An article published today lit more fire under the recent online comic book piracy debate, with many creators solely blaming online piracy for their lack of money. Not the publishers, not the editors, not the rampant and unchecked commercialism of which they are an all-too-willing part, not their own work-a-day "time to make the doughnuts" philosophy toward comic books; just online "pirates." ARR! (Fuckin' pirates!)
And it's bullshit.
If you think, for even one second, I'm going to sit here and listen to someone tell me how the $3.00-5.00 I spend for every comic book I purchase doesn't generate enough money to feed the people who do the real work, all I can say is, "I'm sorry."
Writing "arcs" in ongoing series for immediate reprint in TPB is a great marketing strategy for attracting new readers, but not if the entire title is actually just a series of TPBs. Why would you bother following a monthly title in this case? Especially since the quality of the paper on which monthly comic books are printed is so poor, brief exposure to light humidity causes the covers to crinkle worse than the plastic wrap you'll be fighting for weeks after Thanksgiving. With TPB reprints, the story comes complete and the format is sturdier, more attractive, and easier to handle.
But, if we fans don't support the monthly comic, there won't be any TPB! DON'T WE SEE!?
I do see. And, again, I'm sorry.
Of course, following your favorite superheroes is a lot of fun, but you wouldn't pick-up an entire TPB just for the three pages in which your favorite character appears, so monthly issues are cool like that! Except, you know, when your favorite character appears for three pages in every title, every month. Or, the latest implementation of that gag:
A MEGA-SUPER-DUPER-CROSSOVER EVENT RUNNING THROUGH EVERY GODDAMN TITLE ON THE STANDS, AS WELL AS THREE, SUPER-EXCLUSIVE, WEEKLY MAXI-SERIES THAT WON'T CHANGE THE UNIVERSE FOREVER, BUT WILL LEAVE YOU UTTERLY LOST IF YOU DON'T PURCHASE EVERY, SINGLE ONE OF THEM... AND WILL ALSO LEAVE YOU UTTERLY LOST IF YOU DO!
I so get it, and I'm sorry.
I also get how these are properties -- not characters in the literary or "artsy-fartsy" sense -- and you wouldn't want to do anything to damage those properties (especially in the meta-context of affecting multimedia synergy in an emerging world economotry); you want to make them as accessible, palatable, and completely homo... genous as possible, so that absolutely everyone can achieve the same level of fucking bored.
If a reader disagrees with Black Widow's style or morals, s/he used to have a plethora of somewhat similar, though actually quite unique, female characters from which to choose (many of whom appeared regularly as supporting castmembers in better, more established titles) -- but think of all the money the company is losing if you let the readers choose! Ret-con whatever The Market doesn't like or might affect the chances of spinning the property into a series/movie/Beneatheroos (kids' cereals congenerate a negative market-based impactibility these days), change the name and outfit, and voila! -- a reboot!
We'll ride Black Widow for as long and hard as we can, then -- when we blow the bottom out of her -- we'll introduce a younger, peppier sidekick with a sense of fun and a whole lot of fucking hope -- hope that tastes like goddamn angels! -- then spin her off into her own mini-series to test the pertinent market aptitude before releasing an ongoing title, flanked by an exclusive webcomic to launch her daily animated series, leading-up to the feature film! Whatever -- the superheroines are just for penetrating the little girls' market!
I'm sorry.
Sales on Thor are up, so let's release seven ongoing titles (one biweekly), which we'll kick-off by restructuring an entire team imprint featuring... fucking THOR! And we'll wrap an entire MEGA-CROSSOVER EVENT around the entire Marvel Universe, forcing everyone to pay through the nose just to figure out WTF is going on in the three titles they follow monthly (in addition to the dozens of other issues they pick-up occasionally).
