The New Adventures of Pat Mills

[JayzusB.Christ]

After everything he's said for creator's rights, to then jump on this bandwagon is just baffling.

TBH, Mills has never been about “creators” rights, he’s only ever been about his rights.

Presumably, his position has been that it’s up to other creators to stand up for themselves and maybe it’s his supporters who’ve cast him as a champion of creator rights in general, but his willingness to replace artists at will on his strips (and the shameful exclusion of Martin Emond from the Accident Man credits) seems to indicate that he regards the artist as very much secondary in the creator hierarchy. In that light, his willingness to embrace AI ‘art’ is unsurprising.

However, we should probably break this out into another thread rather than completely derail this one…

Done!

I don't claim to understand much about either NFTs or AI art, but the latter makes me uncomfortable as someone who makes his living - well, half his living - out of commissioned artworks.  He's got his own Jimmy Who? by the sound of it. Not cool.  I remember Gordon Rennie making the same point about Pat's crusade for creators' rights actually being a crusade for one creator's rights. 

It doesn't need to be said, of course, that Pat made 2000ad what it is, and created some of the best series Tharg ever gave us.  I'll continue re-reading early Sláine and Nemesis for the rest of my life.  But I don't believe he's done anything particularly special for a very long time, and I've found myself getting increasingly tired of his brand of angry narcissism.  I hate to say it, but I don't miss him much in the prog.

[Funt Solo]

Ironic, as later-Mills is heavily reliant on the artist to carry the thrill, because the script is often just a re-tread of his earlier work or too heavily laden with research-by-TFH.

[broodblik]

I am also at this point that I stopped listening to "Me myself and I" rhetoric. I do not miss his work in the prog at all.  He even had a swipe at "John" for his name appearing on the Diceman collection: I don't recall John actually writing anything. It looks like a typically misleading Rebellion cover. Not the first! 2/2

[13school]

John Wagner said on FB he didn't remember writing anything for it either. There's a Dice Man Dredd story credited to TB Grover so maybe Alan Grant wrote it solo?

[IndigoPrime]

“a typically misleading Rebellion cover”

Er, what? FFS. His work must sell well, because at this point why the hell would Rebellion reprint anything of his, if all they get is shit for it, whatever they do?

As for NFTs, that’s the one area in which I think his imprint (by way of his wife) does seem to be going about things in broadly the right away. It’s just a technology and a means to legally distribute material across mediums. For people who care about collecting, and who might want to own rights/goodies beyond a book (say), it might work. Of course, Mills will need to deliver on whatever promises he makes, be that talks or whatever. But the basic concept doesn’t really bother me – unlike elements of the ongoing crusade against Rebellion and the regular dismissal of artist rights.

[Jim_Campbell]

As for NFTs, that’s the one area in which I think his imprint (by way of his wife) does seem to be going about things in broadly the right away.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of NFTs/crypto in general (which is a whole other can of worms), I'm not sure building in a stipulation that Mills gets 50% of any resale of his NFTs (in perpetuity — 50% every time one changes hands) is going about it the "right" way.

[IndigoPrime]

Ah, I’d not noticed the residuals level. As you were, then.

[sheridan]

Ironic, as later-Mills is heavily reliant on the artist to carry the thrill, because the script is often just a re-tread of his earlier work or too heavily laden with research-by-TFH.

TFH?

[IndigoPrime]

I’m guessing tinfoil hat.

[Goosegash]

NFTs are an utterly unethical scam that anyone with any scruples would have nothing to do with, it's the late capitalist equivalent of the old "selling Tower Bridge to tourists" con, but with much broader negative consequences for the environment.

So the fact Mills has whole-heartedly embraced them despite presumably knowing all this just shows exactly where his priorities lie, and it's not fucking humanitarian concerns.

[IndigoPrime]

I… disagree. NFTs in and of themselves are a technology. How people choose to use them is the problem, not the technology in and of itself. Sure, there’s an element of land-grab going on, and people exploiting a system and people with more money than sense. But the idea of ownership within digital systems and virtual worlds is a compelling one, as is the means to transfer owned/created objects between different systems.

We aren’t anywhere near there yet, but I’m loathe to dismiss an entire technology because of the bad ways in which it can be used and because it hasn’t yet found a great deal of utility.

(Note: I’m not dismissing environmental factors here. Blockchain and crypto have long had problems in that space. But they are transitioning to alternate models. And I suspect if people know how much energy was required for the infrastructure that power their games, streaming music and such, they might be slower to slam anything else ronching its way through resources.)

[Funt Solo]

I’m guessing tinfoil hat.

And we have a winner!

Yes - NFTs aren't an inherent evil (even if they are a bit annoying sometimes). Our society is stuck in a rut of binary thinking at the moment where you're either in one camp or t'other, when there's usually a road betwixt. If I learned anything growing up it's that it might be socially acceptable to have to decide between Adam & the Ants and Shakin' Stevens, but that some people liked both!

[The Monarch]

I just can't with him anymore hes became the same thing he used to write about between this nft buisness and some of the awful crap he says on his twitter i just can't with him anymore

[IndigoPrime]

He feels a bit like the John Cleese of comics these days. Well, mixed in with a bit of David Icke.

[WhizzBang]

The main thing that bothers me about this forum is the constant Mills-bashing that goes on here, and this thread is another example of it.