Being a cartoonist by the numbers… and the numbers are ugly

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

Just came across this:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/being-a-ca...bers-are-ugly/

There's also this as well:

http://johnchalos.deviantart.com/jou...ists-391906146

These are what especially jumped out at me:

There’s much more to chew on, including satisfaction with publishers, with DC?Vertigo getting high marks and Boom and Dynamite getting low marks, formats, art methods and so much more. Like I said read the whole thing, quote it, make it a part of your life.

"For creator-owned books – which, again, do not always generate page rates – that amount ranged from $17 to $100 per page, while for-hire naturally was much higher. On the low end, publishers like Boom! and IDW paid between $50 and $150, with the higher end found publishers like Marvel, DC and Dark Horse paying upwards of $300 per page, topping out at nearly $500."

I could've sworn Boom and IDW were THE publishers to work for.

[aja_christopher]

Just came across this:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/being-a-ca...bers-are-ugly/

There's also this as well:

http://johnchalos.deviantart.com/jou...ists-391906146

Thanks for the links.

Curious as to how the pay looks if you write, pencil, ink, letter and color everything yourself, though, because if you get all of those pay rates combined....

[dancj]

I guess you have to know the full picture. IIRC, Marvel and DC are quite high on the basic page rates, but your sales have to get quite high before any extra royalties kick in.

With Image (as far as I'm aware) there's no page rate and you only get paid royalties.

I'd guess with other publishers it's somewhere in-between where the page rate is low but royalties kick in sooner.

Take everything I said with a pinch of salt though as I don't know if any of what I said is actually true.

[Brandon Hanvey]

I guess you have to know the full picture. IIRC, Marvel and DC are quite high on the basic page rates, but your sales have to get quite high before any extra royalties kick in.

With Image (as far as I'm aware) there's no page rate and you only get paid royalties.

I'd guess with other publishers it's somewhere in-between where the page rate is low but royalties kick in sooner.

I believe Marvel and DC have royalty thresholds. Back in 2014, DC changed theirs to a combined print and digital sales of 60,000 from 35,0000 print sales and to 5.4% of net revenue from of roughly 2% of the cover price.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/07/...many-creators/

Image pays the creators based on sales. They pay no page rate. Plus Image only takes a flat fee. So once you make more than that fee and printing costs, you make money. It's up to the creator to pay his collaborators, if he/she has any, any rate. If your sales are low, you can pretty much make nothing. But with the flat fee and the price-per-unit, the more you sale the better the profit. Some creators like Scott Snyder, have said they make more money from decent Image sales than top selling Marvel and DC books.

http://www.jimzub.com/creator-owned-...anging-market/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/06/...n-comic-books/

Breakdown of a mid-range Image book.

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

I believe Marvel and DC have royalty thresholds. Back in 2014, DC changed theirs to a combined print and digital sales of 60,000 from 35,0000 print sales and to 5.4% of net revenue from of roughly 2% of the cover price.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/07/...many-creators/

Image pays the creators based on sales. They pay no page rate. Plus Image only takes a flat fee. So once you make more than that fee and printing costs, you make money. It's up to the creator to pay his collaborators, if he/she has any, any rate. If your sales are low, you can pretty much make nothing. But with the flat fee and the price-per-unit, the more you sale the better the profit. Some creators like Scott Snyder, have said they make more money from decent Image sales than top selling Marvel and DC books.

http://www.jimzub.com/creator-owned-...anging-market/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/06/...n-comic-books/

Breakdown of a mid-range Image book.

So...

What happens if critics agree your Image book is decent, pretty good even, but people don't purchase it as much because you're not a popular creator?

[Brandon Hanvey]

So...

What happens if critics agree your Image book is decent, pretty good even, but people don't purchase it as much because you're not a popular creator?

That's a struggle for every creator be it print, webcomic, self-published, etc. If you can't find an audience, it will be hard to make money. If you want to make a living at comics or any other creative medium, it will be a lot of work and some luck.

But in terms of creator owned comics, the Image deal is one of the better ones since you get to keep all your copyright and IP rights. You just have to hope you have some sales if you want to make money/pay your collaborators.

[Joker]

Some creators like Scott Snyder, have said they make more money from decent Image sales than top selling Marvel and DC books.

Hickman recently said he makes way more from his Image books than Marvel and Marvel pay him very well. But he had to work long and hard to get to that place, and it wasn't financially easy.

Point is, if you can hang in there and build a career, in the end Image is the best deal around by a lot.

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

That's a struggle for every creator be it print, webcomic, self-published, etc. If you can't find an audience, it will be hard to make money. If you want to make a living at comics or any other creative medium, it will be a lot of work and some luck.

But in terms of creator owned comics, the Image deal is one of the better ones since you get to keep all your copyright and IP rights. You just have to hope you have some sales if you want to make money/pay your collaborators.

So, I'm guessing this is the reason all these creators want to work on mostly Batman and Superman once they get to DC (mostly building up an audience)?

[Brandon Hanvey]

So, I'm guessing this is the reason all these creators want to work on mostly Batman and Superman once they get to DC (mostly building up an audience)?

For some, sure it is a good way to get your name out there. Though a lot of times DC and Marvel want creators with some track record/experience which can mean self-published/indie work.

Others such as Snyder, have said they like the challenge of writing a known product. To stretch their "creative muscles".