Tom Hart is a cartoonist, and he’s the founder and executive director of a comics school, The Sequential Artists Workshop. His 2016 memoir, Rosalie Lightning, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
Tom offers amazing, valuable insights about the path to creative career success—and that what “success” looks like must be self-defined, always. For Tom, that means freedom is number one. When he has creative autonomy, he’s happy.
Tom spoke about the invisible bargains we make to have a life lived in alignment with our ideals and creative goals. He asked: What are we willing to live with? How much fear? How much shame? How much financial precarity?
We talked about why “shame” comes into it, and how to get over it.
And we talked about why financial precarity isn’t a prerequisite for creative autonomy and freedom. To get that message out, we all need to be talking more openly and clearly about what’s happening behind closed doors, in creatives’ lives.
More from the episode…

“Success is…can I make things that mean something to me and can I help people make things that mean something to them and that isn’t just feeding a commercial engine?” – Why Tom believes success is more than just churning out work.
How has the desire to be seen impacted Tom’s creative process?
We discuss Tom’s memoir, Rosalie Lightning, and how his unique creative practice gave him the tools to process grief.
For years, Tom believed he needed multiple sources of income. Why has he decided to focus his revenue stream?
Tom reflects on an encounter that helped him let go of financial shame: “If a lawyer is saying the same thing I’m saying, then I just might as well stay an artist.”
“Nobody was happy and everybody worked all the time…and that’s the hole I’m always trying to plug.” – To what extend does scarcity fuel artistic ambition?
Tom describes the awakening that inspired him to found the Sequential Artists Workshop: “Some people like my books, but they’re not going to pay the bills. There are other creative things I can do that can pay the bills.”
Sometimes, pursing your creative vision is a matter of bargaining: “I didn’t realize that having a high-paying job in advertising doing work for Sony and McDonald’s was making a living from your art.”
Why is money a taboo conversation, even between friends, and what’s the benefit of speaking up?
Tom reminds us: “Nothing is scary about art.”

More from Tom Hart:
Tom Hart is a cartoonist and the Executive Director of The Sequential Artists Workshop, a school and arts organization in Gainesville, Florida.
He was a core instructor at New York City’s School of Visual Arts for 10 years, teaching cartooning to undergraduates, working adults and teens alike.
His 2016 memoir, Rosalie Lightning debuted at #1 on the NY Times Bestseller List and has been featured on many end of year Best-Of lists.
He is the creator of the Hutch Owen series of graphic novels and books, and has been nominated for all the major industry awards.
He was an early recipient of a Xeric Grant for self-publishing cartoonists, and has been on many best-of lists in the Comics Journal and other comix publications. He has been called “One of the great underrated cartoonists of our time” by Eddie Campbell and “One of my favorite cartoonists of the decade” by Scott McCloud. His daily Hutch Owen comic strip ran for 2 years in newspapers in New York and Boston, and his strip “Ali’s House”, co-created with Margo Dabaie was picked up by King Features Syndicate.
Connect with Tom Hart
Tom Hart on Twitter
https://www.instagram.com/hutchowen/
https://www.facebook.com/hutchowen
http://www.tomhart.net/
Additional Links
The Sequential Artists Workshop on Twitter
https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/
https://www.instagram.com/comicsworkshop/
https://www.facebook.com/sequentialartistsworkshopFor full transcripts, show notes, and more episodes, head to https://jessicaabel.com/acpod/