Let's Bounce.

“Not know the Queen of Narnia? Ha! You shall know me better hereafter!”

Dudes and Dudettes! Thanks for all those who stopped by at Anime Expo 2015! It was awesome being able to talk about anime non-stop for 4 whole days. I will most likely get around to posting a Convention Aftermath thing sometime this weekend.

AX2015 Haul  

envelope=hentai, signed eva posters by bosmitze , saber plastic thing signed by Aimer & Mashiro Ayano

SPOOOOOOILERRRSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS…..

Naruto is seriously the bomb. Had to pay homage to the series, it got me watching anime again after Tenchi Muyo. But tbh,  I’m not really likin’ how the new mini-series is goin’. I guess as long as Naruto is in there i’m cool with it. 

HEY GUYS IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN. YES IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR WHERE YOU CAN ATTEND THE AX DRAWMEET I WILL BE HOSTING. ( really it’s just everyone gathering to draw not much to host)

The drawmeet will be held at Kentia Hall which is directly below south hall!

Please bring REFS !! I will be willing to draw OCs and such!

There will also be art supplies !!! (most likely) So before you leave you can take some with you

[TABLE A75] ARTIST ALLEY - ANIME EXPO 2015

Find BOSMITZE and I at ANIME EXPO this year!! Write it down, memorize it, stop by and say hi!

Sup fellow dudes and dudettes! Einiv and I are gonna be at Anime Expo (that’s like, right around the god damn corner jesus christ)! I will have three new prints along with some old stuff. Hopefully my little bro will finish our Canti cosplay by then. Hope to see you there, and feel free to swing by for the chitty chatties. HOLLAAA!  

So you want to be a comic book artist..? Here’s some sobering information.

One year. 12 issues. 264 pages. 4 covers.

As a full-time comic artist this is the expected output, more or less. Not to say I haven’t done a TON of work on the side to make ends meet, but as an artist on an ongoing monthly title, this is generally what you are expected to produce every year. Some artists do much more than this. Some less. It all depends on your productivity and drive.

It’s taken a lot of work and a ton of luck, but I’ve managed to stay busy for the majority of my career. I’ve gotten married, bought a house and have two beautiful kids. All the while, I was working full time as a professional comic artist. This schedule has allowed me to stay home with the kids until they were ready for school. I’m truly grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given and all of the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know and work with over the years.

I wanted to take this opportunity to give people a look at what it really means to be a professional comic artist; good and bad.

This was a strictly work-for-hire job on a licensed book. That usually means no royalties. The page rate on this project was $125. This is considered an okay page rate by today’s standards. Advances on creator-owned projects are a different matter and subject to different criteria, so are jobs at Marvel and DC. That being said, this is a middle-of-the-road page rate. Not great, not terrible.

Gross pay over the year in addition to those four covers was $33,625. After taxes? $24, 210. That’s $2,017.50 a month (again, I do a lot of work on the side to make ends meet).

Nearly all of that aforementioned salary goes to the mortgage, and so the majority of the financial responsibility falls on my wife.

Remember those kids i mentioned? Full-time daycare in Portland is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 -$1,500 per kid. Not to mention health insurance, utilities, car payments, school loans, credit card payments, et al.

Needless to say, you’re going to have to do a hell of a lot more work than those 264+ pages per year to keep your family afloat (should you choose to have one).

So. Here’s the schedule I keep:

7:00am - Wake up, feed the kids and get them ready for school.

8:30 - Take the kids to school

9:00-9:30am - Start work

12:30pm Pick up kid #1

3:30pm: Pick up kid #2

4:00-9:00pm - Family time.

9:00pm-3:00am Work

3:00am Sleep.

Yep. That’s four hours of sleep per day, best-case scenario. Weekends too. Due to the sleep deprivation, I feel like absolute garbage all the time. Depression, anxiety, nausea, fatigue, weight gain, compromised cognitive abilities, even hallucinations - I suffer from all of these.

So, let’s imagine you have a quaint little nuclear family, a mortgage, etc. and you land a high-profile, non-DC/Marvel gig like #BigTroubleinLittleChina, and you command a decent salary (by today’s standards) from whatever value your name/talent/reputation derives.

You will still likely need to work 50-60 hours a week, nearly 365 days a year to just get by.

So you want to be a comic book artist..?

My best advice to you is to find another way to make your money. Make comics for fun, and at your leisure. Make creator-owned comics, as this is some of the most rewarding work you will ever do, hands down. My books, The Secret History of DB Cooper and Hellbreak have been the most rewarding experiences I’ve had professionally. I implore everyone to do their own thing and not expect comics to pay their bills, because it likely won’t.

-BC