Hi!
No problem. I actually just meat: don’t mention that.
Comics get very, very little revenue. Webcomics, even less. With about 2k subbers on the course of a whole year I earned roughly... 50$.
I know a lot of others had the same experience, if not worse.
Webcomics don’t make a lot of cash, and that’s alright. We don’t go into them expecting to be paid the big bucks, but when a writer mentions the 50/50 split it does two things:
1. Tells us they’re inexperienced. Earning about $1 a page is completely meaningless. If the writer tries to sell us on joining their project for that $1, it likely means they’re inexperienced enough/haven’t done any research into webcomics to know that’s all we’re going to earn, which makes them seem a lot more unprofessional and honestly reads like a bad joke.
2. Tells us they don’t understand the workload. At the end of the day, writers are probably the most crucial part of the comics process (in my personal opinion)- a story can stand without artwork, but sequential artwork can’t happen without a story. However, in terms of hands-on time with the project, a single page, a single conversation, can take hours and hours of work. If we were being paid hourly, the artist would get paid a fair % more than the writer, due to worktime alone. If we’re talking true money being put into the project, if somehow the webcomic became the next Homestuck, the artist would be at a massive disadvantage.
In terms of looking for an artist, I’d say... Unproft pay or don’t mention pay at all. If you’re able to, look for an artist with their rates in mind. If you can’t pay them, look for an artist who’s willing to do an unpaid opportunity. Be upfront about it, be honest, treat them with respect.
I strongly reccomend looking at this thread (at least the beggining, it trails off a bit after awhile). I wrote my own extremely long post about unpaid collaborations there as well-