Make a Career in Comics
Love comic books? Want to create them for a living? Great!
A lot of students would give just about anything to have a career writing and illustrating comic books.
Sam Salas publishes his own comic book, Great Galaxies. Sam Salas Publishes Great Galaxies
Sam Salas is a writer, an artist, and an actor who has appeared in many productions up and down Colorado's front range.
Most recently he played Papi in Papi, Me, and Cesar Chavez. He publishes his own comic book, Great Galaxies, through his imprint Zeb Comics.
Close That means the competition for jobs is fierce.
If you want it
Make sure you have the talent! Besides talent you must master:
What Is Talent?Talent is an innate ability, something you were born with. Writers are people who feel they must write, and artists are people who feel they must draw.
If you find yourself writing and drawing in your spare time, you may have talent! You already have a natural tendency to do those things, so you should nurture them.
Your art and English teachers can tell you if you have talent, and steer you in the right direction.
Close Human anatomy, including the twenty-three bones that make up your own hand;
Basic grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. Nobody pays much attention to a writer who misspells words.
Work for a big firm
If a major publisher offers to hire you, it will be hard to turn down. The Big Four of the comic industry are:
- Marvel, in New York City;
- DC, in New York City;
- Dark Horse, in Portland, Ore;
- Image, in Berkeley, Calif.
Is $25,000 the same, no matter where you live? What is the Cost of Living?What would you have to earn in another city to match the lifestyle you can maintain in Portland, Ore. for $25,000 a year?
- $24,932 in Madison, Wisconsin;
- $33,221 in Oakland, California;
- $52,838 in New York, New York.
Use this cost of living calculator to compare the cost of living in different cities.
Close Marvel and DC are the biggest.
A beginning editor at either of them can expect to make $25,000 a year.
If you chose to work for one of the Big Four, you will have to live where they are.
There are many smaller, highly successful publishers such as Oni, IDW, and Avatar...
Editing Is Not a Creative JobIt is a management position, and does not provide the artistic satisfaction of drawing or writing.
Many writers and artists have found fulfillment as editors. For someone who really wants to write or draw, these positions will be stop-gap measures.
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