Disappearing Artists
The flip side of the “page rate” discussion is what happens when a writer / producer commissions an artist and he / she just disappears. I can attest this happens a lot. I’ll find an artist I like, negotiate a page rate, write a script (often tailored for that specific artist’s style), send it along and then… nothing.
I’m currently going through this with two different artists. With one, I’ve sent 6 emails in the last month with no reply. He’s a recognizable industry name, a professional artist who (so he said) really liked my script and who told me he had already roughed out a few pages. So being the gullible guy I am I thought we would be working together. Luckily, I didn’t send him any money yet (although that’s happened too), and it's a small commission that I can easily switch to another artist.
Most likely the situation is that the artist agreed to a rate below what he ideally wanted because it seemed like a fun project, and
then he got busy and regretted his decision. I understand that, but can't understand why he can’t be upfront about it. Refusing to answer emails is just unprofessional.
So… if you’re an artist in this position, please do us writer / producers a favor and let us know what's going on. If you tell me that you got busy, or other things came up I can understand. But just blowing someone off without the courtesy of a reply is rude and unprofessional.
The other repercussion is that these experiences affect my attitude towards other artists. If I find a new artist I’m always thinking in the back of my mind “Is this guy really serious, or is he just jerking me around?” For that reason I tend to give new artists small commissions that won’t hurt me financially if they fall through. So one artist blowing off a project affects other artists too.
Luckily most of my experiences with artists have been really great. But the few bad seeds can make it harder for everyone else.
Comments
This is why I won't work with a guy unless he's as fully invested in the project as I am, creatively speaking. I would never hire a guy (or gal) just to draw a book unless he was turned on by the concept and truly excited about molding it with me.
Not to say I haven't had artists vanish for months at a time. HAWAIIAN DICK co-creator Steven Griffin is currently AWOL, which isn't all that unusual. But I trust that he'll show up again to help me put the new book together. Mainly I just hope he's doing well.
I worry about this all the time. Even right now, I'm in a vaguely similar situation with my Eastsiders artist. Once his schedule freed up, he jumped on doing great character sketches, thumbnail layouts, etc., and all was good for a few weeks, with about 1 new page of pencils coming each week ... until the well seems to have run dry a few weeks ago. While I'm not in a huge rush to get this done, I do fear that he got distracted by either a better paying gig or who knows what, and he's already been paid a deposit up front, so ... yeah. I'm not too concerned about it right now, with the holidays and everything, but it's still a minor annoyance (for now).
But it's part of doing business the way we do these days. Collaborating with people we've never met. Putting trust into situations with people you hope hold the same ethical standards as you.
However, I have had an inker who is actually a personal acquaintance "disappear" for a month on a hard deadline project, forcing me to hire someone last minute. So I guess "who you know" isn't a great indicator of reliability either.
I don't pay anyone anything, aside from the occasional letterer or colorist, but I have killed projects or let them languish eternally when artists have gotten too busy or too psychologically twisted in knots (which happens with talented folks) to produce steady work.
There's always another idea around the corner.
As I remember, the way I handled it with Ozzy on Captain Miracle (29-page one-shot) was a small advance (I think it was $100) to get started, so he had my PayPal info and knew I really had money. Then he'd mail me roughs/pencils which I'd approve (sometimes with notes), he'd mail me medium-res inked pages a few at a time which I'd pay him for, repeat until done, when he snail-mailed me a CD with clean full-res scans and I sent him his completion bonus (again not huge). Not iron-clad from either perspective, but enough to give each other reassurance along the way.
Three or four years passed. Another artist acquaintance was looking for short stories to practice on, and I remembered the script I had done way back when. Waste not, want not, am I right? I sent off the old script to the new artist, and patted myself on the back for my cleverness. You can see where this is going...
Barely a week later, I got a package in the mail from the original artist, with the finished artwork and a note saying "Hey, remember me? Guess what I finally had time to finish?" I briefly went into panic mode, thinking that no matter what I did, one or both of these people were going to think I'd been jerking them around or wasting their time. But of course, it was no big deal, and everything worked out. The second artist hadn't even begun working on it yet, so I wrote them a new script, which they said they liked better anyway. Both stories turned out great. The moral here? I dunno, other than when you say "there's no deadline", you better mean it...
The really awkward thing was that said artist was recommended to me, a friend of a friend. In the end, technical issues on his end as well as his admittance that he was unprepared for drawing since all he'd ever done before were a few random fanart pieces/one-pages, killed the project. We parted somewhat amicably (when I finally got around to hearing back from him).
The project was/is a big one, the writer is absolutely committed to it personally. Still, to this day. I'm keeping an eye out for possible candidates who might be a better fit for them, though...