A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

You will want to read the previous Very Bad Publisher posts before continuing.

The first posts appeared on the message board nearly ten years ago, and then were reposted to my blog with two updates some years later. I can no longer recall the exact dates, but all of this occurred before the release of Frank Miller’s Sin City film. These comments are from the blog.

They are presented in toto. Several posts are gone due to a snafu during blog migration, which did funky things to the formatting. During editing, I did not notice that all comments were not imported properly. I had already deleted the old blog. Alas, a few of those comments were from James Owen and Carla Speed McNeil. The remaining posts are intact, exactly as written, including one from manga artist Tintin.

There will be one more follow up after this to go over a couple more things and that will wrap this up. But I will continue to post “creator beware” info. Most young creators have no idea what their contract actually means. My purpose with these posts is to try to keep you from making errors which can destroy your creations, and more importantly your creativity.

This week, Frank Miller popped in to have a look, since his name was taken in vain in the last Very Bad Publisher installment. Here is his note in its entirety:

As ever, Colleen, you put things in focus. And you stand on principle, which is harder. But you can’t do one without the other. You do both well.

What a pack of gibbering losers out there. It’s like an Ayn Rand nightmare.

Let them eat Jus.

Hang Tough,

FM

PS: Yeah, this is OK to print.

I have no doubt whatsoever that a man who admires Ayn Rand would not be a good match for Tom’s company. Which only brings home the point I made earlier about the necessity of researching your clients before you approach them.

I will not offer further commentary on these letters. Come back in a day or so. I have a new post with new information, and that will wrap up this series.

Bill:

Colleen, thank you for allowing us to learn from your experiences. These articles have been enlightening! And very sobering.

I know someone who was offered some inking work by a small publisher. He was very excited. The publisher even sent him a free copy of Dark Horse’s inking how-to book, The Art of Comic-Book Inking.

He was just waiting for his contract, and then boy-oh-boy he was going to be a pro!

Days went by, then weeks, then months, and still no contract.

I lost touch with this guy years ago. I don’t know how things worked out. Not well, I suspect. It’s too bad. He was, and probably still is, a phenomanally talented inker.

Anyway, it’s easy to see why someone would get all excited to get what appears to be their first big break, and how good judgment could go out the window. It’s unfortunate, however, because your columns illustrate how easy it is for creators to be used, abused, chewed up and spit out by unethical, sleazy, and downright cheesy publishers.

I’d say it’s a testament to your talent and your intellect that you were not only able to survive your experiences, but were able to rise above them and prosper.

Son of Tom:

I’m “Tom’s” son.

↓ Read the rest of this entry…