Tag: working for a living

Welcome to MATT CHATS, a weekly interview series in which I talk to a creator, consumer or seller of comics. This week I spoke with Gabriel “Gabo” Bautista, who is working on several projects...

For some reason, this post from two years ago, Creator says creator-owned comics pay as little as $31.25 a page—if you’re lucky went mildly viral on FB over the last few days. It refers...

On his Tumblr, Brian Micheal Bendis was asked about why he's stayed with Marvel when so many others have gone 100% creator owned. Seems like most of the guys from your generation (Fraction, Brubaker,...

Update: Just to clarify, this book is published by Udon Entertainment under license from Capcom. I'm told that they've done four other books under this model, all of them successful, and that the prints...

Some rambling thoughts on various aspects of making comics and making money. I alluded earlier to the sudden announcement that Nonplayer #2 by Nate Simpson was finished and would be presumably be coming out later this year. Simpson has written a much longer piece complete with a FAQ confirming that the issue will be in the May solicitations from Image; he's contacted Image about reprinting issue #1 but no response yet, and Warners—which had optioned the comic—has let their rights lapse, so it's there for the taking. And then he gets to why it took 3 1/2 years to draw the comic. It's a long answer but I'll lift a graph:

Web serialization of a comic intended for print is one of the standard models of comics production now (Although it still isn';t profitable but that's a whole other post) and here's avery insightful post by Ben Towle on the conclusion of his webcomic, Oyster War. I've been enjoying his account of local skirmishes between 19th century Chesapeake Bay oyster farmers since he started it in 2008, and much has changed in how he put the comics out in that period, including the rise of Tumblr and yet more social media. Towle offers some VERY practical advice including how running it on GoComics affected the comics, mistakes in character design and URLS (get a separate URL for your comic) and also preparing for print:

Cartoonist/multi media artist Matthew Thurber has a provocative piece called Letter to a Young Cartoonist about the use of the internet as a career approach, and he offers an idea that I had never really engaged with before but now that I've heard it, I can't forget it. The internet is "pay to play" for so many of us, even given the free tools available.

A lot of cartoonists—and many blogs, ahem—have taken to PAtreon as a means to finance the creation of comics. There are quite a few (a round up post is called for, maybe later this week) and Patreon doesn't make it clear who makes the most, the way Kickstarter does, but Jason Shiga recently hit $1000 a month for his Ignatz winning webcomic Demon. Given his analytic background, there's much of that in the post, but here's an excerpt:

Last week Denise Dorman, wife of veteran artist Dave Dorman, who is best known for his excellent painted covers, wrote a post on her blogm which is called Comic Book Wife. The post was titled: The Hidden TRUTH About Comic Book Convention Earnings: For Creators, Have Comic Book Conventions JUMPED THE SHARK? in which she pointed out that sales for her husband were off at several shows this year, and given the costs of exhibiting—hotels booths, food, travel—it made more sense to stay at home and do actual money making work.

privateeye8The good news is that a new issue of THE PRIVATE EYE is available. This webcomic by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente posits a world where an eruption in the cloud has made privacy the most valued social element. Oh did you say "torn from today's headlines"? When this started running last year it seemed a little far fetched but after the burst cloud has spilled all of our secrets, BKV looks prescient again.

I just arrived at SPX and the thrill of excitement over comics is a palpable thing, as the young and the young at heart (Saw Jules Feiffer walking around) gather to talk about what they love....

I totally stole this from the blog of Marie Javins, a long time editor (most recently at DC) and colorist and adventurer: