What Kind of Contracts Do You Need for Your Comic?

By Gamal Hennessy, Esq

Independent comic book creators in the 21st century understand the importance of protecting their work with contracts. Some see the explosion of comics in the mass media and hope their story can make it to the screen someday. Others have heard the horror stories of artists and writers losing major projects because they didn’t have a contract or they signed the wrong deal. Creators don’t need to be told why they need a contract.

But when it comes to what kind of contract they need for a particular situation, the answers aren’t as clear. I specialize in writing and reviewing contracts for comic creators, so I know what’s required in different situations. To help comic creators on all levels get more confidence with the legal aspect of the industry, I’ve developed packages of custom contracts to help protect their IP and get their books published.

The Three (or Four) Comic Contract Packages

I normally have three types of clients:

1. The new creator who is creating their first book or the first book in a new series
2. The independent publisher who has plans to release books on an ongoing basis
3. The artist pursuing a creator driven deal with an established publisher

I created a collection of contracts to match the needs of each type of client.

• The Comic Creator Package for the singular series or first time creator includes

1. A Collaboration Agreement to define the relationship among everyone who owns a piece of the book.
2. A Work for Hire Agreement for everyone who is getting a page rate but doesn’t own a piece of the book
3. Copyright filing of the Comic with the US Copyright Office to memorialize your ownership

• The Independent Publisher Package for the ongoing creative team includes

1. Corporate formation for your company including an operating agreement and EIN number management (See the Benefits of Forming an LLC for Your Comic)
2. A Collaboration Agreement
3. A Work for Hire Agreement
4. Copyright filing of the Comic

• The Creator Driven Comic Package for the artist licensing their book to an established publisher

1. Corporate formation including Operating Agreement and EIN Number Management
2. A Collaboration Agreement
3. A Publishing Agreement* defining the relationship between you and your publisher
4. Copyright filing of the Comic

* If your Publisher has their own contract and refuses to use yours (See Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts), I’ll review their contract for you and breakdown every paragraph so you understand every aspect of the deal.

No matter what kind of comic book creator you are, you need to protect your story, characters and the potential income that your creativity represents. If you’d like to contact to discuss the needs of your specific project, just send me an email and we can set something up.

Have fun.

G

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

Putting Marvel Problems Under a Microscope

By Gamal Hennessy

In the past two weeks, the decline in Marvel sales have been blamed on diversity (See Is Diversity Killing Marvel Comics), and the systemic flaws in the industry (See The Kryptonite of Comics Sales). A new post from Creators.co suggests that that the sales dip is coming from the highest levels of the company.

A writer using the name Wally West suggests that the choices made by people like Kevin Feige, the talent of the current writers pool and the scourge of event fatigue are pushing people away. While I agree with the impact of events, the other explanations don’t seem to stand up to scrutiny.

First, while Feige is guiding the film universe, I don’t know how much impact he has over the day to day workings on the publishing side. From what I understand based on my time at Marvel, the two jobs are very different. Axel Alonso, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort and the other senior editors shepard the comic universe. The long term goals and needs of Marvel Studios and Disney probably play a role in the overall direction of the Marvel Universe, but I don’t think Kevin Feige has the time or the interest to read the upcoming scripts for Silk or Thunderbolts.

Second, the talent of the current writers pool isn’t lacking. Proven talents like Waid and Bendis are still writing for Marvel and celebrated writers outside of comics like Coates and Gay have come on board. It could be argued that the forced cross pollination from events hamstring even the best writers. We can suppose that a great novelist might not be the best comic writer, but that doesn’t explain the sales slump.

A lot of people can point to a lot of reasons behind the current rise of DC and the decline of Marvel in the comics market, but not every theory stands up to scrutiny. The more useful exercise, especially for independent comics creators, is to analyze and learn from what happens to the Big Two and apply those lessons to their own properties. If you learn from the mistakes of others, you don’t have to waste time and money making them yourself.

Have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: NEITHER THIS BLOG NOR FOUR CAREERS IN COMICS ARE A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

The Kryptonite of Comic Book Sales

By Gamal Hennessy

Part of the fallout from the Marvel diversity backlash (See Is Diversity Killing Marvel Comics?) is a broader look at the systemic weakness of the comics direct market. Rob Salkowitz of ICV2 recently pointed out the flaws in the production, distribution and retail aspects of the direct market.

