Attorney, Author, and Business Consultant for the Comic Book Industry

You Need Two Teams to Publish a Successful Comic

Added on March 6, 2018 by Gamal Hennessy.

I’m in the process of writing a book about the business and legal aspects of making independent comics (See Your Career in Comics). As the book develops, I plan to share parts of it here for your reaction and feedback.

About a month ago, I began the process by asking why you want to make comics in the first place (See What Are You Trying to Do?). Now I’d like to look at who you need to have on your team to have a successful publishing program.

One Book, Two Teams

Independent comic creators often put a lot of time and effort into building the team for their books. They reach out to friends in their circles who make comics. They visit artist’s alley in conventions, pour over Deviant Art pages, explore the overseas options, and ask for referrals on social media. Sometimes, it takes years for them to find the right artists for their project.

But too many creators start their book with only half a team.

If comics are a form of commercial art, then the development of the art requires both business and creative support. Focusing on only one side limits the potential of the project.

The Creative Team

This side of the equation is basic to the creation of any comic. As with plays, films, and television shows, one or more individuals come together to turn a vision into a reality. Some roles overlap, but the common structure of a comic book creative team includes:

The writer who creates the overall plot of the book and the script in both the caption boxes and the character dialogue.
The artist creates the fundamental images on each page. They may also create the basic character designs, settings, logos and the cover for the overall book
The inker enhances the images created by the artist, altering the tone and weight of the story by emphasizing some visual aspects over others.
The letterer inserts all the words in the book including dialogue, captions and “sound effects” in a way that guides the reader’s eye in a natural progression from one image to another.
The flatter prepares the inked images for the colorist to enhance the color rendering process.
The colorist adds moods, energy, and texture to the images to give them more impact to the eye
The editor oversees the entire process to ensure that the best possible finished product is created on time and under budget.

The Business Team

The creative side of comics is intense and time-consuming, but it is only part of the process. Professional comic creators publish books with one of the goals being the creation of profit. Without someone (and more often several people) running the business side of things, even the best comics will not sell. The elements of the business team vary from book to book, but every book needs to answer these questions as part of the process:

Accounting: Who is collecting the money? Who is paying the bills?
Advertising: Who is in charge of informing the public about the book?
Distribution: Who is handling the relationships with Diamond and the direct market shops for the print book? Who is in charge of managing the online distribution on the website, Comixology, and the emerging distribution channels?
Legal: Who is protecting the intellectual property of the book? Who is handling the internal and external contract negotiations?
Management: Who is in charge of the overall creative and financial success of the book?
Marketing: Who is in charge of creating the website, maintaining the social media presence, running the crowdfunding campaign, and handling the interactions with the comic book press,
Printing: Who is in charge of managing the printing process? (If the book is being printed)
Sales: Who is in charge of using the book to generate money?

Juggling Jobs

Every independent comic does not have fifteen people working on it. Some established publishing companies don’t have fifteen people working on the books. Creating independent comics is a startup experience. It means members of the creative team often take roles in the business team. It can mean members of the business team can fulfill multiple roles within that team. It also means that some jobs will not be done, or they won’t be done with the same time and attention as if someone only worked on that piece of the project. Some creators decide to give up some of their rights and sign up with creator-driven publishers like Image or AfterShock to take advantage of their pre-existing business teams.

As a comic creator, you have the power to decide which aspects of the process will and won’t get done. This power works better when you make conscious decisions at the outset of the project. It does you no good to spend two years making a book to sell and then realizing no one is prepared to sell it or collect the money.

The Cost of Teamwork

No matter how you decide to divide the tasks of publishing your comic, everyone who works on the book is going to have to be compensated at some point. Very few people are willing to work for free, even on something they love, so part of independent publishing is finding a way to pay everyone involved.

There are several different compensation methods available depending on the level of participation of each person, your resources, and the short and long-term interests of everyone involved. Increased involvement often includes increased compensation. Different compensation can be mixed and matched to give each person both a short and long-term stake in the project. Just don’t give away more than you have.

Compensation methods include:

Upfront payment
Revenue sharing based on units sold, ad revenue generated, sponsorships, etc.
Ownership interests in the underlying property
Credit on the underlying work

Better Odds

When creating a comic, the chances of success are greater if all jobs are assigned, everyone agrees on the terms, and the schedules for production, marketing, sales, and payment are established before making the book. All this preparation does not guarantee a hit book. The Big Two have dozens of people involved in each book and some of them still fail. But publishing comics involves a lot of individual tasks to make the machine run. If some tasks don’t get done on the business or creative side, then the machine breaks down fast.

