Indy Comics Writer

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I’m trying to break into writing for comic books. It’s a tough gig, and though I’ve had some success, I’m far from satisfied.

Comic books and graphic novels are wonderful. But the industry itself is a tough, unforgiving one. Consider this: I’ve been pitching my own creator-owned series Morgan Underground — a story about a Chicago teen who finds out that her destiny may involve keeping the residents of the underground world from colliding with those of the surface world — for about half a year now. Earlier this year, I finally got the news I was waiting for: A comics publisher expressed interest in publishing the book, and actually sent a contract for me to look over.

At first I was thrilled. Who wouldn’t be? An actual publisher liked my work. An actual publisher wanted to publish it. We all know that publishers are swamped with submissions. Something about Morgan Underground stood out enough to attract the publisher’s attention.

But then reality set in. And this is the reality: It’s tough to get published in the comics world without spending a fortune. And I don’t want to spend a fortune.

Here’s the problem: The publisher didn’t want to pay page rates, to me or the artist. This meant I’d have to pay the artist to finish the story — unless the artist wanted to do something crazy like draw more than 100 pages for free — and then hope that the book would quickly make enough money to cover that cost.

And in the tough world of independent comics and graphic novels, big profits are pretty rare.

So, as much as it pains me to do so, I’ll be turning down this offer. I need to find that rarest of publishers for Morgan Undergound: One who pays page rates. This means I’ll probably have to go outside the comics industry and target mainstream publishers seeking to expand their offerings of graphic novels. Image, generally regarded as the third largest comics publisher — after their mostly untouchable Marvel and DC — doesn’t even pay page rates.

Still, it was nice to know that a publisher did like Morgan Underground enough to take a chance on it. I’ll keep plugging away.

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