In Praise of the Children’s Graphic Novel

Comics books have always fought against stigma. As a medium, they are often dismissed as juvenile, violent and without literary merit. Titles like Contract with God, Maus and Watchmen can only do so much to counter popular icons like Batman and The Hulk.

At the same time, children’s books are also seen as less worthy of artistic appreciation. Because they are by definition for children, they aren’t given the same recognition as books for YA and older readers.

So if comics and children’s books are both targets of ridicule, then graphic novels for children must be at the bottom of the literary gene pool, right?

Wrong.

Charlotte Reber of Book Riot has noted several children's graphic novels that have won awards over the past two years including, El Defo, This One Summer and Roller Girl (Read more at http://bit.ly/2cPds4K) While children’s graphic novels haven’t reached the praise and recognition of a Harry Potter, there is a creative lesson to be learned from recent strides in this genre. If you have a good story and you get it to the right audience, then you can achieve literary and financial rewards outside the predominant comic book market. Not every good comic has to have guys running around in their underwear.

Have fun.

Gamal

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Your Career in Comics: An Introduction

by Gamal Hennessy

The business of comics is chaotic, complex and on a certain level, crazy. Few other industries transform fantasies and nightmares into profitable communities. Almost every fan of comics has imagined themselves working in the industry. Some of us are insane enough to pursue our passion as a profession.

But having a career in comics isn’t like becoming a doctor or a lawyer. There is no license you can get or set path for you to take to superstardom. Everyone who works in comics has a unique story on how they got their position. Everyone in the industry used some combination of talent, perseverance, connections and luck. Everyone had to find their own way.

I’m planning to write a book to help finding your way a little easier. Your Career in Comics: A Business, Creative and Legal Framework for Professional Sequential Artists (which I’m calling YCC for short) will go into granular detail on the four major creative positions in modern comics. My goal is to explore aspects of each position to help you navigate your way between and within each step. With luck, this framework, added to your talent, determination and fortune, will lead you to a fulfilling career in the complex world of comics.

This is not going to be a book about comic book case law, creating professional artwork, or a book about pitching to an editor. There are several excellent books on all those subjects and I plan to reference them . This book is meant to be more of a comprehensive guide. I’m in a unique position because of my experience as a lawyer, business manager, and author. I’m going to use all those different perspectives to help you see your comic career as a whole, instead of focusing on one aspect.

YCC is going to be a journey that I'll write about in this blog in the coming weeks and months, As you read these posts, please keep three things in mind:

First, the four major roles in comics are broad conceptual categories and not rigid definitions. You don’t necessarily have to complete one position to move to the next. You could try and explore all of them at once, or you can bounce from one to another as your interests and circumstances dictate.

Second, understand that while I describe these positions in a specific order, I’m not suggesting a successful comic career is defined by moving from one position to the next. You can have a creative, exciting and profitable comic career by picking one position and staying there for decades. Comics allow you to go wide or deep. Your only limit is your talent, perseverance, connections and luck. A little bit of crazy will probably be helpful too.

Finally, and most importantly, a career in comics is based on selling what you own. A lot of what you “sell” will be intangible; time, skill, audience, intellectual property rights, etc., but the basic premise is the same You Can’t Sell What You Don’t Own. If you remember nothing else I say, you’ll still get the main point if you apply this simple concept to your work.

I hope you enjoy and get involved in the development of this book, If I’ve make the complex world of comics a little easier to understand, then I’ve done my job.

Have fun.

Gamal

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up forThe Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Talking to Professionals on the Business of Comics

by Gamal Hennessy

The comic book industry is a confusing, chaotic and insane industry for everyone involved, especially the newcomer. Fledgling writers and artist often make mistakes on the business side of things that cost them tens of thousands of dollars, years of work or both.

The best way to avoid mistakes in the comics industry is to learn from professionals who already know what they're doing. Over the summer, Aaron Long of Comicosity asked dozens of established comics professionals what type of advice they would give to new creators. The insight they provided covered professionalism, marketing, accounting, time management and outlook, but one of the most consistent statements is the same thing I've preached on this site for years. 

COMIC CREATORS NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND NEGOTIATE THEIR CONTRACTS

When I worked at Marvel and Central Park Media, we often sent out contracts to talent saying "have your lawyer look over this before you sign it" knowing full well that person didn't have a a lawyer. I started C3 to change that and give writers and artists a chance to understand and benefit from the legal side of comics. The professionals already understand this. Read their comments and learn from their mistakes. 

Have fun.

Gamal

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up forThe Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

What You Can Learn from Jack Kirby

The history of comics is littered with stories of artists and writers who created iconic characters, lost the rights to their creations and then had to accept charity in their later years to pay for health care costs. Everyone from Superman and Batman to Watchmen to Guardians, Ghost Rider and the Fantastic Four have been at the center of intellectual property disputes worth tens of millions of dollars.

