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I think the most thankless task was the letterer--at least back in the day when there were people who really did letter comics by hand. I read an article, many years ago now, by one fellow who had been a letterer at DC and he never got any rest. He had to be lettering all the time just to make ends meet and the publisher made all kinds of demands on him, without any compensation for the extra hours he had to put in, the page rates being so low. And you can imagine how much strain it puts on your hands to be doing all that hand-lettering, every day, for hours and hours.
And then, of course, with the advent of computer lettering programs many of those guys were put out of work with nowhere to go.
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[QUOTE=Jim Kelly;4531470]I wonder what the situation is at Archie. Prior to their recent introduction of a new house style and the success of the TV shows, Archie was reprinting far more old stories (in their digests) than the amount of new material they were producing. Given that the art looked almost the same and the stories repeated all the same tropes, the reader was getting essentially the same content. I imagine they could fill those Double Digests with so much content because it cost them almost nothing to reprint--if they weren't paying the writers and artists any royalties (or very little).[/QUOTE]
Last I heard, Archie didn't pay any royalties at all. I'm not sure if anything's changed in recent years.
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[QUOTE=tib2d2;4531028]If you're writing for DC, and you create a new character, DC still owns it completely right? Its not like if Warner Bros decides to make a movie or show off a DC character a writer in 2005 created, that they need their permission?
So besides the prestige of the "created by" credit, is there any financial benefit to a writer who creates a new character for DC?[/QUOTE]
NO.
It is far more to your advantage to OWN your crap than do it for a major company.
Because you have more freedom to do WHATEVER you want.
Yeah that "created by" is NICE and will get you the chance to charge higher for your autograph at cons but you are powerless when that company does whatever they want to your creation.
How do you think ChrisCross & Dan Jolley feel with how Jason Rusch has been sent packing out of the Firestorm universe?
There is a reason Milestone OWNS Static.
You can get movie deals and shows without DC and Marvel-Image is proving that and that is not counting Walking Dead.
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[QUOTE=skyvolt2000;4532263]NO.
It is far more to your advantage to OWN your crap than do it for a major company.
Because you have more freedom to do WHATEVER you want.
Yeah that "created by" is NICE and will get you the chance to charge higher for your autograph at cons but you are powerless when that company does whatever they want to your creation.
How do you think ChrisCross & Dan Jolley feel with how Jason Rusch has been sent packing out of the Firestorm universe?
There is a reason Milestone OWNS Static.
You can get movie deals and shows without DC and Marvel-Image is proving that and that is not counting Walking Dead.[/QUOTE]
Just curious, what movie/tv deals not including Walking Dead does Image have?
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[QUOTE=Vakanai;4532324]Just curious, what movie/tv deals not including Walking Dead does Image have?[/QUOTE]
Pretty sure Spawn has had a movie in development hell for like 10 years. Deadly Class also has a show on Syfy
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[QUOTE=9th.;4532348]Pretty sure Spawn has had a movie in development hell for like 10 years. Deadly Class also has a show on Syfy[/QUOTE]
Deadly Class was cancelled
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If this list is complete it's interesting just how little makes it from image to cinema
[url]https://m.imdb.com/list/ls001826502/[/url]
Just six films in 25 years. And excluding Walking Dead its 5 TV series and a short. So not a good place to be if you want to launch your work across media.
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There is a benefit, which I think also encourages writers to write off supporting character X of major hero Y, and replace them with one of their own characters in hopes that characters gets movie/tv appearances down the road. One reason we keep getting a new generation of sidekicks every few years it seems.