I was recently asked the following question through Facebook Messenger:
“I want someone to review my work so I can get feedback on what I’m doing right or wrong. I have no idea how to initiate that kind of conversation or who to turn to. What do you recommend I do?”
Quick thoughts: Sending your art unsolicited to a professional cartoonist for a critique is usually a bad idea.
It’s like wanting your car fixed, and instead of making an appointment, just driving it into an auto repair shop and parking your car on a mechanic’s lift – then expecting them to get to work.
Not good.
Posting it online on social media for a critique can be hit or miss. There’s simply no way of knowing the experience and/or professionalism of those giving their two cents worth.
From personal experience I find Artists Alleys at comic cons to be a good bet. The reason being that the artists on hand are specifically there taking the time to touch base with readers and fans. This one-on-one from an artist you respect can be invaluable.
Just make sure to ask if they’re open to doing a portfolio review. They may not depending on time constraints/sketch requests, and that’s perfectly understandable.
Also a heads up that the critique you get can be instructive and/or eviscerating depending on the artist’s demeanor. Be prepared for either.
I would also recommend the Joe Kubert School Correspondence Course (and no, I don’t get paid for this endorsement). In this case it’s a matter of getting what you pay for.
You can check out the Kubert School at Comic Cons they’re scheduled to appear at as well. The above pic is Kubert School Alum Brigid Allanson and Angie Fernot at C2E2 from a few years back.
Hope the preceding was of assistance and wishing you all the best in your artistic ventures!
I get asked a lot what’s a decent page rate for comic book work.
First off, it’s hard for me to price a project blind without knowing the specifics. It’s like a building contractor making an estimate before coming out to see the work site, or figuring out a fair price on a used car without looking under the hood.
Generally, if it’s a small press publisher that is printing limited copies the page rate will be low. If it’s a bigger publisher with a larger circulation the page rate should reflect that. There is no standard in that regard.
CEO – high end Isaac Perlmutter (Marvel Entertainment’s CEO) worth $3.9 billion Diane Nelson (President of DC Entertainment) worth $16.6 million.
Comic Book Creator – high end Stan Lee (Marvel Comics) worth $40 million Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead) worth $20 million
Editor Associate Editor at Marvel Comics: $38,000-$41,000 a year. A more senior editor at DC Comics can make up to $84,000 a year.
Writer Salaried gig: $55,000 On a project basis: Script outline $20 and $100 at the bigger publishers. Script/dialogue $80 and $100 at the bigger publishers.
Comic Book Artist The median comic book artist salary is $36,500
Penciller Starting rates at Marvel and DC: $160 to $260 per page.
Inker $75 to $100 per page.
Colorist $20 and $121 per page
Letterer $10 and $25 per page
Now for the long answer…
The best way to move forward is to be as informed as possible. A starting point is the Graphic Artist Guild’s Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.
Remember your bedrock is a good contract, as the following video will attest. Mike Monteiro – F*ck you, Pay me
Now… if you’re new to the business and just starting out, you’re chomping at the bit just to get published – Do not undervalue yourself. If you’re not careful you’ll set a precedent and never get paid what you’re worth.
Here’s some advice from the grumpy old man to a certain type of client…
Remember that part of negotiating a contract is breaking down for the client what the work entails and your worth and ability in providing this. You want to be in a position that the client knows he’s making a good investment for what he’s paying.
Tom Richmond (past NCS president and Mad Magazine artist) gave the following advice to an MCAD class I was teaching.
You’re not pricing your work based on the time you spent on it, but the rights you’re giving away. And if someone wants you to work for free claiming the work they are offering will be “good exposure” – remember, people die from exposure.
The balance between the value of exposure and compensation, experience and pay is contested in every creative field. For those of us who want to make it in journalism, we’re asked to commit time and energy to unpaid internships and supposedly career-advancing “opportunities” that are to our benefit. And frankly, unpaid labour is hugely beneficial to the companies providing said opportunities.
This is nothing new. To some extent, internships and volunteer experience have always been a part of these freelance-driven industries. But there comes a point at which an exchange of money for services needs to enter the equation.
What you always have in your corner when negotiating a contract is the power to decline and walk away – especially if the payment is inadequate. This should be done professionally with your “business hat” on so you don’t burn bridges – not your “artist hat” that wants to punch those bastards (who want something for nothing) in the face.
Along those lines, here’s Harlan Ellison with a few choice words…
Work for Hire
A lot of comic book freelance is working on established characters under a Work for Hire contract where the artists rights are signed away and the client becomes the legal owner and author of the work.
Once again, Tom Richmond…
Illustration groups like the Graphic Artists Guild and the Society of Illustrators rightly disdain WFH agreements and widely suggest illustrators refuse to work under WFH agreements. That makes sense in a perfect world, but sometimes in the real world a WFH agreement is a necessary evil.
I think you have to realistically assess the amount of risk you are taking in doing a WFH job compared to not doing it.
Another popular tactic to pay the artist very little (or even get the work for free) is the bait of a possibility of money on the back end through royalties, licensing and merchandise.
You’re gambling that your work will be popular enough to pay for things the publisher does not pay up front. Most of the time, that’s a losing bet.
I have accepted work like this myself in the past and it has never panned out favorably. Looking back, I also feel I ended up producing less than stellar work – partly because I couldn’t devote the time I would have liked (as paying work had to take precedence) – but also because psychologically it ended up getting under my skin that my work was not valued enough by the client that he deemed it worth payment.
If you do decide to accept work like this, see it for the gamble it is. It’s never anything to bank on.
