It's Andy Fish!

It’s the time of year where Christmas Party’s are a plenty– now I’m not talking family Christmas parties because the fact that two of my sons make a living selling vintage comics, the third works part time for them, and my wife and I both draw comic books for a living this type of thing doesn’t come up much if at all.

But invariably at every Christmas Party I’ll be asked what I do for a living, and most of the time I’ll answer honestly– if I’m feeling particularly cheeky I might reply that I’m an accountant for some large insurance company which will instantly get the subject changed. But if I tell the truth at least a few of these comments/questions will come into play;

1- They still make comic books? Yes they do, non stop since 1933 and it’s the fastest growing segment of book stores, well graphic novels are which is a book bound version of comic books.

2- What do they call those comic books that are published in books that the kids read? Either see above or you’re probably thinking of Manga, which is the Asian version of comic books– even bigger sellers in those countries than they are here.

3- You must love the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe)! Not really– although for Andy Palooza ’25 I’ll be delving into some of the ones I’ve never seen. I personally like smaller movies, usually something like an Ozu Drama about real people, usually playing in tiny theaters like the Coolidge Corner in Brookline in one of their auditoriums that only has eight seats in it.

4- I had comics as a kid– boy if I’d kept them they’d be worth a fortune! Not likely, if everyone kept all their comics there would be a lot more of them around and they would not have the value they have. Condition is also very important and most kids abused their comics (I know I did).

5- Modern comics don’t have the value of old comics, right? For the most part you’re right– a copy of SUPERMAN #1 from 1939 recently sold for $9.2 Million Dollars after being discovered in a woman’s attic, but a recent copy of a Spider-Man comic which had what’s called a variant cover that had a low print run just closed at auction for $14k.

6- I always wanted to be an artist, I just didn’t have the talent. This one is one I disagree with– you didn’t have the determination. Drawing is a learned ability, up to the age of eight we are all drawing at the same level then most of us stop because we feel like we “aren’t good enough” those of us that continue on hone those skills. No different than being a carpenter.

7- What else do you do? Surely you can’t make a living as a comic book artist? No, you can ask my accountant, we certainly do. Most comics pay pretty well– usually $300 – $500 per page– if a comic book is 32 pages that’s $9600 – $16,000 per book x 12 books a year (and most artists do more than one book) bringing you to $115,200 – $192,000 annually. Graphic novels are usually 120-220 pages long and tend to pay even better. Plus there are royalties, a % of merchandising and the ability to sell original pages of art which can sell for $1,000 – $10,000 per page on the low end. The artist for the newest Batman title drew the whole book by hand to see how he would do selling the originals and on average each of the 32 pages of the book sold for $18,000 per page netting him another $576,000 (and I think I’m being ultra conservative because I seem to recall some of the pages alone selling for over $100k). So yeah, it pays OK.

8- It must be so fun to draw all the time! We’re certainly blessed, but like any job, even a job you really like, it becomes a chore. We do things to make a 16 hour workday more interesting like adding a lot of “chicken fat” into a page– extra stuff that would be what a movie would call Easter Eggs.

9- It must be so great having no commute! Yes to this. When the scamdemic hit a lot of our friends reached out to ask how we didn’t put on 200lbs, how we managed to get out of our pajamas and how we managed to get work done. You treat working from home like a job– I only work in my studio, no shopping, no napping. And I have a rule that I shower, shave and dress before morning coffee. That works for us.

10- You and your wife working together 24 hours a day must be challenging! It would be if we didn’t enjoy working together so much– but even then we each have our own studio space so we’re a floor apart everyday– we actually talk via text messages most of the time like co-workers, just without a boss telling us to get back to work.

Of course at these parties you won’t get this level of answers out of me, I don’t want to be one of those guys, but I needed to get it out of my system.

Thanks for listening. Happy Xmas!