Artist For Hire

[mwhendricks]

Website: http://mwhendricks.deviantart.com
Email: mwhendricks@yahoo.com

Rates:

Since I don't want to undercut anybody (artists gotta eat) I'm making my rates equitable to guys who have been doing this longer than I have.

Sequential Pages B&W Inked - $35
Inks and Colors - $50
Inks, Colors, Lettering - $37
Everything Pages (including writing, character design, worldbuilding) - $80
Pinups/Covers B&W Inked - $25
Pinups/Covers Ink and Colors - $40

I am willing to come down on price for long-term projects. Please click on the link: I'm just started and I'm not web-savvy yet.

[mwhendricks]

Okay, so the feedback I've been getting tells me I have to post sequential art. So I'll keep my rates up for pay, like I said: I don't want to undercut anybody. Artists gotta eat.

But I'm going to have to work for free for a while. And I decided the very best solution is to draw for those guys who haven't found their artist yet. Those guys and dolls are hungry, they don't necessarily care about money, they just want to be published.

Me, I need pages. Lots of pages. Pages are how I'm going to get paid gigs. But I DON'T want to draw my own stuff just yet. It takes too damn long. And bad things happen when you submit five or six of your own ideas to Image and they reject every one.

[mwhendricks]

Plus, it's egotistical to think you can do everything on your own. If people are honest they will admit their best work was a collaboration. John Byrne's best work isn't NEXT MEN. It was his collaboration with Chris Claremont on X-MEN. That's right. He would probably kill me for saying that. It's the truth.

Todd McFarlane's best work wasn't even on SPIDER-MAN. His HULK work with Peter David was his best. It's magnificent. And HE would KILL me for saying THAT. It's the truth.

But people aren't honest. They will rarely admit their best work was a collaboration. Hollywood producers are the worst. They act like writers don't even exist. It's time to turn that around. After all, if TWO people like it, there's a better chance more people will like it.

[mwhendricks]

They act like writers don't even exist. It's time to turn that around.

So I'm holding a contest.

I want script pages for five pages of sequential art. I want widescreen. Like AUTHORITY. I want intelligent. Like PLANETARY. Most of all, I want NEW.

DON'T give me five pages that are sequential to each other. When Kevin Feige unveils the next Marvel feature, he doesn't show two-and-a-half minutes of continuous footage. I want five pages that showcase what the rest has to offer. That's what Image wants too anyway.

DON'T send me all 24 pages and ask me to "pick." Writers have to be good leaders. Pick the best five. Preferably 1 to 2 of talking and 3 of action.

[mwhendricks]

YOU get finished pages that showcase what you can do. I get to showcase them here to help me get paid gigs. Win-win. You want to showcase what you can do, and you need finished pages to do that. I want money. This will get us both.

Now... one more thing I want. I want you to think like the people we're going to be selling it to think. What do the boys and girls at Image, Marvel and DC want?

THEY WANT FINISHED COMICS THAT WILL BECOME MOVIES. That means: origin stories. Sorry, that's the truth. All three IRON MAN were origin stories. 1: Iron Man's origin. 2: the origin of the Avengers. 3: the origin of Stark without the suit. That's why the new SPIDEY is... wait for it... the origin of Spidey as an Avenger. See how that works?

[mwhendricks]

That means: MAYBE a LITTLE derivative. Hollywood does not want YOUR space opera. Hollywood wants something that will compete with STAR WARS.

If it's R-rated, they want something that will compete with DEADPOOL.

If it's geared towards women, they want an action movie that will compete with FAST AND THE FURIOUS and TRANSFORMERS. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. Those are the action properties women like best. Weird but true.

And this is the way Hollywood thinks.

[mwhendricks]

Let me explain why. Hollywood treats their own writers like sh*t. They HATE them. They mistreat them, abuse them, kill them if they could.

Hollywood LOVES comic book writers. They are no threat to them. Stan Lee is like a god. Jim Starlin is the hottest thing right now. Frank Miller is tearing it up.

