Comics Economics 101: Comic Book Budgets

So, do you want to be an independent comic book publisher or release your own comic? Well, dreams definitely come true but this one may cost you a pretty penny! People rarely think of the cost to produce a comic book. Keep in mind that this is not to deter you but to inform you of a realistic budget to make your comic book dreams come true.

Firstly, comic books are an art form that is mainly done with a team, that is, unless you can or want to do it all yourself. Many people do, but that takes a LOT of time to do correctly or at least to the level that will sell enough books to make the time worth it. If not, you will need a writer, penciler, inker, colorist, etc. All of these people need to be paid depending on their personal rates. We will look at some of these rates, based on pro artists that I know and we will build our budget!

Most, if not all, of these artists are professional indie freelancers. They cater their prices to the common audience and not to big publishers like Marvel and DC, so they are much cheaper but still good. Despite this, you’ll see how quickly their prices can add up.

MAKING YOUR BUDGET

Every book needs a cover, so we'll start here. A good cover will cost you between $100 and $300 so let's choose the $200- right in the middle. Pencilers charge between $25 to $100 a page but I know a good one who charges $35 and a great inker who charges $40 per page. I'm a colorist and my rate is $45 a page and I work with a separator (who lays down the flat colors for me to do my stylized detail work) who charges $10 a page. A letterer typically charges about $25 a page.

To round out our team, we'll pay our writer, an editor and a graphic designer a measly $100 per book, each. Also remember that a typical comic is 24 pages. So let's plug in these figures and add this all up with the chart below: 

DON’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB

Yes, $4,220 for ONE 24 page issue! Remember, this is a more conservative price because many of these artists are on the cheaper side! So now, you can see why you would need additional income outside of comics to start publishing. Many people just don’t have that kind of disposable income and end up doing it themselves, which takes a LONG time. Even if you have the money to pay a team, the artists also have other jobs on their plates as well, in order to survive, and have to balance their time for your project with other deadlines, which also takes a LONG time! Either way, patience is a virtue that not many people have to complete projects in this line of work. It’s just too costly and takes too long.

I know you are thinking that you can probably cut some corners and consolidate or eliminate some of these jobs on your book. Some you can and some are more essential than you think.

Take the graphic designer for example. You may think his job is done with just the title and company logos but these days comics are sold digitally as well as print. You need a graphic designer to import/export and convert to correct file formats, make sure the page bleed is correct, the color-coding and resolution are print ready, pre-flighting, etc. Hell, even the legal info on the inside cover and all of the ads are laid out and designed by a graphic designer for each issue.

Looking at the editor, you need one for proofreading, spotting art and layout inconsistencies, plot holes, continuity errors and all around damage and quality control. Simply put- if you want a GOOD book, get an editor.

REALITY CHECK

Here’s where it gets real… again. If you plan to sell your book at the common cover price of $3.99, it’ll take you to sell more than a thousand copies just for you to break even and get that $4,220 back before you'll even see any profits. Do you think your book can sell those units? Well, it’s possible if the quality is there. That quality just may cost you $4,220.

2nd Walk-thru Process

Here is just another look at a second process I have for creating comic style art:

1. First, I sketched the character in pen. I used a Precise V5 extra fine roller ball pen. I always do this first step in pen because the lines are very fine and when I use this “doodle” style in pencil, it muddies the paper. I drew this on regular 8 ½ x 11 printer paper, since my scanner cannot accommodate paper larger than this.

At this point in the art, I'm only thinking about anatomy and structure for a powerful looking figure. It has to look solid and not bloopy. I focus only on contour and gesture lines and less about light-sourcing.

2. Now, I slap the sketch onto my light box. I throw a sheet of tracing paper on top and finalize my lines in pencil. My pencil of choice is a mechanical Zebra M-402; size 0.5mm HB lead.

My focus has now shifted to thinking about light sources. I prefer not to shade, as this muddies the drawing, so I draw the terminators of the shadows and how I want the light to hit the muscles. Terminators are the dividing edges of shadows that separate the dark areas from light areas. This is the most time consuming step. If I was just penciling, then this would be my last step. I would scan this as the finished pencils and give it to the inker. But I’ll ink it myself as an example for Step 3.

3. I pull out my trusty Pentel brush pen and just quickly fill in the blacks. I’m NOT an inker and this is just to give you an idea of how it will pretty much look. You can also do this step on the computer if you ink digitally.

4. Finally, I add in a bit of energy around the character's hands for good measure. I saved this for last to give the inker or colorist the chance to create the effect themselves in whichever medium they are most comfortable with.

Workflow Walk-thru

Let’s look at my workflow. This changes a bit depending on my materials and style, client needs, etc. but for most of my line art, this will be my preferred workflow 90% of the time. Everyone does things differently so this ISN'T how you have to work but this offers new options. I work with a light-box and I got this technique from an artist by the name of Bart Sears and used it while studying animation in college.

Here, we are looking at a character that I designed to be used for a video game.

The main reason I work this way, is that I'm also a colorist and need my lines to be very precise and open. I don't use a lot of thick, black shading to allow the contrast and lighting to be determined in the coloring stage.  Let's check out the steps:

1. First, I start off with a doodle in my 4x6 Aquabee sketchbook, using my Pilot Precise V5 pen. The lines are unfinished, to focus on the pose. The idea is to be quick and such a small drawing in a small book adds to that. From here, I scan it and blow it up in Photoshop to print on regular 8.5x11 paper. Once printed, I trace the sketch on my light-box in step 2.

2. This breakdown step is usually done in pen- my Pilot Precise V5, but since the character's design was still unclear to me at this point, I used my Zebra M-402 pencil. I was still unsure about how I wanted him to look, so I would erase bits and start again, experimenting with different designs until I stumbled upon something I liked. Again, had I known the character's design beforehand, this step would have been done in pen.

3. Once I found a design I liked for the character, I slapped it on the light-box again with a new sheet of paper on top and ink my final lines. I would correct a few more mistakes and add more details. For this step, I use my Pigma Micron pens.

The PROS and CONS of this method?

PROS: It allows you to iron out the kinks as you go along. You can do damage and quality control and not rush the art. You can go back to a previous step, unlike doing it all in one go.

CONS: The back and forth extra steps can be time consuming. You also go through A LOT of paper!

Character designs Copyright © Enigma Resolve, LLC. All Rights Reserved.