“What Marvel is seeing in microcosm with its sales dip is the same basic problem that we’ve seen in comics distribution for the past 30 years: a direct market embodying a checklist of economic pathologies so profound and systemic that it’s a wonder that it functions at all.”

With the Big Two controlling most of the market, Diamond controlling all of the distribution and independently owned stores just trying to stay open, the market forces don’t lend themselves to growth. This has never been a good situation, but spikes in consumer awareness created by the transmedia success of comic properties make the systemic problems more pronounced.

So how will the situation resolve itself? Can digital distribution provide the new content the Big Two can’t, circumvent the stranglehold in distribution and expand the sales base beyond the direct market? Time will tell, but based on 2016 numbers, digital isn’t the killer app for print comics right now.

No matter which way the market goes, the potential shakeup in the comic book market can create opportunities for independent creators who are ready to take advantage of them.

Have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: NEITHER THIS BLOG NOR FOUR CAREERS IN COMICS ARE A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Is Diversity Killing Marvel Comics?

(c) Marvel

By Gamal Hennessy

Why are the sales of Marvel Comics declining?

• Is it because of crossover fatigue?

• Is it because there are too many titles coming out every month?

• Is it the price tag?

• Is it because talent is migrating to more creator driven deals?

• Or is it because there are too many women and minority characters with their own books?

There might be several different reasons Marvel is struggling right now, but from the outside looking in, diversity is probably the least of their worries. But even if comic book readers didn’t want their icons replaced, the company could have become more inclusive without being heavy handed.

As a comic book reader, a lawyer who specializes in the comic book industry, and a member of a minority group, I see the current push for more inclusive characters as a good idea poorly executed. Instead of focusing on unused characters they already had, Marvel tried to capitalize on the transmedia success of established characters by giving them a diversity makeover.

• Instead of building up Valkyrie or Sif, they made Thor a woman.

• Captain America becomes a black instead of just focusing more attention on Falcon or giving Black Panther more time to shine.

• Iron Man becomes a black woman instead of pushing War Machine.

• Hulk becomes Asian instead of just giving more time to characters like Sunfire or Silver Samurai.

• The female version of Wolverine replaces the original instead of just building up someone like Lady Deathstrike.

• Instead of using Dust or another Muslim character, Ms. Marvel is co-opted.

• Spider-Gwen, Gwen Pool both come off as derivative of established characters when stronger characters like White Tiger and Domino could have been given a chance to shine.

I’m sure you get the point by now.

The corporate page of Marvel states that the company has over 8,000 characters. A lot of them are women and minorities, so why not use them? There’s nothing wrong with trying to expand your market by bringing in new readers who want to see themselves reflected in their mythology. The demographics of the market are changing, the characters can change to reflect the world we live in. But diversity, like anything else, can be done wrong. Trying to ride the coattails of your established properties instead of building a fan base for new characters is an exercise in self sabotage. There might be a lot of factors impacting Marvel’s sales, but building an audience for any character takes time, whether you are an independent or one of the biggest publishers in the world. Short cuts and quick fixes may not be the answer, no matter how big you are.

What do you think?

PLEASE NOTE: NEITHER THIS BLOG NOR FOUR CAREERS IN COMICS ARE A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

The Comics Career Interview Spotlight: Francesca Urbinati

By Gamal Hennessy

I’m currently writing a book about the business and legal aspects of being in the comic book industry. (See Your Four Careers in Comics). Part of the research for the book involves talking to people on every level of the business: creators, editors, publishers, distributors, retailers, critics and fans. Together with my own experience and research, the insights of all these perspectives will help more people understand and thrive this creative business.

The first spotlight interview I’m going to share comes to us from Italy. Francesca Urbinati graduated from the Istituto Statale d’Arte of Urbino and specialized in 3D Animation. She has worked for RAI and Mediaset, working with 3D special effects and she was member of the Adobe Guru for the digital video. She started to freelance in 2011, publishing the comic series “Niki Batsprite” and specialized in comics and illustrations. She also teaches comics and manga with Scuola di Fumetto Marche and cooperates in various projects: from movies in Europe.