Next month I’ll talk about creating a term sheet for the members of your team and the relationship between the term sheet and the contract.

Have fun with your comic...

Gamal

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

Your Career in Comics: What Are You Trying to Do?

Added on January 22, 2018 by Gamal Hennessy.

By Gamal Hennessy

Since this is the first post, I’m going to start with an existential question:

Why do you want to make comics?

Before you start thinking about drawing, sales or social media, it is important to figure out exactly what you’re trying to accomplish and why. Making comics, like any artistic or business endeavor, involves substantial sacrifice and investment. If you’re going to make comics a part of your life beyond the Wednesday ritual of picking up your pull box, it makes sense to take a step back and look at the big picture.

To answer this question, I suggest you take yourself out for a cup of coffee or a cocktail (if you’re old enough, of course) and figure out the answers to the following questions. Keep in mind that the answers can and will change over time, so don’t be afraid to revisit these questions as your circumstances and the industry changes.

Goals (or What Do You Want to Do in Comics?): “I want to make comics” is a start, but there are different aspects to the industry, and figuring out where you want to be will help you make decisions on which opportunities to pursue and which ones to avoid. Maybe you want to make your own books and sell them at cons. Maybe you want to work for the Big Two. Maybe you want to be the next Stan Lee or Todd McFarlane. Maybe you want it all. You can have any goals you want. The purpose of goals isn’t to limit you. They just guide you on your path.

Reasons (or Why Do You Want a Career in Comics?): It’s one thing to know what you want to do. Knowing why is a different type of insight. Are you doing this because you have a story to tell, because you want to be a part of the comics community, or because you want more money than Tony Stark?

Like your goals, your reasons are personal. They don’t have to define you, but keeping them in mind can motivate you to overcome the inevitable setbacks and pitfalls. You can have any reason or motivation you want for getting into comics. There are opportunities for artistry, creativity, and profit at almost every level of the industry, but at the end of the day, a love of the art form will keep you going.

Plan (or How Are You Going to Get into Comics?) After you understand your goals and your reasons for wanting those goals, you need to develop a plan to help you get from where you are to where you want to go. As you follow along with this blog and hopefully read my book, you can begin to figure out which path you want to adopt for your own purposes and take the appropriate steps.

Of course, no plan survives contact with reality. The industry is in a state of constant flux. The impact of changing trends will often be outside of your control. You’re going to need to modify your plan to adapt to new conditions, so the plan you make might not be the path you ultimately take. But you have to start somewhere and making your own comic is a good place to begin, no matter where you ultimately want to go.

Resources (or What Do You Have to Offer the Industry?) The secret to success in the comics business involves making consistent ritual sacrifices on the altar of the industry. What you get from comics is based in large part on what you put in. Your offering might be a creative vision, artistic skill, a network of eager professionals, or an investment of time and finances. In many cases, the creators who came before you had to offer all these things and more. Now is the time to figure out what you bring to the table and what you need to find in the community to make your goals real.

Milestones (or How Will You Track the Progress of Your Plan?) No one goes to sleep wanting a career in comics and wakes up where they want to be. Your development as a creator will grow in stages. You get to determine what those stages are and to a large extent, in what order you want them to happen. You can start with putting your first team together, getting your first issue online, or any other basis that’s right for you. You can decide whether your goals are books created, copies sold, or views on your website. Milestones give your goals concrete structure you can use to measure your efforts.

Motivation (or What Gets You Started and Keeps You Going?) Despite the view from the outside, the art and business of comics are not easy. It can be a long road from your initial inspiration to holding your book in your hands and the road isn’t a straight line. There will be obstacles and pressures to stop. This isn’t just true in comics. It’s true in life.

Even if you get your vision into the world, success (whatever your definition of it is) may not come quickly. It is not hyperbole to say some creators did not live long enough to see the characters they created become a fixture in mainstream culture.

So what is it about your comic that’s going to bring you back to the project month after month and year after year? What is going to pick you up when life knocks you down? What drives you might be very personal or it could be the universal desire for fame and fortune.

Yes, they’re movies, merchandise, and money to be made. Yes, comics are one of the driving forces in 21st-century pop culture. But the comics business is not a get rich quick industry. For every Walking Dead, there are thousands of other titles that lose money or never get off the ground. If you don’t love comics, it might not make sense to spend the time and effort of getting into the business.

In the next installment of Your Career in Comics, I plan to talk about the framework for an independent comics company and break down the process into manageable parts. If you’d like to read more about the business and legal aspects of making comics, like my Facebook page or sign up for my free newsletter.

Have fun with your comic...

