A recent job offer, I need ADVICE......

[FIG]

.........Okay, judging from the topic, you now know the subject of my thread. Recently I was approached by somebody on the 'net' to draw up a 32-page one shot for a publisher named Raven Studios because they saw one of my drawings in another art forum. The person who contacted me claims to be the writer of this 32-page story and the story is about an asassin. This writer told me he has an inker already lined up, and Raven Studios is definetly going to publish it, I'm guessing by reading his script alone. He basically wants me to create the look of the character and do the pencils for the book and told me the deadline.This writer said he didn't have any money up front but that he would offer me 45% of any profits. I told him I wanted to get a contract and make things legal and get things in writing. He said okay so currently I am typing up the contract. Another thing, he told me the url of the publisher ( Raven Studios (http://www.ravenstudios.net) )and I don't recall ever hearing of them because I really don't buy small press books but have any of you heard of this publisher? The problem now is that I am having second thoughts so the question is, what you would do? On the one hand, if i don't take a chance I may never get another offer like this for a while but on the other hand what if all my work ends up being in vain? On the positive I could have sequentials and a whole new character to call my own, possibly my first published book. On the downside maybe this is all a scam just to get me to draw some random persons character for free. So, what do you people think, is this too good to be true or would you do it?-Give me your opinions;pencil;

[Morganza]

I've been approached by the same guy to draw an erotic comic, but i had to decline because of the work load i currently have, but i did check out his site and he does have books for sale. I don't know if they are distributed nationwide to comic shops though, that alone would limit your potential income and name presence in the industry. If it feels good, and you want to go for it, then good luck to you. Then advertise it here so we can buy a copy.

[FIG]

Erotic comicbook?-EEEWWWHHHHH. How did his comics look?:confused:

[Morganza]

They didn't have any pages to look at, only covers.

[FIG]

And how were they in your opinion?-Good or bad?

[dfbovey]

Percentage of profit is always good as long as there is profit to be had. Small press companies do their best to break even on the majority of their projects, so if you are taking on this project for the money, it is a risk.

I personally don't work with those kind of terms because it is very unlikely you will see a dime. On the other hand being published is good for the resume. So it's a matter of what's important to you.

[dfbovey]

Also, don't get this studio confused with with Raven Entertainment (http://members.rogers.com/richardevans2572/welcome.htm)

[FIG]

Well I have looked at the positive side which is exactly as you stated, I would have my first publised work. The downside is I would invest lots of time into it and see little return. The next thing is that it will debut at Wizard World in Chicago next year so the deadline is pretty open. Hell with it, I'm going to go and take the gamble. :) And the link as I stated above is this
Raven Studios (http://www.ravenstudios.net) , not the company Dave is talking about, which looks cool by the way.

[Morganza]

OOPs! The guy who contacted me was from Raven Entertainment, sorry about that.

[FIG]

......Good, I truthfully don't want to be involved in any erotic comics if you know what I mean.:)

[dfbovey]

Cool, there is definately something to be said for getting your name out there as a published artist.

[Morganza]

Originally posted by FIG
......Good, I truthfully don't want to be involved in any erotic comics if you know what I mean.:)

That was only an offer for me i think, the other books seem normal, if you know what i mean:)

[dfbovey]

Yeah, Raven Entertainment is a solid studio and puts out good quality "Regular" books. I did one of the covers that Morg mentioned along with Inker Dustin Ingalls and Colorist Brian Reber (of Image Comics' "Radix" fame). The cover is for an anthology called "Lauch" and can be seen here (http://www.davidbovey.com/images/toolic.jpg)

[FIG]

Originally posted by Morganza
That was only an offer for me i think, the other books seem normal, if you know what i mean:)
You dirty young pervert. :D

Dave > Hey Dave, Raven actually does by appearance of their website and artwork seems to have high production values, I never said they didn't. I just personally wouldn't want to be involved in an erotic comic but I will go check out that link you mentioned, thanks man.;)

[dfbovey]

Until Morg mentioned it, I didn't even know Rick (Raven) was wanting to do an erotic book. I'm just saying that you probably wouldn't be doing an erotic book if you did work for Raven Entertainment. As Morg said, that story was likely written specificly for Morg, because Morg is good at drawing erotic art. Rich often does that I think, sees an artist he likes and probes to see what kind of story the artist would like to do.

Yup, Morg likes drawing boobies. :D

[FIG]

Originally posted by dfbovey
Yup, Morg likes drawing boobies. :D
So do I, so do I but I'm trying to cut back on letting that control the look of my characters.
Raven Entertainment and Raven Studios are 2 different things from what I've seen. I could be wrong. If I am then I would be very happy because like i said Raven Entertainment looks to have high production values.:)

[TheFightingFoetus]

......Good, I truthfully don't want to be involved in any erotic comics if you know what I mean.

I've had so many offers to do that stuff...and what really bugs me, is all the rednecks who tell me, that if *they* could draw, *they'd* draw porn. If I had a nickel for every time some redneck told me that...

[Mike]

Hey Fig, if you're going to go ahead with it all, try to contact the guy who's going to be inking you and see if he can ink a couple samples of your stuff so you can see how it looks. (not that you'll probably wind up with any say in it, but still... and listen to me! acting like I've done that sort of thing before.. I haven't...)

[FIG]

Thanks for the advice, Wallchamp. Ideally I would be inking my own work so that I can keep both the pencils and inks because I'd ink on vellum using a light table. The writer emailed me and told me he'd have to look for aninker but the best thing would be to go from pencils directly to coloring. I also went ahead and emailed Raven Entertainment Studios directly to see what they have to say about all this so I should be getting a response soon. :)