The Reality of Working In The Comic Book Industry (أغسطس 20, 2025 )

Reality Used to be Friend of Mine

Anyone remember P.M.Dawn? Anyone?

Ok.

Seemed like a nice title for this posting. Can you tell we love music here? 😉

Ok, the main subject I’m here to talk about IS reality. The reality of working in mainstream comics. Trust me, I’ve been doing it professionally since 2003, and it is not all sunshine and rainbows. Those are temporary and short-lived.

What CAN happen, I’ve seen it, is that a creator comes along and does really, really well. Someone like Scott Snyder, Tom King, Mitch Gerads, or Jorge Jimenez. They come along and they are part of a very successful run of comics. They sell books into the six figures. That garners not only a lot of attention, but the royalties can run for years at time. Which is a good thing. I’m very happy for anyone that can achieve that. It’s an incredible feat.

That being said, that is also a VERY small percentage of working comic creators out there. The average working comics professionals are just trying to do their best work and get paid. And even that’s a struggle a lot of the time because these some of the companies still, in this day and age, don’t do direct deposit. Some of them still mail checks.

So what I’m about to show you is one of my latest Marvel Royalty statements.

Granted, that is not the norm. They vary wildly. I did just get a payment from DC that was around $300, which is fine. I can do something with that. But I haven’t gotten one from them since 2023. So, 2 payments in 2 years. Not a great average, if you ask me. I also have not worked for DC Comics since 2020. I never know when Marvel’s statements are going to arrive, but they certainly arrive more frequently than DC’s do.

Another reality, is Compensation Copies, or Comps, as we like to call them. All of the companies, Marvel, DC, IDW, BOOM, Image, etc. have their own very different rules for who gets a copy and who doesn’t. On the whole we usually get copies of the floppies on a regular basis, which is ok. But the collected editions almost never arrive. You’ll see here my name is in the solicitations for these Omnibus’. I will never see a copy for one of these show up at my door.

I did 13 full issues (no fill-in help) of Star Wars Doctor Aphra for Marvel. Here is the Omnibus for that.

I’ve seen it at conventions and bookstores, but not one copy has ever been sent to me.

So, with these examples I simply want, for those of you still reading, to understand and pay attention, whether you are trying to break into comics, just getting started, or you’re a working professional, to what you are doing. Pay attention to where you see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years. Because there is no retirement. There is no 401K plan in comics. It’s just work. It’s not easy. There is no lap of luxury in making comics. It’s hard damn work.

Another thing to pay attention too, and this is mainly for folks trying to break into comics and just getting started, is the solicitations. Solicitations are the listings of the books coming out about 3 months from now. Usually they are through Diamond..buuuut…that might change soon. So it’ll probably come from Lunar or Penguin.

Either way, paying attention to the solicitations is helpful because if you see whose working on what, you may start seeing a pattern. There are lots of patterns in the solicitations, from creators moving around to the types of books that are selling. Creators tend to drift from company to company, sometimes leaving vacancies or openings. Those could be your chance to pounce on the editor. It can happen, I’ve seen it.

But what it requires is for you to pay attention.