Posted in: Avengers, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, X-Men | Tagged: Dustin Nguyen, sean gordon murphy

Dustin Nguyen, Sean Murphy & Zoe Thorogood Unload On Marvel Comics

Dustin Nguyen, Sean Murphy, Zoe Thorogood, Heather Antos, Chris Stevens, Yanick Paquette and Jason Shawn Alexander unload on Marvel Comics

Comic book creator Dustin Nguyen posted to Instagram, about working at Marvel. Something it looks he won't be doing again for a while. "also, everyone I'm NOT working with at @marvel can ___ themselves. I've asked nicely for the past 15 years on behalf of every artist. Stop f-cking creators over; you're not getting another cover from me until then. drown me, I'm ok with your minimum wage bullsh-t." After it blew up, he followed up saying  "ok. getting hits earlier than expected from this one, and I'm kinda glad because I got words. but really if this bothers you I'm sorry, @marvel has been undercutting creators from the start, unless you're getting 6-7k a cover- then godbless. I hope you're getting a piece of the MCU and after sales. between them and @dcofficial , they are the ONLY one that DOESN'T pay a royalty for overseas sales- THINK- AMERICA is the originator of Superhero comics( Japan has manga which we love, Europe, has that cool ass sh-t we love but can't describe) and wtf? they're not paying creators a piece? COME ON. F-CK this F-CKING SH-T. also, merch? lunch boxes and tees- good luck. I got a buncha dms from people telling me I gotta be careful, " don't cross Marvel, they're a major player, the only two in the mainstream". omg f-ck them. man, like I give a FLYING F-CK. F-CK @marvel comics, f-ck anyone that I'm NOT indirectly working with. (I LOVE my marvel editors because they get you your BOOKS OUT TO YOU ON TIME ) the direct staff has no control, they don't juggle the stupid f-cking numbers."

He continued, "I'm gonna break it into simple ass f-cking terms- you're an artist. you draw sh-t. You wanna get paid for sh-t. now. in the future. FOREVER. you draw NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. IN COUNTRIES EVERYWHERE INCLUDING THE ONE YOU DON'T LIVE IN. f-ck this current Marvel contract. I'm too small in the tier and can't negotiate a better one for you. those in control, those whose work pull, please work for the rest of us. DC isn't far from them because after all, they are a conglomerate of things- owned by WB doesn't help your argument. BUT when I ask for things, DC works with me.

"I've asked Marvel for like.. I SWEAR, $75 PAGE RAISE in the past 15 years( the minimum wage in CA is doing better than them, probably in a decade, even that asshole Trump will do better than Marvel given a month), I don't even need that sh-tty chump change, but I want to see how cheap they are. all this equalling maybe a royalty that's the, "please sir, can I maybe have .15 cents after you've made your thousands", in things. no response. so what am I treading carefully for again? I seriously forget."

Sean Gordon Murphy added "Seconded. This is why I'm more loyal to DC. I recently found out I've been blacklisted from Marvel for around 10 years. I tried to fix it, without much success. Maybe if I offered to cut my DC rate by 1/3 and take a 3rd tier title for a few years, they'd consider hiring me." Murphy was, of course, exclusive to DC for a good chunk of that time…

But Zoe Thorogood offered her own experience, "The only time I worked with Marvel was for a character design (they paid me $100 lmao but I thought it would be cool just to have done it so I agreed) they then, without my knowledge, used my concept art as a cover with zero compensation and I got so much hate for it because IT WAS NOT COVER ART, IT WAS AN $100 SKETCH. Anyway." Dustin replied to Zoe, "you get to play in our sandbox" bullsh-t the pull on every artist. also, at this point, you're already pass them. f-ck marvel" And former Marvel, now IDW editor Heather Antos replied, "WOW that is so f-cked up… they paid assistant editors so low that when the government raised minimum wage they had to give all assistants raises AND overtime."

Chris Stevens added "Cheers. I stopped working for them in 2018. I asked for a rate increase. I didn't ask for a specific amount, just ANY increase and they wouldn't do it. I'd been doing covers for them for 10 years and still had the same rate. They dont need us though. They know someone will gladly take the job for peanuts, so they have little incentive to pay better.

And Yanick Paquette wrote "Marvel has been taking advantage of its almost monopoly of mainstream comics for years. EVERYBODY pays me better for a cover. DC, Boom, Image, Dark Horse, Oni, some joe starting a Kickstarter. Marvel is dead last. Their argument is that the original art would sell better (and they are right of course) but the original sale revenue is mine, we fought for this, and paying under the market is their way to claw back at this extra revenue.

Jason Shawn Alexander wrote, "My Marvel experience was a joke, and DC has only been marginally better. But they're currently screwing me on my own book. Lol. No need to be polite anymore, that's how they got here. Artist timidity. F-ck those guys." Would that be his so-called creator-owned comic book Frostbite from DC/Vertigo, created with Jason Williamson? You would have hoped Jason would have had some pull on that one… but those later Vertigo contracts were awful.

JH Williams III just added, "You've lit a firestorm. Got your back." And Rob Liefeld offered "I'm sorry. I'll hire you for a cover and other work." And Ben Templesmith commented, "Well holy sh-t, my admiration of you just went from great to astronomical, sir." I guess the conversation has begun… again.

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