I can't afford that, thus I lost interest in many titles when I started getting only part 3 of a story I didn't give a flying fuck about to begin with, but couldn't follow without purchasing a slew of issues I didn't want, so I canceled a lot of subscriptions and quit purchasing crossover events altogether. I'm sorry. When the bubble burst and they canceled all those satellites and put the character back on ice, they just rebooted some other, past icon and did it again, didn't they? And you went right along with the program, because -- dammit! -- you gotta eat!
"Can't eat -- no food; got no food!" Hahaha! You stamp around. "RRRR! Got no food! Gimme some food!" Hahaha.
I'm sorry.
I collect comic books, not trade paperbacks, and I don't give a shit about your creatively-fulfilling, Beneatheroos-sponsored, motherfucking movie tie-in "story." Here's your paycheck. I would like for you to take some of that money and invest it in your craft -- maybe a class, or maybe just a book -- but I know you need to eat. I'm sorry. Besides, collectors buy back issues, so who gives a shit about us? The Company doesn't make money on back issues. And, for that, I'm sorry. I understand why you refuse to support the back industry: "Can't afford it -- got no food!"
I certainly don't support piracy, but it's disingenuous to suggest that the creators are the "true" victims here because we won't give them more money -- not their employers, not goddamn Disney or Warner, motherfucking, Warner Brothers! -- us!
That's because most of these "creators" are only working for these companies to make money -- not entertainment, not fun. They don't argue with the changes the publishers and executives make, even when they know they are for the worse, because they don't care; they don't want to rock the boat. If my store manager moved the Slurp-It machine to the back counter, I don't think I'd mind too much. I probably wouldn't even mention it -- hell, it's a paycheck, ya know?
I'm sorry that you make comic books for money and not the fans. I'm sorry you cater to markets and opinions instead of individuals, ideas, and ideals. I'm sorry you handle properties and guide directions, instead of write characters and tell stories. And I'm sorry that "pirates" follow the money, but had you been "creating" for the fans, for yourself, I'm confident you would still be making about the same amount you are now -- probably more, because the fans would actually know who you are and wouldn't feel put-upon to support you -- they would feel excited to get something new from you, they would be all-too eager to purchase your products!
And even though I do not traffick in pirated media, I freely admit to having swiped a few comics from the store shelves in my youth. I resell comic books I purchased because I truly wanted to enjoy them, as well as those I hoped would one day be worth something -- comics I carefully bagged, boarded, stored, and oversaw for years and years -- and I don't tithe 10% to The Company when I do so. I did this to you -- me and the pirates (ARR!) -- and I am truly sorry.
I'm sorry you snatched the last available lifeboat and sold seats to "the floaters." I'm sorry you blew the bottom out of a good thing, just like I said you would -- just like you always have -- and refuse to summon the dignity to admit your damning greed and the utter lack of respect you bring to the medium you know only as a business. I'm sorry you don't realize you've been peddling watered-down "ideas" and "concepts" to anyone with a dollar, not making comic books. I'm sorry you intentionally overprint issues to artificially inflate their popularity, then release a succession of "variants," reprints, and TPB collections, thus flooding the market and devaluing my collection. I'm sorry that I don't have any more money to give you and I'm sorry for most of the money I have given you these last few years.
But most of all, I'm sorry that you are not.
© C Harris Lynn, 2010
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
8 comments:
I think the point that Colleen is making is not directed at the corporate owned properties, but rather properties owned by the Creator/Artist of the comic. She specifically highlights her problems with "A Distant Soil" being pirated, not any of the franchised Dark Horse, DC or Marvel properties. As a Creator/Artist I would not find any favor in having a work that I own and control violated by a pirate site. No way, no how. When not working for a major company, any work I create and own is work that I control the rights to. What's the benefit of having my stories, my art, my craft and time usurped by someone that doesn't have the right to it, then have this work made available to anyone who wants to read it without paying me for that right? Look,seems you have major problems with the schlock the big companies are doling out, I get that and I feel your pain. But why disregard/punish those Independent Creators who want to go their own way and not toe the corporate line? Seems you'd want to support their independent vision if your so tired of stupid capes and tights.
