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I was searching in my cupboard and found a soap-box,so I’d like to use it! It often happens that,when you get very busy,drawing your own comic strips isn’t possible.  

Back in the wild and fab days of the 1980s you could send a note around to a few people and pretty soon you’d have more artists than you could possibly ever use sending in samples. Projects were viewed as joint efforts:the writer wrote.  The artist drew. Once the project was drawn the writer [in this case me!] copied the pages,sent out synopses with samples,chased up company editors,visited offices and covered all the expenses.  Once a project was sold the split of money went 50-50. It was a fair deal and left the artist free of those niggling concerns. 

Nowadays,sez I a-suckin’ on me clay pipe,an artist,even if never published before and desperate to get into the industry [and who generally contacts the writer!] wants the writer to pay him.  I have seen some very poor quality artists demanding pro-rate pay to draw pages no publisher would seriously bother with but if  sold would expect to be paid AGAIN for. 

The writer,you’ll note,only gets paid once. I have always adopted the stance that if I write a project and the artist says “okay” that it is a 50-50 partnership and although characters created by myself are copyrighted to me,the artwork is the artist’s 100% -extra income if he/she can sell the pages later on. 

It is interesting to note that there are “artists” who produce what could not even be termed “rough pages” who then pay far better artists money to ink them –basically redraw everything- and the writer is then asked to help pay for the completed [unlettered] pages without realisinh he has TWO not one artist working for him!  The artist doing the pro-work then expects further payment if a company accepts the comic or else will not sign the contract permitting his work to be published.

 The poor man here is the writer! 

Then we have the glut of “companies” you can find on the internet or through magazines.  I have seen some great company sites with all the quality and extras you expect from a big company.  However,you then discover that the ‘company’ is nothing more than an amateurish set-up with only Small Press publications.  I’ve seen this in Europe,the US and even,but especially,the UK. 

 Recently,one representative of a certain US company told me that he was shocked at the attitude of some new talent he had talked to.  They wanted payment up front,before anything was drawn,payment on printing and even wanted to argue about rights over the company’s characters!   What he was more than a little concerned over was the fact that the time required to complete 20pp of pencilled pages in the estimate of these artists was between 2-3 months!!! In a rush I’ve completed 15pp of inked pages to help a company out in the past –within a week. 

Sadly,the internet has made it easier for ‘artists’ and even people running what they like to call companies since the 1990s.  At one time an artist became known due to the quality of his work and speed.  Companies were known for the quality of comic they published.  

Experience,professionalism and publications,it seems,have no meaning today.  It makes for a poorer industry.  OW!  Just fallen off my soap-box so I’ll finish here.