not the case. Gliding? That’s a compromise, isn’t it?

Even a completely solo effort is going to deal with issues of materials, time and energy, etc. Now add in even one other person and, well… everyone’s done group projects, right? Compromise is everywhere–even with a paycheck involved–and it doesn’t do much good to pretend otherwise. And if Bob hates drawing maps and you assign him to draw the map, even firing Bob is going to leave you with a shitty or non-existent map at the end of the day.

When a paycheck’s not involved, or there’s some money but hardly a living wage, then it becomes even more important to be aware of the strengths and limitations of those involved. The great majority of comics still start at base with a written script, and even if like me you’re lucky enough to have an “in-house” artist who is technically working for free, and we have no corporate overlords or gatekeepers to satisfy, there is still a budget to be considered, and that budget is what Dawn and I are capable of bringing forth in a timely manner. Writing “we open on a town where hundreds of people are going about their business in the Weird New West” is easy for me to do, but unless I happen to be working with Sergio Aragonés it’s probably not going to fly in the art stage, particularly if there’s a short time limit involved. And even if I was working with Sergio Aragonés then I probably shouldn’t tell him “I want this done in a photo-realistic style.” He might do his best to try, consummate professional that he is, but that ain’t how he usually rolls.

There’s a case to be made for stretching limits and tackling challenges, of course, but do your best to find out the strongs and not-so-strongs of your partner(s) and keep them in mind, and while at it keep in mind that life loves getting in the way as well. Art is never free from compromise, but arguably it’s the end result of those compromises that truly makes it art.