This week’s edition of THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION Newsletter shipped this morning and should be sitting in your inbox.
For those who have never read an issue before, we are now in YEAR NINE and today’s issue is below to sample. The newsletter is free and can be subscribed to here.
Thanks and enjoy.
- APF
Issue Four Hundred-twenty-two – November 9, 2026
Welcome back to THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION, a [hopefully] weekly newsletter for fans of my work and fans of fandom in general. I added “hopefully” because the last newsletter year turned into a long one, and as much as I don’t want that to happen for YEAR NINE, I’m taking precaution because 2026 was a gong show of life throwing some heavy duty curveballs.
This morning we worked on AXIOM-MAN: AFTERMATH. As a mini teaser, the next scene to be written is a rooftop fight on top of drug den. What’s happening in that house is some dark stuff, which will lead into the next installment.
Presently sitting on the drawing board is the page I left off on when doing my horror comic. Sitting on the desk beside me is the notebook with the script, which was done Harvey Pekar style with ultra crude sketches and scribbles of dialogue along with what panel goes where. Sometimes it’s way easier to write a comic visually—despite it looking like a mess—than via text ala the traditional format of:
PAGE ONE
PANEL ONE: Blah blah blah description.
CHARACTER: Blah blah blah dialogue.
PANEL TWO: Blah blah blah description.
Etc.
Last week, the Government of Canada announced its new annual budget. One of the announcements was a tax break initiative for self-employed artists where the first 45 grand earned is tax-free. I posted this on my Facebook page and many applauded it. Others got really upset and considered it unfair. I understand those who objected because I understand their point of view of missing some pieces on how the art world works. Not their fault. Unless you work in the industry, you wouldn’t know so I don’t blame people for not knowing what they don’t know, especially in areas where they really have no stake in knowing about it anyway.
So to clarify if this is news to you and you object, please understand the self-employed artist doesn’t work a standard 9-to-5. By “standard 9-to-5” I mean leave the house, work somewhere for eight hours, then come home. Trust me. We work. A lot. And put in the same hours—often more—during the week and into the weekends. The difference is our paychecks aren’t guaranteed and the arts world as a whole is very much feast or famine. Outside of being a big name in that realm, most artists struggle to get by.
There is also a huge time disproportion in regards to compensation.
As an example, the average writer earns $500 a year off a book. That doesn’t mean if they have 40 books in their backlist, they’re automatically going to earn $20,000 that year based on that average. Book sales ebb and flow. Some years, a particular portion of the catalog is hot stuff; the next, it’s as cold as a corpse. But even off the one-book example, just 500 beans. So on the very fast end—for the sake of simple math—if it takes 100 hours to write and revise and produce the thing—never mind any financial outlay—that’s $5 per hour. That’s it. Where I live in Manitoba, that’s $11.40 LESS than minimum wage. And, again, that 5 beans per hour doesn’t include any potential cost of production, like hiring a professional editor (a quality editor costs anywhere between $800 to $2,000 per book, so right there you’re already operating at a loss based on the $500).
This is why most artists have a part or full time job. Also note this tax break is for earnings off creative work only, so any other income is taxed at the usual rate as per your bracket.
This tax break allows artists to save a bit more during famine season, especially artists who are working close to the breadline. That break can determine whether they eat that day or not.
What was also remarkable about the pushback—though I’ve been fighting this battle with others for decades—is the mentality that being an artist isn’t an actual job. Someone said you can finger-paint and get the break. Finger-painting was meant as an insult but there are some darn good finger-painters out there who produce really good work so that argument falls flat. Simply, being an artist is a real job. We’re the ones that got people through Covid via entertainment. We’re the ones writing the scripts for the movies you like. We’re the ones creating the characters that launch other people’s careers. Yet we’re the ones who get the shaft at conventions and have to pay our own way if invited as a guest whereas celebrity so-and-so gets a free ride plus charges $80-plus a signature. We don’t charge to sign our work. We don’t charge if you want to take a photo. We don’t charge if we write you a little personalized message inside our book or comic covers.
Bottom line is the tax break is a good thing for practical reasons, not for greed. As said, this break can determine if someone eats that day. I know too many working artists where basic necessities come into question now and then. I know many who go to the food bank for their groceries. I know many who are neurodivergent and cannot—not “will not”—do an out-of-the-house job lest it leads to a road of all sorts of health issues. Yet these are the same people who keep you entertained and give you the things you love.
Did you know it can take up to 40 hours to create a comic book page you read in less than a minute? That’s just one page out of the twenty-plus in a single issue. That’s not including what it costs to turn it into an actual comic book you can read with minimal markup so the cover price stays reasonable. That’s also not including obligatory distribution discounts, etc.
Canada has a rich arts history and I’m glad it’s being encouraged through this effort. Is it permanent? Who knows? What are the fine points and stipulations? To be determined. It was just an announcement.
I’ll leave it there though there’s plenty to add that cements the arts world doesn’t function like other industries.
Like this newsletter. I don’t get anything monetary out of this yet I’ve been doing it for years. I do it for you so we can keep in touch on the side and outside of the social media world, especially since I might not always pop up in your algorithm. At least here, you’re guaranteed we connect once a week or so.
Okay, onto other things:
Today is a very cool Minifigure Monday: Max Fleischer Superman with Krypto. This minifig is dynamite! And easily now my favorite in my minifigure collection.
I also did a new Readers Questions video about conventions and how to determine if that show is worth doing again. The answer isn’t as simple as you might think.
On the website, we added a Patreon Index so a person can see what’s available on my Patreon, which is tons of content already. (I have some plans for this but all in good time. It does involve comics.)
All right. I need to get back to work.
Touch base soon.
Thank you for tuning in this week.
Best,
A.P. Fuchs
Tax Break, MB
Find me on the socials at: https://linktr.ee/apfuchs
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