looking for webcomic artist

[DashelPrime]

Reposted from DeviantArt:

For a little while now I have been kicking around the idea of starting an animated web comic with voice overs as a project and I wrote the the idea on paper and it took shape. Being a gamer influenced this idea somewhat.

Now I am on a quest for an artist with the knack to handle at least the pilot issue of hopefully something that will add to his credits and body of work and put me on the map as an aspiring writer hoping to entertain everyone. The potential artist must be comfortable with creating characters that are animated via software and animated backgrounds and settings.

Ideally, this person would be willing and excited to work within the pulp, science fiction, and fantasy genres respectively. If you are a fan of Robert Howard and H.P. Lovecraft you might want in on this project.

christophermais@gmail.com

As for the legalities the artist would have full range of credits showcasing in the introduction and in the end credits that he or she is main drive there in that effort. However, the legal credit of the trademarked characters and stories as developed by myself would remain my own.

The financial compensation for time and effort spent for this initial project are reasonably negotiable and to be determined fairly based on level of talent and of course available turnaround time. Based on the first presentation of this work and hopefully a successful pilot and genuine mix of good collaboration would bring the promise of more issues and more work for the artist and everyone involved.

If any of you are interested please send me a reply along with link to your gallery or website showcasing your work. I thank you for your polite consideration folks!!!

[Robert.B]

1. Is this a paying job
2. If so whats the estimated budget?
3. Are you looking for an illustrator or a 2d animator/Comic artist?

[Homeros]

Reposted from DeviantArt:

Now I am on a quest for an artist with the knack to handle at least the pilot issue of hopefully something that will add to his credits and body of work and put me on the map as an aspiring writer hoping to entertain everyone.

This may sounds like you want an artist to work for credit only. If so, please elaborate so your post can be moved to the non-paying projects.



As for the legalities the artist would have full range of credits showcasing in the introduction and in the end credits that he or she is main drive there in that effort. However, the legal credit of the trademarked characters and stories as developed by myself would remain my own.

I never reply on the job post to respect the forum rules. But I see many posts like this, usually a writer who seeks an artist. And I think it will be helpfull for everyone to shed some light on what the writer/artist roles and what co-creating a franchise means. And what is common knowledge in a professional industry.

Comics/graphic novels/animations etc. are all visual mediums and driven by artists who co-create the franchise. That means the artist and writer are both co-creators of the property. And lets be crystal clear about the fact that getting a credit is not the same as being a co-creator and have creator ownership of the prjoect. A mere title on the credits page is not enough to indicate that you have indeed creator-ownership, the legalities of the co-ownership must be agreed on with a written and signed contract on a legitimate document that is binding to both parties.

With any creator-owned work, be it with major and small publishers alike as well as self-publishing, when creating your own property the artist has the lion's share of the work, not the writer. Regardless of any type of medium and form that the work is presented (comic, graphic novel, celluloid, film, webpage etc.) the artist has 50% share in the ownership, which includes merch rights and the spin offs from the property. Example: when a movie is made based on the proprety, the (film) studio pays out a creator-fee, that sum is devided by 50% to artist and 50% to writer.
And as far as the book or any direct sales of the 'work' itself, the artist has 60% share of the (comic) sales and writer no more than 40%. That is again because the artist has the major work cut out for them, and comics/graphic novels/films and animations are not novels. They are a visual medium and its representation for the creation of the characters, environments, visual story-telling and narrative both on the intellectual and emotional level is carried through the art. it's always the artist that carries the project plus the manual labor that is involved to draw and create the art.

The 60%-40% ratio for the sales and 50-50 ownership also applies for the popular (but not favorable) back-end deals, where there is little to no upfront pay. But it always respects the co-creator rights, because most back-end deals are based on residuals and considered an intellectual investment on both the artist's behalf as well as writer's part. And in those cases the co-ownership of the property is the only attractive part of being involved in a back-end deal project. If there is no ownership for the characters and stories that an artist help create, and there is no upfront pay or a guarntee of financial compensation, there simply is no interest for any artist to be involved in that project.

That's how it works with creating your own franchise be it in any medium, especially comics.

However, if either one of the co-creators want to retain all the franchise RIGHTS for themselves without sharing it with the other co-creator, in this case the writer needs to pay off the artist extra in order to buy off all the rights to everything that is created (usually this is a big sum of money starting at a high 4-digit range, and it can easily go up from there!).

Just to be clear, the explained above is an indication of the professional industry-standard and doesn't aply to amateur/hobby work. Also it does not apply to work that is already been created by a third party.

Example: Spiderman is created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, if a new artist is going to work on spiderman the publisher doesn't pay the new artist as a co-creator but as "work for hire". Work for hire has many rules and ussualy is a well payed job with proper financial compensation to the artist for all the created material as well as full credit to the work. It also involves a "completion agreement" and "termination agreement". Copletion agreement: The publisher pays the artist 50% of the final agreed fee UP-FRONT. Termination agreement: means even if the publisher doesn't like the work that is being made by the artist, the publisher has the right to terminate the work before it is completed past the 40%, and still pay the artist 75% of the agreed final fee (minus the 50% that was already paid at up front).

