So I was at the Baltimore Comic-Con today and a press guy stopped at my table for Last Call and noticed my website had "Drunk Duck" in the URL. He started freaking out and saying I should leave Drunk Duck as soon as I could, that it was a bad place to host my webcomic.

I asked him, "Why? I love Drunk Duck. I love the fast, convenient service it provides. I love the friendly and helpful people. What's not to like?"

Then he started spouting out stuff about Platinum Studios and how bad they were, how they have a lot of issues about rights, how they weren't paying bills on time...I've never seen a guy so jaded about a company before.

Is the stuff he's saying true? Does Platinum Studios/DD have a bad reputation? It would come as a shock to me, because I've seen nothing but good come out of DD, and I love it.

Thoughts? Comments?

(mods please feel free to move this thread where appropriate, thanks!)

I suppose Platinum does have a bad reputation from all that stuff that happened a while back with Hero by Night, and it would make sense that it'd spill over to DD.

DD doesn't deserve it though, I think. It's a free service, and you don't have to get involved with Platinum at all if you don't want too. They've pretty much abandoned DD anyway, so as far I'm concerned they don't have anything to do with us any more. He was bashing Platinum and assuming DD had more connection to Platinum's problems because he hadn't experienced it first-hand.

I won't discuss whether Platinum deserves it or not, since I didn't really understand what was going on and I don't really want to.

Like Custard said, I'm sure he was concerned about the whole Platinum thing. I was sad when the Hero by Night fiasco occurred because I liked that comic allot. Also, recently, the creator of Atland abandoned this site, refusing to give reasons, except that he mentioned that it had something to do with Platinum Studios.

While I will continue to use drunk duck and possibly attempt to post more free comic crap written by myself, I will think twice before accepting any contracts from these guys. Not that I'm expecting a million dollar deal from them any time soon. ^^

I like Drunk Duck, but I hate Platinum. I wish someone with some money and business sense would buy DD from Platinum already. I'd hate to see this site fade away due to a company with piss-poor management skills.

How much would it cost to buy DD anyways? :/

I'm thinkin' 7, 8 dollars max.

Nowadays, it's cool to dislike DD.

You bandwagoners.

I like DD!

Does that make me a rebel?

DD is a metaphor for America.

And the con guys are the eurotrash h8terz.

Comic genesis can be soviet russia

This post is making me wonder about what would happen if the users of DD came together, threw donations into a pot, and then just bought out DD from Platinum. But I bet that that the maintanence costs of the site would quash that idea really fast...

Okay whats this Hero by Night scandel that no ones talking about? I tried looking it up for myself and all I got was the creator won a comic contest held by Platinum and that he is now working with Flobots. If no one wants to talk about it on the forums could someone msg me about it?

The trouble is that webcomicers and webcomic press people tend to be crazy hyper drama types.

They don't really care about facts, or finding our for themselves, rumour is meat and drink to them. Rumour is more important than sex. From rumour and past drama they can build up massive new dramas of silly paranoia and hysteria.



The truth is that Plat made bad business decisions a while ago, but were also hurt by industry trends and the economic down turn.
DD has nothing to do with that. It was an acquisition at one point, there was some extra funding and development which bulked it into something that was much bigger than before. And then it was put on the back-burner for later when Plat started to have some issues (mentioned above).

That's the full situation. People who go off on a drama/rumour fuelled idiot binge (like Lastcall's guy) are tits to be ignored.
Yep, it does hurt DD's reputation. But the opinion of idiot drama queens isn't important to me, whoever they are.

There was no scandal. DJ Coffman wasn't happy when Plat was behind in their payments to him for the comic he did for them (when Plat ran into some trouble), so he quit. Plat retained rights to the comic, as per the contract he was hired under.
That's all there was. The rest is for the dramaqueens.

http://www.djcoffman.com/

Search 'platnum' or 'hero by night', or just look int the 08 archives for moar
http://www.djcoffman.com/tikibar/2008/06/23/hero-by-night-not-good-new/

Basically he won that challenge and signed a contract stating all rights to hero by night go to platinum. Flash foreword quite a bit, Platinum is not paying Dj, and this sum of money gets pretty large. He can't just up and leave either because HbN is not really his property anymore. Dj spills the beans on his blog about it and it causes a huge controversy because some breech of contract that DJ is not allowed to publicly talk about money dealings with platinum. He kind of tore a hole for everyone to see plat's shadiness, and now is outspoken about creators getting screwed over by companies(which most creators are silent about because it can effect their chance of getting work later on)
I think to this day he still hasn't been paid.


