By Gamal Hennessy

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called The Business of Freelance Comic Book Publishing. It attempts to define the disadvantages of creating comics that you don’t ultimately own. While this can’t be taken as legal advice, it can help you understand what you need to consider before you create comics for someone else.

There is a significant amount of general hostility against work-for-hire agreements, but that animosity often lacks specifics or singles out a particular egregious case of abuse. As a general matter, when you work as an independent contractor in comics, there are quite a few things you will lack compared to an employee, creator-owned artist, or independent creator:

1.     Benefits: Freelance creators do not get vacation days, sick days, insurance, stock options, or other employment perks.

2.     Certainty: Freelance creators have no guarantee that their clients will pay. In most cases, the government will not intervene on your behalf.

3.     Debt protection: Freelance creators are liable for the debts of their business. Without the proper business structure, a business failure could lead to a personal financial loss.

4.     Financial favoritism: Freelance creators can often face discrimination from financial institutions and lenders because they do not have what they consider a stable income.

5.     Free time: According to recent surveys, independent contractors in America work more hours than employees in government, nonprofit, and private businesses.

6.     Labor protection: Labor laws, including worker’s compensation laws, do not protect freelance creators in the same ways that employees are protected.

7.     Materials: Freelance creators need to acquire everything they need to run their business, including workspace, materials, internet access, and most importantly, caffeine.

8.     Ownership: Freelance creators normally have no ownership of the characters or stories they create. In many cases, if their story goes on to inspire a billion-dollar film, they will get no additional payment. They might not even get invited to the movie premiere. There are some forms of ownership based on limited transfers of rights, but this is a long-term strategy that can lead to more money but not actual ownership.

9.     Permanence: The relationship between a freelance creator and a client is temporary by definition and can end at any time. This means that you need to be comfortable with a certain amount of financial insecurity, or see comic freelancing as a side hustle and not a full-time job.

10.   Stability: Even freelancers with existing client relationships do not know how much work they will get in any given month. The workload can switch from feast to famine without warning.

11.   Support: There is no existing business structure for a freelance creator to fall back on, so unless they bring in outside vendors, they have to be their own accounting, legal, human resources, marketing, sales, customer service, and project management departments in addition to creating comics.

12.   Tax protection: Depending on the situation, freelance creators may pay more Medicare and Social Security taxes than employees. For example, in 2018, employees pay a 7.65% tax on their salaries and employers pay a matching amount. In contrast, self-employed people must pay the entire tax themselves. This is in addition to federal and state income taxes.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

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If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION