Folks,

I've been doing some reading about the business of comics, particularly concerning the rights to creative materials, which all creators should be interested in.

Interestingly enough, it's a very hotly debating topic. Creative Materials are, essentially, the idea for the character and story that has been created. Now, from the creator side, the creative materials may be an evolution of many years of time and effort, not to mention financial investment. The creator might want this product to be published so that others might enjoy the story and would (perhaps) pay for it, but he has a product with no means to publish it.

Enter the Publisher. The publisher has established relations with various printing companies to procure the best deal possible for printing, and has woo'ed distributors into carrying their product and marketing it to individual stores. They have means, and have invested a great deal of time and money; but without Creative Materials, they have no product.

The (at first glance) best printing arrangement for the Creator is to own full rights, licensing and creative control of his material.

The (at first glance) best printing arrangement for the Publisher is to own full rights, licensing and creative control of what they publish.

The central issue here is that everyone wants the Creative Material and wants to give up as little as possible to get it.

Now, there are plenty of "deals" being cut out there for materials. Marvel and DC won't (with few exceptions) publish your material unless you sell it to them, hook, line and sinker. You don't own it anymore, and they're free to develop it any way they choose.

Image comics will publish your material and let you retain full rights, with you getting any profits left over (if any) after they take their cut. Since they don't have any stake in your comic (other than getting their cut), they aren't super interested in helping negotiate movie rights, merchandising, and so on.

Dark Horse Comics will publish your material, allowing you to retain creative rights, but may also assist you in merchandising and movie rights...for their cut, which seems fair. I have read very little about this.

So, let's talk about fair. It seems to me that there are 3 kinds of "fair" deals involving a Creator, a Publisher and Creative Material, which I'll express in a highly simplified manner:

1. The Creator sells his rights to the material to the Publisher for an amount that both parties deem to be "fair". If the material turns out to be the next "Superman" or "Batman", the Publisher makes more than the Creator. If the material flops, the situation is reversed.

2. The Creator retains all creative rights, meaning that the only thing the Publisher does is print and sell the comic. Since there isn't any merchandising or movie rights involved, the Publisher doesn't really make lots of money unless it's really lucky.

3. The Creator and the Publisher share rights. This is the most complex legally, but probably the most "fair" concerning both parties. The Creator is paid a royalty for each comic published and may be paid to write/draw/whatever the comic at a standard page rate. The Publisher has the exclusive rights to develop movie/merchandising deals with the creator getting a percentage of those as well. If the Publisher lets the material lie unused for a particular length of time, the rights may revert back to the Creator, who can then choose to do with them whatever he(or she) chooses.

I think that the interests of both parties would be benefitted by more "hybrid" agreements, such as the last I mentioned. Of course, there are creators out there who decide to make a living by coming up with and selling rights to creative material to publishers, but that's pretty uncommon. Likewise, there are creators out there that want to oversee everything that touches their creation, in which case they might have to self-publish, which is harder.

I'd be curious to hear (from those of you who have a dream of having a printed comic) what sort of deals you would entertain for the rights to your material?

-Dave Flora

Roguehill
Image comics will publish your material and let you retain full rights, with you getting any profits left over (if any) after they take their cut. Since they don't have any stake in your comic (other than getting their cut), they aren't super interested in helping negotiate movie rights, merchandising, and so on.

Now wait a second, why wouldn't they be? Movies based on comics usually equal more of that comic being sold, so any company would try to help with selling the movie rights. The only reason why comic published by Image don't get their movie rights sold faster than Marvel and DC is because they aren't as big as Marvel or DC, and the company has to consult the creator first.

ccs1989
Now wait a second, why wouldn't they be? Movies based on comics usually equal more of that comic being sold, so any company would try to help with selling the movie rights. The only reason why comic published by Image don't get their movie rights sold faster than Marvel and DC is because they aren't as big as Marvel or DC, and the company has to consult the creator first.

Well, that's just not the business that Image is in (at this time). They see themselves as a comic book publisher...and that's it. I've read where some folks think that Image could be coming out on the short end of the stick as far as attracting creators because of their lack of "partnering" as it were, but to date, that's how they operate.