Gamal

Unnatural Talent: A Book Review

Added on September 10, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

by Gamal Hennessy

I’m in the process of writing a book about different careers in the comic book industry (See Your Four Careers in Comics) so I’m reading a lot of books related to the comics profession. While there are a lot of books about how to create comics and how to self-publish them, few of them are as broad or as thorough as Jason Brubaker’s Unnatural Talent.

Brubaker is the creator of several books including ReMind, Phobos, and Sithrah. Unnatural Talent is the distillation of advice and lessons he learned while creating these books. The book walks a new comics creator through several steps of the modern self-publishing process including

Creating and completing a comic
Negotiating social media
Finding a fan base
Crowd funding
Dealing with the technical issues of printing
Getting your book into comic shops and libraries
Creating both primary and secondary streams of revenue

When reading Unnatural Talent, you need to keep in mind that Brubaker’s process involves doing almost every aspect of production, sales, and marketing on his own. While this approach removes the obstacles of collaboration and work for hire deals, it also makes the process much longer, especially if there are creative/ and or technical skills you don’t have. He also focuses on finding an audience among current comic fans. The book was released in 2013, but since the overall amount of comic book readers is allegedly shrinking, an aspiring creator should also consider finding a new audience while they fight for market share in a dwindling universe of readers.

Unnatural Talent is a beneficial addition to the library of any comic creator. It explores the art and business of comics in a manner that is accessible, informative and realistic. It’s available on both Amazon and Audible.

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.

ICv2 Launches Pro Site for Comic Creators

Added on July 18, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

ICv2 Pro is now offering four key features unavailable on the regular ICv2.com site

1. Comments & Forum, a place for our comic professionals to interact with each other.

2. Internal Correspondence, early and ongoing online access to all of magazine content.

3. Market Intelligence, which will present long-running comic sales data.

4. Pro Articles, exclusive in-depth Pro-only articles and analysis.

Comic creators on all levels should consider using this type of news to grow their own business. Click the link for information and pricing.

http://bit.ly/2vusZQE

Is the Golden Era of Comic Collaborations Over?

Added on May 2, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

The Eisner Award nominees for 2017 were announced today, celebrating what is arguably the finest artistic achievements in comics over the past year.

While there are many familiar names on the list, recent commentary wonders why we have a lack of high profile collaborations. Industry veteran Dan Wickline offered his perspective on the lack of modern collaborations.

“You want to make good comics again. Put together a creative team that can collaborate, put them on a series for a decent set length of time and allow them to tell a story that isn’t interrupted by events and crossovers. Allow the team to plant seeds over time like Wolfman and Perez did with Terra or tell long form mysteries like Loeb and Sale.”

What do you think?

Are long term collaborations like Byrne and Claremont or Wolfman and Perez a thing of the past. Do you think there a link between the lack of modern collaborations and the sales slump of a particular company?

Do you encourage long term collaboration and ownership in your own independent books or do you prefer to hire your team on a work for hire basis and rotate talent through?

Let us know in the comments below

Who Buys Comic Books?

Added on April 19, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

John Mayo of CBR recently published an in depth article on how comic books sales are calculated by Diamond. He also modifies the analysis from index value sales to absolute metrics to paint a different statistical picture of how comics are purchased by stores.

While discussions about index value, market share and retail rank might not be the stuff comic creators want to read about, understanding who you’re selling to is an important part of creating independent comics. The Mayo article is packed with useful insights, but the most important thing to remember is the difference between the people buying your comics and the ones reading your comics when you sell in stores.

“From a publisher perspective, the buyers of the comics are the stores, not the readers. It is the sales invoiced to stores which determine which titles continue and which don’t.”

So if you want to sell your book in stores, you have to convince the stores. There are a lot of individual operators in the direct market, so you’ll need a strategy to reach them. You probably need prominent placement in Previews. You might also have to galvanize readers to ask for your book at their local shop. You might convince some of them to try you by creating a buzz in the comic book press. You might even make connections at conventions to build the retail relationships to get your book on the shelf. Whatever you do, you have to sell the book as much to the store owner as you do to your fans.

What Kind of Contracts Do You Need for Your Comic?

Added on April 10, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

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:

The new creator who is creating their first book or the first book in a new series
The independent publisher who has plans to release books on an ongoing basis
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

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

The Independent Publisher Package for the ongoing creative team includes

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

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

Corporate formation including Operating Agreement and EIN Number Management
A Collaboration Agreement
A Publishing Agreement* defining the relationship between you and your publisher
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.

Putting Marvel Problems Under a Microscope

Added on April 6, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

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

Added on April 5, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

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?

Added on April 3, 2017 by Gamal Hennessy.

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?