Ok so, I disagree with so much of this. Im an amateur writer who has been searching for an artist for several months now. I have no means to pay upfront and am relying on the 50/50 split of potential profits. I see, understand, and can appreciate where many of you are coming from. I also have contradicting opinions about a good chunk of it too.
The thing is, no matter how you look at it, if I pay an artist upfront and we agree to 50/50 for p.p. (potential profit) then in the end, the artist makes more money off my story than I do. Yes I know several here have said, "it's the writers story so they feel like they deserve more of the profit," but isn't that kinda true? Yes, without the artist it would just be words on paper, but at the same time, without the writer, it would just be pictures with no real purpose or meaning on paper.
I would never intentionally belittle a single artist, what you guys do is amazing and takes energy, time, practice, and effort. However, writing is no easy task. I doubt J.K Rowling popped out all 7 Harry Potters in a few months time. That stuff took years and was horribly taxing, I'm sure. The thing is, to simplify this as much as possible, look at it as a coloring book. The writer is the one that provides the pictures that you color. As an artist, you look at those pictures and decide what colors you want to use to fill them in. Without an writer, you just have a blank page of paper to color with your crayons.
Again, I am not trying to be insulting with that description, it is just the most simple way I can think to explain it. Even without the person coloring the pictures, there is still a book that can looked at and enjoyed. Some of you have said that even without an artist, a writer could make a novel, they just choose not to. That's true. So realistically, the artist isn't necessary for the writer to make anything worthwhile.
Furthermore, back to my original point, let's break down some math. Let's say I write a 20 page comic, beginning to total end. I pay an artist $100 a page for it. That is $2000 out of my pocket to the artist. So even before being picked up and making profit my account is at -$2000 while yours is +$2000. Now, let's say we do get picked up, webtoons gives us $1000 a month and we release the whole comic over a 10 month period, that is $10,000. Now, we have an agreement for a 50/50 split. So now you gey $5k and I get $5k. Well now my account is at $3000 and yours is at $7000. So you've made over twice as much as me on my comic. No matter how you look at it. That isn't right. Sure the comic wouldn't exist without art, but it wouldn't exist without a script either.
Some of you presumed that certain tasks should be the writers job anyways, so if I write the script, build the world, the characters, the dialogue, the plot, I do storyboards for you with my crappy level of art so you have a general idea of what I expect each panel to look like. I give you freedom to change things that look better or sound better because, I am not an artist so hoe it looks compared to sounds is not my specialty. I personally am all for changing things around to make sure it works for the artist as easily as possible. This may be "my passion project" but if it isn't easy for the artist then it might not happen at all.
I have an artist who is just struggling with finding time to work on my comic. That's ok. Life happens, I get it. I have no deadline set for this at all. If it gets made in the next five years, that is ok, it got made, I'm happy. If it gets made in a few months, I'm thrilled! I know how hard art is, I wanted to be a comic book artist and I spent a week with 2 professionals from DC and Marvel working on making comics. I learned I should not be the artist but my writing was appreciated by the pros there. My artist comes to me and says, "I think this character should look like this instead, it's more original and intriguing." I respond, "oh crap, your right. That looks way better." She has told me some parts of the scripts don't make sense to her, she edited it and I read it. She made it better. I am more than happy to take input, make changes, get advice and so on. This is my first comic, maybe when I've made thirty I won't because I'll have more experience, but this is our first comic. Period. I want it as easy for both of us as possible.
Paying upfront I don't think is fair for a 50/50 split because in the end, the artist makes money off 'my passion project' and, until there is profit, I'm in the hole. If I pay upfront, I'd make it 60/40 or 70/30 in my favor. Just to balance it back out. Some here have said, it is situational, sometimes it would be fair and other times it wouldn't. It really does depend on who you team up with. The odd thing though is I have seen several artists here looking for writers but not willing to pay them. Why do I have to pay you but I can't expect the same in return?
All in all, I think if a artist sees a story they want to work on being advertised at a 50/50 for p.p. and they don't like the 50/50, just ask if the writer would do maybe 45/55 or would be willing to pay a small amount to get the ball rolling. Just saying, "you're stupid for asking for free art and a fair share." Isn't very cool. Anywho, that's my opinion.