Gail Simone's Blog, page 1076
February 9, 2012
DC Women Kicking Ass: DC Releases Nielsen survey numbers; few new readers, female readership declines
The results of the Nielsen Survey that DC did post reboot are in and the results are depressing. In an article on ICv2, DC's Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development John Rood outlined the results.
Remember the idea of bringing in new readers? The survey found…
I am extremely skeptical of these results. They do not match my experience or those of my writer friends, particularly regarding female readership. Also, I've been talking with dozens of stores and I don't think they would agree with these numbers either.
Something seems very, VERY off.
Yeah. Uh huh. Because anecdotal evidence always outweighs empirical datasets.
Really.
Are you kidding, here? You think 'empirical"means unimpeachable? You think sending out some people in a random sampling, for the first time ever in this medium, somehow trumps what actual retailers are saying about who is buying their books?
We know almost nothing about the methodology here. It seems pretty gullible to just accept it without question as being 100% accurate. Downright naive, I'd say.
Denim Wrapped Nightmares: gailsimone: Denim Wrapped Nightmares: joseethefirst: xybutt: Marvel...
Denim Wrapped Nightmares: joseethefirst: xybutt: Marvel demands $17,000 from Gary Friedrich, the…
I believe you are again completely mistaken, sorry. First, Gary Friedrich did not work for Marvel for a long period of time. There would be no reason for him to sign another contract, as he was essentially out of the business, and I can guarantee YOU that the only 'contract' many of these creators ever signed was that backdoor endorsement on the check itself. Some creators refused to sign it, even back then, but very few—for most, it was endorse the check or go unpaid.
So I'm sorry, but this is just pure fiction. It's just not at all what happened.
Reading the actual report, the key piece of evidence appears to have been that same endorsement on the first check Gary received for that book. Gary was asserting, as other creators have in the past, that there were extenuating circumstances in the case of Ghost Rider. For whatever reasons, he did not prevail.
Marvel may have the legal right to their IP. But I am hoping they will do the right thing and ditch the punitive damages against a destitute creator. If not, I am hoping the comics community rises up to pay that bill for Mr. Friedrich and I will do everything I possibly can to make that happen.
Sorry, but according to the full judgement at the ohdannyboy link, Friedrich did unfortunately also sign the 1978 contract as well as the "agreement" check.
But legal crap aside, it was still a contract signed under duress with all the power on Marvel's side, and in no way lets Marvel off the hook morally.
On second read, you are correct, so my apologies to getthesaltnburn, as well. I read the second piece and had a bit of information that the check was the key document. But the first article, the one not linked, supports what you both have said, that there was a one page document in 1978. Knowing that the check had been the key deterrent in previous such cases, as flimsy as it seems to be as a contract, it's almost gratifying to know that there was more to it than that.
In any case, wrong is wrong, my apologies to you both.
Again, I think Marvel has a right to protect their IP if they legitimately feel that they paid for it in toto. But asking a destitute creator to come up with $17,000 he doesn't have while they have a multi-million dollar film of his creation coming out soon is just appalling.
Make Your Own, Then.: [SUCCESS!] Work starting on a comic about two future villains
[image error]
This thing can work! The very talented Jerry Malichar emailed me in response to the first idea I submitted on this Tumblr blog - after some back and forth I got this beautiful sketch in my inbox of the as-yet-unnamed future villains I've had in my head for years. I still can't stop…
Dammit! This looks fantastic, these are great character designs!
Argh!
I am excited, can't wait to see what you come up with!
lowarthighcraft:
So a little while ago, a Tumblrblog called...
So a little while ago, a Tumblrblog called Make Your Own Then was created based on an idea that comics writer Gail Simone brought up, that folks who mostly do fanart, fanfiction, etc., could find each other and devote their time to making their own creations instead. I don't do either, but I felt that this could be a way to get a comic off the ground that I had been kicking around in my head for a long time, one that means a lot to me and that I thought would thrive as a webcomic.
Sure enough, within about a day I had gotten an email from a very talented artist named Briget Stanely who said that my idea sounded interesting. I whipped up some character descriptions for the first chapter of the story, sent her the first few pages of script, and a couple weeks later, wham: There they all are. There are these kids I thought up, looking me right in the face, some of them even realized in ways more fully than I had included in the notes.
What we got here is not so much a coming-of-age story as it is an "of age" story, kind of like Adventureland-youngfolk in their '20s who've had the mantle of Adulthood placed upon them and have no idea what to do with it. There's gonna be laughin', there's gonna be squabblin', you can bet your ass that there's gonna be lovin'. You know what else it's going to be. Dope. Dope as hell.
