Posted in: Collectibles, Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics | Tagged: ,

Jen Bartel On Not Getting Paid For Marvel Snap Art Cards

Jen Bartel talks about not getting paid for the additional use of her comic book work, such as the Marvel Snap Art cards...

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Article Summary

  • Jen Bartel reveals she wasn't paid for her Marvel Snap card art despite the game's success.
  • Marvel Snap allows players to collect and battle using character cards from the Marvel Universe.
  • Artists like Bartel sign away rights to their art, often receiving no further compensation.
  • Todd McFarlane faced a similar issue, leading to his departure from Marvel and founding of Image Comics.

Marvel Snap is a digital collectable card game developed by Second Dinner and published by Nuverse that features a collection of different characters from the Marvel Universe; released two years ago; it allows players to fight battles with characters and cards that they collect.Players can obtain variants of some of their favourite cards, with art from fan-favourite creators. Player Chase Pitzer posted one today, saying "So this new @heyjenbartel variant is absolutely incredible. Paired with the perfect Krackle, I'd say we have a grail split. Need more of her fantastic work in the game please!"

To which Jen Bartel replied "Wish I actually got paid for these lol" which launched a number of replies. Jen Bartel will have been paid for the original comic book creation of the art but not for its subsequent licensed used elsewhere. She added,

"It's actually perfectly legal bc we *have* to sign over all rights on any licensed art we make for mega corps who own these characters, but it's definitely not *ethical* to shaft artists like this. Some companies (like Mondo, rip) paid us for usage even if they didn't *have* to."

"They don't legally have to becaise we the artists don't own the rights to any official work we've done for these companies, but it'd go a long way to extend us some good will considering they promote these "rare variants" explicitly using our names and creator recognizability sucks"

"Imagine if the artists who actually made the art they make millions of dollars off of even got to see a fraction of a percentage of that. A cover I might have been paid $800 for will go on to make them 100x that amount and they will never send me an additional dime"

It is notable that this is the kind of situation on Spider-Man that Todd McFarlane cites as the inciting moment that saw him leave Marvel Comics and co-found Image Comics. After he saw a Marvel-licensed Spider-Man T-shirt that he hadn't been paid for and that they didn't even send him a complimentary item… that was over thirty years ago.

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from The Union Club on Greek Street, shops at Gosh, Piranha and FP. Father of two daughters. Political cartoonist.
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