I spoke to her about life as a freelance comic artist.

Gamal: Describe your process for finding work as a freelance artist. How do you connect with potential clients and work out a deal with them?

Francesca: Clients find artists in a lot of different places, so I try to make sure people can find me whenever they are looking. You have to have an online presence, but it is just as important to make personal connections with other artists and clients. Conventions are still an important part of being a freelance artist. People want to put a face to the people they work with and see that you’re a real person.

Gamal: How do your independent projects like Niki Batsprite help you find new clients?

Francesca: A finished product is the best business card you can have. I got more attention as an artist after I created issue one with my husband. But it’s best to have an ongoing series that will show improvement in your craft from one issue to the next. If you can’t sustain an ongoing series because of time or budget, then a mini-series is a compromise to satisfy potential fans more than a single stand-alone issue without giving you too much stress.

Gamal: Are there any special things you look for when talking to a potential client to ensure you work well with them?

Francesca: The main thing I look for from a potential client is respect. As an artist, I need to work with and for people who understand that sequential art is a profession and creating artwork requires skills that take years to learn and practice. When I’m at conventions and someone comes to my booth to ask me for a quick sketch, I almost always charge them something. It will only be a small amount because the image only takes a few minutes, but clients on any level need to understand that it takes years to learn how to do a sketch in five minutes. The effort and dedication needs to be recognized.

Gamal: How is the creative process different when you’re working on another person’s book and working on your own titles?

Francesca: When I’m working on my own books, I’m the art director, penciler, inker and client all at once. I have a clear idea of what I want, so the stages of development are more streamlined. When working for a client, I always include more stages of approval. I’m looking to give the client exactly what they want and it takes more time to understand and capture their vision.

Gamal: Tell us about some of the business lessons you learned in your early days as an artist.

Francesca: First, make sure you get paid. Exposure is not enough. Second make sure you get paid according to milestones that are set out upfront so you don’t have to wait until the project is over to get paid. Third, make sure you have a contract in place, even if it’s just the terms of service and NDA attached to your estimate.

Gamal: From a business and legal standpoint, what kind of situations and issues do you avoid as a comics artist?

Francesca: The main thing is being willing to say no to a potential job. Competition is very heavy in Italy, throughout Europe and in America. But working with a client who you can’t trust, or who doesn’t want to sign a contract, or who isn’t willing to pay or who doesn’t respect the work you do isn’t worth working with. You have a limited amount of time to create. Don’t waste it on the wrong clients.

Gamal: Beyond developing the creative skill, what’s your advice for understanding the industry of comics as a whole?

Francesca: Being a good creator is just the tip of the iceberg, especially in an era when cosplayers and youtubers can grow in popularity like supernovas. I think that artists need to work on public relations, having a positive attitude and marketing as hard as they struggle on their art. It's a 360° personal evolution. It’s not just about "getting better at drawing so publishers will hire me".

Gamal: What trends are you seeing in the industry right now?

Francesca: At first, self-publishers were perceived as "junk discarded by publishing companies". Later, people realized that publishers are offering refreshed versions of their old intellectual properties over and over again, while self-publishers are good authors with new ideas and styles. The comic market is going upside-down: publishers are not investing anymore, they recycle their IPs over and over. When a self-published author hardly collects enough attention and sales on his own, publishers show up to byte a piece of his cake: this is when you lose control of your IP in exchange of scraps. This trend can't be stopped, plus I know many authors disappointed by their publishers and going self, so I see a big rise in self-publishing in the future.

Gamal: So you think there’s going to be a rise in self-published work?

Francesca: Competition is always there and of course big IPs draw most of the budget. However, new opportunities are all over: just think about Netflix producing its original series, or Don Bluth's crowdfunding a "Dragon's Lair" movie. From abroad, the US is so superhero-oriented that other kinds of stories are barely taken into consideration. But there's a lot under the surface and tons of different ways to excite the audience! I think this is the big challenge we're going to face: bring original and brilliant stuff to life opposed to old refashioned mainstream stuff.

Gamal: Do you see independent animation projects becoming more or less popular as comic based properties gain mainstream movie attention?

