Contractual Changes On Creator Owned DC Comics

[BC Blog Editor]

I understand from a number of impassioned pleas by Vertigo creators that there has been a major contractualª change instigated at Vertigo. And indeed I'm now told it will apply to all new creator owned series at DC, Vertigo or otherwise.

The most recent modelª saw creators working on a relatively lower page rate than work for hire (though the highest page rate in creator owned circles) and it was treated as an advance against monthly royalties - even if those royalties never paid out.

But previously the trade paperback and monthly comics payment dividends were separate - you were paid royalties on the collections from day one, no matter how the monthly series performed.

But now, if your book doesn't make enough money as a monthly, they'll won't pay trade paperback royalties until it's made enough money for the publisher.

But rather than affecting the lower selling books, it will probably affect all of them. The trade paperback clawback will kick in if monthly sales don't reach 50,000 - which Vertigo books haven;t really seen since the Sandman days. It's also possible that sales of trade paperbacks will never make enough to pay our royalties. And there are some current creators who depend on those royalties.

This won't apply retroactively, those books are bound by previous contracts. It will only affect new projects going forward. From whatever date this policy actually came in.

This year has seen a number of underperforming monthly books cancelled at the company including Unknown Soldier, Air and Madame Xanadu.Future plans for a number of original graphic novels have been abandoned if the books were not sufficiently completed, involved editors have been made redundant, and Bob Harras has taking editorial responsibility for Vertigo with certain responsibilities away from Executive Editor Karen Berger. This was explained to me by a senior DC executive as being part of a financial rationalisation of Vertigo, the realisation that certain books have bled money for the company, without any likelihood they may make money for the company in the future. And they'd rather concentrate on the likes of The Unwritten and American Vampire. Well this looks like the next step.

DC/Vertigo have found it difficult to attract what used to be their stalwart creators after a previous change in contracts. The likes of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker and others have chosen to take their creator owned books to Avatar, Image and Marvel, rather than give up half their media property rights. And now we have a new generation of Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire and Brian Wood joining the semi-new generation of Bill Willingham, Brian Azzarello, Mike Carey and Peter Gross. But how will they react to the new deal?

A reduction of sales and orders across the board in the comics industry mean that more monthly comics at Vertigo are at risk from cancellation, unless the company can find a way to justify their publication to the beancounters satisfaction.

This new change may make it harder to keep some of the people they still have on board. But it may also keep some of their books in publication...

[Funk Doctor]

Is this functionally the end of Vertigo as a publisher of creator owned comics?

In this day and age where the media rights to a creator-owned comic are probably more valuable than the comic itself, why would creators go there now that the trade royalty safety net is gone? Why not just go to Image or Avatar or IDW where you can keep all of your IP rights?

[SJD]

The way I understand it they still get royalties, the difference is Warner Bros. gets the first crack at adapting the material rather than say Sony or Fox. If the WB wants to offer the rights to another studio (and make money off of it) that is their prerogative. Now I am sure this means they control the royalty amount and the creator may have made more elsewhere, but its more "your with us publishing so you'll be with us with the movie, etc."

I'm more concerned with them moving the benchmark for new Vertigo books. They tend to sell better later as trades than as monthlies and if they hold them even close to the same model of regular DC monthly books we will see less and less creator-owned titles sticking around simply due to front-end sales and not back-end ones.

This makes me sad. Vertigo is the best thing DC has at the moment. If they marginalize it further the overall quality will go down the toilet.

[stingerman]

So do creators still get the same page rate?

[DanCJ]

I'm more concerned with them moving the benchmark for new Vertigo books. They tend to sell better later as trades than as monthlies and if they hold them even close to the same model of regular DC monthly books we will see less and less creator-owned titles sticking around simply due to front-end sales and not back-end ones.

Unless I'm misreading this I think it'll have the opposite effect. Now DC will be making more money from day one on lower selling TPBs they'll be more likely to take a chance on them and therefore there's potentially a better chance for sleeper hits.

I'm sure there are some creators that will be unhappy, but this new structure does sound fairer to me.

[ColonelLee]

2 odd things come to mind ..

1. DC is now run by people from the creative side. Many of whom like Jim Lee .. come from creator owned comics.

2. DC could dominate creator owned comics simply by it's size and huge bankroll ..

Anyhow, creator owned comics really should be at Image .. Do you want to end up like Jerry, Joe, and Jack? trying to sue for your royalties from your creations?

or do you want to end up like Robert Kirkman?

[BobMarket]

Couple things.

1. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Madame Xanadu selling well? I know it was at least critically successful (which doesn't amount to a hill of beans really when $ is involved), but the way I heard it was that despite Madame X's good sales and reception the DCU proper wanted to take their ball and go home so to speak.

2. This sounds really unfortunate all around. It seems like Vertigo really is in a tailspin and maybe it's better to let it die and make room for some new imprint because while the first Vertigo Resurrected was great (for publishing "Shoot") it seems like now they really are just trying to remind everyone that Vertigo used to be cool instead of focusing on making it cool again (Reprinting Issue One of Hellblazer for $7.99 when it seems they had just done a dollar reprint of it a year ago).

3. This doesn't sound at all like anything having to do with DC taking any kind of chances on anything, which is a shame, because that'll be the only way to bring Vertigo back, by taking chances and doing things that other companies aren't doing. By publishing books and then dropping them quickly based on initial poor sales you'll do nothing (imo) but sow the seeds of resentment among fans of those particular writers and artists, who will then simply go elsewhere, I mean, why go in for a penny if you're not in for a pound, the list of great Vertigo books cut down before their time is staggering and sad.

4. What do I know? I don't know business, I don't know money, I don't know nothing except what I like, this sounds bad, but hey, waddya gonna do? It's not like I'm going to stop buying Sweet Tooth, DMZ, American Vampire et al.

[tekende]

(Reprinting Issue One of Hellblazer for $7.99 when it seems they had just done a dollar reprint of it a year ago).

That $7.99 comic actually reprinted four or five different Hellblazer comics, not just #1.

[BobMarket]

That $7.99 comic actually reprinted four or five different Hellblazer comics, not just #1.

Fair enough, the point remains, Vertigo is looking backward instead of forward.

[SJD]

Fair enough, the point remains, Vertigo is looking backward instead of forward.

With DMZ, Northlanders, Scalped, The Unwritten, American Vampire, iZombie, Fables, the recent Daytripper, and more I think Vertigo is doing quite well creatively. If DC allows the sales from the trades to work in favor of keeping the monthly around that's great. Instead, however, if it is more in line with their regular DC books they'll cut it quick. I don't see them waiting for the 2nd or 3rd trade to make a decision. Vertigo does better collected-wise and sometimes it takes a few collections to get there. Fables is bigger now than it has ever been and it grew and grew over the last decade, as an example.