Pricing a comic book project. [Archive]

pconsidine

August 23rd, 2004, 03:59 PM

Hey gang.

I'm currently working at an ad agency and one of our clients is looking to produce a (as of now) monthly comic book for their customers. I'm not sure how I would go about auditioning artists for this project and how such a project would be priced out (per page or on a project basis). They're looking for something very cartoony (in the vein of Underdog or Bullwinkle).

If anyone has any input, I'd love to hear it. Reply to this thread and I'll pick it up here.

Thanks very much.

Pete

BDPatton

August 23rd, 2004, 06:51 PM

Having worked on several "corporate" promotional comic books, it really depends on the artist and how much he/she/they have to do. I have done two already where I just pencilled (for Hasbro Toys and Majesco Games) and in the middle of doing one where I am pencilling, inking, coloring, and lettering one for another client.

More experience = higher price. More work=higher price.

Same with page count and all sorts of other things. Also, if you want to purchase the original art, that usually increases the price as well.

If you'd like to know more about me and examples of what I have done, just email me and I can forward you some samples. I cannot post what I have done online, but can send you some snippets of work to give you an idea of what you will need and what it might cost.

ani10

August 23rd, 2004, 11:55 PM

Hi, I´ve worked in similar projects before for advertising (2 comic books, some comic strips,sets of ilustrations and several items for merchandising). To price this kind of work I usually consider the following:

Number of pages, ammount of details, and, if Im working with all new characters or a preexisting set.
The stages involved, meaning: writing, penciling, inking and coloring (I usually do it all by myself)
The purpouse of the campaign, meaning, if I only get the "brief" of the product, or if there is an storyline for me to follow.

Feel free to e-mail me for samples (tentenx2@hotmail.com) , and please, include the data mentioned above to give you the exact ammount of munny needed for the project.

Bye

Ana

AtomicPop

August 24th, 2004, 11:37 AM

An email has been sent your way.
We do full book production including:
writing
pencils
inks
colors
lettering
logo design
prepress

web design and/or graphics for your project (if needed)

Blake Wilkie
Art Director
ATOMIC POP-ART
www.atomicpopart.com

Leopoldo

August 25th, 2004, 04:26 AM

Hi,

I'm not interested in the job but have some price info for you.

Pricing is based on -

Manhours and royalty.

Basically it's a one time fee (for the actual job) and a royalty fee (for the copyrights) based on print run size and it's geographical distribution.

The more countries the product is sold in the more money everyone involved should be making.

The one time fee is usually 50% of the total royalty of the print run, paided in advance and deducted from the royalty of the printrun.

Royalty fee's range from 30% to 50% of the publisher price to the stores.

The rest of the royalty is paid out monthly based on the monthly sales figures between the publisher and stores.

If the comic or book does well then a new print run is ordered and a new 50% of the royalty is paid to the artists and the writers. and so on.

Artist have the legal right to see the invoices from your printer to be sure that you don't lie to them about the print size run.

Example - Art for a well known book in one country. Print run 300 000 copies.
Publishers price to the stores 10 USD.
Artist and writers royalty 50% = 1 500 000 USD.
The writers and artists split this royalty. Usually the writer and artist split is 50/50 but if it's more a text book or more pictures (as in comics) then the either one gets a little more of the royalty.

Your local art directors and illustrators guild/association should have a minimum recommendation for the rates in your country.

These minimum recommendations represent the rates for the "new" artists.
Experienced (ie faster and/or better/famous) artists will have higher rates.
Sometimes much higher and they in turn may have agents that represent them.

Good luck with your production,
Leopoldo

pconsidine

August 25th, 2004, 09:08 AM

Leo –

This is a corporate piece, not something that will be sold on newsstands. Should royalty concerns still be a factor? At this point, it's only going to be a regional thing, distributed in a small section of North America. Of course, there's the possibility that it could go international, since the client is a global company, but I'd highly doubt that it would translate across cultures well enough.