Asher Elbein of The Atlantic Magazine wrote an insightful piece on this subject to coincide with Marvel’s celebration of Jack Kirby’s 99th birthday. The main thrust of the article is similar to three pieces of advice I often give my clients.

1. You can’t sell what you don’t own

2. You don’t know what you own until you see what’s in the contract

3. You won’t know what’s in the contract until you can understand the implications of each paragraph.

Comic creators owe it to themselves to get professional help in reading and negotiating their contracts. Every creator wants to see their characters on the big screen and made into toys. Very few of them want to set up gofundme pages to pay for their medical costs.

Read Marvel, Jack Kirby and the Comic Book Artist’s Plight http://theatln.tc/2c0BGe8

Have fun.

Gamal

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up forThe Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Get What You Give (Rights and Revenue in Comics)

by Gamal Hennessy

A contract is an agreement between one or more groups for the exchange of resources. The exchange could be time for money, goods for services, property for future gains or any combination of those things. The best agreements exchange roughly equal resources. The worst ones have one side trading large amounts of resources for little or nothing in return.

This is the problem that artists run into with many of the contracts that I see. The most important service I provide is showing my clients what they are giving up in comparison to what they are getting. I’d like to provide an overview of the different types of rights and revenue streams as a general overview for creators looking to get their projects into the market.

Types of Rights                               

Comics and publishing are governed by a branch of the law called intellectual property. Copyright law is a specific type of intellectual property. A copyright gives the creator of an original work (like a comic) the right to benefit from the sale and distribution of that work. There are various types of ways currently available for comic creators to benefit from their creativity. Some of the major distribution methods include:

• Publishing (Traditional printing, digital printing, novels, audiobooks, etc.)
• Public Display (gallery displays of artwork)
• Theatrical (Movies whether live action or animated)
• Television (including network, basic cable, premium cable, PPV whether live action or animated)
• Home Video (including DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.)
• Live Performance (including Broadway performances and theme park performances)
• Interactive (including console computer or mobile video games)
• Merchandise
• Sponsorships or product placement

As new forms of media distribution are created, new rights are created for the artists. These rights are universal, but they can be divided or carved out by geographic area, time frame, distribution channel, language and other factors. (This division can be complicated, so I’m going to save that for another post)

Types of revenue

Just as there are different rights that creators can use to get their work into the world, there are various ways that they can be paid. Comic creators need to focus on four ideas:

• A royalty is a percentage that the artist earns for every finished unit that is sold. For example, an artist might receive 30% of every one of their comics that is sold to the public.
• An advance is paid before the work is finished. For example, a writer of a novel might receive money up for her novel based on the proposal not the finished product.
• A minimum guarantee (MG) is money paid up before the work is finished, based on anticipated sales. For example, if a toy company plans to sell a new licensed toy for $10 and the creator gets 10% of that sale, then the creator gets $1 per unit sold. If the company expects to sell 100,000 units, then the MG that the artist gets for this deal is $100,000.
• A page rate is a flat fee paid to the artist for every page accepted by the client or publisher. For example, a penciler with a $300 page rate deal gets $9,600 for a 32 page book, not counting the cover.
• These are broad revenue concepts. They are often altered and refined by concepts like gross, net, recoupment, offsets and other variables. (This is another complicated subject that I’ll can talk about later.)

Choices that Artists Must Make

In certain comic deals, the types and amounts of revenue are fairly straight forward, like the work for hire page rate. There is more confusion for creators pursuing creator owned deals. There is often no advance, no MG, and a blanket royalty rate for all forms of distribution. This puts them creators in a dangerous position since the lack of upfront money and the uncertainty of any profitable sales in the future means that the creators are really working on spec while at the same time giving up all their rights to their property.

From the publisher’s perspective, it is understandable why they would do this in their contracts. Publishers protect themselves from risk by limiting exposure to projects that might not be financially viable. At the same time, they maximize their potential gain by securing as many rights as possible for projects that are financially viable. Artists need learn the same lesson. They need to counter the publisher’s position by attempting to limit the rights that a publisher gets for projects that are financially viable and maximizing revenue for every project they do.

I know negotiating power is often limited for artists. But having a clear understanding of the relationship between revenue and rights and clear goal of where they want to go can help maximize their limited negotiating power and increase their chances of success.

Best

Gamal

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 ATgamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

The Social Side of Comics

Comics revolve around collaborative creativity. The writer and penciler work together to tell a story. Often, an inker, colorist, and letterer join the team to divide the work and share in the rewards. A few creators do everything on their own, but most comics need good interaction among the team members to finish a quality project. 

Buddy Scalera of Comic Book School published a piece a while back about the importance of having a positive, professional demeanor. Because the industry is relatively small and information travels fast, a negative reputation can cripple an otherwise promising career. As the saying goes "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

This kind of advice applies to almost any job or social situation. The small, team based world of comics simply magnifies the impact. 

Click Here to Read Dont Be a Jerk in Your Comics Career http://bit.ly/2c0lnQe

Have fun.

Gamal 

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories.

