Posted in: Comics, Valiant | Tagged: bloodshot, brett booth, Harbinger, image comics, lewis larosa, rick remender, The Scumbag, valiant

Brett Booth and Clay Mann's Problems With Valiant Royalties?

Last week, Bleeding Cool ran an article, regarding Valiant's Harbinger relauncher Joshua Dysart who had expressed difficulty getting what they perceived as promised payment from Valiant after the sale of the Harbinger film option to Paramount. Dysart retweeted the article, elaborating more fully the way he saw the situation.  We also looked at Jim Shooter and David Lapham's responses. While comic book creator Brett Booth, who relaunched Bloodshot #1 at Valiant in 2019 ahead of the 2020 movie, added his own issues, tweeting "Now I don't feel so bad for not getting Bloodshot #1 royalties. I know the book sold over the 35,000 threshold. Initial sales from just Diamond were over 41k. #1 Indy book in 2019 as well."

That was just the ComicChron estimated sales, of course, you can usually add another 10-15% for non-North American sales, and there were also thousands of direct sales to comic book retailers with exclusive retailer copies on top. According to Booth, the 35,000 threshold that he references is the amount of sales on his Valiant Entertainment deal that would be necessary to trigger further royalty payments. We asked Valiant about this issue last week but have had no reply.

He was not alone. Comic book artist Clay Mann who relaunched Ninjak in 2015 added his own experience, saying "Same. Ninjak #1 at least three printings. 35k threshold. 0$"

Brett Booth added "Honestly I'd be happy if they just paid the rest of the team. That would make me happy. Everyone worked hard on the book" while clarifying "We got page rates. Just royalties weren't paid." However, we have noted language in Joshua Dysart's contract that payments shall be "allocated to Talent (if appropriate) by Valiant at its sole, absolute and unfettered discretion". If there is similar language in Brett Booth or Clay Mann's contract over these royalties, it may be an uphill battle.

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