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Mark Millar looking for an artist for a Hit Girl series

Started by Professor Bear, 23 May, 2016, 09:24:12 PM

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Old Tankie

Seems like decent money, I thought artists were badly paid.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Old Tankie on 23 May, 2016, 10:25:03 PM
Seems like decent money, I thought artists were badly paid.

That's amazing money, and reflects the fact that Millar sells serious numbers of books and is very adept at getting movie deals on his projects. There are very few artists who can routinely command half that -- Millar says so himself, in the linked post.

Artists are badly paid, comic artists doubly so. Comic art is the most labour intensive, least cost-effective way of monetising artistic talent I can think of. Most commercial artists will get paid at least what a comic artist gets per page for a single spot illo in a book or magazine. And a comic artist has to do six or seven of those on each page. And make sure they make a coherent narrative. And make sure any one of dozens of details remain consistent from panel to panel.

Comic artists... I don't know how they do it.

Cheers

Jim

Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

pauljholden

"I don't know why they do it"

Fixed that for you, Jim.

Big_Dave

Quote from: Old Tankie on 23 May, 2016, 10:25:03 PM
Seems like decent money, I thought artists were badly paid.

link says marvel pays £3k per issue for art

unless you can pencil & ink a page per day
thats not much above min wage

Old Tankie

So if an artist is Good and fast they can earn ok money for doing something they love.

pauljholden

#6
Quote from: Old Tankie on 23 May, 2016, 11:26:02 PM
So if an artist is Good and fast they can earn ok money for doing something they love.

Hahah! Yes. That's how it works. As long as you're good and fast you will be given as much work as you're capable of. There's no way you could find yourself not working for months (or even years) at a time. No way.

Also: because you love drawing comics you'll never get sick and you'll never have a holiday.

-PJ

Old Tankie


pauljholden

Oh I'm in a crappy mood my apologies.

I got the sense though that your feelings on the matter amount to "drawing comics looks like a great gig that pays well" (with an unspoken inference of "and I've heard artists moan about how badly paid it is") though I accept I may have misread you, though in that case it I feel you're lacking a great deal of information on the subject at the very least.


Let's start with this: millers rate offered here is extraordinary -  a full $6k dollars more than THE MOST I've ever been paid on a US comic(I got that page rate one ONE book, and never again) now granted I've never done "big two" work. But the average money on mid tier publishers hovers around $2k per issue. You'll get 22 pages, if you're lucky you'll do an issue per month. Assuming you can figure out a way to live on that money, if you end up in a part time job then you'd be lucky to do one issue every two/three months.

Many publishers don't even pay that (many us publishers payday money on the back end, I'd after you've drawn an issue, you'll not see payment until the book is published, maybe four months later. If you ever see money at all)

The big two pay ok (I've heard) but even their entry level rates appear to be $200 per page (making a 20 page comic - I think 20 is marvel/DC page count now - a full 6k short of miller's proposed rate).  But you're scrabbling around for work along with literally every other comic artist on earth - marvel/DC cast a wide net.

This is why, at my last look, that miller world competition had around 300 entries, a good 70% of whom were pro level quality artists. Most out of work.

Being capable of work is, unfortunately no guarantee at all of getting work, and I know a number of artists who've spent years unemployed or scrambling around from one hand to mouth gig to another, despite being good, fast and loving drawing comics. And that's not counting the numbers of artists that are amazing BUT NOT fast - and the vastly outnumber the good and fast artists.

Most comic artists have had to spend their time In Full time or part time jobs WHILE working as comic artists (I had a part time job working in IT up until 7 years ago.)

Drawing is great, knowing you're being paid is great. Finding work though is a lot harder than you can imagine, and like all freelance work you're entirely at the mercy of your health (physical and mental) you're only paid when you work.

The only reason I can afford to work in comics is because my wife works and I have a laughably low mortgage.

_PJ

Old Tankie


Fungus

I'm sort-of job-hunting at the moment. Dabble a bit in art and love it but found myself explaining my career choices in an interview a couple of weeks back. Like IT, probably like art more,  but you don't choose art as a career. Bills to pay. Hats off to the droids that do  :)

I think it's why I'm - apparently - such a slow (comics) reader. So much effort for so little reward. When I've read a comic I've appreciated all the art, I hope. Tend to pore. Skimming just won't do.

mightybren

QuoteMost comic artists have had to spend their time In Full time or part time jobs WHILE working as comic artists (I had a part time job working in IT up until 7 years ago.)

That's actually kinda reassuring. I'm stuck in an IT job now and I find it BORING! I'd prefer to be drawing all day long.

I've met a few Illustrators who work as designers on a contract basis. A good portion of the year is spent working a 9-5 office job, while a quarter of the year is spent working as a freelance illustrator.
Contract work pays well but in the creative industries it's VERY competitive. The reason I'm in IT right now is I lost the dick measuring contest with a senior designer in a previous job.

Working in the creative industries is tough, but very rewarding. From my own experience though you need to be prepared to take a lot of criticism (some justified, some not) and be prepared for uncertainty and instability too.

Thanks for your candid post PJ :) as a newb with high aspirations (and low expectations) I actually find it very encouraging to hear some real world experiences from a real professional. It's humbling and sets some realistic expectations, and just increases the amount of respect I have for comic book artists

Old Tankie

Hi mightybren.  I enjoyed PJ's post and his experiences but everybody's situation is different.  Whilst my lad would certainly recognise the difficulty of continuous work and the need to "top up" elsewhere sometimes, he  wouldn't recognise the page rates regarding the big two that PJ mentions.  The biggest difficulty that my lad finds is hitting deadlines.  He has no problem at all with the remuneration.

The competition is fierce and you need a lot of luck, as well as talent.  My son's wanted to be a comic book artist since he was six years old.  He worked for many years in the video games industry as a designer but continued to submit samples of his art work to editors and at 29 he was finally given his opportunity.  He's now been a comic book artist for the last nine years and he doesn't regret a second of it.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Old Tankie on 06 July, 2016, 07:39:56 PM
he  wouldn't recognise the page rates regarding the big two that PJ mentions.  The biggest difficulty that my lad finds is hitting deadlines.  He has no problem at all with the remuneration.

I'm genuinely curious as to which publishers your son is working for. I work/have worked for a lot of the sub-big-two publishers, and I know what they pay. If you're not capable of cranking out a monthly book (pencils and inks) and getting twelve issues a year of solid work, then making £20k a year is a pretty distant prospect.

(There are alternatives. If you can get really good at drawing women's arses, there's always the Eric Basaldua route, whereby you can draw cheesecake variant covers for Zenescope at over $1000 a pop.)
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Old Tankie

Hi Jim - well, he certainly doesn't do what you suggest in your last paragraph!  He has no need to.

The publisher that he's working for at the moment is one of the big two and he's quite happy with the page rate.