A Moral Quandary, By Me.
by Adam Prosser
Pardon me for a moment while I bare my soul. I’m on the verge of doing something that seems increasingly like it’s going to be contentious. Not my own thing, personally–I’m just a little fish in the webcomics pond. But the issue at stake here is one that’s become a hot topic on the web, so I wanted to throw this out there to see what people thought.
As you know, Zuda Comics just went live this week.
I’m well acquainted with the anti-Zuda arguments. I agree with much of what these guys have to say, and also with Joey’s post and Tim Broderick’s reply on the subject.
I’m still going to submit something to Zuda.
I’m kind of feeling bad about this, like I’m selling out my webcomics brethren. It’s possibly the big writer’s strike in Hollywood right now that’s got me thinking about crossing picket lines and whatnot. I completely agree that comics artists have been treated terribly in the past, and that DC was the perpetrator of much of that abuse, and that there’s still a lot of progress to be made. I love the freedom and independence afforded by the web, and I would go crazy if my baby was in the hands of someone else; I actually care more about artistic freedom than making money, but needless to say the idea of someone else snapping up the profits from something I’ve made is a depressing prospect. And it does indeed look an awful lot like, by creating a comic for Zuda, an artist is more or less giving up his rights to the ancilliary bonanza that can follow–toys, movies, video games and whatnot.
I’m still going to submit something to Zuda.
Here’s my thinking on this subject. I would never, ever, ever submit Freak U. or Night Shift or any of the various little (and big) projects I’ve been contemplating doing for a while now. Those are my babies. Even if I were to come up with an ongoing strip expressly suited for Zuda (and I’ve had an idea or two), I would be extremely leery of submitting it–I’d be relinquishing a lot of money and rights to something that I would presumably be spending years on, and which would generate a lot of material. And I probably wouldn’t submit a humour strip or anything featuring iconic characters or a concept that’s a natural fit for a movie. Those are precisely the kinds of things that generate ancilliaries, and thus, I wouldn’t want to give up to DC and Zuda.
However. It just so happens that I’ve had an idea for a short comic for quite some time, since long before Zuda was announced. This is the equivalent of a literary short story. It has, I suppose, some sequel potential, but nothing that I’ve given much thought to; it was conceived as a self-contained entity. It’s not really a high concept thing that would be a good fit with movies…you COULD make a movie of it, but I don’t think it’s the kind of material that Hollywood is beating down doors to make. The characters, while I like to think they’re memorable enough, are not the kind that will sell T-shirts or plush dolls. In short, it’s this simple idea for 50-ish page comic story, nothing more. I had pretty much no possibility of making money off of it, and it was getting pretty unlikely that I’d ever draw it, period, given how many other ideas I have, and which I’m more passionate about.
This seems like a perfect fit with Zuda to me. So I’m going to submit it and give it a try.
It could be I’m wrong. It could be I’ve just created the next “Sin City” and will be foolishly giving away the rights to a small fortune. It could be that I’m due to get screwed over by Big Comics. But I really don’t think so. I think this is me sticking a toe into the pool, maybe walking away with some money that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
The ONLY thing that is holding me back at this point is the negative reactions towards Zuda, the possibility that by contrbuting AT ALL I’ll be betraying Modern Tales and WCN, Joey, and webcomics in general, that I’ll somehow be contributing to a machine that threatens to destroy what we’ve built. I honestly don’t see that happening, but I don’t want to be the equivalent of a scab.
What do you guys think?
November 6th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Hey Adam!
Your decision to post to Zuda or not will not make you an enemy of mine! It’s your decision. I’ve shared my concerns about that deal — but that’s all I was required to do, for the sake of my own conscience. Whether you do what I would do in that situation is irrelevant. People will make their own decisions — of course they will — and that doesn’t make us enemies for life or anything! Just imagine! That would be so sad!
But I do want to point out the post immediately below yours on the TAC homepage today … just in case you didn’t see it!
November 6th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Isn’t a self-contained comic like this exactly NOT what Zuda is looking for? From the contracts, it sounds like they’re looking for long-term projects.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Only you can determine if the Zuda deal is something you can live with. I think you can do better, but I’m not the one that has to live with the terms. Like I said in the post you linked above, I think you can do better, but I hope you win and prove me wrong.