Warner Brothers gave Jim Starlin a HUGE payday for KGBeast. KGBeast didn't even look like KGBeast in the BvS movie. He didn't even use the name KGBeast! Why?

Because Warner Brothers knew Disney was throwing huge money at Jim Starlin for Thanos. They wanted Jim to think of them for his OTHER properties: BREED. DREADSTAR.

And demand for THOSE properties is going to go through the roof next year, when AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR breaks records.

[mwhendricks]

Frank Miller... Hollywood waited too long to make a sequel to SIN CITY. It SHOULD have come out two years later. They waited too long to make a sequel to 300. IT should have come out two years later. The animated DARK KNIGHT RETURNS should have come out simultaneously with Nolan's DARK KNIGHT. That's three blown opportunities.

Believe me, they've learned their lesson. What's Frank working on right now? A SIN CITY western (the origin of the town), a prequel to 300 (the origin of Xerxes), and a sequel to DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (the origin of Carrie as Batman). No, it's not a coincidence.

Think about people you know, with their own comics, trying to break into Hollywood. What does Hollywood tell them. Think about it!

[mwhendricks]

They blew it this summer with VALERIAN. Why?

Because they cast the guy who SHOULD have played Han Solo (Clive Owen) as Darth Vader, the villain. It didn't work.

They cast the guy who SHOULD have been cast as Anakin (Dane Dehaan) as Han Solo. It didn't work!

Imagine Dane Dehaan as Vader and Clive Owen as Solo. Makes more sense, doesn't it? But they are the wrong age! So you cast the next Dane Dehaan as Vader and the next Clive Owen as Solo. But then you have no name recognition.

So you rewrite the script. You're a producer, so you try to rewrite it yourself. You make Valerian Clive Owen's age and the general Dane Dehaan's age. This literally happens!

Now the script doesn't work! Your director, Luc Besson, doesn't want to film it anymore, because he's been in love with the source material for a long time.

Now... because they didn't get it right, Clive, Luc, Dane, and Cara are all contaminated with a failure.

All because they didn't have a writer. They had producers who thought they were writers and a director too in love with the source material to abandon it.

[mwhendricks]

They should have just made a rival to STAR WARS. Take everything you think is good about STAR WARS and jettison everything you think is bad. That's all the first MATRIX did. And it BANKED.

Hollywood is stupid. They NEED you.

Here is the contest:

Deadline: August 30, 2017

Rights: You keep all the rights. I've seen too many projects die on the vine because life intervened and one of the two partners had to drop out. It's also happened to me. Uh-uh. I'm not doing that to anyone else. You take five pages and continue with another artist if you want. You will have to work with multiple artists eventually anyway. Get used to it.

[mwhendricks]

Content: full script for five sequential pages. Not necessarily sequential to each other.

Acceptance: I'll do as many as I can do, as fast as I can do them. If I commit, I will finish. If I have to do this all year, I will. I need pages. I need to showcase different stories anyway. If I put you on hold, go ahead and shop for another artist. I don't mind.

If I love it: I'll do 24 pages if it's a home run. But I'm VERY picky. Out of the twenty or so popular movies I watch for research, I actually enjoy maybe ONE. Of the comics I follow, I buy maybe two a month. Usually different ones. But if I'm going to do this professionally, I can't love every project anyway. Let's do five. It won't hurt you and it won't hurt me.

[mwhendricks]

I trust that many people will follow this experiment with interest. I need this to be successful. I hope it's successful enough that other people will consider doing it.

Because Hollywood is treating writers like sh*t. And everyone is getting paid less because of it.

If you need to see more from me to decide to commit: well, I just started six weeks ago and I've put what I have on Deviantart. More will come when I complete it.

Note: girls seem to like my stuff more than boys. Make of that what you will.

Limitation: one re-draw per page only. That's all an editor would tolerate anyway.

[mwhendricks]

Email: mwhendricks@yahoo.com

[mwhendricks]

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