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Marvel Reaches Out To Romeo Tanghal To Put Payment Matters Straight

Published Mon, 22 May 2017 12:30:34 -0500

A piece over the weekend regarding veteran comic book inker Romeo Tanghal's inability to get a response from Marvel regarding whether he is owed royalties for his past work for the publisher, and if so how much, opened up a number of people to get in touch with Bleeding Cool. Every one of them not-for-attribution or even quoting, less an identifiable phrase be used.

I have had repeated reports of comic creators having issues with Marvel's accounting, never portioning blame to the people who work there, simply that they understand that everyone is overworked. Enquiries can take months, years in some cases to get resolved, if at all. And that getting a reply can be a hard-won victory.

The accusation is, if anything, that Marvel Comics is understaffed, which is not exactly a new one, the publisher has always proudly run a tight-run ship, with some people being fired just to see if the publisher can run without them. And sometimes it can. They publish as many books as DC Comics, say, with a fraction of the editorial staff.

This was exacerbated for a time, I am told, by every such creator payment having to go through a bottleneck and, though this has since been lifted, there is still a major logjam.

The advice professionals give each other is, wait. There will be a response. But for certain creators in their mid-seventies without other reliable forms of income, this isn't the most applicable of advice.

However, after publishing the piece on Bleeding Cool, it transpires that someone at Marvel did get in touch.

Romeo writes "I already received this morning a notice and copies of what they need for me to fill up in order to release the due royalty. Feeling great!"

I have a contact at Marvel to send in any similar concerns. Feel free to get in touch at richjohnston@gmail.com.

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