How to make money off of short comics

Comic books are a timeless medium for storytelling, adventure, and enjoyment. But what if you want to make your own? Is this a mission doomed to leave you poor, or can you really make money creating your own comic book? Comic books remain popular, so there is certainly income potential in this field. However, we need mpney than that to make creating comic books a good side hustle. First of all, it is important to realize that the mainstream comic-book industry is actually pretty competitive. You either need to have a ton of experience, know the right people, or work really hard to secure the type of job you want if you wish to enter comic-book creation at the highest level, working for an established company. And even then, you will likely be starting at the bottom and will have to work your shkrt up to the position you have always dreamed of… having complete creative control over tto own comic book storyline.

Making Money with Web Comics

And keep in mind, these are comics rather than graphic novels. Like many people who are lucky enough to know or have known their grandparents, I am especially close with mine… especially Grandpa. Grandpa will be the first to tell you that he was never one for school, much preferring to work and earn money rather than sit at a desk and learn. When he was sixteen, he convinced his parents to let him drop out so he could work full-time, which he did and, at over eighty years-old as I type this, he continues to do to this very day. When I was in my early teens I started to spend several days a week every summer working odd jobs with Grandpa. By the time I was a teenager he had handed the day-to-day operations of his main business to my parents, and spent his days at his side business where he sold miscellaneous items like trailers, burn barrels, chickens, rabbits, and other various odds and ends. Well, when these buckets came to Grandpa they were pretty cruddy, with the insides still lined with the residue of either fudge, caramel, or chicken guts, respectively. You see, the factory workers would empty out the buckets and then toss them aside without washing them out, and the dirty buckets would then be shipped off to Grandpa, who gladly bought them for a quarter a piece, sometimes a semi-truckload at a time.

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Web Culture. Read more. A lot of my childhood was swept up in comics. Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, and comics in that vein. Nowadays, though, a lot of great comics are being published on the web as webcomics. You might be interested in adding to the pool, but what if you want to do it full-time? This is mainly due to a marked increase in the quality of content, with some webcomics being both magnificently written and magnificently drawn Read More. Whatever your genre, whatever your niche, you will be able to find an audience as long as you write well and put yourself out there every day. So how do you make money from it? Keep reading to find out how most artists keep their bank accounts afloat with publishing Publish Your Own Free Digital Magazine Publish Your Own Free Digital Magazine This digital magazine publishing guide outlines everything you need to put together your own gorgeous online publication, from logos to layout to online publication at Issuu. Read More their drawings.

Free Exposure

Amazon announced free comics through its Prime platform a few weeks ago. To get an idea of the enormity of this opportunity: Amazon Prime has million subscribers , globally. Not that a large percentage of Prime members are suddenly going to become comic book readers, but there is a new audience there for comic creators to think about. Even a minuscule percentage of that user base dwarfs the Direct Market. The best way to make money in comics is to give them away. There is no money in printing comics. Boxes of unsalable comics do not make for satisfying participation trophies.

Method #1: Web Ads

Here it is, the magic, secret sauce for making money in comics. Make sure your books are no more than pages at the end of the day. Write arcs or complete stories to those specs. You need to do some sort of preorder campaign to raise the funds for those books. Kickstarter, your own site, however you do it.

Making Money Creating Your Own Comic Book

Not many Web cartoonists are able to support themselves on cartooning alone. Most Web comics are available for free. Cartoonists might find it challenging to convince potential readers to pay for a Web comic — why spend money on something you may not like when there are thousands of free comics on the Web? Web cartoonists can also make money through appearances at comic conventions. Conventions range in size from small groups of a few hundred attendees to massive gatherings numbering more than 50, people. Many of these conventions include an area where fans can meet their favorite artists. Some artists supplement their income by selling original sketches to fans. The great thing about Web comics is that the sky’s the limit. Cartoonists can tackle any subject that interests them. Their work can be dramatic or humorous. They can choose to follow established comic formats or try something new and innovative. And with a lot of hard work and a little luck , they can even make a living doing what they love. If you take some time to look into the Web comics community, you might conclude that there’s a lot of tension between different artists. Some argue that the art form should move further away from the conventions of print, while others claim that readers are used to comic strip panels and don’t like having to scroll through endlessly through a comic.

Making Money with Web Comics

Show less Comics have a way of making us feel. Whether that be laughter, sadness, intrigue, excitement, or any other emotion, the power of a visual story cannot be denied. Creating your own comic book can be a rewarding experience, and easier than you might think. To make a great comic, you’ll need a great story, a style all your own, and a format that suits. From there, create a rough draft before drawing, inking, and coloring the final comic itself, and publish your final masterpiece online or in print.

To make a comic, use a ruler to draw the frames that will contain the action. Lightly draw your characters into each frame with a pencil, leaving plenty of blank space for dialogue bubbles, narration boxes, exclamations, and background details. If you like, go over the pencil lines with ink once you are satisfied with the layout.

To learn about popular comic styles and formats, keep reading! This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Together, they cited information from 7 references. Categories: Featured Articles Making Comics. Log in Facebook Loading Google Loading Civic Loading No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Article Edit.

Learn why people trust wikiHow. Co-authored by wikiHow Staff Updated: November 25, Learn more Sample Comics Sample Comic Book. Sample Comic Strip. Sample Political Comic. Write down the basics. A comic is, at its most basic level, a narrative told through sequential images, called frames or panels. Even a single-frame comic has to have a sense of forward movement. In that sense, a comic is not really different from any other form of storytelling, and thus follows certain conventions.

Every story is set. The setting is the backdrop for the actions of your characters, and depending on your story can be an integral part of the narrative. You need actors for your story.

Your characters move the action, they speak the dialogue, and they are who the reader connects. Develop your characters over time; this is especially important for strips that form longer narratives. Every story needs a conflict to drive it. This can be as simple as checking the mail or as complex as saving the universe. The theme of your comic is what drives the day to day creation. Your theme will also dictate your audience.

This is the vibe of your comic. Are you writing a comedy? Is your story more of a drama? Your possibilities are endless. Combine comedy with drama, make it dark, or light-hearted. Write a romance, or a gripping political thriller. Your tone will be expressed through dialogue, narrative text, and visuals.

Write what you know. This will also help you keep your own voice in your writing, and prevent you from copying too much from other comics. Decide on a style. Because you are how to make money off of short comics a comic, your visual style will be the first aspect of your comic that the reader encounters.

Choose a style that matches both the tone of your story and the image you have in your head. Experiment with various styles until you find one that feels natural to draw and to write. There are a variety of popular styles that you can practice and then adapt to your own needs. There are exceptions to this, however, as with every rule when it comes to creating.

Pick a format. There are no set conventions when it comes to format, though comics typically fall into three categories: Single frame, Stripand Page length comic book. Experiment with different formats until you find one that suits your story, characters, and setting.

A single frame comic is typically reserved for comedy. These comics do not require much setup, and rely on visual gags and one or two lines of dialogue. It can be difficult to form a narrative using single frames, so most can be read in any order. Political comics are also typically one or two frames. A comic strip is a sequence of frames. There is no set length for a strip, though most are usually one or two lines of frames.

This is one of the most popular formats for many webcomics and daily funnies, as they allow for narrative development but are still short enough to produce regularly. A comic page is a larger undertaking than a strip. Having the whole page to work with provides more freedom to manipulate frames, but also means you need more content per page. Creating full pages is typically the result of making a comic book or graphic novel, where you are telling a longer, more cohesive story.

Write a script. The length and detail of the script will vary depending on the style of your comic. A single frame comic may only have a line or two.

Regardless, write it out to help you judge how well the story reads. Write your script as a sequence of frames. Treat each frame as a separate scene to help you manage the flow of the story. Make sure that the dialogue does not dominate the frame. Comics are a visual medium, and so a lot of your action and implied meaning will be coming through in the illustrations. Sketch out the frames. You will be creating storyboard thumbnails. Do this as you write the script. This very rough sketch will help you visualize the flow of the comic.

Once your thumbnails are drawn, you can try swapping their order or making adjustments to change the impact of the strip. Make sure your panel layout makes sense.

Always remember that readers will move from left to right, top to bottom, except when reading manga which is read from right to left. Use different sizes and shapes for panels to help guide the reader.

Experiment with different uses for text. Beyond dialogue, text can be used in many different ways. Sound can be displayed through the use of sound effect words. Exclamations can occur outside of regular speech bubbles to add extra impact. Ask yourself if every frame matters. The same is true for a comic. If the frame doesn’t move the story or the comedy or the conflict forward, then cut it and either replace it with something that does or scrap it.

Experiment with the frame structure. A lot of successful comics break convention when it comes to frames. If you are publishing the comic yourself, feel free to explore as many different framing options as you like. Just remember that any stylistic choices should always be in service of the story.

Create the frames. Use the ruler to draw your frames. Do this on a suitable paper.

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Method #2: Merchandise Sales

Drawing a strip is only part of the process of making a living as a cartoonist. Develop your comic strip to its full extent before you begin submitting it to syndicates. Syndicates require strips to be mature and fully developed, with a focused concept at its heart and a well-rounded cast of primary characters. Because most syndicates require a few pages describing your strip and its characters when you submit it, preparing that material before creating samples can help focus the artistic process. Create four to six weeks of sample strips, including at least two full-color Sunday strips.