A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

There’s some excellent professional-life comics blogging at THE BEAT.

First, a frank discussion of pro creator income with Glenn Haumann; Those numbers are accurate. For the mainstream, that is. Small press: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now start multiplying. That means a penciller will make $3300 a month, or $39,600 a year. With covers, round that up to $42 grand a year. Not a lot of cash there. And the penciller’s the highest paid talent on the book.

This incorporates the assumption that you have a regular gig in the first place, and can crank out 12 issues a year without fail. Most creators don’t have that.

Factor in the fact that this is a freelance gig with no benefits at all. And you pay double social security tax.

My average annual business deductions come in at the low end of $15,000-$20,000 per annum.

From the comments, the cognitive disconnect between what fans think we make and the reality:

So that’s $11,000 for one issue of a 22-page book. So if you sell 50,000 copies of that book, the creative is $.22 per copy. So the other $2.77 (or $3.77) is going for other things.

Not exactly. And for a small press book, the creator can end up being paid nothing at all.

Kurt Busiek to the rescue:

The retailer gets half the cover price, and the distributor gets another whack, so you’re taking that 22 cents off of $1.10 or so (or $1.48). The printing and paper costs about the same as the creative, plus you’ve got to pay for the shipping, you’ve got to pay the editor and assistant editor, the rest of the staff, the rent and utilities and any other overhead, warehousing costs, promotion, plus the additional share of those costs that aren’t covered by the books that aren’t selling 50,000. Which is the bulk of your line.

I realize there are people out there who think making $42,000 a year is all that and the thang, but consider that that is no guarantee per annum, you can be dismissed at any time, there is no unemployment if you lose your gig, no insurance, no disability, nothing. And your business expenses are paid for by you.

In some areas, if you have a business license, there are strict zoning rules about what you can and cannot do in your home, and some loans or accounts require separate business address, phone, etc.

Computer equipment, software. One program I need to get to use the company 3-D graphics supplied for some of my work is going to set me back $2500, and I just don’t have it right now.

My pro quality scanner cost $3000, the computer set up (which was, for the most part, a gift) was nearly $17,000. The software and extras came to over $2,000.

Shipping every year, a couple grand. Unless I just stop going to conventions.

Conventions: thousands. Which is one of the reasons why I don’t do them so much unless someone pays my expenses.

My ink pens cost almost $300 this year alone.

You don’t get to pocket the entire $42,000. You don’t come even close to pocketing it.

And while it is sad and sorry that there are people out there not making $42,000 a year, the real average take home pay for a freelance comic creator is considerably less than $42,000 – that for skilled labor. Most artists make a lot less. Almost all do. And most never make more.

Once more for snaps and giggles, trot on back to this earlier post by me and ponder my 1980′s Social Security statement. It took me over a decade to crack the magical $10,000 mark in personal income as a cartoonist, and I worked on a book that sold in excess of 40,000 copies per issue.

The logical fallacy here is that if some artists are doing better than you, then they have no cause for concern. They have such a cool job!

Just because someone makes more than you, that does not mean they are rich.

More Money Makes the World Go Round:

Comics Printing Numbers:

I’d disagree that writing only costs a cup of coffee (I”m sure she’s joking). But it takes many more hours to draw a comic than it does to write one. I saw a breakdown of time investment on a graphic novel that came in at 300 hours for the writer and 1000 hours for the artist, and here it is. (UPDATE) thanks to John Parkin for the link!)

For Gone to Amerikay, I’m looking at 2500-3000 hours, including research.

EDIT: Average US household “consumer unit” circa 2008. Now, figure out how that freelancer income fits in there. Yeah, go ahead.

A frighteningly low amount spent on books, in case you freelancers wonder where you fit in the food chain.