Creating Comics, Part 2: Turning Your Script Into a Full-Fledged Comic Book

But first, a public service announcement:

As I mentioned in my previous article, I regularly avoid people who begin sentences with “I have an idea” or “Let me tell you about this story I want to write”. It’s not that I resent being a sounding board; it’s that by listening to an idea before it’s fully formed, I’m doing a disservice to the creator. As weird as this might sound, experience has taught me that writing is something many people are only willing to do when they have no one else to turn to; it is a solitary endeavor of sharing thoughts with a sympathetic friend who will never forget what is said. If a writer verbally shares his or her ideas with others, the sense of urgency to develop those ideas is lost. If a writer furiously scribbles those ideas on a cocktail napkin or in the margins of a book, they can go on to become brilliant and famous creations down the road.

If you, as a writer, have an idea for a comic book story, let me urge you to please go write it down instead of tracking down someone to share the idea with. Then, spend every spare moment you can find developing that idea into a story, a novel, a script, a poem, or whatever form you feel it should take. You will find an addiction forming in your spirit as you mold your idea into a full-blown creation, and you will learn what it is to really, truly, be a writer. (If you are married, your spouse will learn, too, as they grow jealous of your newfound love for the written word. It’s part of the process; they’ll simply have to learn to live with it, because the desire to write and create will never fade away entirely once it is realized.)

Once you have committed your idea to paper and made it permanent, then you should seek to share it with others. It doesn’t need to be complete, but it does need to be coherent. In sharing, please remember the following four guidelines:

1) Spouses, friends and family can be good sounding boards, if they’re honest. But most of the time, they’ll tell you they liked what you wrote regardless of how dreadful it really is.

2) Writing circles can be excellent sounding boards, if they’re supportive. But many writing circles are filled with people who are either terrible writers or who are bitterly competitive; either sort will offer bad advice.

3) Professional writers, editors, agents and publishers are unlikely to be interested in anything you write unless you’ve got a finished copy, ready for publishing. And even then, they’re usually uninterested in reading your work, so don’t pester them.

4) Your own intuition is suspect as well, since it is heavily biased towards your work. To paraphrase a famous writer, the first draft of anything is manure. The best way to self-evaluate your writing is to put it away, come back a month later, and read it out loud. If it doesn’t sound good, start revising.

Before you move on to the next part of this article, you need to have a finished, polished script in hand if you’re a writer or a creator. Having an idea, a partial script or a rough draft is not good enough. So, read on, if you like. But don’t act until you’re ready.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled article

If you’re like many comic book creators out there, you’ve got a great idea for a book¦ but no idea how to turn it into a comic book! Today, I’m going to tell you how to do it. But be prepared for hard work and financial setback — it’s not cheap or easy to put together a professional-quality comic book!

But first, another reality check. As an editor for a comic book company, I’ve regularly been approached by people who want to “pitch me ideas, in the hopes that I think their ideas are so good that I’ll want to pay them to bring them to life. All I can say is that these people have a very unrealistic understanding of how comic book publishing works. There is no market for ideas; the supply exceeds the demand exponentially. There’s not much of a market for writers and editors, either; many publishers are, in fact, founded by writers and editors, and they tend to keep all the choice gigs for themselves and hire trusted friends or colleagues to fill in for the rest. There’s a slight market for artists, but still less than one might think; most of the art jobs available are for smaller companies, and many of them do not pay the full amount up front or on time. There is a market for colorists and letterers, provided that they’re competent; both of these trades actually require a substantial amount of specialized skill, and there are few people who actually want to do them.

If you’re going to approach a publisher with a pitch, you need a finished script, a finished cover and at least ten pages of finished pencil art, minimum. Even then, they probably won’t be that interested in talking to you; a fully finished issue (with colors and letters) of a professional quality is much preferred. (It does not need to be professionally printed and bound, though that always helps.) If nothing else, that shows that you’re able to get things accomplished on your own.

But how do you turn a script into a fully published product? For most writers, the real question here is “how can I find people to work on my book? It’s really not hard, but understand right away that your ability to succeed will be directly influenced by your ability to pay for work up front.

I would estimate that the average 22-page independent comic book costs around $7,000 to produce. This assumes:

¢ That the writer is being paid $20 per page, or $440
¢ That the artist is being paid $100 per page, or $2200.
¢ That the colorist (who is also digitally inking the pages) is being paid $100 per page, or $2200
¢ That the letterer (who also usually handles design work) is being paid $30 per page, or $660.
¢ That the cover artist is being paid $200.
¢ That the production team (script editor, layout editor, designer) is being paid $400 per person, or $1200.