November 6th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Dude, it’s your idea. If you’ve read over the submission guidelines and you still feel comfortable submitting it, then go ahead and do it. You don’t have to answer to anyone, and you’re not “betraying” webcomics. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you are. You’re a grown up and you can make your own decisions.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Thanks guys! Now can I have a cookie?
No, seriously, thanks. Like I said above, I think I’ve been reading too much about the current writer’s strike, and I’ve got all these notions of “solidarity” and whatnot flitting through my head. I absolutely don’t feel like I need “permission”, but WCN has been really good to me and I don’t want to make anyone feel like I’m jumping ship or anything (I can just see Joey now, clutching a bottle of Bourbon, going, “What am I going to do without Prosser? He’s the lynchpin of the entire organization!”) I actually have seen vaguely similar situations get out of control, so I’m maybe a little oversensitive to it. But I know that I, personally, myself, would feel terrible if Zuda went on to crush WCN and Modern Tales beneath its ruthless heel, or something.
I know, I’m being silly. Still. The “cool kids” are mostly turning their noses up at Zuda, and in fact I think they have a very good point–but in this one, particular situation, I think it’s a good fit. This is a project that I probably wouldn’t even bother to do if it didn’t seem so well-suited to Zuda, so I really find it unlikely that I’m giving up all that much, even if I am a wild success.
Leigh, the Zuda contracts seemed to make a big deal of exactly 52 installments, with anything after that not specified (that I saw–I haven’t checked it out lately, maybe they’ve added stuff, or maybe I overlooked something?). So I’d been assuming this 50-ish page story I’d had in my head would suit it perfectly. If they want more, I’ll whip up a sequel or something, I guess. Again, the worst option is that it doesn’t go anywhere, and I’ve wasted a couple of days drawing.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Oh, and belated congrats to Joey. And Todd. And everyone.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I’ve been noisy noisy NOISY about my own intentions to submit to Zuda, and I’m doing so without guilt (just a bit of bafflement at some others’ reactions). I also know at least one “cool kid” in webcomics (much cooler than me) who’s planning something for the service. So you’re not completely alone, for what that’s worth. And if Joey and Gary are gonna assuage your conscience, you know I will.
November 6th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Thanks for the congrats, Adam, but the post I wanted you to see was the one where Tim Broderick was announcing his options deal with Warner Bros. TV. Tim didn’t go through Zuda to get that deal. He was, as you know, quite anti-Zuda. He got the deal in a way that didn’t compromise his gut feeling of what was right and what was wrong. If your gut tells you the Zuda deal is right for you — that’s totally cool by me. But if you’re just going against your gut (and it sounds like you may be) because you think it’s the only way to get those big contracts, Tim’s example shows otherwise. That’s all I was trying to say!
November 7th, 2007 at 7:40 am
So, Adam…
Do you worry that, by publicly announcing that you’re going to submit something you pulled out of your ass, you might hurt your chances of them accepting it?
November 7th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I’m with the “as long as you know what you’re signing” crowd. If you have an idea you don’t mind turning over to them, then go for it. Some people learned the hard way on the Tokyopop OEL deals just what selling the rights means. So make SURE you know.
A lot of webcomic creators work on their one and only baby and I don’t blame them for not wanting to lose control of it. I wouldn’t submit mine. But then I’m too lazy to find a decent artist so I have no chance anyway. If I had a decent side idea and the time and an artist, I wouldn’t mind throwing it their way.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:17 am
The implications of signing away your work are sometimes surprising. Even if it’s not a property you care about, if the presentation of your work makes you look incompetent — and one of your motivations was getting your name out there — then that could be very bad. Hard to get past a first impression, and Zuda will provide a first impression to many people. Double-edged sword.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:46 am
“isn’t a self-contained comic like this exactly NOT what Zuda is looking for?”