Francesca: Manga style is here to stay and is spreading worldwide, even in US comics and cartoons.

Find Francesca Online:

Online portfolio: http://www.furbina.it
FB page:             http://www.facebook.com/francesca.urbinati.art
Youtube:             https://www.youtube.com/user/nime080
DeviantArt:         http://nime080.deviantart.com

Niki Batsprite website:                          http://en.nikibatsprite.com

If you want to read more comic career interviews as they’re posted, sign up for the Comic Creator Newsletter.

If you want a free consultation on the business and legal aspects of your own comics, send me an email at gamalhennessy@gmail.com

Have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: NEITHER THIS BLOG NOR FOUR CAREERS IN COMICS ARE A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Get Your Comic Book Career Handbook for Free

The world of comics is chaotic, complex, and on a certain level, crazy. Few other industries transform fantasies and nightmares into a profitable business. Like many fans, you have probably imagined yourself working in the industry at one time or another. Many of us are insane enough to pursue our passion as a profession.

I’m offering something writing a book to help make your journey a little easier. It’s called Your Four Careers in Comics: A Business and Legal Framework for Professional Comic Creator (which I’m calling YFCC for short). My goal is to explore the various aspects of each position to help you maximize your professional creativity. With luck, this framework, combined with your talent and determination, will lead you to a fulfilling career in the complex world of comics.

YFCC is currently scheduled for release in Summer 2018, but I’m offering the roadmap for that book to everyone who signs up for my comic book industry newsletter The Professional Comics Creator. Sign up now and learn more about the different aspects of the comic book industry and how you can fit into it.

PLEASE NOTE: NEITHER THIS BLOG NOR FOUR CAREERS IN COMICS ARE A A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

The Benefits of Forming an LLC for Your Independent Comic

By Gamal Hennessy

There are many aspects of being a comics creator that have very little to do with making comics. Taking care of your taxes might be the least pleasant aspect of your business, but there are ways to make the process a little less painful and a little more profitable. Your comic and your business can benefit from creating a corporate structure. The type of company that I normally recommend to my clients is a limited liability company or LLC. As tax time approaches, I’d like to offer a few reasons why an LLC might be right for you.

What is a limited liability company?

Before we get into specifics about LLCs, it makes sense to start at the beginning. A company is a legal entity that can be created by filing certain documents with the state government. There are several types of corporate forms (I’ll talk about the others a little later) but an LLC is a type of company that is attractive to many small businesses including comics.    

What’s so great about having an LLC?

There are four main benefits to creating a company to publish your book, including:

1. Limited legal exposure: The first benefit of an LLC can be found in the name of the company. If you runs into legal or financial trouble without any corporate form, then whoever is trying to get money from you can go after your house, your car, your bank account and other assets you own to collect what you owe them. If you create an LLC and do all your business through that company, then your liability is limited to the amount of money or assets owned by the company. From a legal standpoint, you are a separate person. This is a gross oversimplification of liability law, but think of an LLC as a shield that can protect you from legal bullets and bombs if you use it the right way.
2. Deductible Business Expenses: Making comics costs money. Printing, conventions, lawyers all have to be paid for your business to run. One of the benefits of creating an LLC is the ability to deduct the payments you make on behalf of the business (losses) from your taxable income. This creates the situation where some or all of the costs of running your business can be offset. The result can be more money for you to invest in your business. Of course not every expense is deductible and abusing deductions can lead to an audit, but the benefits of the system outweigh the concerns for most creators who start an LLC
3. Setup and Maintenance Is Less Complicated: Unlike other business entities, filing an LLC is relatively painless. Once your lawyer creates the operating agreement, files the proper documents with the secretary of state and you publicise the LLC according to state rules, you can get an EIN number from the IRS and you’re good to go. Creating an LLC can take less than a week in most circumstances.
4. Can Be a Single Person Company: Unlike other business entities, an LLC can be just one person. You can have multiple members of your LLC and you can add or remove members according to the terms of your operating agreement, but if you’re an independent artist who wants to own and control every aspect of your business, you can forge ahead on your own.

