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AMA - Corporate webcomics?

Added 2023-02-12 18:59:01 +0000 UTC

Q: We've seen so, so many webcomics go off the rails due to issues with the creators' health, or personal life, or simply not having the drive to do it as anything more than a hobby or side gig, do you think the webcomics industry would benefit from a more corporate structure where syndicates could provide editors and marketing?

A.: I don't think that would work very well.

We have well over a hundred years of comics history, and very little of it points to how well creative people fared under corporate structures. Do comics companies provide better health options for creators? Well, let's ask this guy...

...or this guy...

...or...

Let's face it, I could do this all day. The fact of the matter is that comics corporations offer so little to their artists and writers, that an entire foundation was created to try to fill some of the need: The Hero Initiative.

If you want an eye-opener, check out some of those testimonials.

But heck, who needs health insurance when you're cashing those fat Marvel checks, right? Wrong. I mean... you're talking about the same comics corporations that offered the creators of Superman a check for $130 — and refused to pay them a penny more (until fans started making noise).

For that matter, what part of Marvel's success was shared by Jack Kirby? Or Steve Ditko? Very little.

Do they deserve more? Perhaps. But that's really not the point. They knew what "work made for hire" meant when they signed their contracts. It meant they forfeited their rights to the work they created. They knew this. There were no surprises.

I look at corporations the same way. There are no surprises with corporations. They exist to create a profit for the people at the top of the structure. They do not exist to make the lives of their employees better. And you probably know this all too well from your own personal experience.

If the decision is between contributing to a pension fund and making a profit... profit wins. If it comes down to providing health insurance or profit... profit wins. Sick days? Vacation days? Time to care for a sick child? If it stands in the way of profit, it loses. Profit wins.

And that profit typically comes at the expense of the people at the bottom of the structure. The CEO rarely takes a pay cut. (Rather, they're paid nearly 400 times as much as their typical employee.) The members of the board of directors have excellent health insurance. The vice president can take time off to care for a sick kid.

Mind you — I'm not arguing that this is good or bad. I'm saying that it is.

And after seeing the same predictable outcomes decade after decade, you don't get to be surprised anymore.

So, no... I don't think a corporate structure would benefit webcomics artists. Why? An overwhelming amount of history shows us that it has almost never been beneficial to working artists.*

Is independent comics better? They only started to become truly viable after the advent of the Internet. This experiment is barely twenty years old. Maybe it will be better. Maybe it won't.

It can't be worse.

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*In all fairness, one could make the argument that — for many years — the syndicated newspaper comics system was superior for a very small number of creators. This was due to the fact that newspapers, at that time, were a dominant force in the media landscape. And if you were one of a handful of creators with worldwide sales, you certainly weren't worried about health insurance. However, those days are long gone, and today, newspaper syndicates (the ones that are still in business) are struggling to survive.

• If you have a question for the AMA column, feel free to message me through Patreon, place it in the comments below, or send an email to bradguigar@gmail.com.