Actually, a large part of my purchases have always been from independents -- honestly, my collection would be worth at least 2-3x as much as it is, had I purchased "solid investment" properties I knew would appreciate, as opposed to issue after issue of independently-released titles I got just because they looked "cool," I liked the artwork, or whatever. In fact, with the exception of these crossover events which have cost me literally as much as $200 some months this year, my purchases probably breakdown to around -
Mainstream : Independents :: 60% : 40% -- "Independents" including Image, DH, et. al.
(Give or take, and forgive the old-fashioned math, if it's even correctly formatted).
I was creating my own comics and characters, universes and stories, literally since I was about 8-10 years-old; comic books -- as a medium, a hobby, an art form -- are as dear to my heart as music. My posts routinely show-up on others' sites intact, without accreditation or a backlink, so I face a similar situation on a daily, and far more widespread, basis.
I get the argument, and agree with it 100%, but don't place all the blame on what is actually the lesser problem. I don't have time, but were I to count it out, I'd guess 75% of the mainstream titles on-stands today are written by the same 5-10 people. That's an industry problem, Mr. Akins!
I always have, and always will, support the talent, but I refuse to bear the burden of "supporting" them because they refuse to stand-up to an industry that is crushing them and the fans.
OK, I can follow you in in terms of the "Writer's Lock" that blights the industry. It's a Writers game in comics, and yes, that's part of the problem. Companies want to ensure a controlled and consistent following of readers and need the properties the editors manage to remain viable. Again, I get it. The word "transmedia" is going around the industry like the clap with a rocket shoved up it's ass...this is part of the problem, too. All the kow-towing to big media seems to impact content by making everyone expect movie deals to follow the release of regular comicbook titles. We've seen this monster before, but in a different dress. I also have to point out your mentioning of purchasing comics as an investment. There's a slippery slope.
I don't know, basically, I think that your sense of Creators/Artists deserving a raw deal at the hands of Piracy is completely misplaced as, in the most basic legal terms, the individuals who take materials that do not belong to them and make them available on pirate/torrent sites AND profit from this act are operating as criminals. Hopefully you'll see the need to get onboard, along with other Creators and help drive this exploitive element from the web as, you have stated, you've suffered under instances of piracy yourself (I consider back-linking reflexive and less impacting, no?). None of us do this for free. The debate over digital comics is red hot, much like the music industry crisis around Napster and file sharing...the tech is here to stay and Creators need to understand how to best protect their craft. Creators run enough hazards in the capricious industry without having to have jackals nipping at our heels.
Absolutely agreed as to piracy, and since you grasp my larger point surrounding that, we'll leave it there.
As for the "slippery slope" of collecting: That, right there, is the nail in the industry's coffin! Collecting comic books is the very backbone of the industry - not publishing or even the form itself - and that sort of "highbrow" mentality has done as much to kill comics as mega-crossover events and multimedia deals.
It wasn't until CBG alumni started wading through fellow fans' dank basements that comic books became a viable commodity/industry. Before that, comics were a throw-off imprint designed to inflate circulation numbers. Once collected, it was still another 30-40 years before anyone bothered looking for - or into - them. Collectors invented the comic book industry and have always driven it; it is the hobby behind the medium which propelled it, and the continual derision from hipsters, elitists, and "industry pros" alike (no offense to you, though that is the context of your statement) makes it hard to believe y'all get it!
No one should appropriate/distribute your work without compensation, but your message is clear: "We don't care what you get out of it! We don't do this for you, we do this for money. We don't care what you like or why."
If you're truly in it for the art and love of the medium, you'd know what a long, arduous process it is to fan-favorite, and before the Web, that road included backroom dealings that today would be called "piracy."
Go tell it on the mountain, brother! Incidentally, any idea where I could find some pictures of Black Widow in her Beneatheroos?
Have you seen the covers for her series? I dunno the brand name, but me likey!
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