House Characters In Comics

[13school]

I really wish Ewing was doing more (anything) for 2000AD. But I'm assuming he's currently following the traditional model of working like mad for a big US publisher in the hope that when he makes the jump to a creator-owned series at Image he'll have enough fans willing to follow him to make it worthwhile. I pretty much never pick up Big Two titles no matter who's writing them these days (yeah, I know, I'm missing out), and I really wish there was some Ewing work out there I could be reading.

The trouble with the idea that giving creators a slice of their creations could make up for lesser pay is that (for example) with US television currently ramping up fiction production to never before-seen levels and with no immediate end in sight, coming up with new creations that can be turned into TV shows or movie or whatever *is* where the big money potentially is.

Getting bigger name creators back into 2000AD for 2000AD money plus creative ownership might work. But it seems that the more money that's potentially out there for selling comic book properties to television producers, the less incentive there is as a comic book creator to take any deal that doesn't give you full control over those options and the less incentive there is for publishers to give you those options in case you hit it big and they get nothing. It's easy to say "publishers should be happy with publishing money", but when there's a possibility of a big TV payday why put yourself in a situation where you're guaranteeing if it does happen you'll see none of the money?

Which is why Marvel and DC have been all about trying to make properties they already own seem fresh and new for the last few decades, and why all the big names stopped writing for Vertigo once that imprint changed their contracts to give DC a big slice of the TV and movie royalties.

[AlexF]

I'd argue that Rogue Trooper, and to an extent Judge Dredd, are examples of 2000AD house characters created by the house. Judge Dredd, and very much the city around him, ended up rather quickly being John Wagner's personal character, but that was kind of by accident, wasn't it? Wagner didn't become Dredd's most prolific writer until sometime around Prog 30. TO get to that point, Pat Mills in particular did an awful lot of tinkering with an editor's hat on, if not a 'channelling my inner writer' hat - and of all the strips he should be claiming proper royalites on, I don't think even he would push for a bigger slice of the Dredd pie. Reprints of the Cursed Earth, maybe, but not merchandise.

Is that perhaps one reason why both stories have done a lot better than any others as characters that can be farmed out to any number of creatorts to have a go?

Perhaps another option Tharg might consider is using his own + his in-house design team's brains to conjure up a strip in that vein, then farm it out to a couple of different creative teams to noodle around with in the actual prog? I guess he might have to pay a bigger page rate to hook them, but in theory could afford that by saving on royalites? Of course, there's no guarantee it'd be any good.

[CalHab]

I really wish Ewing was doing more (anything) for 2000AD. But I'm assuming he's currently following the traditional model of working like mad for a big US publisher in the hope that when he makes the jump to a creator-owned series at Image he'll have enough fans willing to follow him to make it worthwhile. I pretty much never pick up Big Two titles no matter who's writing them these days (yeah, I know, I'm missing out), and I really wish there was some Ewing work out there I could be reading.

You're not missing anything, on the basis of the few Marvel titles by Ewing that I've read. He seems to have lost the plot, or the format and structure of Marvel books is such that it kills his writing.

[Frank]

The trouble with the idea that giving creators a slice of their creations could make up for lesser pay is that ... coming up with new creations that can be turned into TV shows or movie or whatever *is* where the big money potentially is.

... (It) seems that the more money that's potentially out there for selling comic book properties to television producers, the less incentive there is as a comic book creator to take any deal that doesn't give you full control over those options and the less incentive there is for publishers to give you those options in case you hit it big and they get nothing.

... (The) big names stopped writing for Vertigo once that imprint changed their contracts to give DC a big slice of the TV and movie royalties.

That last point seems to confirm that a profit split arrangement does incentivise some creators to work for a publisher.*

This is taking us off point - that house characters aren't necessarily the best way to get the best work out of writers - but I wasn't spitballing the creator owned angle with dreams of tempting Moore and Jock back into the fold.

More a way of trying to get the best work out of the creators who are available - and maybe build  relationships that make them less likely to want or need to take their talents and ideas elsewhere.


* Although even Vertigo's basic rate would have been greater than anything Tharg offered

[Frank]

I don't think even he would push for a bigger slice of the Dredd pie

You haven't read his book, Alex! Pat makes the point that Wagner voluntarily paid Mills a small part of his royalties on the early Megazines, in recognition of the work Mills (et al) put into early Dredd.*

You raise a number of interesting points (as always) which I'll have to reply to at a time when I'm not in danger of being caught skiving by my employer.


* Mills also makes the point that this was the publisher's responsibility, not Wagners.