Thanks for the input guys.

Leopoldo

August 25th, 2004, 10:33 AM

Well, if you don't want to handle royalty issues then I recommend that you offer a higher fee up front, and make that clear from the beginning. A flat fee for the production. I know some artists will do that kind of thing but it's not something I recommend as an artist.

Royalties were created to simulate artistic professions.

Perhaps paying a flat production fee for a specific print run and geographical spread is a good solution. If your client then later wants to go wider with the magazine they can buy the right for any other print run and more copyrights for other regions.

This way they save money in the beginning by limiting their distribution and risks.

Anyways, the time it takes to draw it most be covered of course and I draw a full color page in 2 days (check my portfolio www.fabpics.com for a sample, click printed, page 7) And I charge 8571 USD per month (excl. VAT) so from there you can figure it out.

48 pages takes about 5 months from pencils to full color. That would be 42.857 USD as a flat fee.

There are people out there that are cheaper and more expencive. This is only an example and includes a very limited copyright (example. comic 100.000 copies to be sold only in Seattle during 2005) and no royalty.

Everything is of course negotionaable but that's why we have the illustrator's guilds and unions to help us out with this kind of thing. It's been done before.

Hoped that helped,
Leo

OCELOTL

August 25th, 2004, 07:30 PM

Leopoldo, you are waaaaaaay off base here. I've worked for Marvel and Image to name a few, and your prices of about $893 per page are ridiculous if you're an artist with no recognizable name.
The average pencilling rates at Marvel And Dc are about
$100-$200 per pencilled page
$75-$150 for inks
$75-$150 for colors. And these top rates are for people who are ESTABLISHED in the industry. And the part where you, the artist are limiting the print run to 100,000 copies is insane. You are being contracted as a "work-for-hire" production artist. You have no say how many can be printed and where they can be printed as they are not your property to say what can be done.
Oh, and there are no unions in the comics business, that's why so much work has been farmed out to places like Brasil.

Pete, go to places like digitalwebbing.com for more realistic input about this sort of subject or dave-co.com/gutterzombie. Real pros hang out there and can answer your questions more realisticly.

Gabe

Leopoldo

August 26th, 2004, 01:09 AM

OCELOTL - Manners, manners, manners :)

Plz use some manners. You don't know me and even if you did I'd be offened by the tone of voice you use in your previous post. >:{

Not that you care.

If you have other figures or point of view to help out pconsidine please do it without slandering me or my input by implying that I would be unprofessional.

From where I'm standing you're the one dumping the rates, not in the union, and making it harder for the rest of us to make a decent living.

I also highly recommend that you do join a union. If there isn't any in your region then look up the closest one to you. Check with the closest illustrators association. That such a large industry like the comics business in the US doesn't have representation is not good for any of us except the companies that require our services.

pconsidine - Like I said, some will be more expencive and some cheaper.
Obvisously Marvel run with the cheaper cats than me and that's maybe why I'm not at Marvel :(

Anyways, good luck with your production.
Leopoldo, the unprofessional who doesn't know Jack.

AtomicPop

August 26th, 2004, 01:19 AM

We can and have done full production on a color book, VERY good quality 22 pages from pencils to prepress for around $3000.

We are an artists representative with over 130 very capable professionals ready and available.

Our artists have credits with Marvel, DC, Image, Wizards of the Coast, Disney, Simon and Schuster to just name a few.

Blake Wilkie
Art Director
Atomic Pop-Art
www.atomicpopart.com

pconsidine

August 26th, 2004, 08:22 AM

For what it's worth, Leo, if you intend to operate in the U.S., it might be worth giving Ocelotl an ear (if you can forgive his tone). Looking at your samples, I can see how some of your projects might deserve the level of pricing you're talking about, but I'd have to say your page rate page is about 4x the industry average that I've come up with.

