Posted in: Comics | Tagged: fcbd, free comic book day, princeless

Princeless Creators vs Action Lab Over Free Comic Book Day Offering

Comic book publishers Action Lab Entertainment have been the subject of concerns from several comic book creators over the past year, culminating in a class action lawsuit from a number of them. Action Lab also has a Free Comic Book Day title scheduled for this May, featuring work that may be under dispute. Here is the listing;

FCBD 2023 PRINCELESS
ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT
DEC220018
(W) Jeremy Whitley (A/CA) Emily Martin
Princeless Is Back! And to kick off the tenth volume, Action Lab is giving you the first issue for free! Join Adrienne as she kicks off a new adventure where it all began-her homeland!
Exclusive Original Material Rating: All-Ages

Princeless creators on the series Jeremy Whitley and Emily C Martin are part of that lawsuit, cited as saying about Action Lab and its publisher Bryan Seaton, "When confronted about non-payment in the past, ALE has seen fit to unpublish digitally published comics rather than make payments to creators; for example, books are published digitally on a platform called Comixology. When confronted about digitally publishing issues of Raven the Pirate Princess without paying artists, ALE chose to remove them from Comixology rather than make good on the payments they owed. Seaton told Creators that in the year 2020 he shut the entire company down twice, but Creators were never told this or given an explanation as to why this would have been done. Seaton has frequently failed to answer time sensitive questions in a timely manner, despite nothing being able to be done at the company without his say so. Seaton told Creators that his email had been locked for some time and he did not know how to access it and had not pursued getting it unlocked. When Creators asked for their contract to be voided based on non-payment and other issues, Seaton called Creators and threatened to bankrupt them with legal fees."

They have now issued the following statement, taking issue with this publishing decision, with Jeremy and Emily stating;

It has come to our attention through the excitement of our fans that there is "brand new" Princeless material being offered by Action Lab Comics for Free Comic Book Day. To say that this is a surprise to us is perhaps an understatement.

The creators of Princeless (Jeremy and Emily) are currently in a protracted legal battle with Action Lab regarding a number of issues that we feel should have voided our publishing contract with Action Lab. As detailed in the original complaint, these issues range from non-payment of royalties, late payment of artists, late delivery of books to the distributor, and Action Lab completely shutting down business and payments for a large chunk of 2020 without informing us or other creators. Jeremy and Emily have currently stopped working on Princeless and have not received any request to approve or finalize comics pages for a Free Comic Book Day release, nor have they approved any new work to be published in a format such as this which would not offer royalties or recompense to the creative team.

This is the latest in Action Lab's continued policy of putting their personal profits before creators and we strongly disapprove.

Perhaps even more worrying is Action Lab's claim in their Previews solicitation that this is meant to "kick off the tenth volume." Not only was this done without our approval, but the team has only finished the first issue of the volume and the implication that the rest of this volume is coming soon is misleading to retailers, consumers, and the distributor. Those books have not been drawn and Action Lab has not attempted to settle our current legal issues in any meaningful way. The only possible explanations are that either Action Lab is trying to force the creative team into feeling pressured by the expectations of our fans and community or that Action Lab means to continue the book without us. We are not okay with either of these instances and we do not think the fans of Princeless will be either.

Princeless was never a cash cow, but that was never what it was about. It was about creating an important comic with a message that we could be proud of and the stories we wanted young comic fans to read. It is also important to create the book under ethical work practices where freelancers can expect the pay they are promised in a timely and uncomplicated fashion. Until this legal issue is settled, we would ask that Princeless fans not support this Free Comic Book Day book and that they make their voices heard to Action Lab, their retailers, and their distributors.

Thank you and we look forward to bringing this book to you in the future under better circumstances,

Bleeding Cool reached out to Action Lab publisher Bryan Seaton who did not return comment today. We are happy to include any other versions of events, if made available.

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