What's a reasonable page rate for a small, local comic publisher?

[MilkCat]

I was recently scouted by a small, local comic publisher and was offered a commission-type deal to produce a short story comic (and possibly longer comics). I made sure to research them, and luckily they are completely legit. Functional website, professional business emails, proper reviews of their comics on other sites, a couple fan pages, active social media, didn't show up on any artist beware sites, etc.

Thing is, I'm a complete newbie to the professional comic world and I've never freelanced for this type of work before. I haven't offered a page rate yet because I'm honestly not sure what to offer. I think I'll be doing almost everything on my own, including full coloring and rendering, with a semi-detailed cartoon style similar to the top western-style comics on Webtoon. Most of the fair page rate websites I've visited mainly list prices for large studios like Marvel, and I know their rates ($300-$500) most likely won't slide with a publisher this small. I can't really find any good sources on how small, indie publishers typically pay artists. I've seen everything from $20-$200 recommended, but that's a huge gap.

Any advice or recommendations for further research?

[SleepingPoppy]

I think the best approach here is to try and estimate how many hours, on average, a page takes you to complete, and then apply an hourly wage to that, and you have a decent estimate for cost per-page. Your time has value, even if you're a newbie, so pick an hourly above minimum wage.

If you're doing a full color comic by yourself the price is going to be a little steeper, and that's okay.

[ninjashira]

Entry-level page rates for companies like IDW and Comics Experience start at $80/page for pencils, inks, and sometimes colors. I think anywhere between $80-$100 is a good price for entry-level small press publishing. It's up to you to determine if that page rate is worth the time it takes you to finish them.

Best of luck!

[Kaydreamer]

I'm being paid $80 per page just as a colourist, and that's with a tiny indie team, so I'd be asking minimum $200 per page from a small publisher. That's Australian dollars.

I usually go off this table, which is from the Australian Society of Authors.

Basically, if it doesn't even out to at least minimum wage per hour, I won't do it. I need to eat.