Retailer Steve Bennett writes about webcomics, and a possible shape of things to come:
One company that seems to have a handle on utilizing the Internet is Platinum Studios. A quick trip to their Website and I found this quote concerning their release on the Internet first, print later policy: “Making the content available for free, supported by title-specific Websites, online trailers and Web advertising, will drive reader and retailer awareness and boost print sales - just as radio airplay drives music sales.”
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[However] Platinum isn’t paying its creators upfront… In a previous column I took Platinum to task for doing this very thing, but upon reflection it occurs to me that my thinking was stuck back in print mode. Platinum’s “new model” isn’t all that new; it’s the model we’ve had for Webcomics for years.
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I mean nobody (for the most part) pays creators of Webcomics; people like Scott Kurtz of PVP spent years absorbing the production and promotion costs of their comics with only revenue from selling ad space on their Websites coming in. But eventually he signed a deal with Image and now has several trade paperback collections in print…. [A]s someone who once looked forward to those checks (more like an honorarium really) for my scripts, I don’t like the idea of creators not getting paid upfront for their material. But then, you don’t necessarily have to like the future, and this might be it.
November 8th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
“Platinum isn’t paying its creators upfront…”
That’s not true, at least not in the vast majority of cases. Of more than ten titles I’ve worked on for Platinum, only one paid nothing up-front–the first one, a 62-page sci-fi graphic novel called AGE OF KINGS (illustrated by Russell Hossain, coming in 2007, I believe). That was written as a test-run to see if I could handle Platinum’s editorial requirements. Once it was determined that a hundred pages of red ink splattered over my script wouldn’t drive me off a ledge, I was hired for and/or proposed and had accepted several other projects, all of which offered a nominal advance. “Nominal” isn’t my word, incidentally, it was right there on the Platinum website for all to see for years.
I know many creators, some of whom have gone on to be published by Marvel, Image, and any number of small-press companies who received their first (and in many cases only) paid work as a comics creator from Platinum. Speaking for myself, with the exception of AoK, I’ve made more off any one Platinum title I’ve worked on than I have off of my, Scott Mooney and Nick Craine’s graphic novel PARTING WAYS or my and Fiona Staples’ current 5-issue series DONE TO DEATH (the first issues of which are still available, no matter what Diamond tells your local retailer, I might add).
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November 8th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Quick correction: some of the projects I did for Platinum offered substantially more than a “nominal advance.” That was the minimum payment for creators up-front; it wasn’t and isn’t the maximum.
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November 8th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I think he might be misrepresenting what Scott Kurtz has accomplished with PVP. He doesn’t need the comics, at all, to be successful. Oh, they’re helpful and all, but the advertising is nothing to sneeze at.
The implication that Scott didn’t get paid for his comics is crazy. He got paid for them in advertising, merchandising, etc. It’s not always a one-to-one scenario in the new world of the internet. And that’s OK. That’s understood. It’s part of the game.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:47 am
I’m sick of hearing people throw out blanket statements like that about Platinum. If you want to know, just ask someone who’s working with them. I’m getting a very nice page rate for the book I’m drawing, and I’m compensated for my work on the webcomic as well that ties into my book with Platinum.
At least he got one thing right…this is the future of comics, at least if I have a say in it.