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Comic strips reigned supreme back in the 1930s. The Sunday sections were printed much larger than they are today and were a thing of beauty to behold.
Prince Valiant 1/29/1939 by Hal Foster
Adventure strips thrived during these years as there was room to tell a story. To see how much things have changed, just compare these two Sunday pages below from 1934 and 2002.
On the left – Flash Gordon 2/25/1934 by Alex Raymond. On the right – Flas
Jump ahead from 2002 to now and the comic strip Sunday pages have regrettably shrunken even smaller.
Here’s an example of my hometown paper the Star Tribune (my hand shown on the bottom left for scale). Unless you have a jewelers loupe you’re at a loss to see – much less read – what’s going on.
Here’s a comic page artist Terry Beatty (Ms. Tree, Rex Morgan M.D.) wrote and drew for Big Funny back in 2009 that really drives the point home.
Big Funny – Terry Beatty
Granted all is not doom and gloom – whereas comic strips in the newspaper may be on life support, we’re in a golden age as far as comic strip collections that are being published. Check out the Library of American Comics and Fantagraphics to name just a few.
I also feel like comic strips are being given a renewed life and readership online as fans of the medium now have the ability to binge weeks worth at a time. The big two comic strip sites being King Feature’s Comics Kingdom and AMU’s GoComics.
As times changes, so does the comics biz. Another example of this is that even though comic book sales have shrunk over the years, graphic novels have increased in popularity.
From an article in Publishers Weekly; “Over the past five years, the North American graphic novel market has welcomed a wave of new readers and grown from about $805 million in sales in 2012 to more than $1 billion in 2017.”
From the Comics Beat; “Overall, graphic novel sales in 2021 were up 65% from 2020…The growth was led by adult graphic novels, up 107%, but it’s important to note that this category includes manga which led the charge, up 17 million units.”
To sum up…
In the early 1900s onwards comic strips reigned supreme. By the 1940s comic books had taken off. In the 1960s indie comics/undergrounds entered the fray. In the 1980s self-published/alternative comics joined in at the same time graphic novels were just getting their sea legs. In the 1990s online content joined the mix. And now in the 21st century graphic novels and manga have taken flight.
And that’s not to say comic strips and comic books have been replaced and have gone away, it’s just that they aren’t the only game in town anymore.
Cartoons, comics, graphic novels – whatever you want to call it – the packaging keeps changing, but sequential art is just as popular now as it’s ever been. And as long as the stories are strong and the artwork delivers, the art form will continue to have an audience.
And that’s my two cents. See you in the funny papers…
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.
1 Comic News Blogs 2. Contracts 3. Resources/Articles 4. Print On Demand Publishers 5. Self-Publishing Resource Articles 6. Convention Resources 7. Cartooning Schools and Organizations 8. Financial Aid
I started these posts after teaching Comic Art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Here’s the biggest thing I learned teaching there.
…and a special thanks to Professor Barb Schulz, head of the department, for giving me that opportunity.
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