Cultural AD/HD

valerierosegallaher:

keiren-smith:

The Beat writes of comics creators trying to earn a living and pay their bills in this economy…and whether it’s feasible to try and make it as a comics creator these days.

A quote from the article:

“We’re more than 30 years into the “creator era” of comics, and the question isn’t where is Scott Snyder now. It’s where is Don McGregor now. What is the career path? Where is the security? Is the answer really a spouse with a day job?”

Was gonna write a long thing, but I’ll just repost this article:

Making A Living As A Comics Freelancer in 2012

“I am just curious if anybody  else is noticing the disturbing trend of so many freelancers out of work and unable to make a regular living out of the creation of comics. There used to be a “mid-list” of creators who were not the big “blockbusters” or flavors of the month but were able to regularly support themselves off of this business — this is disappearing.”

The whys and wherefores are just so vast in this situation…

This industry is just massively and profoundly changing. What was “true” even three years ago isn’t true today.

Ryan Estrada posted last week talking about his income over the last five years, although he seemed pleased how it was going for him. One thing The Beat article doesn’t mention is how comic book creators are making that money—it’s not just working on books. It just can’t be for the majority. (Faith Erin Hicks briefly allludes to how much time all her work takes her which is another subject as well).

Ty has always had this “I’m a comics guy so I’m only doing comics” idea about the biz, when people have suggested he look at storyboarding or other ways to make more income. About five or six years ago, someone came to him with the idea of teaching classes. At first, he was resistant to the idea then embraced it as a way for “a freelancer to get out of his basement and see people”. Eventually, we came to see it as a way to supplement his income, and at times, to be his primary income. 

What we’re hearing more and more from other creators (and saying ourselves) is “how do you make enough money to support yourself?”. Creators are trying to have their own creator-owned projects and see what they can do with that. People are doing webcomics or webtoons, something to get people to come to a blog where they have advertising. I know of a creator who buys up old copies of their own projects and sells the books as autographed. The tone at conventions, the tone in private emails and private IMs is “how do we make money if we’re in comics”.