the comic industry in america seems bad but i honestly have no clue
what's their work look like?

Without knowing the art and timelapse of his page, his rambling can or cannot be justified, it's subjective.
As an example, if OP takes his sweet time and a comic pages takes him the whole month, that page would cost $4.4k and yes it would be overpriced.
If he can churn two pages, each page would cost $2.2k, and so on

>>7937582
https://x.com/Eskivoart/media

>>7937555
You're not entitled to a minimum wage if you're selling your own product.
If you were to hire someone, you have to pay them a minimum wage. These laws exist to prevent slavery, but you cannot enslave yourself, so there is no law for paying yourself less than minimum wage.

Furthermore only a fool would pursue comics as a career and not a pipe dream. Your chances of success are tiny. It's like complaining that you pursued being a rockstar as a career and you can't pay the bills, nobody owes anything.

>>7937594
>If you were to hire someone, you have to pay them a minimum wage. These laws exist to prevent slavery, but you cannot enslave yourself, so there is no law for paying yourself less than minimum wage.
damn nigga, that was real

>>7937586
Just looking at his art, he's really damn good. Maybe he just draws slowly.

>>7937586
whitout knowing the art AND TIMELAPSE OF HIS PAGE, HIS RAMBLING CAN OR CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED, IT'S SUBJECTIVE

>>7937586
/beg/ here. I'd commission him, if I had a cool idea that fit his art.

Yeah, it's tough, but what the hell can you do? You can't make people give you money. If people don't want to pay, then they won't. That's called a "failed business", and it happens all the time. Frustrating, but that's reality.
Anyway if I could recommend him something it would be to look abroad. Thankfully, you're not locked into your local for jobs in this field. He's skilled, I'm sure he can find work in Europe or Asia. Making minimum wage will no doubt still be an issue, but the struggle is part-and-parcel with the arts. It's not a comics thing.

Why not open a Patreon at that point? He is insanely good but has that wageslave mindset.

>>7937555
It's pretty bad. Being an indie comics creator basically mean you aren't going to make money. There's a lot of reasons for this, like comics distribution being absolute dogshit thanks to Diamond's fuckery relegating comics to specialty stores. Manga has more shelf space at stores like Wal-mart than comics(and the comics they do carry are big two slop), and there are no meaningful inroads to broad readership. When I was a kid, you could find floppies at EVERY checkout, from convenience stores to grocery and department stores and everything inbetween. Companies also don't make cheaply available comic anymore either; everything is printed on high-end glossy paper and costs upwards of $5 for 24 pages, half of which will be ads. And with the way suits look at stuff, creator owned comics that don't organically get big on their own first have no hope of ever seeing an adaptation that could bring more attention to them.
It's wild to me no one is making anthology comics on cheap newsprint, and pushing them at checkouts everywhere they can get them. Japan has shown it's a format that works, and the success of manga in the US shows there IS demand for comics, but no one seems to want to make it in a format that's affordable and accessible. So instead the big two are slowly spiraling the drain, with everyone else following them down.

>>7937586
unsurprising

>>7937872
I remember when I visited japan, pretty much any stall that'd carry newspapers would also have jump and similar. Even in train platforms there were little snacks and news shops that sold them, I could grab the newest issue no matter where I was, and I didn't have to keep track of when a new one would come out because I'd just see it every few feet.
Capeshit you need to go out of your way to visit a comic store, and know ahead of time the release schedule, and then hope they actually have stock of it, otherwise you gotta go to the other side of town to check a different comic store.
Also like you mention, quality/price. I can buy a brick of mangaslop for dirt cheap and get a chapter from like 20 different series. I can keep up with the ones I enjoy and maybe get hooked on a couple new ones. For capeshit you are spending good money on a single issue of a single story, and there's more friction in trying to buy into a different series if it requires a separate purchase.
Another advantage of manga, is that these magazines act as trial by fire. They can throw a bunch of first-timer series and give them a few issues, see if they grow a fanbase before being cancelled, instead of some out of touch jew handpicking what makes it to print and what doesn't.

>>7937555
Honestly move to a US city where houses are less expensive unless you have an industry job

>>7937872
You're right but you can also sell your comic as a kindle, print your own volumes and sell them through Amazon/shopify

>>7937891
That's true for the big magazines but most small publications nowadays publish digitally either exclusively or primarily

Some mangakas don't only get digital collected volumes if they are with a small publisher and their series isn't popular

>>7937555
>Fuck the big corpos, I'm gonna sell directly to the people.
>Fuck the people, they won't pay what the big corpos do.
>"Hey, faggot scab, stop undercutting me. What are you, a big corpo?"

Why not get a domain name, make your comics and post them there, gather a following, and peddle merchandise to them?

You own your Intellectual Property, and keep every dime of profit.

