Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dc, entertainment, marvel

A Tale Of Two Exclusive Contracts – Marvel And DC Comics

You are a comic book artist of some note. And you have been offered an exclusive contract at both Marvel and DC Comics, in this time of Marvel Now and DC Rebirth.

So, what do you do?

Well, imagine you are on a DC contract. It includes healthcare, dental other perks. And you can't draw comics anywhere else without permission, you can't go anywhere else for work.

It's just, there's a problem. The script is late. Two months late. So you get to work on it the second it arrives, signed off, through the e-mail.

Twelve pages in, you are told that someone else is drawing the remaining issue as the comic is late. Or the script has been changed. Again. What a shock. So you move onto the next issue.

The script for which is late.

And you only get paid for the pages you turn in.

Say you can draw 9 comics a year. Your page rate is usually $200. Or $4000 an issue. If you have to wait three weeks for a script, or you are partially through a script and are told to halt as they need to make changes, instead of making that $3000 a month, you're down to $1500 to $2000.

Then they say "We have to give the last six pages away to two other artists or we're going to miss the deadline!"

At least you have healthcare.

Maybe you should try an exclusive contract at Marvel Comics. They give you a guaranteed X amount of pages to draw a year. It's Marvel's job to find that for you, late script or no late script.

Only thing is, that when you get to the end of the contract, you discover that all the covers they asked you to draw (and paid for) for some reason didn't count in that total.

And you still have X number of pages still left to draw as part of that initial contract. Which means you can't take that job you just agreed to leave Marvel to do… so you might as well sign up for another stint at Marvel.

At least you also have healthcare.

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