I've also done some legal research since my last post and for a project of this nature, the artist would hold no copyrights and therefore would not be entitled to any royalties (I've done some legal research since my last post). To make a better analogy, this project would be more like creating a corporate brochure than typical publishing.

Thanks guys. I think I've gotten what I need. I'll keep all the replies here on file, should they decide to go ahead with this project.

Thanks again.

pconsidine

April 4th, 2005, 01:20 PM

Well, apparently this project has gained some steam again. If anyone who was interested in this would drop be a quick e-mail letting me know if they're still interested, I'll reply with the current specs.

pconsidine AT sigad DOT net.

Thanks gang.

Mav

April 16th, 2005, 02:20 AM

AtomicPop, do you guys do sample pages? I'd be curious to see what you do with our characters, and we're looking to put together a promo book as well.

giantsquidstudio

April 16th, 2005, 07:03 AM

Hello. I've worked in both the comic book and advertising business.

I've penciled for Marvel, Malibu and Heroic Publishing. I have a friend currently penciling for Marvel and here's what I can offer in terms of numbers:

Artists get paid a page rate, which can range from $125-$180 (at my level). Big names like Jim Lee get MUCH higher rates. Royalties are part of the comic book business, but would NOT apply to the advertising business.

Generally speaking, comic book art produced for the ad business is priced like illustration work and not the comic industry's page rate. It's interesting, but even though the work is the same, it's use alters the pricing. A good example is the difference between storyboards and animatics. I drew a storyboard which was eventually made into an animatic. This required additional frames of art. Although I had already charged my storyboard rate for the original board, I was told to charge almost double for the new frames because they were going to be used as an animatic. Weird, but that's how it is.

I find that looking up rates in the Graphic Artist's Guild Pricing & Ethics Guide is a big help.

I'd be happy to answer any more questions you might have.

Good luck.

Sgt. Rock

April 16th, 2005, 07:30 AM

Generally speaking, comic book art produced for the ad business is priced like illustration work and not the comic industry's page rate. Exactly. Well said, GSS.

giantsquidstudio

April 23rd, 2005, 06:50 PM

Thx Sarge.

:)

MangaCan

April 25th, 2005, 11:36 PM

Actual, I am also hunting for comic book prices (B&W manga, and colour Covers) and I'm also having a hard time determining the artist cost for a book. I know there are many levels/types of artistic talent out there.

What I am looking for, is an estimate of how much (per page) a project would cost, and a rought estimate of the time aswell. As I have to budget it into my costs.

You can email me at mangacan@hotmail.com with your estimates, I won't be actively looking for artists untill I finish the script, but I would like some figures as too the lead-time for the project, (How many months will take to draw) and who might be interested in an independant work.

Graeme

starstar

May 12th, 2005, 12:57 PM

Hey Pete
Local 839, the Animator's Guild, in North Hollywood has access to many talented arts familiar with the style you want.

camilografix

May 24th, 2005, 10:49 PM

Hey guys ive been doing some storyboards here and there and i was wondering how much should i charge a day, per frame etc. can anyone help?

bumperhead

June 2nd, 2005, 03:07 AM

Hi pcon. I've met some serious, enthuastic, and most of all AFFORDABLE cartoonists and writers at the following site:
Cult Comics (http://www.studio.zcultfm.com/e107/news.php)
I'm obviously on the site myself. I attended The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and I've recently done some storyboards for an upcoming feature film. (Sorry, can't post those as I don't own the rights, but I can certainly email the storyboards to you upon request.) I also have a strip that is currently unpublished which I can email. "So what's online," you ask? Here are some links to my cartoon art: art link 1 (http://www.studio.zcultfm.com/e107/e107_plugins/kig_menu/index.php?view=album&albumId=26)
art link 2 (http://www.studio.zcultfm.com/e107/e107_plugins/kig_menu/index.php?view=album&albumId=22)
art link 3 (http://www.studio.zcultfm.com/e107/e107_plugins/kig_menu/index.php?view=album&albumId=21)
I've also got a writing sample: writing sample (http://www.studio.zcultfm.com/eFiction/viewstory.php?sid=10)
And here's the ICON script I'm currently illustrating: ICON Scripts (http://www.studio.zcultfm.com/eFiction/viewstory.php?sid=28)
Thank you for your consideration.
bumperhead

Dstudio

June 27th, 2005, 11:14 PM

People do live in other parts of the world other than the US, different economies = different rates.

