http://manga.about.com/b/2009/07/13/anime-expo-2009-7-reasons-why-oel-manga-falters-in-the-u-s.htm

The site was originally created to give a group of friends an environment to challenge one another using comics. It has since grown into a small-scale training ground for new comic artists to practice their craft while receiving feedback from a community of artists on how to better their art.

Some ‘graduates’ of the site include Maximo, James “Wonton Soup” Stokoe, Sheldon “Supertron” Vella, Kenneth “Madame Mirage” Rocafort, and many more that have gone on to create and publish comics.

Unfortunately, for every success there are scores of drop-outs. One section of the site is dedicated to the creation of characters. Roughly half of all new members leave at this stage because they can’t handle constructive criticism. Every day I witness first-hand many of the points you make in this article about decent artists without storytelling ability, mediocre art, fans turned artists, disenfranchisement once reality sets in, and the lack of a dedicated comic art training program.

I don’t know of any other community like ours that try to help budding artists, but we are out there, trying to help in our own way.

Click my name for more.

As far as partnerships go, I also agree that more artists need to seek out writers and vice versa, but that’s also difficult for people starting out since they don’t have nearly as many connections. For already established writers, I find it hard to see them wanting to break into the comics industry just because of how haphazard it is on so many fronts.

Older writers don’t normally want to write manga of course, but ideally they’d partner with a good illustrator and there’s now possibility.