There are mainly two kinds of serious aspiring comic creators, writers who have a story to tell and artists who have a desire to put their skills to use making comics. Not often will you find a person who is good at both disciplines.
At the beginning of their careers and given a similar level of proficiency, it’s easier being a writer than an artist. Acceptable stories written in a usable script format are hard to find, everybody has an idea for a comic but few are able to put it down adequately in words. On the other hand, finding a passable artist isn’t as difficult. As time goes by, things turn around, once they have developed their skills to a middle of the road good quality output. A writer, because of the nature of his craft, can output a sizable amount of work on a given time frame, while an artist is far more time constrained and can only produce so much on an equivalent period. A professional writer can easily write a 22 page comic script in a couple of days, while an artist, for example a penciler, on average, will only produce one page per day, making his availability more valuable.
If you are trying to break into comics by self-publishing, your first priority should be to find the missing half of the formula, a writer or an artist, depending on your own specialty. The first step is deciding what kind of association will work best for you from two main options, you can either offer a creative and business partnership to the other person or you can opt for a work-for-hire agreement in which you retain most creative and ownership rights in exchange for an agreed payment. How much should you pay? Whatever you are able to offer and the other party is willing to accept. On forums you will find many non-sensical posts about how you shouldn’t give away your work and draw a line regarding the minimum acceptable price, all very logical if you are somewhat established on your field, but absolutely daft if you are just starting out. For a newbie writer or artist, it’s a hundred-fold more valuable to put his name on a published comic book earning next to nothing than remaining unpublished. Read the biographies of writers and artists (famous and non famous), you will be hard pressed to find one that didn’t give away his work at the start of his career just to develop his skills and to get some recognition. Flip burgers during the day and write or paint at night, but get your work published and seen by others, if you have some talent, sooner or later it will be recognized and the paying gigs will come.
Finding a working partner is not as difficult as it may sound, you have many alternatives like online forums, job websites and local comic book store meets, among many other options. The important thing is to choose wisely, someone who will complement your work and with whom you have good chemistry.
LHR
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