|
|
Post by The MRP! on Apr 28, 2015 20:11:22 GMT -5
Article based on a post by Gerry Conway.... articleusing their circuitous logic DC can claim no one created Barry Allen and therefore nobody should get royalties for his use...even though they have policies in place to ensure creators get royalties. How to screw them...step one make them do a mountain of useless paperwork before we even consider honoring our contractual obligations, step 2-use a line of arguments that's already been defeated in court to make them ineligible for payments, knowing the court costs to challenge it are prohibitive for most people to pursue their contractual due from us, step 3-use both sides of that argument to essentially strip every creator of eligibility for royalties or creator credits creating a self-fulfilling and self-aggrandizing logical loop to screw everyone except our bottom line. DC royalty policy another step in a long line of unscrupulous business practices that have kept lawyers busy for 75 years.... Yay DC! -M |
|
|
|
Post by C_Miller on May 9, 2015 9:45:08 GMT -5
This is terrible. I read this a few days ago and I'm not sure what's worse. That this is happening or that I'm not especially surprised. From what I understand, even up to a few years ago DC was leagues better than Marvel in terms of how they treated creators in terms of royalties. The anecdote that I'm thinking of is when Len Wein famously said that he made more money for creating Lucius Fox than he did Wolverine.
I guess this is what you get when one of the biggest companies in the world starts keeping the Eye of Sauron on you...
|
|
|
|
Post by The MRP! on May 9, 2015 10:57:23 GMT -5
DC was traditionally terrible with creator treatment until Jeanette Khan became publisher and set about improving tings with Paul Levitz and Dick Giordano as her right hand men. Part of the foundation of the DC Renaissance in the 80s was that these changes allowed and enabled DC to attract the best talent and give them a place to do their top work. Khan came from magazine publishing where better treatment of contributors was a no-brainer in a competitive market vying for top contributors.
After Khan left, and WB assumed more hand on control, a lot of those gains were slowly chipped away or blunted through inane red tape measures to make it more difficult for creators to get what was due them. DC/WB could still claim they offered these benefts, as they were in the contracts and on the books, but micromanaged to such a level as to make it almost practically impossible to get what was due. Levitz remained and was the last vestige of the Khan regime and fought against the rising tide of corporate control, until he too was phased out of the power structure and with him the last remaining voice for the creators in the room was gone. Dido and Lee talk the talk and put out the spin, but very little of what they actually do walks that walk. Lee is especially infuriating as he led the creator rights charge with the formation of Image and took the high ground protecting Alan Moore when he sold Wildstorm to DC, but seems to have completely sold out the rest of the way now that he is effectively a suit.
DC's track record with creators post-Levitz has been less than stellar, and it was hoped that the move to Burbank and this new wave of Batgirling titles were harbingers of better things to come, but this issue, and the delay and creative team shuffle on Dark Universe with Tynion and Doyle leaving before a first issue was solicited show that DC still has a long way to go to get back to where they once were in terms of creator relations.
It's not unique to DC, Marvel has issues as well, but seem to do a better job of managing the rough spots and keeping them in house.
The thing is, the big 2 used to be the only game in town-they were what people aspired to, they were the ones finding and developing new talent and where talent aspired to be. That's no longer the case. They are the middle point in creator careers now, niot the high point. Creators now have to make a name for themselves self-publishing or working at smaller companies usually with creator-owned titles. Once they make a name for themselves, they get recruited by the big 2, and the creators often go there to reach a wider audience and build their brand, and once that occurs, they take their A-game back to creator owned titles bringing that bigger audience back with them and leave the big 2 behind or at least take their A-game elsewhere and do a few big 2 things that almost feel like it's getting phoned in. The big 2 aren't what creators aspire to anymore, they are a stepping stone, but the publishers still act like they are the only game in town the way they treat creators, but that treatment only serves to give creators more incentive to take their A-game elsewhere.
-M
|
|
