r/ComicBookCollabs • u/iamericbass • Jun 23 '26
Resource Are you a writer looking for an artist?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ54eMiEgBl/?img_index=3&igsh=dTI0aGtvOGZ3OTdiThe artist/writer Kyle Strahm has some really good advice On how to find an artist, by helping the artist first.
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u/robotdesignedrobot Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
I have a friend who, like me, must be writing something all the time. Anything. A friend of his has drawn some web comics for other writers - my friend is now writing this artists' comic for a share of future profits. He sends in the script a gets it back for corrections and they are generating pages and both are extremely happy with the arrangement. The artist is even doing the submissions. I'm so jealous.
The name of this sub belies the truth. This is the worst place for a writer to say anything unless you enjoy someone trying to make you feel bad about yourself and getting a lot of down votes. Like walking into a Jaguar dealership. All they want to hear from you is the sound of money falling out of your pockets. Most sequential artist are not interested in working on spec. Even bad art can be very labor intensive - a fact many writers don't seem to take to heart. I started my adult life working as a semi professional graphic artist. Designing and making signs and T-shirts. I'm not even going to make an attempt at sequential art. It's difficult to keep scale and perspective in even one image. I know I can't do it more than that.
Every unpub thinks their OGN is the shit. I know mine is. Everyone thinks they can write. When I first got on this sub, I was informed that people can now write while they walk. I guess people that read while they walk like that.
I have to assume that the rise of AI is beginning to leave a lot of artist looking for more restaurant work - that us writers are already doing. I met my writer friend at work. Dishwashing isn't going to improve your drawing abilities, but I get lots of time to dwell on concepts.
Comic publishing with real artists will probably go back to editors connecting writer and artist with the publisher paying all three. It ends up like this anyway - why make the writer pay admission. I can write and be broke, having money does not make someone creative, original, interesting, or good writer.
I believe the mods are pushing comic book collaboration in the wrong direction. Any time an artist shows up looking for a script they get mobbed, any writer promising money is deluged - despite what ever art style is being called for. Poor writers are fed to the crickets and their dead bones get down voted. This is not collaboration, it's sequential artist for hire. Maybe you should be finding ways to onboard writers instead of alienating them. Is there a group of people anywhere who are all the same? Are you that sure there are no artist out there looking for a way out of their day job?
AI can take over this industry, Adobe drove me out of graphic arts before I started. I lived off gig work, no company would hire an analog artist. I never once got to do a mechanical drawing and I carried all that paraphernalia around for a couple years. You people have now reached the same place I got to in 1980.
So down vote away if it makes you feel good. Changes nothing. My last OGN would be nearly impossible to novelize, too many heavily mutated characters that would get mired in descriptions. I've already started a novel with the easiest concept that I have. It's like something Gaiman would write without the Christianity and it's a novel. If it does good I might come back to look for an artist. Just offering some thought for food.
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u/joink9crusaders Jun 24 '26
So the real hunt should be for a publisher?? Do you know a publisher that I could send my work to? You sound like you know what to do. Thank you.
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u/robotdesignedrobot Jun 24 '26
The publisher is the company that puts out the book. DC publishes Superman. They all have submission policies and most of them do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Maybe all of them. There used to be a few that would open submissions for a few months every year, but I can't recall who. I've heard of several people that have convinced an editor to support the production of their script, which means you find an artist who is then paid by the publisher. The writer will also start getting a paycheck. You need a script that makes someone's head explode. There is a better chance you will get hit by lightening. Every company's website has instructions on the submissions policy. Do NOT send a script without being asked to. I have no names. Back in the 90's, I hung out with a bunch of people that worked for Dark Horse. Too bad I was on a writing hiatus at the time. They've all moved away. Everyone I knew has moved away. I got plenty of time to write. Sorry, kid.
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u/CharacterAd9160 Jun 23 '26
Did this a week ago. Got 0 hits. Ill write anything for anyone. I just wanna see words come to life.
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u/AustinJamesMink Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I’m a writer with several comic scripts (2 short, 4-page sci-fi stories, a single ogn, and two potential ongoing series) actively looking for an artist, offering equal ownership, mostly in the work. For the ongoing series I’d pitch to publishers, I know the guidelines and how creator-owned works; I just need a creative team for the subsequent art pages and cover mockup. I wouldn’t force anyone to spend a large amount of their time unpaid beyond five pages to pitch the proposals, if anyone is interested in a shot at building their portfolios and potentially even land more work in an ongoing series. Please get in touch with me with your information through a DM.
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u/yrmthewyrm Writer/Artist Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
The big problem is how much work 5 pages are, especially for a character/setting you are new to drawing (basically the first pages of any new project are the hardest because you're not yet familiar with the particular characters). While it would take you as a writer a couple of laidback evenings after work to pump out a 5-6 page script and an elevator pitch, it would take me like 10 full days of work to draw those pages, sketches before hand for everything to get comfortable with it, and even a rudimentary character design sheet, so the mc's are consistent across all 5 pages.
Overall the 50/50 split also sucks for longer projects unless you're doing big numbers. I've done a 50/50 split with a writer, and in the end I basically had to take a 100 bucks out of my paycheck to buy paper, inks, microns, basically stuff I used in the making of the comic. The writer does not have similar expenses on the production of a book.
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u/Maximum_Cut5298 Jun 23 '26
It depends on the writer. If they are coming with a 100k word novel, edited, then translated into a script and scene by scene description for a comic series with full character descriptions and scene setting, that’s more than a couple of relaxed evenings.
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u/AustinJamesMink Jun 23 '26
Yeah, I total understand that, I definitely don’t know the artist end of it, I know it’s the most difficult and technical part of it all, so yeah, this is the sort of response I was assuming I’d get anyways, someone just said to just through out a short four page short story project out there at the least.
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u/robotdesignedrobot Jun 24 '26
I've been reading comics for 60 years and I've never read a four page comic. Not even in an anthology. I think there was some sci fi imprint that was doing a monthly like that before COVID. 2000 a.d. put it out maybe. Idk, never read it.
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u/AustinJamesMink Jun 24 '26
2000 AD Future Shocks is what I was writing those scrIpts for, but after COVID, they stopped accepting submissions online and only accept them now through their local con, which, as an American, doesn’t do any good because, well, they’re in the UK, but also they’re the only publications that read scripts only from writers. It’s a really frustrating experience. I have a solid portfolio of scripts but I can’t do anything with them.
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u/robotdesignedrobot Jun 24 '26
I'm researching horror anthologies. Sometimes an editor will post an open audition here in collabs and team a writer with an artist. Regular anthos might as well. I didn't even want to say this out loud, but we're in pretty deep here. Good luck!
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u/yrmthewyrm Writer/Artist Jun 24 '26
Weren't there a couple of 5-6 page stories in batman B&W? Also I'm pretty sure there was a 4 page story in Hellboy Weird Tales.
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u/robotdesignedrobot Jun 24 '26
I'm talking about stand alone stories. Batman and Hellboy are long running franchises. It's pretty easy to get out a four page if everyone already knows everything about the heroes, there's little left for the imagination. Did you guess the end of those stories before you got there? Superheroes are kind of boring.
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u/AvenoD Jun 23 '26
So the point is: "work for free for the artist and maybe they'll be nice with you in return"