Ahhhhh yeaaaaaahhh

Thanks Skullbie and Oz for filling me in a bit. Seems like a bit of a set up on Platinum's part to me. Well at least the guy is still working :D



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Personally I came apoun DD by a few comics that had started here. I liked the comics and I noticed a lot of talk about DD in the commenters. I looked it up, liked what I saw and joined. The only people I've met in real life that had known about DD liked it :/

He has, long ago Skull, that was the drama version of this:
DJ Coffman wasn't happy when Plat was behind in their payments to him for the comic he did for them (when Plat ran into some trouble), so he quit. Plat retained rights to the comic, as per the contract he was hired under.

And there's the boring version of it.

That's good he was eventually paid though

That's true.

Plat had other probs with artists too... But it was always unfair that DD was blamed for those things.
Plat pays for DD, but the truth is that Drunk Duck is US- all the comic artists here and all the regular readers. That's what DD is.

awwwww. I LOVE YOU TOO!

Perhaps I was a bit schmaltzy...

But it's true. DD is us. So when some shallow dramaqueen maligns DD because of some silly sensationalist foolishness, it's the creators and readers here they're maligning, not Plat.

That's why I dismiss their childish histrionics.

Could their ideas about DD harm your comic?
Well, being connected to any comic host will always mean something to someone. Generally people think that the comic isn't good enough to be hosted in its own right. Other associations are things like: Smack Jeeves=Boy love; Comic Gen=gamer comics (or something); DD=sprite comics... and so on.

You can let that sort of thing bother you or you can just ignore it and go on and do your comic.
The dramaqueens will always cause a stir about something or other. You should have seen the crap that used to go on about keenspot/keenspace and who got picked for "spotting" and why. Just silliness.

Well then metaphorically fuck America! D:<


Yes DD will have an awful reputation. Although it's quite fun being on a site where you can insult the owners and they won't do anything.
HEY PLAT. YOU SMELL LIKE POO.


Teehee~

And that's why DD is so awesome! Thanks so much for the responses, everyone. It's sad that DD gets blamed for bad stuff that Plat does (or did). It's like the little brother is getting blamed for the big brother's crap.

There's not a lot of love for Platinum online but, as Ozone said, this is mainly due to issues which have nothing to do with DD and have no real impact on the creators or readers who make up the community here. One thing that's seldom acknowledged, however, is that Platinum's involvement has actually benefitted DD in terms of the perceived quality of its comics.

Rightly or wrongly, because anyone can post their comics here, the comics on DD used to be seen as being poor compared to those on hosting sites which have vetting procedures. For reasons of its own, Platinum's involvement meant that a number of very strong titles were added to the DD line-up. I'm thinking particularly of The Weapon, Incursion, Consumed, Ghosting, Atlantis Rising, Nightfall, Cowboys and Aliens etc.

Now, don't get me wrong. There were good comics here before Platinum came on board and plenty of other good comics have started here since Platinum stopped adding titles of its own. Even so, within the space of a few months, the number of pro-quality titles on DD increased significantly and I think that did a lot to change people's perception of what could be expected from DD.

Now that were that far into this discussion, could anyone tell me if the ideas for Cowboys and Aliens movie and the Hero by Night show is still a go? That is the ultimate goal of Platinum right? To turn their comics into movies and stuff like that?

Yep, that's 100% true.No idea.
I wouldn't hold my breath though. You have to understand that the film and TV industry is a different sort of thing to the comic industry... People buy rights and options to ideas and scripts and things and then just sit on them for years. Sometimes they never intend to do anything with them at all. Sometimes the only reason for buying an idea is to stop anyone else using it because it conflicts with one of your own or because you don't have the money or ability to make it into a big project while your rivals do and you want to deny them that.

I think what happened with Hero and C&A was that at the time hero TV shows were really going gang busters and scifi movies were the "in" thing, but since then trends have changed. It takes a long time to put an idea into production and by the time either of those ideas had gone though that process the trend would've been long gone and the project would be an expensive failure.
...
That'll be how the executives and investors think, you see?
It doesn't matter that either idea could be fantastic if they only had the courage to go through with it... there are a lot of factors involved.

And I'm only guessing anyway.

how much would Drunk Duck cost to buy? Because it just so happens I am planning on making millions of dollars when I am older.

We all plan to make millions of dollars when we get older

Hey Platinum, it is my personal belief that the way you currently are, is not the ideal way for a person or company to be.

I heard a rumor that Drunk Duck may cause headaches, nausea, impotence, and vaginal discharge.

That guy at the convention was just trying to do everyone a favor. You've all been warned!!!

i saw this awhile ago

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/BrentSprecher/news/?a=10792