Again this is an indication of the professional industry. Doing work for only credit is for hobby or student-projects.

I hope my post has helped you with knowing a bit more about how to make deals regarding creating your own franchise. And it helped all the artist/creators here who might want to know more about their rights.
Perhaps it is also helpfull to have this info on the forum rules which are general industry standards, for everyone to see and help with the jobs out there and securing a correct deal.

[DashelPrime]

This may sounds like you want an artist to work for credit only. If so, please elaborate so your post can be moved to the non-paying projects.




I never reply on the job post to respect the forum rules. But I see many posts like this, usually a writer who seeks an artist. And I think it will be helpfull for everyone to shed some light on what the writer/artist roles and what co-creating a franchise means. And what is common knowledge in a professional industry.

Comics/graphic novels/animations etc. are all visual mediums and driven by artists who co-create the franchise. That means the artist and writer are both co-creators of the property. And lets be crystal clear about the fact that getting a credit is not the same as being a co-creator and have creator ownership of the prjoect. A mere title on the credits page is not enough to indicate that you have indeed creator-ownership, the legalities of the co-ownership must be agreed on with a written and signed contract on a legitimate document that is binding to both parties.

With any creator-owned work, be it with major and small publishers alike as well as self-publishing, when creating your own property the artist has the lion's share of the work, not the writer. Regardless of any type of medium and form that the work is presented (comic, graphic novel, celluloid, film, webpage etc.) the artist has 50% share in the ownership, which includes merch rights and the spin offs from the property. Example: when a movie is made based on the proprety, the (film) studio pays out a creator-fee, that sum is devided by 50% to artist and 50% to writer.
And as far as the book or any direct sales of the 'work' itself, the artist has 60% share of the (comic) sales and writer no more than 40%. That is again because the artist has the major work cut out for them, and comics/graphic novels/films and animations are not novels. They are a visual medium and its representation for the creation of the characters, environments, visual story-telling and narrative both on the intellectual and emotional level is carried through the art. it's always the artist that carries the project plus the manual labor that is involved to draw and create the art.

The 60%-40% ratio for the sales and 50-50 ownership also applies for the popular (but not favorable) back-end deals, where there is little to no upfront pay. But it always respects the co-creator rights, because most back-end deals are based on residuals and considered an intellectual investment on both the artist's behalf as well as writer's part. And in those cases the co-ownership of the property is the only attractive part of being involved in a back-end deal project. If there is no ownership for the characters and stories that an artist help create, and there is no upfront pay or a guarntee of financial compensation, there simply is no interest for any artist to be involved in that project.

That's how it works with creating your own franchise be it in any medium, especially comics.

However, if either one of the co-creators want to retain all the franchise RIGHTS for themselves without sharing it with the other co-creator, in this case the writer needs to pay off the artist extra in order to buy off all the rights to everything that is created (usually this is a big sum of money starting at a high 4-digit range, and it can easily go up from there!).

Just to be clear, the explained above is an indication of the professional industry-standard and doesn't aply to amateur/hobby work. Also it does not apply to work that is already been created by a third party.

Example: Spiderman is created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, if a new artist is going to work on spiderman the publisher doesn't pay the new artist as a co-creator but as "work for hire". Work for hire has many rules and ussualy is a well payed job with proper financial compensation to the artist for all the created material as well as full credit to the work. It also involves a "completion agreement" and "termination agreement". Copletion agreement: The publisher pays the artist 50% of the final agreed fee UP-FRONT. Termination agreement: means even if the publisher doesn't like the work that is being made by the artist, the publisher has the right to terminate the work before it is completed past the 40%, and still pay the artist 75% of the agreed final fee (minus the 50% that was already paid at up front).

Again this is an indication of the professional industry. Doing work for only credit is for hobby or student-projects.

I hope my post has helped you with knowing a bit more about how to make deals regarding creating your own franchise. And it helped all the artist/creators here who might want to know more about their rights.
Perhaps it is also helpfull to have this info on the forum rules which are general industry standards, for everyone to see and help with the jobs out there and securing a correct deal.


Thank you for the correction this is/was most helpful.

[DashelPrime]

1. Is this a paying job
2. If so whats the estimated budget?
3. Are you looking for an illustrator or a 2d animator/Comic artist?

This would be a paying job. Out of discretion I would rather not and will not disclose the total sum of money driving this project on a public forum message board . If you wish to inquire out of curiousity or genuine interest about rates of payment and money transactions such would be done via my e-mail which you are free to contact me at christophermais@gmail.com. But I should specify that this is a web comic development and most of the expense would be out of pocket from myself to see these committments through to the end. This is why I prefaced this under the term "negotiable". If you have a rate you believe you are worth based on your talents that's one thing. I ' be willing to pay it but then the onus would be on the artist for quality and dellivery on a prompt schedule. The higher the pay the less wiggle room for delays or poor quality art.