This is just a rough estimate, of course; some companies are able to produce books for a lower cost by finding people who are willing to work for less. You can shave off some of the cost immediately by writing and editing the book yourself, though I would still recommend having several people proofread the script and the final book if you feel you absolutely do not need an editor. Some books will cost more, depending upon the quality of a writer or artist. But these prices, for 2007 at least, are a good place to start when you budget production costs on your book.

And what if you don’t have seven grand? Some artists will take a small amount up front in exchange for a share of the profits or a larger amount on the back. Most will not work entirely for backend pay, though. It’s too much like working for free, and they have no guarantee you’ll pay them. Incidentally, always define payment terms in a contract, even if it’s just a simple written agreement. Make sure you each have a signed and dated copy that explains all of the terms of payment (including the timeframe) and the royalties.

Where can you find artists? There are several sources. I’ll list a few:

1. Deviantart.com is the Internet’s largest community of artists, allowing them to post samples of their work for critique and encouragement. Some of the artists who post work on DA are very good; most are amateurs. The best way to find good artists is to find an artist whose work you like, and then see who some of their favorite artists are. You can use DA to query them, but don’t overwhelm them; just say that you’re developing a comic book and would like to see if they’re interested in working with you.

2. ConceptArt.org is a great site for finding artists, and it even has two different boards where you can post jobs: one for “Paying and one for “Non-Paying gigs. Just don’t post non-paying gigs in the paying section; it provokes the wrath of the community.

3. DigitalWebbing.com has comic book specific job postings and available for hire boards, but in my experience, most of the people hanging out there are preying on amateurs and want way too much for what they’re offering. Most are not exactly what you’d call high quality professionals, considering the prices they’re charging. Several of the people hanging out there are brokers for artists living in other countries; they can provide inexpensive artwork, but often with a large language barrier to get in your way.

4. The “Artist’s Alley at any local comic book convention can be a good place to find talent, though many of the people paying for booth space are already trying to sell products they’ve put together and may not be interested in working on your book. I’ve never found it a suitable place for recruiting people, but it never hurts to look!

5. Local colleges with good art programs can be an excellent place to find young people with plenty of free time who are dying to get into the comic book world for very little money, and often, they’re quite skilled and talented too. The problem with working with young and inexperienced people is their priorities; it’s easy for them to shirk off work duties when other things seem more important. As such, college students are not usually the most reliable employees.

Once you locate an artist, try them out by having them do a few drawings for you. Generally, having an artist work out a few character designs and a promotional piece is a great way to test their limits in terms of art and timeliness. Hungry artists work quick and are generally eager to please; lazy artists work at whatever pace suits them and generally insist that their vision is correct. Don’t expect an artist to suddenly change their colors if you hire them; in my experience, the longer they take to get you samples, the more likely they are to miss deadlines and even quit down the road.

Note:If you decide not to use an artist, do not keep their artwork for future use unless you have paid for it. It opens you up to too many legal problems. If you do pay for it, make sure you have something in writing that demonstrates that they’ve been fairly paid for their work.

Once you hire an artist, you’ll need to track down a colorist and a letterer. You can use the same processes listed above to find these folks. One lettering firm I will recommend is Lithium Pro, owned by my good friend Bill Tortolini — he’s one of the best in the business, and his rates are excellent.

Often, letterers and/or colorists are also experienced in book design, so if you don’t have someone on hand who can help you get your pages print ready, ask your colorist or letterer if they can handle the job. If they can’t, they’ll often know someone who can. A page designer will not only help you get your 22 pages and cover set up; they’ll also help you with things like your interior cover (often used for credits) and your dummy pages, which are usually used for ads in the back.

Incidentally, please remember that books must be printed with page numbers that are multiples of four. A 22-page comic must be printed in a 24-page book. And though it confuses some people, the cover does not count as a page. 24 pages means 6 sheets of paper, printed on both sides and folded in the middle, plus a slightly heavier paper cover. 32 pages (the industry standard) means 8 pieces of paper plus a heavier paper cover. Also, comic book art should never be printed on the interior covers; the pages will look different from the rest of the book and seem out of place.

