I'm currently looking around for a potential artist for my comic, Henchman's Row.

To be clear up front: I'm window shopping/planning at the moment rather than hiring someone immediately. I want to get a realistic idea of who's out there, what rates people are working at, and potentially find an artist I can come back to when I'm financially ready to begin production.

THE PROJECT

Henchman's Row is a superhero/crime-noir comic centered around Russell, a nearly seven-foot-tall mute superhuman who works as hired muscle for criminals and supervillains.

He's not trying to become a superhero or save the world. He's a professional henchman trying to survive the strange, dangerous people who sign his checks while maintaining the few personal lines he refuses to cross.

The first issue is fully scripted and approximately 127 pages.

This is intended as a full comic, not a short sample or a handful of concept illustrations.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Ideally, I'd like to find one artist capable of handling the sequential artwork consistently across the book, preferably including:

• Pencils / line art
• Inks
• Full color
• Strong facial acting and body language
• Superhero action
• Large characters and size differences
• Urban/crime environments
• Consistent character designs across many pages

The visual direction I'm interested in is clean, hand-drawn American superhero comic art with strong linework and cel/comic-style coloring rather than painted or hyper-realistic rendering.

Artists such as Dan Mora, Jim Lee, and Ed Benes are useful points of reference for the general territory I'm interested in, though I'm not asking anyone to imitate another artist exactly. I absolutely want the eventual artist's own hand and personality to come through.

IMPORTANT

I'm very concerned with sequential consistency. Pinups and character illustrations are great, but for this project I specifically need to see examples of actual comic pages and sequential storytelling.

I'm also not currently looking to rewrite or restructure the comic. The first issue has gone through a long development process and the script itself is finished.

PAYMENT / TIMELINE

This would be paid work, not an unpaid request or "exposure" arrangement.

However, I am not beginning production immediately and I don't want to mislead anybody about that. I'm currently trying to understand realistic rates and find artists whose work might fit the book.

If you're interested, please leave a comment with:

• Your portfolio
• Sequential comic samples
• Your typical per-page rate
• Whether that rate includes pencils/inks/colors or what each stage costs separately
• Whether you'd potentially be interested in a long-term 100+ page project
• Anything else you think I should know about your workflow

I'm especially interested in people comfortable with superhero comics who can keep characters visually consistent over a long project.

Please post portfolios/rates in the comments rather than only contacting me privately, in accordance with the subreddit rules.

Thanks for taking a look.