Paying for Art for Manhwa - what is the cost?

[kahlid74]

Hello and good morning. I have a quick question that I saw a couple answers on but I was hoping to get a more detailed answer too. If it's impossible to provide that, I understand but I'm hoping those in the community might have a couple ideas on it.

I read through @silverraven0 collaboration/partnership thread and it was awesome, but it stated ~$200 per comic page as a starting price with fluctuations relative to quality, etc.. I however couldn't deduce if that was by US/American Comic page, Manga page or Manhwa page?

So my question is, what would be the going rate for an artist to draw a complete Manhwa episode (30-40 images in vertical scroll style) of Breaker, Solo Leveling, Trinity Wonder level? Are artists at this level generally already locked into publishers, etc? or can I find them in the wild?

I know what I'm asking, and I fully understand that this could be expensive, and I'm cool with that. What I'm trying to gauge myself on, is at a budget of $12-24k, can I afford ~32-48 completed Manhwa's in a year or is that not enough to cover that level of work by an artist?

Thanks for your time in reading this and responding and my apologies if I didn't see a thread

[JackSherwin]

So let me just start withh the basic rate for pay for those artist are around $500 per Chapter, of the artist that you mentioned. Reason?

that amount of work is a full time Job, if you were doing a chapter a week this would allow the author to live of $2000 dollers a month

Now if you are looking online though you can uselly find some artist at a smiliar level for less. Maybe someone who has spare time but woudnt be able to pump out as much pages due to other commintments. maybe even an art student at university but again they may be unreliable.

or the other thing is there are plently of talented artist form idonesia, china, phillipnes were the cost of living is less in thier country so they are able to work full time for less. These countries genreally speak really good english these days.

So yes you can find them in the wild or you just pay the price for it.

[kahlid74]

@JackSherwin thank you so much! I was figuring 250-1000 per Comic and your confirmation of $500 give or take is rocksauce both on my expectations and hopes.

For both avenues, where would I go to find an artist I could collaborate with in that regard? Would these Tapas boards be good for one of those avenues?

Thanks again for your time!

[lwflouisa]

Way I look at it though, $200 a page for 50 pages is a rip off though, if you're paying that artist, but you're not being payed yourself on a web comic. You might as well draw it yourself at that point, that's what I'm doing at the moment.

[kahlid74]

Thanks for the reply @lwflouisa. I am a horrid artist and would rather pay another to do an awesome job than train/teach myself to do a mediocre job. But thanks for the suggestion!

[faeriesandents]

If you're going for comic pages rather than scroll format, at US$200 you're at the high quality range. Most comic artists will go for anywhere between $70 to $200, often with a cover separately.

On the other hand for scroll format, you usually pay per panel, at which point the usual price is $8-10 per panel for an entry level, easily going up with experience to $15-20 per panel.
So for an episode of 30 panels you'd look at a minimum wage of $240-300 and quality range of $450-600.
Then, of course, you'd still not be sure if your own writing catches on, I suggest going for selfpublishing your novel first or start with shorter stories with an artist. A longterm collab/work for hire job is often best tried out with only a short test run of say... 6-10 pages.
That way you're not going to be financially destroyed by a product you might not even like in the end, and the artist isn't immediately stuck in a project he might hate from the start but is now stuck on for several years.

[Hodge]

The artists you listed are some of the very best in the industry right now, with a lot of professional comic/webtoon experience already, and in the case of Solo Leveling, working with a comic studio team (REDICE) adapting already successful light novels.

But let's say you do find a really good artist that is available for a longer full-time project and is willing to take on the challenge of a webtoon. I would say 2k/month is minimum, and then splitting revenue in their favor. It would also help if you have experience yourself, social media presence, willing to help /hire assistants, and already have contact with a publisher. And of course, you'd need a story that the artist enjoys and believes in.

I say all that because its my own standard, and I'm practically a nobody haha. I think with your budget you can get an artist that has the potential, but you'd probably have to approach it as building up a relationship where you figure it out as you go. Starting out with smaller projects with more focus on improvement/learning the craft and then taking on an ambitious project later might be the smarter way to go about it than expecting to find someone who already knows what they're doing. Also, you're probably going to have to go through a few artists before you find someone that is dedicated, responsive, can meet deadlines, trustworthy, etc.

[SedateCanopy]

Filipino here. For easier understanding of our convertions, a single US dollar is equal to a lunch set here. I'm a college student and my school money is relatively, just 2 dollars per day.

[kahlid74]

Thank you @faeriesandents for your information. While I feel like my story is epic and grandiose and why wouldn't anyone want to read it/follow along holy shit you're right, what if I start it and then hate it. I can always kill it but how far should I get into it before I realize i don't want to continue. Very solid points, well taken.

@Hodge Thank you good sir, the team thing was what I kept thinking of, as the quality was ridiculously good. Also, the $2k was what I kind of also figured, for that level of quality. Finally the relationship building being one of the big keys, is how I will progress. I personally don't really want to share my story widely, as I want it to be a Manhwa before a novel, but this is something I need to get over personally I think.

Thanks again all for your awesome responses.

[kumotea]

It is not a rip off. It truly depends on the artists and their skills and technique to execute a quality comic. 200 per page helps pay rent and bills. Not to mention, you have to look into the fact that a single artist might have to take on the comic, so that means they'll have to sketch, ink, and color. If you think an artist should be paid less just because the writer is not getting paid as much or at all, then it is a good idea that you and those who think that way should work on their own. Please do research.