There’s no such thing as a “self-contained comic” once you sign your rights away. Or an “on-going comic” for that matter. Whoever you sign it over to can make a sequel to it, or end it somewhere else, whatever.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
William: Heh heh. I’m not REALLY worried, because I didn’t “pull it out of my ass” per se. I mean, I still think it’s a cool little story, and I’ve had it floating in my head for a while. I’ve actually had a bunch of stories in my head, and this is a minor one. I’m not as attached to it as I am to a lot of my other ideas, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely writing it off. I’m just prepared to sacrifice it on the altar of capitalism. I find the scenario in which DC makes millions of dollars based on T-shirt sales from my story to be…unlikely, to say the least. The more plausible worst-case scenario in which someone else takes over the reigns and starts sequelizing it? I…can live with that, honestly. I’d be more than willing to continue it myself, too, I just hadn’t intended to do it. The point is that this is a little half-formed baby marsupial of an idea that I’m not *that* attached to, but which I think is interesting and cool enough to make a good submission.
And I’m happy to be honest about that. Better to state my intent up front, right? If I get passed over, so be it. Better than than to get into a huge argument later. Anyway, since there’s a democratic element to the judging, it almost seems like it wouldn’t matter that much, as long as people like the setup and want to see more of it.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Basically, you’re trading the uncertainty of lifetime opportunities to exploit your hard labor and creativity on a long-term basis for personal and artistic gain as the owner of intellectual property…for the uncertainty that, by trading ownership for the sponsorship of a corporate entity, the same thing might happen.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Joey: yes, I did read the post in question. I was just giving disjointed non sequitur congrats now because I had people’s ears.
The link in post #11 is food for thought. This whole situation is a bit of risk management on my part–I have to balance the absolute worst-case scenario with what’s *likely* to happen. The butchering of the panel in question seemed to derive from editorial concerns about potential offensiveness, which I don’t think would affect my story, but I agree that’s a worrying prospect. I’ll think it over. But I have to admit, I’ve always been a bit of a risk-taker, so I’m probably going to go for it anyway.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
This is cool, I was hoping I could get a discussion going about this. Dale, I’m not sure you’re being 100% fair here. One thing that’s definitely going to happen, unless Zuda are complete scofflaws, is that I’d get paid a pretty decent amount of money. The tradeoff is that I’d be giving up the potential for a lot MORE money in the future. Given the parameters of this specific project, the advantage of the former would seem to far outweigh the drawbacks of the latter, since I don’t see much potential for T-shirt sales, movies, or even sequelization or continuation. I’m not saying all that stuff definitely won’t happen, but it doesn’t seem likely at all given the nature of this particular story; the one occurance that actually seems likely to happen is that Zuda may ask me to continue the story past 52 strips if it’s a smash hit, which is something I’m willing to do.
So I’m willing to trade off that unlikely possible future bonanza for some money today–in this one instance. If it was a story I thought was likely to become a huge hit and spawn a wealth of tie-in merchandise, or even if it was one of the stories I couldn’t stand losing artistic control over, then of course I wouldn’t submit it to Zuda. Since neither of that applies, I may as well trade it in for some money. It’s the equivalent of doing a little work-for-hire to enable me to do what I really want to do further down the line, something that lots and lots of creative types have done over the years. It’s not signing away my future.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
What I meant is that the risk is pretty much the same.
I would be delighted to do a webcomic for Zuda using a DC, Vertigo or Wildstorm character since use of their intellectual property for my personal and artistic gain is something worth the trade-offs.
November 11th, 2007 at 4:46 am
I’d have to agree with the majority here. Personally, I wouldn’t want to submit to Zuda for all the reasons that have been discussed to death already. But if you or anyone else wants to submit, I can’t see how that’s a betrayal of any kind.
The difference with the writer’s strike, I think, is that if some writers continue to work for the studios on the old terms, the striking writers are undermined in that there is no other way for them to get their work on screen. A similar position applies to print comics. As long as writers/artists continue to submit their own creations to DC and Marvel under work-for-hire contracts, the creators who want to make a stand against unethical practices are weakened, simply because they have no other outlets for their work.
But the web isn’t like that. Even if every single webcomic creator except one signed up to Zuda, then that one is not undermined. He/she would still be able to distribute his/her work on the web and reach an audience.