Meet Your Instructor: ITSme Director of Marketing and Learning Emily Coggins

Meet one of our instructors for both the Character Study Intensive and the Graphic Novel Bootcamp! Emily has been with the ITSme Society for over nine years, starting as the Global Manager for Astound before moving into her role as the ITSme Director of Marketing and Learning. In each course, she brings her unique skills and perspectives to help illustrators understand project work flows, what agents and art buyers are looking for, and more!

Q- What is your #1 tip for those interested in working in graphic novels?
Ensure you have sequential art that tells a clear story. Keep it simple at first before you expand.

Q- What is your illustration/art background?
A- Before joining ITSme, I was the first agent at Astound US Inc, leading a global team of agents and helping the agency rise to one of the top agencies in the USA, getting work in the UK and internationally, and helping our artists achieve their career goals and dream clients.

Q- What are some graphic novels you enjoyed agenting?
A- At Astound, I had the opportunity to agent over 1000 projects for our artists. And most of them by illustrators who never had a job until they joined Astound and worked with me 1-1 to develop their skills. Today we bring that expertise to the public in these classes.

My #1 tip for artists is to have character studies in your portfolio. And not just any study – they have to be the right kind of study, and more than one. In this class we dive into this and make sure you come out with the right kind of studies to get you jobs.

I also agented many graphic novels, including the “POWER UP” series for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and “Unicorn and Yeti” series for Scholastic. However, what is most important is the number of artists I helped break into this market, and then secure top projects in this market. I helped numerous artists who went from never having illustrated a graphic novel, to getting commissions for multi book series with Top Publishers and for great budgets (including both artists who illustrated the books above). These are the tips and skills I share in my portion of the class, and it is information shared exclusively in the graphic novel course.

Learn more about our course offerings here.