    Keep in mind, creating an LLC can have a major impact on your personal and business income. Everyone’s financial situation is different and unusual or complex issues should be discussed with an accountant. Once you decide creating an LLC is right for you, I offer free consultations to help you discuss your options. It’s too late for an LLC to help you with your 2016 taxes, but forming a limited liability company now can make next year’s tax season a little better for you.

Have fun.

Gamal

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

The Five Major (and one minor) Business Trend in Comics

By Gamal Hennessy

Last year saw significant changes in the comics market. While the general public focused on transmedia events like Batman v. Superman, Civil War and X-men Apocalypse, the underlying business has shifted financially and creatively.Milton Griepp of ICV2 listed these five events as the most important for comics in the last year:

1. North American Sales Surpassed One Billion Dollars

2. DC Takes the Top Market Share with the Launch of Rebirth

3. Hastings Declares Bankruptcy

4. March Wins a National Book Award

5. Lion Forge Pushes Its Way Into the Middle Tier

In addition to all these moves, I’ve noticed a growing trend in my small corner of the comics industry. More and more artists are taking the proactive step to lock in collaboration agreements for their independent comics. As more creative teams are turning to crowdfunding and publishing books on their own, they are also making sure to define all the rights and responsibilities in writing before the book is released (See: All for One and One for All: Collaboration Agreements in Comics). This is the best way to go, since an undefined deal is a recipe for disaster and it’s much harder to hammer out a deal after a book is released and tensions are high.

What comic industry trends have you seen in 2016? What are you expecting in 2017? Share your thoughts in the comments and let us know before you go back to your masterpiece.

Have fun.

Gamal

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

How Much Do You Get Paid Per Page?

By Gamal Hennessy, Esq.

When you first start out in comics, there’s a lot of details about the business you need to understand. Everything from how to find work, to what to look for in a contract, to making sure you get paid are all things you have to take care of in addition to making great art. Not only do you have to digest a lot of information, but aspects of the comics industry change from publisher to publisher and from month to month. One of the most important and the most fluid aspects of freelance comics work is how much each publisher pays per page. I’d like to make the process of determining your page rate a little easier by talking about what a page rate is, what the common rates are and how you can keep track of changing rates in the future.

What is a Page Rate?

Different professions get paid according to different measurements. Lawyers get paid by the hour. Sales people get paid based on commissions. Freelance comic book artists (and some creator driven artists) get paid a page rate. The basic idea is for every page you’re hired to work on, you get a set fee. So if you get $100 per page and the book is 32 pages, then you get $3,200.

A page rate is a base number. It doesn’t take into account incentives like royalty pools, recoupment, back end participation or anything else that could muddy the waters. It’s a straight forward transaction; one page for one price. As long as you know what the price is, everything else is based on that.

What Were the Current Page Rates for 2016?

The confusing question is ‘what is the right page rate for you?’ Your page rate can and will vary based on your experience, skill level, established fan base, prior projects and the publisher you’re working with. While several factors are subjective and based on you as an individual, there are some baselines you should keep in mind. Thomas Crowell, author of the excellent book Pocket Lawyer for Comics Creators recently offered this snapshot of the industry at the 2016 New York Comic Con:

• Writers:                              $25-$220 per page
• Cover Artist:                      $200-$750 per cover
• Pencils:                             $100-$250 per page
• Inks:                                  $75-$200 per page
• Coloring:                            $35-$150 per page
• Flatting:                             $8-$20 per page
• Lettering:                           $10-$50 per page

This list is not a guarantee. You might be offered less than the numbers above. You can always ask for more. This should just serve as a guideline to what you can expect when you deal with a publisher. Other factors will play a role, but this gives you somewhere to start from.

How Can I Keep Track of Page Rates?

As a freelance artist, you’ll get a sense of where the market is in terms of page rates as you spend time in the industry working on different projects. Publishers can alter their rates at will, so it pays to keep in touch with other artists in the field, pay attention to message boards and discussions and talk to your editors and publishers on a regular basis to find out their individual positions. There are also ongoing resources you can use and participate in to make page rates more transparent. The list above was derived from a site called Fair Page Rates that isn't perfect by any means, but it attempts to track rates for various US publishers in a system that is inherently subjective.

