Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment

Why Comic Creators Have To Work Together – By Neal Adams

Published Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:30:42 -0600

Last updated Thu, 09 Feb 2017 10:47:43 -0600

Neal Adams writes,

If you have seen the latest figures on the common rates on "Fair Page Rates" for our fellow professionals in the industry, you are probably as disappointed as I to know in your heart how hard comic book artists work to produce their comic books .

There is nothing wrong with shopping for artists around the world, which Marvel is doing followed by DC and others, and shopping for cheaper talent.
But there is only one world to go to. And just like everyone else, artists have to live, get married, pay rent and put their kids through school while they buy clothes cars and food. We should all, Publishers, Comic Book Stores and Creatives, all of us should be fighting to raise the Standards of our Industry and endeavor to pay people properly for their work.

But we all also know that if the comic books do not sell to the audience then the downward trend cannot be easily stopped. We all, all of us must be mindful
of any and all methodologies that can increase sales to a broader audience so that creatives get paid properly for their work.

Publishers pay low rates but rent big offices. Publishers depend on movies and television to advertise their product but hardly spend money to advertise to the consumer.

The Creatives, to protect themselves from the downward spiral, do their independent projects in hopes to sell them for tv and or film projects. Yet they rarely
make smart deals and look for licensing and to otherwise market their product in other areas.
This information sheet that you can find here is a Great First Step to informing others about the Standards of the Industry. Though incomplete, it gives a good overview of what's going on. It will help Freelancers to protect themselves to some extent. It is just the beginning to inform and bring true assistance to Freelancers in the Industry.

I don't know all the answers but Information is the first step. As an overall principle "We want our Publishers to get rich but we want them to share it with us."
We all need to work together to stay informed and share ideas.

I, for one, will help in any way whether you be Publisher, Comic Book Store, Distributor or Freelancer, to help improve our Industry and to put better rates into the hands of Freelancers based on the overall success of our product to more and more people.

Book Publishers share information and though, we may seem scattered, we still communicate with each other and each can offer a helping hand to make this industry better.

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