And keep the following in mind…
If you’re looking for more info and resources for cartoonists, check out my previous post, the Business of Cartooning
A few things that I’ve learned over the years that have crystalized through teaching…
• Devote your time to sharpening your art skills AND your business skills – trends, networking, contracts, etcetera all.
• Don’t pigeonhole yourself to one small aspect of the art form, like limiting yourself to just comics. Remember that Michelangelo wanted to devote himself to sculpture when he was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel.
• The people who succeed are generally the people who are working their asses off. Surround yourself with people like this, people who commit themselves fully and are getting their work out into the world. They’ll generally be better than you which is a GOOD thing – that way the bar keeps getting raised.
• Working hard isn’t enough, you have to work smart as well. You have to create work that’s marketable – that will suit the needs of someone who will then pay you.
• Working long hours with no sleep to meet deadlines isn’t the answer. Your career is a marathon, not a fifty yard dash. Eat right, exercise and sleep regularly – it’s the bare bone basics and it works.
• Start now (yesterday is even better). Research the jobs you want, look at the submission guidelines (and follow them METICULOUSLY), then work up samples that will blow the competition out of the water. I like the following advice from Steve Martin to those aspiring to enter the entertainment field as it applies to any pursuit – “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
• To cap this off… If you treat your skills as a hobby then that’s where they’ll stay, as a hobby – and that’s FINE as long as that’s your conscious decision. But if you want to have it as your job, your career, then you need to get on board and on track.
When you work on comic character that’s known worldwide the door to scam artists suddenly gets thrown wide open. Take the following…
Years ago, when I was doing Flash Gordon, I received a request for some drawings from a guy who had a sick grandma who grew up reading (insert character’s name here) – it was one of her favorites! He wanted one Flash Gordon drawing for his Grandma, and if possible, another two for his kids. The weird part? He wanted it on uncirculated sheets of two dollar bills.
Sounds fishy I know…
Regardless, I rolled the dice and thought it was quirky enough that it might actually be true – drawings sent.
Months later I got a letter from Popeye cartoonist Hy Eisman (one of my teachers from the Kubert School) informing me I had just been scammed. Enclosed with the letter was an insert from a catalog with cartoon art for sale. The art was drawn on (wait for it)… uncirculated sheets of two dollar bills.
Web version of catalog page.
And how did Hy Eisman find out about it?
Web version of catalog page.
Suffice it to say, my days of giving people the benefit of the doubt was over.
Now some people argue that once you give away a piece of art to a fan, what they then do with it is out of your hands. Well… that’s true – but to intentionally misrepresent why you want the art (sick relative) in order to flip it for profit is where that line of reasoning goes off the rails.
Al Williamson once told me a story of his disillusionment when he gave away a drawing to a young fan at a convention – only to find out later that the kid was a plant that a comic art dealer was sending around to scam cartoonists out of as much free art as possible.
Al Williamson in his studio inking a Star Wars movie adaptation – October 1998.
Now Al was known as one of the nicest guys in comics, so the kind of individual who would take advantage of his generosity can best be described with one word…
I’d also like to add that back in the day, it actually took some effort to scam artists as you had to resort to mass mailings, postage, etcetera. Today they can reach hundreds with just copy, paste, send.
And some of these scammers are just plain lazy. When I was doing Flash Gordon sometimes I would get email from a “fan” asking for artwork that never mentioned my name or the strip I did, but it would clearly state that they read my strip every day (it only appeared on Sunday) and they thought it was “one of the funniest strips around!”
Because Flash Gordon is primarily remembered for it’s zany slapstick gags…
That said, I’m not in the spotlight like some of the hot artists currently out there, so I can only imagine the headaches they have to deal with – be it Adam Hughes having to put a halt on convention sketches or Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner announcing a 5 book free signing limit. You can only be jerked around so much before you have to start putting up fences to safeguard yourself.
Another headache for cartoonists are hacks blatantly stealing their work and selling it as their own. The poster child for this kind of plagiarism being Rob Granito.
And for the outright bizarre there’s the case of Shia LaBeouf plagiarizing Daniel Clowes back in 2013 – then apologizing via a skywriter and tweeting a cryptic message…
CLOUD: – vapor floating in the atmosphere – remote servers used to SHARE DATA – to make LESS CLEAR or TRANSPARENT pic.twitter.com/jw9JlEi791
And I haven’t even touched on all the fake comic art on ebay…
These kind of activities have been brought to light more and more of late due to vigilant fans and pros putting a spotlight on these hacks via posts on the internet. And as the number of comic cons grow more needs to be done on the part of convention organizers to weed out these crooks.
But I digress…
Back to drawing requests… For the most part, time constraints prohibit me from fulfilling requests for sketches and donations for auctions. With the advent of e-mail, there are just too many requests and too little time.
And the thought of neglecting paying work so I can draw something for a “fan” who just wants something he can flip and put on ebay that he got from me for free..?
UPDATE… Commentary I’ve come across online since posting.
I am sorry that a few have ruined it for the rest of us. Years ago I was a comic con and Paul Gulacy was a guest. He was working on Shang-Chi for Marvel. My brother, and two of my cousins along with my self stood in line to get him to sign a book for us. We were 14 at the most. Two large men told all of us that Mr Gulacy had only time to sign one book each and we were to ask no questions of him. A third man with them was talking to Paul as we were waiting. He was having Paul draw a Shang -Chi. I had Mr. Gulacy sign one of my books and as I asked him if he would ever work on a Shadow book? I was glared at by all three as Paul stopped to speak to me.
Years later at a comic store the same man was showing off his collections of art, he was so proud of the fact that he would go to cons and have his two friends block others from asking for a sketch, autograph or ask questions, so he could have more time with the artist. It takes all kind!!
