Making a Comic

That seems a little high.

If you can write a comic script in the right format, you can probably hire an artist for $100/page if you're not in a rush. So a normal sized 20-page comic might run you $2,000. If you're paying more than that then either you're not writing the script yourself, or you're rushing your artist, or you're being taken.

I'd suggest you just make your own comic. My first comic contained a lot of my characters from CoH, and although the art started out very rough I got better eventually. You might go the 3D rendering route also.

Unless you're trying to make money off of a comic (and you couldn't, if it were attached to this game), don't bother hiring an artist for a comic. Make it for your own enjoyment. The world is full of content consumers; it's always better to learn how to be a creator.

If you're hiring an artist to do the work, a standard 22-page story will run between $2200 and on up just for the art. You might be able to find a hungry artist who will work cheaper, though.

If you're going to print this thing in 4 color, $6000 sounds about right. I know some people who are trying to get a publishing company together, and when I first used my contacts in the printing industry to get some price quotes for them I could hear their jaws hit the table from half a continent away. (And this was back before all of the prepress work was done with computers.) Those people I know are STILL trying to get something pulled together (and it's been about 15 years since they started -- they've got other issues going on, though).

Oh, and if you're printing, you're going to want to be able to provide computer files in whatever format your printer wants. Almost all commercial printers will accept hi-res PDF files, so investing in a decent scanner would be wise.

EDIT: I should note that earlier in the post I made it sound like printing costs have gone up, and that's not entirely true. Actual printing and paper costs have risen a bit, but the prepress work has generally gone DOWN in price significantly because you no longer need to go from computer file to film to plate to press. The film part has been removed from the equation, and some new digital printers no longer even need plates. These were usually the more expensive parts of actual printing.

If anyone has any questions about printing, I'd be happy to try to answer them. I work in a different industry than comic books, but the process is the same.

$6K sounds a high to me, but it's been around 5 years since I've checked average rates. I got character designs, a logo, a color cover, and 22 pages penciled (so the artwork was just black and white) and lettered (don't forget about getting the lettering done too) for about $2500 back then.

The "right" way to do a comic script varies greatly from publisher to publisher, but if you're not trying to submit it to anyone, there's no need to bother with strictly adhering to any guidelines anyway. Last I checked, Dark Horse had some pretty straightforward samples on how to do a script on their site. But yeah, just write it yourself.

And as far as hiring an "artist" you need to be more specific. Do you want a guy that pencils, inks, and colors his own stuff? They'll rightly charge a lot more than a guy that just does pencils, or a guy that just does inking.

And fwiw, penciljack and digitalwebbing are havens for those hungry artist types.