In the wake of accusations from Star Wars and Alien novelist Alan Dean Foster that Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and Fox had led to royalties from his work going unpaid, a collective of writers and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America teamed up to push for the corporation to honor longstanding royalty agreements. They’ve now made a significant step forward thanks to Boom Studios.
In a press release issued overnight, the Disney Must Pay Task Force announced that it has begun working with the comic book publisher to begin paying accurate royalties to creatives. You may be familiar with Boom’s many independent titles—Mouse Guard, Lumberjanes—but the company also publishes a host of licensed comic books. For the purposes of the Disney fight, the company is associated with the House of Mouse thanks to its reboot of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics line.
“Boom Studios strongly support all creators receiving any reporting and royalty payments they are contractually owed. When we have obligations, we honor them,” said Filip Sablik, Boom’s president of publishing and marketing, said in a statement provided via press release. “We are happy to work with both the Disney Task Force and our licensor Disney to resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction.” The press release further adds that the Task Force “believes that Boom Studios were not told about the writers who were due royalties when Disney transferred media rights to them.”