How Much Do Comic Book Artists Charge/Cost? Professional Page Rates 2024
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- I answer the common question -- How much does it cost to produce a comic book/graphic novel in 2024?
My goal with this video and channel is to help independent comic creators and filmmakers learn the business basics behind the world of indie entertainment. I want to help you earn more money/income doing what you love as an artist/artisan, and I focus on comics, graphic novels and (mostly foreign) feature films.
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What annoys me, (and why I don’t do work for hire anymore) is when publishers call you spoiled for not working for Indonesian page rates. Well, if I don’t live in Indonesia or the global south I’m not going to charge Indonesian rates lol!
I usually di $120 per page for pencils and inks, extra $40 to color it, but I'm always willing to adjust the price depending on How much detail they want and their budget, and willing to pages in clusters to essentially do a payment plan. I know a lot other artists who are willing to do the same and work with the client.
This is why I’m glad I write and illustrate my books, but I still have business, marketing, and printing costs. I have one client cuz he’s of such a tight budget I’m severely undercharging him at $35 per full page. But he gets what he pays for.
lol yeah exactly I didn’t even talk about the external costs to run your business as a creator. And yeah 35 is quite low lol but if it doesn’t take you too long to make, then keep it coming. 35 bucks an hour is a lot.
High five to all the pro artists out there checking if we're charging too little or too much! (XD)
I fall into that "Standard Pro Artists" category, and my page rate for pencils/inks is pretty much what you've said. However, I have to mention that publishers are asking for more and more "Instagram darlings" in detriment of veterans.
Nice to see my numbers are accurate lol. And yes, unfortunately artists with a following are winning over comic veterans. Were in a new digital world :/
@@indiecomicempire right? -__- I'm fed up with Instagram stuff
I’ll say it as well - , those “top tier “ rates are Looooooow when you look at what video games pay or even table top games
As an amateur artist, I have often wanted there to be some kinda website, that had mostly short comic book scripts by different writers. And by short, i mean something like 1 to 6 pages (of course the stories could be longer, but fewer artists would want to dedicate their time to it). I have seen individual comic book writers post their short story scripts online. Okay, i lied. I only saw one writer upload theirs online, but i have heard of other writers doing it too. I didn't draw any of their scripts, cause they were all horror comics and im not fond of horror. But! If there was some website that had comic scripts by amateur writers. Then amateur comic artists wouldn't need to check individual writers websites for scripts to draw or have to write the script themselves.
But perhaps im just projecting? After all, in school i was always the worst student, when it came to anything to do with writing (or speaking). So out of 75 or so students, i was the worst. I was always barely avoiding being sent to special ed class. So yeah, maybe other amateur artists would rather come up with their own story, than draw somebody else's for free. But whenever i browse Reddit and come upon a post, by would be comic book writer, asking how they could break into the industry. All the comments pretty much say that nobody wants to read scripts by amateur writers, and that they should hire an artist to illustrate their comic. And then maybe, hopefully somebody will hire them (the writer), when they see the finished comic. Whenever i see such posts, i cannot help but think that a website for comic book scripts (and where artists could post their attempts at drawing them) would be great. That way the writers wouldn't need to pay, for artists to draw their comics. People should also be able to rate and comment the scripts (and finished pages).
But then i remember how unpopular inking and coloring (sub)forums have been. I mean the ones where a pencilers post their art for others to ink, or the ones where artists post their line art for colorists to color. Personally I thought they were fun, but i rarely had the urge to go and ink pencils or color line art. Though it was nice seeing different artists take on coloring the same line art... So maybe my idea for comic book scripts website would fail. But i like to think it would be a huge success and would attract lot of young new talent to a stagnant comic book industry. A bit like how RoyalRoad (and similar sites) have done for novels. The current flood of isekai, litrpg and xianxia comics and animated tv shows, had their start as webnovels years earlier...
I don't know what my point is. Maybe its how after reading western made comics, for 15 years i got bored of them. Then after another 10 to 15 years of reading manga i got bored of it too. I got tired of reading traditionally published fantasy and scifi novels after reading them 20 years. Then in 2012 i found out about translated webnovels (and lightnovels), and i got addicted to them. They were so different from anything i had read before. It didn't take long before i stopped reading japanese (web/light)novels. The writing style in them is awful and the main characters are often hypocritical assholes. I still read translated Chinese and Korean webnovels (Chines authors are insane, in how fast they write! I consider them like the fast food of trashy novels). But the best webnovels that i have read are originally English language ones. I think its exciting to read stories, by largely amateur writers, who dont write stories like you are "supposed" to do. And im not the only one, i just listened to podcast interview where one such webnovel writer, mentioned how he makes about $40,000 a month, on Patreon for the story he posts free on RoyalRoad (patreon readers often get to read 20- 50 chapters ahead)... I don't expect my idea for script website to make that kinda money (or get so many readers) as RoyalRoad does. But maybe it could enlarge the talent pool of would be artists and writers? And with a bigger talent pool, better artists and writers would make it. And the better (or more unique) writers and artists there are the more people will read comics... Okay maybe its not about the quality, but about fresh and interesting ideas. Like i said, i got bored of reading traditionally published fantasy and scifi stories. But im still heavily addicted to reading webnovels, after reading them for now 12 years. And that's despite webnovels being objectively worse written, than traditionally published novels. Vast majority of webnovels are crap, but some are great and wildly different from anything you would see in traditional scifi and fantasy.
Maybe im wrong, I havent read comics in years after all, but i think western made comics have gotten stagnant. And a big reason is that there's not a huge pool of wannabe comic creators. I think i heard on some youtube interview that in the biggest Japanese doujinshi conventions, there can be tens of thousands self published manga creators selling their wares. And that's just in a single convention. The talent pool must be massive in Japan! Also many doujinshi artists earn way more than all, but the most popular traditionally published manga artists. But all of that is just in Japan. Its sad that there's nothing equivalent in the West. I'm just thinking how exciting western comic scene would be, if we had comic book conventions with tens of thousands of artists and writers. Or (online) comic book creator communities with hundreds of thousands (or a few million!) amateur comic creators making comics. The variety of stories and cool art would be amazing!
But thats not gonna happen as long as newbie writers, need to pay artists to draw their stories. It limits the number writers that will try making comics. And then theres people like me, who are bad at writing, but could maybe(?) become comic book artists, if we only had scripts to practice on.
Sorry for rambling, I'll go now.
Thanks for the ramble, that was in depth lol. Seems like you could for sure write your own stuff, especially with your wide experience as a reader. But I like your idea. Let me do some research to see if this exists anywhere. Like you said, the are examples of this for the novel and screenwriting community, but nothing I know of for comics -- a place for writers to upload their short scripts for anyone to read for free and where artists can reach out to the artists within the platform for acceptance to illustrate. This would be perfect for amateurs to showcase their talents.
The cost of quality artwork is definitely a huge barrier for new comic writers and its the biggest reason I believe there's a lack of poc creators in mainstream comics. Finding an artist that has a low page rate and good artwork can be difficult but not impossible one way is to look for creators outside of the U.S. but that brings its own challenges, language barrier.
Yes definitely agree. Most artists I’ve worked with have been from overseas as well.
Thanks a lot for the info, sir! I wanna be one of the top 1% creators as an artist someday, haha. Right now, my team and I charge around $100-$250 per page for full-color and lettering. It's not much, but that's what you get as a pro artist starting out these days.
Yeah for sure lol. And yeah, it tough for all of us, but at least those are solid rates, fair in a sense. It’s just crazy to be involved in the entertainment industry as it’s going through such major transitions.
Good stuff. I know some top tier artists that charge north of $3k USD per cover.
Thank you. And wow...true elite top level artists.
@@indiecomicempire Yes, very top. But sometimes they'll say yes to an unknown creator if you have the $. Plenty decline such projects or simply do not respond to inquiries. Understandable.
Here's a question you might not get all the time. I'm an artist working on writing my first graphic novel. How much does it cost for a good editor and how doe you go about finding one?
I want to know this too. I have an agent, but he doesn't handle this kind of work, so I'm thinking about getting a literary agent for my graphic novel.
Some literary agents for graphic novels provide editorial services before submitting work to publishers. My experience working with publishers shows that their revision processes vary. Image Comics, known for its creator-driven approach, typically offers minimal revisions, leaving the job with the creators. In contrast, publishers like Dark Horse Comics tend to be more involved in the revision process.
I edit comic books lol I just added a services page to show my rates. I’m actually on the lower end. You can find freelance editors online by searching “freelance comic book editors”. It’s a small group, and most of them charge a lot because they work for big book publishers. But also, you can look at the credits page for comic books you like, and you’ll see someone credited as an editor, and if they’re on social media you can reach out to them and ask if they do freelance work.
@@Amelia_PC yeah your correct. Think of a comic editor like a talent “manager” in film/tv or a producer and your publisher as a film studio. Some publishers provide an editor for you, to oversee production. But even if you have an editor from the publisher, you can still hire a freelance editor too, and that person can often act as the liaison between you and the publisher, taking some of the “business/marketing” load off of you “the talent”. You can search freelance editors online, or you can reach out to editors credited in books you like. I also edit comics, and I’m fairly cheap because I’m also fairly new to it. My rates are on the services page of my website www.hovencrow.com
@@indiecomicempire Thanks for the info Max! I might just take you up on that after I create a script from my outline and finish up some of the designs.
@@indiecomicempire oh, good to know! I'll bookmark your website right now :)
120 for a days work isn’t a lot of money though. If you live in North America you need to be making 300 a day to afford t the cost of living
I feel you there. It’s pretty much just all around tough. To profit from a comic book or graphic novel you have to sell a lot of copies (which is unpredictable and hard to do), sell them at 5 bucks or more (which upsets the readers), or pay artists less. Naturally American artists move into games and film, because they pay more, and then eventually move into corporate and commercial work, because they pay even more than traditional film. And comics just remain the lowest of the low, a grind or a hobby for the readers and creators.