Yes, David Brothers has been on fire this week. Did you see that Chris Roberson has left DC partly because of the stuff that's talked about in that article? The industry sounds like a real piece of ****.
Yeah, I did read that and it made me smile. That kind of thing seems to be happening more and more, if not usually so explicitly. While I haven't weened myself off corporate comics completely but I certainly don't buy floppies from them and the trades I get are few and far between. And while I'd like to say it's an ethical decision, it really comes down to two things. The direct market system really isn't worth the cost. Four or even three dollars for a twenty page magazine on cheap print that's going to fall apart and stuffed full of ads for hot dogs and shoes is a complete waste of money. Add to the fact that most of what's published isn't very good and mostly I end up just digging through old trades for something interesting. I don't think the market's sustainable. I think the corporate system is going to fall apart and honestly I find that exciting. Where at a precipice (and I say this. a lot. I know) where the corrupt publishers in practically every artistic medium are becoming irrelevant. It could be the start of a new renaissance, and I find that exciting at the same time I gradually lose more and more interest in these corporate owned properties that will never change.
Oh, and Brothers is great. One of the few legitimate journalists in the field. We need more guys like him.
Yes, and I loved this quote.
Its nice that he's making this stand and all but I fall more on the JMS side of things. You do the best you can with what you've got. You'll win some, you'll loose some. Being bitter about it until the end of your life won't make anything better. Now I hadn't heard the Kirby stuff from that, that was amazingly disrespectful. Not all that surprising though. Say you're an executive or a contract lawyer. Are you going to recognize the importance of some comic artist who's trying to get his pictures back or are you going to try to get your company whatever you can for them? Everyone acts like this is creators vs creators over the rights when its not. Its creators against corporations. Corporations don't have ethics in the same sense that people do. Hell, the people doing the legal and business work aren't fans. They're getting paid for a job. And we can all agree that what happens is terrible, but that won't ever change anything. The only thing that'll change things is if every stops buying. Everyone.
Good luck with that.
No. The only way things will change is if the necessity of corporate brokers is taken out of the system. And, oops, it looks like that's rapidly becoming the case, and self-publication is becoming a feasible and sustainable venue.
I don't get your logic. You say you agree that you agree more with JMS but that the contracts are wrong. You say the creators shouldn't be bitter even though they got screwed but these aren't guys who let their careers stymie their work. They found new venues for it. If you work within a system that's corrupt and disrespectful, it's your obligation to yourself both to speak out against it and find a new way to publicize your work that doesn't treat you like a battered whore. Will it fix the system? No, but as far as I can tell, the industry is doing a fine enough job of cannibalizing itself.
And it's not just that "corporations don't have ethics in the way that people do". It's that "corporations don't have ethics, period, and still have all the rights and privileges that people do, without accountability." That's a serious problem, not just in the comics industry, but holistically.
