Publishing: The Business of Comics
- Switching from Hand to Computer
- Breaking Into the Field
- Charging For Your Services
- Lettering Credits
- Rush Rates
Switching From Hand to Computer
Chuck writes:
"I am an experienced professional comic letterer. I started in 1991
lettering for Marvel (What The?!) and currently letter for WaRP Graphics.
My work has been published in close to 100 books with various companies.
Your computer lettering has become an industry standard among established
companies. This has created a problem for me as I am relieved of my
lettering duties time and again as the artist letters their own books
on computer. I want to continue working in this great field of ours.
It is my passion and was my source of income. How do I "break in" to
the computer lettering field?"
Your concern is not unlike my own situation not so many years ago.
I broke into comics in England in 1984, working as a freelance hand
letterer on odd jobs for Marvel UK and 2000AD. When I moved to the
US in 1989, I saw the (hand) writing on the wall when I noticed that
John Byrne was using computer generated lettering on books like NAMOR
and SHE-HULK. I quizzed him about this when I saw him at a convention
one year and shortly thereafter set about the task of creating my own fonts.
There is no easy way of breaking into the "computer lettering field",
although I can say with assurance that it is a lot easier to do so now
than it was when I was starting out and it fell to me to convince
companies that digital lettering was a good idea.
And there's the rub. For instance, at the beginning of the century in
the major cities of the world, before the introduction of the motor car,
there was a roaring trade in leather buggy-whips. People may not have
been able to hop into a yellow cab to the airport, but they could hail
a horse-drawn cab and get across town. The cab drivers needed buggy whips
to drive their horses, and there were lots to choose from; a roaring trade.
But, of course, when Henry Ford started the mass production of cars, the
demand for buggy whips diminished, and many buggy whip manufacturers went
out of business. But of course, there were probably a few buggy whip
manufacturers back in the early 1900s who didn't think of themselves as
being in the buggy whip business; they thought of themselves as being in
the leather goods business. For them, business didn't die, it thrived,
as demand for leather gloves, leather seats and all manner of leather
trappings increased in tandem with the demand for motor cars.
Letterers like you and I are faced with a very easy decision.
Are we buggy whip letterers, or are we leather goods letterers?
— Richard Starkings
Breaking Into the Field
Peter Cole writes:
"I'm interested in getting involved with a (comic book) company
so I may improve my skills and also get a education in how a
company runs. I live in the New Jersey area and need some suggestions in
what I might do to break into this field. If you can be of some help I
would very much appreciate it."
Tim writes:
"How does one get involved with lettering comics on a freelance basis?"
There's no end to the info you can find on this subject. If you ultimately want to pencil The X-Men, maybe try to get an internship at Marvel, DC, or Acclaim (all in NYC). If you want to write and/or publish your own material, read up on self-publishing, go to comic book conventions and talk to people who are doing it successfully.
The standard way to get lettering (or coloring or drawing) work is to create sample pages and send them to comics companies. Be prepared to persistent and get rejected a lot at the beginning. Go to your local comic convention and show your portfolio personally to editors & publishers, who will give you valuable criticism and feedback. Conventions are also a great place to learn about how the industry works, and meet and talk to fellow professionals, who are almost always willing to answer questions and share advice.
• For a list of Comic Book Conventions, visit Comicon.com and look under "Real World Comicons".
• Marvel has recently rewritten their submission guidelines to make it easier for new talent to break in, and posted them on their site.
Here's a couple more sites that have lots of useful info on the
comics industry. Look under "Industry Addresses" for things like
submission guidelines from the other major companies if you're looking for work,
and mailing lists of comic shops if you're looking to publish yourself.
• Jeff Mason/Indy magazine, http://www.indyworld.com/comics/
• Negative Space virtual coffeehouse, http://www.hoboes.com/html/Comics/
Best of luck!
Charging For Your Services
Erik Rabe writes:
"I'm going to start lettering a series of comic books for a small
company. My question is what should I charge for my services. I'm
slightly new at lettering, but I'm picking it up pretty fast."
Rates paid for lettering vary as widely as the comics being lettered
and published. Big companies like Marvel and Image pay anywhere from
my $20-$50 per page, but smaller companies or individuals will probably
pay you more like $10 or $15 per page. Since you're starting out, I
would recommend lettering a few pages in a row, see how long it takes
you, and base your rate on much your time is worth to you. Factor in
how heavy or light the dialogue will be, whether they want special
balloons & lettering styles for different characters, and, finally,
how much you think the publisher can reasonably afford. You may be
willing to take a little less at first to get your work published and
then charge more to future clients when you're more established and
proficient.
Lettering Credits
Erik asks:
"Is it OK to act as a freelance letterer using Comicraft
fonts? If I do letter a comic with those fonts, is it required
in the credits that the letters were done by Comicraft?"
As long as you are using the fonts, and they're installed only
on your computer, you're well within the terms of the license
agreement. (If you need to send the finished computer files to
someone else for output, be sure to create outlines before sending your files off.)
And the lettering credit is yours, though if you feel inclined to
put a note where the fonts came from, we certainly appreciate it.
Rush Rates
Amie asks:
"I was wondering if you had any advice on how to charge for Rush
jobs and/or changes to script or placement? Do you charge a flat
extra charge as the situation occurs or do you try to work a page
rate that would compensate for that on each project? I would like
to be fair, but not taken advantage of, so anything you are
willing to share would be appreciated."
In the past, letterers could charge a basic rate for lettering within
a reasonable turnaround and including one round of corrections. More
corrections than that, or on shorter time, add a rush rate. However,
most of the larger comics companies now expect work to be turned around
almost immediately, so none of our clients pay for rush or extra
corrections any more. In this case, price yourself high and assure
your clients that your charge includes rush and correx.
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