
A few things worth noting. The money she earns from the sale of original art and commissions is a little under 10% of her total earnings for the quarter; extra freelance work also seems to be right around 10%. Donations account for 7% of her overall earnings. The vast majority of her income (somewhere around 70-75%) is from the sale of replenishible items relating to her comic -- shirts, buttons, prints, etc.
I would certainly consider Gambrell one of the more successful webcomic creators out there. She's been doing Cat & Girl for over a decade, and has built up a loyal following. From everything I've seen, she's doing everything right.
Now, I don't know how cyclical her income is, but it's certainly variable from month to month. I also don't know the full extent of her financial situation -- what her debts might be, what other sources of income might be available for her household, how much she has in savings, etc. It certainly seems as if she's making a living primarily through Cat & Girl.
Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable living with that variability. That's why this blog is a part-time gig for me and I go into an office for nine hours a day, five days a week. But that's me. That's based on my priorities and I wouldn't necessarily recommend that to anyone else; it's what works for me.
But, given how little information is out there regarding what a webcomic creator might expect to earn, I think it's quite laudable that Gambrell's willing to share this and well worth passing around. Take a look at what she's doing. That she's making a comic barely even registers on that graph. She's spending time working on t-shirt designs and stickers and all sorts of stuff ON TOP OF making a thrice-weekly webcomic.
Those donations buttons are nice, but they don't pay the bills. For that matter, neither does making a comic. No, what's paying the bills is all the work that goes into your business AFTER you've created your comic. That graph up there? That's your business model. Study it carefully.