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>>7937555
if this kind of skill is struggling for work in the comic industry, imagine all the /permaprebegs/ delusional at a shot at being professional artists lmao

>>7938102
Being delulu is a reason to keep living on this planet.

>>7938102
skill isn't everything this style is outdated and unappealing for modern audience

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>>7938122
>You can only make it as an art now if you draw pinups of studio trigger tranime girls in a white void
Grim

>>7938137
>kill your video game since return of the lich king
>YoU cNa OnlY MakeeITudu TRRRANIEMEE

They did this to themselves dude. These people truly do not know how to treat their intellectual property.

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>>7938137
Yes

>>7937555
>>7937679
Art simply ain't valued in the West anyone.

>>7937586
Rofl do people UNIRONICALLY think this looks good or even "cool"?
I'm not surprised he's struggling with money go back to anatomy classes and develop some actual rigor and discipline you whiny retarded faggot

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>>7938228

>>7938137
>>7938158
Thisnigga unironically has better grasp on composition and simple proportions than shit like OP >>7938102 >>7938230 who just compensates for his shortcomings in these infinitely more appealing aspects by overrendering as many muscle groups kek
Remember kids composition>proportions>value>color

>>7937555
>Is making a living as an artist a no go?
ftfy
The starving artist trope is real, only the top 1% makes it financially

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I'm amazed at how many of you retards are willing to blame a single artists' supposed lack of skill when the vast majority of you can't even properly draw a Loomis head. The majority of people don't buy comics anymore and even when they try to get into comics, they find the barrier to entry too difficult (i.e. "where do I start," "how do I get into Marvel/DC," etc). With manga, you just need to start with the first volume. It also doesn't help that when a comic finally gets adapted into a show like the Walked Dead or The Boys, the original story is treated as just a template, not a story that should be faithfully adapted. Why do you think the Walking Dead has seven different spin-off shows? Comics just don't have the same level of respect (which also means investment) here in North America as they do in Asia. Of course it's going to be impossible to make a living as a comic book artist and writer in America when it doesn't have the same cultural impact it once had, especially when you're also competing with Webtoons/Webcomics, indie games, and indie animation in a globalized market! This is coming from someone who is sick and tired of bugged-eyed anime characters everywhere, but I have to deal with it because it has mass appeal and the majority of it is very marketable and normie-friendly.

>>7938053
>You're right but you can also sell your comic as a kindle, print your own volumes and sell them through Amazon/shopify
Good luck with marketing that shit. If you don't already have a following willing to pay for your work you aren't going to get shit, and if you do, why not just use patreon or gumroad? There isn't any sort of organic growth on amazon.

>>7938093
You're asking why not just win the lottery. All that's great if you do manage to build enough of a paying readership willing to support you, but making it a lot harder for yourself to do so.

>>7938320
Of course you need a following online

I think it works to publish stuff on twitter in hope to go viral and then sell collected volumes

>>7938228
9/10 times whenever someone is complaining about lack of work, their art isn't up to par. I rarely see someone with genuine professional level art have a hard time and if you're creative then that's a multiplier. There's also the soft skills you have to develop but it really just comes down to not being an ass.

>>7937555
imagine being a mangaka, americans are as soft as a pudgy fat kid

>>7937555
>American comic artist complaining about America

many such common cases

Start local. Make a small goofy comic, print it out, and leave copies in places like headshops, tattoo parlors, or anywhere that fits the vibe. Add your website or contact info so people can find more of your work. It's usually less saturated than posting online, and you will have to put some investment into it, but people are more likely to remember something they physically picked up.

Also, talk to people about it. Be excited about your project. A lot of building an audience comes from the energy you bring to it.

>>7937555
>prices
If that artist put half as much insight into their indie comic's story as they did their shitter sob story then they would have a more successful indie comic.

Nobody gives a shit about how pretty you can draw character-in-a-void if you don't have a good story.
Go on, test my theory, I'll give you easy mode
>think of a popular traditional artist you like
>what can you recall faster
>title of 5 of their works
>or
>an anecdote of their life
On top of that, most indie books need to be edited with a claw hammer before they get anywhere near a printer but most indie artists are only so because they would consider that an affront to their special turd baby.

>>7938709
>Nobody gives a shit about how pretty you can draw character-in-a-void if you don't have a good story.
You don't even need a good story - arguably it can be a liability in some cases. What you need is a compelling story. Shounen battle manga isn't popular for the high standards of the writing.

>>7938748
Most people would be fine with that but thats why western comics are dying
You should never do things half-assed even if its something simple like aping another story

>>7937555
anyone committed to drawing superhero slop and blizzard slop in current year is probably unpleasant and a little pathetic irl. it doesnt even make as much money as simpler forms and rendering so they are usually just manchildren who never bothered to learn different styles, probably really hard to work with.

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>>7938534
Oh its possible. This guy is doing it,and has been for over a dozen years.

>>7937555
who posted this, their online personality and how they interact with the audience matters and should be revealed.