Why are there so many "Looking For Artist" Collabs?

[SplashOfExpression]

Whenever I'm browsing through tapas forums, I see a lot of collabs that say "Writer for hire" or "Writer looking for artist" but I see almost no "Artist looking for Writer", and whenever there is one, it's almost always taken immediately. Does anyone know why? I'm just curious.

[Wocalich]

Writers looking for artists are larger in number than artists looking for writers.

[ninjashira]

Tons and tons of people have great story ideas or want to make a comic, but lack the drawing skills (or the initiative to learn said drawing skills) to do it on their own. They also usually lack the professional quality and contacts to get their script in front of a publisher, and also lack the money to afford to hire an artist, so they try to seek out free collaborations.

On the flip side, most artists who can draw comics also have their own ideas for the stories they want to tell, so they are less frequently looking for a writer to tell them what to draw - they're going to draw the stories they have in their own heads, rather than someone else's.

For every 100 writers who have the next big comic idea, there is maybe 1 artist who has the time and talent to draw that comic and also doesn't want or need to get paid for their weeks and weeks of drawing time.

[skicoak]

@ninjashira Is correct... Though I would of used more quotes around "next big comics idea" since the inexperience of these writers and misconceptions about the industry frequently make any chance of collaboration more work than it's worth.

There should be hundreds of writers on here paying artists to do 4 to 6 page short stories before trying to sell themselves and their "next big comics idea".

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

Can confirm. I've seldom met an artist that didn't have plenty of stories of their own bubbling around in their heads. Those that don't usually aren't looking to draw comics -- they're doing things like portraits or more conceptual pieces.

[SplashOfExpression]

Thanks! This really cleared up a lot!

[SplashOfExpression]

Yeah, that's why I practice my art and my writing, I don't want to be like that!

[Kaydreamer]

It's especially frustrating when it's abundantly clear the 'writer' has no clue how to write, from terrible grammar, to lazy capitalisation, to bland, trope-driven story ideas. And they'll pay through 'revenue split', as though revenue is at all likely in this scenario. (Given that if they find any artist at all, it'll be a very inexperienced one.)

I honestly feel both frustrated by the abundance of these topics, but also rather sad for the writer (and potential artist) in question. If a collab is formed, it's only going to fall in a heap once both parties realise that revenue isn't going to happen, and that neither the art nor story are of a high enough quality to capture an audience. It's a hard, painful lesson to learn, and it could put these people off creating comics in the future. Not to mention all the wasted time and effort, especially on the part of the artist.

They're setting themselves up for a painful time, and it's difficult not to say anything to inform both parties that they're just not at that level yet.