There is no set rule that a comic book must be 22 pages; this is simply an industry practice that is dictated more by the price of production than anything else. If you are printing a 32 page book, there’s no reason all 32 pages can’t be filled with story; just keep in mind that the book will cost you more to produce than a 22 page book since you’ll be paying artists, colorists, writers and letterers for 10 more pages of content. Most major comic book publishers use 6-8 of those pages for outside ads, as well as some of the cover space. The remaining pages are used for in-house ads and previews of the next issue.

Once you have your book print ready, you have the option of other self-publishing or finding a publisher. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of both models.

¢Self-publishing means you incur all the costs, but it also means you reap all the rewards. What’s challenging about self-publishing is that you will probably have a hard time getting retailers to carry your book unless you have some established credibility in the industry, and even then, only a handful of retailers will give you a chance. You may also have to produce a few issues of your book before you can convince Diamond, the only distributor in the comic book industry, to carry your line.

The best business model for self-publishing is to start small and focus on direct sales to consumers while you build up some credibility. Let’s assume you spend $7000 on production and $1500 on printing, which gets you 3,000 copies of your book (an estimate entirely off the top of my head). If you can sell most of those books directly to fans at cover price (2.99), you’ll break even and still have a couple hundred left to send out to reviewers. Control your costs and you can lower that break-even point even further.

The problem is that selling nearly 3,000 copies of a comic book directly to consumers is not an easy feat, and you’ll need one heck of a publicity plan to pull it off. Assuming you get your book picked up by Diamond, you would need to sell quite a few more copies to retailers to break even — around 6600, in fact. Also, you’ll have to pay for printing up front, which means you will have to make that money back to stay out of the red. It’s doable, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.

¢ Working with a publisher can be much easier. If you can find a publisher willing to help produce and publish your book by helping you out with costs, go for it. Just make sure you don’t have to give up control of your property, unless that’s what you really want. And don’t even waste your time pitching Marvel or DC; they won’t even look at your submission.

In most cases, you’ll be self-producing your title, and you’re going to want to publish through Image Comics. There are many advantages to publishing through Image, like enhanced credibility with retailers, better exposure in Diamond’s Previews, and a pool of people you can ask for advice when you’re having trouble getting your book print-ready. Though Image has had its shaky moments, it’s currently headed by Erik Larsen, one of the coolest and most down-to-Earth people you’ll ever meet. From what I understand, Image will generally cover marketing expenses and printing costs and take them out of your earnings on the backend, which makes the book easier to produce since less money is needed up front.

But remember that Image is in business to make money. They don’t accept books they don’t think can at least break even, and they have content guidelines to ensure that they’re maintaining a consistent level of quality. They will charge you fees and they will cancel your book if it’s not making money. Fortunately, from what I’ve heard from Larsen, they no longer send publishers bills for losses if a book loses money (they used to, allegedly), but I’m sure they don’t mess around with books that are hurting the company financially.

I’m not sure what it takes to be successful publishing a book through Image, but a title produced for $7000 will probably wind up costing a total of $10,000 after publishing and fees (again, totally off the top of my head). At that price, a comic with a $2.99 cover price would need to sell over 7500 copies through the direct market to break even (since Diamond will take its cut as well for distribution). To give you an idea of how difficult it is to do that, only books within the top 200 generally break that barrier, and most of them are published by Marvel and DC. Even by lowering your production costs to $5000, you would still need to sell around 6200 copies to break even after printing and publishing fees.

Incidentally, I don’t blame Image or Diamond for the high number of books that need to be sold; they’re just filling roles to help publishers make money in the first place.

“But wait! you might be saying. “Can’t I sell advertising to help defray my costs?

You absolutely can, and if you are good at getting advertisers to pay for space in low-circulation comic books, don’t waste your time publishing; just go out and line up gigs selling ad space for established mid-range publishers and you’ll be a very rich person. Truth be told, it’s extremely difficult to get advertisers to see the value in reaching a target audience of 5,000 people, and unless you have a large line of books that can boost your circulation up in the 50-60,000 range, most ad firms and advertisers won’t be interested.

Tomorrow, I’m going to explain how you can market a comic book and reach a reasonable audience. Be prepared for some more hard truth, though; unless you’re Marvel or DC, it’s pretty hard to get people to pick up an unknown comic book, even if it’s something awesome like Dork Storm’s PS238, which surely one of the best comics out there that no one’s reading.

Writing Scraps

by Sean J. Jordan