Also called: Comic Artist, Penciller, Inker, Graphic Novelist
Draws the panels of comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics.
They take a script and lay out pages, pencil the art, ink it, and sometimes color it. Hitting monthly deadlines means drawing about a page a day. Many build fan followings on webcomics and Patreon.
Estimate; page rates vary widely, and many artists supplement income with commissions and conventions.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Degree helpful but not required; portfolio is what matters.
Ways in: Self-taught, 4-year college. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Illustration, Sequential Art, Fine Arts.
Growing about average. Graphic novels for young readers are growing.
Medium risk in 5 years, high in 10. AI art undercuts low-budget and webcomic work; fans still follow artists with signature styles and storytelling.
Classes: Drawing, English creative writing, Digital art.
Official data: O*NET occupation 27-1013.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.