Once you understand what a page rate is, how you can figure out your page rate and who pays what, you have a lot of information to help you chart your freelance comics career. If you know how many pages you can do a month, you can calculate your maximum potential income. If you know how much you need per year to work on comics full time, you can figure out what page rate you need and how many books you need to work on to make freelancing a viable job. Then you can spend some time actually practicing your craft and making great comics.

Have fun.

Gamal

Related Articles:

Your Career in Comics: Freelance Artist

Your Career in Comics: Creator Driven Artist

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING 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: Transmedia Development

by Gamal Hennessy

A few weeks ago, I introduced a new book I'm working on called Your Career in Comics (YCC) that will attempt to take a comprehensive look at the business and legal aspects of being in the comics industry. (See Your Career in Comics: An Introduction). So far, I’ve introduced the Creator Owned (See The Creator Owned Path), Work for Hire (See The Work for Hire Path) and Creator Driven aspects of the industry (See The Creator Driven Path). This week I'd like to look at the fourth and final role in modern comics: The Transmedia Producer

• Description: A transmedia artist owns a property and licenses a portions of that property across various media for production, marketing and sales to the public. A comic or graphic novel is a story. The story contain characters and ideas. Your stories can find a home in many different media, depending on its structure. Your ideas can escape the confines of the story and migrate to merchandise or other promotional material.

• Benefits: The two main benefits of being a transmedia artist are revenue and mainstream distribution. In many ways, the transmedia creator is seen as the greatest commercial success of a comic artist. A commercially successful comic might generate tens of thousands of dollars. A successful comics based movie might generate tens of millions of dollars. The merchandise program associated with a television, cable or film also has the potential to generate millions. Opportunities for interactive and new media spinoffs are increasing. Competition with other forms of entertainment has reduced the number of people reading comics, but the popularity of comics characters has never been higher. The transmedia creator takes advantage of this shift by moving his work to where it will be enjoyed by the most people.

• Challenges: The two main challenges of being an independent are loss of creative control and lack of knowledge. Transmedia deals can be seen as similar to Creator Driven deals based on the what each side brings to the table. You have the intellectual property, your potential partners have the production and distribution systems to make the most of it. But there are major differences in both the nature of the industries you might be entering and the scale of the enterprise. Making a movie is exponentially more expensive than making a comic and requires dozens more people in every aspect of the project. The same goes for any large scale merchandise or media endeavor. As the cost and complexity of transmedia endeavors increase, the less the comics creator usually understands about what’s going on. Many comics creators don’t know everything that goes into making a single episode of TV or what it takes to ship thousands of toys from China. When the increased scope combines with that natural lack of knowledge it often leads to a loss of creative and financial control.

• Legal Considerations:  Transmedia deals cannot move forward unless everyone who owns a legal stake in the property has agreed to let the project move forward. Dozens of comics are trapped in development hell for years because of disputes and lawsuits over the ownership of a particular character. If your goal is transmedia, then you have to maintain a meticulous chain of title (documents showing who owns what aspect of the character) from day one. A small sample of the required documents include:

1. Work for Hire Agreements for everyone who worked on the development of the property who isn’t part of the deal

2. Collaboration Agreements for every creator who worked on the development of the property who is a part of the deal.

3. Copyright and Trademark registrations for all major elements of the work

4. License Agreements for each type of deal you are entering into

5. Insurance Agreements to protect against potential issues (including IP infringement, defamation, etc.)

6. Participation Agreements with any third party who might have an interest in the property

7. Corporate documents for your business entity

8. Tax documents for your business entity

The amount and cost of covering your bases from a legal standpoint are highest in the transmedia aspect of comics, but the potential rewards and losses are far higher than any legal costs you might pay upfront to avoid lawsuits in the future.

I hope you have enjoyed this introduction into the different comic industry roles. While this doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the complex business of comics, I hope it forms a basis for you to think about where you are and where you’d like to go as a professional.

In the coming weeks and months, I plan to use my blog to update everyone on the progress of my book. I’m going to share the interviews, research and development of the manuscript so you can learn as I learn. If you’d like to follow along, please sign up for the Professional Comic Creator Newsletter.

Until next time, keep making comics and have fun.

Gamal

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