Posts Tagged: cost

D.I.Y. Comics: Cutting Out The Middle Man

[Tweet “…comics are about story, art, and innovation.”]

When I committed to creating a comic, I knew that publishing with one of the big companies anytime soon was not a reality. I was introduced to web comics as a serious avenue at Comic Con New Orleans 2010. I’ve since created two web comics. Comics have been in my life as long as I can remember. For me, comics are about story, art, and innovation. I rarely bought for the sake of collecting. Coming to terms with that, I had no problem with the web comic medium.

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It’s Called Freelancing – Part 2

Missed the first installment of this article series? Read it here.

The majority of independent employers/collaborators who are seeking comic book artists do not know the first thing about making a comic. Some do, but most don’t. They don’t understand that a single page of professional quality art can easily take days to produce, and are sometimes produced by multiple people. A lot of people seem to think that they are doing you a favor by offering to allow you to work on their comic, and as a result they don’t have to pay fair wages. They seem to think that all you have to do is sit down at your drawing table (or screen), snap your fingers, and a masterpiece will materialize before your eyes. To these people I say – DO 5 MINUTES OF BASIC RESEARCH! Producing well-drawn comic art is no easy feat, and those of us who do it for a living have been practicing nearly our entire lives to refine our skills. Artists have to eat and pay bills like everyone else, so we deserve to be paid for our work. Just because it’s a creative field does not mean we work for free. Our skills are a trade just like any other. Would you ask a plumber to spend all day working on your toilet only to offer them $10 once it’s fixed? I seriously hope not.

[Tweet “”…a single page of professional quality art can easily take days to produce.” @MichaelYakutis”]

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It’s Called Freelancing – Part 1

[Tweet “What do you charge for your freelance illustration work? The answer – probably not enough! “]

What do you charge for your freelance illustration work? The answer – probably not enough! There seems to be a growing trend in the indie comics community in which freelancers are not getting paid fair rates for their work. It sickens me when I peruse Deviant Art and see countless artists offering their talents for a measly $5 per page. It’s infuriating when I look through job offers on Digital Webbing that offer a whopping $20 per page, yet come with a list of complicated demands. It drives me to the brink of insanity when I spend all day on Craigslist only to uncover ad after ad ending with “I can’t afford to pay you at this time, but you can add the work to your portfolio and we can split the profits (if there are any – which there almost never is).”

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