When it comes to certain guests like Dan mora, Ryan north, or Kevin Eastman, do those guests charge for things like signings and stuff. I know that with certain guests like for tv or games, they charge like 50 dollars or 100 for autographs or pictures.

[u/Iamawesome20]

I have been to a couple cons and I noticed that for certain artists, it was amazing to see that they were there. Though I’m surprised at how much it cost to get pictures or autographs if you brought something they were in.

[u/starwarsfan456123789]

Sometimes authors are doing book signings where they sign “for free” by buying the book at their booth

[u/SineQuaNon001]

It's all subject to who and what. I'd always be prepared to pay and if not it's a nice surprise that it's free.

[u/cyberaug]

Yes they charge. Kevin Eastman definitely does. Sometimes if you buy books, art they’ll sign it. Most guests especially artists aren’t paid to be at cons (some have to pay for the table) so that’s how they make money. Often unless they are a huge name they don’t charge 50-100, more like 10-20 but it can vary.

[u/Idnetxisbx7dme]

Some do, some don't. Crapshoot.

[u/mcrib]

Yes, they charge for signatures and photos. That is how they make a living.

[u/neuronamously → u/mcrib]

Yeah people don’t realize that the artists only make $100-200 per page they draw. That amounts to about $40k per year. The way they make a living is by doing signings. I wish fans would sympathize and understand. I have so many free signatures from juggernauts when I was a kid and looking back on interviews with those artists at the time they talk about how they were living paycheck to paycheck at the time, or racked up insurmountable credit card debt working at Marvel. So I don’t actually look back at 1996-2004 fondly when I was getting signatures for free.

[u/allaboutmecomic → u/mcrib]

A lot of comics creators don't charge for dogs or photos

[u/mcrib → u/allaboutmecomic]

Some do and some don’t but most charge for a signature, especially multiple ones and some upcharge for CGC witnessed signatures because of the resale angle.

[u/allaboutmecomic → u/mcrib]

Most comics creators do not charge for sigs. CGC for sure , some charge higher for specific books, but your average Al Ewing, Ryan North, etc is not charging for regular autos until you hit some limit.

[u/mcrib → u/allaboutmecomic]

Dan Mora and Kevin Eastman do.

[u/allaboutmecomic → u/mcrib]

I didn't say people didn't I said most didn't

[u/mcrib → u/allaboutmecomic]

Yeah, but OP specifically asked about those two guys

[u/allaboutmecomic → u/mcrib]

Oh I see what you mean. I thought you were saying most creators in general, not most on OPs list. My bad. In that case, if I remember correctly Mora does the first sig for free. At least he did a couple years ago!

[u/Iamawesome20]

This is a comic that I got signed by one of the artists in TMNT for issue 10 and it’s didn’t cost anything but the comic did.

[u/MsMargo]

Totally depends on the guest and the con. But as examples:

"The CGC Comics Private Signing fee for Dan Mora is $100 per item"

"Ryan North signing absolutely free"

"Kevin Eastman is going to be at a show I'm going to in February. $40 for an autograph"

[u/Jazzkidscoins]

Celebrities and guests get paid to attend the cons. They can be paid 2 different ways, either directly by the con or by a guaranteed fee by the con. The first one is simple. The con pays the guest X dollars to be there. Usually in these situations the guest signs most things for free or for a small fee for certain items. The con gets the money to pay for the guests from ticket sales and booth rentals.

Now the guaranteed fee is a bit weird. What happens is the con promises the guest that they will make a certain amount of money if they attend. To make this money the guest charges a fee for the autographs. If at the end of the con the guest hasn’t made the promised amount the con will pay out the difference. The money from this comes almost exclusively from autograph sales although the con usually pays for the hotel and sometimes a per diem. Interestingly you can usually tell which guest was promised the most money because they usually charge the most for autographs.

Now there is a 3rd option that you see sometimes. Certain vendors will pay to bring in a guest, a lot of times authors or artists. In these cases sometimes they charge, sometimes they don’t, sometimes it’s a nominal fee.

Understandably, most cons chose the 2nd option because it makes better financial sense for them. If the con is passing the cost of the guest fee on to the people buying the autographs they can bring in more guests. If the con is footing the bill for the guests there are usually only one or two of them unless it’s a huge con like SDCC or NYCC.

[u/[deleted]]

I would really like to meet Ryan North. How do you know when he's going to be at a con?

[u/MsMargo → u/[deleted]]

https://www.rostercon.com/en/listing-search-results?_rc_people=ryan-north#search-result-rc

Also, follow his socials.

[u/Previous-Space-7056]

I just recently started going to cons, and to say most artist dont charge is a gross understatement.

Everyone charges. The only free sig i got was todd mcfarlane ( he gets paid 500k to attend and only signs 1 won from a lottery )

Other than that. Cohen / parillo were free for first 3 @ dallas after that $10

Some were free if you bought there exclusive or book ( capullo , ottley etc )

Everyone charges. How else do they make money? Lesser known Artists are like $10/$20. Med 20+ Popular $50+ ( jim lee is $60 / f miller is$75?) +$20 to have it graded/ witness too

[u/HGFantomas]

I have never had those particular guys sign anything for me, but in my experience 90% of creators do not charge for signature. I can only think of two that did (Ramos, liefield).