I’ve explained it before, elsewhere… so forgive me if you’ve read it….
Colorists work for the syndicate, not the cartoonists.
They usually get ONE HOUR’s pay to color a whole week of one comic. That’s six days, of daily strips… 10 minutes each. It’s already not a great hourly rate, so if they take more time, they’ll be lucky to make minimum wage.Some color only one strip, some do three or four…. nobody does it for a living.They have to love being part of the comics, cos there’s hardly any money in it.
Once the cartoonist submits a strip to the syndicate, it’s out of his/her hands…it never comes back for approval, or proofing, before it runs.A few cartoonists have created a small set of color codes for major characters… things like hair and skin color.. to give to the colorists. There’s very little, or no, other instruction for them, and usually no communication with the artist, to whom they’re anonymous.
Strips very occasionally go back for corrections, if the editor or colorist spots some major mistake that only the cartoonist can fix.Colorists, and even editors, are forbidden to change anything in the B/W line art themselves. But both usually have to work too quickly to read every word or catch every mistake…and there’s often no time to send something back, anyway, as there’s a lot of deadline pressure.
I’ve explained it before, elsewhere… so forgive me if you’ve read it….
Colorists work for the syndicate, not the cartoonists.
They usually get ONE HOUR’s pay to color a whole week of one comic. That’s six days, of daily strips… 10 minutes each. It’s already not a great hourly rate, so if they take more time, they’ll be lucky to make minimum wage.Some color only one strip, some do three or four…. nobody does it for a living.They have to love being part of the comics, cos there’s hardly any money in it.
Once the cartoonist submits a strip to the syndicate, it’s out of his/her hands…it never comes back for approval, or proofing, before it runs.A few cartoonists have created a small set of color codes for major characters… things like hair and skin color.. to give to the colorists. There’s very little, or no, other instruction for them, and usually no communication with the artist, to whom they’re anonymous.
Strips very occasionally go back for corrections, if the editor or colorist spots some major mistake that only the cartoonist can fix.Colorists, and even editors, are forbidden to change anything in the B/W line art themselves. But both usually have to work too quickly to read every word or catch every mistake…and there’s often no time to send something back, anyway, as there’s a lot of deadline pressure.