Making a comic with someone you've never met

Plain answers for writers hiring an artist and artists taking on paid work: what to charge, how to pay safely, and what to agree before anyone starts.

• How to pay a comic artist safelyUpfront, deposit, per page, or held until approval? How to pay a comic artist you have never met, what goes wrong, and what to agree first.
• Getting paid as a comic artistHow comic artists get burned — no deposit, ghosting, endless revisions — and how to make sure the money is there before you draw a line.
• Comic artist page rates: what to pay and chargePublished per-page rate ranges for pencils, inks, colors and letters, what moves a rate, and how to budget a 22-page issue stage by stage.
• What a comic collaboration agreement should coverScope, payment schedule, deadlines, revisions, ownership and cancellation: what a writer and artist should agree in writing, and how ours handles each.