Broken Frontier

There have been some interesting discussions going around the comics blogosphere recently involving some creators, among others, exposing small publishers engaged in what they deem to be unethical treatment of creators.

In many cases, the publishers are being called out for cooking the books or using “Hollywood accounting” to falsify a lack of profit so they won’t have to pay creators, using artwork sent in as a sample without crediting or paying the artist who submitted it, or simply never sending money owed. None of these practices are justifiable in any way.

However, another issue that seems to be getting dragged through the mud at the same time is the concept of working on spec, or backend pay. This simply means that the artist does the work first, and if there is ever any profit from it, then they’ll get payment based on the agreed upon percentage.

I’ll admit, this is no way to make a living, but if the publisher is upfront about the conditions going in, this is by no means unethical. And if an artist is already an established, paid professional, then great for them - they by no means should ever be made to feel that accepting a job on spec is a reasonable alternative to a work-for-hire deal. But for aspiring artists, these deals really aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be.

The reality of the situation is that breaking into comics is incredibly hard. Like many creative careers such as acting, music, or even professional sports, there’s no course that can be completed or degree earned that automatically makes you a professional or states that the quality of your performance is worth paying for. The only way to prove that is to actually put yourself out there first.

Writers write, artist draw or paint, and they keep doing it no matter what until they magically reach the point, if ever, when someone pays them to do it. The way I see it, comic artists can go about it in three different ways.

An artist can work on his own using sample pitches and such to put together a portfolio to show comic book publishers in the hope of getting paid work. There are a lot of artists doing this. I don’t mean to knock this route, but you tend to see these people at conventions standing in incredibly long lines or wondering around the show floor, unsure of whom to show their work to.

Another option, one that I often recommend because it’s what I do, is to put together your own creator-owned project. This is also based on backend pay, but the idea is that at least you own the work you’re doing for free. But there’s more to it than that. I’ve been doing the creator-owned thing for five years now, and I’ve spent more on it than I’ve earned, so that’s actually earning less that someone working for free.

Putting together your own comic and publishing it yourself takes up a lot of funding and a lot of extra work that will take you away from time working on the creative stuff. It’s a greater investment with very little payoff.

Which is why I say, let’s still leave the third option open: taking a backend paying deal to work on a small publisher’s property. So what if you do some pages for free? It could very well take hundreds of pages drawn before your first paying gig, and those first few pages of real comic book art aren’t often very good. There’s something to be said for the ability to cut and run from your early work.

I’ve heard that Dave McKean destroys any copies of his first comic that he can get his hands on because he’s embarrassed by it (granted, he has crazy high standards).

So why not let some small publisher figure out what to do with your entry-level work? They’ll be the ones stuck with the boxes of comics of questionable quality when you’ve moved on to bigger and better things.

Just never believe the publisher when they say that it’ll be this project that launches you to stardom or that the money will start rolling in once the comics start selling.

But besides that, I think we should respect small publishers trying to make it in this business just as much as artists. They’re willing to invest their time and money to put something new out there. We may not always agree with their tastes, but we need for this industry to allow for new publishers to survive just as much as new talent.

Pretty much any working professional in this field is going to have some “horror” story about breaking in. And they should warn up-and-coming creators to avoid pitfalls. I by no means want to undercut their efforts. However, it’s the people who don’t have these stories, those who never took that job that wasn’t perfect, that you never hear from because they never made it.

Remember, it wasn’t working for backend pay that led the creators of Superman, Siegel and Shuster, to getting screwed; it was because they sold their character’s rights for $150. If they had simply held onto that and worked for a little while for practically nothing, they would have been fine. And by fine, I mean millionaires.

There are some great resources to keep you informed about what’s going on out there.  Colleen Doran has a useful blog that I’ve recommended here before and there’s a new organization called Unscrewed dedicated to protecting creators from unethical business practices.

Work hard and take jobs with your eyes wide open to the realities.

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Tyler Chin-Tanner started his own publishing company, A Wave Blue World, and writes and draws layouts for Adrenaline, its flagship series.
© 2008 Tyler Chin-Tanner.  All rights reserved.

Email: tyler@awaveblueworld.com

www.awaveblueworld.com