WANTED: Artist for Comic Book Series

TheNorthridge · 08-05-2013 11:08pm #1

Hi,

I am currently writing a comic book, with 3 issues out of a planned first run of 9 finished so far.

The comic is a noir superhero story, involving government and corporate sponsored super heroes, defending a failing city from corporate take over, supernatural entity's and other dangers.

With this project, I'm hoping to add some small, fresh ideas into both Irish comics, and superhero story's in general.

I am hoping to find an artist who can do this for cheap, or ideally free, and we can split the revenue down the road. I am a game development student myself, so money is tight, and I hope others will understand this.

If anyone wants to read a sample script, PM me, and Ill send one to you in an email

Any other questions, reply below.

Thanks,
-Sean

Ring4Fea · 19-03-2014 1:57am

There's no reason for money to be tight or for you 2 ask for free art. KS and indiegogo are international crowdfunding sites. A semi competent writer who is a less than semi competent artist got over $4000 in under 20 days on KS merely by asking for that money. It will take a competent/professional artist 8 hrs or more to merely pencil a single page for you. Are you saying you have yet to consider spending a lousy 18 minutes to create a KS page to pay that artist working for you?

Ring4Fea · 19-03-2014 3:27am

trace the lines on the smallest panel, panel 3. Every line. Because teacing takess less time than drawing and thus the exercise will give you a small indication of how much work it takes to illustrate your scripts vs. Write them.

Then tell us how long it took you, then tell us if you still feel free or underpaid art is in anyway justified, and WHY.

Fysh · 19-03-2014 1:41pm

Ring4Fea wrote: »

Then tell us how long it took you, then tell us if you still feel free or underpaid art is in anyway justified, and WHY.

To be fair:
1) The OP is almost a year old, and
2) The OP specifies that "we can split the revenue down the road.", so the deal being offered sounds more like a no-upfront-cash, co-creation deal.

Obviously that's still of no use to anyone who can't take on a project with long-tail benefits as the only reward, but it's not like the OP has tried to pimp this as a "you should be glad for the opportunity to work, it'll be great exposure for you" offer.

Ring4Fea · 19-03-2014 11:35pm

Well yes and one must bow to the moderator (deeply). Yet...

Also to be fair:

1. This thread might be that old but he started it up in a new form and phoenixed it.

2. In the other thread he uses a phrase like "business model". That means payment for product. Hoping for someone to pick up the series later is "hobbyist" not 'business model'. Once certain phrases are invoked the horse has bolted from the barn and the ship has sailed.

3. In the other thread he makes it clear he has worked in the gaming industry. Not laboured for free there. It's very highly paid with a profit margin higher than TV and feature films. And constantly looking for comics to adapt into all of the above which everyone in the gaming industry knows.

"The OP specifies that "we can split the revenue down the road.", so the deal being offered sounds more like a no-upfront-cash, co-creation deal."

4. No again. Because in the other thread he asked for experienced artists. Experience proves that one page of that can get him into a TV deal will always take at least ten times as long to pencil and ink and probably colour as it takes him to write that page. Which is why Len Wein would write more than 5 issues each for different titles per month while each book had a different art team because THEY HAD TO. It's not an even work sit at all and that can always be physically proven by having any would be writer have to sit down and trace one lousy panel, much less ink it or create it.

6. If he had not said "business model" and "experienced" in the other thread, I would grant you your points but as someone who has illustrated for big companies/writers, absolute nobodies, and most everything inbetween, I cannot concede.

I DO however greatly appreciate you offering some debate on the topic and - clearly with the best intentions and stout heart - offering to wave a flag on the play on the laddybuck's behalf.

Ring4Fea · 19-03-2014 11:41pm

Somehow point 5 evaporated. Looking at it on the other page it was supposed to be pasted from, it could be condensed to "Mike Baron was promised recognition of being a co creator of Nexus, but since nothing RE copyright or trademark was put in the paperwork he got screwed and lost ownership. "
Any artist collaborating with anyone must always demand a contract specifying their intellectual property rights or they get nothing when films or toys etc. Get Made and Get Paid.

Fysh · 20-03-2014 12:15pm

I haven't seen the other thread you mention, but I can appreciate that what was said there may have established a substantially different context for how the OP would be interpreted. And I would certainly agree that it's absolutely vital to hammer out a specific agreement in contract form right at the start of any such project. There are far too many stories about good creators trying to be helpful and getting shafted as a result to recommend otherwise.

In saying this, of course, there also seem to be a substantial number of people in comics who think that not having any notion of how to conduct proper business is either no impediment to being in comics or actually an advantage of some sort (not just creators but enough publishers and retailers to really make me wonder about the sanity of the industry overall...). So I can see that while one possibility is that the OP could set themselves up to retain most/all rights to the work they're trying to get someone else to do for free, another one is that the OP is simply naive and ill-informed about the realities of how artists work in the industry and what sort of agreements/contracts will secure a meaningful commitment from a professional who can deliver a commercially viable project.

The phrase "hope for the best but prepare for the worst" comes to mind. Also "Walk softly and carry a big stick"

Ring4Fea · 21-03-2014 7:46am

He last sentence in your post applies if exploitation involving TV film and toys by any/all companies and middlemen in the USA are off the table. But the moment there's a chance they are or could return to the table, no. There's no soft "anything" that works in any way at all in any state founded by the protests against George III and his flunkies' taxations without representation. If Sean states whether or not he guarantees the projects never go near Hollywood you can talk about siftly softly catchee monkey stuff. Until such things are stated clearly in a half sentence in one mere post, then no.

And if he's merely green as you suggest and would never be such a ****bag as to open deals up to a rort then he and his partner would have no problem posting such and msking a basic assurance right off the bat.

he Deep

WANTED: Artist for Comic Book Series

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