comic/graphic novel

[cweeze]

I'm looking to do a marketing piece that is a 4 page comic/graphic novel style, black and white. I'm a novice to the art world so I'm trying to see how much an artist would charge for this. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

[peter_john]

cweeze, this table might help:


This is from the Graphic Artist's Guild Pricing Handbook and Ethical Guidelines, 11th edition (ISBN 0-932102-12-3). Under Cartoon Prices and Trade Customs, page 215:
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COMPARATIVE PAGE RATES FOR COMIC BOOK ART
Original Publication

Writers (plot and script): $75-120
Painted Art: $300-$400
Pencil Art: $100-$250
Ink Art: $75-$200
Lettering: $40-$50
Coloring Art: $100-$150

That's from an older thread about comic book rates (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1231856#post1231856). The discussion there might be helpful as well. Good luck!

[adriyasa]

im interested, pls see my gallery.
http://hendraadriyasa.deviantart.com/gallery/

[magnut]

cweeze,

peter_john is giving you very good advice. Here's more:

- Especially if you're looking to create a marketing piece, you'll likely have to pay top dollar. This is assuming that you want to hire an actual professional, not just someone who's a newbie. If this is a serious project that you hopefully will make money from one day (like if you were selling your ideas as an entertainment property), then you don't want to fuck around with amateurs.

- When you hire someone, make sure you give them EXACTING DIRECTION. You will lose your artist or get progressively worse quality when you change your mind every other day, or when you simply forget to tell your artist you need something, only to remember it after the artist has done his job. Make sure you give good direction, and require that they give you what is sometimes called 'tight breakdowns' (http://www.bobmcleod.com/detecb.gif is an example), which you can approve their proportions and composition. After that is approved, require they give you what is called 'full pencils' (http://underdog.dreamcomics.com/images/pencils_superman_208.jpg is a good example). Here's a great example of Neal Adams' thumbnail compositions, compared to his finished artwork at http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/315/pages60-61.gif.

- LETTERING: HIRE SOMEONE ESTABLISHED! http://blambot.com/ is a good place to go. Same for http://comicraft.com/.

Make sure any and all lettering/display lettering/logos are part of the composition from the very beginning!! Otherwise you will end up having to change the composition, WHICH IS A WHOLE SEPARATE BILLING CHARGE, BECAUSE IT WILL THEN BE A WHOLE NEW DRAWING! This is where you must take responsibility for how you organize your project. Don't waste anyone's time by making them redo things unnecessarily.

- For God's sake, get a good inker! Don't assume that the penciler can do a competent job inking himself, unless you're hiring a very well-established penciler/inker such as Klaus Janson, George Perez or Arthur Adams! This is the stage at which you can really fuck up your project.

This all assumes you want to do something of professional quality. If you are going to gripe about the price, then simply admit that you're okay with the idea of your project looking amateurish. But I'm sure you're really wanting to create a kick-ass professional project!

- You will not get to keep the artwork. If you wish to own the original artwork, then THAT IS A SEPARATE NEGOTIATION. Even though the drawings might be of characters that you created, you are only paying for the rights to use the images the artist is drawing.

- If the artist is going to be the first person to visually develop the look of your characters, THAT ARTIST MUST BE PAID AN ADDITIONAL RATE AS A 'BUY OUT'. Meaning that it's a separate negotiation from drawing the artwork, and creating the visual look of the characters. When the artist is the first to create the visual look of the characters, then THE ARTIST OWNS PART OF YOUR CREATION, unless or until you negotiate this 'buyout rate', which says that you'll pay an extra fee to (again I say) BUY OUT the artist, purchasing all rights to the characters that the artist created in perpetuity (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?db=dictionary&q=perpetuity). This way you will fully own your property, one hundred percent.

Complicated, huh?

Good luck!