#comic publishing

[colleendoran]

Very Bad Publishers Part II

Sometimes you’re the pioneer and sometimes you’re the canary in the coal mine.

My Substack, now running a FREE series chronicling publishing misadventures, with advice for now because nothing has changed at all.

[realiveolive]

I kinda hate Silver Sprocket Comics as a company. We know who’s in charge but we don’t know who actually prints and binds the books, or even what country they’re in (website just says the comics are printed “overseas.” No one thinks that’s shady?!) I know it’s bad for my career as a comic artist to shit talk a publisher but I don’t want to be associated with them, especially when they perform this weird infantile progressivism (always felt weird about the ACAB ass tattoo on their logo, none of their comics are particularly anti-establishment and the abolitionist movement is not theirs to claim). I suspect we’ll hear about unfair labor practices in the future, and they’ll give a lukewarm apology, deny they knew anything about it (they probably don’t!), people will forget the whole thing, they’ll run out of money, get bought out by a bigger company without anyone noticing and still maintain their alternative/indie reputation. Tale as old as independent businesses themselves. No hate to the cartoonists they publish, get that money queens!👑

[colleendoran]

VERY BAD PUBLISHERS Part III, now FREE TO READ on my Substack.

[colleendoran]

Sorry about the picture (pretend it's a podcast,) but this has video solid information about being a pro in the comics business. I answer the Question "How do you Choose Projects?" in depth.

Colleen Doran is the artist of THE CLOCK from Top/Cow/Image Comics written by Matt Hawkins, Bram Stoker Award nominee SNOW GLASS APPLES written by Neil Gaiman at Dark Horse Comics, and the epic space opera drama A DISTANT SOIL.

Colleen answers the question "How do you determine which projects to work on?"

https://www.patreon.com/ColleenDoran http://www.colleendoran.com/

[ebookporn]

A survivor's guide to being a working comic book creator

Living and dying in four-color time: the ballad of the working comic creator

 by Joseph Illidge, comics writer, comics editor, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund board member, and owner of a movie production company.

The issues of being a creator of comic book issues

Honestly, though… do projects from top 10 publishers provide the income needed for a comfortable life? How many comic book pages do YOU need to produce to make enough money to cover the dollar amount of your monthly expenses?

Whatever the number is also has to take into account the deductions for your annual taxes.

Do you live in the East, West, or middle of The United States?

Do you live somewhere in the world where the U.S. dollar is stronger than your national dollar? If so, any given publisher knows they can pay you less than they would for an American counterpart… unless you have a really good agent. If you’re a U.S. creator, publishers can use the pay structures for non-U.S. creators against you when it comes to negotiating rates.

Do you have dependents? Are you saving up for your child’s college education? Do you own a house, which is your own personal money pit?

Are you saving money on a regular basis? Maybe…but how many hours a day do you have to work for it? The average is 10 hours a day, but is that really enough…or do you have to push it to 15 hours a day?

Is that a five-day work week? Unlikely. So six days a week. Maybe seven.

That’s anywhere from 60 hours to 105 hours per week. Which means you’re going from working 50% more hours than the average 9-to-5’er to approaching burnout levels. But burnout is inconvenient. You don’t have the time to get sick and take a few days off to recover.

Do you have health insurance? Good health insurance? Or is it an expense you can’t take on, hoping against hope you never get into an accident or have a need for regular medication?

READ MORE

This is an excellent article, first in a series from Joe Illidge, covering models of working in comic books, issues of being a creatore, and a breakdown of pager rates. Informative and well worth the read if you are at all thinking of a career in comics. ~eP

[zieeeej]

Yes, some original comic work of mine got published! Yay. It might only be four pages in this large comic anthology 9e Kunst set up but I love it. I decided to make something completely new for this and wanted to experiment with some materials to make it exciting. I am very thankful for this opportunity and when I saw a couple of these in a comic book store me and my inner child where screaming! This fuelled my drive for getting published even more. I recommend everyone to buy this beauty. It’s quality work from new artists that you get the chance to find. You can buy it in comic shops or from me! (I get a profit, yay!) Just send me a message if you’re interested.

[theplanetsdreamer]

What you need to know before buying E.T. Girl Volume 1! (Book Preview, R...