Ever wonder how much money a regular manga artist makes in japan. I am not talking about the big hitters like Akira Toriyama or Eiichiro Oda who make millions of dollars from their manga work. I am talking about the smaller manga artist. You know. They probably published a romance comedy anime or a small Shonen manga like Mashle or Dr. Stone.
Some people want to become manga artist but it is good to know how much something is going to pay you so that you don’t starve and have a roof over your heads. There is a reason why many parents do not want their kids to become an artist. Is because they know that at the end of the day we got bills to pay.
It is surprising that many manga artist actually make a better living than comic book artist in America. Then again, manga is more popular world wide than the American super hero comics.
The average salary for a comic book artist is $36,000 per year and is if they land a salary position which is rare. Many comic book artist usually get paid per page which is still not enough honestly. Also keep in mind that in Japan many manga artist have their own manga titles that belongs to them while many comic book artist in America work for a comic book company so they don’t get any of the royalties.
Lets go deeper and see exactly how a manga artist gets paid for their art.
Regularly a manga artist would get paid per page when they publish with a weekly magazine like Shonen Jump. However, a new manga artist is not going to land a deal with a big time magazine like Shonen Jump. They probably start with a smaller one like Young Animal or Shojo Friend. Once they land a deal with the magazine then they will make 20 pages for every chapter for the magazine.
Manga magazines can be weekly, biweekly or monthly and even bi monthly (which sucks for the consumer if you are really waiting for a manga that you really like). And here are a few popular magazine you probably have not heard of.