Now I need to find a good hosting server, because hey, whoa, check it: This is happening. It's happening because I wanted to make a comic, and I found someone else who wanted to make a comic, and now we're making it.
Fellas. Dames. If you're tired of the status quo in today's comics market. If you think you're not being represented. If you see cavernous holes where you think your favorite types of stories should be. If you wonder to yourself, "Man, why don't they ever have this kind of character in the comics I read?"
I got four words for you:
OH, MY GOD, that is AWESOME.
Those characters are fantastic!
I am so happy. Please go SMITE THE UNIVERSE with this!
idginator:
Here you go, tumblr! This is my Barbara Gordon...
Full shot!
Left arm!
Center!
Right arm!
Here you go, tumblr! This is my Barbara Gordon tribute set of tats! Once this heals up, I may go back and get the yellow redone, unless it gets more noticeable once it's properly healed. I'll take better pictures once that happens!
Oh, man, you are just the coolest chick ever. Those are amazing!
Denim Wrapped Nightmares: gailsimone: Denim Wrapped Nightmares: joseethefirst: xybutt: Marvel...
Denim Wrapped Nightmares: joseethefirst: xybutt: Marvel demands $17,000 from Gary Friedrich, the…
I believe you are again completely mistaken, sorry. First, Gary Friedrich did not work for Marvel for a long period of time. There would be no reason for him to sign another contract, as he was essentially out of the business, and I can guarantee YOU that the only 'contract' many of these creators ever signed was that backdoor endorsement on the check itself. Some creators refused to sign it, even back then, but very few—for most, it was endorse the check or go unpaid.
So I'm sorry, but this is just pure fiction. It's just not at all what happened.
Reading the actual report, the key piece of evidence appears to have been that same endorsement on the first check Gary received for that book. Gary was asserting, as other creators have in the past, that there were extenuating circumstances in the case of Ghost Rider. For whatever reasons, he did not prevail.
Marvel may have the legal right to their IP. But I am hoping they will do the right thing and ditch the punitive damages against a destitute creator. If not, I am hoping the comics community rises up to pay that bill for Mr. Friedrich and I will do everything I possibly can to make that happen.
DC Women Kicking Ass: DC Releases Nielsen survey numbers; few new readers, female readership declines
The results of the Nielsen Survey that DC did post reboot are in and the results are depressing. In an article on ICv2, DC's Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development John Rood outlined the results.
Remember the idea of bringing in new readers? The survey found…
I am extremely skeptical of these results. They do not match my experience or those of my writer friends, particularly regarding female readership. Also, I've been talking with dozens of stores and I don't think they would agree with these numbers either.
Something seems very, VERY off.
Denim Wrapped Nightmares: joseethefirst: xybutt: Marvel demands $17,000 from Gary Friedrich, the...
Recently, Marvel triumphed in court against Gary…
That's not how this went at all. There was no 'Ghost Rider' contract and I wish people would quit saying there was.
In those days, Marvel put a disclaimer on the back of each paycheck. If you wanted your check, you had to endorse it. To endorse it, to pay your bills and mortgage, you had to sign the damn thing. And it said Marvel owned everything. It didn't offer another choice. The idea of lawyers perusing contracts like an episode of L.A. Law is just not correct. What happened was, you took the assignment and when you got your check you'd been waiting for, you had a choice of signing it or not. These people had homes and families, so they signed it.
I am hoping against hope that Marvel does the right thing here.
Memnipotent: If they ever make a film based on the Secret Six comic
.. for the soundtrack, they totally need to have it consist of
Erasure songs.
Whole soundtrack… ERASURE.
Not even joking about this. It's my only demand when it comes to a Secret Six film other than it being rated R and having Timothy Olyphant play Deadshot.
If you don't…
That's a very interesting thought.
There was actually a woman, a jazz composer named Kelly Fenton, who did an AMAZING suite of Secret Six music with a full combo and horns. It really rocked…I wish I could find all of it, all there is here is a short snippet!
http://bottomlesscupmusic.typepad.com/creation/2009/06/the-secret-six-suite.html
A Ryan Choi Question
Someone mentioned this…Ryan still has a very vocal fanbase, but I can't recall seeing a ton of Ryan fanart, except when I was in Singapore.
IS there Ryan Choi fanart and I just am not seeing it?
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