The 2023 Comics Worker Survey
The Co-op committee is excited to share The 2023 Comics Worker Survey for workers based in the US! We’re tracking page rates, advances, royalties, and more! We’re following in the footsteps of organizations like CreatorResource.com, https://fairpagerates.com and https://litebox.info with this survey and are looking forward to making this an annual report so we can track rate developments going forward.
Pay transparency is crucial to uncovering patterns in pay inequity and learning what publishers and clients can ACTUALLY pay us. This will help us as we move forward in fighting for livable pay rates for everyone working in comics. If you missed it the past few weeks, the hashtag #comicsbrokeme took Twitter by storm after the untimely death of Ian McGinty. You can see some summarized coverage at The Mary Sue, The Vulture, and The Comics Beat.
Though this survey is currently only for US workers, we will hold an international comics worker survey in the future.
If you’re making any income through comics work, we encourage you to take the survey here and share it with your fellow comics worker!
https://cartoonist.coop/2023survey
The Co-op Talent Database
The Cartoonist Co-op is happy to launch our Co-op Talent Database! We hope this new feature will help employers find comics workers by providing a searchable directory, portfolio samples, genre tags, and contact information. Click to find a Co-op member to work with today!
The Co-op Staff
Though our founders are listed in our FAQ section, we decided to add a whole Staff page to the website to more easily see who’s involved, including our moderators, editors and other volunteers!
Opportunities
- Discord Comics is seeking submissions from artists, writers and teams for 11-21 page long comics ready for two polyamory anthologies for a joint Kickstarter launching Summer 2024. Deadline is July 15th.
- The Walter Dean Myers Grant program was established to provide grants of $2,000 each to promising diverse writers and illustrators who are currently unpublished. Applicant must be working toward a career as a children’s author and/or illustrator. This includes but is not limited to: Picture Books, Early Reader Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade Books, Young Adult, Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction, Poetry. Deadline is June 30th.
- The 2023 First Graphic Novel Award is for debut authors: comics creators, cartoonists, or writers and artists who have not previously had a full-length graphic novel published. The winner will be offered a contract by SelfMadeHero to complete their work for publication, and will also be awarded a £500 cash prize sponsored by The bks Agency. Submissions close September 14th.
- Shortbox has four mini-grants of £300 each available to Muslim cartoonists/comic creators. Email info@shortbox.co.uk with your site/portfolio/work samples (you don’t have to be published), and ‘SB mini grant’ as subject. Open worldwide, deadline is 14th July.
- The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo will award 15 MICE Mini-Grants of $100 each! In addition, a Special Guest Judge will select one of these winners to receive a Grand Prize: a total grant of $500. MICE 2023 exhibitors are encouraged to submit new self-published print mini-comics for consideration through Friday, August 18, 2023.
- Thought Bubble, in partnership with the Travelling Man chain of comics shops, will be providing three sets of micro-bursaries again this year. Five will be available in each of the following categories: Disabled Creators, Creators of Color and Trans/Non-Binary Creators. Each selected recipients will receive: Table space at Thought Bubble Comic Convention 2023 to exhibit and sell their work, £200 in cash, and will be showcased on our website and social media. Creators can be at any stage of their careers, but must be at least working towards creating comics work. Deadline for entrants is Midnight BST June 14 2023.
- SpiderForest is taking applications now, until June 30th, 2023, Pacific Daylight Time. SpiderForest is a creator-run, volunteer-driven webcomic collective spanning genres, art styles, and continents. Our creators include artists and writers with decades of experience, as well as new voices. Together, we vet, curate, and promote high-quality and free-to-read webcomics.
- Applications for Seattle’s Short Run Comics and Arts Festival are open from June 1 – July 31.
- Pixelatl presenta esta muestra de los cómic y novelas gráficas de autores Mexicanos publicados entre 2019 y 2022. SecuenciArte es una convocatoria anual por Pixelatl donde los finalistas de cada generación reciben como premio la publicación de su obra. Hacemos esta compilatorio para que conozcan a los talentosos autores que dan vida a este proyecto de cómic mexicano independiente.