Are there any peeps with some average industry pricing for new Zealand?

giantsquidstudio

June 27th, 2005, 11:27 PM

Hey guys ive been doing some storyboards here and there and i was wondering how much should i charge a day, per frame etc. can anyone help?

I can help. I've been a storyboard artist for over 12 years (in advertising) and I have a friend who has done films. It's all relative.

The movie industry pays by the week, say $2,000 a week. BUT! In that week you are required to do as many frames and changes as the director requires. While in advertising you mostly get paid by the hour or frame. You will (theoretically) get paid for each and every single drawing you do. The rates are based on your ability. I charge anywhere from $100-150 per hour or $65-$250 per frame depending on the size, complexity and deadline.

Advertising pays more, but film is more fun.

J.STOJ

June 27th, 2005, 11:39 PM

I'm not sure if you're looking to view art or portfolios. If not, no biggie.

If you have a chance, please check out my online portfolio at

www.jasonstojkov.com

let me know if I can be of any kind of service

giantsquidstudio

June 28th, 2005, 12:31 AM

terren3i

July 11th, 2005, 05:13 AM

hi, I'm a manga artist/graphic illustrator, if anyone finds my style any useful, u can email me for a request. I go very easy on the rate. :)

http://yerona.com/terren3i

FinbarReilly

July 27th, 2005, 08:26 PM

1) Don't forget the writer. Everyone looks at the art, and forgets that someone had to write the script for it.

2)
Leopoldo, the unprofessional who doesn't know Jack.

This pretty much sums it up. 48 pages in 5 months is unrealistic; A comic book artist that can't do at 22 pages of art a month is one that won't last. Thus, you're looking at 110 pages in five months, minimum.

FR

giantsquidstudio

July 27th, 2005, 08:45 PM

1) Don't forget the writer. Everyone looks at the art, and forgets that someone had to write the script for it.

2)

This pretty much sums it up. 48 pages in 5 months is unrealistic; A comic book artist that can't do at 22 pages of art a month is one that won't last. Thus, you're looking at 110 pages in five months, minimum.

FR

Agreed. In the US, you need to pump out 22 pages a month...if you want to do the following 22 pages, and so on and so on...

bumperhead

August 3rd, 2005, 01:03 AM

giantsquidstudio

August 3rd, 2005, 04:49 AM

I checked out your art...just beautiful. I really love the color stuff. I probably own some of it. Since you're on a Mac, (I'm assuming), I wonder what you think of this program, Comic Life (http://plasq.com/)? I saw it on G4tv and it looked promising...

Anywho,
Peace ;)

Thanks Bumperhead;

And YES! I have Comic Life, it is a riot. I've made a few chapters of a strip starring friends and family. Great program. Nothing you couldn't do in Photoshop, but Comic Life is much faster and it's laid out well. I put together a page in about 10 minutes.

Cheers

FinbarReilly

August 3rd, 2005, 07:33 PM

Agreed. In the US, you need to pump out 22 pages a month...if you want to do the following 22 pages, and so on and so on...

Sorry, I was under the impression that the person was trying to make a living at this. From that perspective, you need to be able to put at least one issue every two months; any longer and the audience shrinks bad enough that the comic is paying for itself (barely).

On theother hand, if this is just a hobby, then take as long as you want...

Note: I'm not including the coloring or inking, just the raw artwork...

FR