the interview with Casper Wijngaard made me sad as it seemed to confirm we ain't getting any more of his and Si Spurrioso's wonderful Angelic - this makes me very sad.
There’s a tendency for some comic fans to decry work-for-hire contracts as an evil force in the comics industry and claim that creator-owned is the way of the future. I can, off the top of my head, think of half-a-dozen well-reviewed, at least moderately well-selling, creator-owned titles that made their creators more-or-less no money at all.*
Here’s the thing those fans don’t seem to understand about creator-owned vs WFH: reward is a function of risk. WFH is about eliminating risk for the creators — the publisher takes the risk of the title making no money and the creators get paid regardless. Yes, it’s true that creators often get screwed when a property takes off and there’s suddenly TV/movie money up for grabs,
yes, there should absolutely be a more equitable way of distributing the spoils of successful IP…
But the idea that publishers shoulder all the financial risk while creators get all the financial reward is not one that suggests a long and happy future for the industry.
* I didn’t work on all of them, before some smart-arse tries to work out which books I’m talking about.
