« Templar: Wait, y'mean it's not over? | Main | Templar: That woman's name is Feather. »

June 23, 2008

Templar: Behind you, dude.

Caught red-handed. Think fast, Ben.

While I was finishing up this latest update, some interesting and disheartening news came down the wire in Comic Book Land. (Those of you who groan at the thought of a blog entry full of industry fishwifery, y'might wanna stop here. Those that don't, well... Make some tea.)

Al Nickerson, Heidi MacDonald and Rich Johnston each take a crack at the story and sum it all up very nicely, but for those of you less than crazy about clicking through: DJ Coffman, creator of Hero By Night and winner of Platinum Studios' original Comic Book Challenge contest, is currently going 12 rounds with the publisher he once rabidly defended in a bid to win back the rights to his own creation.

Maybe I'm just naive, but I'm a little shocked this sort of stunt still gets pulled in the post-Creator's Rights world. DJ's rights are being withheld in the comic equivalent of Snitches Get Stitches: Coffman publicized his inability to get paid for his work, and Platinum is retaliating by refusing to revert the licensing to his most profitable comic. This means no print edition, and no web edition of HbN, the funnybook that's been keeping DJ on the scene since 2006.

Pretty serious.

DJ was warned about Platinum beforehand. It founders apparently have a history, if ya dig. But I guess he figured it was worth the gamble.

Time will tell if this is gonna come up snake eyes for him.

There's been more than one "I told you so!" bobbing along in the ambient noise of comic-bloggery concerning the matter, but frankly, I don't think any working cartoonist likes to see another creator getting oiled up and buggered like this. Funnybook people, as a whole, are a lot more savvy than they once were... Nobody wants to be the next DeCarlo, or Siegel, or Shuster. But this sort of thing will probably always be a possibility. Somebody, somewhere will always be getting screwed on a deal. And as long as you're willing to do business with the juggernauts and the middlemen, there's always a possibility it might wind up being you.

Pretty awful to contemplate something like this showing up on your doorstep. Also, pretty happy to be self-publishing, right now.

Anyway, just sayin'. More comics later.

Posted by Spike at June 23, 2008 10:50 PM

Comments

There is something oddly cute about Zora. In a very terrible and disturbing way. Can't imagine how that one will turn out.

Posted by Minka at June 24, 2008 12:26 AM
24.67.116.122

Well that really stinks. Why do so many comics publishers behave in such an infantile way? I don't think it's like this with book publishers. I mean it's all well and good to warn creators to be careful what contracts they sign, but if the publisher isn't even going to follow the contract, what recourse do we have? I hope the CBLDF is able to lend a hand or something. As somebody once said, no publisher will pay you enough to successfully sue them.

Posted by jdalton at June 24, 2008 01:06 AM
207.81.236.198

This is going to sound paranoid of me, but the comics publishers, especially the small ones, do it because they know they can get away with it. A prose writer gets screwed by Random House, and there's enough stink to power a zeppelin. A guy who draws purdy pitchers with word balloons above them for a living gets screwed by, for example, Platinum, and the only people who tend to care are other comics creators, never the most wealthy or well-organized sort.

Of course, that is changing, both the American public's attitude toward comics and the social level of comics creators. Only five years ago, Mr. Coffman's plight probably wouldn't even be reported, even on supposed comics news sources like Wizard! and Aintitcoolnews.com.

Anyway. Great page, Spike! I'm sorta getting to like Gene's mom, though I suspect there's going to be at least one more terrifying bit with her before "Devil" is completed.

Posted by Alan Tyson at June 24, 2008 02:20 AM
12.210.189.165

That whole post just solidified my decision to self-publish. Every comic artist I know who submits to the big companies gets shafted one way or another. Thank you for posting this.

Posted by Peach at June 24, 2008 11:33 AM
24.85.38.56

Hear hear. Self-Publishing is the safest boat in the harbor for me. It may be a rusty little dinghy, but it's MY rusty little dinghy.

in the last ten years, midrange publishers have come and gone, but Paul and I are still here in the background plugging along. Here's hoping we can stay above water a while longer.

Posted by Jane Irwin at June 24, 2008 03:39 PM
75.134.104.17

I sympathize with DJ's position on this, having once freelanced for a Scott Rosenberg company myself.

But it should be pointed out that 1) he did knowingly sign his rights away forever in his original contract; and 2) he violated a confidentiality agreement in that same contract when he told the world that Platinum was late paying him and other creators.

Now, I'd love to see Platinum take the moral high road and revert rights to DJ. But this is not likely to happen, especially as now Platinum is a public corporation, and corporate executives are legally bound to operate in the best interest of share-holders. And that would probably NOT include waiving their contractual rights to HbN, especially after DJ publicly embarrassed the company.

That said, I disagree that self-publishing is the only safe road for creators. There ARE some companies out here that offer fair contracts. But creators need to be diligent and not rely on any promises not made in writing by responsible parties.

Posted by Scott Bieser at June 25, 2008 10:45 PM
75.174.177.118

Post a comment