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How Does a Comic Artist Earn Money?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 9:04 pm
by Shad0wC4t
I'm looking into starting up my own comic, and art gallery, and was trying to figure this out. So how does it work? As an artist, and a comic author of a free to read online comic, how does one make their money? And how well does it pay? Do you live off of your earnings? Thanks!

Re: How Does a Comic Artist Earn Money?

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 12:01 am
by Turaiel
Most of the time, artists in general only make money from commissioned art and maybe some merchandise here and there. For a webcomic, donations and website advertising are where most of the money comes from. In general, you won't make a significant amount of money being a comic artist, unless you get picked up by a publisher or find other artistic ways to supplement that income. On top of that, you also get to deal with high taxes (at least in the US) related to self-employment. The most important thing is to get really good at your craft and to continue loving what you do. Maybe you'll get lucky!

For obvious reasons, I won't detail how the income works with Twokinds, but I can at least say that Tom has online advertising, merch sales, and Patreon income. He is fortunate enough to have a publisher that does most of the heavy lifting on some of that.

Re: How Does a Comic Artist Earn Money?

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:42 am
by Shad0wC4t
Awesome reply! Thanks!