1 page in a couple of days

[NP]

While browsing through POW! I came across an interesting letter from Jeff Bush of, I think, Middlesex, who asked how long it took to draw a comic page. The answer startled me a bit! They reckoned that with practice, you should be able to do a page in TWO DAYS! (This was for a 'funny' page!) Now, apart from seeming seriously lethargic, this leisurely pace reminds me that you could make a decent living drawing 2 pages a week in 1967, which you really CAN'T do today! Just thought you'd all like to know! Did Jeff Bush ever become a comic artist like he wanted to?

[Lew Stringer]

One page in two days sounds about right to me, Quicksilver! Although back then pages were drawn twice up with more panels of course.

I know some Pow! humour artists were getting £20 a page, and some higher than that, so if an artist could do 2 pages a week that'd be very good money for 1967.

I don't think Jeff Bush made it by the way. Never heard of him. (Now I bet he'll post here and tell me he changed his name to Alex Ross or something. )

Lew

[stevezodiac]

I remember reading once that Jack Kirby was one of the faster American comic artists. When you consider that Jack was drawing Thor, FF, Captain America (50 pages all tolled) and probably doing layouts on a couple of other strips I can't imagine him getting much done in a month on a page a day. (The Dreaded Deadline Doom?) And the Marvel art was a lot more complex than UK humour stuff. So in conclusion i'd say a page a day was pretty poor for a UK artist. I now await being put in my place by a miffed pensman.

[Lew Stringer]

I remember reading once that Jack Kirby was one of the faster American comic artists. When you consider that Jack was drawing Thor, FF, Captain America (50 pages all tolled) and probably doing layouts on a couple of other strips I can't imagine him getting much done in a month on a page a day. (The Dreaded Deadline Doom?) And the Marvel art was a lot more complex than UK humour stuff. So in conclusion i'd say a page a day was pretty poor for a UK artist. I now await being put in my place by a miffed pensman.

I'm sure you're just playing devil's advocate there but in case you weren't aware, Jack wasn't inking his own work, there were less panels on a page, and it was no more complex than most British humour comic pages of the time. Not that I'm dismissing Kirby, - I've been a huge fan of his work for over 40 years, - but he was exceptionally fast compared to many other U.S. artists.

I don't want to turn this into a p*ssing contest but throughout the sixties Dudley Watkins was penciling and inking at least 7 pages a week, plus annuals and summer special jobs. The moral being that, as gunfighters found, there's always someone faster.

Lew

[Brendan McGuire]

I'm really tempted to shout "draw"!

[THE MOOSE]

How did artists like Neal Adams, who was reportedly very slow (and amazing) manage to make ends meet in the 70s on his page output? Were rates different for more detailed / adventure type work as oppossed to cartooning type work or did it all depend on combinations of art styles and numbers of comics sold of a title?

[Raven]

How did artists like Neal Adams, who was reportedly very slow (and amazing) manage to make ends meet in the 70s on his page output? Were rates different for more detailed / adventure type work as oppossed to cartooning type work or did it all depend on combinations of art styles and numbers of comics sold of a title?

I suspect the big American companies paid significantly higher page rates than the Uk ones.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

In the UK, top artists like WATKINS, KEN REID or LEO BAXENDALE earned correspondingly top rates: LEO'S work often took him longer to finish than most artists, -----you simply can't rush work like his top-quality stuff.

WATKINS did get some help in later years, but as far as I'm aware it was only mechanical elements [like filling in blacks] that can be done by any capable artist: his output was still impressive [as LEW points out], but I found it a bit inconsistent; wavering between OK passable -quality stuff on things like 'GINGER' to much more accomplished, detailed work on the 'BROONS' or 'DESPERATE DAN'.

BOB NIXON also had his son helping him with blacks in the 80s [he often left an 'x' on the area to be filled in, which occassionally ---though not obviously----made it to the finished artwork.]

The US in general pay/have paid better than over here, and I know this is a UK site, but a FEW syndicated newspaper strip artists over there have made true fortunes if their strip is taken on by thousands of newspapers worldwide :['PEANUTS', 'GARFIELD' 'FAR SIDE' etc]--------these artists made millions [and still do, even with reprints] because they came up with a unique, winning idea that took off with the public; ----which is not, in general, how the UK COMICS system operates.

[Kashgar]

In order to keep up his astonishing output by the 1960's Dudley Watkins reduced the amount of detail in his strips considerably and this is nowhere more true than in his 'ensemble' strips Lord Snooty and the Broons. In fact when Watkin's agreed to revive Lord Snooty in 1964, after years of reprints, it was on the understanding that, for the most part, scripwriters would supply him with as many strips as they could that allowed for him not to have to draw the whole nine-piece Snooty gang every week. Similarly in later years many of the Broons strips would only feature a fraction of the family every week in order to reduce his workload.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

DUDLEY would still occassioally come up with elaborate work in his later years, kashgar.....for example, in 1969 there were a series of 'historical' 'BIFFO' covers [with his ancestors depicted in detaied, REGENCY outfits, etc]-----I also felt his work had evolved naturally in later years, and many artists streamline their work over time as they become more skilled in composition and layout......it's certainly an interesting point you have made about scripts deliberately 'scaling down' character appearences, however.

[philcom55]

There was a point during the 1960s when all the major US publishers reduced the size of original artwork leading to a general lessening of detail in the printed results. This proved to be surprisingly advantageous for some artists like Joe Kubert in that it encouraged them to loosen up their style and concentrate on essentials, yet others like Steve Ditko were never really the same again.

I wonder if something similar happened at DC Thomson?

- Phil R.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

THOMSON'S comics work [in terms of artwork size] have definately 'scaled down' in general: during the 70s, there were still many pages drawn to a larger scale [sorry I dunno the exact dimensions]------the current A3 sized-artwork appeared to become standard by the early 80s.

[tonyodonnell]

As regards Neal Adams, I think he was a relatively fast and of course a very high quality, penciller..but from interviews I read with him, although he hardly ever admits to missing deadlines, he was always BUSY outside of Comics with Continuity Studios doing advertising work- storyboards and such like.
I think Lew is correct,in that at least during the 1950's, 1960,s and even partway through the 1970's - British comic strip artists were better paid than the Americans.
I think TV21 and Look-in were the best-payers and probably Eagle as well.
I think by the 1980's the standard rate of output on Adventure Strips was 3 pages a week, I remember visiting the Temple Art Agency and seeing all the originals before they were delivered to the publishers and being told that some artists did an extra two pages a week in their 'fast' style on perhaps a less important Comic - or they ghosted for an Artist who was behind schedule. I had the pleasure of seeing some Ron Smith and John Richardson originals and also some amazing Advertising work that Mike McMahon had just sent in..this was at the tail end of 1981.
I think this is when things started to change..American Comics pay improved slightly and there began a decline in the number of British Comics being published and more and more 2ooo AD artists followed Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons lead in working for the DC and Marvel.

[philcom55]

I think TV21 and Look-in were the best-payers and probably Eagle as well.

Yes. When Frank Bellamy was drawing 'Dan Dare' and then 'Heros the Spartan' for Eagle he couldn't even manage two pages a week so he was assisted on the former by Don Harley and Bruce Cornwell while the latter was split between him and Luis Bermejo. Nevertheless he seemed to make a decent living.

Also I remember Ron Smith saying that he worked for a time on a western strip for an American agency but gave it up because he found that his British work was better paid.

- Phil R.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

'ANDY CAPP' creator REG SMYTHE reportedly earned £1000 p/w in the 60s, which must have been fabulous money then......but it was through an American syndicate.