2000 AD Online Forum

Just wonderin'

I suspect the answer is "it depends".

Actually i'd like to know that too, I  want to break in the industry in the next few years and it's hard to find out who pays what let alone who'll hire you.

Finnigan Sinister  

I think the basic rate for the ordinary artist is not that high.
Say between ?100-?200 pounds a page.

Rac: If anyone wants to pay me 1/2 of that for being 1/2 as good I'm there!

Bolt-01

"Rac: If anyone wants to pay me 1/2 of that for being 1/2 as good I'm there! "

The artist who told me was less than halfway between those numbers per page.
And you know better than me how long it takes to draw a page, so you need to be fairly knocking them out to make it your living at that sort of money.

i can knock out a couple of pages a day. do you think this will increase my chances of being an art droid oneday?

Yes.

or maybe



No.

Can you actually draw?

well, if you are any good, speed can only help.

That's what I always tell The Wife.

Recently (since Dreddcon that is) my page rate has dropped dramatically.

In the old days I would be able to do a page per day, but now....Sheesh.

The inking is still approx 6-8 hours per page, the main increase is in the time I take getting the page ready to ink.

Mind you, If I was getting paid, I would take time off work and give it a good solid day and see what happens.

I always remember reading somewhere that even if you are getting more work than you can handle, you should keep a real job.

Bolt-01

'work expands to fill the time alotted to it'
someone said. Steve Ditko was said to do six pages a day. Alfredo Alcallo could do 35 pages a week. I reckon a page a day is the least you should be able to manage.

"Alfredo Alcallo could do 35 pages a week. I reckon a page a day is the least you should be able to manage."

that'll be Alfredo Alcala, and the legend is that he was doing 40 pages a week, writing, pencilling, inking as well as having a family around him.
Although I have no idea HOW he did this (the art was quite superb as well) Most artists i know take at least 6 hours to do a page, so this is hardly the norm. In fact, a page a day is quite a good rhythm, and certainly not the least one could expect.

Unless u want pages of shit, that is.

F

Do you think it's faster working on a computer with your art, Frazer, or does it make no differance to your speed?

Per page: ?120 for an inked page, ?180 for a colour page. For either pencils, inks or colour ?60 I believe. Don't know about lettering. However, popular artists get more, as they should.

I suspect most artists like to aim for a pencilled page a day so they can have something ongoing for, say, American comics in colaboration with an inker. Not much need to draw faster than that for 2000AD unless you have other work lined up when you're done, or a short deadline. Never able to pencil and ink a page a day myself, you need a simple but popular style, or be precociously talented like Frazer.

ADE

I think John Burns takes 2 or even 3 days per page.

Wake

was sikus main influence Alfredo Alcallo on meat monger then?
sorry i could not resist.

but on topic. given the huge amount of work that goes into a single page, the real per page rate is low in terms of actaul wages against work isnt it.
which also shows how reasonable (cheap) the original art we purchase from them actaully is.

Apparently Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989)creator of Astro Boy could do 7 pages a day.

I read that Jack -The King - Kirby had about 25,000 pages to his name when he shuffled off this mortal coil, where as Tezuka had just under a quarter of a million.

Of course it's not quantity but quality that counts, but then they had quality in spades.

Got a ways to go.

I'd like to draw da funny books too one day, but as has been stated before; I've no plans on giving up the day job.

Painted art pays most of all so if youy can paint, then doing painted covers could net you a fair bit of cash. Trouble is, if you do mainly covers you wont often be called upon to do strip work (fng hehehe). Greg Staples would be an example of this. Covers are rare as golddust but he only works on a story when all the planets are in alignment.

J.

Yes, but... a number of manga artists, particularly successful creators like Tezuka, Otomo etc., use a "studio" system whereby they might do basic layouts or character designs, and other artists apply finishes, inks or in some cases entire volumes of material; the story creators are always the ones credited, though.

J-Bo-1

Ah I see.

Hey if my work ever brings in enough revenue to employ minions then Wahey! Churn it out they will - Whilst i curl up Smaug-like on a mound of gold.

i employ a gaggle of  oompah loompah's to take care of my pages. i just kick back on the sofa sipping champagne every day, barking orders. 'too much black, too much black...'
dom owns a sweat shop in mozambique, they take care of the majority of caballistics for him. easy really....
jock

What side of teh road do they drive on in mozambique?

hang on, i'll just ask dom...

dom says 'twat'.
it's not entirely clear why.....

Well, that's just made my Monday morning.

I was particularly impressed at the time and effort Jock puts into the sketches he does at conventions...