David v.s. Goliath: Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts

By Gamal Hennessy

When I analyze contracts for my clients, I point out all the language in the agreement that has been written to favor the publisher. I point out all the ways that contract clauses are used to limit their control over their work and their ability to make money. I offer them suggestions on how to make the contracts more equal and level the playing field. But I am aware that the terms of most of these deals will never be changed. As a comic book creator, you often must deal with the reality that you have little or no negotiating power relative to a publisher. Taking this fact into account will help you make decisions about what deals you will or will not get into and help you understand how they will impact your career.

Scarcity Breeds Power         

Publishers have to take the financial risk of releasing an unknown and unproven book. In order to mitigate this loss and to give themselves the potential for substantial revenue and control on the back end, many of them incorporate biased language into their contracts. Many creators sign those contracts because of their lack of influence.

It is easy to understand why comic creators normally have very little negotiating power. It boils down to supply and demand and market scarcity.

The publishers currently corner the market on supply. They control the means of production (printing) and direct distribution (comic shops, bookstores, online and digital) and often control secondary distribution (merchandise and media licensing)

The number of comic creators who want to gain access to the publishers supply is massive compared to the number of publishers. Who knows how many potential artists and writers are out there dreaming of getting their books in print, movies and games?

The scarcity of publishers relative to the abundance of creators produces a situation where publishers can afford to offer one sided deals. Every unknown creator who demands a superior deal can be rejected by the publisher because there are ten or twenty other creators willing to accept an inferior deal. Since the publisher is primarily looking for books to fill their publishing plan, one unknown book is just as valuable as any other from their perspective.

Options for Creators

In light of the reduced negotiating power that undiscovered creators have, does it make sense to push for a bigger deal for a creator owned project or page rate? Yes and no. While you might not be able to wrestle a six figure advance out of Marvel, there are options you can pursue to make the most of your work.

• Establish your reputation in the industry by taking on work for hire projects that will get you exposure for your skill without exposing the characters and story lines that you are saving for a creator owned work.
• Find a more flexible small press that will offer more reasonable terms for new creators.
• Explore self-publishing if only to increase your name recognition in the market.
• Accept the biased deal as a means of name recognition.

While none of these methods is a quick road to fame and fortune, they can boost your negotiating power over time. An unknown creator has almost no leverage with a publisher. A creator with a following who represents tens of thousands of copies sold per month can command lucrative exclusive contracts, back end participation deals and creator owned contracts that give them considerable revenue and control potential. The best analogy is the contract situation in professional football. As a player, you may not make very much on your first deal but once you prove yourself as a marquee player, your subsequent contracts can be huge.

Need to Understand Your Agreements

Whether you make the choice to accept a one sided deal, negotiate better term or walk away, you need to understand what the terms are for the deal you are being given. It might make sense to take a bad deal now if it will boost your career later. The key is making an informed decision about what you are doing. Whether you decide to use a service like mine or not, knowing what you are signing and why is key to building and leveraging your negotiating power.

Best

Gamal Hennessy

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 at gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Who's going to NYCC Artist Alley this year?

The annual East Coast gathering of comic book excess is only a few weeks away, and the independent creators have already staked their claim to Artist's Alley.

Click the link to see the table placements for NYCC 2016. http://bit.ly/2bH0ZD8

If you're an artist or writer who has legal or contract questions about your projects, I plan to be in The Alley on Thursday, October 6th. I'd be happy to sit down and chat with you.

If you'd like to set up a quick meeting, just shoot me an email at gamalhennessy@gmail.com.  Otherwise, I'll see you on the show floor.

Hav fun.

Gamal  

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories.

The Continuing Rise of Independent Comics

The convergence of easier self-publishing and the increased interest in comic properties from film franchises has created a higher profile for indie comics. Creators can go outside the Big Two and get stories into the hands of readers faster than ever before.

Nicole Spector of Publisher's Weekly posted a piece late last week about the ongoing challenges and opportunities for independent comics. While Diamond is still seen as a gatekeeper to comic shops, and profit continues to be elusive, she points to several positive developments for creators now and in the near future. 

Click the short link to read The Subversive Superheroes of Indie Comics: http://bit.ly/2bwqLIR

Have fun. 

Gamal  

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories.

Four Tips for Writing Your Comic

By Gamal Hennessy

Being a comic writer has more in common with being a screenwriter than a novelist or a playwright. There needs to be a visual aspect to the writing and a certain willingness to surrender your story to another artist and trust them to deliver the finished product to the public.

There have been more than a few books about writing for comics, like Alan Moore's Writing for Comics, Words for Pictures and others listed in my recent post on comic creation books. Rachel Gluckstern recently distilled her own version of the comic writing craft into four handy tips to help get you on the same page as your artist so you can create your masterpiece.

Just remember to have a contract in place for every book you write. You don't want your masterpiece to make someone else rich.

Click Here to Read So You Want to Write a Comic Book

Have Fun.

Gamal Hennessy

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories.